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THE

BEAUTIES

HON. DANIEL WEBSTER

SELECTED AND ARRANGED,

WITH A
CRITICAL ESSAY ON HIS GENIUS AND
WRITINGS.

BY JAMES REES.

JTEW-YORK :
J. AND H. G. LANGLEY, 57 CHATHAM STREET.

1839.

[Entered according to the Act of Congress of the United Slates of
America, in the year 1839, by James Rees, in the Clerk's Offico
of the Squtheriv District of NeW-York.]
CbG9

TO THE FRIENDS OF
LIBERTY
THROUGHOUT THE WORLD J
iNB TO THE
ADMIRERS OP THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
IN ITS PURITY,
THB FOLLOWING SELKCTIONS FROM THB WORKS OF THB
HON. DANIEL WEBSTER,
AEE KESPECTFULLT DEDICATED
BY
THE EDITOR.
Neuj. Yorlc, Jan. 1839.

PREFACE.

It might appear at first sight to be an ea
sy task to select prominent passages from the
writings of any author ; but in the instance
of the following work, a new, and singular
difficulty has presented itself to the comple
tion of ray task. As a traveller suddenly
arriving at the brow of a hill, beh'olds the
whole mighty prospect burst on his vision
with dazzling beauty, and requires to collect
his overpowered faculties to examine each
portion of the scenery respectively, nor theHi
feels satisfied, because the beauty of the whole
is formed by the contrast of the parts ; so in
the selection of the following passages — the
continuity, the completeness, the light and
shadow of Oratory, contained in the efforts
of Mr. Webster, has required considerable
care in the choice of any part separate from
the whole. It is my wish as well as my ob
ject to lead the thoughtful mind to a clear
1*

VI PREFACE.
and careful attention of the extraordinary
productions of the most original mind of the
age ; and I believe this object will be accom
plished. In the following work the reader
is presented with the detached leaves of the
flower ; and if in their isolated state they
should attract the mind, as they inevitably
must, and fascinate it with their beauty, the
desire must be raised and gratified, of gazing
Jn the whole. I scarcely believe that Ame-
ica, proud as she is of Webster, yet rightly
comprehends the immeasurable benefit which
he has conferred on her cause, and the cause
of liberty generally throughout the world ;
nor the influence which these magnifieent
compositions are calculated to exert on all
classes of society. And should this little
work have the effect of exciting the attention
of Americans generally, and induce a deep
and careful perusal of the great text books
of their Constitution, it will have answered
a sufficiently high and noble purpose — to ob
viate the necessity of any apology for its
publication. J. R.
Jan. 1830.

CRITICAL ESSAY

GENIUS AND WRITINGS OF THE HONORABLE
DANIEL WEBSTER.

Iif offering a few remarks (as introductory to the fol
lowing work) on the genius, and writings of Mr. Webster,
we must observe that the immediate value of those pro-
ductions consists in their development of admitted and
eternal principles. Whatever improvements may have
been made in the social and political systeras by the
influence of increased intelligence and the progression
of mankind, still both systems are founded on natural
and admitted grounds, and the principles of right and
wrong are immutable and eternal. Were the following
beauties deperudent solely on their brilliancy of language,
and the power of imagination displayed, they might
form a structure, the pride and glory of the age ; but it
is the combination of these qualities, in their perfection ,
with the philosophical and instructive views developed,.
that exhibits the depth of thought and grandeur of mind |
which must command the praise and admiration of all '
agea,yet to come. To pursue the metaphor. The wri
tings and productions of Webster appear to us to ra-

8
semble a massive structure, calculated, by the strength of
itsmaterials,to resist tbe winter blast or the howlingstorm ;
and although years may pass over, leaving the moss on
its battlements, and the stamp of time upon its walls, it still
exists. There are associations too grand and mighty
connected with its existence, to allow future generations
to leave it to ruin. The following remarks must be under
stood to bo made without reference to political party,
although it is difficult to regard Mr. Webster in an
isolated position. His noblest efforts are connected
with the constitution. They are the props which have
sustained it in the fierce struggle of political madness
and selfish strife ; and if future ages should be destined
to behold its ruin and fall, we prophecy that its strongest
teupport will be found in that elevated and devoted spirit
phich the efforts of Mr. Webster will have inspired in
the people. It will be observed, that one of the chief
claims to distinction which these efforts advance, ia
founded on their connexion and completeness.. They re
semble a linked chain. The last link must be the boun-
dary of vision, or the sight becomes confused if we
attempt to break off at any intermediate part. This,
perhaps, is the perfection of argument and' public speak
ing, — to connect the whole bearings ofa subject, and to
place them in that train which enables the mind to glide
almost imperceptibly from step tastep, till the conclusion
j)ursts upon it in irresistible truth.
This is one of the causes which have rendered the
task of selecting the following specimens one of con
siderable difficulty. There is a completeness in the pro
ductions of Mr. Webster, which renders it dangerous to
withdraw one part, since the grandeur and beauty of
the whole consists in the perfect adaptation of its parts.

There is an irresistible spell, which urges the reader or
hearer onward ; he exclaims with W illiam Tell —
" Since I have tasted,
I will e'en feed on."
And this power of concentrating ideas, of placing them
to the best advantage, not only in the beauty of the ma
terials but in the grandeur of the workmanship, is pecu
liarly his own. Let us select a man unacquainted
with the crafl of a goldsmith ; he may have his house
crowded with the material, but it can be of little use to
bim until he has become accomplished in the art of
working that gold into forms of varied beauty and taste.
So it is a great peculiarity of Mr. Webster, that while
he is working with the same materials as others, yet the
facility with which he moulds thera to his purposes, and
stamps upon them tbe images of his great mind, giving
fhe unformed marble shape and expression, places him
in a position incomparably distant from every competitor.
Nor is it known how far the elevated, moral stand which
Webster takes, operates upon this power ; he derives
dignity from the greatness of his subject — he becomes
elevated in proportion to its grandeur ; like the eagle,
whose eye, it is said, is formed to command a wider field
of view in proportion to its height. The man who oc.
eupies the highest situation, will feel the sunbeams more
warm, and behold the sun more brightly. And it is this
prominence, this high station, which Webster assumes
abore the jealousies of party strife, standing on the rock
of imperishable principle, which leads him, as a natural
consequence of his situation, to command that extensive
view of men and things which is his peculiar character
istic. It is from the exercise of sound principle, and a
Biealthful tone of feeling, that man borrows energy and

10
greatness, for occasions of doubt and difficulty, that at-
tachment to principle operates on the mind as the free
air of heaven on the body ; it invigorates and slrength.
ens, exhilarates and influences, till it becomes a neces-
sarj' element of its existence. If we regard the pecu
liarities of Mr. Webster as a statesman, we shall find
him distinguished by a far-sightedness, a power of men-
tal vision, which scans, like an experienced mariner,
the skirts ofthe horizon, taking in every object the most
lifiinute in the circle of events; there is a combination
of the past, the present, and the future ; — the experience
ofthe past, the enlightened action of the present, and the
effect in the future, are drawn together to form a con.
nected whole, in which every "atom depends more or less
on its . neighbor for support. The common grade of
politicians see little beyond present influences ; their po
litical actions resemble their private feelings, stlfish ; but
the true devotion of the patriot's heart leads him to sa
crifice himself, if it be necessary, for the good of others ;
and the enlightened statesman looks not only to the
effects of the present, but the infiuences of the future.
And it is, we contend, in this point of view that Mr.
Webster stands alone ; it is in this power to see the
effects of causes, and the will to render them most uni.
versally useful, combining the elements of moral great-
ness with the power of intellectual strength, rearing a
temple, not for beauty, but for use.
Carrying out our remarks on Mr. Webster as a
statesman, we shall find that he is distinguished by ex
tensive knowledge of the history and governments of
other nations. It is here that the accomplished states.
man rises superior to all other men — in the knowledge of
those weak points in other nations and other govern-

11
ments, which warn him from the same quicksands, which
lead him to know evil by the experience of others, and
lend him the power to direct his steps in the pathways of
truth. With a quickness of perception unequalled, he ia
enabled to lend that knowledge to the consideration of
present difficulties ; and therefore his views of political
science are more exten.sive, more general, and more
correct than any other living man.
But not as a statesman alone must we regard Mi^
Webster ; he laj's distinguished and undisputed claims to
the title of an accomplished Orator. Now, were we to
inquire in what true Oratory consists, there can be little
doubt that the correct answer would be, That power by
which we enlist the sympathies and reason of our audi
ence, in that equal degree which allows neither to pre-
dominate over the other. This power is exclusively Mr.
Webster's own. We can safely hazard the assertion,
that no man recorded amongst the living or the dead
exhibits it more fully than does Mr. Webster. If the
excitement of passion should bias for a moment, its
influence is as short-lived as that excitement ; if the mind
is left alone to reason, it becomes wearied, and forsakes
its occupation ; but let them both be combined, the reason
jAsalteiifid, the symjgathies excited, and the result will
necessarily be useful and permanent. We have befora
made some few remarks on the power which he possesses
of combining all the parts of a subject ; if this is appa
rent in him as a Statesman, it is equally so as an Orator ;
perhaps one of the finest specimens of this power may
be traced in his address at Plymouth. The picture ia
admirably complete. There is scarcely a probable event
which escaped his attention ; all the local associations,
all the patient fortitude, all the inspiring confidence of

12
the Pilgrims, are described with the geniusof a poet and
the skill of a painter. The whole is before the mind —
we seem, even in reading this great effort, to be carried
back to the scenes and period of its action, and become
fascinated with the view as the mighty panorama rolls
around us.
There are circumstances, in every man's life, which
call for the exercise of severity. And although sarcasm
^ not a natural element of Webster's mind, because it is
a sentiment which his high moral feeling cannot indulge,
yet when necessity calls for the operation, the materials
are always at his command. Pope says,
" Satire should, like a polished razor keen.
Wound with a touch that's scarcely felt or seen,"
And the power of Mr. Webster's satire consists in
displaying the weakness of its object — he draws the ele
ments of contempt from the thing ilself. We do not
behold the power of the master inflicting the blow, but
we wonder at the weakness of the object, which flies
into a thousand shattered particles beneath its force.
As a writer and speaker of the English language, Mr.
Webster must be admitted to be the first. And this
power of using the English language is the result, to a
certain extent, of the conformation of his mind. It is
that keen-sighted vision which detects discrepancy in
facts and statements, that leads to the choice of the most
perfect mode of adapting his sentences to the expression
of the meaning which he wishes to convey. He never
uses a sentence which can admit of a doubtful meaning ;
all is clear, distinct, intelligible. The figures which tend
to explain his sentiments are always fitly chosen in ac
cordance with those sentiments^ In the power of imagi-
nation and the brilliancy of metaphor, abundant proofs are

Id
exhibited of Mr. Webster's pre-eminent accomplishment.
There is a judgment, too, exhibited in the choice of those
metaphors, which is extremely rare. We have offered
these observations with a view of pointing out the dis-
tinguished characteristics of this great man. They
stand out like the prominent figures of a picture. They
are individual, distinct, original. They are suited to
the man, and the man to them.
There can be little doubt that the efforts of Mr. Web-
ster are calculated to endure, incorporated with the his
tory of the Constitution. Every succeeding effort adds
to his fame and the value of his works. We have read
that the monks of La Trappe are accustomed to dig a
certain portion of their graves every day. We may re-
verse the picture, and say that Mr. Webster adds every
day some new material to the monument of his greatness
and his fame. That monument is to be found in his
works, in their, enduring usefulness, and their extensive
application ; and here it must stand alone — in solitary
grandeur, " towering in the van of all this congregated
world ;" and if slander should attempt to malign, or party
bitterness condemn — should the birds of prey be let loose
to destroy those trophies, they can but wound their blunt
ed beaks against its firm and imperishable structure.
A mistaken view has obtained with regard to the
claims of a nation for its great men. We think, how.
ever, that men of genius are the property of the world ;
and if other nations cannot claim them as their sons, they
can at least benefit by their talents. We do not look at
Mr. Webster, alone, with regard to his acquaintance
with and defence of the American Constitution. Woi
believe that his general views will do much to extend eJ
knowledge of men and things in the world — to purify

14
the feelings and morality of the age^to dignify the na-
' ture of man, and to disseminate a correct and philoso
phical spirit among all classes of society.
In England, the writings of Mr. Webster are calcula
ted to do a vast amount of good, by placing republican
institutions on their plain and undeniable principles —
opposed to the headlong passions of a misguided mob ;
with deadly hostility to every form of tyranny, the true
history of popular power, its fixed and eternal principles
have been in these efforts fairly placed before the world.
And when the Genius of Amer-can liberty shall weep over
the grave of Webster, it will be in the bitterness of a
widowhood, made desolate by the loss of her ablest and
firmest supporter. But in his works, and in their influ
ence upon society, he will have left a legacy for which
America and the world will be his everlasting debtors.

BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER.

THE PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION.
The time has been, indeed, when fleets, and armies,
and subsidies, were the principal reliances even in the
best cause. But happily for mankind there has come a
great change in this respect. Moral causes come into
consideration, in proportion as the progress of know-
ledge is advanced ; and the public opinion of the civilized.
world is rapidly gaining an ascendancy over mere brutal
force. It is already able to oppose the most formidable
obstruction to the progress of injustice and oppression ;
and as it grows more intelligent and raore intense, it will
be more and • more formidable. It may be silenced by
military power, but it cannot be conquered. It is elastic,
irrepressible, and invulnerable to the weapons of ordinary
warfare. It is that impassable, unextinguishable eneray
of mere violence and arbitrary rule, which, like Milton's
angels, " Vital in every part,
Cannot, but by annihilating, dia."
Until this be propitiated and satisfied, it is vain for
power to talk either of triumphs or of repose. No matter
what fields are desolated, what fortresses surrendered,
what armies subdued, or what provinces overrun. In
the history of the year that has passed by us, and in the
instance of unhappy Spain» we have seen the vanity of
all triuraphs in a cause which violates the general sense
of justice of the civilized world. It is nothing that tho
2*

18 BEAUTIES OF WEBSTEK,
troops of France have passed from the Pyrenees to Ca
diz ; it is nothing that an unhappy and prostrate nation
has fallen before them ; it is nothing that arrests and
confiscation, and execution sweep away the little rem-
nant of national resistance. There is an enemy that
still exists to check the glory of these triumphs. It
follows the conqueror back to the very scene of his ova
tions ; it calls upon him to take notice that Europe,
though silent, is yet indignant ; it shows him tha| the
sceptre of his victory is a barren sceptre — that it shall
confer neither joy nor honor, but shall moulder to dry
ashes in his grasp. In the midst of his exultation it
pierces his ear with the cry of injured justice ; it de
nounces against him the indignation of an enlightened
and civilized age ;. it turns to bitterness the cup of his
rejoicing, and wounds him with the sting which belongs
to the consciousness of having outraged the opinion of
mankind. INTJERKATIONAL LAW.
This asserted right of forcible intervention in the af
fairs of other nations is in open violation of the public
law of the world. Is the whole world expected to acqui
esce in the principles which entirely subvert the inde.
pendence of nations? On the basis of this independence
has been reared the beautiful fabric of international law.
On the principle of this independence, Europe has seen
a family of nations flourishing within its limits ; the
small among the large, protected not always by power,
but by a principle above power — by a sense of propriety
and justice. On this principle the great commonwealth
of civilized states has been hitherto upheld. There havo

BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER. 19
been occasional departures or violations, and always
di^^trous, as in the case of Poland ; but in general the
hlroony of the system has been wonderfully preserved.
In the production and preservation of this sense of jus-
tice, this predominating principle, the Christian Religion
has acted a main part. Christianity and civilization
have labored together : it seems, indeed, to be a law of
our human condition that they can live and flourish only
together. From their blended influence has arisen that
delightful spectacle of tbe prevalence of reason and
principle over power and interest, so well described by
one who was an honor to the age :
" And sovereign Law— the world's^collected will,
O'er thrones and globes elate.
Sits empress— crowning good — re|iressing ill,
SmIt by her sacred frown,
The fiend discretion, like a vapor sinks.
And e'en the all-dazzling crown
Hides his faint rays, and at her bidding shrinks."
LIBEKALITY OF THE AGE.
I take it for granted that the policy of this country,
springing frora the nature of our governraent and the
spirit of all our institutions, is, so far as it respects the
interesting questions whieh agitate the present age, on
the side of liberal and enlightened sentiments. The age
is extraordinary ; the spirit that actuates it is peculiar
and marked ; and our own relation to the times we live
in, and to the questions which interest them, is equally
marked and peculiar. We are placed by our good for
tune, and the wisdora and valor of our ancestors, in a
condition in which we can act no obscure part. Be it
for honor, or be it for dishonor, whatever we do is not

20 «. BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER.
likely to escape the observation of the world. As one
of the free states among the nations, as a great i^^
rapidly rising Republic, it would be impossible for us, if
we were so disposed, to prevent our principles, our senti
ments, and our example, from producing some effect upon
the opinions and hopes of society throughout the civilized
world. It rests, probably, with ourselves to determine
whether the influence of these shall be salutary or per
nicious. THE POLIOT OF PEACE.
It is certainly true that the just policy "of this country
is, in the first place, a peaceful policy. No nation ever
had less to expect from forcible aggrandizement. The
mighty agents which are working out our greatness, are
time, industry, and the arts. Our augmentation is by
growth, not by acquisition ; by internal development,
not by external accession. No schemes can be sug
gested to us so magnificent as the prospects which a
sober contemplation of our own condition, unaided by
projects, uninfluenced' by ambition, fairly spreads before
us. A country of such vast extent, with such varieties
of soil and cliraate ; wilh so much public spirit and pri
vate enterprise ; with a population increasing so much
beyond former examples ; with capacities of improve
ment not only unapplied or unexhausted, but even in a
great measure as yet unexplored ; so free in its institu
tions, so mild in its laws, so secure in the title it confers
on every man to his own acquisitions, needs nothing but
tirae and peace to carry it forward to almost any point
of advancement.

BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER. 21
-•¦
DEFENCE OF PRINCIPLE.
The senate regarded this interposition as an encroach
ment by fhe executive on other branches of government ;
as an interference with the legislative disposition ofthe
public treasure. It was strongly and forcibly urged by
the honorable member from South Carolina that the
true and only mode of preserving any balance of power,
in mixed governments, is to keep an exact balance.
This is very true : and to this end, encroachment must
be resisted at the first step. The question is, therefore^
whether, upon the true principles of the constitution, this
exercise of power by the President can be justified.
Whether the consequences be prejudicial or not, if there
be an illegal exercise of power, it is to be resisted in the
proper manner; even if no harm or inconvenience result
from transgressing the boundary, the intrusion is not to
be suffered to pass unnoticed. Every encroachment,
great or small, is important enough to awaken the at
tention of those who are entrusted with the preservation
of a constitutional government. We are not to wait
till great public mischiefs come, till the government ia
overthrown, or liberty itself put in extrerae jeopardy.
We should not be worthy sons of our fathers were we so
to [regard great questions affecting the general freedom.
Those fathers accomplished the revolution on a strict
question of principle. The parliament of Great Britain
asserted a right to tax the colonies in all cases whatso
ever ; and it was precisely on this question that they
made the revolution turn. The amount of taxation was
trifling ; but the claim itself was inconsistent with liber.
ty ; and that was, in their eyes, enough. It was against
the recital of an act of parliament, rather than against

22 BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER.
Ml'
any suffering under the enactments, that they took up
arms. They went to war against a preamble. They
fought seven years against a declaration. They poured
out their treasures and their blood, like water, in a con
test, in opposition to an assertion, which those less sa
gacious and not so well schooled in the principles of
civil liberty, would have regarded as barren phraseology
or mere parade of words. They saw, in the claim of the
British Parliament, a seminal principle of mischief, the
germ of unjust power ; they detected it, dragged it forth
from underneath its plausible disguises, struck at it ; nor
did it elude either their steady eye or their well-directed
blow till they had extirpated and destroyed it to the
smallest fibre. On this question of principle, while ac
tual suffering- was yet afar off, they raised their flag
against a power to which, for purposes of foreign con
quest and subjugation, Rome, in the height of her glory,
is not to be compared; a power which has dotted
over the surface of the whole globe with her posses
sions and military posts, whose morning drum-beat, fol
lowing the sun and keeping conipany with the hours,
circles the earth daily with one continuous and unbroken
strain of the martial airs of England,
SPIEIT OP LIBERTY.
The first object of a free people is, the preservation of
their liberty ; and liberty is only to be preserved by main- -
taining constitutional restraints and just divisions of po
litical power. Nothing is more deceptive or more dan
gerous than the pretence ofa desire to simplify govern
ment. The simplest governments are despotisms ; the next
simplest, limited monarchies : but all republics, all gov-

BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER. 23
ernments of law, must impose nuraerous limitations and
qualifications of authority, and give many positive and
many qualified rights. In other words, they must be
subject to lule and regulation. This is the very essence
of free political institutions. The spirit of liberty is in
deed a bold and fearless spirit, but it is also a sharp -
sighted spirit ; it is a cautious, sagacious, discriminating ,
far-seeing intelligence ; it is jealous of encroachment,
jealous of power, jealous of man. It demands checks, it
seeks for guards, it insists on securities ; it entrenches
itself behind strong defences, and fortifies with all pos
sible care against the assaults of ambition and passion.
It does not trust the amiable weaknesses of human na
ture, and therefore it will not permit power to overstep
its prescribed limits, though benevolence, good intent ,
and patriotic purpose come along with it. Neither does
it satisfy itself with flashy and temporary resistance to
illegal authority. Far otherwise, it seeks for duration
and permanence. It looks before and after ; and, build
ing on the experience of ages which are past, it labors
diligently for the benefit of ages to come. This is the
nature of constitutional liberty, and this is our liberty if
we will rightly understand and preserve it. Every free
government is necessarily complicated, because all such
governments establish restraints, as well on the power
of government itself as on that of individuals. If we
will abolish the distinction of branches, and have but
one branch ; if we will abolish jury trials, and leave all
to the judge ; if we will then ordain that the legislator
shall himself be the judge ; and if we will place the ex
ecutive power in the same hands, we raay readily sim
plify government — we may easily bring it to the simplest

24 BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER.
of all possible forms — a pure'despotism. But a separa
tion of departments, so far as practicable, and the pre
servation of clear lines of division between them, is the
fundamental idea in the creation of all our constitutions ;
and doubtless the continuance of regulated liberty de
pends on maintaining these boundaries.
THS STRUGGLE OF LIBERTY.
The contest for ages has been to rescue liberty from
the grasp of Executive power. Whoever has engaged
in her sacred cause, from the days of the downfall of
tho.se great aristocracies, which had stood between the
king and the people, to the time of our own independence
has struggled for the accomplishment of that single ob
ject. On the long list of champions of huraan freedom*
there is not one name damned by the reproach of advo
cating the extension of executive authority ; on the con
trary, the uniform and steady purpose of all such chara
pions has been, to limit and restrain it. To this end the
spirit of liberty, growing more and more enlightened,
and more and more vigorous frora age to age, has been
battering for centuries against the solid buttraents of the
feudal systera. To this end all that could be gained
from the iraprudence, snatched from the weakness or
wrung from the necessities of crowned heads, has been
carefully gathered up, secured, and hoarded, as the rich
treasures, the very jewels of liberty. To this end, po
pular and representative right has kept up its warfare
against prerogative with' various success ; sometimes
writing the history of a whole age in blood, sometimes
witnessing the martyrdoms of Sydneys and Russels ;
often baffled and repulsed, but still gaiaing, on tbe whole.

BEAUTIES £)F WEBSTER. 40
and holding what it gained, with a grasp which nothing
but the complete extinction of its own being could com
pel it to relinquish. At length the great conquest over
executive power in the leading western States of Europe,
has been accomplished. The feudal systera, like other
stupendous fabrics of past ages, is known only by the
rubbish it has left behind it. Crowned heads have been
corapelled to submit to the restraints of law ; and the
People, with Jhat intelligence and that spirit which
make tlieir voice resistless, have been able to say to pre
rogative, " thus far shalt thou come, and no farther.*''
I need hardly say, that into the full enjoyment of all
which Europe has reached only through such slow and
painful steps, we sprang at once, by the declaration of
independence and by the establishment of free repre
sentative government; governments, borrowing more
or less frora the models of other free States, but strength
ened, secured, improved in their symmetry, and deepened
in their foundation, by those great men of our own
country, whose names will be as familiar to future times
as if they were written on the arch of the sky.
MASSACHUSETTS.
I shall enter on no encomium of Massachusetts — she
needs none. There she is — ^behold her, and judge for
yourselves. There is her history. The world has it
by heart. The past at least is secure. There is Bos
ton, and Concord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill ; and
Uiere they will remain for ever. The bones of her sons,
fallen in fhe ' great struggle for independence, now lie
mingled with the soil of every State f|om New-England
to Georgia ; and there they will lie for ever. And, sir,
3

36 BEAUTIES Op. WEBSTER.
where American Liberty raised its first voice, and where
its youth was nurtured and -sustained, there it still lives
in the strength of its manhood, and full of its original
spirit. If discord and disunion shall wound it ; if party
strife and blind ambition shall hawk at and tear it ; if
folly and madness, if uneasiness under salutary and
necessary restraint, shall succeed to separate it from that
union by which alone its existence is made sure ; in the
end, by the side of that cradle in which its infancy was
rocked, it will stretch forth its arm with whatever of
vigor it may still retain over the friends who gather
round it ; and it will fall at last, if fall it must, amidst
the proudest monuraents of its own glory, and on the
very spot of its origin.
CHARACTER OF FRIENDS.
When, sir, were the Society of Friends found to be
political agitators, ambitious partisans or panic makers t
When have they disturbed the coramunity with false
cries of public danger, or joined in any clamor against
just, and wise, and constitutional government ? Sir, if
there be any political fault fairly in^putable to the
Friends, I think it is rather, if they will allow me to
say so, that they are sometimes a little too indifferent
about the exercise of their political rights ; a little too
ready to leave all matters respecting government in the
hands of others. Not ambitious, usually, of honor or
office, but peaceable and industrious, they desire only
fhe safety ofliberty, civil and religious, the security ©f
property, and the protection of honest labor. All they
ask of government is, that it be wisely and safely admin
istered. They are not desirous to interfere in its adrain-

BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER. 27
istration. Yet, sir, a crisis can raove thera, and they
think a crisis now exists. They bow down to nothing
human, which raises its head higher than the constitution,
or above the laws. RELIGIOUS FEELING.
On the general question of Slavery, a great portion of
the coraraunity is already strongly excited. The subject
has not only attracted attention as a question of politics,
but it has struck a far deeper-toned chord. It has ar
rested the religious feeling of the country ; it has taken
strong hold on the consciences of men. He is a rash
man indeed, and little conversant with huraan nature,
and especially has he a very erroneous estimate of the
character of the people of this country, who supposes
that a feeling of this kind is to be trifled with or despised.
It will assuredly cause itself to be respected. It may
be reasoned with, it may be made willing, I believe it is
entirely wiUing, to fulfil all existing engagements and all
existing duties, to uphold and defend the constitution as
it is established with whatever regrets about some provi
sions which it does actually contain. But to coerce it
into silence — to endeavor to restrain its free expression,
to seek to compress and confine it, warm as it is, and
more heated as such endeavors would inevitably render
it — .should all this be attempted ? I know nothing, even
in the Constitution or in the Union itself, which would
not be endangered by the explosion which might follow.
.-it
THE SOUTH.
Sir, does the honorable gentleman suppose it in his
power to exhibit a Carolina name so bright as to produce

28 BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER.
envy in my bosom? No, sir; increased gratification anddc
light rather. Sir, I thank God if I am gifted with little
of that spirit which is said to be able to raise mortals to
the skies, I have yet none, I trust, of that other spirit
which would drag angels down. When I shall be found,
sir, here in my place in the senate, or elsewhere, to sneer
at public merit because it happened to spring up be
yond the little limits of my own state or neighborhood ;
when I refuse, for any such cause or for any cause, the
homage due to American talent, to elevated patriotism, to
sincere devotion to liberty and the country ; or if I
see an uncommon endowment of heaven — if I see extra
ordinary capacity and virtue in any son of the south —
and if, moved by local prejudice or gangrened by state
jealousy, I get up here to abate the tithe of a hair from
his just character and just fame ; may my tongue cleave
to the roof of my mouth F Sir, let me recur to pleasing
recollections — let me indulge in refreshing remembrance
of the past — let me rerain^ you, that in early times no
States cherished greater harmony, both of principle and of
feeling, than Massachusetts and South Carolina. Would
to God that harmony might again return. Shoulder to
shoulder tbey went through the revolution ; hand in band
they stood round the administration of Washington, and
felt his own great arm lean on them for support. Unkind
feeling, if it exist, alienation and distrust, are the growth
unnatural to such soils, of false principles since sown.
They are weeds, the seeds of which, that great arn; never
scattered. THE POOR AND TUB KICK,
I know that under the shade of the roofs of the Caps-

• BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER. 29
tol, within fhe last twenty-four hours, among men sent
here to devise means for the public safety and the pub
lic good, it has been vaunted forth, as a matter of boast
and triumph, that one cause existed, powerful enough to
support every thing, and to defend every thing ; and that
was the cause of the Rich against the Poor.
Sir, I pronounce the author of such sentiments to be
guilty of attempting a detestable fraud on the communi
ty ; a double fraud ; a fraud which is to cheat men out
of their property, and out of the earnings of their labor,
by first cheating them out of their understandings.
"The natural hatred of the poor to the rich I" Sir,
it shall not be tiU the last moment of my existence, it
shall be only when I ara drawn to the verge of oblivion,
when I shall cease to have respect or affection for any
thing on earth, that I will believe the people of the Unit.
ed States capable of being effectually deluded, cajoled,
and driven about in herds by such aborainable hands as
these. If they shall sink to that point ; if they so far
cease to be men, thinking men, intelligent men, as to
yield to such pretences and such clamor, they will be
slaves already — slaves to their own passions, slaves
to the fraud and knavery of pretended friends. They
will deserve to be blotted out of all the records of
freedora ; they ought not to dishonor the cause of self.
government by attempting any longer to exercise it ;
they ought to keep their unwotrhy hands entirely off
,from the cause of Republican liberty, if they are capable
of being the victims of artifices so shallow^-of tricks so
stale, SQ threadbare, so much practised,' so much worn
out, on serfs and slaves.- 3*

30 BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER.

GOOD AND BAD INTENTIONS.
Good motives may always be supposed, as bad mo-
tives may always be imputed. Good intentions will al
ways be pleaded for every assumption of power ; but
they cannot justify it, even if we were sure that they
existed. It is hardly too strong to say that the 'Consti
tution was made to guard the people against the dangers
of good intention, real or pretended. When bad inten.
tions are boldly avowed, the people vvill promptly take
care of themselves. On the other hand, they will always
be asked, why they should resist or question that exer
cise of power which is so fair in its object, so plausible
and patriotic in appearance, and which has the public
good alone confessedly in view ? Huraan things, we may
be assured, will generally exercise power when they can
get it ; and they will exercise it most undoubtedly in
popular governments, under pretences of public safety or
high public interest. It may be very possible that good
intentions do really sometimes exist when Constitutional
restraints are disregarded. There are men in all ages
who mean to exercise power usefully, but who mean to
exercise it. They mean to govern well, but tbey mean
to govern. They promise to be kind masters, but they
mean to be masters. They think there need be but
little restraint upon themselves. Their notion of the
public interest is apt to be quite closely connected with
their own exercise of authority. They may not, indeed,
always understand their own motives. The love of
power may sink too deep in their hearts even for their
own scrutiny, and may pass with themselves for mere
patriotism and benevolence.

BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER, 31
A character has been drawn of a very eminent ci
tizen of Massachusetts of the last age, which, though I
think it does not entirely belong to him, yet very well
describes a certain class of public men. It was said of
this distinguished son of Massachusetts, that in matters of
politics and government he cherished the most kind and
benevolent feelings towards the whole earth. He earnest
ly desired to see all nations weU governed : and, to bring
about this happy result, he wished that the United States
might govern the rest ofthe world ; that Massachusetts
might govern the United States; that Boston might
govern Massachusetts ; and as for himself, his own hum
ble ambition would be satisfied by governing the little
town of Boston. AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP.
Under the present Constitution, wisely and conscien
tiously administered, all are safe, happy, and renowned.
The measure of our countrat^ fame may fill our breasts.
It is farae enough for us all to partake in her glory, if
we will carry her character onward to its true destiny.
But if the systera is broken, its fragments must fall alike
on all. Not only the cause of American Liberty, but
the cause of Liberty throughout the whole earth, depends,
in a great measure, on upholding the Constitution and
Union of these States. If shattered and destroyed, no
matter by what cause, the peculiar and cherished idea
of United American Liberty, wiU be no more forever.
There may be free States, it is possible, when there shall
be separate States. There may be many loose, and fee-
ble, and hostile confederacies, where there is now one
great and united confederacy. But the noble idea of

32 BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER.
(United American Liberty, of our Liberty, such as our
fathers established it, will be extinguished for ever. Frag
ments and severed columns of the edifice may be found
remaining, and melancholy and mournful ruins will they
be ; the august temple itself will be prostrate in the dust.
Gentlemen, the citizens of this Republic cannot sever
their fortunes. A common fate awaits us. In the hon
or of upholding, or in the disgrace of undermining, the
Constitution, we shall all necessarily partake. Let us,
then, stand by the Constitution as it is, and by our coun.
try as it is ; one, united and entire ; let it be a truth en.
graven on our hearts, let it be borne on the flag under
which we rally in every exigency, that we have one
Country, one Constitution, one Destiny.
exclusive metallic currency.
Sir, what a money counting, tinkling, jingling gene-
ration we shaU be. All the money changers in Solomon's
temple wiU be as nothing to^^. Our sound will §p forth
unto all lands. We shall all be like the king in the ditty
of the nursery — '
" There sat the King a counting of his money."
UNION.
I ara where I have ever been and ever mean to be.
Here, standing on the platform of the generaLCoastitu-
tion — a platform br^jid enough, and firm enough fo
uphold every interest of the whftjjg country — I shall still
be found. Intrusted with some part in the administra.
tion of that Conslitution, I intend to act in its_spirit, and
in the spirit of those who fraraed it. Yes, sir, I would
act as if our fathers, who forraed it for us, and who be.

BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER. 33
queathed it to us, were looking on me — as if I could see
their venerable forms, bendin^_daffiii. to behold us from
the abodes above. I would act, too, as if the eye of pos
terity-was gazing on me.
Standing thus, as in the full gaze of our ajifisators, and
our posterity, having received this inheritance from the
former to be transraitted to the latter ; and feeling that if
I am born for any good in my day and generation, it is
for the good of the whole country, no local policy or lo
cal feeling, no temporary impulse, shall induce me to yield
my foothold on the Constitution and the Union. ^_I_move
off under no banner not known to the whole American
People, and to their Constitution and laws. No, sir,
these walls, these columns
 "fly

From their firm base as soon as I."
I came into public life, sir, in the service of the Uni
ted States. On that broad altar my earliest and all mv
public vows have been made. I propose to serve no oth-
-gr master. So far as depends on any agency of mine,
tbey shall continue United States ; united in interest
and in affection ; umted in every thing in regard to
which the Constitution has decreed their union ; united
in war, for the common defende, the oommon renown,
and the common glory ; and united, compacted, knit firm
ly together in pea]&e, for the comraon prosperity and
happiness of ourselves and our children.
THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
Sir, our condition is peculiar. One hardly knows
how to describe it. In the midst of all the bounties of
providence, and in a time of profound peace, we are poor.

34 BEAUTIES OP WEBSTEH.
Our Secretary of the Treasury, sir, is not Midas. His
touch does not turn every thing to gold. It seems rather
to turn every thing into stone. It stops the functions
and the aclion of organized social life, and congeals the
whole body politic. It produces a kind of instantane
ous petrifaction. We see still the form of our once
active social system, but it is without life. We can
trace the veins along its cold surface, but they are blood.
less ; we see the muscles, but they are motionless ; the
external form is yet fair and goodly, but there is a cessa
tion of the principle of life within.

Credit is the vital air of the system of Modern Cora
merce, It has done more, a thousand times, to enrich
nalions, than all the mines of all the world. It has ex-
cited labor, stimulated manufactures, pushed coipmerce
over ev^ry sea ; and brought every nation, ev^ry king
dom, and evijry small tribe among the races of men, to
be known to all the rest. It has raised armies, equipped
navies ; and, triumphing over the gross power of mere"
nuijibers, it has established national superiority on the
foundation of intelligence, weallh, and well-directed in.
du^stry. Credit is to money what money is to articles
of merchandize. As hard mopey represents property,
so credit represents hard money ; and is capable of sup
plying the place of money so completely, that thefe are
writers of distinction, especially of the Scotch school,
who insist that no hard money is necessary for the inter
ests of commerce. I am not of that opinion. I do not
think any government can maintain an exclusive paper
system without running lo excess, and thereby causing
depreciation.

BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER, 35

The history of Banks belongs to the history of Com
merce and the general interests of liberty. It belongs
to the history of those causes, which in a long course of
years raised the middle and lower orders of sociely to a
state of intelligence and property, in spite of the iron
sway of the feudal system. In what instance have they
endangered liberty or overcorae the laws ? Their very
existence, on the contrary, depends on the security and
the rule both of liberty and law. Why, sir, have we
not been taught, in our earliest readings, that to the birth
of a commercial spirit, to associations for trade, to the
guilds and companies forraed in the towns, we are to
look for the firsl appearance of liberty from the dark-
ness, of the imddle ages ; for the first faint blush of that
morning, which has grown brighter and brighter till
the perfect day has come ?
THE SUB-TREASURY.
j^-,^My opposition to the Bill is to the whole of it. It is
general, uncompromising, and decided. I oppose all its
ends, objects, and purposes.^ I oppose all its means, its
inventions, and its contrivances. I am opposed to the
separation of Governraent and people ; I am opposed,
now and at all times, to an exclusive metallic currency ;
I ara opposed to the spirit in which the measure origi
nates, and to all and every endeavor and ebullition of
that spirit. I solemnly declare, that in thus studying
our own safety, and renouncing all care over the gene
ral currency, we are, in my opinion, abandoning one of
the plainest and most important of our constitutional
duties. If, sir, we were at«this moment at war with a

36 BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER.
powerful enemy, and if his fleets and armies were now
ravaging our shores, and it were proposed in Congress
to take care of ourselves — to defend the Capitol and
abandon the country to ils fate, it would be certainly a
more striking, a more flagrant and daring, but in my
judgment not a more clear and manifest dereliction of
duty,' than we commit in this open and professed aban
donment of our constitutional power and constitutional
duty over the great interest of the national currency.
I mean to maintain that constitutional power, and that
constitutional duty to the last. It shall not be with my
consent that our ancient policy shall be overturned. It
shall not be with my consent that the country shall be
plunged further and further into the unfathomed depths
of new expedients. It shall not be witlput a voice of
reraonstrance from me, that one great and important
purpose for which this government was framed shall
now be utterly surrendered and abandoned for ever.
.'V . ^ 7 EXECUTIVE POWER.
And now, sir, who Is he so ignorant of the history of
liberty at horae and^abroad ; who is he, yet dwelling in
his contemplations among the principles and dogmas of
the middle ages ; who is he, from whose bosom all origi
nal infusion of American spirit has become so entirely
evaporated and exhaled, as that Be shall put into the
mouth of the President of the United Sta,tes the doctrine
that the defence of liberty naturally results to executive
power, and is its peculiar duty ? Who is he, that gen^
rous and confiding towards power where it is most dan
gerous, and jealous only of those who can- restrain it ;
who is'he, that reversingt the order ofthe State and

BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER. 37
upheaving the base, would poise the political pyramid of
the political system upon its apex ; who is he that, over
looking with contempt the guardianship of the Repre
sentatives of the people, and wilh equal contempt the
higher guardianship of the people theraselves ; who is he
that declares to us, through the President's lips, that the
security for freedora rests in executive authority ? Who
is he that belles the blood arid libels the fame of his own
ancestors, by declaring that they, with solemnity of
form and force of manner, have invoked the executive
power to come to the protection of liberty ? Who is he
that thus charges them with the insanity or recklessness
of putting the lamb beneath the lion's paw 1 No, sir ; our
security is in our watchfulness of executive power. It
was the constitution of this department, which was infi
nitely the most difficult part in the great work of crea
ting our present government. To give to the executive
department such power as should make it useful, and
yet not such as should render it dangerous ; to make it
efficient. Independent and strong, and yet to prevent it
from sweeping away every thing by its union of military
and civil authorily, by the influence of patronage, and
office, and favor; this, indeed, was difficult. They who
had the work to do, saw the difficulty, and we see it ; and
if we would maintain our system, we shall act wisely
to that end by preserving every restraint and every
guard which the Constitution has provided. And when
we, and those who come after us, have done all that we
can do, and all that they can do, it will be well for us
and for them if some popular Executive, by the power of
patronage and party, and the power, too, of that very pq.
4

38 BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER,
pularity, shall not hereafter prove an over-match for all
other branches of the government,
PLYMOUTH ROCK,
There is a local feeling connected with this occasion
too strong to be resisted, a sort of genius of the place,
which inspires and awes us.. We feel that we are on
the spot where the first scene of our History was laid ;
where the hearths and altars of New England vvere first
placed ; where Christianity, and civilization, and letters,
made their first lodgment, in a vast extent of country,
covered with a wilderness, and peopled wilh roving bar
barians. We are here at the season of the year at which
the event took place. The imagination irresistibly and
apidly draws around us the prlneipaLJeatufes and the
leading characters in the orijginal scene. We cast our
eyes abroad on the ocean, and we see where the little
bark, with the inleresling group upon its deck, made its
slow progress to the shore. We look around, us, and
behold the hills and promontories where the anxious eyes
of our forefathers first saw the places of habitation and
of rest. We feel the cold which benumbed, and listen to
the winds which pierced them. Beneath us is the Rock
on which New England received the feet of the Pilgrims.
We seem even to behold them, as they struggle with the
elements, and with toilsome efforts gain the shore. We
listen to the Chiefs in council ; we see the unexampled
exhibition of female fortitude and resignation ; we hear
the whisperings of youthful impatience ; and we see, what
a painter of our own has also represented by his pencil,
chiUed and shivering childhood, houseless but for a moth-

BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER. 39
er's arms, couchless but for a mother's breast, till our own
blood almost freezes. NEW ENGLAND.
Let us rejoice that we behold this day. Let us be
thankful that we have lived to see the bright and happy
breaking of the "auspicious morn which comraences the
third century of the History of New England. Auspi
cious indeed ! bringing an happiness beyond the coramon
allotment of providence to men, full of present joy, and
gilding wilh bright beams the prospect of futurity, is the
dawn that awakens us to the comraeraoration of the
landing of the Pilgrims.
Living at an epoch which naturally marks the pro
gress of the History of our native land, we have come
hither to celebrate the great event with which that His
tory coraraenced. For ever honored be this, the place
of our fathers' refuge ! For ever reraerabered the day
which saw thera, wearied and distressed, broken in every
thing but spirit, poor in all but faith and courage, at
last secure from the dangers of wintry seas, and impress
ing this shore with the first footsteps of civilized man.
ASSOCIATION.
It is a noble faculty of our nature, which enables us
to connect o'ur thoughts, our sympathies, and our happi
ness wilh what is distant in place or time ; and, looking
before and after, to hold communion at once with our an
cestors and our posterity. Human and mortal though
we are, we are, nevertheless, not more isolated beings,
without relation to the past or the future. Neither the

40

BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER.

point of time, nor the spot of earlh in which we physi-
cally live, bounds our rational and intellectual enjoy
ments. We live in the past, by a knowledge of ils history j
and in the future, by hope and anticipation. By ascend
ing to an association wilh our ancestors ; by contem
plating their examples and studying their character ; by
partaking their sentiments, and Imbibing their spirit ;
by accompanying them in their toils, by sympathizing
in their sufferings, and rejoicing in their successes and
their triumphs ; we mingle our own existence with theirs,
and seem to belong to tbeir age. We become their
contemporaries, live the lives which they lived, endure
what they endursd, and partake in the rewards which
they enjoyed. And in like manner, by running along
the line of future time, by contemplating the probable
fortunes of those who are coming after us ; by xitlempting
something which may promote their happiness, and leave
some, not dishonorable, meraorial of ourselves for their
regard when we shall sleep with the fathers, we protract
our own earthly being, and seem fo crowd whatever is
future, as well as that which is past, Inlo the narrow com
pass of our earthly existence. As it is not a vain and
false, but an exalted and religious imagination, which
leads us to raise our thoughts from the orb which, amidst
this universe of worlds, the Creator has given us to in
habit, and to send thera with something of the feeling
which naiure prompts, and teaches to be proper among
children of the same Eternal Parent, to the contemplation
of the myriads of fellow-beings with which his goodness
has peopled the infinity of space ; so neither is it false
or vain to consider ourselves as interested, and connect
ed with our race through all time ; allied to our ances-

BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER. 41
tors, aUied to our posterity, closely compacted on all
sides with others ; ourselves being but links in the great
chain of being, which begins with the origin of our race,
runs onward through its successive generations, binding
together the past, the present, and the future, and terrai-
nating at last, with the consuraraation of all things earth
ly, at the throne of God. MARATHON.
There have been battles which have fixed the fate of
nations. These corae down to us in history, with a
solemn and permanent interest not created by a display
of glittering armor, the rush of adverse battalions, the
sinking and rising of pennons, the flight, the pursuit and
the victory ; but by their effect in advancing or retarding
human knowledge, in overthrowing or establishing despo
tisra, in extending or destroying human happiness. When
the traveller pauses on the plains of Marathon, what are the
emotions which raost strongly agitate his breast ? What
is that glorious recollection, which thrills through his
frame and suffuses his eyes ? Not, I imagine, that Gre
cian skill and Grecian valor were here most signally
displayed ; but that Greece herself was here saved. It
is because to this spot, and to the event which has ren
dered it immortal, he refers all the succeeding glories of
the republic. It is because, if that day had gone other
wise, Greece had perished. It is because he perceives
that her philosophers and orators, her poets and painters
her sculptors and architects, her governments and free
institutions, point backward to Marathon ; and that their
future existence seems to have been suspended on the
contingency, whether the Persian or the Grecian banner
4*

42 BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER.
should wave victorious. in the beams of that day's setting
sun. And as his imagination kindles at the retrospect,
he is transported back to the interesting moment ; he
counts the fearful odds of the contending hosts ; his in
terest for the result overwhelms him ; he trembles as if
it were still uncertain, and seems to doubl whether he
may consider Socrates, and Plato, Demosthenes, Sopho
cles, and Phidias, as secure yet.to himself and to the world.

Europe, wilhin the same period, has been agitated by
a mighty revolution, which, while it has been felt in the
individual condition and happiness of almost every man,
has shaken to the centre her political fabric, and dashed
against one another thrones which had stood tranquil
for ages. BUNKER HILL.
We know, indeed, that the record of illustrious actions
is most safely deposited in the universal remembrance of
raankind. We know, that if we would cause this struc
ture to ascend, not only till il reashed the skies, but till
it pj^rced them, its broad surface would still contain but
part of thatjWhich, in an age of knowledge, hath already
been spread over the earth, and which History charges
itself with making known to all future limes. We know
that no inscription on lablatures, less broad than the
earth ilself, can carry information of the events we
commemorate where it has not already gone ; and that
no structure which shaU not outlive the duration of let-
ters and knowledge among men, can prolong the memo
rial. But our object is, by this edifice to show our own

BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER, 43
deep sense of the value and iraportance of the achieve
ments of our ancestors ; and by presenting this work of
gratitude to the eye, to keep alive sirailar seniiments, and
to foster a constant regard for the principles of the Revo
lution, Human beings-are composed, not of reason only,
but of imagination also, and sentiment ; and that is neith
er wasted nor misapplied which is approprialed to tho
purpose of giving right direction to sentiments, and
opening proper springs of feeling in the heart. Let it
not be supposed that our object is to perpetuate national
hostility, or even to cherish a mere military spirit. It
is higher, purer, nobler. W^e consecrate our work to
the spirit of national independence, and we wish that
the light of peace may rest on it for ever. We rear a
memorial of our conviction of that unmeasured benefit
which has been conferred on our own land, and of the
happy influences which have been produced by the same
events on the general interests of mankind. We come
as Americans to mark a spot which must for ever be
dear to us and our posterity. We wish that whosoever,
in all coraing time, shall turn his eye hither, may behold
that the place is not undistinguished where the first
great battle of the Revolution was fought. We wish
that this structure may proclaim the magnitude and im
portance of that event to every class and every age.
We wish that infancy may learn the purpose of its erec
tion from maternal lips, and that weary and withered
age may behold it, and be solaced by the recollections
which it suggests. We wish that labor may look up
here, and be proud in the midst of its toll. We wish that
in those days of disaster, which, as they come on all na
tions, must be expected to come on us also, desponding

44 BEAUTIES, OP WEBSTER,
patriotism may turn its eye hitherward, and be assured
that the foundations of our national power will still
sland slrong, Wc wish that this coluran, rising towards
hekven araong the pointed spires of so raany temples
dedicated to G-od, may contribute also to produce in all
minds a pious feeling of dependence and gratitude. We
wish, finally, that the last object on the sight of him
who leaves his native shore, and the first to gladden him
who revisits it, may be soraething which shaU reraind
him of the liberty and the glory of his country. Let it
rise till it meet the sun in his coming. Let the earliest
light of the morning gild it, and parting day linger and
play on its summit.
THE SURVIVORS OF BUNKER HILL.
Venerable Men ! you have come down to us from
a former generation. Heaven has bounteously lengthened
out your lives that you might behold this joyous day.
You are now where you stood fifty years ago this very
hour, with your brothers and your neighbors, shoulder
to shoulder, in the strife for your country. Behold how
altered ! The same heavens are indeed over your heads ;
the same oceans rolls at your feet.; but all else, how chang
ed ! You hear now no roar of hostile cannon, you see no
mixed volumes of smoke and flame rising from burning
Charlestown. The ground strewed with the dead and
the dying ; the impetuous charge, the steady and sue-
cessful repulse ; the loud call to repeated assault ; the
sumraoning of all that is manly to repealed resistance ;
a thousand bosoms freely and fearlessly bared in an in
stant to whatever of terror there may be in war and
death ; all these you have witnessed, but you witness

BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER. 45
them no more. All is peace. The heights of yonder
metropolis, its towers and roofs, which you then saw
filled with wives, and children, and countrymen, in dis
tress and terror, and looking with unutterable emotions
for the issue of the combat, have presented you to-day
with the sight of its whole happy population come out
to welcome and greet you with an universal jubilee.
Yonder proud ships, by a felicity of posilion, appropri
ately lying at the foot of this mount, and seeming fond
ly to cling around it, are not means of annoyance to you,
but your country's own means of distinction and defence.
AU is peace; and God hasgrantedyou this .sight of your
country's happiness ere you slumber in the grave for
ever. He has allowed you to behold and partake the
reward of your patriotic toll; and he has allowed us,
your sons and countrymen, to mset you here, and in the
name of the present generation — in the narae of your
country — in the name ofliberty — to thank you.
But, alas ! you are not all here. Time and the sword
have thinned your ranks. Prescott, Putnam, Stark,
Brooks, Read, Pomeroy, Bridge ! our eyes seek for you
in vain amidst this broken band. You are gathered to
your fathers, and live only to your counlry in her grate
ful remembrance and your own bright example. But
let us not too much grieve that you have met with the
comraon fate of men. You lived at least long enough to
know that your work had been nobly and successfully
accomplished. You lived to see your country's indepen
dence established, and to sheathe your swords from war.
On the light ofliberty you saw arise the light of peace,
like—

46 BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER.
" another morn
Risen on mid-noon ;
and the sky on which you closed your eyes, was cloud
less. GENERAL WARREN.
But ah ! Him ! the first great martyr in this great
cause ! Hira ! the premature victim of his own self-de
voting heart. Hira ! the head of our civil councils and
the destined leader of our railitary bands, whom nothing
brought hither bul the unquenchable fire of his own spi.
rit ; Hira! cut off by. Providence in the hour of over
whelming anxiety and thick gloora ; falling ere he saw
the star of his country rise ; pouring out his generous
blood like water before he knew whether it would ferti
lize a land of freedora or of bondage ! How shaU I strug
gle with the eraolions that stifle the utterance of thy
cq-me ! Our poor work may perish, but thine shall endure !
This monument may moulder away ; the solid ground it
rests on may sink down to a level with the sea ; but thy
meraory shaU not fail I Wheresoever among men a
heart shaU be found that beats to the transports of patri.
otism and liberty, its aspirations shall be to claim kindred
with thy spirit !
THE FEELING OF THE PILGRIMS.
" If God prosper us," might have been the appropri
ate language of our fathers when they landed on the
rock ; if God prosper us, we shall here begin a work
which shall last for ages, we shall plant here a new so.
ciety,' in the principles ofthe fullest liberty, and the pur
est religion ; we shall subdue this wilderness which is

BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER. 47
before us ; we shall fill this region of the great continent,
which stretches from pole to pole, with civilization and
Christianity ; the temples of the true God shall rise where
now ascends the smoke of idolatrous sacrifice ; fields
and gardens, the flowers of summer, and the waving and
golden harvest of autumn, shall extend over a thousand
hills, and stretch along a thousand valleys, never, since
the creation, reclaimed to the use of civilized man. We
shall whiten this coast wilh the canvass of a prosperous.
commerce ; we shall stud the long and winding shore
with a hundred cities. That which we sow in weak
ness shall be raised in strength. From our sincere but
houseless worship, there shall spring splendid temples to
record God's goodness ; from the simplicity of our social
union, there shall arise wise and politic constitutions of
government, full ofthe liberty which we ourselves bring
and breathe ; from our zeal for learning, institutions
shall spring up, which shall scatter the light of know
ledge throughout the land ; and in time, paying back where
they have borrowed, shall contribute their part to the
great aggregate of huraan knowledge ; and our descend.
ants through all generations shall look back to this spot
and to this hour with unabated affection and regard.
LOVE OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.
They sought to enjoy a higher degree of religious
freedom, and what they esteemed a purer form of reli
gious worship, than was allowed to their choice or pre
sented to their imitation in the old world. The love of
religious liberty is a stronger sentiraent, when fully ex
cited, than an attachraent to civil or political freedom.
That freedom which conscience demands, and which

48 BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER.
men feel bound by their hopes of salvation to contend
for, can hardly fail to be attained. Conscience in the
cause of religion and the worship ofthe deity, prepares
the mind to act and to suffer beyond almost all other
causes. Il sometimes gives an impulse so irresistible,
that no fetters of power or of opinion can withstand it.
History instructs us that this love of religious liberty, a
compound sentiment in the breast of man, made up of
the clearest sense of right and the highest conviction of
duly, is able to look the sternest despotism In the face ;
and with means, apparently the most inadequate, to
shake principalities and powers. There Is a boldness, a
spirit of daring. In religious reformers, not lo be nieasur-
ed by the general rules which control men's purposes
and actions. If the hand of power be laid upon it, this
only seems to augment Its force and Its elasticity, and to
cause its actions to be more formidable and terrible.
Human invention has devised nothing, human power
has compassed nothing, that can forcibly restrain it when
it breaks forth. Nothing can stop It but to give way to
it ; nothing can check it but indulgence, Il loses Its
^ower only when It has gained its object. The princi
ple of toleration, to which the world has come so slowly,
is at once the most just and the most wise of all princi
ples, ~ Even when religious feeling takes a character of
extravagance and enthusiasm, and seems -to threaten
the order of sociely, and shake the colurans of the soci
al edifice, ils principal danger Is In ils restraint. If it
be allowed indulgence and expansion like the elemental
fires, it only agitates, and perhaps purifies the atmosphere,
while ils efforts to throw off restraint would burst the
world asunder.

BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER, 49

THE PILGRIMS IN ENGLAND,
As this scene passes before us, we can hardly forbear
asking, whether this be a band of malefactors and felons
flying from justice ? What are their crimes, that they
hide themselves in darkness? To what punishment
are they exposed, that to avoid it, men and woraen, and
children, thus encounter the surf of the North Sea, and
the terrors of a night storm ? What induces this armed
pursuit, and this arrest of fugitives, of all ages and of both
sexes ? Truth does not allow us to answer these inquiries,
in a manner that does credit to the wisdom or the justice
of the times. This was not the flight of guilt, but of vir
tue. It was an humble and peaceable religion, flying
from causeless oppression. It was conscience, attempt
ing to escape frora the arbitrary rule of the Stuarts, It
was Robinson, and Brewster, leading off their little band
from their nalive soil, at first to find shelter on the shores
of a neighboring continent, but ultimately to come
hither ; and having surmounted aU difficulties, and braved
a thousand dangers, to find here a place of refuge and of
rest. Thanks be to God, that this spot was honored as
the asylura of religious liberty. May Ils standard, riear-
ed-here, reraain forever ! — May it rise up as high as
heaven, till its banners shall fan the air of both conti
nents, and wave as a glorious ensign of peace and secu
rity to the nations. MILITARY FAME.
Great actions and striking occurrences, having excited
a temporary admiration, often pass away and are forgot
ten, because they leave no lasting results, affecting the
5

50

BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER,

prosperity and happiness of communities. Such is fre
quently the fortune of the most brilliant military achieve
ments. Of the ten thousand battles which have been fought;
of all the fields fertilized with carnage ; of the banners
which have been bathed in blood ; of the warriors who
had hoped that they had risen from the field of conquest
to a glory as bright and as durable as the stars, how few
that continue long to interest mankind I The victory of
yesterday Is reversed by the defeat of to-day ; the star
of military glory, rising like a meteor, like a meteor has
faUen ; disgrace and disaster hang on the heels of con
quest and renown ; victor and vanquished presently
pass away to oblivion, and the world goes on in its course,
with the loss only of so many lives and so much treasure,
THE INFLUENCE OF MIND,
Cultivated mind was to act on uncultivated nature ; and,
above all, a governraent, and a country, were to commence,
wilh the very first foundations laid under the divine light
ofthe Christian religion. Happy auspices ofa happy futu-
rity ! Who would wish thai his country's existence had
otherwise begun ? who would desire the power of going
back to the ages of fable 1 who would wish for an origin,
obscured in the darkness of antiquity ? who would wishJbr
other emblazoning of his country's heraldry, or other
ornaments of her genealogy, than to be able to say, that
her first existence was with intelligence ; her firsl breath
the inspiration ofliberty ; her first principles the truth of
divine religion ?
THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE,
I deem it my duty on this occasion to suggest, that the

BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER, 51
land is not yet wholly free frora the contarainafion of a
traffic, at which every feeling of humanity must for ever
revolt, — I mean the African Slave Trade. Neither pub
lic sentiment, nor the law, has hitherto been able entirely
to put an end to this odious and aborainable trade. At
the raoment when God, in bis mercy, has blessed the
Christian world with an universal peace, there is reason
to fear, that lo the disgrace of the Christian name and
character, new efforts are making for the extension of this
trade, by subjects and citizens of Christian states, in
whose hearts no sentiment of humanity or juslice inha
bits, and over whom neither the fear of God nor the fear
of man exercises a control. In the sight of our law,
the African Slave Trader is a pirate and a felon ; and in
the sight of heaven, an offender far beyond the ordinary
depth of human guilt. There is no brighter part of our
history, than that which records the measures which have
been adopted by the government, at an early day, and at
different times since, for the suppression of this traffic ;
and I would call on a;ll the true sons of New England, to
co.operate with the laws of man, and the justice of
heaven. If there be, within the extent of our knowledge
or influence, any participation in this traffic, let us
pledge ourselves here, upon the Rock of Plymouth, to ex
tirpate and destroy it. It is not fit that the land of the
Pilgrims should bear the shame longer. I hear the sound
of the hammer, I see the smoke of the furnaces where
manacles and fetters are still forged for human limbs, I
see the visages of those, who by stealth, and at midnight,
labor in this work of hell, foul and dark, as may become
the artificers of such Instruments of ralsery and torture.
Let that spot be purified, or let it cease to be of New-

52 BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER.
England. Let it be purified, or let it be. set aside from
the Christian world ; let it be put out of the circles of
human sympathies and human regards, and let civilized
man henceforth have no communion with it.
I would invoke those who fill the seats of justice, and
all who minister at her altar, that they execute the whole
some and necessary severity of the law. I invoke the mi
nisters of our religion, that theyproclaim ils denunciation
of these crimes, and add its solemn sanctions to the autho
rity of human laws. If the pulpit be silent, whenever,
and wherever, there may be a sinner bloody with this
guilt, within the hearing of ils voice, the pulpit is false to
its trust. I call on the fair merchant, who has reaped
his harvest on the seas, that he assist in scourging from
those seas the worst pirales which ever infested them.
That ocean, which seems to wave with a gentle magnifi.
cence to waft the burden of an honest commerce, and to
roll along its treasures with a conscious pride ; that
ocean which hardy industry regards, even when the
winds have ruffled its surface, as a field of grateful toil ;
what is it to the victim of this oppression, when he is
brought to its shores, and looks forth upon it, for the first
time, from beneath chains, and bleeding with stripes ? what
is it lo him, but a wide-spread prospect of suffering, an
guish and death ? Nor do the skies smile longer, nor Is
the air longer fragrant to hira. The sun is cast down
frora heaven. An inhuman and accursed traffic has cut
him off in his manhood, or in bis youth, from every en
joyment belonging to his being, and every blessing
which his creator intended for him.
The Christian communities send forth their emissaries
of religion and letters, who stop, here and there, along the

BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER. 53
coast of the vast continent of Africa, and with painful
and tedious efforts, make some almost imperceptible pro
gress in the communication of knowledge, and in the ge
neral Improvement of the natives who are immediately
about them. Not thus slow and imperceptible is the trans
mission of the vices and bad passions which the subjects
of Christian Slates carry to the land. The slave trade
having touched the coast, its influence, and ils evils
spread like a pestilence, over the whole continent, raak
ing savage wars more savage, and more frequent, and
adding new and fierce passions to the contests of barba-

KNOWLEDGE.
A chief dis tinction of the present day is a coraraunity
of opinions and knowledge amongst men, in different na
tions, existing in a degree heretofore unknown. Know
ledge has, in our time, triumphed, and is triumphing, over
distance, over differences of language, over diversity of
habits, over prejudice, and over bigotry. The civilized
and Christian world is fast learning the great lesson, that
difference of nation does not imply necessary hostility,
and that all contact need not be war. The whole world
is becoraing a field for intellect to act in. Energy of
mind, genius, power, wheresoever it exists, raay speak
out in any tongue, and the world will hear it. A great
chord of sentiment and feeling runs through two conti
nents, and vibrates over both. Every breeze wafts in-
telligence frora country to country ; every wave rolls it ;
all give it forth, and all in turn receive it. There is a
vast comraerce of ideas ; there are marts and exchanges
for inteUectual discoveries, and a wonderful fellowship of

64

BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER.

those individual intelligences which make up the mind
and opinion ofthe age. Mind is the great lever of all
things ;. huraan thought is the process by which human
ends are ultimately answered ; and the diffusion of know
ledge, so astonishing in the last half-century, has render
ed innumerable minds, variously gifted by nature, cora-
petent to be competitors, or fellow-workers, on the thea-
tre of intellectual operation. REVOLUTION.
The great wheel of political revolution began to raove
in America. Here its rotation was guarded, regular, and
safe. Transferred to the other continent, from unfortunate
but natural causes, it received an irregular and violent im
pulse ; it whirled along with a fearful celerity ; till at
length, like the chariot, wheels in the races of antiquity
it took fire from the rapidity of its own raotion, and blaz.
ed onward, spreading confiagration and terror around.
ADAMS AND JEFFEHSO N.
Adams and Jefferson, I have said, are no more. As hu
man beings, indeed, they are no more. They are no more,
as in 1776, bold and fearless advocates of independence ;
no more as on subsequent periods, the head of the gov
ernment ; no more as We have recently seen them, aged
and venerable objects of admiration and regard. They
are no more. They are dead. But how litlle is there, of
the great and good, which can die ! To their counlry they
yet live, and live for ever. They live in all that perpe.
tuates the remembrance of raen on earth ; in the record.
ed proofs of their own great actions, in the offspring of

BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER. 65
their intellect, in the deep engraved lines of public
gratitude, and in the respect and homage of raankind.
They live in their example ; and they live, emphatically,
and wiU live in the influence which their lives and efforts,
their principles and opinions, now exercise, and wiU con-
tinue to exercise, on the affairs of men, not only in their
own country, but throughout the civilized world. A supe
rior and commanding human intellect, a truly great raan,
when heaven vouchsafes so rare a gift, is not a tempora
ry flame, burning bright for awhile, and then expiring,
giving place to returning darkness. It is rather a spark
of fervent heat, as well as radiant light, with power to
enkindle the common mass of human mind ; so that
when it glimmers, in ils own decay, and finally goes out
in death, no night follows, but it leaves the world all
light, all on fire, from the potent contact of its own spirit.
Bacon died ; but the human understanding, roused, by the
touch of his miraculous wand, to a perception of the true
philosophy, and the just mode of inquiring after truth,
has kept on its course, successfiilly and gloriously. New-
ton died ; yet the courses of the spheres are still known,
' and they yet move on, in the orbits which he saw, and
described for them, in the infinity of space.
We are not assembled, therefore, fellow-citizens, as men
overwhelmed by calamity by the sudden disruption of the
ties of friendship or affection, or as in despair for the re
public, by the untimely blighting of its hopes. Death
has not surprised us by an unseasonable blow: We
have, indeed, seen the tomb close, but it has closed only
over mature years, over long-protracted public service,
over the weakness of age, and over life ilself only when
the ends of living had been fulfiUed. These suns, as they

56 BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER.
rose steadily, and slowly, amidst clouds and storms in
their ascendant, so they have not rushed from their me
ridian, to sink suddenly in the west. Like the mildness,
the serenity, the continuing benignity of a summer's
day, they have gone down with slow descending, grate.
ful, long lingering light ; and now that they are beyond
the visible margin ofthe world, good omens cheer us from
" the bright track of their fiery car !"

TRUE ORATORY.

When public bodies are to be addressed on momentous
occasions, when great interests are at stake, and strong,
passions excited, nolhing is valuable, in speech, farther
than it is connected with high intellectual and moral
endowments. Clearness, force, and earnestness are the
qualities which produce conviction. True eloquence,
indeed, does not consist in speech. It cannot be brought
from far. Labor and learning may toil for it, but they
will toil in vain. )J-; Words and phrases raay be marshaU
ed in every way, but they cannot compass it. It must
exist in the man, in the subject, and in the occasion.
Affected passion. Intense expression, the pomp of de-
clamation, all raay aspire after it — they cannot reach it.
It comes, if it come at a;ll, like the outbrea;king of a
fountain from the earth, or the bursting forth of volcanic
fires, wilh spontaneous, original, native force. The
graces taught in the schools, the costly ornaments, and
studied contrivances of speech, shock and disgust men,
when their own lives, and the fate of their wives, their
children, and their country, hang on the decision of the
hour. Then words have lost their power, rhetoric is
vain, and all elaborate oratory contemptible. Even

BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER. 57
genius itself then feels rebuked, and subdued, as in the
presence of higher qualities. Then, patriotism is eloquent »
then, self-devotion is eloquent. The clear conception,
outrunning the deductions of logic, the high purpose, the
firm resolve, the dauntless spirit, speaking on the tongue,
beaming from the eye, informing every feature, and urg
ing the whole man onward, right onward to his object —
this, this is eloquence ; or rather it is something greater
and higher than all eloquence, it is aclion, noble, sublime,
godlike action. JEFFERSON.
Thus useful, and thus respected, passed the old age of
Thomas Jefferson. But time was on its ever ceaseless
wing, and was uow bringing the last hour of this illus
trious man. He saw its approach, with undisturbed sere
nity. He counted the moraents, as they passed, and
beheld that his last sands were falling. That day, loo,
was at hand, which he had helped to make immortal.
One wish, one hope, if it were not presumptuous — beat
in his fainting breast. Could it be so — might it please
God — he would desire — once more, to see the sun — once
more to look abroad on the scene around him, on that
great day of liberty. — Heaven, in its mercy, fulfilled
that prayer. — He saw that sun — he enjoyed its sacred
light — he thanked God for his raercy, and bowed hia
aged head to the grave. "Felix non vitcR tantum clari.
tale, sed etiam opportunitate mortis."
THE ILLUSTRIOUS DEAD,
Fellow-citizens, I wiU detain you no longer by this
faint and feeble tribute to the memory of the illustrloua
dead. Even in other handsj adequate justice could not

58 BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER.
be performed, wilhin the limits of this occasion. Their
highest, their best praise, is your deep conviction of their
merits, your affectionale gratitude for their labors and
services. It is not my voice, it is this cessation of ordi-
nary pursuits, this arresting of all attention, these solemn
ceremonies, and this crowded house, which speak their
eulogy. Their fame, indeed, is safe. That is now trea
sured up, beyond the reach -of accident. Although no
sculptured raarble shall rise to their memory, norengraved
stone bear records of their deeds, yet will their reraera
brance be as lasting as the land they honored. Marble
colurans raay, indeed, moulder into dust, time may erase
all impress from the crumbling stone, but their fame
remains ; for wilh American liberty it rose, and with
American liberty only can it perish. It was the last
swelling peal of yonder choir, " their bodies are buried
in peace, but their name liveth evermore." I catch that
solemn song. I echo that lofty strain of funeral triumph,
" their name liveth evermore,"

We did not, we could not here, forget our venerable
neighbor of Quincy. We knew that we were standing,
at a lime of high and palmy prosperity, where he had
stood, in the hour of utmost peril ; that we saw nothing
but liberty and security, where he had met the frown of
power ; that we were enjoying every thing, where he had
hazarded every thing ; and just and sincere plaudits rose
to his name, from the crowds which filled this area, and
hung over these galleries. He whose grateful duly it was
to speak to us, on that day, of the virtues of our fathers,
had, indeed, admonished us that time and years were

Beauties of webster, 59
about to level his venerable frame with the dust. But
he bade us hope,- that " the sound of a nation's joy, rush
ing frora our cities, ringing from our valleys,. echoing
from our hills, might yel break the silence of his aged
ear ; that the rising blessings of grateful millions might
yet visit, with glad lightj his decaying vision," Alas !
that vision was then closing for ever, Alas ! the sUence
which was then seltling on that aged ear, was an ever
lasting silence ! For, lo I in the very moment of our fes
tivities, his freed spirit ascended to God who gave it I
Human aid and human solace terrainate at the grave ; or
we would gladly have borne him upward, on a nation's
outspread hands ; we would have accompanied him, and
with the blessings of millions and the prayers of mil
lions, comraended hira to the Divine favor.
THE DUTY OF CITIZENS.
And now, fellow-citizens, let us not retire from this
occasion, without a deep and solemn conviction of the
duties which have devolved upon us. This lovely land,
this glorious liberty, these benign institutions, the dear
purchase of our fathers, are ours ; ours to enjoy,
ours to preserve, ours to transrait. Generations past,
and generations to come, hold us responsible for the
sacred trust. Our fathers, from behind, admonish us,
wilh their anxious paternal voices, posterity caUs out
to us, from the bosom of the future, the world turns
hilher its solicitous eye — all, all conjure us to act wisely,
and faithfully — in the relation which we sustain. We
can never. Indeed, pay the debt which is upon us ; but by
virtue, by morality, by religion, by the cultivation of
every good principle and every good habit, we may

60 BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER,
hope to enjoy the blessing, through our day, and leave
it unimpaired to our children. Let us feel deeply how
much, of what we are and of what we possess, we owelo
this liberty, and these institutions of government. Na
ture has, indeed, given us a soil, which yields bounteously
to the hand of industry ; the mighty and fruitful ocean is
before us, and the skies over our heads shed health and
vigor. But what are lands, and seas, and skies, to civU
ized man, without society, without knowledge, without
morals, without religious culture ; and how can these be
enjoyed. In all their extent, and all their excellence, but
under the protection of wise institutions and a free gov
ernment ? Fellow-citizens, there is not one of us, there
is not one of us here present, who does not, at this mo
ment, and at every moment, experience, in his own con
dition, and in the condition of those most near and dear
to him, the influence and the benefits of this liberty, and
these institutions. Let us then acknowledge the blessing,
let us feel it deeply and powerfully, let us cherish a
strong affection for it, and resolve to maintain and per
petuate it. The ¦ blood of our fathers, let it not have
been shed in vain ; the great hope of posterity, let it not
be blasted. SITUATION OP AMERICA,
It is not to inflate national vanity, nor to swell a light
and empty feeling of self-importance, but it is that we
may judge juslly of our situation, and of our own duties,
that I earnestly urge this consideralion of our position
and our character, among the nalions ofthe earth. It
cannot be denied, but by those who would dispute against
the sun, that with Araerica, and in America, a new era

BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER. 61
coramences in huraan affairs. This era is distinguished
by free representative governments, by entire religious
liberty, by improved systems of national intercourse, by
a newly-awakened and an unconquerable spirit of free
inquiry, and by a diffusion of knowledge through tho
comraunity, such as has been before altogether unknown
or unheard of, Araerica, Araerica, our country, fellow-
citizens, our own dear and native land, is inseparably
connected, fast bound up, in fortune and by fate, with
these great interests ; if they fall, we fall with thera ; if
they stand, it will be because we have upholden them.
Let us contemplate, then, this connexion, which binds
the prosperity of others to our own ; and let us manfully
discharge all the duties which it imposes. If we cherish
the virtues and the principles of our fathers. Heaven will
assist us to carry on the work of human liberty and hu
man happiness. Auspicious omens cheer us. Great ex
amples are before us. Our own firmament now shines
brightly upon our path. Washington is In the clear up
per sky. These other stars have now joined the Ame
rican constellation ; they circle round their centre, and
the heavens beam with new light. Beneath this iUumi-
nation, let us walk the course of life, and at ils close de
voutly commend our beloved country, the common
parent of us all, to the Divine benignity.
IMPORTANCE OF JUSTICE.
The respondent has as deep a slake, no doubt, in this
trial, as he can well have in any thing which does not
affect his life. Regard for reputation, love of honorable
character, affection for those who must suffer with him,
if he suffers, and who will feel your sentence of convic-
6

62 BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER.
tion, if you should pronounce one, fall on their heads, as
it falls on his ; cannot but excite in his breast an anxiety
which nothing could well increase, and nolhing but a
consciousness of upright intenlion, could enable him to
endure. Yet sir, a few years wiU carry him far beyond
the reach of the consequences of this trial. Those same
years will bear away also in their rapid flight, those who
prosecute, and those who judge him. But the comrau
nity remains. The commonwealth, we trust, will be
perpetual. She is yet in her youth, as a free and inde
pendent state, and, in analogy to the life of individuals,
may be said to be in that period of existence, when prin
ciples of action are adopted, and character is formed.
The respondent will not be the principal sufferer. If he
should here fall a victim to charges of undefined and un
definable offences, to loose notions of constitutional law,
or novel rules of evidence. By the necessary retribu
tion of Ihings, the evil of such a course wiU fall most
heavily on the state which should pursue it, by shaking
its character for justice, and impairing its principles of
constitulional liberly. EXTERNAL NATURE,
The visible and tangible crealion in which we are
introduced at our birth, is not in all its parts, fixed and
stationary. Motion, or change of place, regular or occa
sional, belongs to all or most of the things which are
around us. Animal life everywhere moves; the earth
itself has its motion, and its complexities of motion ; the
ocean heaves and subsides ; rivers run lingering or rush
ing fo the sea ; and the air which we breathe moves and
acts with raighty power. Motion, thus pertaining to the

BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER. 63
physical objects which surround us, is the exhaustiess
fountain, whence philosophy draws the means, by which,
in various degrees, and endless forms, natural agencies
and the tendencies of inert matter, are brought to the suc
cor and assistance of human strength. It is the object
of mechanical contrivance to modify motion, to produce
it in new forms, to direct it to new purposes ; to mul
tiply its uses — by raeans of it to do better, that which
human strength could do without its aid — and to per
form that, also, which such strenglh, unassisted by arl,
could not perform. MATHEMATICAL SCIENCE.
But, doubtless, the reasoning faculty, the mind, is the
leading characteristic atiribute of the human race. By
the exercise of this, he arrives at the knowledge of the
properties of natural bodies. This is science, properly
and emphaticaUy so called. It is the science of pure
mjlhematlcs ; and in the high branches of this science,
lies the true sublime of human acquisition. If any at
tainments deserve that epithet, it is the knowledge,
which, from the mensuration of the minutest dust of the
balance, proceeds on the rising scale of material bodies,
every where weighing, every where measuring, every
where detecting and explaining the laws of force and
motion ; penetrating into the secret principles which
hold the universe of God together, and balancing world
against world, and systera against system. When we
seek to accompany those, who pursue fheir studies, at
once so high, so vast and so exact ; when we arrive at
the discoveries of Newton, which pour in day on the works
of God, as if a second Jiat for light had gone forth from
his own mouth ; when further, we atterapt to foUow tljose.

64 BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER,
who set out where Newton paused, making his goal their
starting-place, and proceeding with demonstration upon
demonstration, and discovery upon discovery, bring new
worlds, and new systems of worlds wilhin the limits of
the known universe, fulling to learn aU, only because all
is infinite; however, we say of man, in admiration of his
physical structure, that " in form and moving he Is ex
press and admirable," It is here, and here wilhout irrev
erence, we may exclaim, " in apprehension, how like a
God!" It Is to be remembered, that pure mathematics
lie at the foundalion of mechanical philosophy, and II Is
ignorance only which can speak or think of that sub
lime science as useless research or barren speculation.
CH.IRACTER OF A MURDERER.
Truly, here is a new lesson for painters and poets.
Whoever shall hereafter draw the portrait of murder, if
he will show it as it has been exhibited in an example,
where such example was last to have been looked for, in
the very bosom of our New England Society, let him not
give it the grim visage of Moloch, the brow knitted by
revenge, -the face black with settled hale, and the blood.
shot eye emitting livid fires of malice. Let him draw,
rather, a decorous, smooth-faced, bloodless demon ; a
picture In repose, rather than In aclion ; not so much an
example of huraan naiure In Its depravity, and in Its par
oxysms of crime, as an infernal nature, a fiend In the
ordinary display and development of his character.
DESCRIPTION OF A MURDER,
The deed was executed with a degree of self-posses
sion and steadiness, equal to the wickedness with which

BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER, 65
it was planned. Deep sleep had fallen on the destined
victim, and on aU beneath his roof. A healthful old
man, to whom sleep was sweet ; the first sound slumbers of
the night held him In their soft but strong embrace.;' The
assassin enters through a window already prepared, Into
an unoccupied apartment. With noiseless foot he paces
the lonely hall, half lighted by the moon ; he winds up
the ascent of the stairs, and reaches the door of the
chamber. Of this, he raoves the lock, by soft and con
tinued pressure, tUl it turns on ils hinges without noise,
and he enters, and beholds his victim before him. The
room was uncommonly open to the admission of light.
The face of the innocent sleeper was turned from the
murderer, and the beams of the moon, resting on the grey
locks of his aged temple, showed hira where to strike.
The fatal blow is given I and the victim passes, wilhout a
struggle or a motion, from the repose of sleep to the re
pose of death ! --'^It is the assassin's purpose to make sure
work ; and Tie yet plies the dagger, though It was obvious
that life had been destroyed by the blow of the bludgeon.
He even raises the aged arm, that he may not fail in his
aim at the heart, and replaces it again over the wounds
of the poinard ! To finish the picture, he explores the
wrist for the pulse I He feels for it, and ascertains that
it beats no longer I It Is accomplished — the deed is
done^ He retreats — retraces his steps to the window,
passes out through It as he eame in, anSescapes, He
has done the murder ;- no eye has seen him — no ear has
heard him. The secret is his own, and it is safe I
CONSCIENCE,
Ah ! gentlemen, that was a dreadful mistake. Such
6*

66 BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER.
a secret is safe nowhere. The whole creation of God
has neither nook nor cdirnfer, where the guilty can be-
stow it, and say it is safe. Not f to speak of that eye
which glances through all disguises, and beholds every
thing, as in the splendor of noon — such secrets of guUt
are never safe from detection, even by men. True it is,
generaUy speaking, that " murder wiU out." True it is,
indeed, that Providence has so ordained, and doth so go
vern things, that those who break the great law of heaven,
by shedding man's blood, seldom succeed in avoiding
discovery. Especially, in a case exciiing so much at
tenlion as this, discovery must come, and wUl corae, soon
er or later. A thousand eyes turn at once to explore
every man, every thing, every circumstance, connecfed
with the lime and place ; a thousand ears catch every
whisper ; a thousand excited rainds intensely dweU on
the scene, shedding all their light, and ready to kindle the
slightest circumstance into a blaze of discovery. Mean
time, the guilty soul cannot keep its own secret. It is
false to itself; or rather, it feels an irresistible impulse
of conscience to be true to itself. It labors under its
guilty possession, and knows not what to do wilh it.
The human heart was not made for the residence of^such
an inhabitant. It finds itself preyed on by a torment,
which it dares not acknowledge to God nor man, A
vulture is devouring il ; and it can ask no sympathy or
assistance, either from heaven or earlh. The secret
which the murderer possesses soon comes to possess him ;
and, like the evU spirits of which we read, it overcomes
him, and leads bira whithersoever it will. He feels it
beating at his heart, rising to his throat, and demanding
disclosure. He thinks the whole world sees il in his

BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER. 67
face, reads it in his eyes, and almost hears Its workings
in the very silence of his Ihoughts. It has become his
master. It betrays his discretion, it breaks down his
courage, il conquers his prudence. When suspicions,
from wilhoul, begin to embarrass him, and the net of
circumstance to entangle him, the fatal secret struggles
with still greater violence to burst forth. It must be
confessed, it vvill be confessed ; there is no refuge from
confession but suicide, and suicide is confession.
SPLENDID VICES,
Such is human nature, that sorae persons lose their
abhorrence of crime, in their adrairation of its magnifi
cent exhibitions. Ordinary vice is reprobated by thera,
but extraordinary guilt, exquisite wickedness, the high
flights and poetry of crime, seize on the imagination,
and lead them lo forget the depths of guilt, in admira
tion of the exceUence of the performance, or the une
quaUed atrocity of the purpose. There are those, in
our day, who have made great use of this infirmity of
our nature ; and by means of it, done infinite Injury to
the cause of good morals. They have affected not only
the taste, but I fear also the principles, of the young,
the heedless, and the imaginative, by the exhibilion of
interesting and beautiful monsters. They render de
pravity attractive, soraetiraes by the polish of its man-
ners, and soraetimes by Its very extravagance ; and study
to show off crirae under all the advantages of clever.
ness and dexterity, DUTY,
Gentlemen, your whole concern should be to do your

68 BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER.
duty, and leave consequences to take care of theraselves.
You will receive the law frora the court. Your verdict,
it is true, raay endanger the prisoner's life ; but then, it is
^to save olher lives. With consciences satisfied with the
discharge of duty, no consequences can harm you.
There is no evil, that we cannot either face or fly from,
but the consciousness of duty disregarded. A sense of
duty pursues us ever. It is omnipresent, like the Deity,
If we take lo ourselves the wings of the morning and
dweU in the utmost parts of the seas, duty performed,
or duly violated, is still wilh us, for our happiness, or
our ralsery. If we say the darkness shall cover us, in
the darkness as in the light, our obligations are yet with
us. We cannot escape their power, nor fly frora their
presence. They are with us in this life, wiU be with us
at its close ; and in that scene of inconceivable solerani
ty, which lies yet farther onward, we shaU still find
ourselves surrounded by the consciousness of duty, to
pain us, wherever it has been violated, and to console us
so far as God raay have given us grace to perforra it.
THE JUDICIAL OFFICE.
But further, sir, I must take the liberty of saying, that,
in regard to the judicial office, constancy of employment
is of itself, in my judgment, a good, and a great good.
I appeal lo the conviction of the whole profession. If, as
a general observation, they do not find that those who
decide most causes, decide Ihem best. Exercise strength
ens and sharpens the faculties, In this, more than almost
any olher employment. I would have the judicial office
filled by him who is wholly a judge, always a judge, and
nothing but a judge. With proper seasons, of course,

BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER, 69
for recreation and repose, his serious Ihoughts should all
be turned to his official duties ; he should he omnis in hoc.
I think, sir, there is hardly a greater mistake, than has
prevailed occasionally in some of the States, of creating
many judges, assigning thera duties which occupy but
a small part of their time, and then making this the
ground for allowing them a small compensation. The
judicial office is Incompatible with any olher pursuit in
life, and all the faculties of every man who takes it
ought to be constantly exercised, and exercised to one
end. IMPORTANCE OF OHARACTBE.
The fate of the respondent is In your hands. Il is
for you now to say, whether, from the law and the facts
as they have appeared before you, you will proceed to
disgrace and disfranchise him. If your duly calls on
you to convict him, convict him, and let juslice be done !
but I adjure you let it be a clear, undoubted case. Let
it be so for his sake, for you are robbing him of that, for
which with all your high powers, you can yield him
no corapensation ; let it be so for your own sakes, for
the responsibility of this day's judgment is one, which
you musl carry with you through your life. For myself, I
a.m willing here to relinquish the character of an advocate,
and to express opinions by which I am willing to be
bound, as a citizen of the community. Sir, the preju
dices of the day wiU soon be forgotten ; the passions, if
any there be, which have excited or favored this prose
cution, wiU subside; bat the consequence of Ihejudg-^:
ment you are about lo render, will outlive them and you. j
The respondent is now brought, a single, unprotected"'

70 BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER,
individual, to this formidable bar of judgment, to stand
against the power and authority of the State, I know
you can crush him, as he stands before you, and clothed,
as you are, wilh the sovereignty of the Slate. You have
the power lo " change his countenance, and lo send him
away." Nor do I remind you that your judgment is to
be rejudged by the community ; and as you have summon.
ed him for trial to this high tribunal, you are soon to de
scend yourselves from these seats of justice, and stand
before the higher tribunal of the world. I would not fail
so rauch in respect lo this honorable court, as to hint
that it could pronounce a sentence which the comraunity
would reverse. No sir, it is not the world's revision, which
I would caU on you to regard ; but that of your own con.
sciences when years have gone by, and you shall look
back on the sentence you are about to render. If you
send away the respondent, condemned and sentenced,
from your bar, you are yet lo raeet him in the world, on
which you cast hira out. You will be called to behold
him a disgrace to his faraily, a sorrow and a shame to
his chUdren, a living fountain of grief and agony to
himself. If you shall then be able to behold him only
as an unjust judge, whom vengeance has overtaken, and
justice has blasted, you will be able to look upon him, not
wilhout pity, bul yet without remorse. But, if, on the other
hand, you shall see, whenever and wherever you meet
him, a victira of prejudice or of passion, a sacrifice to a
transient excitement ; if you shall see in him, a man, for
whose condemnation any provision of the constitution
has been violated, or any principle of law broken down ;
then wIU he be able, humble and low as may be his con
dition — then will he be able to lurn the current of com.

BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER. 71
passion backward, and to look wilh pity on those who
have been his judges. If you are about lo visit this respon
dent with a judgment which shall blast his house ; if the
bosoms of the innocent and the amiable are lo be made
to bleed, under your infliction, I beseech you lo be able
to slate clear and strong grounds for your proceeding.
Prejudice and exciteraent are transitory, and will pass
away. Political expediency, in raatters of judicature, Is
a false and hollow principle, and will never satisfy the
conscience of him who Is fearful that he raay have giv
en a hasty judgment, I earnestly intreat you, for your
own sakes, lo possess yourselves of solid reasons, founded
in truth and justice, for the judgment which you pro
nounce, which you can carry with you, till you go
down into your graves ; reasons, which it will require
no arguraent to revive, no sophistry, no excitement, no
regard to popular favor, to render satisfactory to your
consciences ; reasons which you can appeal to, In every
crisis of your lives, and which shall be able to assure
you, in your own great exiremily, that you have not judg
ed a fellow creature without mercy.
Sir, I have done with the case of this individual, and
now leave him in your hands. But I would yet once
more appeal to you as public men ; as statesmen ; as men
of enlightened minds, capable of a large view of things,
and of foreseeing the remote consequences of imporlant
transactions ; and, as such, I would most earnestly im
plore you to consider fuUy of the judgment you may
pronounce. You are about to give a construction to
constilutional provisions, which raay adhere lo that in-
strument for ages, eilher for good or evil. I may, per-
haps overrate the iraportance of this occasion lo the

72 BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER,
public welfare ; but I confess it does appear to rae, that
if this body give its sanction to some of the principles
which have been advanced on this occasion, then there
is a power in the state above the constilution and the
law ; a power most essentially arbitrary and concentrat
ed, the exercise of which may be most dangerous. If
the full benefit of every constitutional provision be not
extended to the respondent, his case becomes the case
of all the people of the Commonwealth. The consti
tution is their conslilution. They have raade it for
their own protection, and for his among the rest. They
are not eager for his conviction. They are not thirst.
ing for his blood. If he be conderaned, wilhoul hav-
ing his offences set forth, in the manner which they, by
their constitution have prescribed, and proved, in the
manner which they by their laws have ordained, then,
not only is he condemned unjustly, but the righls of the
whole people disregarded. For the sake of the peo
ple themselves, Iherefore, I would resist all attempts to
convict, by straining the laws, or getting over their pro
hibitions. I hold up before bim the broad shield of the
constilulion ; if through that he be pierced and faU, he
wiU be bul one sufferer, in a common catastrophe.
JOHN JAY.
Your recollections, gentlemen, your respect, and vour
affections, all conspire to bring before you, at such a time
as this, another great raan, now, alas I nurabered with
the dead. I mean the pure, the disinterested, the patri
otic John Jay, His character Is a brilliant jewel in the
sacred treasures of national repulalion. Leaving his
profession at'an early period, yet not before he had sin-

BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER. 73
gularly distinguished himself in it, frora the coraraence
ment of the revolution, his whole life, until his tinal
retirement, was a life of public service. A raember of
the first Congress, he was the author of that political
paper which is generally acknowledged to stand first
among the incomparable produclions of that body ; pro
ductions which called forth that decisive strain of com
mendation from the great Lord Chatham, in which he
pronounced them not inferior to the finest produclions
of the master Slates of the world. Mr. Jay had been
abroad, and had also been long entrusted with the diffi
cult duties of our foreign correspondence at home. He
had seen and felt, in the fuUest measure, and to the great
est possible extent, the difficulty of conducting our for
eign affairs, honorably and usefully, without a stronger
and more perfect domestic union. Though not a mem
ber of the. Con vention which framed the Constitution,
he was yet present while it was in session, and looked
anxiously for its result. By the choice of this city, he
had a seat in the State Convention, and took an active
and zealous part for the adoption of the Constitution.
On the organization of the new governraent, he was
selected by Washington lo be the first Chief-Justice of
the United States ; and surely the high and most respon
sible duties of that station, could not have been trusted
to abler or safer hands. It is the duly, one of equal
importance and delicacy, of that tribunal, to decide con
stitutional questions, arising occasionally, on State
Laws. The general learning and ability, and especially
the prudence, the mildness, and the firmness of his cha
racter, eminently fitted Mr. Jay lo be the head of such
a Court. When the spotless ermine of the judicial robe
7

74 BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER.
fell on John Jay, it touched nothing not as spotless as
itself. ALEXANDER HAMILTON.
I should do violence to ray own feelings, gentlemen, — I
think I should offend yours, — if I omitted respectful men
tion of distinguished names, yet fresh in your recoUec
tions. How can I sland here to speak ofthe Constilution
ofthe United Slales, of the wisdom of its provisions, of
the difficulties attending its adoption, of the evils from
which it rescued the country, and of the prosperity
and power to which it has raised it, and yel pay no
tribute to those who were highly instrumental in accom-
plishing the work ? While we are here to rejoice, that
it yet stands firm and strong ; whUe we congratulate one
another that we live under its benign influence, and che
rish hopes of its long duration ; we cannot forget who they
were, that in the day of our national infancy, in the
times of despondency and despair, raainly assisted to
work out our deliverance. I should feel that I disregard
ed the strong recollections which the occasion presses
upon us, that I was not true to gratitude, nor true lo
patriotisra, nor true to the living or the dead, not true
to your feelings or my own, if I should forbear to make
mention of Alexander Hamilton.
government.
Certain it is, that popular constitutional liberty, as we
enjoy it, appears, in the present stale of the world, as
sure and stable a basis for government to rest upon, as
any governmeni of enlightened stales can find or does
find. Certain it is, that in these times of so much popu-

BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER, 75
lar knowledge, and so much popular activity, those
governments which do not admit the people to partake
in their administration, but keep them under and beneath,
sit on materials for an explosion, which raay take place
at any moment, and blow them into a thousand atoms,
THE country.
Gentlemen, our country stands, at the present time, on
comraanding ground. Older nations, with different sys-
tems of government, may be somewhat slow to acknow
ledge all that justly belongs to us. But we may feel,
without vanity, that America is doing its part in the
great work of improving human affairs. There are two
principles, genllemen, strictly and purelyAraerican, which
are now likely to overrun the civUized world. Indeed,
they seem the necessary result ofthe progress of civili
zation and knowledge. These are, first, popular govern
ments, restrained by written constitutions ; and, secondly,
universal education. Popular governments, and general
education, acting and re-acting, mutuaUy producing and
re-producing each other, are the mighty agencies, which,
in our days, appear lo be exciting, stimulating, and
changing civUized societies. Man, every where, is
now found demanding a participation in governraent ;
and he will not be refused ; and he demands knowledge
as necessary to self-government. On the basis of these
two principles, liberty, and knowledge, our own Ameri
can systems, rest. Thus far we have not been disap
pointed in their results. Our existing Institutions, raised
on these foundations, have conferred on us almost unmixed
happiness. Do we hope to belter our condition by
change ? When we shall have nullified the present con-

76 BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER.
stitution, what are we to receive in its place ? As fa
thers, do we wish for our children better government or
better laws ? As members of society, as lovers of our
country, is there any thing we can desire for it better
than that, as ages and centuries roll over it, it may
pcssess the same invaluable institutions which it now en
joys ? For my part, genllemen, I can only say, that I
desire lo thank the beneficent Author of all good, for
heing born where! was born, and when I was born ; that
the portion of human existence allotted to me^ has been
meted out to me in this goodly land, and at this interest
ing period. I rejoice that I have lived to see so much
development of truth, so much progress of Uberty, so
much diffusion of virtue and happiness. And through
good report, and through evil report, it will be my con
solation, to be the citizen of a republic, unequalled in the
annuls of the world for the freedom of ils institutions, its
high prosperity, and the prospects of good which yet lie
before it. Our course, gentleraen, is onward, straight
onward and forward. Let us not turn to the right hand
or to the left. Our path Is marked out for us, clear,
plain, bright, distinctly defined, like the milky way across
the heavens. If we are true to our country, in our
day and generation, and those who come after us shall
be true to it also, assuredly we shall elevate her lo a
pitch of prosperity and happiness, of honor and power,
never yel reached by any nation beneaih the sun.
LOVE OF LIBERTY.
No American can pass by the fields of Bunker HUl,
Monmouth, or Camden, as If they were ordinary spots on
the earth's surface. Whoever visits them, feels the sen-

BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER. 77
timent of love of country kindling anew, as If the spirit
that belonged to the transactions, which have rendered
these places distinguished, still hovered round, wilh pow
er to move and excite all who in future tirae raay approach
them. MORAL EXAMPLE.
But neither of these sources of emotion equals the
power with which great moral examples affect the mind.
When sublime virtues cease to be abstractions, when they
become imbodied in huraan character, and exeraplified in
human conduct, we should be false to our own nature if
we did not indulge in the spontaneous effusions of our
gratitude and our admiration. A true lover of the vir
tue of patriotism delights to contemplate its purest models ;
and that love of country may be well suspected, which
affects to soar so high into the regions of sentiment, as to
be lost and absorbed In the abstract feeling, and
becomes too elevated, or too refined, to glow with fervor
in the commendation or the love of individualbenefactors.
All this is unnatural. It is as if one should be so enthu
siastic a lover of poetry, as to care nothing for Homer
or Milton ; so passionately attached to eloquence, as to be
indifferent to Tully and Chatham ; or such a devotee to
the arts, in such an ecstacy with the elements of beauty,
proportion, and expression, as to regard the masterpieces
of Raphael and Michael Angelo with coldness and con-
tempt. We may be assured, gentleraen, that he who
really loves the thing itself, really loves ils finest exhi
bitions. A true friend of his country loves her friends
and benefactors, and thinks it no degradation to com
mend and commemorate them. The voluntary outpouring
of the public feelins, made to.dav fmm the north to the

78 BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER.
south, and frora the east to the west, proves this sentiment
to be both just and natural. In the cities and in the vU
lages, in the public temples and in the family circles,
among all ages and sexes, gladdened voices to-day bespeak
grateful hearts, and a freshened recollection of the virtues
of the Father of his country. And it will be so in all
time to come, so long as public virtue is itself an object
of regard. The ingenuous youth of America will hold
up to themselves the bright raodel of Washington's ex
araple, and study to be what they behold. They will
contemplate his character till aU its virtues spread out
and display theraselves to their delighted vision ; as the
earliest astronoraers ; the shepherds on the plains of
Babylon gazed at the stars till they saw them forra
in clusters and constellations, overpowering at lenglh
the eyes of the beholders with the united blaze of a
thousand lights.
-., PROGRESS OP FREEDOM.
Gentleraen, the spirit of huraan liberty and of free
governraent, nurtured and grown into strenglh and beau
ty in America, has streiched its course into the midst of
the nations. Like an emanation from heaven, it has
gone forth, and it will not return void. It musl change,
il is fast changing, the face of the earth. Our great,
our high duty. Is loshow, by our example, that this spirit
is a spirit of health as well as a spirit of power ; that
ils benignity Is as great as Its strength ; that its efficien
cy to secure individual righls, social relations, and moral
order, is equal to the irresistible force wilh which it
prostrates principalities and powers. The world, at this
moment, is regarding us with a wiUing, but something of

BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER. 79
a fearful admiration. Ils deep and awful anxiety is to
learn, whelher free states may be stable as well as free ;
whelher popular power may be trusted as well as feared ;
in short, whether wise, regular, and virtuous self-govern
ment is a vision, for the contemplation of theorists, or a
truth, established, iUustrated, and brought inlo praclice,
in the country of Washington.
Gentlemen, for the earth which we inhabit, and the
whole circle of the sun, for all the unborn races of man
kind, we seem to hold In our hands, for theiir weal or woe,
the fate of this experiment. If we fail, who shall venture
the repetition 7 If our exaraple shall prove to be one, not
of encourageraent, but terror, not fit to be imitated, but fit
to be shunned — where else shall the world look for free
models"? If this greal 'Western Sun be struck out of the
firmament, at what olher fountain shall the lamp ofliber
ty hereafter be lighted ? What other orb shall emit a
ray to gliraraer, even, on the darkness ofthe world ?
PARTY FEELINGS.
Among other admonitions, Washington left us, in his
last comraunication to his country, an exhortation
against the excesses of parly spirit. A fire not to be
quenched, he yet conjures us not lo fan or feed the
flame. Undoubtedly, gentlemen, it is the greatest dan-
ger of our system, and of our time. Undoubledly, if that
system should be overthrown, it will be the work of ex
cessive party spirit, acting on the government, which is
dangerous enough, or acting in the governraent, which Is
a thousand times more dangerous .; for government then
becoraes nothing but organized party, and in the strange
vicissitudes of huraan affairs, it may come at last, perhaps,

80 BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER.
to exhibit the singular paradox, of governraent itself
being in opposition to its own powers, at war wilh the
very eleraents of its own existence. Such cases are
hopeless. As raan may be protected against murder,
but cannot be guarded against suicide, so government
may be shielded frora the assaults of external foes, but
nolhing can save it when it chooses lo lay violent hand
on ilself. UNION IN MASSACHUSETTS.
At least, sir, let the slar of Massachusetts be the last
which shaU be seen to fall frora heaven, and to plunge
into the utter darkness of disunion. Let her shrink back
— let her hold others back, if she can ; at any rate, let
her keep herself back frora this gulf, full at once, of fire
and blackness : yes, sir, as far as human foresight can
scan, or human iraagination fathom, full of the fire and
the blood of civil war, and of the thick darkness of ge
neral political disgrace, ignominy, and ruin. Though
the worst may happen that can happen, and though she
may not be able to prevent the catastrophe, yet let her
maintain her own integrity, her own high honor, her
own unwavering fidelity, so that wilh respect and decen
cy, though with a broken and a bleeding heart, she may
pay the last tribute "lb a glorious, departed, free constitu
tion. THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE.
The hours of this day are rapidly flying, and this oc
casion will soon be passed. Neither we nor our children
can expect to behold its relurn. They are in the distant

BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER. 81
regions of futurity, they exist only in the all creating
power of God, who shall stand here, a hundred years
hence, to trace through us their descent from the pil
grims, and to survey, as we have surveyed, the progress
of their country, daring the lapse of a cenlury. We
would anticipate their concurrence with us In our senti
ments of deep regard for our common ancestors. We
would anticipate and parlake of the pleasure wilh which
they wUl then recount the steps of New England's ad
vancement. On the morning of that day, allhough il
will not disturb us in our repose, the voice of acclamation
and gratitude, commencing on the Rock of Plymouth,
shaU be transraitted through millions of the sons of
the pUgrims, till it lose itself in the murmurs of the
Pacific seas.
We would leave, for the consideration of those who
shall then occupy our places, some proof that we hold the
blessings transmitted from our fathers in just estimation ;
some proof of our attachment to the cause of good gov
ernment, and of civil and religious liberty ; some proof
of a sincere and ardent desire to promote every thing
which may enlarge the understandings and Improve the
hearts of men. And when, from the long distance of an
hundred years, they shall look back upon us, tbey shall
know, at least, that we possessed affections, which, run-
ing backward, and warming with gratitude for what our
ancestors have done for our happiness, run forward also
to our posterity, and meet them with cordial salutation,
ere yet they have arrived on the shore of being. Ad
vance, then, ye future generations ! We would hail you,
as you rise in your succession to fill the places which
we now fill, and to taste the ble-ssings of existence, where

82 BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER,
we are passing and soon shall have passed, over our own
human duration. We bid you welcome to this pleasant
land of the fathers. We bid you welcome lo the health.
ful skies and the verdant fields of New England, We
greet your accession to the great inheritance, which we
have enjoined. We welcome you to the blessings of
good government, and religious liberly. We welcome
you to the tieasures of science, and the delights of learn.
ing. We welcome you to the transcendent sweets of do
mestic life, to the happiness of kindred, and parents, and
chUdren, We welcome you to the Immeasurable bless
ing of rational existence — the immortal hope of Christi
anity, and the light of everlasting truth !
DUTY OF REPRESENTATIVES,
We have been laught to regard a representative of the
people as a sentinel on the watch-tower of liberty. Is
he lo be blind, though visible danger approaches ? Is he
to be deaf, though sounds of peril fill the air ? Is he to be
dumb, while a thousand duties impel him to raise the cry
of alarra ? Is he not, rather, to catch the lowest whisper
which breathes intenlion or purpose of encroachment on
the public liberties, and to give his voice brealh and ut
terance at the first appearance of danger ? Is not his
eye lo traverse the whole horizon, with the keen and ea
ger vision of an unhooded hawk, detecting, through all
disguises, every enemy advancing, in any form, towards
the citadel which he guards ? Sir, this watchfulness for
public liberty, this duty of forseeing danger and pro
claiming it, this promptitude and boldness in resisting
attacks on the Constitution from any quarter, this defence
of established landmarks, this fearless resistance of what-

BKAUTIES OF WEBSTER. 83
ever would transcend or remove them, all belong to the
representative character, are interwoven with its very
naiure, and of which It cannot be deprived, wilhout con
verting an active, InteUigent, faithful agenl of the People,
into an unresisting and passive instruraent of power.
A representative body which gives up these rights and
duties, gives itself up, Il is a representative body no
longer. It has broken the tie between itself and Ils
constituents, and henceforth is fit only to be regarded
as an inert, self-sacrificed mass, from which all appro
priate principle of vitality has departed forever,
SPIRIT OF LIBERTY.
The first object of a free people Is the preservation of
their liberly ; and liberly is only lo be preserved by
raaintaining constitutional restraints and just divisions of
political power. Nolhing is raore deceptive, or more
dangerous, than the pretence of a desire to simplify go
vernment. The simplest governments are despotisms ;
the next simplest, liraited monarchies ; but all republics,
all governments of law, must impose numerous limitations
and qualifications of aulhority, and give many positive
and many qualified rights. In others words, they must be
subject lo rule and regulation. This is the very essence
of free political institutions. The spirit of liberty is in-
deed a bold and fearless spirit ; but It is also a sharp-
sighted spirit ; It Is a cautious, sagacious, discriminat
ing, far-seeing intelligence ; it Is jealous of encroach
ment, jealous of power, jealous of man. It demands
checks, it seeks for guards, it insists on securities ; it
entrenches itself behind strong defences, and fortifies
with all possible care, against the assaults of ambition

84 BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER.
and passion. It does not trust the amiable weaknesses
of human nature, and Iherefore it wUl not permil power
to overstep Its prescribed liraits, though benevolence,
good intent, and patriotic purpose, come along with it.
Neither does it satisfy itself with flashy and temporary
resistance to illegal authority. Far otherwise. It seeks
for duration and permanence. It looks before and after,
and building on the experience of ages which are past, it
labors diligently for the benefit of ages to come ; this is
the nature of constitutional liberty ; and this is owr 11-
bert}', if we will rightly understand and preserve it.
Every free government is necessarily complicated, be
cause all such governments establish restraints, as well
on the power of government itself as on that of indivi
duals. If we will abolish the distinction of branches, and
have but one branch ; if we wiU abolish jury trials, and
leave aU to the judge ; if we will then ordain that the
legislator shall himself be that judge ; and If we will
place the executive power in the same hands — we raay
readily simplify government. We raay easily bring it
to the simplest of all possible forras, a pure despotism.
But a separalion of departments, so far as practicable,
and the preservation of clear lines of division between
them, is the fundamental idea in the creation of all our
constitutions ; and doubtless the continuance of regulat.
ed liberty depends on maintaining these boundaries,
EXECUTIVE POWER,
And now, sir, who is he, so ignorant of the history of
liberty, at home and abroad ; who is he, yet dwelling, in
his contemplations, among the principles and dogmas of
the middle ages ; who is he, from whose bosora all origi-

BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER, 85
nal infusion of Araerican spirit has become so entirely eva-
porated and exhaled, as that he shall put into the mouth
of the President of the United Stales the doctrine that
the defence of liberty naturally results to executive power,
and is its peculiar duty ? Who is he, that, generous and
confiding towards power where it is most dangerous, and
jealous only of those who can restrain it ; who Is he, that,
reversing the order of the Slate, and up-heaving the base,
would poise the political pyramid of the political systera
upon its apex ; who is he, that, overlooking with con-
terapt the guardianship ofthe representatives ofthe peo
ple, and with equal contempt, tbe higher guardianship of
the people themselves ; who is he, that declares to us,
through the President's lips, that the security for freedora
rests in executive aulhority ? Who is he that belies the
blood and libels the fame of his own ancestors, by declar-
ing that they, with solemnily of form, and force of raan
ner, have invoked the executive power to corae to the
protection ofliberty ? Who is he that thus charges thera
with the insanity, or recklessness, of putting the larab
beneath the lion's paw? No, sir. Our security is in
our watchfulness of executive power. It was the con
stitution of this department, which was infinitely the
most difficult part In the great work of creating our pre
senl Government. To give lo the executive department
such power as should raake It useful, and yet not such as
should render it dangerous ; to make it efficient, indepen
dent and strong, and yet lo prevent It from sweeping away
every thing by its union of military and civil authorily,
by the influence of patronage, and office, and favor;
this, indeed, was difficult. They who had the work to do,
saw the difficulty, and we see it ; and if we would main-
8

86 BEAUTIES OP AVEBSTER,
tain our system, we shall act wisely to that end, by pre
serving every restraint and every guard which the Con
stilution has provided. And when we, and those who
corae after us, have done all that we can do, and all
that they can do, it will be well for us and for thera, if
some popular Executive, by the power of patronage and
party, and the power, too, of that very popularity, shall
not hereafter prove an over-match for all olher branches
of the Government, DUTY OF THE SENATE,
Mr, President, I have spoken freely of this protest, and
of the doctrines which it advances ; but I have said no
thing which I do not believe. On these high questions
of Constilutional law, respeci for my own character, as
well as a soleran and profound sense of duly, restrains
me from giving utterance fo a single sentiment which
does not flow from entire conviction. I feel that I am
not wrong, I feel that an Inborn and inbred love of
Constitulional liberty, and sorae study of our political
institutions, have not, on this occasion, misled me. But
1 have desired to say nothing that should give pain to
the Chief Magislrale personally, I have not sought to
fix arrows in his breast; but I believe him mistaken, al-
together mistaken, in the sentimenis which he has ex
pressed ; and I must concur wilh others in placing on
the records of the Senate my disapprobation of those
sentimenis. On a vote, which is to remain so long as
any proceeding of the Senate shall last, and on a ques
tion which can never cease to be imporlant whUe the
Constitution of the country endures, I have desired to
make public my reasons. They will now be known.

BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER. 87
and I submit them lo the judgment of the present and of
after-times. Sir, the occasion is full of interest. It
cannot pass off wilhoul leaving slrong impressions on
the character of public men, A collision has laken
place, which I could have most anxiously wished to
avoid ; it was not to be shunned. We have not sought
this controversy ; it has met us, and been forced upon
us. In ray judgment the law has been disregarded, and
the Conslitution transgressed ; the fortress of liberly has
been assaulted, and circumstances have placed the Se
nate in the breach ; and, although we may perish in it,
I know we shall not fly frora it. But I am fearless of
consequences. We shall hold on, sir, and hold out, tUl
the People themselves corae to its defence. We shall
raise the alarra, and raaintain the post, till they, whose
right it is, shall decide whelher the Senate be a faction,
wantonly resisting lawful power, or whether il be oppos.
ing, wilh firmness and patriotism, violations of liberty
and inroads upon the Conslilution,
CITY OF NEW-YORK,
Gentleraen, as connecied with the Constitution, you
have also local recollections which must bind it stiU clos
er to your attachment and affection. It commenced ils
being, and its blessings, here. It was in this City, in
the midst of friends, anxious, hopeful, and devoted, that
the new Government started in its course. To us, gen
tlemen, who are younger. It has come down by tradition ;
but some around me are old enough to have witnessed,
and did witness, the Interesting scene of the first Inau-
gurallon. They remember what voices of gratified p -
trlotlsm, what shouts of enthusiastic hope, what acclaraar

88 BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER,
tions, rent the air — how raany eyes were suffused with
tears of joy — how cordially each man pressed the hand
of hira who was next to him, when, standing In the open
air, in the centre of the Cily, in the view of assembled
thousands, the first President was heard solemnly to pro
nounce the words of his official oath, repeating them
from the lips of Chancellor Livingston, You then
thought, gentleraen, that the great work of the revolu-
tion was accomplished. You then felt that you had a
Governraent — that the United States were then, indeed,
united. Every benignant star seemed to shed its select
est influence on that auspicious hour. Here were heroes
of the Revolution ; here were sages of the Convention ;
here were minds, disciplined and schooled in all the va-
rious fortunes ofthe country, acting now in several rela
tions, but all co-operating lo the same great end, the sue-
cessful adrainlslration of the new and untried Constitu
tion. And he — how shall I speak of him? — he was at
the head, who was already first in war, — who was al
ready first in the hearts of his countrymen, — and who
was now shown also, by the unanimous suffrage of the
country, to be first in peace.
Gentlemen, how gloriously have the hopes, then indulg
ed, been fulfiUed ! Whose expectation was then so san-
guine — I may almost ask, whose Imagination then so
extravagant — as to run forward and contemplate as pro
bable, the one half of what has been accomplished In for
ty years? Who among you can go back to 1789, and
see what this City, and this country loo, then were — and
then, beholding whal they now are, can be ready to con-
sent that the Constitution of the Uniled States shall be
weakened, nullified, or dishonored ?

BEAUTIES OP WEBSTER, 89
MADISON.
Gentlemen, before I leave these pleasant recollections,
I feel it an irresistible impulse of duty lo pay a tribute
of respect to anolher distinguished person, not, indeed, a
fellow-citizen of your own, but associated with those I
have already mentioned, in important labors, and an early
and indefatigable friend and advocate in the great cause
ofthe Constilution, Genllemen, I refer to Mr, Madison.
I am aware, gentlemen, that a tribute of regard from me
to him is of little iraportance; but if it shall receive
your approbation and sanction, il will becorae of value.
Mr, Madison, thanks to a kind Providence, is yet among
the living, and there is certainly no other individual liv
ing, to whom the country is so much indebted for fhe
blessings of the Conslitution, He was one of the Com
missioners at Annapolis in 1786, at the meeting of which
I have already spoken ; a meeting which, to the great cre
dit of Virginia, had ils origin in a proceeding of that
Stale, He was a member of the Convention of 1789,
and of that of Virginia the following year. He was thus
intimately acquainted with the whole progress of the for
mation of the Constilution, from its very first step lo ils
final adoption. If ever man had the means of understand
ing a written instrument, Mr. Madison has the means of
understanding the Constitution. If It be possible to
know what was designed by it, he can tell us. It was in
this City, that, in conjunction with Mr. Hamilton and Mr,
Jay, he wrote tbe numbers of the Fedf^ralist ; and It was
in this city that he commenced his bnllitmt cireer, un
der the new constitution, havii)ir been elected into the
House of Representives of the first cijrijirress. Vi'M re
corded votes and debates of tho.'e times show Im-: nrtive

90

BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER.

and efficient agency in every important measure of that
congress. The necessary organization of the Govern
ment, the arrangement ofthe Departments, and especial
ly the paramount subject of revenue, engaged his alien-
tion, and shared his labors,
IMPORTANCE OF THE UNION.
But it is a subject of which my heart is full, and I have
not been wiUing to suppress the utterance of its sponta
neous sentimenis. I cannot even now persuade myself
to relinquish it wilhoul expressing once more my deep
conviction, that since It respects nolhing less than the
Union of the States, it is of most vital and essential im
portance lo the public happiness. I profess, sir, in my
career hitherfo lo have kept steadily in view the prospe
rity and honor ofthe whole counlry, and the preservation
of our federal Union. It is to that Union we owe
our safety at home, and our consideration and dignity
abroad. It is to that Union that we are chiefly indebted
for whatever makes us most proud of our country. That
union we reached only by the discipline of our virtues in
the severe school of adversity, Il had its origin in the
necessities of disordered finance, prostrate commerce,
and ruined credit. Under its benign influences these
great interests immediately awoke as from the dead, and
sprang forth with newness of life. Every year of Its
duration has teemed with fresh proofs of its utUity and
its blessings ; and allhough our territory has stretched
out wider and wider, and our populalion farther and
farther, they have not outrun ils profeetion or its benefits.
It has been to us all a copious fountain of national, so-
cial, and personal happiness. I have not allowed myself.

BEAUTIES OF WEBSTER. 91
Sir, to look beyond the union, to see what might lie hid
den in the dark recess behind. I have not coolly
weighed the chances of preserving liberty when the
bonds that unite us together shaU be broken asunder.
I have not accustomed myself to hang over the precipice
of disunion, to see whether with my short sight I can fa
thom the depth of the abyss below ; nor could I regard
him as a safe counsellor in the affairs of this governraent
whose thoughts should be mainly bent on considering
not how the Union should be best preserved, but how
tolerable might be the condition of the people when
it shall be broken up and destroyed. While the Union lasts,
we have high, exciting, gratifying prospects spread out
before us, for us and our children. Beyond that I seek not
to penetrate the veil. God grant that in ray day at least
that curtain may not rise. God grant that on my vision
never may be opened what lies beyond. When my eyes
shall be turned to behold for the last tirae the sun in
heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and
dishonored fragments of a once glorious union ; on states
dissevered, discordant, belligerent ; on a land rent with
civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood !
Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold
the gorgeous ensign of the Republic, now known and
honored throughout the earth, stiU full high advanced ;
its armies and trophies streaming in their original lustre,
not a stripe erased or poUuted, nor a single star obscur
ed — bearing for its motto no such miserable inlerrogato-
ly as, 'What is all this worih ? nor those other words of de
lusion and folly, Liberty first and Union afterwards ; but
everywhere spread aU over. In characters of living light
blazing on aU its ample folds as they float over the sea

92 BEAUTIES OF WEB5TER.
and over the land, and in every wind under the whole
heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true Ame
rican heart. Liberty and Union now and for ever, one
AND INSBPERABLE.

THE END.

CONTENTS.

Page
Essay on the Genius and Writings of Mr. Webster, - 7
The Progress of Civilization, ... - - 17
Liberality ofthe Age, ... . - 19
The Policy of Peace, - - ... 20
Defence of Principle, ... - 21
Spirit of Ldberty, ..... .-33
The Struggle of Liberty, ... - - - 34
Massachusetts, - - - - - - 25
Character of Friends, ------- 36
Religious Feeling, ....... 27
The South,  37
The Poor and the Rich,  38
Good and Bad Intentions, -------30
American Citizenship, ...... 31
Enclusive Metallic Currency, .... 32
Union, ........--32
The Secretary of the Treasury, - ... 33
Credit,  34
Banks, - - .... 35
The Sub-Treasury, - - ... 35
Executive Power, - ......36
Plymouth Rock, - -- --..38
New England,  39
Association, -- ..----39
Marathon, - ... .41
Europe, -- .....43

94

CONTENTS,

Page
Bunker Hill, - 42
The Survivors of Bunker Hill, - - - 44
General Warren, ...... 46
The Feeling of the Pilgrims, . - 46
Love of Religious Liberty, . - - 47
The Pilgrims in New England, - - - - 49
MiUtary Pame, - - . ... 49
The Influence of Mind, - - ... 50
The African Slave Trade, - - . - 50
Knowledge, - .... - 53
Revolution, ..... . 54
Adams and Jefferson", - - - 54
i^rue Oratory, - - ... 56
Jefferson, ... .... 57
The Illustrious Dead, - *  57
Adams, ..... --58
The Duty of Citizens,  59
Situation of America, - ..... 60
Importance of Justice, .......61
External Nature, -  62
Mathematical Science, -------63
Character of a Murderer, •  64
Conscience, - ... - - 65
Splendid Vices, -.- .... 67
Duty, . -  67
The Judicial Office, - . - . . 68
Importance of Character, - - - - - - 69
John Jay, .... .. -72
Alexander Hamilton, - - - - . . 74
Government, - - ... - 74
The Country, - - - ... 73
Love of Liberty, - - - - - 76
Moral Example,  - 77
Progress of Freedom, -  78
Party FeeUngs, - - - . - - 79
Union in Massachusetts, .... . . go
The Present and the Future, -.-.., 80

CONTENTS. 95
Page
Duty of Representatives,  82
Spirit of Liberty,  83
Executive Power, ........g^
Duty ofthe Senate, --  86
City of New- York, --.-....87
Madison, --...... ..gg
Importance of the Union, .......go

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