“He had called upon the cashier of the bank where he kept an account, for the purpose of getting a draft discounted, when that gentleman expressed some surprise, and casually inquired why he wanted so much money?  ’To spend; to buy bread and meat,’ replied Mr. Webster, a little annoyed at this speech.

     “‘But,’ returned the cashier, ’you already have upon deposit
     in the bank no less than three thousand dollars, and I was
     only wondering why you wanted so much money,’

     “This was indeed the truth, but Mr. Webster had forgotten
     it.”

Mr. Lanman’s assertion that Mr. Webster, with all this recklessness, was religiously honest, must have excited a grim smile upon the countenances of such of his Boston readers as had had his name upon their books.  No man can be honest long who is careless in his expenditures.

It is evident from his letters, if we did not know it from other sources of information, that his carelessness with regard to the balancing of his books grew upon him as he advanced in life, and kept pace with the general deterioration of his character.  In 1824, before lie had been degraded by the acceptance of pecuniary aid, and when he was still a solvent person, one of his nephews asked him for a loan.  He replied: 

“If you think you can do anything useful with a thousand dollars, you may have that sum in the spring, or sooner, if need be, on the following conditions:—­1.  You must give a note for it with reasonable security. 2.  The interest must be payable annually, and must be paid at the day without fail.  And so long as this continues to be done, the money not to be called for—­the principal—­under six months’ notice.  I am thus explicit with you, because you wish me to be so; and because also, having a little money, and but a little, I am resolved on keeping it.”

This is sufficiently business-like.  He had a little money then,—­enough, as he intimates, for the economical maintenance of his family.  During the land fever of 1835 and 1836, he lost so seriously by speculations in Western land, that he was saved from bankruptcy only by the aid of that mystical but efficient body whom he styled his “friends”; and from that time to the end of his life he was seldom at his ease.  He earned immense occasional fees,—–­two of twenty-five thousand dollars each; he received frequent gifts of money, as well as a regular stipend from an invested capital; but he expended so profusely, that he was sometimes at a loss for a hundred dollars to pay his hay-makers; and he died forty thousand dollars in debt.