Produced by Linda Cantoni and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
[Linda Cantoni <linda.cantoni@verizon.net>]
American Statesmen
American Statesmen
The Riverside Press Cambridge
[NOTE.—In preparing this volume I have carefully examined all theliterature contemporary and posthumous relating to Mr. Webster. I have notgone beyond the printed material, of which there is a vast mass, much of itof no value, but which contains all and more than is needed to obtain acorrect understanding of the man and of his public and private life. No onecan pretend to write a life of Webster without following in large measurethe narrative of events as given in the elaborate, careful, and scholarlybiography which we owe to Mr. George T. Curtis. In many of my conclusions Ihave differed widely from those of Mr. Curtis, but I desire at the outsetto acknowledge fully my obligations to him. I have sought information inall directions, and have obtained some fresh material, and, as I believe,have thrown a new light upon certain points, but this does not in the leastdiminish the debt which I owe to the ample biography of Mr. Curtis inregard to the details as well as the general outline of Mr. Webster'spublic and private life.]
No sooner was the stout Puritan Commonwealth of Massachusetts firmlyplanted than it began rapidly to throw out branches in all directions. Withevery succeeding year the long, thin, sinuous line of settlements stretchedfarther and farther away to the northeast, fringing the wild shores of theAtlantic with houses and farms gathered together at the mouths or on thebanks of the rivers, and with the homes of hardy fishermen which clusteredin little groups beneath the shelter of the rocky headlands. The extensionof