Note THIS memoir, up to this point, is that prepared for the edition of Mr. Webster's Works published in 1851, by Mr. Edward Everett, his lifelong friend and his successor in the State Department. The last two pages of that work have been transferred to the end of the tenth chapter, and the paragraph immediately preceding, a brief summary of Mr. Webster's services as Secretary in 1850 and 1851, has been omitted, while the remarks on the speech of 17th July have been added by the author of the following chapter. In preparing this, he has availed himself of portions of an article, also prepared by Mr. Everett, in the sixteenth volume of the first edition of Appleton's American Cyclopædia. These extracts are made by the kind permission of Messrs. D. Appleton and Company. QUINCY, MASS., 27 April, 1902. WILLIAM EVERETT. Chapter X Personal Appearance and Habits of Mr. Webster. - A Member of Mr. Fillmore's Cabinet. Efforts to rally the Whigs to a support of the Compromise. Speech of 4 July, 1851. -Foreign questions: Hungary, Cuba, Nicaragua. Accident. - Action of the Whig Nominating Convention. Reception at Boston. Last Illness and Death. - Remarks at Public Services. AT the time when Mr. Webster left the Senate to enter the Cabinet of President Fillmore, few public men were better known to their countrymen. He had visited many parts of the Union, and wherever he went was the object of universal attraction. His personal appearance contributed in no small degree to his fame. It could never be forgotten by one who had seen him, and, being readily caught by artists, was familiar to thousands who never saw him. His person was imposing, of commanding height and well proportioned; 1 his head of great size; his eye deep-seated and lustrous. His complexion was dark, and his hair raven black. He retained to a great extent the habits of his boyhood: went to bed and rose early, and despatched the business of the day as much as possible in the morning hours. He was extremely fond of field sports, and was a remarkably good shot, and a keen fisherman. It was for the gratification of these tastes that he originally resorted to Marshfield, a quiet old town on the eastern coast of Massachusetts, in the part known as Green Harbor. Here he was for many summers the guest of Capt. John Thomas, who owned a portion of the estate originally allotted to Gov. Edward Winslow. As Captain Thomas advanced in years, he readily consented to Mr. Webster's buying the place, to which 1 The great portliness of figure which appears in many pictures and statues was characteristic only of his later years. —[W. E.] |