assemble here to re-enact a scene like that performed by Washington!
Methinks I see his venerable form now before me, as presented in the
glorious statue by Houdon, now in the Capitol of Virginia. He is
dignified and grave; but concern and anxiety seem to soften the
lineaments of his countenance. The government over which he presides is
yet in the crisis of experiment. Not free from troubles at home, he sees
the world in commotion and in arms all around him. He sees that imposing
foreign powers are half disposed to try the strength of the recently
established American government. We perceive that mighty thoughts,
mingled with fears as well as with hopes, are struggling within him. He
heads a short procession over these then naked fields; he crosses yonder
stream on a fallen tree; he ascends to the top of this eminence, whose
original oaks of the forest stand as thick around him as if the spot had
been devoted to Druidical worship, and here he performs the appointed
duty of the day.
[Sidenote: George Washington's monition.]
And now, fellow-citizens, if this vision were a reality; if Washington
actually were now amongst us, and if he could draw around him the shades
of the great public men of his own day, patriots and warriors, orators
and statesmen, and were to address us in their presence, would he not
say to us: "Ye men of this generation, I rejoice and thank God for being
able to see that our labors and toils and sacrifices were not in vain.
You are prosperous, you are happy, you are grateful: the fire of liberty
burns brightly and steadily in your hearts, while _duty_ and the _law_
restrain it from bursting forth in wild and destructive conflagration.
Cherish liberty, as you love it; cherish its securities, as you wish to
preserve it. Maintain the Constitution which we labored so painfully to
establish, and which has been to you such a source of inestimable
blessings. Preserve the union of the States, cemented as it was by our
prayers, our tears and our blood. Be true to God, to your country, and
to your duty. So shall the whole Eastern world follow the morning sun to
contemplate you as a nation; so shall all generations honor you, as they
honor us; and so shall that Almighty Power which so graciously protected
us, and which now protects you, shower its everlasting blessings upon
you and your posterity."
[Sidenote: The sacred trust of Americans.]
Great Father of your Country! we heed your words; we feel their force as
if you now uttered them with lips of flesh and blood. Your example
teaches us, your affectionate addresses teach us, your public life
teaches us your sense of the value of the blessings of the Union. Those
blessings our fathers have tasted, and we have tasted, and still taste.
Nor do we intend that those who come after us shall be denied the same
high fruition. Our honor as well as our happiness is concerned. We
cannot, we dare not, we will not, betray our sacred trust. We will not
filch from posterity the treasure placed in our hands to be transmitted
to other generations. The bow that gilds the clouds in the heavens, the
pillars that uphold the firmament, may disappear and fall away in the
hour appointed by the will of God; but until that day comes, or so long
as our lives may last, no ruthless hand shall undermine that bright arch
of Union and Liberty which spans the continent from Washington to
California. Fellow-citizens, we must sometimes be tolerant to folly, and
patient at the sight of the extreme waywardness of men; but I confess
that, when I reflect on the renown of our past history, on our present
prosperity and greatness, and on what the future hath yet to unfold, and
when I see that there are men who can find in all this nothing good,
nothing valuable, nothing truly glorious, I feel that all their reason
has fled away from them, and left the entire control over their judgment
and their actions to insanity and fanaticism; and more than all,
fellow-citizens, if the purposes of fanatics and disunionists should be
accomplished, the patriotic and intelligent of our generation would seek
to hide themselves from the scorn of the world, and go about to find
dishonorable graves.
[Illustration: _Millard Fillmore._]
[Sidenote: The preservation of the Union foretold.]
Fellow-citizens, take courage; be of good cheer. We shall come to no
such ignoble end. We shall live, and not die. During the period allotted
to our several lives we shall continue to rejoice in the return of this
anniversary. The ill-omened sounds of fanaticism will be hushed; the
ghastly spectres of Secession and Disunion will disappear; and the
enemies of united constitutional liberty, if their hatred cannot be
appeased, may prepare to have their eyeballs seared as they behold the
steady flight of the American eagle, on his burnished wings, for years
and years to come.
President Fillmore, it is your singularly good fortune to perform an act
such as that which the earliest of your predecessors performed
fifty-eight years ago. You stand where he stood; you lay your hand on
the corner-stone of a building designed greatly to extend that whose
corner-stone he laid. Changed, changed is everything around. The same
sun, indeed, shone upon his head which now shines upon yours. The same
broad river rolled at his feet, and bathes his last resting-place, that
now rolls at yours. But the site of this city was then mainly an open
field. Streets and avenues have since been laid out and completed,
squares and public grounds enclosed and ornamented, until the city which
bears his name, although comparatively inconsiderable in numbers and
wealth, has became quite fit to be the seat of government of a great and
united people.
And now, fellow-citizens, with hearts void of hatred, envy, and malice
towards our own countrymen, or any of them, or towards the subjects or
citizens of other governments, or towards any member of the great family
of man; but exulting, nevertheless, in our own peace, security, and
happiness, in the grateful remembrance of the past, and the glorious
hopes of the future, let us return to our homes, and with all humility
and devotion offer our thanks to the Father of all our mercies,
political, social, and religious.
INDEX
Achilles, 327.
ADAMS AND JEFFERSON: A Discourse in Commemoration of the Lives and
Services of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, delivered in Faneuil
Hall, Boston, Aug. 2, 1826, 67.
Adams, John, 84, 87-90, 92-97, 101, 104;
similarity to Jefferson, 70;
example of, 70;
work of, 70;
services of, 73;
career of, 73-81, 97-100;
portrait of, 74.
Adams, John Quincy, 100 and note, 122 note;
portrait of, 123.
Adams, Samuel, 80, 96;
portrait of, 97.
Alfred, 48.
Allerton, Isaac, 7.
Amendment, Thirteenth, to the Constitution, 126 note.
America, popular government in, 18, 20;
constitutional history of, 25;
literature of, 26;
discovery of, 31;
Revolution in, 32;
obligations of, 48, 65;
contributions of, to Europe, 62;
example of, 63.
Americans, sacred trust of, 210.
American Union, the, 56.
Ames, Fisher, 183 and note.
Angelo, Michael, 177.
Athens, 204.
Bacon, Francis, 71.
Bennington, Vt., 38.
Benton, Thomas Hart, 119-121;
portrait of, 120.
Berkeley, George, 178 and note, 201.
Blackstone, Sir William, 167 and note.
Boston, Mass., Massacre, 75 note;
Port Bill, 93 and note;
"Tea-Party," 93 note;
speeches of Webster at, 67.
Bradford, William, 7.
Brewster, William, 7, 15.
Bunker Hill, battle of, 96;
importance of, 57;
motive for, 58;
consequences of, 59.
BUNKER HILL MONUMENT, THE: An Address delivered at the Laying of the
Corner-stone at Charlestown, Mass. June 17, 1825, 30;
and see 208 and note.
BUNKER HILL MONUMENT, THE COMPLETION OF THE: An Address delivered
June 17, 1843, 50.
Byron, Lord, 9 note.
Camden, N. J., 38.
CAPITOL, THE ADDITION TO THE, 200.
Capitol, United States, in 1851, view of, 200.
Carroll, Charles, 107.
Carver, John, 7.
Charlestown, Mass., 58;
speeches of Webster at, 30, 50.
Chatham, Earl of, 177.
Cicero, 21, 177 and note.
Clay, Henry, 122 note, 194 note;
portrait of, 195.
"Coalition," the, 122 and note.
Concord, Mass., 55, 96.
Congress, Continental, First, 81.
CONSTITUTION AND THE UNION, THE, 194.
Constitution of the United States, true principles of, 145;
declared by people to be supreme law, 150, 163;
enumerated powers of, 162;
main design of, 162;
failure of Confederation the cause of, 162;
alterable by the people, not the States, 170.
Cortéz, Hernando, 61.
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, THE, 83-87.
Demosthenes, 9, 204.
District of Columbia, 155.
Electors, Presidential, in the United States, 98 note.
Elizabeth, Queen, 12.
Eloquence, nature of, 89.
Embargo Bill of 1807, 156 and note.
England, religious persecutions in, 12;
idea of liberty in, 60.
EXECUTIVE PATRONAGE AND REMOVAL FROM OFFICE, 174.
Faneuil Hall, Boston, view of, 68;
speeches of Webster in, 67.
Federalist party, 122 note.
Fillmore, Millard, 211;
portrait of, 211.
Foot, Samuel Augustus, 115 note;
Resolution of, 116.
Foreign influence a foe of republican government, 185.
Franklin, Benjamin, 84, 101;
portrait of, 102.
Freedom, spirit of, 179.
Fries, John, 168 and note.
Gage, Thomas, 79.
Gates, Horatio, 41.
Government, representative system of, 44;
principles of, as held by English colonists in America, 61, 62;
powers of, to be used for the general benefit, 131;
a great untaxed proprietor, 132;
republican, foreign influence a foe of, 185.
Government, United States, source of powers of, 150, 162, 164;
powers of, as related to powers of States, 152, 158, 160, 162;
a new experiment, 180.
"Great Debate," The, 115 note.
Greece, Revolution in (1824), 45 and note.
Greene, Nathanael, 41.
Hancock, John, 90, 96;
portrait of, 91.
Harrington, James, 20.
Harvard College, 23;
view of, 24.
Hayne, Robert Young, 115 note, 117-122;
portrait of, 135.
HAYNE, THE REPLY TO: From the Second Speech on Foot's Resolution,
delivered in the Senate of the United States, Jan. 26 and 27,
1830, 115;
first version of, 173 note;
and see 115 note.
Henry, Patrick, 100;
portrait of, 101.
Hillhouse, James, 155 and note.
Holland, Pilgrims in, 14.
Homer, 177.
Independence, American, 201-204.
Independence, Declaration of, 83-87.
Independence Hall, Philadelphia, view of, 80.
Internal improvements, Webster's opinions concerning, 129.
Jackson, Andrew, 115 note.
Jamestown, Va., 32 and note.
Jefferson, Thomas, 184 note;
similarity to Adams, 70;
example of, 70;
work of, 70;
services of, 73;
career of, 81-85, 99, 100-106;
portrait of, 82.
Kentucky resolutions of 1798, 147 note.
Lafayette, Marquis de, 39 and note;
portrait of, 40.
Lee, Richard Henry, 83.
Legislatures, State, in relation to national laws, 145.
Lexington, Mass., 55, 96.
Liberty the inheritance of every American, 203.
Lincoln, Benjamin, 41.
Lincolnshire, England, 13.
Livingston, Robert R., 84.
Marathon, 8 and note.
Mason and Dixon's line, 137 and note.
Massachusetts, in the Revolution, 143;
defence of, 144.
Milton, John, 177.
Missouri question, 126-127, 126 note.
Monmouth, N. J., 38.
Monuments of the past, 53.
National Republican party, 122 note, 174.
Nations, progress of, 41.
Newton, Isaac, 71.
NEW ENGLAND, THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF: A Discourse delivered at
Plymouth, Mass. Dec. 22, 1820, 3.
New England, third century of history of, 3;
ancestors of, 41;
religious liberty in, 11;
distribution of property in, 19;
education in, 21;
future progress of, 28;
settlement of, 3, 32;
relation of, to Western improvements, 133-134;
Hayne's attack on, 136;
relation of, to South Carolina doctrine of nullification, 155;
to the embargo of 1807, 157.
Northwest Territory, 126 note.
Nullification, 116, 154, 165-169;
leads to disunion, 169.
Ohio, 126 note.
"Old Style" of reckoning time, 73 note.
Ordinance of 1787, the, 126 and note.
Otis, James, 76;
portrait of, 77.
Paine, Robert Treat, 79, 96.
Parties, political, in 1812, 141.
Party contests under the Constitution, 138.
Phidias, 9.
Philip of Macedon, 204.
Pilgrims, 5 and note;
purpose of, 10, 59;
new home of, 15, 18;
duty of descendants of, 25;
and see New England, First Settlement of.
Pizarro, Francisco, 61.
Plato, 9.
Plymouth, Mass., 6, 7 and note, 28, 59;
speech of Webster at, 3.
Pope, Alexander, 199 note.
Prescott, William, 36, 54, 57, 58.
Public lands, 128.
Public works bonds of union, 129.
Puritans, 5 note.
Putnam, Israel, 36, 54.
Quincy, Josiah, Jr., 73.
Randolph, Peyton, 83.
Raphael, 177.
Religion, influence of, 27.
Religious liberty in New England, 11.
Religious persecutions in England, 12.
Revolution, American, 32;
survivors of, 35, 36, 38;
influence of, upon Europe, 42.
Revolution of 1688, English, importance of, 181.
Revolution, Webster admits right of, 147;
a law to itself, 164.
Robinson, John, 12 and note, 15.
Rome, commonwealth of, 21.
Salem, Mass., speech of Webster at, 111.
Saratoga, N. Y., 38.
Sargent, Henry, 7 and note.
Secession, peaceable, impossible, 195.
Senate, United States, 121;
speeches of Webster in, 115, 194.
Serbonis, Lake, 218 note.
"Seventh of March" (1850) speech of Webster, 194.
Shakespeare, William, 202 and note.
Sherman, Roger, 84.
Slavery, Webster's opinion concerning, 126-128.
Smithfield (London), 12 and note.
Socrates, 9.
Solon, 48.
Sophocles, 9.
South America, liberty in, 46.
South Carolina, 136, 137;
nullification in, 116;
Webster's tribute to, 142;
doctrine of State discretion, 146.
Southern Confederacy, idea of a, 197.
Spain, greed of, 60.
Sparta, 204.
Standish, Miles, 7.
Stark, John, 36, 54.
States, not final judges of acts of general government, 145;
powers of, as related to powers of general government, 152, 160.
"Suicide is confession," 114.
Sullivan, John, 41.
Supreme Court of the United States, final decision of, 164.
Tariffs, protective, as related to Constitution, 153, 159;
to South Carolina nullification, 166.
Thebes, 204.
Trenton, N. Y., 38.
Turenne, Vicomte de, 168 and note.
Tyler, John, 54;
portrait of, 54.
Union, as related to nullification, 154;
preservation of, 171, 195, 198, 211.
United States, example of, 47;
are one, 130;
a western sun, 182;
advantages of isolation of, 186;
dismemberment of, the greatest of evils, 191;
growth of population of, 205-206.
Vauban, Sebastien de, 168.
Virginia resolutions of 1798, 146-147, 146 note.
Virginia, University of, 105 and note.
Warren, Joseph, 37, 40, 41, 54;
portrait of, 37.
Washington, George, 41, 59, 63, 67, 94, 102, 104, 139, 204, 207-210;
power of the name of, 175;
moral example of, 176;
Farewell Address of, 183, 185, 186, 188;
conduct of America's foreign relations, 184;
domestic policy of, 187;
first cabinet of, 187;
important measures of administration of, 188;
opinion of dangers of party spirit, 188;
love of the Union, 189;
monition of, 209-210.
WASHINGTON, THE CHARACTER OF, 175.
Washington, city of, 207-208;
speeches of Webster in, 200.
Washington Monument, 208 and note;
view of, 208.
Whig party, 122 note.
WHITE, CAPTAIN JOSEPH, THE MURDER OF: From an Argument on the Trial
of Joseph Francis Knapp, at Salem, Mass. Aug. 3, 1830, 111.
Wilmot proviso, the, 126 note.
Worcester, Mass., speech of Webster at, 174.
Wythe, George, 82.
Yorktown, Va., 38.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The "Pilgrims" are often confused with the "Puritans," and the words
are used interchangeably. Strictly speaking, the former were the English
Independents or Congregationalists who came from Holland to Plymouth in
1620; the latter, the immigrants from England to Massachusetts Bay in
1629 and following years, some of whom, at the time of their arrival in
New England, retained nominal connection with the Church of England. The
church polity of the two parties, however, soon became the same.
[2] Henry Sargent's "Landing of the Pilgrims," in Pilgrim Hall,
Plymouth.
[3] The landing at Plymouth was on Dec. 11, 1620, Old Style,
corresponding to December 21 according to the present calendar, though
December 22 is generally observed.
[4] A plain eighteen miles northeast of Athens, between Mount Pentelicus
and the sea, where, B. C. 490, 10,000 Greeks and 1,000 Platæans, under
Miltiades, defeated 100,000 Persians, thereby destroying Darius's scheme
for subjugating Greece.
"The mountains look on Marathon,
And Marathon looks on the sea;
And musing there an hour alone,
I dreamed that Greece might still be free."
BYRON, _Don Juan_, canto iii, stanza 86, 3.
[5] John Robinson, 1575-1625, an influential English Independent (or
Congregational) minister, who left the Church of England and joined the
"Separatists" in 1604, and was their pastor at Scrooby, England,
removing to Amsterdam, Holland, in 1608, and continuing his leadership
of Independents there and in Leyden.
[6] Smithfield is a section of London, north of St. Paul's Cathedral,
where alleged heretics were burned at the stake during the reign of
Queen Mary, in 1555 and subsequent years.
[7] The monument, erected by an association which aroused national as
well as local interest and support, is a granite obelisk, two hundred
and twenty-one feet high, actually standing on Breed's, not Bunker Hill.
The two eminences are seven hundred yards apart, and both were scenes of
conflict, the American redoubt being on Breed's; but general use has
long sanctioned the expression "the battle of Bunker Hill." The monument
was finished in 1842.
[8] Jamestown, Virginia, on the James River, where the first permanent
English settlement in the United States was made May 13, 1607.
[9] It is no part of the purpose of the present edition to undertake to
criticise the rhetoric of Webster. But the use of "him" in the objective
case, in the present paragraph, followed by "thy," is so uncommon as to
call for mention. Most rhetoricians would employ "he," followed by
"his;" or "thou," followed by "thy." A use of cases identical with
Webster's is found in the well-known second stanza of S.F. Smith's
"America":--
"My native country, _thee_,
Land of the noble free,--
_Thy_ name I love."
[10] The Marquis de la Fayette (1757-1834), a member of a rich and noble
French family, equipped a vessel at his own cost, and came to America in
1777, to aid the Revolutionists. At once brave and judicious, he became
the friend of Washington, and was made major-general, distinguishing
himself as a fighter or strategist at Brandywine, Monmouth, and
Yorktown. Returning to France after the war, he took a middle course in
the French Revolution, for which he later was subjected to the
unwarranted sneers of Carlyle. Imprisoned for years in Austria, he was
released by request of Napoleon in 1797. In 1824 he again visited the
United States, being everywhere greeted with enthusiasm, and receiving
from Congress $200,000 and a township of land. Four years before his
death he was made head of the French National Guard by the party which
dethroned the Bourbon, Charles X., and transferred the crown to Louis
Philippe.
[11] Late may you return to the sky.
[12] The people of Greece, long restive against Turkish oppression, rose
under Alexander Ypsilanti in 1820, promulgated a new constitution in
1822, and began a war of revolution. After bloody atrocities on both
sides, in 1824 the Greeks began to receive some outside help, including
that of Lord Byron, who died at Missolonghi, in that year, from exposure
in the field. The jealousies and intrigues of Mahmoud, Sultan of Turkey,
and Mehemet Ali, Turkish Viceroy of Egypt, with fears of Russian
preponderance in a divided Turkey, led the Great Powers of Europe to
interfere in behalf of Greece, as the Turks and Egyptians were working
together against her. The Treaty of London (July 6, 1827) founded the
new Kingdom of Greece; England, France, and Russia overwhelmed the
fleets of Turkey and Egypt at Navarino, October 26 of the same year; and
the independent career of the resuscitated Greek nation began.
[13] "Monument Square is four hundred and seventeen feet from north to
south, and four hundred feet from east to west, and contains nearly six
acres. It embraces the whole site of the redoubt, and a part of the site
of the breastwork. According to the most accurate plan of the town and
the battle (Page's), the monument stands where the southwest angle of
the redoubt was, and the whole of the redoubt was between the monument
and the street that bounds it on the west. The small mound in the
northeast corner of the square is supposed to be the remains of the
breastwork. Warren fell about two hundred feet west of the monument. An
iron fence encloses the square, and another surrounds the monument. The
square has entrances on each of its sides, and at each of its corners,
and is surrounded by a walk and rows of trees.
"The obelisk is thirty feet in diameter at the base, about fifteen feet
at the top of the truncated part, and was designed to be two hundred and
twenty feet high; but the mortar and the seams between the stones make
the precise height two hundred and twenty-one feet. Within the shaft is
a hollow cone, with a spiral stairway winding round it to its summit,
which enters a circular chamber at the top. There are ninety courses of
stone in the shaft,--six of them below the ground, and eighty-four above
the ground. The capstone, or apex, is a single stone four feet square at
the base, and three feet six inches in height, weighing two and a half
tons."--FROTHINGHAM'S _Siege of Boston._
[14] The old method, established by Julius Cæsar, of counting 365 days
in a year, and 366 every fourth year, gave each year about eleven
minutes too much, which overplus amounted in 1582 to ten days. In that
year Pope Gregory XIII discontinued the "Julian" and established the
"Gregorian" calendar, by setting forward the date of a day ten days.
This change was adopted (the dropping of an additional day being needed)
by the English Parliament in 1751,--September 3, 1752, to be called
September 14. At present, the New Style gives 366 days to every year
divisible by four, excepting 1800, 1900, etc.
[15] March 5, 1770, a conflict called the "Boston Massacre" took place
between English troops and Bostonians, three of the latter being killed.
Samuel Adams, the people's leader in Boston, in consequence compelled
the Governor to withdraw the soldiers from the town.
[16] Documents giving the royal custom-house officers the right to
search any house for alleged smuggled goods.
[17] Parliament closed the port of Boston, in 1774, in retaliation for
the destruction of taxed tea by the Colonists in 1773, in the so-called
"Boston Tea-party." Under the Port Bill all exports and imports were
prohibited save food and fuel.
[18] The parliament of Holland.
[19] Prior to 1804 the "presidential electors" voted for two candidates
from previous page: for president; the one receiving the highest number
to be president, and the one having the next highest vice-president.
[20] John Quincy Adams was President of the United States, 1825-1829.
[21] The fiftieth anniversary of the independence of the United States.
The Jews of the Old Testament celebrated every fiftieth anniversary of
their entrance into Canaan. Leviticus xxv. 10.
[22] Mr. Jefferson himself considered his services in establishing the
University of Virginia as among the most important rendered by him to
the country. In large part he arranged its curriculum, and even designed
its buildings. By his direction the following inscription was placed on
his monument: "Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, Author of the
Declaration of Independence, of the Statutes of Virginia for Religious
Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia."
[23] "Happy, not only in the brightness of his life, but also in the
circumstance of his death."