Litchfield enquirer., 1867-02-14
DANIEL WEBSTER.
AH. PARToN's BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

Anserican Reciey Mir. Parton attempts, with every appearance of historic impar- tiality, to estimate the personal character and political services of Daniel Webster. The article contains several lighter passa- ges Of description and anecdote. Daniel was the sickly boy of the Webster family, and was therefore sent to represent 1t at the academy. He was principally dis tinguished for his luck or skill in shooting squirrels, catching trout and fighting cocks His mother said that the boy would make something or nothing, she could not tell which; but his father, while he had his fears for Ezekiel, felt sure that Daniel would make his way in the world. Never theiess, he learned little at school:
 His fathers saw-min, he used to say, had set the saw and turned on the water there would be fifteen minutes of tranquil ty before the log again required his atten- ton, during which he sat and absorbed knowledge. We had so few books, he re- cords in the exquisite fragment of autobi- ography he has left us, that to read them once or twice was nothing. We thought they were all to be got by heart
 'tAt college he read much more than he studied. He got along best with Latin. Greek he did not like; mathematics were his rversion. He humorously wrote to a fellowstudent, soon after leaving college, that "all he knew about conterminous arch es or evanescent subtenses might be collec- ted on the pupil of 8 gnat's eye without making him wink At college, in fact, he was simply an omniverous reader, studying only so muck as to pass muster in the reel tation-room"
 For all that, he was tho foremost man in his class Mr Parton writes:
 ''His letters of this time. as we'll as the recollections of his fellow students, show him the easy, humorous, rather indolent and strictly good fellow, whom professors and companions equally relished He browsed much in the college library, and had the habit of bringing to bear upon the lesson of the hour the information gather ed in his miscellaneous reading-a practice that much enlivens the monotony of recita- tion. The half dozen youths of his partic- ular set, it appears, plumed themselves up- on resembling the early Christians in hay ing all things in common. The first to rise in the morning-and he must have been an early riser indeed who was up before Daniel Webster-dressed himself in the best which the united apartments afforded; the next made the best selection from what remained, and the last was happy if he found rags enough to justify his appearance in the chap el. The relator of this pleasant reminiscence adds, that he was once the possessor of an article of resplendent lustre. It was mis- sing one day, could not be found, and was given up for lost. Several weeks after, friend Dan returned from distant town, where he had been teaching school, wear. ing the lost beaver, and relieving it's pro- prietor from the necessity of covering his head with battered and long-discarded hat of felt. How like the Daniel Webster of later years, who never could acquire the sense of nseuns and tuum, supposed to be the basis of civilizationv'
 GETTING UNDER WAY.
 MT. Parton continues:
 Daniel Webster, schoolmaster and law student, was assuredly one of the most in teresting of characters. Pinched by pover- ty, as he tells us, till his very bones ached, eking out his income by kind of labor that he always loathed (copying deeds), his shoes letting in not water only, but 'peb- bles and stones, father, brother, and him. self sometimes all moneyless together, all dunned at the same time, and writing to one another for aid-he was nevertheless as io- vial young fellow as any in New England How merry and afectionate his letters to his young friends! He writes to one soon after leaving college: You will naturally inquire how prosper in the article of cash; finely, finely! came here in January with horse, watch, &c., and @ few rascally counters in my pocket. Was soon obliged to sell my horse and live on the proceeds. Still straitened for cash sold my watch and made a shift to get home, where, my friends supplied me with another watch and anoth- CT horse. My horse is sold again, and my watch goes, I expect, this week; thus you seq how lay up cash How like him!'
 Mir. Parton has collected several instan- ces of this poverty. He also finds in this period, 9 remarkable illustration of that oscillation and dependence which he af- firms were characteristic of Webster. Ger tainly, it was only by the resolute persua- sion of wise friends that he was kept to the study of law.
 Mir. Parton says: L .e-
 ''His modesty in these innocent days is most touching to witness. After long in- ternal conflict, he resolved, in his twentieth year, to make one more trial at mastering the law. If I prosecute the profession, I pray God to fortify me against its tempta- tions. To the wind dismiss those light hopes of eminence which ambition inspired and vanity fostered. To be honest, to be capable, to be faithful to my client and my conscience, earnestly hope will be my first endeavor' How exceedingly astonish- ed would these afectionate young friends have been, if they could have looked for ward forty years, and seen the timid law student Secretary of State, and his ardent young comrade clerk in his department! They seemed equals in 1902; in l845 they had grown so far apart that the excellent Bingham writes to Webster as to 8 demi- god. l.
 Before leaving Boston he wrote to his friend Bingham: If I am not earning my bread and cheese in exactly nine days after my admission I shall certainly bea bank rupt;' and SO indeed, it proved. With great difficulty he hired eighty-fve dol lars as a capital tobegin business with, and this great sum was immediately lost in its transit by stage. To any other young man in his situation such a calamity would have been for the moment, crushing; but this young man, indifferent to meum as to t,sum, informs his brother that he can in no conceivable way replace the money, cannot therefore pay for the books he had bought believes he is earning his daily bread, and as to the loss, he has no uneasy sensations on that account He concludes his letter with an old song, beginning: