Chapter XIII

CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. WEBSTER.--LETTERS.

(TO HIS SON.)

"February 5, 1830.

"Be sure and visit La Grange before you return; say to General
Lafayette that the Bunker Hill Monument will _certainly be
finished_, and that the foolish project of a lottery has been
abandoned. If, in the course of Providence, I should be taken
away, I hope my children will feel it a duty to continue the
efforts that are made in this work, which I have had so much at
heart, and have labored so much for."

To his son, then at school at Versailles, he writes on Feb. 26, 1830:

"After hearing from you again, I can judge better what to advise
respecting your going into Spain. At all events, let no hope of
going, or seeing, or doing anything else, prevent your using the
present time for improving yourself in whatever you find to do.
My greatest fear is, that you may form a wrong judgment of what
constitutes your true respectability, happiness, and usefulness.
To a youth just entering on the scenes of life, the roses on the
wayside appear without thorns; but, in the eagerness to snatch
them, many find, to their sorrow, that all which appears so fair
is not in possession what it was in prospect, and that beneath
the rose there is a thorn that sometimes wounds like a serpent's
bite. Let not appearances deceive you; for, when once you have
strayed, the second temptation is more likely to be fallen into
than the first."

"March 6, 1830.

"We are all in New England deeply interested by Mr. Webster's
late grand speech in the Senate, vindicating New England men and
New England measures from reproach heaped upon them by the South;
it was his most powerful effort, and you will see the American
papers are full of it. You should read the whole debate between
him and Mr. Hayne of South Carolina; you will find much to
instruct and interest you, and much of what you ought to know.
Mr. Webster never stood so high in this country as, at this
moment; and I doubt if there be any man, either in Europe or
America, his superior. The doctrines upon the Constitution in
this speech should be read as a text-book by all our youth."

After reading the great speech of Mr. Webster, Mr. Lawrence addressed to that gentleman a letter, expressing his admiration of the manner in which New England had been vindicated, and also his own personal feelings of gratitude for the proud stand thus taken.

Mr. Webster replied as follows:

"WASHINGTON, March 8, 1830.

"DEAR SIR: I thank you very sincerely for your very kind and
friendly letter. The sacrifices made in being here, and the
mortifications sometimes experienced, are amply compensated by
the consciousness that my friends at home feel that I have done
some little service to our New England. I pray you to remember me
with very true regard to Mrs. Lawrence, and believe me

"Very faithfully and gratefully yours,
"DANIEL WEBSTER.
"TO AMOS LAWRENCE, Esq."

EXTRACTS OF LETTERS TO HIS SON.

"April 13, 1830.

"You may feel very sure that any study which keeps your mind
engaged will be likely to strengthen it; and that, if you leave
your mind inactive, it will run to waste. Your arm is
strengthened by wielding a broadsword, or even a foil. Your legs
by various gymnastic exercises, and the organs of sight and
hearing by careful and systematic use, are greatly improved; even
the finger is trained, by the absence of sight, to perform almost
the service of the eye. All this shows how natural it is for all
the powers to grow stronger by use. You needed not these examples
to convince you; but my desire to have you estimate your
advantages properly induces me to write upon them very often.
Every American youth owes his country his best talents and
services, and should devote them to the country's welfare. In
doing that, you will promote not only your own welfare, but your
highest enjoyment.

"The duty of an American citizen, at this period of the world, is
that of a responsible agent; and he should endeavor to transmit
to the next age the institutions of our country uninjured and
improved. We hope, in your next letter, to hear something more of
General Lafayette. The old gentleman is most warm in his
affection for Americans. May he live long to encourage and bless
by his example the good of all countries! In contemplating a life
like his, who can say that compensation even here is not fully
made for all the anguish and suffering he has formerly endured?
Long life does not consist in many years; but in the period being
filled with good services to our fellow-beings. He whose life
ends at thirty may have done much, while he who has reached the
age of one hundred may have done little. With the Almighty, a
thousand years are a moment; and he will therefore give no credit
to any talents not used to his glory; which use is the same thing
as promoting, by all means in our power, the welfare and
happiness of the beings among whom we are placed."

"May 7, 1830.

"I have been pretty steady at my business, without working hard,
or having anxious feelings about it. It is well to have an
agreeable pursuit to employ the mind and body. I think that I can
work for the next six years with as good a relish as ever I did;
but I make labor a pleasure. I have just passed into my
forty-fifth year, you know. At my age, I hope you will feel as
vigorous and youthful as I now do. A temperate use of the good
things of life, and a freedom from anxious cares, tend, as much
as anything, to keep off old age."

"June 17, 1830.

"To-day completes fifty-five years since the glorious battle of
Bunker Hill, and five years since the nation's guest assisted at
the laying of the corner-stone of the monument which is to
commemorate to all future times the events which followed that
battle. If it should please God to remove me before this
structure is completed, I hope to remember it in my will, and
that my sons will live to see it finished. But what I deem of
more consequence is to retain for posterity the battle-field, now
in the possession of the Bunker Hill Monument Association. The
Association is in debt, and a part of the land may pass out of
its possession; but I hope, if it do, there will be spirit
enough among individuals to purchase it and restore it again;
for I would rather the whole work should not be resumed for
twenty years, than resume it by parting with the land. I name
this to you now, that you may have a distinct intimation of my
wishes to keep the land open for our children's children to the
end of time."

"July 17, 1830.

"Temptation, if successfully resisted, strengthens the character;
but it should always be avoided. 'Lead us not into temptation'
are words of deep meaning, and should always carry with them
corresponding desires of obedience. At a large meeting of
merchants and others held ten days ago, it was resolved to make
an effort to prevent the licensing of such numbers of soda-shops,
retailers of spirits and the like, which have, in my opinion,
done more than anything else to debase and ruin the youth of our
city. It is a gross perversion of our privileges to waste and
destroy ourselves in this way. God has given us a good land and
many blessings. We misuse them, and make them minister to our
vices. We shall be called to a strict account. Every good citizen
owes it to his God and his country to stop, as far as he can,
this moral desolation. Let me see you, on your return, an
advocate of good order and good morals. * * *

"Our old neighbor the sea-serpent was more than usually
accommodating the day after we left Portsmouth. He exhibited
himself to a great number of people who were at Hampton Beach
last Saturday. They had a full view of his snakeship from the
shore. He was so civil as to raise his head about four feet, and
look into a boat, where were three men, who thought it the wisest
way to retreat to their cabin. His length is supposed to be about
one hundred feet, his head the size of a ten-gallon cask, and his
body, in the largest part, about the size of a barrel. I have
never had any more doubt respecting the existence of this animal,
since he was seen here eleven years ago, than I have had of the
existence of Bonaparte. The evidence was as strong to my mind of
the one as of the other. I had never seen either; but I was as
well satisfied of the existence of both, as I should have been
had I seen both. And yet the idea of the sea-serpent's existence
has been scouted and ridiculed."

"September 25.

"The events of the late French Revolution have reached us up to
the 17th August. The consideration of them is animating, and
speaks in almost more than human language. We are poor, frail,
and mortal beings; but there is something elevating in the
thought of a whole people acting as with the mind and the aim of
one man, a part which allies man to a higher order of beings. I
confess it makes me feel a sort of veneration for them; and trust
that no extravagance will occur to mar the glory and the dignity
of this enterprise. Our beloved old hero, too, acting as the
guiding and presiding genius of this wonderful event! May God
prosper them, and make it to the French people what it is capable
of being, if they make a right use of it! I hope that you have
been careful to see and learn everything, and that you will
preserve the information you obtain in such a form as to recall
the events to your mind a long time hence. We are all very well
and very busy, and in fine spirits, here in the old town of
Boston. Those who fell behind last year have some of them placed
themselves in the rear rank, and are again on duty. Others are
laid up, unfit for duty; and the places of all are supplied with
fresh troops. We now present as happy and as busy a community as
you would desire to see."