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THE

LIFE, SPEECHES, AND MEMORIALS

OF

DANIEL WEBSTER;

CONTAINING

HIS MOST CELEBRATED ORATIONS,

A SELECTION FROM THE EULOGIES DELIVERED ON THE

OCCASION OF HIS DEATH;

AND HIS LIFE AND TIMES,

BY

SAMUEL M. SMUCKER, LL.D.,

AUTHOR OF "COURT AND REIGN OF CATHARINE II.," "HISTORY OF NICHOLAS I
EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES," "LIFE OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON,"
"MEMORABLE SCENES IN FRENCH HISTORY," ETC.

"" ARCTIC

PHILADELPHIA:

DUANE RULISON, QUAKER CITY PUBLISHING HOUSE.

No. 33 SOUTH THIRD STREET

1860.

LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
DAVIS

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by

DUANE RULISON,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

STEREOTYPED BY L. JOHNSON & CO.

PHILADELPHIA.

PREFACE.

THE following work has been prepared in order to supply a want, in reference to the life and political career of Daniel Webster, which was believed still to exist among the reading public. Biographies of this distinguished man, possessing various degrees of merit, abound on every hand; but there is no work in existence which contains, in so convenient and compact a form as the present, a narrative of the chief events of his life, together with a selection from his most celebrated speeches, and the most worthy eulogies which were elicited from his admiring countrymen in regard to him at the period of his death.

The main purpose, therefore, of the present volume, is not so much the exhibition of originality as the attainment of usefulness. That portion of it which is devoted to Mr. Webster's biography presents a history of all the important incidents of his career. The selection from his speeches has been carefully made; and the writer's effort has been to choose those which derived superior value both from the magnitude of the occasions on which they were delivered, and from the greater profundity and power which characterize them. Of the various eulogies which

were pronounced on Mr. Webster after his decease, the most elaborate and excellent which the writer has been able to procure, and to use without encroaching on the rights of others, have here been reprinted. The writer, therefore, indulges the hope, that, taken as a whole, the work may prove a not unworthy tribute to the fame of one of the most eminent and illustrious men of modern times.

PHILADELPH A, January 25, 1859.

S. M. S.

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