TRAITS OF PERSONAL CHARACTER.

UNDER the above heading, it is proposed to exhibit some of the phases of Mr. Webster's character, by a series of disconnected paragraphs, which were recorded, in a note-book kept for the purpose, as time and chance determined. And for his own sake, the writer would again remind the reader that he is not writing a systematic biography; and though this may be termed a "disjointed chat of his," it is hoped that the lessons and information attending his plain unvarnished facts may not be the less welcome to those who were unacquainted with Mr. Webster.

As he attained to his prominent position chiefly by means of his own exertions, it is reasonable to conclude that he was always a hard-working man. All who knew him, knew this to be a fact. Because he was a man of giant intellect, and had to do with the greater national questions of the day, it has been supposed that his business habits were not plain and practical. This is a great mistake, and the writer will endeavor to prove the contrary, by sketching his habits while attending to his official duties as Secretary of State.

He was usually among the first at his post of duty in the department, and among the last to leave. The first business he attended to was to read his mail, and this he accomplished in a short time, and after a peculiar manner.

The only letters that he read with attention were the offi cial ones, and, where the questions they brought up did not require investigation, were generally disposed of immediately; all political letters were merely glanced at, and then filed away for future consideration; those of a private and personal character were also laid aside, to be attended to or answered early on the following morning, at his residence; while every thing of an anonymous character was simply opened, torn in two pieces, and committed to the basket of waste paper. The amount of business that he sometimes transacted during a single morning may be guessed at when it is mentioned that he not unfrequently kept two persons employed writing at his dictation at the same time; for, as he usually walked the floor on such occasions, he would give his chief clerk a sentence in one room to be incorporated in a diplomatic paper, and, marching to the room occupied by his private secretary, give him the skeleton, or perhaps the very language, of a private note or letter. In addition to all this, he made it his business to grant an audience to all who might call upon him, receiving dignitaries with dignity, and all friends, strangers, and even office-seekers, with kindness and cordiality; and, in this connection, it may be well to state that those who made short visits were generally the most successful in attaining their ends, especially if said ends were "their country's," or office.

As touching his deportment toward his subordinates in office, it was invariably of the most agreeable character: It was his law that every man should both know and do his duty but he treated them all as if he knew them to

The con

be possessed of feelings as sensitive as his own. sequence was that every man in his department was a warm personal friend.

It was ever his habit, on all proper occasions, to attend to the legitimate duties of his position, either as lawyer, as statesman, or diplomatist; but he had a rule of long standing, which prohibited the introduction, by his friends. and neighbors, of all political topics when visiting him in his retirement. When at Elms Farm, they might talk to him about the scenery, the legends, the history, the crops, and the trout of the Merrimack Valley; and when at Marshfield, they might talk about the ocean and its finny tribes, of all the manifold pleasures of agriculture, of literature, and the arts; but they must, if they would please him, keep silent on all the topics, without exception, which make mad the politicians of the day. Though it has been his fortune to figure extensively in the political history of the country, it is firmly believed that his affections have ever been far removed from all such vanities. The necessities of his country and his ideas of duty alone made him a politician.

"What little I have accomplished," Mr. Webster once said, "has been done early in the morning." Like nearly all those men who occupy prominent positions before the world, he was always an early riser. If on either of his farms, he literally rose with the lark, and went forth to enjoy the quiet companionship of his cattle; and if in the city, especially in Washington, he was up before the sun, and among the first visitors to the market, where he not only attended to the necessary duty of supplying his table,

but also enjoyed the conversation of the various rural characters whom he met there, and with whom it was his pleasure to be on intimate terms. As his habit of early rising and going to market was known, many citizens, who had not otherwise an opportunity of seeing him, embraced these morning occasions of meeting him.

The time intervening between his morning walk and the hour of breakfast was always devoted to business, to the writing of letters, marking out patches for foreign governments, or unraveling the knotty political questions of the day.

There are very few men in this or any other country who possess the faculty of winning and keeping personal friends to as great an extent as did Mr. Webster. So simple and unpretending was he in his manners, and so kindhearted and affectionate, that those who were privileged to know him intimately had their admiration greatly increased, and learned to love him with a devoted affection. That office-seekers should have entertained an opinion adverse to the above is not surprising, for his most devoted friends would not have the hardihood to assert that he had an unconquerable affection for this class of amiable gentlemen. On the contrary, he undoubtedly disliked them, as would any other public man who had been bothered by them for nearly half a century. The truth is, he did not treat them oftentimes with the severity they deserved; and there are a far greater number of instances to be mentioned of his giving offices to poor men than of his turning the cold shoulder to those whose chief ambition was to cut a dash. He was beyond all question as much a man

of feeling as a man of intellect, and the writer has yet to learn the name of the first man, woman, or child who ever knew Mr. Webster and did not love him.

For a great many years past, Mr. Webster had a regular law office in the city of Boston, and supplied with a valuable library of five or six thousand volumes, which was, however, for the most part, in the keeping of a law partner. In alluding to this fact on one occasion, he informed the writer that it was with the utmost difficulty that he could ever bring himself to attend to any legal business when sojourning at either of his country residences. 66 It not unfrequently happens," said he, "that people come to me just as I am about to leave Boston for Marshfield, with the request that I shall attend to their suits. I decline the business, and they insist upon my taking it in hand. I take their papers, put them in my green bag, and determine that I will attend to their cases when at Marshfield. When arrived at this place, my mind becomes so taken up with its manifold enjoyments that I forget all about the green bag, unless there happens to come a rainy day. In that event I sometimes look at the musty papers; but it is not unfrequently the case that the bag travels from Boston to the sea-shore, and thence to the mountains and back again, without ever being disturbed. The truth is, you can not mention the fee which I value half as much as I do a morning walk over my farm, the sight of a dozen yoke of my oxen furrowing one of my fields, or the breath of my cows, and the pure ocean air."

In view of his apparent carelessness of time and oppor