Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-09-17

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snP o. his fathers court and dedicated himself rreyoca
o 70 the profession Of the law and the chances Of
mons 70 less or more Of public fe These twenty
Years we shall call the youth of Webster Its incidents
arc few and well known and need not long detain
Until May, 1896, beyond the close of his fourteenth
year. ne lived at home attending the schools of masters
chase and Tappan, successvey at work sometimes and
someumes at play, like any boy but finding already,
lew beside him did, the smulaons and the food Of in
tcliectual life In the social library drinking in unaware
from the moral and physical aspects about him. the les
son anu the power Of contention and seftrust; and
eafmng how much grander than the forest bending TO
the long storm or the silver and chershng Merrimac
swollen to nundation, and turning love became mad
ness 20 rasage the subject interyae old woods sui
much grsnder than these the coming in Of ciyza-
son as there ne sew IT, courage, labor patience, plain
living heroicai acting high thinking beautiful feeling
tear OF God the love Of country and neghborhocd
and family, and oil that form of human life of which his
father aud mother, and sisters and brother were the
endSared exempfcaton In the Of that CIRCLE on
parent nees or later in intervals Of work play the
future American statesman acquired the idea of country
and became conscious Of national tie and national
fe There and then, something, gmpses, alite of the
romants the sweet and bitter memories Of soldier and
border of the old colonial time and war; opened to the
large Gark eyes OF the child memories of French and
ndas stealing up to the very place where the story
tellnt; of men shot down at the plough, within sight
Of th old log-house of the massacre at Fort William
Henri; of Stark, Of Howe, Of Wolfe falling in the arms
of vory and then Of the age its grander
and Hgher names Of the fathers part Bennington and
Whit Plains; of Lafayette and Washington and then
Of thu constitution just adopted and the first President
just haugurated with services of public thanksgiving to
Almighty God and the Union just sprung into fe all
radisnt morning, harbnger and promise of brighter
day You have heard how in that he bought and
first read the constitution cotton handkerchief
small cannon, think his biographers say, the omin
Tlaything Of Napoeon's childhood But this incl
dent mnds rather of the youthful Luther astonshed
and kndng the first Latin Bible he ever saw, or
the sill younger Pascal, permitted to look into the
Euclt to whose sublimites irresistible nature had
secretly attracted him. Long before his fourteenth year
the mher first and then the father and the teachers
and tie schools and the little neighborhood had disco
yeredi extraordinary hope in the boy. A purpose a
dream not yet confessed of giving him education be-
gan toee cherished, and in May, 1896 at the age Of
little npre than fourteen, he sent Exeter have
myself beard gentleman, long leader Of the Essex
bar, AMI eminent in public life, more who was
then bupil at the school, describe his large frame
perb fa immature manners and rustic dress surmount
ed with students gown, when first he came and say
too, how soon and universally his capacity owned
Who doR not wish that the glorious Buckminster could
have forseen and witnessed the whole greatness, but
certainiythe renown Of eoqueDce which to to
the yount stranger whom choking speechess the great
fountain II feelings sealed yet he tried in vain
courage decaim before the unconscious bright tribes
of the schools The influences Of Exeter him ex-
celent but his stay brief In the winter Of 1896 he
was at hone again. and in February 1884, lie placed
under the private tuition and in the family of Rev. Mr.
Wood, of Boscawen. 1t the way with his father
House OF Nood that he nrst heard aston
shment that the parental love and good had
solved on the sacrifice of giving him education col
ege. " Iremember he writes, the very Hill We were
ascsnding through deep SHOWS, in New England sleigh
when my father made his purpose knowa to me. could
not speak. How could he, thought with 50 large q
family and in such circumstAnces think OF in
curing 80 great an expense for meg warm glow ran
all over me- and laid my head my fathers shoulder
and wept That speechlessness that glow, those tears
reveal 10 US what his memory and CONSEQUENCES could
hardly do TO him, that already somewhere at hour
OF day or evening or night, as he read some page
heard some narrative or saw some happier choolfeow
sex off from Exeter to begin his college fe the love
intellectual enjoyment the ambition Of intellectual SUI
premacy had taken hold Of him that, when or how be
knew not but before he was aware Of it, the hope Of OBJ
tanning liberal education and leading professional life
had come to be his last thought before he slept his first
when he awoke and to shape his dreams. Behold in
them too his whole future That day. that hour, that
very moment from the deep of that slow hill he set
out the long ascent that bore hm-"no step back
ward to the high places Of the world He remained
under the tuition of Mr. Wood until August 1885, and
then entered this college, where he at the end Of the
full term Of four years. graduated in 1901 OF that col
lege life you tell than tell you. 1t is
the universal evidence that it distinguished by
pary demeanor by for religion, respect for
and observance Of law We hear from sl
sources too that il distinguished by assduous and
various studies. With the exception Of one or two
branches for which his imperfect preparation had failed
excite TASTE he sreported to have addressed himself
the prescribed tasks and to have avaled himself of the
Government, with decorum and conscentiousness and
zeal We hear than this The whole course of ira
tons concerning his college life is full to prove two
facts The first is that his reading general and various
far beyond the requirements of the faculty the average
capacity Of that stage of the literary fe solid
and useful merely which is vague commendation but it
such predicted and educated the future statesman
In English literature Its finer parts its poetry and
ul reading mean he had read much rather than many
Lhings but he had read somewhat. That young man
Of his emotional nature, full Of eloquent feeling the
germs Of fine taste, the for the music of words the
eye for all beauty and all sublimty already in extraord
nary his already practising the art Of compost
on speech, and criticism should have recreated him.
self as we know he did, with Shakespeare and Pope and
Addison with the great romance Of Defoe with the
recent biographies Of Johnson aud his grand limitations
II Juyenal with the sweet and refined simplicity and alb
racted observation Of Goldsmith mingled with sketches
# homefelt delight; with the eegy Of Gray, whose
solemn touches soothed the thoughts tested the con-
cousness Of the last hour with the vigorous originality
4 the then recent Cowper, whom he quoted when lie
ame home, as it proved to diethis should have
,ected But have heard, and believe that it was TO
mother institution more austere and characteristic that
lis own mind was irresistiby and insnctvey then
tracted The conduct OF what Locke calls the human
the limits Of human knowledge the
coming to the knowledge Of the different classes Of
ruth the laws Of thought the science Of proofs which
logic the science Of morals the facts Of history the
prit Of laws; the conduct and aims Of reasoning in
oitcs-these were the strong meat that announced and
egan to train the great political thinker and rcasoner Of
later day.
have heard that he might oftener be found in some
oary seat or walk, with volume of Gordons or Ram
ays Revolution, of the Federalis or of Hume's his
ory OF England Of his Essays, Of Grotius, Puff
endorf, or Cicero Montcsqueu, Locke, or Burke
han with Virgil or Shakespeare, or the Spectator. or
he history OF opinions in the department Of philosophy
ly n 1ant Tha att del