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This is a tribute to Noah Webster written by his son. Today perhaps it would be known as an obituary or an eulogy. Regardless, it serves to remind those who use "Webster's" that it is due to the life work of one individual that today we speak and write with a common understanding of our language.
"It is natural for those who make frequent use of a work like this, to desire some knowledge of the author's life, and especially of that long course of intellectual labor, by which he contributed so largely to the literary treasures of our language. To gratify this desire is the object of the present Memoir. A brief outline will be given of the leading occurrences of his life, with particular reference to the occasions which called forth the principal productions of his pen. The materials of this sketch were obtained from Dr. Webster himself, about ten years before his death and were first used in the preparation of a memoir inserted in the National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans," in the year 1833. That memoir is now bought down to the period of the author's death.
Noah Webster was born in Hartford, in the state of Connecticut on the 16th of October 1758. His father was a respectable farmer and justice of the peace, and was a descendant of John Webster, from Warwickshire, England, one of the original settlers in Hartford, and for a period Governor of the State of Connecticut His mother, a superior and excellent woman, was a descendant of William Bradford, the second Governor of the Plymouth Colony. The family was remarkable for longevity. His father died at the advanced age of nearly ninety-two. He and one of his brothers lived considerably beyond the age of eighty. His remaining brother died in his eightieth year; and of his two sisters, one was advanced beyond seventy, and the other had nearly reached the same age, at the period of their death.
He passed his boyhood like the sons of other farmers in agricultural occupations during most of the year; attending a district school in the winter, and spending the long evenings of that season at the family fireside, in the study of the rudiments of an English education, which were then taught in common schools.
When fourteen years of age, from that love of knowledge which was the ruling passion of his life, he commenced the study of the classics, under the instruction of the clergyman of the place, the Rev. Nathan Perkins, D.D.; and in 1774 was admitted a member of the Freshman class in Yale College.
While a student he showed the same traits of character which were afterward fully developed; the same spirit of investigation, the same industrious habits, the same love of order and propriety in things and in persons around him, the same adherence to truth and honor in his own conduct.
In his junior year; New England was thrown into consternation by the famous expedition of General Burgoyne. It was universally feared that what that commander had vauntingly said in the British parliament, that with a few thousand men he could march over the country, might prove to be no idle boast He at once volunteered his services under the command of his father, who was captain in the alarm list. In that campaign, all the males in the family, four in number, were in the army at the same time, and continued in it till the surrender of Burgoyne. There was kindled in his breast the fire of patriotism, which was extinguished only with his life. Notwithstanding the interruption of his studies by causes connected with the war, Mr. Webster graduated with reputation in 1778.
He was now thrown upon his own efforts for subsistence. On his return from the Commencement, when he graduated, his father gave him an eight dollar bill of the continental currency, worth about a dollar in silver, and told him he must henceforth rely upon himself for support In order to defray his current expense; he engaged in teaching school at Hartford, residing during the summer of 1779 in the family of Mr., afterward Chief Justice, Ellsworth.
In 1781 he was admitted to the practice of the law, a profession which he had studied in the intervals of his regular employment. While engaged in his studies, he noted down every word whose meaning he did not distinctly understand, for the purpose of further examination. The number of words thus noted, of which he could find no definitions at all or only very imperfect ones, deeply impressed upon his mind the deficiencies of the best dictionaries then in use.
But, as the embarrassments of the country forbade him to hope for immediate practice in his profession, in 1782, while the American army was lying on the bank of the Hudson, he established a classical school in Goshen, Orange County, New York. The country was impoverished; intercourse with Great Britain was interrupted; and there was no certain prospect of peace; school books were scarce, and hardly obtainable, and some of them full of errors. In these circumstances, he compiled two small elementary works for teaching the English language. In the autumn of that year, he rode to Philadelphia for the purpose of showing his manuscripts to gentlemen of influence, and obtaining a law for securing to authors the copyright of their publications. Having exhibited his manuscripts to several members of the Continental Congress then in session, among whom was Mr. Madison, and to the Rev. Stanhope Smith, then professor of theology at Nassau Hall, Princeton, and afterward president of that institution, he was by them encouraged to prosecute his design.
Accordingly, having at Goshen devoted the winter to the revision of his manuscripts, and the introduction of some improvements suggested by gentlemen in Princeton and Philadelphia, he returned in 1783 to Hartford, where he published the First Part of a Grammatical Institute of the English Language," a title adopted at the suggestion of President Stiles, but afterward changed for another. The second and third parts were published in the years immediately following. These books, comprising a Spelling-book, an English Grammar, and a compilation for reading were the first books of the kind published in the United States, They were gradually introduced into most of the schools in the country.
The improvements upon Dilworth, and similar British work; introduced into his spelling-book, were: 1. A division of syllables according to the pronunciation Thus, ha-bit, ta-lent, the English mode, was rejected, and hab-it, tal-ent, substituted. 2. The reduction of the terminating letters tion, sion into one syllable. Thus, the English mo-ti-on, de-lu-si-on, were reduced to mo-tion, de-lu-sion. 3. A Key to the pronunciation of the vowels, and such an arrangement of words, that a single figure indicated the proper sound of the vowels of the accented syllables in whole columns. 4. A new classification of words, bringing into the same tables words of a like formation.
At first, when he came to Hartford to publish this book, he could find no man who encouraged him to expect to succeed, except Judge Trumbull and Joel Barlow. Indeed, upon its first publication, it met with much opposition. A pamphlet, entitled "Dillworth's Ghost," was extensively circulated, for the purpose of deterring the public from using it But the people, not frightened at that ghost, used the book. About thirty-five millions have been published, and the demand is increasing. More persons have learned to read from it than there are inhabitants in the United States. "To its influence, more than to any other cause, is this country indebted for that remarkable uniformity of pronunciation which is often spoken of with surprise by English travelers."
Soon after the close of the war, there grew up in the country, especially in the northern parts of it, a violent and organized opposition to the half-pay and commutation acts, passed by Congress, for the relief of the army of the revolution. Indeed, so extensive and deep-seated were the popular discontents, expressed both against Congress and the disbanded army, as to threaten the most dangerous civil dissentions. In this emergency, Mr. Webster; from a regard to justice, as well to those who fought as to those who legislated for the welfare of their country, employed his pen so successfully in defense of Congress, and in allaying discontent in Connecticut, that he received the thanks of Governor Trumbull in person, and was publicly declared by a member of the council, "to have done more to support the authority of Congress, at this crisis, than any other man."
Like many other intelligent men, Mr. Webster early perceived the insufficiency of the old confederation for the purposes of government The war, by forcing the States to act in concert, gave it whatever of strength it had. Peace, by removing the common danger, proved its weakness. In the winter of 1784-5, he published his "Sketches of American Policy," In which he urged the establishment of a new form of government, which should "act, not on the states, as did the old confederation, but directly on individuals also, like the present system." This pamphlet, in the spring of 1785, was by him presented to General Washington, at Mount Vernon, who referred the arguments to a member of the legislature of Virginia. It contained, it is believed, the first distinct proposal made through the medium of the press, for a new constitution of the United State.
One object of Mr. Webster's journey south, at this as at other times, was to obtain laws from the state legislatures, securing to authors the exclusive right to the publication of their productions. He was, to some extent, successful. Some of the states passed such laws. Public attention was thus called to provision for the support of American literature, which was rendered more effectual by a copy-right law enacted by Congress in 1790. In 1826, he resumed his efforts on the subject, in order to procure such an alteration of the law as should, by giving extension to the rights of author's, secure to them a more ample reward. To accomplish this, he spent a winter in Washington, in the years 1830-31. An act was passed by Congress at the session of that season, more liberal in its provisions than the former law. In his journeys to effect this object, and in his long attendance afterward at Washington, he expended nearly a year of time.
On his return from the south, in 1785, he prepared, in Baltimore, a course of lectures upon the English language, which, in the next year, were delivered in the principal Atlantic cities, and which were published in 1789, under the title of "Dissertations on the English Language." In the year 1787, during which he superintended a school in Philadelphia, the convention which formed the present constitution, were in session in that city. When they had finished their work, Mr. Webster was solicited by Mr. Fitzsimmons, one of the members, to give the aid of his pen in recommending the new system of government to the people. Accordingly, for this purpose, he wrote a pamphlet, entitled "An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution."
In 1789, Mr. Webster married a daughter of William Greenleaf, Esq., of Boston, a lady of a highly cultivated intellect, and of great elegance and grace of manners. His friend Trumbull speaks of this event in one of his letters to Wolcott, who was then at New York, in his characteristic vein of humor. "Webster has returned, and brought with him a very pretty wife. I wish him success; but I doubt, In the present decay of business in our profession, whether his profits will enable him to keep up the style he sets out with. I fear he will breakfast upon Institutes, din upon Dissertations, and go to bed supperless." The result, however, was more favorable than it appeared in the sportive anticipations of Trumbull. Mr. Webster found his business profitable, and continually increasing, during his residence of some years in the practice of the law at Hartford.
In 1793, he was solicited by some eminent statesmen to establish a paper in the city of New York, in defense of Washington's administration, then violently assailed by the partisans of France. Accordingly, from his strong attachment to the principles of the Father of his Country, he removed to New York, and there established a daily paper, called the Minerva, with which he connected a semi-weekly paper, called the Herald, names which were afterward changed to those of the Commercial Advertiser, and the New York Spectator. This was the first example of a paper for the country, made up from the columns of a daily paper without recomposition, a practice which is now common.
In 1795, he published, in vindication of Mr. Jay's treaty with Great Britain, to which there was violent opposition, a series of papers, under the signature of Curtius, which were extensively re-printed throughout the country, and which, in the opinion of Mr. Rufus King, expressed to Mr. Jay, did more than any other papers of the same kind to allay the opposition to the treaty. In 1799, as. the result of laborous investigation, he published in two volumes, octavo, his "History of Pestilent Diseases' which was re-published the same year In England. In 1802 he published his celebrated Treatise on the "Rights of Neutrals," and the same year, Historical Notices of "Banking Institutions and Insurance Offices." Mr. Webster in the spring of 1798 removed to New Haven.
In the preface to his "Compendious Dictionary," published in January, 1806, he announced to the public that he had entered on the great work of his life, to which his studies had been immediately directed for some years, that of compiling a new and complete dictionary of the English language. Some of the reasons for doing this, are set forth in his published "Letter' to Dr. David Ramsey," Charleston, South Carolina. During the many years in which his attention had been turned to the subject, he had become deeply convinced of the need of a dictionary which, in the extent of its vocabulary, and the fullness of its definitions would be commensurate with the progress of the language, as written and spoken. The English and the American nations had been rapidly advancing in the discoveries of science, in the inventions of art, in new modes of thought The language had kept pace with these improvements and changes, by the introduction of new terms; or by the extended use of old ones. But lexicography had stood still fifty year; from 1755, when Johnson's Dictionary was published. Mr. Webster while he duly appreciated the difficulty of the task, undertook it upon high public grounds In the letter mentioned above, he remarks: " The undertaking is Herculean; but it is of far less consequence to me than to my country."
It is no easy task to collect the "winged words" we speak, and give them stability and form, and "local habitation." He who would do it, must be not only conversant with the usages of the best speakers and best writers, but also with the laws which govern the structure of language in general, and of his own in particular. He must be acquainted, in some degree. with all the arts and sciences; in order to explain their terms. And since, in the wide field of knowledge, "some words are budding, and some are falling away," he must explore that field, in order to gather the living and permanent, and to know when to reject the dead or the transient In short., as one has strikingly said, "a dictionary extracts and condenses the essence of all other books; it holds, as in embryo, the elements of all things known." And then, too, in the pronunciation and orthography, there are many perplexing difficulties connected with divided usage, conflicting analogies, authorities at variance with each other, and unsettled derivations. Moreover, a correct classification of the parts of speech involves the application of a refined logic. Besides these, Dr. Webster met with unexpected embarrassment in the departments of etymology. After writing through two letters of the alphabet, he laid aside his manuscripts, and endeavored, by a comparison of words having the same or cognate radical letters in twenty different languages, to discover the real or probable affinities between the English and other languages, and thus to obtain a more correct knowledge of the origin and primary sense of words. In this department of lexicography, he labored ten years, in the careful comparison of radical words and in forming a "Synopsis of the principal words in twenty languages, arranged in classes under their primary elements or letters." After completing this synopsis he proceeded to finish the work.
During the progress of these labors, Mr. Webster, finding his resources inadequate to the support of his family at New Haven, removed, in 1812, to Amherst, a pleasant country town in Massachusetts Here, notwithstanding his devotedness to his studies, he entered with his characteristic ardor into the literary and social interests of the place; promoted agricultural improvements, himself cultivating a few acres; represented the town at different times in the General Court of Massachusetts, as he had done New Haven in the General Assembly of Connecticut; employed his influence in the establishment, first of the academy, and then of the college, of whose Board of Trustees he was president; delivered the address at laying the corner-stone of the first college edifice, and inducted the first president into office.
In 1822, Mr. Webster returned to New Haven. In 1823, he received the degree of LL D. from Yale College. In June 1824, he sailed for Europe, with a view to perfect his work, by consulting literary men abroad, and by examining standard authors, to which he could not have access in this country. He spent two months at Paris, in consulting rare works in the Bibliotheque du Roi, and then went to England, where he remained till May, 1825. He spent several months at the University Of Cambridge, where he had free access to the public libraries, and there he finished the "American Dictionary." He afterward visited London, Oxford, and other cities of England, and in June returned to this country. This visit to England gave him an opportunity to become acquainted with literary men and literary institutions in that country, and to learn the real state of the English Language there.
Soon after his return, the necessary arrangements were made for the publication of his great work. An edition of twenty-five hundred copies was printed in 1828.
This contained twelve thousand words, and between thirty and forty thousand definitions, not found in any preceding dictionary. An edition was soon after published in England In 1841, another edition was published in this country, containing, with those in the addenda, about eighteen thousand additional words.
Of the merits of that dictionary, it does not fall within the limits of this notice to speak. It is sufficient to say, that in the estimation of those best qualified, both in this country and in Europe, to form a correct judgment, it has taken the same place at the head of English lexicography, which Johnson's great work took ninety years ago. With the excellences of that work it unites other excellences, corresponding with the advanced state of philology, and the progress of the Anglo-Saxon race.
Besides his principal productions above mentioned, there are numerous others to be included in a complete list of his writings.
Dr. Webster loved truth in all its manifestations, whether in science or art, whether in politics and history, or in morals and religion. Though absorbed for years in the study of language, he lost none of his interest in the objects to which it is applied; for he still remembered that things are the sons of God, and that words are the daughters of men" He had that ardent thirst for Knowledge which is the true scholar's moving power: this prompted him to his investigations, and sustained him in their progress. When an opinion was proposed, he never so much as asked whether it was new, or whether it was old; but his constant and only inquiry was, is it true, And how great was his gratification, when successful in his search after truth, we may learn from his own statement: "While engaged in composing my dictionary, I was often so much excited by the discoveries I had made, that my pulse, whose ordinary action is scarcely sixty beats to the minute, was accelerated to eighty or eighty-five." As he welcomed truth in all forms, so he dared to introduce it to the world, trusting that it would win its way to the confidence of others. And if; delving in the mine of original investigation, he sometimes threw up to the light masses of truth too large to enter immediately Into general circulation, he had the satisfaction of knowing that there were those who understood its value. Indeed, he often had the gratification to see many truths become current, which, at their first presentation, were rejected. And if; in the progress of his investigations, continued for so many years, he found reason to change an opinion, he had the magnanimity to make the recantation as public as the avowal.
Equally remarkable was his love of virtue. His sensibility was easily moved, either by what is right in conduct, on the one hand, or by what is wrong, on the other. He could not speak of moral distinctions with indifference. His heart, his voice, his pen, and his conduct were always on the side of virtue, and order, and religion. As a lover of the human race, of his country, of his friends, of his God, no man could better discharge the various duties of his station, or dispense, with a more winning grace, all the sweet charities of life. In his last years he had good health and unimpaired inind, and "that which should accompany old age, as honor, love, troops of friends." In his last day; he enjoyed the hopes of the gospel. Death took him not by surprise. When, after a short illness, the announcement of his approaching dissolution was made to him, "I am ready," was his simple and sublime reply. He met the King of Terrors, saying, "I know in whom I have believed; I have no doubts, no fears" He died on the 28th of May, 1843, in the eighty-fifth year of his age.
In his person, Dr. Webster was tall, and somewhat slender, remarkably erect through life, and moving, even in his advanced years, with a light and elastic step. He will long be remembered by many, as the youthful soldier, who was ready, if need be, to pour out his blood and his life together for the land of his birth; as the thoughtful politician, who early devised a scheme for uniting the states under a Constitution, such as the country now enjoys; as the grateful citizen, who gallantly sprang to the defense of Washington, when factious men rose up against him; as the laborious lexicographer, who throws a strong and steady light upon the English language; as the Christian moralist, "who taught million to read but not one to sin" His books, though read by millions, have made no man worse. To multitudes they have been of lasting benefit, not only by the course of early training they have furnished, but by those precepts of wisdom and virtue with which almost every page is stored."
Webster's Counting House and Family Dictionary, which is also known as An Explanatory and Pronouncing Dictionary of The English Language. With Synonyms. By William G. Webster assisted by Chauncey A. Goodrich, New York 1856.
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