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But whatever may be our fate, be assured- be assured that this Declaration will stand. It may cost treasure, and it may cost blood; but it will stand, and it will richly compensate for both. Through the thick gloom of the present I see the brightness of the future as the sun in heaven. We shall make this a glorious, an immortal day. When we are in our graves, our children will honor it. They will celebrate it with thanksgiving, with festivity, with bonfires, and illuminations. On its annual return they will shed tears, - copious, gushing tears; not of subjection and slavery, not of agony and distress, but of exultation, of gratitude, and of joy.

Sir, before God, I believe the hour is come. My judgment approves the measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have,1 and all that I am, and all that I hope in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it; and I leave off as I began, that, live or die,2 survive or perish, I am for the Declaration. It is my living sentiment, and, by the blessing of God, it shall be my dying sentiment: independence now, and INDEPENDENCE FOR EVER.

DANIEL WEBSTER.

79.-Pitt in Reply to Walpole (1740).

This speech by William Pitt (known as the "elder Pitt," afterward first Earl of Chatham), born in 1708, died 1778, was drawn out by the fact that Horatio Walpole, angered by a previous speech of Pitt in Parliament, twitted him with being a young man. Pitt entered Par

1 All that I have, etc. Note the climax. (See Def. 6.)

2 live or die. Note the antithe sis. (See Def. 5.)

liament in 1735, and at once took a leading part in the discussion of public affairs. He was one of the most ardent friends of the American colonists. This speech was reported from memory and probably with great freedom by Dr. Samuel Johnson. It abounds in cutting sarcasm and irony, and should be delivered so as to express these mental states.

Sir, the atrocious crime of being a young man, which the honorable gentleman has, with such spirit and decency, charged upon me, I shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny; but content myself with wishing that I may be one of those whose follies may cease with their youth, and not of those who continue ignorant in spite of age and experi

ence.

Whether youth can be attributed to any man as a reproach, I will not, sir, assume the province of determining; but surely age may justly become contemptible, if the opportunities which it brings have passed away without improvement, and vice appear to prevail when the passions have subsided. The wretch who, after having seen the consequences of a thousand errors, continues still to blunder, and in whom age has only added obstinacy to stupidity, is surely the object either of abhorrence or contempt, and deserves not that his gray head should secure him from insults. Much more, sir, is he to be abhorred, who, as he has advanced in age, has receded from virtue, and become more wicked with less temptation; who prostitutes himself for money which he can not enjoy, and spends the remains of his life in the ruin of his country.

But youth, sir, is not my only crime. I have been accused of acting a theatrical part. A theatrical part may either imply some peculiarities of gesture, or a dissimulation of my real sentiments, and the adoption of the opinions and language of another man.

In the first sense, sir, the charge is too trifling to be confuted, and deserves to be mentioned only that it may be despised. I am at liberty, like every other man, to use my own language; and though I may perhaps have some ambition to please this gentleman, I shall not lay myself under any restraint, nor very solicitously copy his diction or his mien,1 however matured by age, or modeled by experience.

But if any man shall, by charging me with theatrical behavior, imply that I utter any sentiments but my own, I shall treat him as a calumniator and a villain; nor shall any protection shelter him from the treatment which he deserves. I shall, on such an occasion, without scruple, trample upon all those forms with which wealth and dignity intrench themselves; nor shall anything but age restrain my resentment; age, which always brings with it one privilege, that of being insolent and supercilious. without punishment.

But with regard, sir, to those whom I have offended, I am of opinion that if I had acted a borrowed part, I should have avoided their censure. The heat which offended them is the ardor of conviction, and that zeal for the service of my country which neither hope nor fear shall influence me to suppress. I will not sit unconcerned while my liberty is invaded, nor look in silence upon public robbery. I will exert my endeavors, at whatever hazard, to repel the aggressor, and drag the thief to justice, whoever may protect him in his villainy, and whoever may partake of his plunder.

1 mien, manner, demeanor.

80.-The Fruits of Liberty.

This brilliant exposition of "The Fruits of Liberty" is an extract from Macaulay's celebrated essay on Milton, -the essay which first revealed Macaulay's dazzling style.

Ariosto1 tells a pretty story of a fairy, who, by some mysterious law of her nature, was condemned to appear at certain seasons in the form of a foul and poisonous snake. Those who injured her during the period of her disguise were for ever excluded from participation in the blessings which she bestowed. But to those who, in spite of her loathsome aspect, pitied and protected her, she afterwards revealed herself in the beautiful and celestial form which was natural to her, accompanied their steps, granted all their wishes, filled their houses with wealth, made them happy in love and victorious in war.

Such a spirit is Liberty. At times she takes the form. of a hateful reptile. She grovels, she hisses, she stings. But woe to those who in disgust shall venture to crush her! And happy are those who, having dared to receive her in her degraded and frightful shape, shall at length be rewarded by her in the time of her beauty and her glory!

There is only one cure for the evils which newly acquired freedom produces, and that cure is freedom. When a prisoner first leaves his cell, he can not bear the light of day he is unable to discriminate colors, or recognize

1 Ariosto (1474-1533), one of the | "Orlando Furioso," in which poem greatest of Italian poets. His prin- the story referred to by Macaulay cipal work is a long poem called occurs.

faces. But the remedy is, not to remand him into his dungeon, but to accustom him to the rays of the sun.

The blaze of truth and liberty may at first dazzle and bewilder nations which have become half blind in the house of bondage. But let them gaze on, and they will soon be able to bear it. In a few years men learn to reason. The extreme violence of opinions subsides. Hostile theories correct each other. The scattered elements of truth cease to contend, and begin to coalesce. And, at length, a system of justice and order is educed out of the chaos.

Many politicians of our time are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition, that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story, who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim. If men are to wait for liberty till they become wise and good in slavery, they may indeed wait for ever.

81.-The Spirit of Liberty in the American Colonies.

The following is an extract from one of the most celebrated speeches ("On Conciliation with America") of Edmund Burke (1730-1797), the most eloquent of British orators. This speech was delivered in the House of Commons, in 1775, at the time when Lord North was urging his insidious measures for the division of the American colonies.

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These, sir, are my reasons for not entertaining that high opinion of untried force, by which many gentlemen,

1 These... reasons. In a pre- | America, that force was an inadevious part of his speech, Burke had quate instrument for holding such shown, from minute consideration a people in subjection to the moth. of the state and circumstances of er country.

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