The Great Orations and Senatorial Speech of Daniel Webster

Front Cover
W. M. Hayward, 1853 - Speeches, addresses, etc., American - 112 pages

From inside the book

Selected pages

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 110 - When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent, on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood!
Page 110 - I have not allowed myself, Sir, to look beyond the Union, to see what might lie hidden in the dark recess behind. I have not coolly weighed the chances of preserving liberty when the bonds that unite us together shall be broken asunder. I have not accustomed myself to hang over the precipice of disunion, to see whether, with my short sight, I can fathom the depth of the abyss below...
Page 14 - 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...
Page 110 - That Union we reached only by the discipline of our virtues in the severe school of adversity. It had its origin in the necessities of disordered finance, prostrate commerce, and ruined credit. Under its benign influences these great interests immediately awoke as from the dead, and sprang forth with newness of life.
Page 12 - The clear conception, outrunning the deductions of logic, the high purpose, the firm resolve, the dauntless spirit, speaking on the tongue, beaming from the eye, informing every feature, and urging the whole man onward, right onward to his object — this, this is eloquence ; or rather it is something greater and higher than all eloquence, it is action, noble, sublime, godlike action.
Page 13 - Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote.
Page 110 - Liberty first, and Union afterwards; but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true American heart, — Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.
Page 15 - 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.
Page 15 - 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.
Page 42 - A DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE; containing the Pronunciation, Etymology, and Explanation of all Words authorized by eminent writers ; to which are added a Vocabulary of the Roots of English Words, and an accented list of Greek, Latin, and Scripture Proper Names. By Alexander Reid, AM, Rector of the Circus School, Edinburgh.

Bibliographic information