"If, Gentlemen, we turn to other portions of the public history of our distinguished guest, it will be found that his claims to grateful acknowledgment are not less imposing. The cause of domestic industry, of internal improvement, of education, of whatever, in short, is calculated to render us a prosperous, united, and happy people, has found in him a watchful and efficient advocate. Nor is it the least of his merits, that to our gallant _Navy_ Mr. Webster has been an early, far-sighted, and persevering friend. Our interior position cannot render us cold and un.o.bservant on this point, whilst the victory of Perry yet supplies to us a proud and inspiring anniversary. And such is the wonderful chain of mutual dependence which binds our Union, that, in the remotest corner of the West, the exchangeable value of every product must depend on the security with which the ocean can be traversed.
"Gentlemen, I have detained you too long; yet I will add one word. I do but echo the language of the throngs that have crowded round Mr. Webster in declaring, that the frank and manly simplicity of his character and manners has created a feeling of personal regard which no mere intellectual ascendency could have secured. We approached him with admiration for the achievements of his public career, never supposing for a moment that our hearts could have aught to do in the matter; we shall part as from a valued friend, the recollection of whose virtues cannot pa.s.s away."
MR. WEBSTER then addressed the a.s.sembly as follows:
RECEPTION AT PITTSBURG.[102]
Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen:--I rise, fellow-citizens, with unaffected sensibility, to give you my thanks for the hospitable manner in which you have been kind enough to receive me, on this my first visit to Pittsburg, and to make all due acknowledgments to your worthy Mayor, for the sentiments which he has now seen fit to express.
Although, Gentlemen, it has been my fortune to be personally acquainted with very few of you, I feel, at this moment, that we are not strangers.
We are fellow-countrymen, fellow-citizens, bound together by a thousand ties of interest, of sympathy, of duty; united, I hope I may add, by bonds of mutual regard. We are bound together, for good or for evil, in our great political interests. I know that I am addressing Americans, every one of whom has a true American heart in his bosom; and I feel that I have also an American heart in my bosom. I address you, then, Gentlemen, with the same fervent good wishes for your happiness, the same brotherly affection, and the same feelings of regard and esteem, as if, instead of being upon the borders of the Ohio, I stood by the Connecticut or the Merrimack. As citizens, countrymen, and neighbors, I give you my hearty good wishes, and thank you, over and over again, for your abundant hospitality.
Gentlemen, the Mayor has been pleased to advert, in terms beyond all expectation or merit of my own, to my services in defence of the glorious Const.i.tution under which we live, and which makes you and me all that we are, and all that we desire to be. He has done much more than justice to my efforts; but he has not overstated the importance of the occasion on which those efforts were made.
Gentlemen, it is but a few short months since dark and portentous clouds _did_ hang over our heavens, and _did_ shut out, as it were, the sun in his glory. A new and perilous crisis was upon us. Dangers, novel in their character, and fearful in their aspect, menaced both the peace of the country and the integrity of the Const.i.tution. For forty years our government had gone on, I need hardly say how prosperously and gloriously, meeting, it is true, with occasional dissatisfaction, and, in one or two instances, with ill-concerted resistance to law. Through all these trials it had successfully pa.s.sed. But now a time had come when the authority of law was opposed by authority of law, when the power of the general government was resisted by the arms of State government, and when organized military force, under all the sanctions of State conventions and State laws, was ready to resist the collection of the public revenues, and hurl defiance at the statutes of Congress.
"Gentlemen, this was an alarming moment. In common with all good citizens, I felt it to be such. A general anxiety pervaded the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of all who were, at home, partaking in the prosperity, honor, and happiness which the country had enjoyed. And how was it abroad? Why, Gentlemen, every intelligent friend of human liberty, throughout the world, looked with amazement at the spectacle which we exhibited. In a day of unparalleled prosperity, after a half-century"s most happy experience of the blessings of our Union; when we had already become the wonder of all the liberal part of the world, and the envy of the illiberal; when the Const.i.tution had so amply falsified the predictions of its enemies, and more than fulfilled all the hopes of its friends; in a time of peace, with an overflowing treasury; when both the population and the improvement of the country had outrun the most sanguine antic.i.p.ations;--it was at this moment that we showed ourselves to the whole civilized world as being apparently on the eve of disunion and anarchy, at the very point of dissolving, once and for ever, that Union which had made us so prosperous and so great. It was at this moment that those appeared among us who seemed ready to break up the national Const.i.tution, and to scatter the twenty-four States into twenty-four unconnected communities.
Gentlemen, the President of the United States was, as it seemed to me, at this eventful crisis, true to his duty. He comprehended and understood the case, and met it as it was proper to meet it. While I am as willing as others to admit that the President has, on other occasions, rendered important services to the country, and especially on that occasion which has given him so much military renown, I yet think the ability and decision with which he rejected the disorganizing doctrines of nullification create a claim, than which he has none higher, to the grat.i.tude of the country and the respect of posterity.
The appearance of the proclamation of the 10th of December inspired me, I confess, with new hopes for the duration of the republic. I regarded it as just, patriotic, able, and imperiously demanded by the condition of the country. I would not be understood to speak of particular clauses and phrases in the proclamation; but I regard its great and leading doctrines as the true and only true doctrines of the Const.i.tution. They const.i.tute the sole ground on which dismemberment can be resisted.
Nothing else, in my opinion, can hold us together. While these opinions are maintained, the Union will last; when they shall be generally rejected and abandoned, that Union will be at the mercy of a temporary majority in any one of the States.
I speak, Gentlemen, on this subject, without reserve. I have not intended heretofore, and elsewhere, and do not now intend here, to stint my commendation of the conduct of the President in regard to the proclamation and the subsequent measures. I have differed with the President, as all know, who know any thing of so humble an individual as myself, on many questions of great general interest and importance. I differ with him in respect to the const.i.tutional power of internal improvements; I differ with him in respect to the rechartering of the Bank, and I dissent, especially, from the grounds and reasons on which he refused his a.s.sent to the bill pa.s.sed by Congress for that purpose. I differ with him, also, probably, in the degree of protection which ought to be afforded to our agriculture and manufactures, and in the manner in which it may be proper to dispose of the public lands. But all these differences afforded, in my judgment, not the slightest reason for opposing him in a measure of paramount importance, and at a moment of great public exigency. I sought to take counsel of nothing but patriotism, to feel no impulse but that of duty, and to yield not a lame and hesitating, but a vigorous and cordial, support to measures which, in my conscience, I believed essential to the preservation of the Const.i.tution. It is true, doubtless, that if myself and others had surrendered ourselves to a spirit of opposition, we might have embarra.s.sed, and probably defeated, the measures of the administration.
But in so doing, we should, in my opinion, have been false to our own characters, false to our duty, and false to our country. It gives me the highest satisfaction to know, that, in regard to this subject, the general voice of the country does not disapprove my conduct.
I ought to add, Gentlemen, that, in whatever I may have done or attempted in this respect, I only share a common merit. A vast majority of both houses of Congress cordially concurred in the measures. Your own great State was seen in her just position on that occasion, and your own immediate representatives were found among the most zealous and efficient friends of the Union.
Gentlemen, I hope that the result of that experiment may prove salutary in its consequences to our government, and to the interests of the community. I hope that the signal and decisive manifestation of public opinion, which has, for the time at least, put down the despotism of nullification, may produce permanent good effects. I know full well that popular topics may be urged against the proclamation.
I know it may be said, in regard to the laws of the last session, that, if such laws are to be maintained, Congress may pa.s.s what laws they please, and enforce them. But may it not be said, on the other side, that, if a State may nullify one law, she may nullify any other law also, and, therefore, that the _principle_ strikes at the whole power of Congress? And when it is said, that, if the power of State interposition be denied, Congress may pa.s.s and enforce what laws it pleases, is it meant to be contended or insisted, that the Const.i.tution has placed Congress under the guardianship and control of the State legislatures? Those who argue against the power of Congress, from the possibility of its abuse, entirely forget that, if the power of State interposition be allowed, that power may be abused also. What is more material, they forget the will of the people, as they have plainly expressed it in the Const.i.tution. They forget that _the people have chosen_ to give Congress a power of legislation, independent of State control. They forget that the Confederation has ceased, and that a _Const.i.tution_, a _government_, has taken its place. They forget that this government is a popular government, that members of Congress are but agents and servants of the people, chosen for short periods, periodically removable by the people, as much subservient, as much dependent, as willingly obedient, as any other of their agents and servants. This dependence on the people is the security that they will not act wrong. This is the security which the people themselves have chosen to rely on, in addition to the guards contained in the Const.i.tution itself.
I am quite aware, Gentlemen, that it is easy for those who oppose measures deemed necessary for the execution of the laws, to raise the cry of _consolidation_. It is easy to make charges, and to bring general accusations. It is easy to call names. For one, I repel all such imputations. I am no _consolidationist_. I disclaim the character altogether, and, instead of repeating this general and vague charge, I will be obliged to any one to show how the proclamation, or the late law of Congress, or, indeed, any measure to which I ever gave my support, tends, in the slightest degree, to consolidation. By consolidation is understood a grasping at power, on behalf of the general government, not const.i.tutionally conferred. But the proclamation a.s.serted no new power.
It only a.s.serted the right in the government to carry into effect, in the form of law, power which it had exercised for forty years. I should oppose any grasping at new powers by Congress, as zealously as the most zealous. I wish to preserve the Const.i.tution as it is, without addition, and without diminution, by one jot or t.i.ttle. For the same reason that I would not grasp at powers not given, I would not surrender nor abandon powers which are given. Those who have placed me in a public station placed me there, not to alter the Const.i.tution, but to administer it.
The power of change the people have retained to themselves. _They_ can alter, they can modify, they can change the Const.i.tution entirely, if they see fit. _They_ can tread it under foot, and make another, or make no other; but while it remains unaltered by the authority of the people, it is our power of attorney, our letter of credit, our credentials; and we are to follow it, and obey its injunctions, and maintain its just powers, to the best of our abilities. I repeat, that, for one, I seek to preserve to the Const.i.tution those precise powers with which the people have clothed it. While no encroachment is to be made on the reserved rights of the people or of the States, while nothing is to be usurped, it is equally clear that we are not at liberty to surrender, either in fact or form, any power or principle which the Const.i.tution does actually contain.
And what is the ground for this cry of consolidation? I maintain that the measures recommended by the President, and adopted by Congress, were measures of self-defence. Is it consolidation to execute laws? Is it consolidation to resist the force that is threatening to upturn our government? Is it consolidation to protect officers, in the discharge of their duty, from courts and juries previously sworn to decide against them?
Gentlemen, I take occasion to remark, that, after much reflection upon the subject, and after all that has been said about the encroachment of the general government upon the rights of the States, I know of no one power, exercised by the general government, which was not, when that instrument was adopted, admitted by the immediate friends and foes of the Const.i.tution to have been conferred upon it by the people. I know of no one power, now claimed or exercised, which every body did not agree, in 1789, was conferred on the general government. On the contrary, there are several powers, and those, too, among the most important for the interests of the people, which were then universally allowed to be conferred on Congress by the Const.i.tution of the United States, and which are now ingeniously doubted, or clamorously denied.
Gentlemen, upon this point I shall detain you with no further remarks.
It does, however, give me the most sincere pleasure to say, that, in a long visit through the State west of you, and the great State north of you, as well as in a tour of some days" duration in the respectable State to which you belong, I find but one sentiment in regard to the conduct of the government upon this subject. I know that those who have seen fit to intrust to me, in part, their interests in Congress, approve of the measures recommended by the President. We see that he has taken occasion, during the recess of Congress, to visit that part of the country; and we know how he has been received. Nowhere have hands been extended with more sincerity of friendship; and for one, Gentlemen, I take occasion to say, that, having heard of his return to the seat of government with health rather debilitated, it is among my most earnest prayers that Providence may spare his life, and that he may go through his administration and come out of it with as much success and glory as any of his predecessors.
Your worthy chief magistrate has been kind enough, Gentlemen, to express sentiments favorable to myself, as a friend of domestic industry.
Domestic industry! How much of national power and opulence, how much of individual comfort and respectability, that phrase implies! And with what force does it strike us, as we stand here, at the confluence of the two rivers whose united currents const.i.tute the Ohio, and in the midst of one of the most flourishing and distinguished manufacturing cities in the Union! Many thousand miles of inland navigation, running through a new and rapidly-improving country, stretch away below us. Internal communications, completed or in progress, connect the city with the Atlantic and the Lakes. A hundred steam-engines are in daily operation, and nature has supplied the fuel which feeds their incessant flames on the spot itself, in exhaustless abundance. Standing here, Gentlemen, in the midst of such a population, and with such a scene around us, how great is the import of these words, "domestic industry"!
Next to the preservation of the government itself, there can hardly be a more vital question, to such a community as this, than that which regards their own employments, and the preservation of that policy which the government has adopted and cherished for the encouragement and protection of those employments. This is not, in a society like this, a matter which affects the interest of a particular cla.s.s, but one which affects the interest of all cla.s.ses. It runs through the whole chain of human occupation and employment, and touches the means of living and the comfort of all.
Gentlemen, those of you who may have turned your attention to the subject know, that, in the quarter of the country with which I am more immediately connected, the people were not early or eager to urge the government to carry the protective policy to the height which it has reached. Candor obliges me to remind you, that, when the act of 1824 was pa.s.sed, neither he who now addresses you, nor those with whom he usually acted on such subjects, were ready or willing to take the step which that act proposed. They doubted its _expediency_. It pa.s.sed, however, by the great and overwhelming influence of the central States, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. New England acquiesced in it. She conformed to it, as the settled policy of the country, and gave to her capital and her labor a corresponding direction. She has now become vitally interested in the preservation of the system. Her prosperity is identified, not perhaps with any particular degree of protection, but with the preservation of the principle; and she is not likely to consent to yield the principle, under any circ.u.mstances whatever. And who would dare to yield it? Who, standing here, and looking round on this community and its interests, would be bold enough to touch the spring which moves so much industry and produces so much happiness? Who would shut up the mouths of these vast coal-pits? Who would stay the cargoes of manufactured goods, now floating down a river, one of the n.o.blest in the world, and stretching through territories almost boundless in extent and unequalled in fertility? Who would quench the fires of so many steam-engines, or check the operations of so much well-employed labor?
Gentlemen, I cannot conceive how any subversion of that policy which has. .h.i.therto been pursued can take place, without great public embarra.s.sment and great private distress.
I have said, that I am in favor of protecting American manual labor; and after the best reflection I can give the subject, and from the lights which I can derive from the experience of ourselves and others, I have come to the conclusion that such protection is just and proper; and that to leave American labor to sustain a compet.i.tion with that of the over-peopled countries of Europe would lead to a state of things to which the people could never submit. This is the great reason why I am for maintaining what has been established. I see at home, I see here, I see wherever I go, that the stimulus which has excited the existing activity, and is producing the existing prosperity, of the country, is nothing else than the stimulus held out to labor by compensating prices.
I think this effect is visible everywhere, from Pen.o.bscot to New Orleans, and manifest in the condition and circ.u.mstances of the great body of the people; for nine tenths of the whole people belong to the laborious, industrious, and productive cla.s.ses; and on these cla.s.ses the stimulus acts. We perceive that the price of labor is high, and we know that the means of living are low; and these two truths speak volumes in favor of the general prosperity of the country. I am aware, as has been said already, that this high price of labor results partly from the favorable condition of the country. Labor was high, comparatively speaking, before the act of 1824 pa.s.sed; but that fact affords no reason, in my judgment, for endangering its security and sacrificing its hopes, by overthrowing what has since been established for its protection.
Let us look, Gentlemen, to the condition of other countries, and inquire a little into the causes, which, in some of them, produce poverty and distress, the lamentations of which reach our own sh.o.r.es. I see around me many whom I know to be emigrants from other countries. Why are they here? Why is the native of Ireland among us? Why has he abandoned scenes as dear to him as these hills and these rivers are to you? Is there any other cause than this, that the burden of taxation on the one hand, and the low reward of labor on the other, left him without the means of a comfortable subsistence, or the power of providing for those who were dependent upon him? Was it not on this account that he left his own land, and sought an asylum in a country of free laws, of comparative exemption from taxation, of boundless extent, and in which the means of living are cheap, and the prices of labor just and adequate? And do not these remarks apply, with more or less accuracy, to every other part of Europe? Is it not true, that sobriety, and industry, and good character, can do more for a man here than in any other part of the world? And is not this truth, which is so obvious that none can deny it, founded in this plain reason, that labor in this country earns a better reward than anywhere else, and so gives more comfort, more individual independence, and more elevation of character? Whatever else may benefit particular portions of society, whatever else may a.s.sist capital, whatever else may favor sharp-sighted commercial enterprise, professional skill, or extraordinary individual sagacity or good fortune, be a.s.sured, Gentlemen, that nothing can advance the ma.s.s of society in prosperity and happiness, nothing can uphold the substantial interest and steadily improve the general condition and character of the whole, but this one thing, _compensating rewards to labor_. The fortunate situation of our country tends strongly, of itself, to produce this result; the government has adopted the policy of cooperating with this natural tendency of things; it has encouraged and fostered labor and industry, by a system of discriminating duties; and the result of these combined causes may be seen in the present circ.u.mstances of the country.
Gentlemen, there are important considerations of another kind connected with this subject. Our government is popular; popular in its foundation, and popular in its exercise. The actual character of the government can never be better than the general moral and intellectual character of the community. It would be the wildest of human imaginations, to expect a poor, vicious, and ignorant people to maintain a good popular government. Education and knowledge, which, as is obvious, can be generally attained by the people only where there are adequate rewards to labor and industry, and some share in the public interest, some stake in the community, would seem indispensably necessary in those who have the power of appointing all public agents, pa.s.sing all laws, and even of making and unmaking const.i.tutions at their pleasure. Hence the truth of the trite maxim, that knowledge and virtue are the only foundation of republics. But it is to be added, and to be always remembered, that there never was, and never can be, an intelligent and virtuous people who at the same time are a poor and idle people, badly employed and badly paid. Who would be safe in any community, where political power is in the hands of the many and property in the hands of the few? Indeed, such an unnatural state of things could nowhere long exist.
It certainly appears to me, Gentlemen, to be quite evident at this time, and in the present condition of the world, that it is necessary to protect the industry of this country against the pauper labor of England and other parts of Europe. An American citizen, who has children to maintain and children to _educate_, has an unequal chance against the pauper of England, whose children are not to be educated, and are probably already on the parish, and who himself is half fed and clothed by his own labor, and half from the poor-rates, and very badly fed and clothed after all. As I have already said, the condition of our country of itself, without the aid of government, does much to favor American manual labor; and it is a question of policy and justice, at all times, what and how much government shall do in aid of natural advantages. In regard to some branches of industry, the natural advantages are less considerable than in regard to others; and those, therefore, more imperiously demand the regard of government. Such are the occupations, generally speaking, of the numerous cla.s.ses of citizens in cities and large towns; the workers in leather, bra.s.s, tin, iron, &c.; and such, too, under most circ.u.mstances, are the employments connected with ship-building.
Our own experience has been a powerful, and ought to be a convincing and long-remembered, preacher on this point. From the close of the war of the Revolution, there came on a period of depression and distress, on the Atlantic coast, such as the people had hardly felt during the sharpest crisis of the war itself. Ship-owners, ship-builders, mechanics, artisans, all were dest.i.tute of employment, and some of them dest.i.tute of bread. British ships came freely, and British goods came plentifully; while to American ships and American products there was neither protection on the one side, nor the equivalent of reciprocal free trade on the other. The cheaper labor of England supplied the inhabitants of the Atlantic sh.o.r.es with every thing. Ready-made clothes, among the rest, from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet, were for sale in every city. All these things came free from any general system of imposts. Some of the States attempted to establish their own partial systems, but they failed. Voluntary a.s.sociation was resorted to, but that failed also. A memorable instance of this mode of attempting protection occurred in Boston. The ship-owners, seeing that British vessels came and went freely, while their own ships were rotting at the wharves, raised a committee to address the people, recommending to them, in the strongest manner, not to buy or use any articles imported in British ships. The chairman of this committee was no less distinguished a character than the immortal John Hanc.o.c.k. The committee performed its duty powerfully and eloquently. It set forth strong and persuasive reasons why the people should not buy or use British goods imported in British ships. The ship-owners and merchants having thus proceeded, the mechanics of Boston took up the subject also. They answered the merchants" committee. They agreed with them cordially, that British goods, imported in British vessels, ought not to be bought or consumed; but then they took the liberty of going a step farther, and of insisting _that such goods ought not to be bought or consumed at all_. (Great applause.) "For," said they, "Mr. Hanc.o.c.k, what difference does it make to us, whether hats, shoes, boots, shirts, handkerchiefs, tin-ware, bra.s.s-ware, cutlery, and every other article, come in British ships or come in your ships; since, in whatever ships they come, they take away our means of living?"
Gentlemen, it is an historical truth, manifested in a thousand ways by the public proceedings and public meetings of the times, that the necessity of a general and uniform impost system, which, while it should provide revenue to pay the public debt, and foster the commerce of the country, should also encourage and sustain domestic manufactures, was the leading cause in producing the present national Const.i.tution. No cla.s.s of persons was more zealous for the new Const.i.tution, than the handicraftsmen, artisans, and manufacturers. There were then, it is true, no large manufacturing establishments. There were no manufactories in the interior, for there were no inhabitants. Here was Fort Pitt,--it had a place on the map,--but here were no people, or only a very few.
But in the cities and towns on the Atlantic, the full importance, indeed the absolute necessity, of a new form of government and a general system of imposts was deeply felt.
It so happened, Gentlemen, that at that time much was thought to depend on Ma.s.sachusetts; several States had already agreed to the Const.i.tution; if her convention adopted it, it was likely to go into operation. This gave to the proceedings of that convention an intense interest, and the country looked with trembling anxiety for the result. That result was for a long time doubtful. The convention was known to be almost equally divided; and down to the very day and hour of the final vote, no one could predict, with any certainty, which side would preponderate. It was under these circ.u.mstances, and at this crisis, that the tradesmen of the town of Boston, in January, 1788, a.s.sembled at the Green Dragon tavern, the place where the Whigs of the Revolution, in its early stages, had been accustomed to a.s.semble. They resolved, that, in their opinion, if the Const.i.tution should be adopted, "trade and navigation would revive and increase, and employ and subsistence be afforded to many of their townsmen, then suffering for the want of the necessaries of life"; and that, on the other hand, should it be rejected, "the small remains of commerce yet left would be annihilated; the various trades and handicrafts dependent thereon decay; the poor be increased, and many worthy and skilful mechanics compelled to seek employ and subsistence in strange lands." These resolutions were carried to the Boston delegates in the convention, and placed in the hands of Samuel Adams. That great and distinguished friend of American liberty, it was feared, might have doubts about the new Const.i.tution. Naturally cautious and sagacious, it was apprehended he might fear the practicability, or the safety, of a general government. He received the resolutions from the hands of Paul Revere, a bra.s.s-founder by occupation, a man of sense and character, and of high public spirit, whom the mechanics of Boston ought never to forget. "How many mechanics," said Mr. Adams, "were at the Green Dragon when these resolutions were pa.s.sed?" "More, Sir," was the reply, "than the Green Dragon could hold." "And where were the rest, Mr. Revere?" "In the streets, Sir." "And how many were in the streets?" "More, Sir, than there are stars in the sky." This is an instance only, among many, to prove, what is indisputably true, that the tradesmen and mechanics of the country did look to the new Const.i.tution for encouragement and protection in their respective occupations. Under these circ.u.mstances, it is not to be expected that they will abandon the principle, in its application to their own employments, any more than in its application to the commercial and shipping interests. They believe the power is in the Const.i.tution; and doubtless they mean, so far as depends on them, to keep it there. Desirous of no extravagant measure of protection, desirous of oppressing or burdening n.o.body, seeking nothing as a subst.i.tute for honest industry and hard work, as a part of the American family, having the same interests as other parts, they will continue their attachment to the Union and the Const.i.tution, and to all the great and leading interests of the country.
Gentlemen, your worthy Mayor has alluded to the subject of internal improvements. Having no doubt of the power of the general government over various objects comprehended under that name, I confess I have felt great pleasure in forwarding them, to the extent of my ability, by means of reasonable aid from the government. It has seemed strange to me, that, in the progress of human knowledge and human virtue (for I have no doubt that both are making progress), the efforts of government should so long have been princ.i.p.ally confined to external affairs, and to the enactment of the general laws, without considering how much may be done by government, which cannot be done without it, for the improvement of the condition of the people. There are many objects, of great value to man, which cannot be attained by unconnected individuals, but must be attained, if at all, by a.s.sociation. For many of them government seems the most natural and the most efficient a.s.sociation.
Voluntary a.s.sociation has done much, but it cannot do all. To the great honor and advantage of your own State, she has been forward in applying the agency of government to great objects of internal utility. But even States cannot do every thing. There are some things which belong to all the States; and, if done at all, must be done by all the States. At the conclusion of the late war, it appeared to me that the time had come for the government to turn its attention inward; to survey the condition of the country, and particularly the vast Western country; to take a comprehensive view of the whole; and to adopt a liberal system of internal improvements. There are objects not naturally within the sphere of any one State, which yet seemed of great importance, as calculated to unite the different parts of the country, to open a better and shorter way between the producer and consumer, to promise the highest advantage to government itself, in any exigency. It is true, Gentlemen, that the local theatre for such improvement is not mainly in the East. The East is old, pretty fully peopled, and small. The West is new, vast, and thinly peopled. Our rivers can be measured; yours cannot. We are bounded; you are boundless. The West was, therefore, most deeply interested in this system, though certainly not alone interested, even in such works as had a Western locality. To clear her rivers was to open them for the commerce of the whole country; to construct harbors, and clear entrances to existing harbors, whether on the Gulf of Mexico or on the Lakes, was for the advantage of that whole commerce. And if this were not so, he is but a poor public man whose patriotism is governed by the cardinal points; who is for or against a proposed measure, according to its indication by compa.s.s, or as it may happen to tend farther from, or come nearer to, his own immediate connections. And look at the West; look at these rivers; look at the Lakes; look especially at Lake Erie, and see what a moderate expenditure has done for the safety of human life, and the preservation of property, in the navigation of that lake; and done, let me add, in the face of a fixed and ardent opposition.
I rejoice, sincerely, Gentlemen, in the general progress of internal improvement, and in the completion of so many objects near you, and connected with your prosperity. Your own ca.n.a.l and railroad unite you with the Atlantic. Near you is the Ohio Ca.n.a.l, which does so much credit to a younger State, and with which your city will doubtless one day have a direct connection. On the south and east approaches the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, a great and spirited enterprise, which I always thought ent.i.tled to the aid of government, and a branch of which, it may be hoped, will yet reach the head of the Ohio.
I will only add, Gentlemen, that for what I have done in the cause of internal improvement I claim no particular merit, having only acted with others, and discharged, conscientiously and fairly, what I regarded as my duty to the whole country.
Gentlemen, the Mayor has spoken of the importance and necessity of education. And can any one doubt, that to man, as a social and an immortal being, as interested in the world that is, and infinitely more concerned for that which is to be, education, that is to say, the culture of the mind and the heart, is an object of infinite importance?
So far as we can trace the designs of Providence, the formation of the mind and character, by instruction in knowledge, and instruction in righteousness, is a main end of human being. Among the new impulses which society has received, none is more gratifying than the awakened attention to public education. That object begins to exhibit itself to the minds of men in its just magnitude, and to possess its due share of regard. It is but in a limited degree, and indirectly only, that the powers of the general government have been exercised in the promotion of this object. So far as these powers extend, I have concurred in their exercise with great pleasure. The Western States, from the recency of their settlement, from the great proportion of their population which are children, and from other circ.u.mstances which must, in all new countries, more or less curtail individual means, have appeared to me to have peculiar claims to regard; and in all cases where I have thought the power clear, I have most heartily concurred in measures designed for their benefit, in this respect. And amidst all our efforts for education, literary, moral, or religious, be it always remembered that we leave opinion and conscience free. Heaven grant that it may be the glory of the United States to have established two great truths, of the highest importance to the whole human race; first, that an enlightened community _is_ capable of self-government; and, second, that the toleration of all sects does _not_ necessarily produce indifference to religion.
But I have already detained you too long. My friends, fellow-citizens, and countrymen, I take a respectful leave of you. The time I have pa.s.sed on this side the Alleghanies has been a succession of happy days. I have seen much to instruct and much to delight me. I return you, again and again, my unfeigned thanks for the frankness and hospitality with which you have made me welcome; and wherever I may go, or wherever I may be, I pray you to believe I shall not lose the recollection of your kindness.
FOOTNOTES
[102] Address delivered to the Citizens of Pittsburg, on the 8th of July, 1833.
RECEPTION AT BANGOR.[103]
During a visit to Maine, in the summer of 1835, on business connected with his profession, Mr. Webster was at Bangor, where he partook of a collation with many of the citizens of that place.
There were so many more people, however, desirous to see and hear him than could be accommodated in the hall of the hotel, that, after the cloth was removed, he was compelled to proceed to the balcony, where, after thanking the company for their hospitality, and their manifestation of regard, he addressed the a.s.sembly as follows:--
Having occasion to come into the State on professional business, I have gladly availed myself of the opportunity to visit this city, the growing magnitude and importance of which have recently attracted such general notice. I am happy to say, that I see around me ample proofs of the correctness of the favorable representations which have gone abroad.
Your city, Gentlemen, has certainly experienced an extraordinary growth; and it is a growth, I think, which there is reason to hope is not unnatural, or greatly disproportionate to the eminent advantages of the place. It so happened, that, at an early period of my life, I came to this spot, attracted by that favorable position, which the slightest glance on the map must satisfy every one that it occupies. It is near the head of tide-water, on a river which brings to it from the sea a volume of water equal to the demands of the largest vessels of war, and whose branches, uniting here, from great distances above, traverse in their course extensive tracts now covered with valuable productions of the forest, and capable, most of them, of profitable agricultural cultivation. But at the period I speak of, the time had not come for the proper development and display of these advantages. Neither the place itself, nor the country, was then ready. A long course of commercial restrictions and embargo, and a foreign war, were yet to be gone through, before the local advantages of such a spot could be exhibited or enjoyed, or the country would be in a condition to create an active demand for its main products.