Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1852-11-11
From tie ". Y. TriJuue,
g3aaieI Va elts.er.

from an ancestry originally Scotch, but for
time resident in England, which migrated to
this country very soon after the Landing at
Plymouth, he was born in Salisbury, (now
Frankin,) New-IIampshre, on the 18th of
January, 1882. His life has therefore been
extended over nine months beyond the seven
ty wears allotted to man. His earliest known
prorenitor was THOMAS WEBSTER, who lived
al Hampton, near the sea-coast of fNew-Eamp-
shire, as early as 1886. The WEBsTERs
were generally farmers and (on occasion) SOL
diers, were fair-haired, of light complexion,
and slender form. The Statesman inherited
his sturdy frame, dark features, black hair,
&c. from lis fathers mother, daughter of Rev.
STEPHEN BATCHELDER, and woman of re-
markable force of character. His own moth
er was also woman of rare intellectual pow
ers. His father, after fighting we'll for his
king and country in the French and Indian
Wars, obtained, after the Peace of 1863, a
grant of land in Salisbury, at the head of the
Merrimac River, and there built his log cab
in and commenced his clearing in l764-the
farthest North of any British subject in New
England. The log house long since vanished.
as did the frame one built beside it, in which
d. WEBSTER was born; but the farm remains in
the family, and the trees which shaded his
boyhood and the well whence he quenched
his thirst, still wooed him with their well-re-
membered attractions, on each recurring Wis
it, 10 the last
Young WEBSTER received his education in
the common schools of his native town, in the
famous Philips Academy at Exeter, in the
family of Rev. SAMUEL WooDs of Boscawen,
and at Dartmouth College, to which his faith
er resolved unsolicited to send him-a great
undertaking for poor farmer, in what was
still almost pioneer settlement His broth
er EZEKIEL was also sent little later to
Dartmouth, imposing on them both, as well as
on their parents, the necessity of observing
most rigorous economy. But they were both
carried creditably through, and more than
justified the fond hopes of their parents. f.
zEKIEL became lawyer of eminence, but fell
dead (of disease of the heart) while arguing
a case in Concord, n. H., in 1929.
DANIEL entered college in 1897, and grad
uated in 1901, spending the next year as
Principal of an Academy at Fryeburg, Maine,
for $3.50 per annum, which he saved entire,
earning his livelihood by copying legal re-
cords. After spending few months in the
law office of Mr.. THoMPsoN in Salisbury,
he went to Boston, and entered as student
the office of CHRISTOPHER GORE, an eminent
lawyer and statesman, where he made rapid
proficiency, and was admitted to the bar in
March, 1905. Returning to New-IIampshire,
he declined proffered Clerkship in the Court
of which his father was now Judge; and, as
his father was visbly declining, he settled
ha III y,
death, which occurred in April 1906. The next
year, Daniel relinquished his business to his
brother EZEKIEL and removed to Portsmouth,
and was married the following summer to
GBAcE FLETCHER, daughter of Rev. Mr.
FLETCHER, of Hopkinton. n. H. BY her he
had four chidren-GRACE FLETCHER, JULIA,
and EDwARD-ofw whom FLETCHER alone sir
wives. EDWARD died in Mexico, in 1S47,
while serving as a Major of Massachusetts
Volunteers. Julia became Mrs Appleton,
and died in Boston some years ago.
Mr.. WEBSTER lived nine years in Ports
mouth, and was thence elected to Congress
in Nov. 1912, and reelected in 1914. New
Hampshire then elected by General Ticket,
and we believe Mr.. WEBSTER uniformly led
his colleagues in the popular vote His tai
ents were widely known to be extraordinary,
though he had filled no public station, when
he was first elected at thirty years of age.
Either Mr.. Webster's wnsqueamshness or
that of the editors of the successive editions
of his speeches, have done injustice to his a.
bllltles by suPpressing some of the nobler
forensic efforts Of his early manhood. We
have clear recollection of reading Fourth
of-July Grafton of his-we think delivered
when he was but 81 or at most % years of
age-which, for ability of statement, breadth
of view and vigor of Language, would do cred
it to the maturest mind. But it was a Feder-
al Grafton, and you will look for it in vain in
any collection of his speeches SO of the
great majority of his Anti-War Speeches in
Congress, from 1873 to 1915 inclusive If
Mr.. Webster dictated this mutilation and
suppression of his earlier efforts, he commit
ted grave mistake; if his editors have done
it Of their own notion, they have taken most
unwarrantable liberties. They have not con-
cealed the fact, even from the most ignorant,
that Mr.. Webster heartily condemned and
sweepingly opposed that War, while they
have kept out of the public view many of his
strongest reasons therefore, and justified a
vulgar suspicion that he had no reasons that
on calm review he regarded as valid. True,
he did not oppose the prosecution of the War,
now we were in for it; he did not deny that
Great Britain had grievously wronged and
insulted US; but believed, with many of our
purest and most patriotic citizens, that the
wrong had not been altogether on one side
that neither our Government nor our people
had been really neutral in the tremendous
contest which had so long ragged between
France and Great Britain-that peace might
have been preserved and redress of injuries
obtained from Great Britain, had this been
sought in pacific spirit, and had the United
States not been a covert ally of the French
despot in his war of determination against
England.
Mr.. WEBsTER's anti-war speeches of 1873
IA have rarely been surpassed in vigor and
cogency, and coming from young country
lawyer, entirely unused to public life, they
evlnced a mind of unsurpassed ability His