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