Produced by Katherine Ward, Bryan Ness, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.)
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, by GEORGE W. GORDON AND JAMES W. PAIGE, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
CAMBRIDGE: STEREOTYPED BY METCALF AND COMPANY, PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. PRINTED AT HOUGHTON AND HAYWOOD
TO MY NIECES, MRS. ALICE BRIDGE WHIPPLE, AND MRS. MARY ANN SANBORN:
Many of the Speeches contained in this volume were delivered and printed in the lifetime of your father whose fraternal affection led him to speak of them with approbation.
His death, which happened when he had only just past the middle period of life, left you without a father, and me without a brother.
I dedicate this volume to you, not only for the love I have for yourselves, but also as a tribute of affection to his memory, and from a desire that the name of my brother,
may be associated with mine, so long as any thing written or spoken by me shall be regarded or read.
CHAPTER I. xiii Former Editions of the Works of Mr. Webster, and Plan of this Edition.--Parentage and Birth.--First Settlements in the Interior of New Hampshire.--Establishment of his Father at Salisbury.--Scanty Opportunities of Early Education.--First Teachers, and recent Letter to Master Tappan.--Placed at Exeter Academy.--Anecdotes while there.--Dartmouth College.--Study of the Law at Salisbury.--Residence at Fryeburg in Maine, and Occupations there.--Continuance of the Study of the Law at Boston, in the Office of Hon. Christopher Gore.--Admission to the Bar of Suffolk, Massachusetts.--Commencement of Practice at Boscawen, New Hampshire.--Removal to Portsmouth.--Contemporaries in the Profession.--Increasing Practice.
CHAPTER II. xxxiii Entrance on Public Life.--State of Parties in 1812.--Election to Congress.--Extra Session of 1813.--Foreign Relations of the Country.--Resolutions relative to the Berlin and Milan Decrees.--Naval Defence.--Reelected to Congress in 1814.--Peace with England.--Projects for a National Bank.--Mr. Webster's Course on that Question.--Battle of New Orleans.--New Questions arising on the Return of Peace.--Course of Prominent Men of Different Parties.--Mr. Webster's Opinions on the Constitutionality of the Tariff Policy.--The Resolution to restore Specie Payments moved by Mr. Webster.--Removal to Boston.