The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol. 1 of 2 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol. 1 of 2

Within a Year a considerable collection of letters was made. The numerous manuscripts in Mr. Webster's possession at the time of his death, were, when collected and cursorily examined, placed in the hands of Mr. William Thaddeus Harris, of Cam bridge, to be assorted, and, as far as their nature admitted, alphabetically arranged.

Mr. Harris undertook this task with zeal, but, after a year of assiduous and methodical toil, it was interrupted by his lamented death, leaving its completion to other hands.

In 1854, the Editor commenced the examination and arrange ment of such letters as were in his own possession; and in 1855, he received from the literary executors the copies of the letters forwarded in compliance with the application above alluded to, made with great labor and accuracy by George Ticknor, Esq., and the ladies of his family, and forming a very important and interesting portion of the contents of these volumes.

In preparing the correspondence for the press, from all these materials, the chief difficulty has arisen from the necessity Of exercising a severe judgment in making selections.

Every letter of Mr. Webster had in it something in strue tive, entertaining, or characteristic, which caused its omission to be doubtfully and reluctantly decided upon, though such a result was repeatedly unavoidable, in order not to swell the volumes to an inconvenient size, or too much increase their number.

The same consideration caused the omission also from the present work of his early productions in prose and verse, his occasional contributions to periodicals, political essays, and those of his speeches, early and late, not contained in Mr. Everett's edition, all of which had been collected and prepared for publication.

The general events of Mr. Webster's life are sufficiently well known from the Biographical Sketch by Mr. Everett, prefixed to his edition Of The Works of Daniel Webster, and from the political history of the country for the last half century.

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