MINISTER OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH CONGREGATIONAL SOCIETY IN BOSTON. BOSTON: BENJAMIN B. MUSSEY & CO. No. 29, CORNHILL. Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by THEODORE PARKER, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. BOSTON: PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON, SCHOOL STREET. PREFACE. Ir is now four months since the delivery of this Sermon. A phonographic report of it was published the next morning, and quite extensively circulated in all parts of the country. Since then, I have taken pains to examine anew the life and actions of the distinguished man who is the theme of the discourse. I have carefully read all the criticisms on my estimate of him, which came to hand; I have diligently read the most important sermons and other discourses which treat of him, and have conversed with persons who have known Mr. Webster at all the various periods of his life. The result is embodied in the following pages. My estimate of Mr. Webster differs from that which seems to prevail just now in Church and State; differs widely, differs profoundly. I did not suppose that my judgment upon him would pass unchallenged. I have not been surprised at the swift condemnation which many men have pronounced upon this sermon, upon the statements therein, and the motives thereto. I should be sorry to find that Americans valued a great man so little as to have nothing to say in defence of one so long and so conspicuously before the public. The violence and rage directed against me is not astonishing; it is not even new. I am not vain enough to fancy that I have never been mistaken in a fact of Mr. Webster's history, or in my judgment pronounced on any of his actions, words, or motives. I can only say I have done what I could. If I have committed any errors, I hope they will be pointed out. Fifty years hence, the character of Mr. Webster and his eminent contemporaries will be better understood than now; for we have not yet all the evidence on which the final judgment of posterity will rest. Thomas Hutchinson and John Adams are better known now than at the day of their death; five and twenty years hence they will both be better known than at present. BOSTON, March 7, 1853. INTRODUCTION. TO THE YOUNG MEN OF AMERICA. GENTLEMEN,I address this Discourse to you in particular, and by way of introduction will say a few words. We are a young nation, three and twenty millions strong, rapidly extending in our geographic spread, enlarging rapidly in numerical power, and greatening our material strength with a swiftness which has no example. Soon we shall spread over the whole continent, and number a hundred million men. America and England are but parts of the same nation, a younger and an older branch of the same great Anglo-Saxon stem. Our character will affect that of the mother-country, as her good and evil still influence us. Considering the important place which the AngloSaxon tribe holds in the world at this day,-occupying one-eighth part of the earth, and controlling one-sixth part of its inhabitants, the national character of England and America becomes one of the great human forces which is to control the world for some ages to come. In the American character there are some commanding and noble qualities. We have founded some political and ecclesiastical institutions which seem to me the proudest achievements of mankind in Church and State. But there are other qualities in the nation's character which are mean and selfish; we have |