PRIVATE LIFE

OF

DANIEL WEBSTER.

BIRTH AND BOYHOOD.

WHEN it is remembered that Daniel Webster was considered the greatest intellectual character of his country, it is a striking coincidence that he should have been born in the shadow, as it were, of Mount Washington, and that his home and death-place was not only in full view of the landing-place of the Pilgrim fathers, but also on the margin of the Atlantic; as if Earth would commemorate his birth, History his deeds, and Ocean claim the privilege of floating his name to the remotest nations of the earth.

The ancestors of Daniel Webster came originally from Scotland, and his father, grandfather, and great-grand father were named Ebenezer, and were descendants of Thomas Webster, who was one of the earliest settlers of New Hampshire. His father was a person of large and stalwart form, of swarthy complexion, and remarkable features. He was born and spent his youth upon a farm; served as a ranger in the famous company of Major Robert Rogers, and as a captain under General John Stark, dur

ing the Revolutionary war; was for several years a member of the Legislature of New Hampshire; and died while performing with honor the duties of judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He was not only a man of superior intellect, but was distinguished for his strong and indomitable will-a characteristic which his distinguished son rightfully inherited. He was a Federalist in politics; and it is related of him that he was once taken suddenly ill while passing through a village which was noted for its Democracy, and that, supposing that he was about to die, he beseeched his physician to remove him as soon as possible out of the place, giving, as a reason for his great. anxiety, that "he was born a Federalist, had lived a Federalist, and could not die in any but a Federalist town." Mr. Webster's mother was Abigail Eastman, a lady of Welsh extraction, and of superior intellect. She was the second wife of her husband, and the mother of five children-two boys, Daniel and Ezekiel, and three daughters.

Daniel Webster was born on the 18th day of January, 1782, in the town of Salisbury, Merrimack county, then Hillsborough, New Hampshire. The site of the house is two and a half miles from the beautiful Merrimack River, and in the immediate vicinity of that where his father built the first log-cabin ever seen in this section of country, and at a time when, between his residence and the borders of Canada, there was not a single human habitation, excepting the Indian's wigwam. The house in question is not now standing; but the engraving which ornaments this volume is from a drawing correctly representing it, as it appeared only a few years ago, and is the only

portrait of the place which ever received the approbation of Mr. Webster.* It was a good specimen of the more elegant farm-houses of the day, one story high, heavily timbered, clapboarded, with rather a pointed roof, one chimney in the centre, one front door, with a window on either side, three windows at each end, four rooms on the ground floor, and an addition in the rear for a kitchen. It fronted the south; a picturesque well-curb and sweep stood near the eastern extremity, and over the whole a mammoth elm-tree extended its huge arms, as if to protect the spot from sacrilege. In the rear, on a hillside, was a spacious barn, and a partially wooded pasture; the prospect immediately in front was enlivened by a rude. bridge, spanning a lovely little stream, and bounded by a lofty hill, upon which is still standing the church where Mr. Webster was baptized; while in a southwesterly direction was presented a full view of the noble mountain called Kearsage, which holds the same rank among its brother hills that Mr. Webster was acknowledged to hold among men. The house was the centre of a tract of one hundred and sixty acres of land, which still belongs to the Webster family. Though the birth-place itself has disappeared, the waters of the well are still as pure and sparkling, and the leaves of the elm as luxuriant, as when they quenched the thirst and delighted the eyes of the infant statesman, some seventy years ago, and in their perennial nature are emblematic of the great name with which they are associated. And it was to this spot, and especially the

* The very good wood-cuts inserted in this volume were executed by Messrs. Lossing and Barritt.

log-cabin, that Mr. Webster alluded, when, in a speech delivered at Saratoga in 1840, he uttered the following touching words: "I make to it an annual visit. I carry my children to it, to teach them the hardships endured by the generations which have gone before them. I love to dwell on the tender recollections, the kindred ties, the early af fections, and the touching narratives and incidents, which mingle with all I know of this primitive family abode. I weep to think that none of those who inhabited it are now living; and if ever I am ashamed of it, or if I ever fail in affectionate veneration for him who reared it, and defended it against savage violence and destruction, cherished all the domestic virtues beneath its roof, and, through the fire and blood of a seven years' Revolutionary war, shrunk from no danger, no toil, no sacrifice, to serve his country, and to raise his children to a better condition than his own, may my name, and the name of my posterity, be blotted forever from the memory of mankind."

Mr. Webster was first taught the letters of the alphabet by his mother, and, because of his feebleness when a child, was ever treated by her with partial kindness. From her lips, also, were first received the vital truths of the Bible, and the first copy of the sacred Volume which he ever owned was presented to him by his mother. Another tribute, and a most exalted one, is this fact, to the faithfulness of woman. The one in question is remembered, and always spoken of in New Hampshire, as a woman not only of superior intellect, but of the warmest affections, and remarkably beautiful. She lived for her husband and children, never thinking of herself, and was venerated by