Washington, February 14, 1851.
DEAR SIR,—I wish it
were in my power to find time to write or speak of your father, and gather up
the recollections which I have of him. But in truth, my time at present is
absolutely and altogether devoted to public duties.
I knew your father
very well from 1801 to 1817, when I left the State. The first time I saw him
was at Mr. Peabody's, in Exeter, where he took the lead in a table
conversation, upon the merits and demerits of Gibbon's History of the Decline
and Fall of the Roman Empire. I remember also his speaking of the Edinburgh
Review, and Mr. Jeffrey, both just then becoming conspicuous. He left the
Senate, I think, in 1807. We did not agree upon the embargo policy of Mr.
Jefferson and Mr. Madison, and the subsequent war with England. But I do not
suppose that we ever differed upon any other important practical questions, nor
upon any great constitutional question.
I expect to be in
Boston about the 1st of April or the latter part of March. If you could
conveniently meet me there, I would cheerfully pass an hour or two with you, in
stating what I recollect of him, and expressing the opinion which I entertain
of his talents and character.
SOURCE: Fletcher
Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol.
2, p. 419-20
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