PERSONAL MEMORIALS OF DANIEL WEBSTER. INCLUDING A SKETCH OF HIS PUBLIC LIFE AND THE PARTICULARS OF HIS DEATH. PHILADELPHIA: 210. b. 206. RHODES Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, by LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO, AND CO., in the Clerk's office of the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Columbia. PHILADELPHIA: T. K. AND P. G. COLLINS, PRINTERS. PUBLISHERS' PREFACE. A LARGE proportion of the interesting memorials of DANIEL WEBSTER contained in this volume are now first given to the public. Anything that illustrates the life and character of our greatest Statesman, now no longer in bodily presence among us, is valuable to his countrymen. In a man's private and social relations, we see many of the springs of action that give him power when he goes forth into the world, and moreover, when presented to view, explain what often seems dark and doubtful. In the case of Mr. WEBSTER, to meet him at home and among friends was to acquire a new ability for juster estimates of his character. It was partly with this view that these personal memorials were gathered from the lips of friends, neighbors, and older inhabitants in the immediate vicinity of Marshfield. They were gathered while he yet lived, and now, in giving them to the public, we append, as a fitting close, the mournful particulars of his tranquil passage from mere natural life to the higher and truer life of a disembodied spirit. |