Daniel Webster for Young Americans Part 12

Nowhere, fellow-citizens! a.s.suredly, nowhere! Let us, then, meet this rising sun with joy and thanksgiving!

[Ill.u.s.tration: _The Capitol at Washington._]

This is that day of the year which announced to mankind the great fact of American Independence. This fresh and brilliant morning blesses our vision with another beholding of the birthday of our nation; and we see that nation, of recent origin, now among the most considerable and powerful, and spreading over the continent from sea to sea.

Among the first colonists from Europe to this part of America there were some, doubtless, who contemplated the distant consequences of their undertaking, and who saw a great futurity. But, in general, their hopes were limited to the enjoyment of a safe asylum from tyranny, religious and civil, and to respectable subsistence by industry and toil. A thick veil hid our times from their view. But the progress of America, however slow, could not but at length awaken genius, and attract the attention of mankind.

[Sidenote: Bishop Berkeley's prophecy.]

In the early part of the second century of our history, Bishop Berkeley, who, it will be remembered, had resided for some time in Newport, in Rhode Island, wrote his well-known "Verses on the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in America." The last stanza of this little poem seems to have been produced by a high poetical inspiration:--

"Westward the course of empire takes its way; The four first acts already past, A fifth shall close the drama with the day: Time's n.o.blest offspring is the last."

This extraordinary prophecy may be considered only as the result of long foresight and uncommon sagacity; of a foresight and sagacity stimulated, nevertheless, by excited feeling and high enthusiasm. So clear a vision of what America would become was not founded on square miles, or on existing numbers, or on any common laws of statistics. It was an intuitive glance into futurity; it was a grand conception, strong, ardent, glowing, embracing all time since the creation of the world, and all regions of which that world is composed, and judging of the future by just a.n.a.logy with the past. And the inimitable imagery and beauty with which the thought is expressed, joined to the conception itself, render it one of the most striking pa.s.sages in our language.

[Sidenote: Independence Day.]

On the day of the Declaration of Independence our ill.u.s.trious fathers performed the first scene in the last great act of this drama; one in real importance infinitely exceeding that for which the great English poet invokes

"--a muse of fire,...

A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!"[46]

The Muse inspiring our fathers was the Genius of Liberty, all on fire with a sense of oppression, and a resolution to throw it off; the whole world was the stage, and higher characters than princes trod it; and, instead of monarchs, countries and nations and the age beheld the swelling scene. How well the characters were cast, and how well each acted his part, and what emotions the whole performance excited, let history, now and hereafter, tell.

On the 4th of July, 1776, the Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress a.s.sembled, declared that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES.

This 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. 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.

[Sidenote: Liberty the inheritance of every American.]

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. As the great luminary over our heads, dissipating mists and fogs, now cheers the whole hemisphere, so do the a.s.sociations connected with this day disperse all cloudy and sullen weather in the minds and hearts of true Americans. Every man's heart swells within him; every man's port and bearing become somewhat more proud and lofty, as he remembers 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.

Fellow-citizens, this inheritance which we enjoy to-day is not only an inheritance of liberty, but of our own peculiar American liberty.

Liberty has existed in other times, in other countries, and in other forms. There has been a Grecian liberty, bold and powerful, full of spirit, eloquence, and fire; a liberty which produced mult.i.tudes of great men, and has transmitted one immortal name, the name of Demosthenes, to posterity. But still it was a liberty of disconnected States, sometimes united, indeed, by temporary leagues and confederacies, but often involved in wars between themselves. The sword of Sparta turned its sharpest edge against Athens, enslaved her, and devastated Greece; and, in her turn, Sparta was compelled to bend before the power of Thebes. And let it ever be remembered, especially let the truth sink deep into all American minds, that it was the _want of union_ among her several States which finally gave the mastery of all Greece to Philip of Macedon.

[Sidenote: The Corner-stone of the original Capitol laid by Washington.]

Fellow-citizens, fifty-eight years ago Washington stood on this spot to execute a duty like that which has now been performed. He then laid the corner-stone of the original Capitol. He was at the head of the government, at that time weak in resources, burdened with debt, just struggling into political existence and respectability, and agitated by the heaving waves which were overturning European thrones. But even then, in many important respects, the government was strong. It was strong in Washington's own great character; it was strong in the wisdom and patriotism of other eminent public men, his political a.s.sociates and fellow-laborers; and it was strong in the affections of the people.

Since that time astonishing changes have been wrought in the condition and prospects of the American people; and a degree of progress witnessed with which the world can furnish no parallel. As we review the course of that progress, wonder and amazement arrest our attention at every step.

The present occasion, although allowing of no lengthened remarks, may yet, perhaps, admit of a short comparative statement of important subjects of national interest as they existed at that day, and as they now exist. I have adopted for this purpose the tabular form of statement, as being the most brief and significant.[47]

COMPARATIVE TABLE

Year 1793. Year 1851. Year 1900.

Number of States 15 31 45 Representatives and Senators in Congress 135 295 476 Population of the United States 3,929,328 23,267,498 76,303,387[48]

Population of Boston 18,038 136,871 560,892 Population of Baltimore 13,503 169,054 508,957 Population of Philadelphia 42,520 409,045 1,293,697 Population of New York (city) 33,121 515,507 3,437,202 Population of Washington ... 40,075 278,718 Population of Richmond 4,000 27,582 85,050 Population of Charleston 16,359 42,983 55,807 Amount of receipts into the Treasury $5,720,624 $52,312,980 $669,595,431 Amount of expenditures $7,529,575 $48,005,879 $590,068,371 Amount of imports $31,000,000 $215,725,995 $849,941,184 Amount of exports $26,109,000 $217,517,130 $1,370,763,571 Amount of tonnage (tons) 520,764 3,772,440 5,164,839 Area of the United States in square miles 805,461 3,314,365 3,616,484[49]

Rank and file of the army 5,120 10,000 67,587 Militia (enrolled) ... 2,006,456 10,149,184[50]

Navy of the United States (vessels) (None.) 76 140 Navy armament (ordnance) ... 2,012 ...

Treaties and conventions with foreign powers 9 90 ...

Light-houses and light-boats 12 372 843[51]

Expenditures for ditto $12,061 $529,265 ...

Area of the Capitol 1/2 acre. 4-1/3 acres. 3-1/2 acres.[52]

Number of miles of railroad in operation ... 10,287 190,833[53]

Cost of ditto ... $306,607,954 $11,692,817,066[54]

Number of miles in course of construction ... 10,092 1,329 Lines of electric telegraph, in miles ... 15,000 210,000[55]

Number of post-offices 209 21,551 76,945 Number of miles of post-route 5,642 196,290 511,808 Amount of revenue from post-offices $104,747 $6,727,867 $111,631,193 Amount of expenditures of Post-office Department $72,040 $6,024,567 $115,554,920 Number of miles of mail transportation ... 52,465,724 ...

Number of colleges 19 121 484 Public libraries 35 694 5,383[56]

Volumes in ditto 75,000 2,201,632 44,591,851 School libraries ... 10,000 ...

Volumes in ditto ... 2,000,000 ...

Emigrants from Europe to the United States 10,000 299,610 448,572[57]

Coinage at the Mint $9,664 $52,019,465 $141,351,960

[Sidenote: The City of Washington.]

Who does not feel that, when President Washington laid his hand on the foundation of the first Capitol, he performed a great work of perpetuation of the Union and the Const.i.tution? Who does not feel that this seat of the general government, healthful in its situation, central in its position, near the mountains whence gush springs of wonderful virtue, teeming with Nature's richest products, and yet not far from the bays and the great estuaries of the sea, easily accessible and generally agreeable in climate and a.s.sociation, does give strength to the union of these States? that this city, bearing an immortal name, with its broad streets and avenues, its public squares and magnificent edifices of the general government, erected for the purpose of carrying on within them the important business of the several departments, for the reception of wonderful and curious inventions, for the preservation of the records of American learning and genius, of extensive collections of the products of nature and art, brought hither for study and comparison from all parts of the world; adorned with numerous churches, and sprinkled over, I am happy to say, with many public schools, where all the children of the city, without distinction, have the means of obtaining a good education, and with academies and colleges, professional schools and public libraries,--should continue to receive, as it has heretofore received, the fostering care of Congress, and should be regarded as the permanent seat of the national government?

With each succeeding year new interest is added to the spot; it becomes connected with all the historical a.s.sociations of our country, with her statesmen and her orators; and, alas! its cemetery is annually enriched by the ashes of her chosen sons.

[Sidenote: Its a.s.sociations.]

Before us is the broad and beautiful river, separating two of the original thirteen States, which a late President, a man of determined purpose and inflexible will, but patriotic heart, desired to span with arches of ever-enduring granite, symbolical of the firmly cemented union of the North and the South. That President was General Jackson.

On its banks repose the ashes of the Father of his Country; and at our side, by a singular felicity of position, overlooking the city which he designed, and which bears his name, rises to his memory the marble column, sublime in its simple grandeur, and fitly intended to reach a loftier height than any similar structure on the surface of the whole earth.[58]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Washington Monument._]

Let the votive offerings of his grateful countrymen be freely contributed to carry this monument higher and still higher. May I say, as on another occasion, "Let it rise; let it rise till it meet the sun in his coming; let the earliest light of the morning gild it, and parting day linger and play on its summit!"[59]

Fellow-citizens, what contemplations are awakened in our minds as we a.s.semble here to re-enact a scene like that performed by Washington!

Methinks I see his venerable form now before me, as presented in the glorious statue by Houdon, now in the Capitol of Virginia. He is dignified and grave; but concern and anxiety seem to soften the lineaments of his countenance. The government over which he presides is yet in the crisis of experiment. Not free from troubles at home, he sees the world in commotion and in arms all around him. He sees that imposing foreign powers are half disposed to try the strength of the recently established American government. We perceive that mighty thoughts, mingled with fears as well as with hopes, are struggling within him. He heads a short procession over these then naked fields; he crosses yonder stream on a fallen tree; he ascends to the top of this eminence, whose original oaks of the forest stand as thick around him as if the spot had been devoted to Druidical worship, and here he performs the appointed duty of the day.

[Sidenote: George Washington's monition.]

And now, fellow-citizens, if this vision were a reality; if Washington actually were now amongst us, and if he could draw around him the shades of the great public men of his own day, 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 G.o.d 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 the _law_ restrain it from bursting forth in wild and destructive conflagration.

Cherish liberty, as you love it; cherish its securities, as you wish to preserve it. Maintain the Const.i.tution 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 G.o.d, 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 that Almighty Power which so graciously protected us, and which now protects you, shower its everlasting blessings upon you and your posterity."

[Sidenote: The sacred trust of Americans.]

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 your sense of 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. Our honor as well as our happiness is concerned. We 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 other 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 G.o.d; 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. Fellow-citizens, we must sometimes be tolerant to folly, and patient at the sight of the extreme waywardness of men; but I confess that, when I reflect on the renown of our past history, on our present prosperity and greatness, and on what the future hath yet to unfold, and when I see that there are men who can find in all this nothing good, nothing valuable, nothing truly glorious, I feel that all their reason has fled away from them, and left the entire control over their judgment and their actions to insanity and fanaticism; and more than all, fellow-citizens, if the purposes of fanatics and disunionists should be accomplished, the patriotic and intelligent of our generation would seek to hide themselves from the scorn of the world, and go about to find dishonorable graves.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Millard Fillmore._]