He could well say near the close of his life, “If any one desires to know the leading and paramount object of my public life, the preservation of the Union will furnish him the key.” The great leader grew gradually weaker and passed away, June 29, 1852. His body was carried back to Kentucky and laid to rest in the state he so loved. “I am a Whig,” he said once: “I am so because I believe the principles of the Whig party are best adapted to promote the prosperity of the country. I seek to change no man’s allegiance to his party, be it what it may. A life of great length and experience has satisfied me that all parties aim at the common good of the country. The great body of the Democrats, as well as the Whigs, are so from a conviction that their policy is patriotic. I take the hand of one as cordially as that of another, for all are Americans. I place country far above all parties. Look aside from that and parties are no longer worthy of being cherished.” “I know no south, no north, no east, no west,” he said, at another time. It was such sentiments as these that made him Lincoln’s ideal of a statesman. The conflict he had striven to avert was postponed--but it came. His children and grandchildren fought, some on one side some on the other. Two of his grandchildren who were brothers fought on opposite sides and both fell in battle. Such was the War between the States. Daniel Webster A Famous Orator Daniel Webster was descended from one of the Puritans who came from Old England to New England in the “great emigration.” His father, Ebenezer Webster, was a sturdy pioneer who fought in the French and Indian War and in the Revolution. “Captain Webster, I believe I can trust you,” said General Washington, and this was the opinion of all who knew him. Daniel, one of his ten children, was born in 1782 in Salisbury, New Hampshire. He was a delicate child and from babyhood was indulged and petted by his parents and brothers and sisters. He was fond of outdoor sports, but he was fond of study too and easily led his classes. Many characteristic stories are told of his boyhood. It is said that one of his first purchases was a handkerchief on which was printed the recently-adopted Constitution of the United States. Thus as a child he read and studied the great instrument which he was so eloquently to uphold. Looking back to his childhood in later years, Webster said: “I read what I could get to read, went to school when I could, and when not at school was a farmer’s youngest boy, not good for much for want of health and strength, but expected to do something.”