From Farm Boy to Senator

Being the History of the Boyhood and Manhood of Daniel Webster

(1882)

To My Friend And College Classmate, Judge Addison Brown, Of New York, This Volume Is Cordially Inscribed.

PREFACE:

But thirty years have elapsed since the death
of Daniel Webster, and there is already danger
that, so far as young people are concerned, he will
become an historic reminiscence. Schoolboys,
who declaim the eloquent extracts from his
speeches which are included in all the school
speakers, are indeed able to form some idea of his
great oratorical powers and the themes which called
them forth; but I have found that young classical
students, as a rule, know more of Cicero's life
than of his. It seems to me eminently fitting
that the leading incidents in the life of our great
countryman, his struggles for an education, the
steps by which he rose to professional and political
distinction, should be made familiar to American
boys. I have therefore essayed a "story biography,"
which I have tried to write in such a manner
as to make it attractive to young people, who
are apt to turn away from ordinary biographies,
in the fear that they may prove dull. I have not found my task an easy one. Webster's
life is so crowded with great services and
events, it is so interwoven with the history of the
nation, that to give a fair idea of him in a volume
of ordinary size is almost impossible. I have
found it necessary to leave out some things, and
to refer briefly to others, lest my book should expand
to undue proportions. Let me acknowledge
then, with the utmost frankness, that my work is
incomplete, and necessarily so. This causes me
less regret, because those whom I may be fortunate
enough to interest in my subject will
readily find all that they wish to know in the noble
Life of Webster, by George Ticknor Curtis, the
captivating Reminiscences, by Peter Harvey, the
Private Correspondence, edited by Fletcher Webster,
and the collection of Mr. Webster's speeches,
edited by Mr. Everett. They will also find interesting
views of Mr. Webster's senatorial career
in the Reminiscences of Congress, by Charles W.
March. If this unpretending volume shall contribute in
any way to extend the study of Mr. Webster's
life and works, I shall feel that my labor has been
well bestowed.

Horatio Alger, Jr., March 28, 1882.

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