Reminiscences and Anecdotes of Daniel Webster

IT is now a quarter of a century--almost the life of an entire generation--since Daniel Webster died. During this period new issues have come to the front, the fires of by-gone contests have become harmless ashes, and the reunited Nation can look at such a life as this great man presents, with a calmer and wiser gaze than was possible in the nearer view of days that were fraught with warring convictions, now at last hushed to rest. Through a friendship which is one of my happiest and most grateful recollections, it was my privilege to be intimate with this man in life, and to receive his last messages upon the bed of death.¹ And now, as I feel myself drawing near to the end of this earthly existence, I desire to give to the world, and especially to the rising generation, a true insight into the structure of his character, which

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