The Bay State Monthly — Volume 1, No. 3, March, 1884Various
History
The Bay State Monthly — Volume 1, No. 3, March, 1884
Various
Massachusetts -- Periodicals; New England -- Periodicals
In 1857, he published two volumes of the Private Correspondence of
Daniel Webster. In editing the papers of such a man, it is not difficult
to make a "spicy" book. Witness McVey Napier's Edinburgh Review
correspondence and Mr. Fronde's Carlyle correspondence. They have spared
no one's feelings. They have paraded hasty expressions of transient
spleen, which the authors would blush to read, except, perhaps, at the
moment of writing. Mr. Webster has shown us a more excellent way, though
it may be less profitable. "With charity for all, with malice for none,"
he carefully excised from his father's correspondence every passage
tending to rekindle the fire of any former personal controversy in which
his father had engaged. In this, perhaps, he followed the behests of his
father, who evinced, as he approached the tomb, an earnest desire for
reconciliation with all with whom he had had differences, illustrating
the Scottish proverb, "The evening brings all home."
When the disruption of the Union came to be attempted, none of us who
knew Fletcher Webster doubted for a moment what position he would take.
The same "passionate and exultant nationality," which had nerved him to
bear the loss of friends at the North, and to forego the chance of a
public career, rather than countenance any measure calculated to excite
ill-will at the South, now prompted him to advocate military coercion
for the preservation of the Union. Notwithstanding President Lincoln had
just deprived him of the office upon which he depended for the
maintenance of his family, he did not hesitate to tender to the
administration his personal support in the field.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account