DANIEL WEBSTER
A free government in America came at an expensive price. The men who stood and fell at Bunker Hill on June 17, 1774, knew the price of resisting British tyranny. For some, it cost their lives. Others fought until running out of ammunition and then retreated to fight another day. These men proved that a ragtag army of farmers could stand up to the military might and discipline of the British army. These men shattered any perception of British invincibility. As the war turned and a new nation was formed, the example of these men was a model for the entire country.
When it came time to remember this pivotal battle, on the fiftieth anniversary, only one man’s rhetorical gift could do justice to this noble sacrifice. Daniel Webster (1782–1852) had served a distinguished career as a constitutional lawyer, eloquently arguing numerous cases and bending the fledgling Supreme Court to his will. His career is one of the finest examples of an American statesman. His gift with language and elocution is still an envy of many a silver-tongued rhetorician. He served in the U. S. House of Representatives and the Senate, and as the secretary of state for Millard Fillmore and William Henry Harrison, as well as running for president. While serving in the House of Representatives, Webster was asked to deliver an address marking the sacrifice of Bunker Hill.
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Webster’s speech is a paean not merely to America, but rather to the virtues and dignity modeled in the government created in this new nation. The necessity of a representative government, the need of safeguards for liberty, and the goodness of the gift handed down by the founders received a stirring rendition. Fifty veterans from that very war sat and listened as Webster called people to service, to live worthy of the gift they had received. When he said, “The principle of free government adheres to American soil. It is bedded in it, immovable as its mountains,” the very mountains seemed to ring out their affirmation.
Exhibiting leadership in public life, calling others to nobility and action—these are the virtues and God-given talent of someone like Daniel Webster.
And, now, let us indulge an honest exultation in the conviction of the benefit which the example of our country has produced, and is likely to produce, on human freedom and human happiness. Let us endeavor to comprehend in all its magnitude, and to feel in all its importance, the part assigned to us in the great drama of human affairs. We are placed at the head of the system of representative and popular governments. Thus far our example shows that such governments are compatible, not only with respectability and power, but with repose, with peace, with security of personal rights, with good laws, and a just administration.
We are not propagandists. Wherever other systems are preferred, either as being thought better in themselves, or as better suited to existing conditions, we leave the preference to be enjoyed. Our history hitherto proves, however, that the popular form is practicable, and that with wisdom and knowledge men may govern themselves; and the duty incumbent on us is, to preserve the consistency of this cheering world. If, in our case, the representative system ultimately fail, popular governments must be pronounced impossible. No combination of circumstances more favorable to the experiment can ever be expected to occur. The last hopes of mankind, therefore, rest with us; and if it should be proclaimed, that our example had become an argument against the experiment, the knell of popular liberty would be sounded throughout the earth.
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These are excitements to duty; but they are not suggestions of doubt. Our history and our condition, all that is gone before us and all that surrounds us, authorize the belief, that popular governments, though subject to occasional variations, in form perhaps not always for the better, may yet, in their general character, be as durable and permanent as other systems. We know, indeed, that in our country any other is impossible. The principle of free government adheres to American soil. It is bedded in it, immovable as its mountains.
And let the sacred obligation which have devolved on this generation, and on us, sink deep into our hearts. Those who established our liberty and our government are daily dropping from among us. The great trust now descends to new hands. Let us apply ourselves to that which is presented to us, as our appropriate object. We can win no laurels in a war for independence. Earlier and worthier hands have gathered them all. Nor are there places for us by the side of Solon, and Alfred, and other founders of states. Our fathers have filled them. But there remains to us a great duty of defense and preservation, and there is opened to us, also, a noble pursuit, to which the spirit of the times strongly invites us. Our proper business is improvement. Let our age be the age of improvement. In a day of peace, let us advance the arts of peace and the works of peace. Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered. Let us cultivate a true spirit of union and harmony. In pursuing the great objects which our condition points out to us, let us act under a settled conviction, and a habitual feeling, that these twenty-four States are one country. Let our conception be enlarged to the circle of our duties. Let us extend our ideas over the whole of the vast field in which we are called to act. Let our object be, our country, our whole country, and nothing but our country. And, by the blessing of God, may that country itself become a vast and splendid monument, not of oppression and terror, but of Wisdom, of Peace, and of Liberty, upon which the world may gaze with admiration for ever!!