Francis Marion (b. 1732, d. 1795), known as the “Swamp Fox,” was a native South Carolinian, of French descent.  Marion’s brigade became noted during the Revolution for its daring and surprising attacks.  See Lesson CXXXV.

LXXI.  MASSACHUSETTS AND SOUTH CAROLINA. (259)

Daniel Webster, 1782-1852.  This celebrated American statesman and orator was born in Salisbury, New Hampshire.  His father, Ebenezer Webster, was a pioneer settler, a soldier in the Old French War and the Revolution, and a man of ability and strict integrity, Daniel attended the common school in his youth, and fitted for college under Rev. Samuel Wood, of Boseawen, graduating at Dartmouth in 1801.  He spent a few months of his boyhood at “Phillips Academy,” Exeter, where he attained distinction as a student, but was so diffident that he could never give a declamation before his class.  During his college course, and later, he taught school several terms in order to increase his slender finances.  He was admitted to the bar in Boston in 1805.  For the next eleven years, he practiced his profession in his native state.  In 1812 he was elected to the United States House of Representatives, and at once took his place as one of the most prominent men of that body.  In 1816 he removed to Boston; and in 1827 he was elected to the United States Senate, where he continued for twelve years.  In 1841 he was made Secretary of State, and soon after negotiated the famous “Ashburton Treaty” with England, settling the northern boundary of the United States.  In 1845 he returned to the Senate; and in 1850 he was re-appointed Secretary of State, and continued in office till his death.  He died at his country residence in Marshfield, Massachusetts.

Mr. Webster’s fame rests chiefly on his state papers and his speeches in Congress; but he took a prominent part in some of the most famous law cases of the present century.  Several of his public addresses on occasional themes are well known, also.  As a speaker, he was dignified and stately, using clear, straightforward, pure English.  He had none of the tricks of oratory.  He was large of person, with a massive head, a swarthy complexion, and deep-set, keen, and lustrous eyes.  His grand presence added much to his power as a speaker. ###

The eulogium pronounced on the character of the State of South Carolina by the honorable gentleman, for her Revolutionary and other merits, meets my hearty concurrence.  I shall not acknowledge that the honorable member goes before me, in regard for whatever of distinguished talent or distinguished character South Carolina has produced.  I claim part of the honor; I partake in the pride of her great names.  I claim them for countrymen, one and all—­the Laurenses, the Rutledges, the Pinckneys, the Sumters, the Marions—­Americans all—­whose fame is no more to be hemmed in by state lines than their talents and patriotism were capable of being circumscribed within the same narrow limits.