stimulated, Webster was compelled to put forth every atom of his strength. He was throughout his whole senatorial career a giant roused to conflict, a champion always fully armed and ready at any moment to meet all challengers and give instant battle for the cause that he had made his own.

But most of all was Webster fortunate in the cause itself. Entering the Senate at a time when the momentous struggle was beginning between those who viewed the State as a federation of independent sovereignties linked together for purposes of expediency alone, and those who regarded it as a united nation whose constituent parts had been welded together into an imperishable unity, it was with the latter that Webster ranged himself at once, and he at once became their acknowledged chief. Therefore, throughout the rest of his career he stood forth as the unflinching champion of the national ideal, one whose every utterance appealed in some way to the pride of nationality and to the desire of the people to be great and strong and magnificent; and he pictured this ideal in such splendid colors, and he made it seem so real, so stately, and so glorious that in the end the majority of his countrymen accepted it as their own and held to it unflinchingly when at the last it had to stand the final test of war.

Webster's style had about it always something Roman in its spirit and expression. It was always strong and stately, always noble and majestic, always virile and intensely masterful. Yet there was no heaviness about it, as there was about the style of Benton; his thought flashed through it all with a certain lithe alertness that is seldom joined to so much pomp and pageantry. Technically described in the language of ancient rhetorical criticism, it was a perfect example of the "Rhodian " style, — the middle style, as distinguished from the florid "Asiatic" manner of orators like Legaré and Thomas Corwin, and from the Attic simplicity of his lifelong antagonist Calhoun. The closest parallel to it is to be found in the oratory of Cicero. Its rhetoric is as perfect in its choice of phrase, in its marshalling of the sentences, in the rhythmical swing of its cadences, and in the beauty and exquisite fitness of its imagery. Yet it is far superior to Cicero's in this, that we are never conscious in Webster of that combination of weakness and insincerity, of pose and special pleading which the

Ciceronian oratory exhibits, nor of the cheap facility of the trained advocate, who can argue with equal plausibility on any side of every question. Webster was always intensely in earnest; the note of perfect conviction dominates his utterances; and there is an undercurrent of the passion that stirs the blood and gives enduring vitality to the words and thoughts of the inspired orator.

The Websterian style, whether it be studied in the legal or in the forensic oratory of its master, or in his formal correspondence, will be found to show at all times the same essential characteristics, though with modifications to suit the occasion or the personality of his auditors. In his legal oratory he is simpler and more direct than elsewhere; in his great senatorial speeches he is more rhetorical and splendid; in his correspondence he is more terse and pointed; yet he is always Roman.

The grandest and most magnificent of all his orations is the celebrated reply to Hayne, which was pronounced at the climax of a great national debate, on an occasion of intense dramatic interest, and under circumstances which suggest a gladiatorial combat, with the whole nation as spectators. Of this oration no words can exaggerate the importance or the power. It is indeed, to borrow a phrase of Quintilian, less a creation of eloquence than the very voice of eloquence itself. Every quality of the born orator is seen in it the art of arrangement, the symmetrical development of the central thought, the effective marshalling of facts, the grace of diction, the beauty of imagery, and, in the grand peroration, the whole power and sustained magnificence of a great imagina-t tive intellect aflame with passion, yet conscious of its own irresistible strength, so that it does not hurry, but sweeps along with an ever-increasing impetus, until it carries all before it, and ends in a burst of stirring music that is overwhelming in its sublimity and splendor. This oration must stand as the supreme example of successful oratory, since its words are as thrilling to-day as at the very moment when they were first spoken; and from that moment they became a living power in our political life; for, declaimed by every schoolboy throughout the land, they sank down deep into the national consciousness, and thus in the end profoundly influenced the whole future of our national history.

HARRY THURSTON PECK

THE EXAMPLE OF OUR COUNTRY

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 condition, 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 example, and take care that nothing may weaken its authority with the 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.

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 governments adheres to the American soil. It is bedded in it, immovable as its mountains.

And let the sacred obligations 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 defence 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 an habitual feeling, that these twenty-four States are one country. larged to the circle of our duties.

Let our

Let our conceptions be enLet us extend our ideas over the whole of the vast field in which we are called to act. 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!

[From The Bunker Hill Monument, an address delivered at the laying of the corner-stone of the Bunker Hill Monument at Charlestown, Mass., June 17, 1825. Works, vol. i, pp. 76–78.]

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SPEECH OF JOHN ADAMS

It was for Mr. Adams to reply to arguments like these. We know his opinions, and we know his character. He would commence with his accustomed directness and earnestness.

"Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand

and my heart to this vote. It is true, indeed, that in the beginning we aimed not at independence. But there's a Divinity which shapes our ends. The injustice of England has driven us to arms; and, blinded to her own interest for our good, she has obstinately persisted, till independence is now within our grasp. We have but to reach forth to it, and it is ours. Why, then, should we defer the Declaration? Is any man so weak as now to hope for a reconciliation with England, which shall leave either safety to the country and its liberties, or safety to his own life and his own honor? Are not you, Sir, who sit in that chair, is not he, our venerable colleague near you, are you not both already the proscribed and predestined objects of punishment and of vengeance? Cut off from all hope of royal clemency, what are you, what can you be, while the power of England remains, but outlaws? If we postpone independence, do we mean to carry on, or to give up, the war? Do we mean to submit to the measures of Parliament, Boston Port Bill and all? Do we mean to submit, and consent that we ourselves shall be ground to powder, and our country and its rights trodden down in the dust? I know we do not mean to submit. We never shall submit. Do we intend to violate that most solemn obligation ever entered into by men, that plighting, before God, of our sacred honor to Washington, when, putting him forth to incur the dangers of war, as well as the political hazards of the times, we promised to adhere to him, in every extremity, with our fortunes and our lives? I know there is not a man here, who would not rather see a general conflagration sweep over the land, or an earthquake sink it, than one jot or tittle of that plighted faith fall to the ground. For myself, having, twelve months ago, in this place, moved you, that George Washington be appointed commander of the forces raised, or to be raised, for defence of American liberty, may my right hand forget her cunning, and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I hesitate or waver in the support I give him.

"The war, then, must go on. We must fight it through. And if the war must go on, why put off longer the Declaration of Independence? That measure will strengthen us. It will give us character abroad. The nations will then treat with us, which they never can do while we acknowledge ourselves subjects, in