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CHAPTER XI.
DANIEL AS AN ORATOR
The four years spent in college generally bear an important relation to the future success or non-success of the student. It is the formative period with most young men, that is, it is the time when the habits are formed which are to continue through life. Let us inquire, then, what did Daniel Webster’s college course do for him?
We cannot claim that his attainments at graduation were equal to those of the most proficient graduates of our colleges to-day. The curriculum at Dartmouth, and indeed at all colleges, was more limited and elementary than at present. Daniel was a good Greek and Latin scholar for his advantages, but those were not great. He did, however, pay special attention to philosophical studies, and to the law of nations. He took an interest in current politics, as may be gathered from letters written in his college days, and was unconsciously preparing himself for the office of a statesman.
He paid special attention also to oratory. No longer shrinking from speaking before his classmates, he voluntarily composed the pieces he declaimed, and took an active part besides in the debating society. I am sure my young reader will like to know how Daniel wrote at this time, and will like to compare the oratory of the college student with that of the future statesman. I shall, therefore, quote from a Fourth of July oration, which he delivered by invitation to the citizens and students at the age of eighteen. As in a boy’s features we trace a general likeness to his mature manhood, so I think we may trace a likeness in passages of this early effort to the speeches he made in the fullness of his fame.
This is the opening of the address:
“Countrymen, Brethren and Fathers: We are now assembled to celebrate an anniversary, ever to be held in dear remembrance by the sons of freedom. Nothing less than the birth of a nation, nothing less than the emancipation of three millions of people from the degrading chains of foreign bondage is the event we commemorate.
“Twenty-four years have this day elapsed since these United States first raised the standard of liberty, and echoed the shouts of independence. Those of you who were then reaping the iron harvest of the martial field, whose bosoms then palpitated for the honor of America, will at this time experience a renewal of all that fervent patriotism, of all those indescribable emotions which then agitated your breasts. As for us, who were either then unborn, or not far enough advanced beyond the threshold of existence to engage in the grand conflict for liberty, we now most cordially unite with you to greet the return of this joyous anniversary, to welcome the return of the day that gave us freedom, and to hail the rising glories of our country.”
Further on he paints the hardships and distresses through which the colonists had passed:
“We behold a feeble band of colonists engaged in the arduous undertaking of a new settlement in the wilds of North America. Their civil liberty being mutilated, and the enjoyment of their religious sentiments denied them in the land that gave them birth, they braved the dangers of the then almost unnavigated ocean, and sought on the other side of the globe an asylum from the iron grasp of tyranny and the more intolerable scourge of ecclesiastical persecution.
“But gloomy indeed was the prospect when arrived on this side of the Atlantic.
“Scattered in detachments along a coast immensely extensive, at a distance of more than three thousand miles from their friends on the eastern continent, they were exposed to all those evils, and encountered or experienced all those difficulties, to which human nature seemed liable. Destitute of convenient habitations, the inclemencies of the seasons harassed them, the midnight beasts of prey howled terribly around them, and the more portentous yell of savage fury incessantly assailed them. But the same undiminished confidence in Almighty God, which prompted the first settlers of the country to forsake the unfriendly climes of Europe, still supported them under all their calamities, and inspired them with fortitude almost divine. Having a glorious issue to their labors now in prospect, they cheerfully endured the rigors of the climate, pursued the savage beast to his remotest haunt, and stood undismayed in the dismal hour of Indian battle.”
Passing on to the Revolutionary struggle the young orator refers to “our brethren attacked and slaughtered at Lexington, our property plundered and destroyed at Concord,” to “the spiral flames of burning Charlestown,” and proceeds as follows:
“Indelibly impressed on our memories still lives the dismal scene of Bunker’s awful mount, the grand theater of New England bravery, where slaughter stalked grimly triumphant, where relentless Britain saw her soldiers, the unhappy instruments of despotism, fallen in heaps beneath the nervous arm of injured freemen!
“There the great Warren fought, and there, alas! he fell. Valuing his life only as it enabled him to serve his country, he freely resigned himself a willing martyr in the cause of liberty, and now lies encircled in the arms of glory.
“’Peace to the patriot’s shade—let no rude blast
Disturb the willow that nods o’er his tomb;
Let orphan tears bedew his sacred urn,
And fame’s proud trump proclaim the hero’s name
Far as the circuit of the spheres extends!’
“But, haughty Albion, thy reign shall soon be over. Thou shalt triumph no longer; thy empire already reels and totters; thy laurel even now begins to wither and thy fame to decay. Thou hast at length aroused the indignation of an insulted people; thy oppressions they deem no longer tolerable.
“The Fourth Day of July, 1776, has now arrived, and America, manfully springing from the torturing fangs of the British lion, now rises majestic in the pride of her sovereignty, and bids her eagle elevate his wings! The solemn Declaration of Independence is now pronounced, amidst crowds of admiring citizens, by the supreme council of the nation, and received with the unbounded plaudits of a grateful people! That was the hour when heroism was proved—when the souls of men were tried!
“It was then, ye venerable patriots,” there were some Revolutionary soldiers present—“it was then you lifted the indignant arm, and unitedly swore to be free! Despising such toys as subjugated empires, you then knew no middle fortune between liberty and death. Firmly relying on the protection of Heaven, unwarped in the resolution you had taken, you then undaunted met, engaged, defeated the gigantic power of Britain, and rode triumphant over the aggressions of your enemies!
“Trenton, Princeton, Bennington and Saratoga were the successive theaters of your victories, and the utmost bounds of creation are the limits of your fame! The sacred fire of freedom, then enkindled in your breasts, shall be perpetuated through the long descent of future ages, and burn with undiminished fervor in the bosoms of millions yet unborn!”
Further on we find the following passage:
“The great drama is now completed; our independence is now acknowledged, and the hopes of our enemies are blasted forever. Columbia is now sealed in the forum of nations, and the empires of the world are amazed at the effulgence of her glory.
“Thus, friends and citizens, did the kind hand of an overruling Providence conduct us, through toils, fatigues and dangers, to independence and peace. If piety be the rational exercise of the human soul, if religion be not a chimera, and if the vestiges of heavenly assistance are clearly traced in those events which mark the annals of our nation, it becomes us on this day, in consideration of the great things which have been done for us, to render the tribute of unfeigned thanks to that God who superintends the universe, and holds aloft the scale that weighs the destinies of nations.”
The oration was a long one, and touched a variety of topics, but the extracts already given will convey a good idea of its excellencies and defects. My college readers will understand me when I say that the style is sophomoric and ambitious, but these faults may be pardoned in a youth of eighteen. The tone is elevated, it is marked by gravity and earnestness, the sentiments are just, there is evidence of thought, and, on the whole, we may regard the oration as a hopeful promise of the future. The magniloquence gave place in time to a weighty simplicity, in which every word told, and not one could be spared. It was rather remarkable that so young a man should have been selected to deliver such an address in Hanover, and indicates that Daniel had by this time acquired reputation as a public speaker.
This was not the only occasion on which he was selected to speak in public. When a classmate, a general favorite, died, young Webster was unanimously selected to deliver an address of commemoration. He is said to have spoken with a fervor and eloquence which deeply stirred the hearts of the large audience that had assembled to hear him. “During the delivery the fall of a pin could have been heard at any moment; a dense audience were carried entirely away, and kept spellbound by the magic of his voice and manner; and when he sat down, he left a thousand people weeping real tears over a heartfelt sorrow. It is reported that there was not a dry eye in all the vast congregation which the event and the fame of the orator had brought together.”
CHAPTER XII.
STUDYING LAW
Daniel had now successfully accomplished the first object of his ambition. He was a college graduate. Though not the first scholar in his class he was very near the head, and probably in general culture stood first. There was a little misunderstanding which led to his declining to appear at Commencement. His friends desired him to deliver the valedictory, but the Faculty selected another, and Daniel remained silent. There is a report that he tore up his diploma in anger and disgust in presence of his classmates, saying, “My industry may make me a great man, but this miserable parchment cannot.” Had this story been true it would have done Daniel little credit. George Ticknor Curtis, who has written the most elaborate and trustworthy memoir of Webster states emphatically that there is no foundation for this story. Even if not entirely satisfied with the treatment he received at that time, Daniel’s loyalty to his Alma Mater was never doubted.
And now the world was before the young graduate. What was he to do?
His thoughts had long been fixed upon the legal profession. This was no proof of a special fitness for it, for at least half of the young men who graduate from our colleges make the same choice. But with Daniel the choice was a more serious one, for he very well knew that he could not afford to make a mistake here. Poverty was still his hard taskmaster, and he leaned beneath its dark shadow.
My young reader will remember that at the age of fourteen Daniel officiated as office-boy for a young lawyer in his native town—Thomas W. Thompson. Now a college graduate of nineteen, he re-entered the same office as a law student. Mr. Thompson was a man of ability. He was a graduate of Harvard, where also he had filled the position of tutor. While the boy was obtaining an education at Dartmouth, Thompson was establishing a lucrative law practice. He became in time prominent in State politics, and finally went to Congress. It will be seen, therefore, that Daniel made a good choice, and that Mr. Thompson was something more than an obscure country lawyer.
It is a little significant that the first law books which the young student read related to the law of nations. He read also standard literary works, and gave his leisure hours to hunting and fishing, the last of which was always a favorite sport with him. He gained some insight into the practical business of a law office. The reader will be amused at a humorous account of the manner in which he was employed during a temporary absence of his legal preceptor and a fellow-student.
“I have made some few writs,” he says, “and am now about to bring an action of trespass for breaking a violin. The owner of the violin was at a husking, where
‘His jarring concord, and his discord dulcet,’
made the girls skip over the husks as nimbly as Virgil’s Camilla over the tops of the corn, till an old surly creature caught his fiddle and broke it against the wall. For the sake of having plump witnesses the plaintiff will summons all the girls to attend the trial at Concord.”
Here is another extract from a letter to the same friend which will amuse: “I thank you for your receipt for greasing boots. Have this afternoon to ride to the South Road, and in truth my boots admit not only water, but peas and gravel-stones. I wish I had better ones. As for ‘my new friend, tobacco,’ he is like most of that name has made me twice sick, and is now dismissed.
“Heighho! a man wants a remedy against his neighbor, whose lips were found damage-feasant on his—the plaintiffs—wife’s cheek! What is to be done? But you have not read the law against kissing. I will write for advice and direction to Barrister Fuller.”
So the young man appeared to be enjoying himself while pursuing his studies, and would probably have wished nothing better than to have gone on till he was prepared for admission to the bar on his own account. But there was a serious obstacle. His good father had well nigh exhausted his means in carrying Daniel through college, and Ezekiel through his preparatory studies, and was now very much straitened for money. It was felt to be time for Daniel to help him. He, therefore, “thought it his duty to suffer some delay in his profession for the sake of serving his elder brother,” by seeking employment outside.
As a general thing when a college graduate is pressed by hard necessity, he turns his attention to the task of teaching, and such was the case with Daniel. Fortunately he soon found employment. From Fryeburg, Maine, there came to him an invitation to take charge of the academy there, and the young man accepted it. He was to be paid the munificent salary of three hundred and fifty dollars per year, and he felt that the offer was too dazzling to be rejected.
CHAPTER XIII.
HOW DANIEL WENT TO FRYEBURG
When a young college graduate of to-day sets out for the scene of his dignified labors, he packs his trunk and buying a ticket for the station nearest the favored spot where he is to impart knowledge, takes his seat in a comfortable car, and is whirled rapidly to his destination.
Not thus did Daniel go. Railroads had not been heard of, and no stages made the trip. He therefore purchased a horse for twenty-four dollars, deposited his limited wardrobe and a few books in his saddle-bags, and like a scholastic Don Quixote set out by the shortest path across the country for Fryeburg. In due time he arrived, and the trustees of the academy congratulated themselves on having secured Daniel Webster, A.B., as their preceptor. How much more would they have congratulated themselves could they have foreseen the future of the young teacher.
Let me pause here to describe the appearance of the young man, as his friends of that time depict him. He was tall and thin (he weighed but one hundred and twenty pounds, which was certainly light weight for a man not far from six feet in height), with a thin face, high cheek bones, but bright, dark, penetrating eyes, which alone were sufficient to make him remarkable. He had not wholly overcome the early delicacy which had led his friends to select him as the scholar of the family, because he was not strong enough to labor on the farm. His habitual expression was grave and earnest, though, as we have seen, he had inherited, and always retained, a genial humor from his father.
Three hundred and fifty dollars seems a small salary, but Daniel probably didn’t regard it with disdain. Expenses were small, as we are told that the current rate of board was but two dollars per week, less than a third of his income. Then his earnings were increased by a lucky circumstance.
Young Webster found a home in the family of James Osgood, Esq., registrar of deeds for the county of Oxford. Mr. Osgood did not propose to do the work himself, but was authorized to get it done.
One evening soon after the advent of his new boarder, the registrar said, “Mr. Webster, have you a mind to increase your income?”
“I should be exceedingly glad to do so, sir,” answered the young man, his face brightening with hopeful expectation.
“You are aware that I hold the position of registrar of deeds for the county. It is my duty to see that all deeds are properly recorded?”
“Yes, sir.”
“This work I do not care to do myself, having sufficient other work to occupy my time. How would you like to undertake it in the evening? It would not interfere with your school duties.”
“I am not a very good penman,” said the young man doubtfully.
“Handsome penmanship is not required. It is sufficient if the deeds are copied in a plain, legible hand, and this may be attained by effort.”
“How much compensation would be allowed?”
“I receive two shillings and threepence for each deed recorded. I will allow you one shilling and sixpence, and you can average two deeds in an evening. What do you say?”
One shilling and sixpence was twenty-five cents. Two deeds therefore would bring the young teacher fifty cents, and four evenings’ work, therefore, would pay his board, and leave him his salary clear. This was a tempting inducement, though it would involve dry and tedious labor.
“I will accept,” said Daniel promptly.
“Then you can begin at once,” said Mr. Osgood, well satisfied.
It was a hard way of earning money, but money was very much needed. So, after the fatigues of the day, when supper was over, Daniel sat down to record dry deeds. The curious visitor to Fryeburg can still see two volumes of deeds, a large part of them in Daniel Webster’s handwriting. Though not a good writer, he forced himself to write well, and in his autobiography he says, “The ache is not yet out of my fingers, for nothing has ever been so laborious to me as writing, when under the necessity of writing a good hand.”
I may be permitted to call the attention of my young readers to this point—that what he had undertaken to do he did well, although it was a task far from congenial. A young man or boy who observes this rule is likely to succeed in the end: Whatever you have to do do as well as you can.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE PRECEPTOR OF FRYEBURG ACADEMY
It may be supposed that between his school in the daytime and his duties as copyist in the evening, Daniel found his time pretty well occupied. As we know, he was not drawn to the teacher’s office by any special love of that honorable vocation, but simply by the pecuniary emolument. But, though this was the case, he discharged his duties with conscientious fidelity, and made himself a favorite both among his pupils and in the village, where the new preceptor was, as is usual, a person of importance.
He was accustomed to open and close the school with extemporaneous prayer, and those who remember the deep solemnity of manner which he could command at will will readily believe that this exercise was made impressive by the young teacher.
No stories have been handed down of insubordination among his pupils. If there had been any, it would speedily have been quelled by the preceptor, whose demeanor was naturally dignified.
It is remarkable how many of our great men have spent a portion of their early lives at the teacher’s desk. Gen. Garfield had an unusually extensive and varied experience as teacher, and would have passed through life very happily if he had never withdrawn from the school-room. Daniel Webster had not his special aptitude for it, but was nevertheless very fairly successful. One qualification, as we learn from the testimony of a pupil, was his “remarkable equanimity of temper.” The vexations of the school-room are neither few nor far between, but none of them were able to bring a frown to young Webster’s brow. Calmly he met and conquered all difficulties that came in his way, and secured the confidence and respect of his scholars.
The young man also impressed his pupils and friends as a man of competent scholarship. Hon. Samuel Fessenden, of Portland, writes: “The first I ever knew of Daniel Webster was immediately after he left college, and was employed by my father, the secretary of the Trustees of Fryeburg Academy, to become the principal instructor in that institution. He was not, when he commenced, twenty years old. I heard no one complain that his scholarship was not adequate to the duty he had assumed. On the contrary, I heard the Rev. Dr. Nathaniel Porter, of Conway, and my father, the Rev. William Fessenden, of Fryeburg, both of whom were good scholars, and the former, Rev. Dr. Porter, a very great man, say that Daniel Webster was a very good scholar for his years. He did, while at Fryeburg, exhibit traits of talent and genius which drew from these two divines, and from other professional gentlemen, unqualified praise of his powers of mind. I remember very distinctly hearing my father remark that if Mr. Webster should live, and have health, and pursue a straightforward course of industry and virtue, he would become one of the greatest men this country had produced.”
When it is remembered that the young man of whom this prediction was made was at the time an obscure teacher, in an obscure town, in what was then a frontier settlement, we must infer that he exhibited remarkable ability, and gave hints of a reserved power not yet called into action.
In spite of his engrossing employments, the young man found time to enlarge his general culture by various reading. Nor did he neglect his professional studies, but continued the reading of Blackstone’s Commentaries. It is remarkable that with all this hard work he found time for society. Dr. Osgood, the registrar’s son, says: “He was usually serious, but often facetious and pleasant. He was an agreeable companion, and eminently social with all who shared his friendship. He was greatly beloved by all who knew him. His habits were strictly abstemious, and he neither took wine nor strong drink. He was punctual in his attendance upon public worship, and ever opened his school with prayer. I never heard him use a profane word, and never saw him lose his temper.”
From all that has been said my young readers will see that Daniel was beginning life in the right way. It seems to me that at this period he was a model who may be safely copied in all respects. The reverence which he so plainly evinced as a young man for religion he never lost, but to the latest day of his life he yielded to none in his regard for the spirit of Christianity.
Under date of May 18, 1802, Daniel writes to his favorite friend Harvey Bingham, giving some account of matters at Fryeburg. He had just returned from spending a short vacation with his brother at Hanover.
“I arrived here last night,” he says; “but must fill this page by relating a little anecdote that happened yesterday. I accidentally fell in with one of my scholars on his return to the academy. He was mounted on the ugliest horse I ever saw or heard of except Sancho Panzas’s pacer. As I had two horses with me, I proposed to him to ride one of them, and tie his bay fast to his Bucephalus; he did accordingly, and turned her forward, where her odd appearance, indescribable gait, and frequent stumblings afforded us constant amusement. At length we approached Saco River, a very wide, deep and rapid stream, when this satire on the animal creation, as if to revenge herself on us for our sarcasms, plunged into the river, then very high by the freshet, and was wafted down the current like a bag of oats. I could scarcely sit on my horse for laughter. I am apt to laugh at the vexations of my friends. The fellow, who was of my own age, and my roommate half checked the current by oaths as big as lobsters, and the old Rosinante, who was all the while much at her ease, floated up among the willows far below on the opposite shore.”
While Daniel was laboring as teacher and copyist at Fryeburg, his older brother, Ezekiel, was pursuing his studies at Dartmouth College, sustained there mainly by the remittances which Daniel was able to send him. The chief pleasure which the younger brother derived from his experience as teacher was, that it gave him the means of securing for his favorite brother the same advantages which he had himself enjoyed. He cheerfully postponed his plan of professional study in order to discharge this pious duty. Certainly the affection which united these two brothers was very beautiful, and creditable to both. Too often brothers are estranged without good reason, and follow selfishly their own plans, without the desire to help each other. To the end of Ezekiel’s life this mutual affection continued, and when he was suddenly removed by death Daniel was deeply affected, and staggered under the blow.
How long was this occupation to continue? How long was the future statesman to devote himself to the comparatively humble duty of inducting country boys into the paths of knowledge?
He had only engaged for two terms, but such was his success that the trustees were not willing to have him go. As an inducement to him to remain they offered to increase his small salary of three hundred and fifty dollars to five or six hundred, with a house to live in, a piece of land to cultivate, and possibly a clerkship of the Common Pleas.
All this may sound very small to us, but to a youth who had been reared in such straitened circumstances as Daniel it seemed like a liberal competence. It required some decision and boldness to reject this certainly for the uncertain prospects of a young lawyer, before whom lay at the first a period of poverty and struggle. Then it must be added that Daniel was modest, and was far from believing that he was endowed with extraordinary talent. It is very probable that more than half the young men who graduate from our law schools to-day have a higher opinion of their abilities than Daniel Webster at the age of twenty. To illustrate his struggles I quote from a letter written at this time.
“What shall I do? Shall I say, ‘Yes, gentlemen,’ and sit down here to spend my days in a kind of comfortable privacy, or shall I relinquish these prospects, and enter into a profession where my feelings will be constantly harrowed by objects either of dishonesty or misfortune; where my living must be squeezed from penury (for rich folks seldom go to law), and my moral principle be continually at hazard? I agree with you that the law is well calculated to draw forth the powers of the mind, but what are its effects on the heart? are they equally propitious? Does it inspire benevolence and awake tenderness; or does it, by a frequent repetition of wretched objects, blunt sensibility and stifle the still, small voice of mercy?
“The talent with which Heaven has intrusted me is small, very small; yet I feel responsible for the use of it, and am not willing to pervert it to purposes reproachful or unjust, or to hide it, like the slothful servant, in a napkin.
“On the whole, I imagine I shall make one more trial (of the law) in the ensuing autumn. If I prosecute the profession, I pray God to fortify me against its temptations. To the winds I 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. I believe you, my worthy boy, when you tell me what are your intentions. I have long known and long loved the honesty of your heart. But let us not rely too much on ourselves; let us look to some less fallible guide to direct us among the temptations that surround us.”
In a letter written June 4, 1802, Mr. Webster refers to his indecision as to a career.
“Now Hope leans forward on Life’s slender line,
Shows me a lawyer, doctor or divine;
Ardent springs forward to the distant goal,
But indecision clogs the eager soul.
Heaven bless my friend, and when he marks his way,
And takes his bearings o’er life’s troubled sea,
In that important moment may he find
Choice and his friends and duty all combined.”
