Select Speeches of Daniel Webster, 1817-1845Webster, Daniel
General
Select Speeches of Daniel Webster, 1817-1845
Webster, Daniel
Speeches, addresses, etc., American
post-offices, moved by the same apprehension, join in the cry of alarm,
while a perfect earthquake of disinterested remonstrance proceeds from
the custom-houses. Patronage and favoritism tremble and quake, through
every limb and every nerve, lest the people should be found in favor of
a change, which might endanger the liberties of the country, or at
least break down its present eminent and distinguished prosperity, by
abandoning the measures, so wise, so beneficent, so successful, and so
popular, which the present administration has pursued!
Fellow-citizens, we have all sober and important duties to perform. I
have not addressed you to-day for the purpose of joining in a premature
note of triumph, or raising a shout for anticipated victories. We are
in the controversy, not through it. It is our duty to spare no pains to
circulate information, and to spread the truth far and wide. Let us
persuade those who differ from us, if we can, to hear both sides. Let
us remind them that we are all embarked together, with a common
interest and a common fate. And let us, without rebuke or unkindness,
beseech them to consider what the good of the whole requires, what is
best for them and for us.
There are two causes which keep back thousands of honest men from
joining those who wish for a change. The first of these is the fear of
reproach from former associates, and the pain which party denunciation
is capable of inflicting. But, surely, the manliness of the American
character is superior to this! Surely, no American citizen will feel
himself chained to the wheels of any party, nor bound to follow it,
against his conscience and his sense of the interest of the country.
Resolution and decision ought to dissipate such restraints, and to
leave men free at once to act upon their own convictions. Unless this
can be done, party has entailed upon us a miserable slavery, by
compelling us to act against our consciences on questions of the
greatest importance.
The other cause is the constant cry that the party of the
administration is the true democratic party, or the more popular party
in the government and in the country. The falsity of this claim has not
been sufficiently exposed. It should have been met, and should be now
met, not only by denial, but by proof. If they mean the new
democracy,--the cry against credit, against industry, against labor,
against a man's right to leave his own earnings to his own
children,--why, then, doubtless, they are right; all this sort of
democracy is theirs. But if by democracy they mean a conscientious and
stern adherence to the true popular principles of the Constitution and
the government, then I think they have very little claim to it. Is the
augmentation of executive power a democratic principle? Is the
separation of the currency of the government from the currency of the
people a democratic principle? Is the imbodying a large military force,
in time of peace, a democratic principle?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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