Newly Discovered

FOURTH OF JULY

ORATION

BY THE ILLUSTKIOUS ORATOK AND STATESMAN,

DANIEL WEBSTER;

-DELIVERED AT-

Fryeburg, Me., in the Year 1802,

AND NOW FOR THE FIRST TIME GIVEN TO TKE PUBLIC.

Boston, Mass. :
A. Williams & Co.
Fryeburg, Me. ;
A. F. & C. W. Lewis.
1882.

'^

Newly Discovered

FOURTH OF JULY

ORATION

BY THE ILLUSTRIOUS ORATOR AND STATESMAN,

DANIEL WEBSTER;

-DELIVERED AT-

Fryeburg, Me., in the Year 1802,
AHD NOW FOR THE FIRST TIME GIVEN TO THE PUBLIC.

Boston, Mass. :
A. Williams & Co.
Fryeburg, Me. ;
A. F. & C. W. Lewis.
1882.

THE ILLUSTRATED FRYEBURG
WEBSTER MEMORIAL

contains, besides the newly discovered oration, an engraving of Webster
in early manhood, the old Academy in which he taught at Fryeburg, the old
Church in which the Oration was delivered, the present Academy building,
-Webster's Fryeburg Home (the Oxford House), and a fine heliotype view of
the whole Village from Prospect Highlands (by J. R. Osgood & Company).
The Memorial will contain several letters written by Webster while at Frye
burg, some of which the public will now see for the first time; poems
written by him while in college and at Fryeburg ; a recently discovered poem
by Longfellow on " Lovewell's Fight," now for the first time brought to light,
after the lapse of nearly sixty years (it being the first poem which Longfellow
gave to the public with his name attached, and which the poet himself long
sought for in vain) ; a poetic gem descriptive of Fryeburg's grand mountain
scenery, by John G. Whittier; a pen-picture of Fryeburg by W. D. Howells;
and numerous other selections and poems descriptive of Fryeburg's history
and scenery, several of the latter having been specially written for the
Memorial. The Oration, together with the three first-mentioned of the above illustra
tions, is also given to the public in a cheaper form, termed the plain edition.
In either the plain or illustrated edition, the Oration constitutes a bro
chure of rare interest and beauty.
Price of Illuatrated Edition, ... 50 cents.
Plain Edition, . . . . . . 23 "
Sent post paid on receipt of price.
Address all orders to A. F,. & C. W. Lewis, Fryeburg, Me.

ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, IN TBE YEAR 1882, BY
IN THE OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS AT WASHINGTON.

The Original Manuscript of the Oration is now in charge of A. F. Lewis
of Fryeburg.

PEEFACE.

We herewith present to the public a newly discovered
Fourth of July oration by Daniel Webster ; and we esteem it
a happy coincidence, that we are able to give this oration to the
world at a time when the commemoration, throughout the coun
try, of this the centennial year of Webster's birth has caused
such a renewal of interest in all that pertains to the renowned
orator and statesman. In his Autobiography Webster speaks
of his Fryeburg oration as unpublished, and, as it had slept in
oblivion for eighty years, no one supposed until lately that it
had survived the wreck of time. A detailed account of the ac
cidental discovery of the original manuscript of the oration, in
the handwriting of its illustrious author, would savor much of
the mystery, and fascination of romance, but such a narrative
would require more space than the limits of a preface would
allow. Suffice it to say, that a large mass of Webster's private
papers, including the manuscript in question, found its way into
an old junk-shop at 252 Federal Street, Boston, and was there
rescued from destruction by the proprietor, John Shea, whose
keen eye fortunately happened to catch the name of Webster
on one of the papers. From Mr. Shea the manuscript passed
into the hands of a well-known Boston lawyer, and from the
latter came into the possession of its present owner.
It will be remembered, that, at the time of the delivery of tliis
oration, Webster was teaching school at Fryeburg, being prin
cipal of the old and famous academy at that place. He \\-as
then but twenty years of age, and yet, so profound was the im
pression which this oration produced upon the minds of the
hearers, that the sentiments enunciated were remembered and
repeated after the lapse of more than fifty years.* The late

* See letter of Dr.'Thomas r. Hill in Webster's Pi-ivate_Corre6ponaence.

Rev. Dr. Samuel Osgood of SpringHeld, Mass., with whose
father Webster boarded while at Fryeburg, and who heard the
oration, said that "it had great merit aud was a finished pro
duction;" and we doubt not that the reader will toincide with
the opinion thus expressed, and that he will find in this early
eifort the promise of those gigantic intellectual powers which
shed such a lustre of renown upon Webster's subsequent career.
Indeed, so remarkable a production was the oration regarded
at the time by those who heard it, that one enthusiastic farmer
ventured the bold remaik that Daniel might some day even
attain the lofty position of Governor of JSfew Hampshire I
Exalted as were the estimates placed upon this efi"ort by
Webster's contemporaries, yet the reality far surpasses any
thing which these estimates would lead us to expect. It is
almost incredible that such a production could have emanated
from a young man of only twenty years, and it may safely be
asserted, that, for beauty of style, profound thought, logical
reasoning, and statesmanlike wisdom, the early history of
the world's greatest orators may be challenged to produce any
thing which will bear comparison with this Fryeburg effort.
Being a production of the "transcendent merit it is, this oration
will constitute a substantial addition to the legacy which the
colossal intellect of Webster bequeathed to posterity, and his
countrymen will gladly give it a place by the side of the efi'orts
of his later years, to be read and studied as long as the American
heart shall feel the inspiration of that love of the Constitution
and the Union which he did so much to inculcate. In this ora
tion the speaker will be seen to have thus early shown himself
a proficient in the treatment of subjects connected with the
science of government, and to have already commenced that
profound study of the Constitution of his country which after
wards gave him the proud title of its Great Expounder and
Defender. It is a reraarkable fact that the last speech made by Webster
in the Senate of the United States, July 17, 1850, concluded
with the same peroration with which he closed this Fryeburg
oration forty-eight years before.

-«'WE6STCR's--
IN Early Manhood.

ORATION

Fellow-Citizens, — It is at the season when nature hath
assumed her loveliest apparel that the American people as
semble in their several temples to celebrate the birthday of
their nation. Arrayed in all the beauties of the year, the
Fourth of July once more visits us. Green fields and a ripen
ing harvest proclaim it, a bright sun cheers it, and the hearts
of freemen bid it welcome. Illustrious spectacle ! Six mil
lions of people this day surround their altars, and unite in an
address to Heaven for the preservation of their rights. Every
rank and every age imbibes the general spirit; From the
lisping inhabitant of the cradle to tlie aged warrior whose gray
hairs are fast sinking in the western horizon of life, every
voice is, this day, tuned to the accents of Liberty ! Washing
ton ! My Country !
Festivals established by the world have been numerous.
The coronation of a king, the birth of a prince, the marriage
of a princess, have often called wondering crowds together.
Cities and nations agree to celebrate the event which raises one
mortal man above their heads, and beings called men stand as
tonished and aghast while the pageantry of a monarch or
the jewelled grandeur of a queen poses before them. Such a
festival, however, as the Fourth of July is to America, is not
found in history ; a festival designed for solemn reflection on

the great events that have happened to us ; a festival in which
freedom receives a nation's homage, and Heaven is greeted
with incense from ten thousand hearts.
In the present situation of our country, it is, my respected
fellow-citizens, matter of high joy and congratulation that
there is one day in the year on which men of different princi
ples and different opinions can associate together. The Fourth
of July is not an occasion to compass sea and land to make
proselytes. The good sense and the good nature which yet
remain among us will, we trust, prevail on this day, and be
sufficient to chain, at least for a season, that untamed monster.
Party Spirit — and would to God that it might be chained for
ever, that, as we have but one interest, we might have but
one heart and one mind I
You have hitherto, fellow-citizens, on occasions of this kind,
been entertained with the discussion of national questions ; with
inquiries into the true principles of government ; with recapitu
lations of the War; with speculations on the causes of our
Revolution, and on its consequences to ourselves and to the
world. Leaving these subjects, it shall be the ambition of the
speaker of this day to present such a view of j'our Constitu
tion and your Union as shall convince you that you have noth
ing to hope from a change.
This age has been correctly denominated an age of experi
ments. Innovation is the idol of the times. The human mind
seems to have burst its ancient limits, and to be travelling over
the face of the material and intellectual creation in search of
improvement. The world hath become like a fickle lover, in
whom every new face inspires a new passion. In this rage for
novelty many things are made better, and many things are made
worse. Old errors are discarded, and new errors are embraced.
Governments feel the same effects from this spirit as every-

thing else. Some, like our own, grow into beauty and ex
cellence, while others sink still deeper into deformity and
wretchedness. The experience of all ages will bear us out in
saying, that alterations of political systems are always attended
with a greater or less degree of danger. They ought, therefore,
never to be undertaken, unless the evil complained of be really
felt and the prospect of a remedy clearly seen. The politician
that undertakes to improve a Constitution with as little thought
as a farmer sets about mending his plow, is no master of his
trade. If that Constitution be a systematic one, if it be a free
one, its parts are so necessarily connected that an alteration in
one will work an alteration in all; and this cobbler, however
pure and honest his intentions, will, in the end, find that what
came to his hands a fair and lovely fabric goes from them a
miserable piece of patchwork.
Xor are great and striking alterations alone to be shunned.
A succession of small changes, a perpetual tampering with
minute parts, steal away the breath though they leave the body ;
for it is true that a government may lose all its real character,
its genius and its temper, without losing its appearance. You
may have a despotism under the name of a republic. You
may look on a government and see it possess all the external
essential modes of freedom, and yet see nothing of the essence,
the vitality, of freedom in it; just as you may behold Wash
ington or Franklin in wax-work; the form is perfect, but the
spirit, the life, is not there.
The first thing to be said in favor of our system of govern
ment is that it is truly and genuinely free, and the man has a
base and skvish heart that will call any government good that
is notjree. If there be, at this day, any advocate for arbitrairy
power, we wish him the happiness of living under a govern
ment of his choice. If he is in love with chains, we would not

8
deny him the gratification of his passion. Despotism is the
point where everything bad centres, and from which everything
good departs. As far as a government is distant from this
point, so far it is good : in proportion as it approaches towards
this, in the same proportion it is detestable. In all other
forms there is something tolerable to be found; in despotism
there is nothing. Other systems have some amiable features,
some right principles, mingled with their errors; despotism is
all error. It is a dark and cheerless void, over which the eye
wanders in' vain in search of anything lovely or attractive.
The true definition of despotism is government without law.
It may exist, therefore, in the hands of many as well as of one.
Rebellions are despotisms; factions are despotisms; loose
democracies are despotisms. These are a thousand times more
dreadful than the concentration of all power in the hands of a
single tyrant. The despotism of one man is like the thunder
bolt, Avhich falls here and there, scorching and consuming the
individual on whom it lights; but popular commotion, the des
potism of a mob, is an earthquake, which in one moment
swallows up everything. It is the excellence of our govern
ment that it is placed in a proper medium between these two
extremes, that it is equally distant from mobs and from thrones.
In the next place our government is good because it is prac
tical. It is not the sick offspring of closet philosophy. It did
not rise, vaporous and evanescent, from the brains of Rousseau
and Godwin, like a mist from the ocean. It is the production
of men of business, of experience, and of wisdom. It is suited
to what man is, and what it is in the power of good laws to
make him. Its object — the just object of tdl governments — is
to secure and protect the weak against the strong, to unite the
force of the whole community against the violence of oppres
sors. Its power is the power of the nation; its will is the will

-¦- -rrr^-^^^^j^z OLd ft^^TLByiK^ ^C\mf^

^^

-=:^: j f^^Hic H j!^_t.^li^-I^ Gtif iss^s^

of the people. It is not an awkward, unshapely machine
which the people cannot use when they have made it, nor is it
so dark and complicated that it is the labor of one's life to in
vestigate and understand it. All are capable of comprehending
its principles and its operations. It admits, too, of a change
of men and of measures. At the will of a majority, we have
seen the government of the nation pass from the hands of one
description of men into those of another. Of the comparative
merits of those different men, of their honesty, their talents,
their patriotism, we have here nothing to say. That subject
we leave to be decided before the impartial tribunal of pos
terity. The fact of a change of rulers, however, proves that the
government is manageable, that it can in all cases be made to
comply with the public will. It is, too, an equal government.
It rejects principalities and powers. It demolishes all the arti
ficial distinctions which pride and ambition create. It is en
cumbered with no lazy load of hereditary aristocracy. It
clothes no one with the attributes of God ; it sinks no one to a
level with brutes : yet it admits those distinctions in society
which are natural and necessary. The correct expression of
our Bill of Rights is that men are born equal. It then rests
with themselves to maintain their equality by their worth.
The illustrious framers of our system, in all the sternness of
republicanism, rejected all nobility but the nobility of talents,
all majority but the majority of virtue.
Lastly, the government is one of our choice ; not dictated to
us by au imperious Chief Consul, like the governments of Hol
land and Switzerland; not taught us by the philosophers, nor
graciously brought to us on the bayonets of our magnanimous
sister republic on the other side the ocean. It was framed by
our fathers for themselves and for their children. Far the
greater portion of mankind submit to usurped authority, and

10
pay humble obedience to self-created law-givers; not that obe
dience of the heart which a good citizen will yield to good
laws, but the obedience which a harnessed horse pays his
driver, an obedience begotten by correction and stripes.
The American Constitution is the purchase of American
valor. It is the rich prize that rewards the toil of eight years
of war and of blood : and what is all the pomp of military
glory, what are victories, what are armies subdued, fleets cap
tured, colors taken, unless they end in the establishment of
wise laws and national happiness ? Our Revolution is not more
renowned for the brilliancy of its scenes than for the benefit of
its consequences. The Constitution is the great memorial of
the deeds of our ancestors. On the pillars and on the arches
of that dome their names are written and their achievements
recorded. While that lasts, while a single page or a single
article can be found, it will carry down the record to future
ages. It will teach mankind that glory, empty, tinkling glory,
was not the object for which Americans fought. Great Britain
had carried the fame of her arms far and wide. She had
humbled France and Spain ; she had reached her arm across the
Eastern Continent, and given laws on the banks of the Ganges.
A few scattered colonists did not rise up to contend with such
a nation for mere renown. They had a nobler object, and in
pursuit of that object they manifested a courage, constancy,
and union, that deserve to be celebrated by poets and historians
while language lasts.
The valor of America was not a transient, glimmering ray
shot forth from the impulse of momentary resentment. Against
unjust and arbitrary laws she rose with determined, unalterable
spirit. Like the rising sun, clouds and mists hung .'tround her,
but her course, like his, brightened as she proceeded. Yalor,
however, displayed in combat, is a less remarkable trait in the

11
character of our countrymen than the wisdom manifested when
the combat was over. All countries and all ages produce
warriors, but rare are the instances in which men sit down
coolly at the close of their labors to enjoy the fruits of them.
Having destroyed one despotism, nations generally create
another; having rejected the dominion of one tyrant, they
make another for themselves. England beheaded her Charles,
but crowned her Cromwell. France guillotined her Louises,
but obeys her Bonapartes. Thanks to God, neither foreign
nor domestic usurpation flourishes on our soil I
Having thus, fellow-citizens, surveyed the principal features
of our excellent Constitution and paid an inadequate tribute to
the wisdom which produced it, let us consider seriously the
means of its preservation. To perpetuate the government we
must cherish the love of it. One chief pillar in the repub
lican fabric is the spirit of patriotism. But patriotism hath, in
these days, become a good deal questionable. It hath been so
often counterfeited that even the genuine coin doth not pass
without suspicion. If one proclaims himself a patriot, this un
charitable, misjudging world is pretty likely to set him down
for a knave, and it is pretty likely to be right in this opinion.
The rage for being patriots hath really so much of the ridicu
lous in it that it is difficult to treat it seriously. The preach
ing of politics hath become a trade, and there are many who
leave all other trades to follow it. Benevolent, disinterested
men ! With Scriptural devotion they forsake houses and lands,
father and mother, wife aud children, and wander up and down
the community to teach mankind that their rulers oppress
them ! About the time when it was fashionable in France to
cut off men's heads, as we lop away superfluous sprouts from
our apple-trees, the public attention was excited by a certain
monkey, that had been taught to act the part of a patriot to

12
great perfection. If you pointed at him, says the historian,
and called him an aristocrat or a monarchist, he would fly at
you with great rage and violence ; but, if you would do him the
justice to call him a good patriot, he manifested every mark of
joy and satisfaction. But, though the whole French nation
gazed at this animal as a miracle, he was, after all, no very
strange sight. There are, in all countries, a great many
monkeys who wish to be thought patriots, and a great many
others who believe them such. But, because we are often de
ceived by appearances, let us not believe that the reality does
not exist. If our faith is ever shaken, if the crowd of hypo
critical dcmaijoffues lead us to doubt, we will remember Wash-
ington and be convinced ; we will cast our eyes around ns, on
those who have toiled aud fought and bled for their country,
and we will be persuaded that there is such a thing as real
patriotism, aud that it is one of the purest and noblest senti
ments that can warm the heart of man.
To preserve the government we must also preserve a correct
and energetic tone of morals. After all that can be said, the
truth is that liberty consists more in the habits of the people
than in anything else. When the public mind becomes vitiated
and depraved, every attempt to preserve it is vain. Laws are
then a nullity, and Constitutions waste paper. There are
always men wicked enough to go any length in the pursuit of
power, if they can find others wicked enough to support them.
They regard not paper and parchment. Can j'^ou stop the prog
ress of a usurper by opposing to him the laws of his country ?
then you may check the careering winds or stay the lightning
with a song. No. Ambitious men must be restrained by the
public morality : when they rise up to do evil, they must find
themselves standing alone. Morality rests on religion. If
you destroy the foundation, the superstructure must fall. In

Standen^in'this^

13
a world of error, of temptation, of seduction; iu a world
where crimes often triumph, aud virtue is scourged with scor
pions, — in such a world, certainly, the hope of an hereafter is
necessary to cheer and to animate. Leave us, then, the con
solations of religion. Leave to man, to frail and feeble man,
the comfort of knowing, that, when he gratifies his immortal
soul with deeds of justice, of kindness, and of mercy, he is
rescuing his happiness from final dissolution and laying it up in
Heaven. Our duty as citizens is not a solitary, one. It is connected
with all the duties that belong to us as men. The civil, the
social, the Christian virtues are requisite to render us worthy
the continuation of that government which is the freest on
earth. Yes, though the world should hear me, though I could
fancy myself standing in the congregation of all nations, I
would say: Americans, you are the most privileged people
that the sun shines on. The salutary influences of your climate
are inferior to the salutaiy influences of your laws. Your soil,
rich to a proverb, is less rich than your Constitution. Your
rivers, large as the oceans of the old world, are less copious
than the streams of social happiness which flow around you.
Your air is not purer than yoiir civil liberty, and your hills,
though high as heaven and deep as the foundations of the earth,
are less exalted and less firmly founded than that benign and
everlasting religion which blesses you and shall bless your off
spring. Amidst these profuse blessings of nature and of
Providence, beware ! Standing in this place, sacred to truth,
I dare not undertake to assure you that your liberties and your
happiness may not be lost. Men are subject to men's misfor
tunes. If an angel should be winged from Heaven, on an
errand of mercy to our country, the first accents that would
glow on his lips would be. Beware I be cautious I you have

14
everything to lose ; you have nothing to gain. We live under
the' only government that ever existed which was framed by
the unrestrained and deliberate consultations of the people.
Miracles do not cluster. That which has happened but once in
six thousand years cannot be expected to happen often. Such
a government, once gone, might leave a void, to be filled, for
ages, with revolution and tumult, riot and despotism. The
history of the world is before us. It rises like an immense
column, on which we may see inscribed the soundest maxims
of political experience. These maxims should be treasured in
our memories and written on our hearts. Man, in all countries,
resembles man. Wherever you find him, you find humaii
nature in him and human frailties about him. He is, therefore,
a proper pupil for the school of experience. He should draw
wisdom from the example of others, — encouragement from'
their success, caution from their misfortunes. Nations should
diligently keep their eye bn the nations that have gone before
them. They should mark and avoid their errors, not travel on
heedlessly in the path of danger and of death while the bones
of their perished predecessors whiten around them. Our own
times afford us lessons that admonish us both of our duty and'
our danger. We have seen mighty nations, miserable in their
chains, more miserable when they attempted to shake them oS.
Tortured and distracted beneath the lash of servitude, we have
seen them rise up in indignation to assert the rights of himian
nature; but, deceived by hypocrites, cajoled by demagogues,
ruined by false patriots, overpowered by a resistless mixed
multitude of knaves and fools, we have wept at the wretched
end of all their labors. Tossed for ten years in the crazy
dreams of revolutionary liberty, we have seen them at last
awake, and, like the slave who slumbers on his oar and dreams
of the happiness of his own blessed homCj they awake to" find

15
themselves still in bondage. Let it not be thought that we
advert to other nations to triumph in their sufferings or mock at
their calamities. Would to God the whole earth enjoyed pure
and rational liberty, that every realm that the human eye sur
veys or the human foot treads, were free I Wherever men
soberly and prudently engage in the pursuit of this object, our
prayers in their behalf shall ascend unto the Heavens and unto
the ear of Him who filleth them. Be they powerful or be
they weak, in such a cause they deserve success. Yes, "The
poorest being that crawls on earth, contending to save itself
from injustice and oppression, is an object respectable in the
eyes of God and man." Our purpose is only to draw lessons
of prudence from the imprudence of others, to argue the neces
sity of virtue from the consequences of their vices.
Unhappy Europe ! the judgment of God rests hard upon
thee. Thy sufferings would deserve an angel's pity, if an
angel's tears could wash away thy crimes ! The Eastern Con
tinent seems trembling on the brink of some great catastrophe.
Convulsions shake and terrors alarm it. Ancient systems are
falling ; works reared by ages are crumbling into atoms. Let
us humbly implore Heaven that the wide-spreading desolation
may never reach the shores of our native land, but let us de
voutly make up our minds to do our duty in events that may
happen to us. Let us cherish genuine patriotism. In that,
there is a sort of inspiration that gives strength and energy
almost more than human. When the mind is attached to a
great object, it grows to the magnitude of its undertaking. A
true patriot, with his eye and his heart on the honor and happi
ness of his country, hath an elevation of soul that lifts him
above the rank of ordinary men. To common occurrences he
is indifferent. Personal considerations dwindle into nothing, in
comparison with his high sense of public duty. In all the

16
vicissitudes of fortune, he leans with pleasure on the protection
of Providence and on the dignity and composure of his own
mind. While his country enjoys peace, he rejoices aud is
thankful ; and, if it be in the counsel of Heaven to send the
storm and the tempest, his bosom proudly swells against the
rage that assaidts it. Above fear, above danger, he feels that
the last end which can happen to an'y man never comes too soon,
iJ he falls in defence of the laws and liberties of his country.

-^. .. *¦', '-¦' '. ¦ , •'¦.'. .,' ' ¦'.'.

¦¦.-

, ¦¦'"*-; ¦¦ .:-*':¦-,¦ ¦'¦¦

¦''¦ ... ''; ' «'
¦;?¦•' '

iYALE

'

tfm

^i«

' ^ -'
tt
a'
¦:v
-iFP.TUuffffP %5#^