The peasant's arm is strong; and there shall be

A rich and noble harvest.

Fare ye well!

MRS. HEMANS.

CXXIV. - LIBERTY TRIUMPHANT.

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

ON the Fourth of July, 1776, the representatives of

ΟΝ

This

the United States of America, in Congress assembled, declared that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States. 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.

2. 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 profound admiration.

3. 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.

4. Every man's heart swells within him, as he remem

bers 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.

5. If Washington were 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.

6. "Cherish 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."

7. 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.

8. Our honor, as well as our happiness, is concerned. We

e cannot, 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!- Daniel Webster.

CXXV. WINTER'S WILD BIRTHNIGHT.

WINTER'S wild birthnight! In the fretful east,

The uneasy wind moans with its sense of cold,
And sends its sighs through gloomy mountain gorge,
Along the valley, up the whitening hill,
To tease the sighing spirits of the pines,
And waste in dismal woods their chilly life.

2. The sky is dark, and on the huddled leaves

The restless, rustling leaves sifts down the sleet
Till the sharp crystals pin them to the earth,
And they grow still beneath the rising storm.
The roofless bullock hugs the sheltering stack,
With cringing head and closely gathered feet,
And waits with dumb endurance for the morn.

3. Deep in a gusty cavern of the barn

The witless calf stands blatant at his chain;
While the brute mother, pent within her stall,
With the wild stress of instinct goes distraught,
And frets her horns, and bellows through the night.

4. The stream runs black; and the far waterfall

That sang so sweetly through the summer eves,
And swelled and swayed to zephyr's softest breath,
Leaps with a sullen roar the dark abyss,
And howls its hoarse responses to the wind.

5. The mill is still. The distant factory,

That swarmed yestreen with many-fingered life,
And bridged the river with a hundred bars
Of molten light, is dark, and lifts its bulk
With dim, uncertain angles, to the sky.

6. Yet lower bows the storm. The leafless trees

Lash their lithe limbs, and, with majestic voice, Call to each other through the deepening gloom; And slender trunks that lean on burly boughs Shriek with the sharp abrasion; and the oak,

Mellowed in fibre by unnumbered frosts,
Yields to the shoulder of the Titan Blast,
Forsakes its poise, and, with a booming crash,
Sweeps a fierce passage to the smothered rocks,
And lies a shattered ruin.

J. G. HOLLAND.

CXXVI. - DANIEL WEBSTER BEFORE THE

SUPREME COURT.

Daniel Webster's argument before the Supreme Court of the United States against the attempted interference by the Legislature of New Hampshire with the vested rights of Dartmouth College was one of the greatest efforts of his life. In his eulogy upon Daniel Webster, delivered before the faculty and students of Dartmouth College, July 27, 1853, Rufus Choate quoted from a private letter written him by Professor Chauncey A. Goodrich, of Yale College, this graphic description of the scene in the Supreme Court, at Washington, on the occasion referred to. The case was argued February, 1818. In February, 1819, the decision was rendered, sustaining Mr. Webster upon all the points advanced.

BEFORE going to Washington, I was told that, in

arguing the case at Exeter, New Hampshire, Mr. Webster had left the whole court-room in tears. This, I confess, struck me unpleasantly; any attempt at pathos on a purely legal question like this seemed hardly in good taste.

2. On my way to Washington, I made the acquaintance of Mr. Webster. We were together for several days in Philadelphia, at the house of a common friend, and, as the college question was one of deep interest to literary men, we conversed often and largely on the subject.

3. As he dwelt upon the leading points of the case, in terms so calm, simple, and precise, I said to myself more than once in reference to the story I had heard, "Whatever may have seemed appropriate in defending the college at home, and on her own ground, there will be no appeal to the feelings of Judge Marshall and his associates at Washington."