Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 October 1884 — Webster in Private Life. [ARTICLE]

Webster in Private Life.

Hon. Alexander Stephens once said of Daniel Webster: “I think Webster was the worst slandered man I ever knew. It is the general impression in the country today that Webster was a great drunkard. You hear it spoken of even now whenever his name is mentioned, but it is an outrageous dander. I will tell you what I know myself. For six years while we were both in Congress I lived next door to him. His house was as familiar to me as my own garden. I was in there a great deal and he was as often in mine, and in all the time of my acquaintance with him I never saw Webster when he was in the least affected by liquor or under the influence of it in any way. I have dined with him at his house and mine, I have met him at dinners and affairs outside, and I never saw him in the least inebriated. I never heard of his being intoxicated but twice, and on one of those occasions—a dinner —he made a speech that was grandly eloquent. Then, too, there has been much said about his incontinency. I think that is even a -worse slander than the other. When we were neighbors he was married to his second wife (a fine woman) and, with the exception of Toombs and Calhoun, I never saw a man so devoted to his wife as Webster was. They were always together. If he went out to walk in the evening, as was his custom, Mrs. Webster always accompanied him. I used to meet them often. He never was away from home over night that his wife did not go, too. He went frequently to New York and Baltimore, but he always took Mrs. Webster with him. At the receptions in the city they always -were together, and whenever you saw Webster you saw Mrs. Webster on his arm. It was different then from now. It was not then considered wrong for a man and his wife to keep together at such entertainments. Now if a man speaks to his wife at any reception or affair of the kind he is thought to be unfit for good society. He must beau around some other woman and leave his wife to be looked after by some other man. Webster loved his wife and was kind and faithful to her, and she was one of the most elegant, refined ladies I have had the fortune to know,”