Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1852-11-03
From the NJ Y. Tribune
Daniel Webster.

this mortal stage of being. As we write i
is rumored that Mr.. Webster is dead, and
though we do not credit the report as al
ascertained fact, yet there can be little
doubt that, when this sheet reaches the ma
iority of its readers, Daniel Webster will bt
no more among the living
Mr.. Webster's has been lofty though
not entirely successful career. Descended
from an ancestry originally Scotch, but foI
time resident in England, which mlgrat-
ed to this country very soon after the Land
inc at Portsmouth, he was born in Sails
bury, (now Boscawen,) New Hampshire
on the 18th of January, 1882. His life has
therefore been extended over nine months
beyond the seventy years allotted to man.
His earliest known progenitor was Thomas
Webster, who settled at Hampton, near the
sea coast of New Hampshire, as early as
1886. The Websters were generally farm
ers and ION occasion) soldiers, were fair
haired, of light complexion, and slender
frame. The Statesman inherited his stur-
DIV frame, dark features, black hair, &c.
from his fathers mother, daughter Of Rev.
Stephen Batchelder, and woman OF re-
markable force of character. His own
mother was also of rare intellectual pow
ers. His father, after fighting well tor his
King and country in the French and lndI-
an Wars, obtained, after the Peace OF 1853,
grant of land in Salisbury, at the head OF
the Merrimac River, and there built his log
cabin and commenced his clearing in 1854
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 Daniel Webster was born; but
the farm remains in the family, and the
trees which shaded his boyhood and the
we'll whence he quenched his thirst, still
wooed him with their well-remembered at
fractions, on each recurring visit, 10 the
last.
Young Webster received his education
IN the common schools of his native town,
in the famous Philips Academy,a at Exeter,
IN tine family of Rev. Samuel Woods, of
3oscawen, and at Dartmouth College, to
which his father resolved unsolicited to
send him-a great undertaking for poor
farmer, IN what was still almost pioneer
settlement. His brother Ezekiel was also
sent little later to Dartmouth, imposing
on them both, as we'll as on their parents,
the necessity of observing most rigorous
economy. But they were both carried cred
itably through, and more than justified the
fond hopes of their parents. Ezekiel be-
came lawyer of eminence, but fell dead
(of disease of the heart while arguing
cause 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, al eminent
lawyer and statesman, where he made rap
id proficiency, and was admitted to the bar
in March, 1905. Returning to New Hamp.
shire, he declined profered Clerkship in
the Court of which his father was now
Judge; and as his father was visibly de-
Ginning, he settled beside him at Boscawen,
till the old mans death which occurred in
April, 1906. The next year, Daniel relin-
quished his business to his brother Ezekiel,
and removed to Portsmouth, and was mar
ried the following summer to Grace Fletch-
er, daughter of Rev. Mr.. Fletcher, of Hop
kinton, N. II. BY her he had four children
Grace, Fletcher, Julia, and Edward-of
whom Fletcher alone survives. Edward
died in Mexico, IN 1847, while serving as
a Major of Massachusetts Volunteers. Ju-
liza became Mrs. Appleton, and died in Bos-
ton some years ago.
Mr.. Webster lived nine years in Ports
mouth and was thence elected to Congress
i'll November, 1912, and reelected in 1914
New Hampshire then elected by General
Ticket, and we believe Mr.. Webster uni
formly led the Federal Ticket. His talents
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.. Wcbster's own sqteamish-
ness or that of the editors of the successive
editions of his speeches, have done inus-
tce to his abilities by suppressing some of
the nobler forensic efforts of his early man
hood. We have a clear recollection Of
reading Fourth Of July Grafton of his
we think delivered when he was but 21 or
at most % years of age-which for ability
of statement, breadth of view and vigor Of
language, would do credit to the maturest
mind. But it was federal 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 1913 to 1915 inclusive. If Mr.. Web
ster dictated the mutlation and suppression
Of his earlier efforts, he committed grave
mistake; if his editors have done it of their
own notion, they have taken most unwar-
rantable liberties. They have no. conceal
ed 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 therefor, and justified
a vul gar sdsplcion that he had no reasons
that on calm review he regarded as valid.
True, he did not oppose the prosecution of
that War,now we were in for 1t, he did not
deny that Great Britain haG grievously
wronged and insulted US but he believed,
with many of our purest and most patriotic
citizens, that the wrong had not been alto
gelher on one side-that neither Our Gov
ernment 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 a redress of injuries obtain
ed from Great Britain had this been sought
in pacific spirit and the United States not
been covert ally of the French despot in
his war of determination against England.
Mr. Webster's anti-war speeches of 49,
1914 have rareIv boen snrn,ssed in viror