The Writings and Speeches of Daniel Webster: Memoir [by Edward Everett] and speeches on various occasions

works can hardly be said to exist, and it is desirable that, as far as possible, all his Speeches, Addresses, Legal Arguments, Diplomatic Papers, Letters, and other writings should be gathered together and issued in permanent form. With this view the present edition has been prepared. It is based on the Collected Works, edited by Edward Everett, and the Private Correspondence, edited by Mr. Webster's son. Το these are added a third group, Speeches and Writings Hitherto Uncollected, embracing a large amount of important material spoken and written by Mr. Webster during the years 1800 to 1852, which has been buried in manuscripts, newspaper files, congressional records, public documents, and pamphlets, and has heretofore been practically inaccessible. Much of this exists only in the contemporary reports, and was not revised or corrected by Mr. Webster. For this reason it has been deemed advisable to separate the Hitherto Uncollected Speeches and Writings from the Works issued the year before his death. But in order to facilitate reference a chronological list of Mr. Webster's Works and an alphabetical index of subjects will be given in the final volume.

The conflict on slavery which tore asunder the great Whig party, and which destroyed it, belongs to the remote past, and many of those who were opposed to Mr. Webster's course have since paid reverent tribute to his memory and done justice to his patriotism. Nothing of any importance, therefore, that a careful investigation has been able to bring to light, will be withheld from publication.

Mr. Webster, the severest critic of his own work, spoke lightly and disparagingly of his Early Addresses; notwithstanding this, it has been thought desirable to append them to this edition, with the belief that while they cannot detract from his imperishable fame, they furnish-when contrasted with his later and more important productions-valuable illustrations of the remarkable growth of a great man, in thought and expression, and that the time has arrived when all that he wrote should be preserved for reference.

The material embraced in the volumes of Speeches and Writings Hitherto Uncollected is large and important. An

account of the sources from which it has been drawn will be given in the Preface to that portion of the National Edition. In addition to collecting Speeches, Miscellaneous Papers, etc., an effort has been made to bring together in chronological order all the important letters by Mr. Webster which have not previously been printed in the volumes of his Private Correspondence and his Collected Works. This has to a great extent been made possible by the thoughtful care of Mr. Webster's friend, Peter Harvey, who collected and preserved a vast mass of correspondence and papers, now in the New Hampshire Historical Society. From this and other valuable collections, and from various volumes, more than seven hundred letters written by Mr. Webster have been obtained.

The Biographical Memoir, written by Edward Everett and prefixed to the edition of 1851, has been retained in the National Edition. Hon. George F. Hoar has described it as a "masterly portrait by one great statesman and orator of another who was his teacher, leader, and friend." Mr. Everett's son, Hon. William Everett, has added a final chapter, bringing the biography down to Mr. Webster's death. The original notes in the Memoir are indicated by asterisks and daggers, and new notes by figures.

The text of the Collected Works is that of the edition of 1851, but the Index has been carefully revised and corrected, and Mr. Webster's notes for the "Seventh of March Speech" have been inserted.

The great national questions with which Daniel Webster was brought in contact, and the historical occasions made still more memorable by his eloquence, link him forever with the most famous American names. The landing of the Pilgrims, the laying of the corner-stone and the completion of the Bunker Hill Monument, the commemoration of the lives and services of Adams and Jefferson, these were his fitting themes; he was their chosen orator. Associated in the law with Marshall, Story, Mason, Kent, Wirt, Jeremiah Smith, and Choate, in Congress with Calhoun, Clay, Randolph, Benton, and Hayne, and twice Secretary of State, his career brings before his countrymen their most illustrious leaders, from the American

Revolution almost down to the conflict between the North and South, which he foresaw, and endeavored with all his strength to avert. His Works, therefore, offer an exceptional medium for the introduction of portraits of distinguished public men, embracing every President of the United States, from Washington to Buchanan, and many eminent American statesmen, orators, judges, and lawyers. To these have been added numerous portraits of Mr. Webster and his family, pictures of his birthplace, his New Hampshire and Massachusetts homes, places associated with his education, historical paintings connected with his Addresses, and facsimiles of famous passages in his Works, from the original drafts in his handwriting. In selecting the portraits care has been taken to reproduce them from the best originals which exist; in this as in other matters connected with the preparation of the National Edition, the chief thought has been to make the publication a worthy memorial of Daniel Webster. And, as Edward Everett said, "his noblest monument must be found in his works. There he will live and speak to us and our children when brass and marble have crumbled into dust."

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