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II. MENACE OF SECESSION

Mr. Clay holds that states have no right to secede; that the Union is a solemn compact not to be broken by the caprice of a state or of several states. He then depicts the dire results of the fratricidal conflict which would inevitably follow dissolution.

Mr. President, I am directly opposed to any purpose of secession, of separation. I am for staying within the Union, and defying any portion of this Union to expel or drive me out of the Union. I am for staying within the Union, and fighting for my rights if necessary, with the sword within the bounds and under the safeguard of the Union. I am for vindicating these rights; but not by being driven out of the Union rashly and unceremoniously by any portion of this confederacy. Here I am within it, and here I mean to stand and die; as far as my individual purposes or wishes can go, within it to protect myself and to defy all power upon earth to expel me or drive me from the situation in which I am placed. Will there not be more safety in fighting within the Union than without it?

Suppose your rights to be violated; suppose wrongs to be done you, aggressions to be penetrated upon you; cannot you better fight and vindicate them, if you have occasion to resort to that last necessity of the sword, within the Union, and with the sympathies of a large portion of the population of the Union of these states differently constituted from you, than you can fight and vindicate your rights, expelled from the Union and driven from it without ceremony and without authority?

I said that I thought that there was no right on the part of one or more of the states to secede from this Union. I think that the Constitution of the thirteen states was made not merely for the generation which then existed, but for posterity, undefined, unlimited, permanent, and perpetual for their posterity, and for every subsequent state which might come into the Union, binding themselves by that indissoluble bond. It is to remain for that posterity now and forever. Like another of the great relations

of private life, it was a marriage that no human authority can dissolve or divorce the parties from.

Mr. President, I have said what I solemnly believe that the dissolution of the Union and war are identical and inseparable; that they are convertible terms. Such a war, too, as that would be, following the dissolution of the Union! Sir, we may search the pages of history, and none so furious, so bloody, so implacable, so exterminating, from the wars of Greece down, including those of the Commonwealth of England and the revolution of France none, none of them raged with such violence, or was ever conducted with such bloodshed and enormities as will that war which shall follow that disastrous event if that event ever happens — of dissolution.

And what would be its termination? Standing armies and navies, to an extent draining the revenues of each portion of the dissevered empire, would be created; exterminating wars would follow — not a war of two or three years, but of interminable duration; an exterminating war would follow until some Philip or Alexander, some Cæsar or Napoleon, would rise to cut the Gordian knot, and solve the problem of the capacity of man for self-government, and crush the liberties of both the dissevered portions of this Union. Can you doubt it? Look at history — consult the pages of all history, ancient or modern; look at human nature - look at the character of the contest in which you would be engaged in the supposition of a war following the dissolution of the Union, such as I have suggested; and I ask you if it is possible for you to doubt that the final but perhaps distant termination of the whole will be some despot treading down the liberties of the people? that the final result will be the extinction of this last and glorious light, which is leading all mankind, who are gazing upon it, to cherish hope and anxious expectation that the liberty which prevails here will sooner or later be advanced throughout the civilized world? Can you, Mr. President, lightly contemplate the consequences? Can you yield yourself to a torrent of passion, amidst dangers which I have depicted in colors far short of what

would be the reality, if the event should ever happen? I conjure gentlemen, whether from the South or the North, by all they hold Idear in this world by all their love of liberty, by all their veneration for their ancestors, by all their regard for posterity, by all their gratitude to Him who has bestowed upon them such unnumbered blessings, by all the duties which they owe to mankind and all the duties they owe to themselves by all these considerations I implore them to pause, solemnly to pause, at the edge of the precipice before the fearful and disastrous leap is taken in the yawning abyss below, which will inevitably lead to certain and irretrievable destruction. And I implore, as the best blessing which heaven can bestow upon me on earth, that if the direful and sad event of the dissolution of the Union shall happen, I may not survive to behold the sad and heart-rending spectacle.

DANIEL WEBSTER

Daniel Webster (1782–1852) was one of the most scholarly of American statesmen. His scholastic training began at the knee of his gifted mother and in the district school of

his native New Hampshire.

A private tutor assisted in his preparation for Phillips Exeter Academy. He entered Dartmouth College in 1797, showed brilliant qualities as a student, and was graduated in 1801. One of his teachers said of him that "he had great rapidity of acquisition and was the quickest boy in school." He was an incessant reader, and his retentive memory enabled him to commit with little effort the best portions of all the books he read. Soon after his gradu

ation he began the study of law in the office of Christopher Gore, one of the leading practitioners of Boston. He was admitted to the bar in 1805 and took up the practice of law in his native state. He practiced several years at Portsmouth, and after having gained considerable reputation he removed to Boston, where he soon rose to distinction at the bar.

His election to Congress in 1812 was the beginning of his eventful career as a statesman. He served several terms, but not continuously, as representative, first from New Hampshire and then from Massachusetts. In 1827 he was chosen senator from Massachusetts and served continuously in that office until 1841, when he became Secretary of State. In 1845 he returned to the Senate and held the office until his death in 1852.

Webster was always a student of men and of affairs. Believing, as he says, that "there is no such a thing as extemporaneous acquisition," he devoted himself diligently not only to the literature of his profession, but to general literature, philosophy, economics, and history, and applied his abundant knowledge to the intricate problems of state. The Bible, Milton, Shakespeare, and Addison were his favorite books. The strength and beauty of his imagery can be traced in great measure to his intimacy with these classics. He says that "the Bible is the book of all others for lawyers as well as divines. I pity the man that cannot find in it a rich supply of thought, and of rules for his conduct. It fits man for life, it prepares him for death."

Webster was blessed with an oratorical temperament, and the hills of New Hampshire were a fit environment to cultivate that spirit. He was fond of outdoor life and loved the grand and large in nature.

His oratorical training began early, for he was fond of reading aloud and declaiming. The teamsters who passed his father's door were accustomed to rest there awhile and listen to the boy as he declaimed or read from the Bible. But strange to say there came a time during his stay at Exeter when he grew very diffident about speaking. He was too timid to appear before the boys on declamation days. He says himself, "Many a piece did I commit to memory and recite and

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