AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE OF THE ADDITION
TO THE CAPITOL, ON THE 4th OF JULY, 1851.[1]
Fellow-Citizens,--I greet you well; I give you joy, on the return of
this anniversary; and I felicitate you, also, on the more particular
purpose of which this ever-memorable day has been chosen to witness the
fulfilment. Hail! all hail! I see before and around me a mass of faces,
glowing with cheerfulness and patriotic pride. I see thousands of eyes
turned towards other eyes, all sparkling with gratification and delight.
This is the New World! This is America! This is Washington! and this the
Capitol of the United States! And where else, among the nations, can the
seat of government be surrounded, on any day of any year, by those who
have more reason to rejoice in the blessings which they possess?
Nowhere, fellow-citizens! assuredly, nowhere! Let us, then, meet this
rising sun with joy and thanksgiving!
This is that day of the year which announced to mankind the great fact
of American Independence. This fresh and brilliant morning blesses our
vision with another beholding of the birthday of our nation; and we see
that nation, of recent origin, now among the most considerable and
powerful, and spreading over the continent from sea to sea.
Among the first colonists from Europe to this part of America, there
were some, doubtless, who contemplated the distant consequences of their
undertaking, and who saw a great futurity. But, in general, their hopes
were limited to the enjoyment of a safe asylum from tyranny, religious
and civil, and to respectable subsistence, by industry and toil. A thick
veil hid our times from their view. But the progress of America, however
slow, could not but at length awaken genius, and attract the attention
of mankind.
In the early part of the second century of our history, Bishop Berkeley,
who, it will be remembered, had resided for some time in Newport, in
Rhode Island, wrote his well-known "Verses on the Prospect of Planting
ARTS and LEARNING in AMERICA." The last stanza of this little poem seems
to have been produced by a high poetical inspiration:--
"Westward the course of empire takes its way;
The four first acts already past,
A fifth shall close the drama with the day:
Time's noblest offspring is the last."
This extraordinary prophecy may be considered only as the result of long
foresight and uncommon sagacity; of a foresight and sagacity stimulated,
nevertheless, by excited feeling and high enthusiasm. So clear a vision
of what America would become was not founded on square miles, or on
existing numbers, or on any common laws of statistics. It was an
intuitive glance into futurity; it was a grand conception, strong,
ardent, glowing, embracing all time since the creation of the world,
and all regions of which that world is composed, and judging of the
future by just analogy with the past. And the inimitable imagery and
beauty with which the thought is expressed, joined to the conception
itself, render it one of the most striking passages in our language.
On the day of the Declaration of Independence our illustrious fathers
performed the first scene in the last great act of this drama; one in
real importance infinitely exceeding that for which the great English
poet invokes
"A muse of fire, ...
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!"
The Muse inspiring our fathers was the Genius of Liberty, all on fire
with a sense of oppression, and a resolution to throw it off; the whole
world was the stage, and higher characters than princes trod it; and,
instead of monarchs, countries and nations and the age beheld the
swelling scene. How well the characters were cast, and how well each
acted his part, and what emotions the whole performance excited, let
history, now and hereafter, tell.
At a subsequent period, but before the Declaration of Independence, the
Bishop of St. Asaph published a discourse, in which the following
remarkable passages are found:--
"It is difficult for man to look into the destiny of future ages;
the designs of Providence are vast and complicated, and our own
powers are too narrow to admit of much satisfaction to our
curiosity. But when we see many great and powerful causes
constantly at work, we cannot doubt of their producing
proportionable effects.
"The colonies in North America have not only taken root and
acquired strength, _but seem hastening with an accelerated progress
to such a powerful state as may introduce a new and important
change in human affairs_.
"Descended from ancestors of the most improved and enlightened part
of the Old World, they receive, as it were by inheritance, all the
improvements and discoveries of their mother country. And it
happens fortunately for them to commence their flourishing state at
a time when the human understanding has attained to the free use of
its powers, and has learned to act with vigor and certainty. They
may avail themselves, not only of the experience and industry, but
even of the errors and mistakes, of former days. Let it be
considered for how many ages a great part of the world appears not
to have thought at all; how many more they have been busied in
forming systems and conjectures, while reason has been lost in a
labyrinth of words, and they never seem to have suspected on what
frivolous matters their minds were employed.
"And let it be well understood what rapid improvements, what
important discoveries, have been made, in a few years, by a few
countries, with our own at their head, which have at last
discovered the right method of using their faculties.
"May we not reasonably expect that a number of provinces possessed
of these advantages and quickened by mutual emulation, with only
the common progress of the human mind, should very considerably
enlarge the boundaries of science?
"The vast continent itself, over which they are gradually
spreading, may be considered as a treasure yet untouched of natural
productions that shall hereafter afford ample matter for commerce
and contemplation. And if we reflect what a stock of knowledge may
be accumulated by the constant progress of industry and
observation, fed with fresh supplies from the stores of nature,
assisted sometimes by those happy strokes of chance which mock all
the powers of invention, and sometimes by those superior characters
which arise occasionally to instruct and enlighten the world, it is
difficult even to imagine to what height of improvement their
discoveries may extend.
"_And perhaps they may make as considerable advances in the arts of
civil government and the conduct of life._ We have reason to be
proud, and even jealous, of our excellent constitution; but those
equitable principles on which it was formed, an equal
representation (the best discovery of political wisdom), and a just
and commodious distribution of power, which with us were the price
of civil wars, and the rewards of the virtues and sufferings of our
ancestors, descend to them as a natural inheritance, without toil
or pain.
"_But must they rest here, as in the utmost effort of human genius?
Can chance and time, the wisdom and the experience of public men,
suggest no new remedy aqainst the evils_ which vices and ambition
are perpetually apt to cause? May they not hope, without
presumption, to preserve a greater zeal for piety and public
devotion than we have alone? For sure it can hardly happen to them,
as it has to us, that, when religion is best understood and
rendered most pure and reasonable, then should be the precise time
when many cease to believe and practise it, and all in general
become most indifferent to it.
"May they not possibly be more successful than their mother country
has been in preserving that reverence and authority which are due
to the laws? to those who make, and to those who execute them? _May
not a method be invented of procuring some tolerable share of the
comforts of life to those inferior useful ranks of men to whose
industry we are indebted for the whole? Time and discipline may
discover some means to correct the extreme inequalities of
condition between the rich and the poor, so dangerous to the
innocence and happiness of both._ They may fortunately be led by
habit and choice to despise that luxury which is considered with us
the true enjoyment of wealth. They may have little relish for that
ceaseless hurry of amusements which is pursued in this country
without pleasure, exercise, or employment. And perhaps, after
trying some of our follies and caprices, and rejecting the rest,
they may be led by reason and experiment to that old simplicity
which was first pointed out by nature, and has produced those
models which we still admire in arts, eloquence, and manners. _The
diversity of new scenes and situations, which so many growing
states must necessarily pass through, may introduce changes in the
fluctuating opinions and manners of men which we can form no
conception of_; and not only the gracious disposition of
Providence, but the visible preparation of causes, seems to
indicate strong tendencies towards a general improvement."
Fellow-citizens, this "gracious disposition of Providence," and this
"visible preparation of causes," at length brought on the hour for
decisive action. On the 4th of July, 1776, the Representatives of the
United States of America, in Congress assembled, declared that these
United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT
STATES.
This Declaration, made by most patriotic and resolute men, trusting in
the justice of their cause and the protection of Heaven, and yet made
not without deep solicitude and anxiety, has now stood for seventy-five
years, and still stands. It was sealed in blood. It has met dangers, and
overcome them; it has had enemies, and conquered them; it has had
detractors, and abashed them all; it has had doubting friends, but it
has cleared all doubts away; and now, to-day, raising its august form
higher than the clouds, twenty millions of people contemplate it with
hallowed love, and the world beholds it, and the consequences which have
followed from it, with profound admiration.
This anniversary animates and gladdens and unites all American hearts.
On other days of the year we may be party men, indulging in
controversies, more or less important to the public good; we may have
likes and dislikes, and we may maintain our political differences, often
with warm, and sometimes with angry feelings. But to-day we are
Americans all; and all nothing but Americans. As the great luminary over
our heads, dissipating mists and fogs, now cheers the whole hemisphere,
so do the associations connected with this day disperse all cloudy and
sullen weather in the minds and hearts of true Americans. Every man's
heart swells within him; every man's port and bearing become somewhat
more proud and lofty, as he remembers that seventy-five years have
rolled away, and that the great inheritance of liberty is still his;
his, undiminished and unimpaired; his in all its original glory; his to
enjoy, his to protect, and his to transmit to future generations.
Fellow-citizens, this inheritance which we enjoy to-day is not only an
inheritance of liberty, but of our own peculiar American liberty.
Liberty has existed in other times, in other countries, and in other
forms. There has been a Grecian liberty, bold and powerful, full of
spirit, eloquence, and fire; a liberty which produced multitudes of
great men, and has transmitted one immortal name, the name of
Demosthenes, to posterity. But still it was a liberty of disconnected
states, sometimes united, indeed, by temporary leagues and
confederacies, but often involved in wars between themselves. The sword
of Sparta turned its sharpest edge against Athens, enslaved her, and
devastated Greece; and, in her turn, Sparta was compelled to bend before
the power of Thebes. And let it ever be remembered, especially let the
truth sink deep into all American minds, that it was the WANT OF UNION
among her several states which finally gave the mastery of all Greece to
Philip of Macedon.
And there has also been a Roman liberty, a proud, ambitious, domineering
spirit, professing free and popular principles in Rome itself, but, even
in the best days of the republic, ready to carry slavery and chains into
her provinces, and through every country over which her eagles could be
borne. What was the liberty of Spain, or Gaul, or Germany, or Britain,
in the days of Rome? Did true constitutional liberty then exist? As the
Roman empire declined, her provinces, not instructed in the principles
of free popular government, one after another declined also, and when
Rome herself fell, in the end, all fell together.
I have said, Gentlemen, that our inheritance is an inheritance of
American liberty. That liberty is characteristic, peculiar, and
altogether our own. Nothing like it existed in former times, nor was
known in the most enlightened states of antiquity; while with us its
principles have become interwoven into the minds of individual men,
connected with our daily opinions, and our daily habits, until it is, if
I may so say, an element of social as well as of political life; and the
consequence is, that to whatever region an American citizen carries
himself, he takes with him, fully developed in his own understanding and
experience, our American principles and opinions, and becomes ready at
once, in co-operation with others, to apply them to the formation of new
governments. Of this a most wonderful instance may be seen in the
history of the State of California.
On a former occasion I ventured to remark, that "it is very difficult to
establish a free conservative government for the equal advancement of
all the interests of society. What has Germany done, learned Germany,
more full of ancient lore than all the world beside? What has Italy
done? What have they done who dwell on the spot where Cicero lived? They
have not the power of self-government which a common town-meeting, with
us, possesses.... Yes, I say that those persons who have gone from our
town-meetings to dig gold in California are more fit to make a
republican government than any body of men in Germany or Italy; because
they have learned this one great lesson, that there is no security
without law, and that, under the circumstances in which they are placed,
where there is no military authority to cut their throats, there is no
sovereign will but the will of the majority; that, therefore, if they
remain, they must submit to that will." And this I believe to be
strictly true.
Now, fellow-citizens, if your patience will hold out, I will venture,
before proceeding to the more appropriate and particular duties of the
day, to state, in a few words, what I take these American political
principles in substance to be. They consist, as I think, in the first
place, in the establishment of popular governments, on the basis of
representation; for it is plain that a pure democracy, like that which
existed in some of the states of Greece, in which every individual had a
direct vote in the enactment of all laws, cannot possibly exist in a
country of wide extent. This representation is to be made as equal as
circumstances will allow. Now, this principle of popular representation,
prevailing either in all the branches of government, or in some of them,
has existed in these States almost from the days of the settlements at
Jamestown and Plymouth; borrowed, no doubt, from the example of the
popular branch of the British legislature. The representation of the
people in the British House of Commons was, however, originally very
unequal, and is yet not equal. Indeed, it may be doubted whether the
appearance of knights and burgesses, assembling on the summons of the
crown, was not intended at first as an assistance and support to the
royal prerogative, in matters of revenue and taxation, rather than as a
mode of ascertaining popular opinion. Nevertheless, representation had a
popular origin, and savored more and more of the character of that
origin, as it acquired, by slow degrees, greater and greater strength,
in the actual government of the country. The constitution of the House
of Commons was certainly a form of representation, however unequal;
numbers were counted, and majorities prevailed; and when our ancestors,
acting upon this example, introduced more equality of representation,
the idea assumed a more rational and distinct shape. At any rate, this
manner of exercising popular power was familiar to our fathers when they
settled on this continent. They adopted it, and generation has risen up
after generation, all acknowledging it, and all learning its practice
and its forms.
The next fundamental principle in our system is, that the will of the
majority, fairly expressed through the means of representation, shall
have the force of law; and it is quite evident that, in a country
without thrones or aristocracies or privileged castes or classes, there
can be no other foundation for law to stand upon.
And, as the necessary result of this, the third element is, that the law
is the supreme rule for the government of all. The great sentiment of
Alcaeus, so beautifully presented to us by Sir William Jones, is
absolutely indispensable to the construction and maintenance of our
political systems:--
"What constitutes a state?
Not high-raised battlement or labored mound,
Thick wall or moated gate;
Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned;
Not bays and broad-armed ports,
Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride;
Not starred and spangled courts,
Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride.
No: MEN, high-minded MEN,
With powers as far above dull brutes endued,
In forest, brake, or den,
As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude:
Men who their duties know,
But know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain;
Prevent the long-aimed blow,
And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain:
These constitute a state;
And SOVEREIGN LAW, that state's collected will,
O'er thrones and globes elate
Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill."
And, finally, another most important part of the great fabric of
American liberty is, that there shall be written constitutions, founded
on the immediate authority of the people themselves, and regulating and
restraining all the powers conferred upon government, whether
legislative, executive, or judicial.
This, fellow-citizens, I suppose to be a just summary of our American
principles, and I have on this occasion sought to express them in the
plainest and in the fewest words. The summary may not be entirely exact,
but I hope it may be sufficiently so to make manifest to the rising
generation among ourselves, and to those elsewhere who may choose to
inquire into the nature of our political institutions, the general
theory upon which they are founded.
And I now proceed to add, that the strong and deep-settled conviction of
all intelligent persons amongst us is, that, in order to support a
useful and wise government upon these popular principles, the general
education of the people, and the wide diffusion of pure morality and
true religion, are indispensable. Individual virtue is a part of public
virtue. It is difficult to conceive how there can remain morality in the
government when it shall cease to exist among the people; or how the
aggregate of the political institutions, all the organs of which consist
only of men, should be wise, and beneficent, and competent to inspire
confidence, if the opposite qualities belong to the individuals who
constitute those organs, and make up that aggregate.
And now, fellow-citizens, I take leave of this part of the duty which I
proposed to perform; and, once more felicitating you and myself that
our eyes have seen the light of this blessed morning, and that our ears
have heard the shouts with which joyous thousands welcome its return,
and joining with you in the hope that every revolving year may renew
these rejoicings to the end of time, I proceed to address you, shortly,
upon the particular occasion of our assembling here to-day.
Fellow-citizens, by the act of Congress of the 30th of September, 1850,
provision was made for the extension of the Capitol, according to such
plan as might be approved by the President of the United States, and for
the necessary sums to be expended, under his direction, by such
architect as he might appoint. This measure was imperatively demanded,
for the use of the legislative and judiciary departments, the public
libraries, the occasional accommodation of the chief executive
magistrate, and for other objects. No act of Congress incurring a large
expenditure has received more general approbation from the people. The
President has proceeded to execute this law. He has approved a plan; he
has appointed an architect; and all things are now ready for the
commencement of the work.
The anniversary of national independence appeared to afford an
auspicious occasion for laying the foundation-stone of the additional
building. That ceremony has now been performed by the President himself,
in the presence and view of this multitude. He has thought that the day
and the occasion made a united and imperative call for some short
address to the people here assembled; and it is at his request that I
have appeared before you to perform that part of the duty which was
deemed incumbent on us.
Beneath the stone is deposited, among other things, a list of which will
be published, the following brief account of the proceedings of this
day, in my handwriting:--
"On the morning of the first day of the seventy-sixth year of the
Independence of the United States of America, in the city of
Washington, being the 4th day of July, 1851, this stone, designed
as the corner-stone of the extension of the Capitol, according to a
plan approved by the President, in pursuance of an act of Congress,
was laid by
"MILLARD FILLMORE,
"PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,
"assisted by the Grand Master of the Masonic Lodges, in the presence
of many members of Congress, of officers of the Executive and
Judiciary Departments, National, State, and District, of officers
of the army and navy, the corporate authorities of this and
neighboring cities, many associations, civil and military and
masonic, members of the Smithsonian Institution and National
Institute, professors of colleges and teachers of schools of the
District, with their students and pupils, and a vast concourse of
people from places near and remote, including a few surviving
gentlemen who witnessed the laying of the corner-stone of the
Capitol by President Washington, on the 18th day of September, A.D.
1793.
"If, therefore, it shall be hereafter the will of God that this
structure shall fall from its base, that its foundation be
upturned, and this deposit brought to the eyes of men, be it then
known, that on this day the Union of the United States of America
stands firm, that their Constitution still exists unimpaired, and
with all its original usefulness and glory; growing every day
stronger and stronger in the affections of the great body of the
American people, and attracting more and more the admiration of the
world. And all here assembled, whether belonging to public life or
to private life, with hearts devoutly thankful to Almighty God for
the preservation of the liberty and happiness of the country, unite
in sincere and fervent prayers that this deposit, and the walls and
arches, the domes and towers, the columns and entablatures, now to
be erected over it, may endure for ever!
"GOD SAVE THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!
"DANIEL WEBSTER,
"_Secretary of State of the United States_."
Fellow-citizens, fifty-eight years ago Washington stood on this spot to
execute a duty like that which has now been performed. He then laid the
corner-stone of the original Capitol. He was at the head of the
government, at that time weak in resources, burdened with debt, just
struggling into political existence and respectability, and agitated by
the heaving waves which were overturning European thrones. But even
then, in many important respects, the government was strong. It was
strong in Washington's own great character; it was strong in the wisdom
and patriotism of other eminent public men, his political associates and
fellow-laborers; and it was strong in the affections of the people.
Since that time astonishing changes have been wrought in the condition
and prospects of the American people; and a degree of progress witnessed
with which the world can furnish no parallel. As we review the course of
that progress, wonder and amazement arrest our attention at every step.
The present occasion, although allowing of no lengthened remarks, may
yet, perhaps, admit of a short comparative statement of important
subjects of national interest as they existed at that day, and as they
now exist. I have adopted for this purpose the tabular form of
statement, as being the most brief and significant.