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Where is the eagle still to tower? or is he to cower and shrink, and fall to the ground? Why, Sir, our ancestorsour fathers and our grandfathers, those of them that are yet living among us, with prolonged lives-would rebuke and reproach us, and our children and grandchildren would cry out shame upon us, if we of this generation should dishonor these ensigns of the power of the Government and the harmony of the Union, which is every day felt among us with so much joy and gratitude. What is to become of the army? What is to become of the navy? What is to become of the public lands? How is any one of thirty States to defend itself?

And now, Mr. President, instead of speaking of the possibility or utility of secession, instead of dwelling in these caverns of darkness, instead of groping with these ideas of all that is horrid and horrible, let us come out into the light of day; let us enjoy the fresh air of Liberty and Union; let us cherish those hopes which belong to us; let us devote ourselves to those great objects that are fit for our consideration and our action; let us raise our conceptions to the magnitude and the importance of the duties that devolve upon us; let our comprehension be as broad as the country for which we act, our aspirations as high as its certain destiny; let us not be pigmies in a case that calls for men. Let us make our generation one of the strongest and brightest links in that golden chain which is destined, I fondly believe, to grapple the people of all the States to this constitution for ages to come.

Ex. CLXII.-ON THE ADMISSION OF CALIFORNIA INTO THE

UNION.

Speech in Congress, March 11th, 1850.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

SIR: when the founders of the Republic of the South come to draw those fearful lines, they will indicate what portions of the continent are to be broken off from their connection with the Atlantic through the St. Lawrence, the Hudson,

* At that time U. S. Senator from New York.

ON THE ADMISSION OF CALIFORNIA.

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the Delaware, the Potomac and the Mississippi; what portion of this people are to be denied the use of the lakes, the railroads and the canals, now constituting common and customary avenues of travel, trade and social intercourse; what families and kindred are to be separated and converted into enemies; and what States are to feel the horrors of perpetual border warfare, aggravated by interminable horrors of servile insurrection. When those portentous lines shall be drawn, they will disclose what portion of this people is to retain the army and the navy and the flag of so many victories; and on the other hand, what portion of the people is to be subjected to new and onerous imposts, direct taxes and forced loans and conscriptions, to maintain an opposing army, an opposing navy, and the new and hateful banner of sedition. Then the projectors of the new republic of the South will meet the question-and they may well prepare now to answer it-What is all this for? What intolerable wrong, what unfraternal injustice have rendered these calamities unavoidable? The answer will be: All this is done to secure the institution of African Slavery.

I have heard somewhat here, and almost for the first time in my life, of divided allegiance-of allegiance to the South and to the Union-of allegiance to States severally and to the Union. But for all this I know only one country and one sovereign-the United States of America and the American people. And such as is my allegiance, is the loyalty of every other citizen of the United States. As I speak he will speak when his time arrives. He knows no other country and no other sovereign. He has life, liberty, property, and precious affections and hopes for himself and his posterity, treasured up in the ark of the Union. He knows as well and feels as strongly as I do, that this government is his own government; that he is a part of it; that it was established for him and that it is maintained by him; that it is the only truly wise, just, free and equal government that has ever existed; that no other government could be so wise, just, free and equal; and that it is safer and more beneficent than any which time or change could bring into its place.

Ex. CLXIII.-LIBERTY TRIUMPHANT.

Address delivered on laying the corner-stone of the new wing of the Capitol at Washington, July 4th, 1851.

DANIEL WEBSTER.

On the Fourth 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 pro found 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. Every man's heart swells within him 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.

If Washington was now among us,-if he could draw around him the shades of the great public men of his own days-patriots and warriors, orators and statesmen--and were to address us in their presence, would he not say to us: "Ye men of this generation, I rejoice and thank God for being able to see that our labors, and toils, and sacrifices were not in vain. You are prosperous,--you are happy,you are grateful. The fire of liberty burns brightly and steadily in your hearts, while duty and law restrain it from bursting forth in wild and destructive conflagration. Cherish

A FOURTH OF JULY ADDRESS ON SECESSION.

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liberty as you love it; cherish its securities as you wish to preserve it. Maintain the Constitution which we labored so painfully to establish, and which has been to you such a source of inestimable blessings. Preserve the Union of the States, cemented as it was by our prayers, our tears and our blood. Be true to God, to your country, and to your duty. So shall the whole Eastern world follow the morning sun, to contemplate you as a nation; so shall all generations honor you as they honor us; and so shall the Almighty Power which so graciously protected us, and which now protects you, shower its everlasting blessings upon you and your posterity!"

Great father of your country! we heed your words; we feel their force, as if you now uttered them with lips of flesh and blood. Your example teaches us, your affectionate addresses teach us, your public life teaches us, the value of the blessings of the Union. Those blessings our fathers have tasted, and we have tasted, and still taste. Nor do we intend that those who come after us shall be denied the same high fruition. Our honor, as well as our happiness, is con-. cerned. We can not, we dare not, we will not, betray our sacred trust. We will not filch from posterity the treasure placed in our hands to be transmitted to future generations. The bow that gilds the clouds in the heavens, the pillars that uphold the firmament, may disappear and fall away in the hour appointed by the will of God; but, until that day comes, or so long as our lives may last, no ruthless hand shall undermine that bright arch of Union and Liberty which spans the continent from Washington to California!

Ex. CLXIV.-A FOURTH OF JULY ADDRESS ON SECESSION.*

FRANCIS LIEBER.

I ASK, will any one who desires secession for the sake of bringing about a Southern Confederacy, honestly aver that he would insist upon a provision in the new constitution securing the full right of secession whenever it may be desired by any member of the expected Confederacy?

*In the year 1850, after the admission of California as a free State, secession was urged by a strong party in South Carolina; but when a convention

To secede, then, requires revolution. Revolution for what? To remedy certain evils. And how are they to be remedied? It is a rule laid down among all the authorities of international law and ethics, that to be justified in going to war it is not sufficient that right be on our side. We must also have a fair prospect of success in our favor. This rule applies with far greater force to revolutions. The Jews who rose against Vespasian had all the right, I dare say, on their side; but their undertaking was not a warrantable one for all that. We, however, should we have sufficient right on our side for plunging into a revolution-for letting loose a civil war? Does the system against which we should rise contain within its own bosom no peaceful, lawful remedies?

We are often told that our forefathers plunged into a revolution, why should not we? Even if the two cases were comparable, which they are obviously not, I would ask, on the other hand, Are we to have a revolution every fifty years? Give me the Muscovite Czar rather than live under such a government, if government it could be called. I am a good swimmer, but I should not like to spend my life in whirlpools. And does the question of right or wrong, of truth and justice, go for nothing in revolutions?

Nor would the probability of success be in our favor, since it is certain that secession can not take place without war, and this war must end in one or the other of two ways. It must either kindle a general conflagration, or we must suffer, single-handed, the consequences of our rashness-bitter if we succeed in lopping ourselves off from the trunk, bitter if we can not succeed. Unsuccessful revolutions are not only misfortunes, they become stigmas. And what if the conflagration becomes general? Let us remember that it is a rule which pervades all history, because it pervades every house, that the enmity of contending parties is implacable and venomous in the same degree as they have previously stood near each other, or as nature intended the relation of good will to exist between them. It is the secret of all civil and religious wars; was held in Charleston, it was found that the so-called Co-operationists-that is to say, those who were in favor of secession, indeed, but only conjointly with other States,-were in the majority. The Union-men of the State, desirous of doing, on their part, whatever might be in their power to strengthen the Union feeling, resolved, in 1851, to celebrate, by a mass-meeting at Greenville, S. C., the Fourth of July, a day already then frequently spoken of with little respect. Dr. Lieber, the author of the above address, was at that time Professor of History and Political Economy in the South Carolina College at Columbia.

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