The Merrimack River: its source and its tributaries. Embracing a history of manufactures, and of the towns along its course; their geography, topography, and products, with a description of the magnificent natural scenery about its upper waters./ By J. W. Meader.

THE XERPIMACK' RIVER;
portals of his tomb. Venerated he still lives in the example he has
furnished, and is commemorated by the proudest monument yet
reared to mortal,- the high esteem and deep affection of an intelligent and enlightened people.
"After a warm contest the Federal tickets for electors of President and members of Congress were elected by an average majority
of not far from fifteen hundred votes.
"Daniel Webster was one of the congressional delegation at this
time chosen; a man who, though then young, soon ranked among
the ablest opponents of the administration and the war, and gained
that high reputation as a cool, powerful, and eloquent debater which
he has maintained during a service of twenty-five years, in one
branch or other of the American Congress. Thirty years before this
time he was born by the side of the Merrimack, - the son of a
farmer. At school and in college he sometimes composed poetry,
and displayed in his prose compositions a gorgeous fancy; but his first
efforts at the bar were marked by a close, vigorous, and mature style,
which indicated a preponderance of the reasoning powers over the
imagination, and determined his character as a powerful logician,
kindling but occasionally with the fires of imagination. IIe rose
with a rapid flight, dazzling and astonishing, convincing and conquering.
"The bar acknowledged him as its head; the rival leaders of
his own party made way for him in the race for distinction, and he
Nas ushered forward at once to the first stations of responsibility and
honor which they had in their power to bestow. Most of his mature
years have been passed in the halls of legislation. Ite has discussed,
either for the purpose of opposition or support, most of the important
measures of government; and though his views have often failed to
go in the popular support, and the correctness of them has been
questioned by the ablest minds in the nation, yet he has left impressed on the memory of many, and stamped upon the records of
public affairs, so many of those touches of genius, which in an age
of intelligence will be preserved from oblivion, that the name of
Webster, though he be consigned to the grave, cannot fall into forgetfulness." *
Kearsarge Mountain, a corner-bound of this town as well as
# Barstow.
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