Defining Noah Webster: Mind and morals in the early republic

Noah Webster was America's premier educator during her first half-century. As a writer of textbooks, as a magazine and newspaper editor, and as a lexicographer, he sought to improve the intellectual and moral level of the new nation. In his early years, he was a disciple of a Common Sense philosophy that blended its insights with Christian belief. Webster felt that men could be reasoned into proper morality. In 1908, however, he underwent a Christian conversion that transformed his thinking about morality, government, education, and his lexicographical labors. This study offers a reevaluation of the life and thought of Noah Webster, especially in the twin concerns of the intellectual and moral improvement of individuals and the new American nation. It seeks to elucidate Webster's worldview and how it affected his thinking, writing, and proposed remedies for the moral ills and intellectual inconsistencies that he perceived in his country.