Daniel Webster 1782-1852 John Bartlett


1
Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens.
Speech at Plymouth, Dec. 22, 1820. Vol. i. p. 44. 1
2
We wish that this column, rising towards heaven among the pointed spires of so many temples dedicated to God, may contribute also to produce in all minds a pious feeling of dependence and gratitude. We wish, finally, that the last object to the sight of him who leaves his native shore, and the first to gladden his who revisits it, may be something which shall remind him of the liberty and the glory of his country. Let it rise! let it rise, till it meet the sun in his coming; let the earliest light of the morning gild it, and the parting day linger and play on its summit!
Address on laying the Corner-Stone of the Bunker Hill Monument, 1825. P. 62.
3
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.
Address on laying the Corner-Stone of the Bunker Hill Monument, 1825. P. 64.
4
Mind is the great lever of all things; human thought is the process by which human ends are ultimately answered.
Address on laying the Corner-Stone of the Bunker Hill Monument, 1825. P. 71.
5
Knowledge, in truth, is the great sun in the firmament. Life and power are scattered with all its beams.
Address on laying the Corner-Stone of the Bunker Hill Monument, 1825. P. 74.
6
Let our object be our country, our whole country, and nothing but our country.
Address on laying the Corner-Stone of the Bunker Hill Monument, 1825. P. 78.
7
Knowledge is the only fountain both of the love and the principles of human liberty.
Completion of Bunker Hill Monument, June 17, 1843. P. 93.
8
The Bible is a book of faith, and a book of doctrine, and a book of morals, and a book of religion, of especial revelation from God.
Completion of Bunker Hill Monument, June 17, 1843. P. 102.
9
America has furnished to the world the character of Washington. And if our American institutions had done nothing else, that alone would have entitled them to the respect of mankind.
Completion of Bunker Hill Monument, June 17, 1843. P. 105.
10
Thank God! I—I also—am an American!
Completion of Bunker Hill Monument, June 17, 1843. P. 107.



11
Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote. 2
Eulogy on Adams and Jefferson, Aug. 2, 1826. P. 133.
12
It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment,—Independence now and Independence forever. 3
Eulogy on Adams and Jefferson, Aug. 2, 1826. P. 136.
13
Although no sculptured marble should rise to their memory, nor engraved stone bear record of their deeds, yet will their remembrance be as lasting as the land they honored.
Eulogy on Adams and Jefferson, Aug. 2, 1826. P. 146.
14
Washington is in the clear upper sky. 4
Eulogy on Adams and Jefferson, Aug. 2, 1826. P. 148.
15
He smote the rock of the national resources, and abundant streams of revenue gushed forth. He touched the dead corpse of Public Credit, and it sprung upon its feet. 5
Speech on Hamilton, March 10, 1831. P. 200.
16
One country, one constitution, one destiny.
Speech, March 15, 1837. P. 349.
17
When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers therefore are the founders of human civilization.
Remarks on Agriculture, Jan 13, 1840. P. 457.
18
Sea of upturned faces. 6
Speech, Sept. 30, 1842. Vol. ii. p. 117.
19
Justice, sir, is the great interest of man on earth.
On Mr. Justice Story, 1845. P. 300.
20
Liberty exists in proportion to wholesome restraint.
Speech at the Charleston Bar Dinner, May 10, 1847. Vol. ii. p. 393.
21
The law: It has honored us; may we honor it.
Toast at the Charleston Bar Dinner, May 10, 1847. Vol. ii. p. 394.
22
I have read their platform, and though I think there are some unsound places in it, I can stand upon it pretty well. But I see nothing in it both new and valuable. “What is valuable is not new, and what is new is not valuable.”
Speech at Marshfield, Sept. 1, 1848. P. 433.
23
Labour in this country is independent and proud. It has not to ask the patronage of capital, but capital solicits the aid of labor.
Speech, April, 1824. Vol. iii. p. 141.
24
The gentleman has not seen how to reply to this, otherwise than by supposing me to have advanced the doctrine that a national debt is a national blessing. 7
Second Speech on Foot’s Resolution, Jan. 26, 1830. P. 303.
25
I thank God, that if I am gifted with little of the spirit which is able to raise mortals to the skies, I have yet none, as I trust, of that other spirit which would drag angels down.
Second Speech on Foot’s Resolution, Jan. 26, 1830. P. 316.
26
I shall enter on no encomium upon Massachusetts; she needs none. There she is. Behold her, and judge for yourselves. There is her history; the world knows it by heart. The past, at least, is secure. There is Boston and Concord and Lexington and Bunker Hill; and there they will remain forever.
Second Speech on Foot’s Resolution, Jan. 26, 1830. P. 317.
27
The people’s government, made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people. 8
Second Speech on Foot’s Resolution, Jan. 26, 1830. P. 321.
28
When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time 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.
Second Speech on Foot’s Resolution, Jan. 26, 1830. P. 342.
29
Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.
Second Speech on Foot’s Resolution, Jan. 26, 1830. P. 342.
30
God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.
Speech, June 3, 1834. Vol. iv. p. 47.
31
On this question of principle, while actual suffering was yet afar off, they [the Colonies] raised their flag against a power to which, for purposes of foreign conquest 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 possessions and military posts, whose morning drum-beat, following the sun, 9 and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England. 10
Speech, May 7, 1834. P. 110.
32
Inconsistencies of opinion, arising from changes of circumstances, are often justifiable.
Speech, July 25 and 27, 1846. Vol. v. p. 187.
33
I was born an American; I will live an American; I shall die an American. 11
Speech, July 17, 1850. P. 437.
34
There is no refuge from confession but suicide; and suicide is confession.
Argument on the Murder of Captain White, April 6, 1830. Vol. vi. p. 54.
35
There is nothing so powerful as truth,—and often nothing so strange.
Argument on the Murder of Captain White, April 6, 1830. Vol. vi. p. 68.
36
Fearful concatenation of circumstances. 12
Argument on the Murder of Captain White, April 6, 1830. Vol. vi. p. 88.
37
A sense of duty pursues us ever. It is omnipresent, like the Deity. If we take to ourselves the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, duty performed or duty violated is still with us, for our happiness or our misery. If we say the darkness shall cover us, in the darkness as in the light our obligations are yet with us.
Argument on the Murder of Captain White, April 6, 1830. Vol. vi. p. 105.
38
I shall defer my visit to Faneuil Hall, the cradle of American liberty, until its doors shall fly open on golden hinges to lovers of Union as well as lovers of liberty. 13
Letter, April, 1851.

Note 1.
This oration will be read five hundred years hence with as much rapture as it was heard. It ought to be read at the end of every century, and indeed at the end of every year, forever and ever.—John Adams: Letter to Webster, Dec. 23, 1821. [back]

Note 2.
Mr. Adams, describing a conversation with Jonathan Sewall in 1774, says: “I answered that the die was now cast; I had passed the Rubicon. Swim or sink, live or die, survive or perish with my country was my unalterable determination.”—John Adams: Works, vol. iv. p. 8.

Live or die, sink or swim.—George Peele: Edward I. (1584?). [back]

Note 3.
Mr. Webster says of Mr. Adams: “On the day of his death, hearing the noise of bells and cannon, he asked the occasion. On being reminded that it was ‘Independent Day,’ he replied, ‘Independence forever.’”—Works, vol. i. p. 150. Bancroft: History of the United States, vol. vii. p. 65. [back]

Note 4.
We shall be strong to run the race,
And climb the upper sky.
Isaac Watts: Spiritual Hymns, xxiv. [back]

Note 5.
He it was that first gave to the law the air of a science. He found it a skeleton, and clothed it with life, colour, and complexion: he embraced the old statue, and by his touch it grew into youth, health, and beauty.—Barry Yelverton (Lord Avonmore): On Blackstone. [back]

Note 6.
See Scott, Quotation 59. [back]

Note 7.
A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.—Alexander Hamilton. [back]

Note 8.
When the State of Pennsylvania held its convention to consider the Constitution of the United States, Judge Wilson said of the introductory clause, “We, the people, do ordain and establish,” etc.: “It is not an unmeaning flourish. The expressions declare in a practical manner the principle of this Constitution. It is ordained and established by the people themselves.” This as regarded as an authoritative exposition.—The Nation.

That government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.—Abraham Lincoln: Speech at Gettysburg, Nov. 19, 1863. [back]

Note 9.
See Scott, Quotation 79. [back]

Note 10.
The martial airs of England
Encircle still the earth.
Amelia B. Richards: The Martial Airs of England. [back]

Note 11.
See Patrick Henry, Quotation 2. [back]

Note 12.
See Scott, Quotation 64. [back]

Note 13.
Mr. Webster’s reply to the invitation of his friends, who had been refused the use of Faneuil Hall by the Mayor and Aldermen of Boston. [back]

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