here scattered over our country, adorn
the sciences and the moral virtues....

"If the Americans are yet in their leading-strings as to some parts of
literature, there is the more room for improvement; and I am confident
that the genius of my fellow-citizens will not be slack in the
important work. You will please to recollect, sir, that during one
hundred and sixty years of our childhood we were in our nonage;
respecting our parent and looking up to her for books, science, and
improvements. From her we borrowed much learning and some prejudices,
which time alone can remove. And be assured, Dr. Priestley, that the
parent is yet to derive some scientific improvements from the child.
Some false theories, some errors in science, which the British nation
has imbibed from illustrious men, and nourished from an implicit
reliance on their authority, are to be prostrated by the penetrating
genius of America."

It is plain that Webster, aware of the deficiencies of his country in
learning, was not rendered entirely submissive by his knowledge, and was
not at all disposed to accept the relation of pupilage as a permanent
one. He worked with such material as he had, and as a part of the
intellectual movement of the day brought for his contribution both
industry and an elastic hope.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] _Belknap Papers_, v., Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. iii.

[6] _Life of Timothy Pickering_, i. 479, 480.

[7] Nothing in these periodical ventures seems so certain as their
uncertainty.

[8] It was now in its last number for the year.

[9] The _Massachusetts Magazine_, shortly after commenced by Isaiah
Thomas.

CHAPTER IV.

POLITICAL WRITINGS.

We have seen that a man who made a spelling-book could be a patriot in
making it; it is easy to believe that a patriot in Webster's day could
be a very active participant in public affairs. There was as yet no
marked political class; every man of education was expected to write,
talk, and act in politics, and Webster's temperament and education were
certain to make him interested and active. He began very early to have a
hand in those letters to newspapers which preceded the editorial article
of the modern newspaper. The printer of a newspaper was substantially
its editor, and was likely to be a man engaged in public affairs, but
his paper was less the medium for his own views than a convenient
vehicle for carrying the opinions and arguments of lawyers, ministers,
and others.

W