From a daguerreotype by T. D. Jones. Copyright, 1901, by Dartmouth College. DANIEL WEBSTER FOR YOUNG AMERICANS COMPRISING THE GREATEST SPEECHES OF THE DEFENDER OF THE CONSTITUTION WITH NOTES BY CHARLES F. RICHARDSON PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN DARTMOUTH COLLEGE School Edition ILLUSTRATED BOSTON LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 1907 Copyright, 1903, 1906, By Little, Brown, and Company. All rights reserved The Eastern Press Co. Boston, Mass....

A DISCOURSE DELIVERED AT PLYMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS, DEC. 22, 1820. [In 1820 the “Pilgrim Society” was formed by the citizens of Plymouth, Massachusetts, and the descendants of the Pilgrims in other places, desirous of uniting “to commemorate the landing, and to honor the memory of the intrepid men who first set foot on Plymouth Rock.” The foundation of this society gave a new impulse to the anniversary celebrations of the two hundredth anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. Mr. We

AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE AT CHARLESTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS, JUNE 17, 1825 [7] This uncounted multitude before me and around me proves the feeling which the occasion has excited. These thousands of human faces, glowing with sympathy and joy, and from the impulses of a common gratitude turned reverently to heaven in this spacious temple of the firmament, proclaim that the day, the place, and the purpose of our assembling have made a deep impression on our hearts. If, inde

AN ADDRESS DELIVERED JUNE 17, 1843 [It was determined by the directors of the Bunker Hill Monument Association, that the completion of the work should be celebrated in a manner not less imposing than that in which the laying of the corner-stone had been celebrated, seventeen years before. The co-operation of Mr. Webster was again invited, and, notwithstanding the pressure of his engagements as Secretary of State at Washington, was again patriotically yielded. The President of the United States a

A DISCOURSE IN COMMEMORATION OF THE LIVES AND SERVICES OF JOHN ADAMS AND THOMAS JEFFERSON; DELIVERED IN FANEUIL HALL, BOSTON, AUGUST 2, 1826 [Since the death of Washington, on the 14th of December, 1799, the public mind had never been so powerfully affected by any similar event as by the death of John Adams, on the 4th of July, 1826. The news reached Boston in the evening of that day. It acquired a singular interest from the year and the day on which it took place;—the 4th of July of the year co

FROM AN ARGUMENT ON THE TRIAL OF JOHN FRANCIS KNAPP, AT SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS, AUG. 3, 1830 Gentlemen, it is a most extraordinary case. In some respects, it has hardly a precedent anywhere; certainly none in our New England history. This bloody drama exhibited no suddenly excited, ungovernable rage. The actors in it were not surprised by any lion-like temptation springing upon their virtue, and overcoming it, before resistance could begin. Nor did they do the deed to glut savage vengeance, or sat

FROM THE SECOND SPEECH ON FOOT’S RESOLUTION, DELIVERED IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, JAN. 26 AND 27, 1830 [26] Mr. President ,—When the mariner has been tossed for many days in thick weather, and on an unknown sea, he naturally avails himself of the first pause in the storm, the earliest glance of the sun, to take his latitude, and ascertain how far the elements have driven him from his true course. Let us imitate this prudence, and, before we float farther on the waves of this debate, ref

FROM A SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONVENTION HELD AT WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, OCTOBER 12, 1832 The same party selfishness which drives good men out of office will push bad men in. Political proscription leads necessarily to the filling of offices with incompetent persons, and to a consequent mal-execution of official duties. And in my opinion, Sir, this principle of claiming a monopoly of office by the right of conquest, unless the public shall effectually rebuke and restrain i

A SPEECH DELIVERED AT A PUBLIC DINNER IN THE CITY OF WASHINGTON, FEB. 22, 1832, THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF WASHINGTON’S BIRTH We are met to testify our regard for him whose name is intimately blended with whatever belongs most essentially to the prosperity, the liberty, the free institutions, and the renown of our country. That name was of power to rally a nation, in the hour of thick-thronging public disasters and calamities; that name shone, amid the storm of war, a beacon light, to cheer a

FROM A SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, MARCH 7, 1850 [44] Mr. President,—I wish to speak to-day, not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but as an American, and a member of the Senate of the United States. It is fortunate that there is a Senate of the United States; a body not yet moved from its propriety, not lost to a just sense of its own dignity and its own high responsibilities, and a body to which the country looks, with confidence, for wise, moderate, patri