superior patriotism, superior talents, and superior virtues.

Let then the nations of the East vainly waste their strength in destroying each other.

Let them aspire at conquest, and contend for dominion, till their continent is deluged in blood. But let none, however elated by victory, however proud of triumph, ever presume to intrude on the neutral position assumed by our country.

Britain, twice humbled for her aggressions, has at length been taught to respect us.

But France, once

She has violated

our ally, has dared to insult us!
her treaty obligations-she has depredated our com-
merce-she has abused our Government, and riveted
the chains of bondage on our unhappy fellow-citizens !
Not content with ravaging and depopulating the
fairest countries of Europe; not yet satiated with
the contortions of expiring republics, the convulsive
agonies of subjugated nations, and the groans of her
own slaughtered citizens-she has spouted her fury
across the Atlantic; and the stars and stripes of the
United States have almost been attacked in our har-
bors! When we have demanded reparation, she has
told us,
"Give us your money and we will give you
peace." Mighty nation! Magnanimous Republic!
Let her fill her coffers from those towns and cities
which she has plundered, and grant peace, if she can,
to the shades of those millions whose death she has
caused.

But Columbia stoops not to tyrants; her spirit will never cringe to France; neither a supercilious, five-headed Directory, nor the gasconading pilgrim

A

of Egypt, will ever dictate terms to sovereign America. The thunder of our cannon shall insure the performance of our treaties, and fulminate destruction on Frenchmen, till the ocean is crimsoned with blood, and gorged with pirates!

It becomes us, on whom the defence of our country will ere long devolve, this day most seriously to reflect on the duties incumbent upon us.

Our ancestors bravely snatched expiring liberty from the grasp of Britain, whose touch is poison; shall we now consign it to France, whose embrace is death? We have seen our fathers, in the days of our country's trouble, assume the rough habiliments of war, and seek the hostile field. Too full of sorrow to speak, we have seen them wave a last farewell to a disconsolate, a woe-stung family. We have seen them return, worn down with fatigue, and scarred with wounds; or we have seen them, perhaps, no more. For us they fought for us they bled—for us they conquered. Shall we, their descendants, now basely disgrace our lineage and pusillanimously disclaim the legacy bequeathed to us? Shall we pronounce the sad valediction to freedom and immortal liberty on the altars our fathers have raised to her? No! The response of the nation is, "No!" Let it be registered in the archives of Heaven. Ere the religion we profess, and the privileges we enjoy are sacrificed at the shrine of despots and damagogueslet the sons of Europe be vassals; let her hosts of nations be a vast congregation of slaves; but let us, who are this day free, whose hearts are yet unappalled, and whose right arms are yet nerved for war, assem

ble before the hallowed temple of American freedom, and swear, to the God of our fathers, to preserve it secure, or die at its portals.

I think you will agree with me in saying that the boy who delivered that Oration was, to say the least, a clever boy. My informant says his friends were so much pleased with it, that they obtained a copy for publication. By this time, you may say, it is pretty "much out of print," but worthy of being reprinted. I dare say, Mr. Webster himself has entirely forgotten it. It shows his bosom was full of patriotism, and that in his youth the seeds of the noblest sentiments had taken deep root. Yours truly.

MR. WEBSTER STILL AT COLLEGE-HIS STUDIES THE FOURTH YEARPERSONAL APPEARANCE-HIS EULOGY ON THE DEATH OF A CLASSMATE COMMENCEMENT-HIS CLASSMATES-PERFORMANCE-HIS

ORATION HE IS MADE A BACHELOR OF ARTS-TAKES LEAVE.

In the fourth and last year of Mr. Webster's college life his studies were Metaphysics and Natural and Political Law; his exercises were Compositions in English and Latin. These were according to the regulations established as the routine for the students.

In all the branches of education taught at Dartmouth during his sojourn there, unprepared as he was at the outset, Mr. Webster made himself a respect

able student; in point of fact, in all those that bore directly on the profession he had resolved to pursue, he made himself eminent.

That rare faculty which Mr. Webster possesses of putting the knowledge of other men into his own crucible, and thence obtaining the pure metal, was largely developed and cultivated while at college.

The seed

What his Professors knew he knew. which fell from their ripe knowledge and experience dropped upon a rich soil, when he was a listener, and it lost nothing of its virtue in the process of reproduction.

*

Yesterday, I had a pleasant interview with a lady, who was, as she says, "just entering her teens," and residing in Hanover when Mr. Webster was at Dartmouth. She remembers him well, although many years have passed. She "can tell exactly how he looked." She informs me that Mr. Webster was slender, and evidently had a feeble constitution. That he was a brunette in complexion; that his hair was as black as jet, and when turned back, there was displayed a forehead, the sight of which always excited great admiration. His dark eyes shone with extraordinary brilliancy, and when engaged in agreeable or amusing conversation, he wore a smile that was bewitching, and showed teeth as white as pearls. He was a great favorite in the society at Hanover, which, though not gay, was refined and distinguished for its hospitality. She said that no young man in College was more highly esteemed by all classes, old and young, than Daniel Webster. She often heard him speak on public occasions; and remembers his

"Fourth of July Oration," before the people of Hanover, and that it made a great sensation.

While Mr. Webster was there, one of the students, who was also a great favorite, died. Mr. Webster was chosen by his classmates to pronounce a eulogy on the occasion. The house was crowded to its utmost capacity, and she says: "The scene was solemn and quite affecting, for there was not a dry eye pre

sent.

His name was Ephraim Simonds, a member of the Senior Class of Dartmouth College, who died at Hanover, April 17, 1801.

I have not a copy of the whole funeral oration he delivered, but I will quote a passage from the exordium: "All of him that was mortal now lies in the charnels of yonder cemetery. By the grass that nods over the mounds of Sumner, Merrill and Cook, now rests a fourth son of Dartmouth, constituting another monument of man's mortality. The sun, as it sinks to the ocean, plays its departing beams on his tomb, but they reanimate him not. The cold sod presses on his bosom; his hands hang down in weakness. The bird of the evening shouts a melancholy air on the poplar, but her voice is stillness to his ears. While his pencil was drawing scenes of future felicity, while his soul fluttered on the gay breezes of hope,-an unseen hand drew the curtain, and shut him from our view." Mr. Webster, at this time, had been so inspired with the brilliant and fervent style of President Wheelock, that he gave stronger indications of rising to eminence in poetry than in law or politics.

The lady with whom I conversed says that long