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DANIEL WEBSTER COMMEMORATING THE
PILGRIM'S LANDING OF 1620
The Plymouth Oration - Page 3
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Daniel Webster's Plymouth Oration.
It follows the full text transcript of
Daniel Webster's Plymouth Oration, delivered at
Plymouth, Massachusetts - December 22, 1820.
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A most interesting
experiment of the effect of a subdivision of
property on government is now making in France.
It is understood, that the law regulating the
transmission of property in that country, now
divides it, real and personal, among all the
children equally, both sons and daughters; and
that there is, also, a very great restraint on
the power of making dispositions of property by
will. It has been supposed, that the effects of
this might probably be, in time, to break up the
soil into such small subdivisions, that the
proprietors would be too poor to resist the
encroachments of executive power. I think far
otherwise. What is lost in individual wealth
will be more than gained in numbers, in
intelligence, and in a sympathy of sentiment.
If, indeed, only one or a few landholders were
to resist the crown, like the barons of England,
they must, of course, be great and powerful
landholders, with multitudes of retainers, to
promise success. But if the proprietors of a
given extent of territory are summoned to
resistance, there is no reason to believe that
such resistance would be less forcible, or less
successful, because the number of such
proprietors happened to be great. Each would
perceive his own importance, and his own
interest, and would feel that natural elevation
of character which the consciousness of property
inspires. A common sentiment would unite all,
and numbers would not only add strength, but
excite enthusiasm. It is true, that France
possesses a vast military force, under the
direction of an hereditary executive government;
and military power, it is possible, may
overthrow any government. It is in vain,
however, in this period of the world, to look
for security against military power to the arm
of the great landholders. That notion is derived
from a state of things long since past; a state
in which a feudal baron, with his retainers,
might stand against the sovereign and his
retainers, himself but the greatest baron. But
at present, what could the richest landholder
do, against one regiment of disciplined troops?
Other securities, therefore, against the
prevalence of military power must be provided.
Happily for us, we are not so situated as that
any purpose of national defense requires,
ordinarily and constantly, such a military force
as might seriously endanger our liberties.
In respect, however, to the recent law of
succession in France, to which I have alluded, I
would, presumptuously perhaps, hazard a
conjecture, that, if the government do not
change the law, the law in half a century will
change the government; and that this change will
be, not in favor of the power of the crown, as
some European writers have supposed, but against
it. Those writers only reason upon what they
think correct general principles, in relation to
this subject. They acknowledge a want of
experience. Here we have had that experience;
and we know that a multitude of small
proprietors, acting with intelligence, and that
enthusiasm which a common cause inspires,
constitute not only a formidable, but an
invincible power.
The true principle of a free and popular
government would seem to be, so to construct it
as to give to all, or at least to a very great
majority, an interest in its preservation; to
found it, as other things are founded, on men's
interest. The stability of government demands
that those who desire its continuance should be
more powerful than those who desire its
dissolution. This power, of course, is not
always to be measured by mere numbers.
Education, wealth, talents, are all parts and
elements of the general aggregate of power; but
numbers, nevertheless, constitute ordinarily the
most important consideration, unless, indeed,
there be a military force in the hands of the
few, by which they can control the many. In this
country we have actually existing systems of
government, in the maintenance of which, it
should seem, a great majority, both in numbers
and in other means of power and influence, must
see their interest. But this state of things is
not brought about solely by written political
constitutions, or the mere manner of organizing
the government; but also by the laws which
regulate the descent and transmission of
property. The freest government, if it could
exist, would not be long acceptable, if the
tendency of the laws were to create a rapid
accumulation of property in few hands, and to
render the great mass of the population
dependent and penniless. In such a case, the
popular power would be likely to break in upon
the rights of property, or else the influence of
property to limit and control the exercise of
popular power. Universal suffrage, for example,
could not long exist in a community where there
was great inequality of property. The holders of
estates would be obliged, in such case, in some
way to restrain the right of suffrage, or else
such right of suffrage would, before long,
divide the property. In the nature of things,
those who have not property, and see their
neighbors possess much more than they think them
to need, cannot be favorable to laws made for
the protection of property. When this class
becomes numerous, it grows clamorous. It looks
on property as its prey and plunder, and is
naturally ready, at all times, for violence and
revolution.
It would seem, then, to be the part of political
wisdom to found government on property; and to
establish such distribution of property, by the
laws which regulate its transmission and
alienation, as to interest the great majority of
society in the support of the government. This
is, I imagine, the true theory and the actual
practice of our republican institutions. With
property divided as we have it, no other
government than that of a republic could be
maintained, even were we foolish enough to
desire it. There is reason, therefore, to expect
a long continuance of our system. Party and
passion, doubtless, may prevail at times, and
much temporary mischief be done. Even modes and
forms may be changed, and perhaps for the worse.
But a great revolution in regard to property
must take place, before our governments can be
moved from their republican basis, unless they
be violently struck off by military power. The
people possess the property, more emphatically
than it could ever be said of the people of any
other country, and they can have no interest to
overturn a government which protects that
property by equal laws.
Let it not be supposed, that this state of
things possesses too strong tendencies towards
the production of a dead and uninteresting level
in society. Such tendencies are sufficiently
counteracted by the infinite diversities in the
characters and fortunes of individuals. Talent,
activity, industry, and enterprise tend at all
times to produce inequality and distinction; and
there is room still for the accumulation of
wealth, with its great advantages, to all
reasonable and useful extent. It has been often
urged against the state of society in America,
that it furnishes no class of men of fortune and
leisure. This may be partly true, but it is not
entirely so, and the evil, if it be one, would
affect rather the progress of taste and
literature, than the general prosperity of the
people. But the promotion of taste and
literature cannot be primary objects of
political institutions; and if they could, it
might be doubted whether, in the long course of
things, as much is not gained by a wide
diffusion of general knowledge, as is lost by
diminishing the number of those who are enabled
by fortune and leisure to devote themselves
exclusively to scientific and literary pursuits.
However this may be, it is to be considered that
it is the spirit of our system to be equal and
general, and if there be particular
disadvantages incident to this, they are far
more than counterbalanced by the benefits which
weigh against them. The important concerns of
society are generally conducted, in all
countries, by the men of business and practical
ability; and even in matters of taste and
literature, the advantages of mere leisure are
liable to be overrated. If there exist adequate
means of education and a love of letters be
excited, that love will find its way to the
object of its desire, through the crowd and
pressure of the most busy society.
Connected with this division of property, and
the consequent participation of the great mass
of people in its possession and enjoyments, is
the system of representation, which is admirably
accommodated to our condition, better understood
among us, and more familiarly and extensively
practiced, in the higher and in the lower
departments of government, than it has been by
any other people. Great facility has been given
to this in New England by the early division of
the country into townships or small districts,
in which all concerns of local police are
regulated, and in which representatives to the
legislature are elected. Nothing can exceed the
utility of these little bodies. They are so many
councils or parliaments, in which common
interests are discussed, and useful knowledge
acquired and communicated.
The division of governments into departments,
and the division, again, of the legislative
department into two chambers, are essential
provisions in our system. This last, although
not new in itself, yet seems to be new in its
application to governments wholly popular. The
Grecian republics, it is plain, knew nothing of
it; and in Rome, the check and balance of
legislative power, such as it was, lay between
the people and the senate. Indeed, few things
are more difficult than to ascertain accurately
the true nature and construction of the Roman
commonwealth. The relative power of the senate
and the people, of the consuls and the tribunes,
appears not to have been at all times the same,
nor at any time accurately defined or strictly
observed. Cicero, indeed, describes to us an
admirable arrangement of political power, and a
balance of the constitution, in that beautiful
passage, in which he compares the democracies of
Greece with the Roman commonwealth.
"O morem preclarum,
disciplinamque, quam a majoribus accepimus, si
quidem teneremus! sed nescio quo pacto jam de
manibus elabitur. Nullam enim illi nostri
sapientissimi et sanctissimi viri vim concionis
esse voluerunt, quae scisseret plebs, aut quae
populus juberet; summota concione, distributis
partibus, tributim et centuriatim descriptis
ordinibus, classibus, aetatibus, auditis
auctoribus, re multos dies promulgata et cognita,
juberi vetarique voluerunt. Graecorum autem
totae respublicae sedentis concionis temeritate
administrantur."
But at what time this wise system existed in
this perfection at Rome, no proofs remain to
show. Her constitution, originally framed for a
monarchy, never seemed to be adjusted in its
several parts after the expulsion of the kings.
Liberty there was, but it was a disputatious, an
uncertain, an ill-secured liberty. The patrician
and plebeian orders, instead of being matched
and joined, each in its just place and
proportion, to sustain the fabric of the state,
were rather like hostile powers, in perpetual
conflict. With us, an attempt has been made, and
so far not without success, to divide
representation into chambers, and, by difference
of age, character, qualification, or mode of
election, to establish salutary checks, in
governments altogether elective.
Having detained you so long with these
observations, I must yet advert to another most
interesting topic,—the Free Schools. In this
particular, New England may be allowed to claim,
I think, a merit of a peculiar character. She
early adopted, and has constantly maintained the
principle, that it is the undoubted right and
the bounden duty of government to provide for
the instruction of all youth. That which is
elsewhere left to chance or to charity, we
secure by law. For the purpose of public
instruction, we hold every man subject to
taxation in proportion to his property, and we
look not to the question, whether he himself
have, or have not, children to be benefited by
the education for which he pays. We regard it as
a wise and liberal system of police, by which
property, and life, and the peace of society are
secured. We seek to prevent in some measure the
extension of the penal code, by inspiring a
salutary and conservative principle of virtue
and of knowledge in an early age. We strive to
excite a feeling of respectability, and a sense
of character, by enlarging the capacity and
increasing the sphere of intellectual enjoyment.
By general instruction, we seek, as far as
possible, to purify the whole moral atmosphere;
to keep good sentiments uppermost, and to turn
the strong current of feeling and opinion, as
well as the censures of the law and the
denunciations of religion, against immorality
and crime. We hope for a security beyond the
law, and above the law, in the prevalence of an
enlightened and well-principled moral sentiment.
We hope to continue and prolong the time, when,
in the villages and farm-houses of New England,
there may be undisturbed sleep within unbarred
doors. And knowing that our government rests
directly on the public will, in order that we
may preserve it we endeavor to give a safe and
proper direction to that public will. We do not,
indeed, expect all men to be philosophers or
statesmen; but we confidently trust, and our
expectation of the duration of our system of
government rests on that trust, that, by the
diffusion of general knowledge and good and
virtuous sentiments, the political fabric may be
secure, as well against open violence and
overthrow, as against the slow, but sure,
undermining of licentiousness.
We know that, at the present time, an attempt is
making in the English Parliament to provide by
law for the education of the poor, and that a
gentleman of distinguished character (Mr.
Brougham) has taken the lead in presenting a
plan to government for carrying that purpose
into effect. And yet, although the
representatives of the three kingdoms listened
to him with astonishment as well as delight, we
hear no principles with which we ourselves have
not been familiar from youth; we see nothing in
the plan but an approach towards that system
which has been established in New England for
more than a century and a half. It is said that
in England not more than one child in fifteen
possesses the means of being taught to read and
write; in Wales, one in twenty; in France, until
lately, when some improvement was made, not more
than one in thirty-five. Now, it is hardly too
strong to say, that in New England every child
possesses such means. It would be difficult to
find an instance to the contrary, unless where
it should be owing to the negligence of the
parent; and, in truth, the means are actually
used and enjoyed by nearly every one. A youth of
fifteen, of either sex, who cannot both read and
write, is very seldom to be found. Who can make
this comparison, or contemplate this spectacle,
without delight and a feeling of just pride?
Does any history show property more beneficently
applied? Did any government ever subject the
property of those who have estates to a burden,
for a purpose more favorable to the poor, or
more useful to the whole community?
A conviction of the importance of public
instruction was one of the earliest sentiments
of our ancestors. No lawgiver of ancient or
modern times has expressed more just opinions,
or adopted wiser measures, than the early
records of the Colony of Plymouth show to have
prevailed here. Assembled on this very spot, a
hundred and fifty-three years ago, the
legislature of this Colony declared, "Forasmuch
as the maintenance of good literature doth much
tend to the advancement of the weal and
flourishing state of societies and republics,
this Court doth therefore order, that in
whatever township in this government, consisting
of fifty families or upwards, any meet man shall
be obtained to teach a grammar school, such
township shall allow at least twelve pounds, to
be raised by rate on all the inhabitants."
Having provided that all youth should be
instructed in the elements of learning by the
institution of free schools, our ancestors had
yet another duty to perform. Men were to be
educated for the professions and the public. For
this purpose they founded the University, and
with incredible zeal and perseverance they
cherished and supported it, through all trials
and discouragements. On the subject of the
University, it is not possible for a son of New
England to think without pleasure, or to speak
without emotion. Nothing confers more honor on
the State where it is established, or more
utility on the country at large. A respectable
university is an establishment which must be the
work of time. If pecuniary means were not
wanting, no new institution could possess
character and respectability at once. We owe
deep obligation to our ancestors, who began,
almost on the moment of their arrival, the work
of building up this institution.
Although established in a different government,
the Colony of Plymouth manifested warm
friendship for Harvard College. At an early
period, its government took measures to promote
a general subscription throughout all the towns
in this Colony, in aid of its small funds. Other
colleges were subsequently founded and endowed,
in other places, as the ability of the people
allowed; and we may flatter ourselves, that the
means of education at present enjoyed in New
England are not only adequate to the diffusion
of the elements of knowledge among all classes,
but sufficient also for respectable attainments
in literature and the sciences.
Lastly, our ancestors established their system
of government on morality and religious
sentiment. Moral habits, they believed, cannot
safely be trusted on any other foundation than
religious principle, nor any government be
secure which is not supported by moral habits.
Living under the heavenly light of revelation,
they hoped to find all the social dispositions,
all the duties which men owe to each other and
to society, enforced and performed. Whatever
makes men good Christians, makes them good
citizens. Our fathers came here to enjoy their
religion free and unmolested; and, at the end of
two centuries, there is nothing upon which we
can pronounce more confidently, nothing of which
we can express a more deep and earnest
conviction, than of the inestimable importance
of that religion to man, both in regard to this
life and that which is to come.
If the blessings of our political and social
condition have not been too highly estimated, we
cannot well overrate the responsibility and duty
which they impose upon us. We hold these
institutions of government, religion, and
learning, to be transmitted, as well as enjoyed.
We are in the line of conveyance, through which
whatever has been obtained by the spirit and
efforts of our ancestors is to be communicated
to our children.
We are bound to maintain public liberty, and, by
the example of our own systems, to convince the
world that order and law, religion and morality,
the rights of conscience, the rights of persons,
and the rights of property, may all be preserved
and secured, in the most perfect manner, by a
government entirely and purely elective. If we
fail in this, our disaster will be signal, and
will furnish an argument, stronger than has yet
been found, in support of those opinions which
maintain that government can rest safely on
nothing but power and coercion. As far as
experience may show errors in our
establishments, we are bound to correct them;
and if any practices exist contrary to the
principles of justice and humanity within the
reach of our laws or our influence, we are
inexcusable if we do not exert ourselves to
restrain and abolish them.
I deem it my duty on this occasion to suggest,
that the land is not yet wholly free from the
contamination of a traffic, at which every
feeling of humanity must for ever revolt,—I mean
the African slave-trade. Neither public
sentiment, nor the law, has hitherto been able
entirely to put an end to this odious and
abominable trade. At the moment when God in his
mercy has blessed the Christian world with a
universal peace, there is reason to fear, that,
to the disgrace of the Christian name and
character, new efforts are making for the
extension of this trade by subjects and citizens
of Christian states, in whose hearts there dwell
no sentiments of humanity or of justice, and
over whom neither the fear of God nor the fear
of man exercises a control. In the sight of our
law, the African slave-trader is a pirate and a
felon; and in the sight of Heaven, an offender
far beyond the ordinary depth of human guilt.
There is no brighter page of our history, than
that which records the measures which have been
adopted by the government at an early day, and
at different times since, for the suppression of
this traffic; and I would call on all the true
sons of New England to co-operate with the laws
of man, and the justice of Heaven. If there be,
within the extent of our knowledge or influence,
any participation in this traffic, let us pledge
ourselves here, upon the rock of Plymouth, to
extirpate and destroy it. It is not fit that the
land of the Pilgrims should bear the shame
longer. I hear the sound of the hammer, I see
the smoke of the furnaces where manacles and
fetters are still forged for human limbs. I see
the visages of those who by stealth and at
midnight labor in this work of hell, foul and
dark, as may become the artificers of such
instruments of misery and torture. Let that spot
be purified, or let it cease to be of New
England. Let it be purified, or let it be set
aside from the Christian world; let it be put
out of the circle of human sympathies and human
regards, and let civilized man henceforth have
no communion with it.
I would invoke those who fill the seats of
justice, and all who minister at her altar, that
they execute the wholesome and necessary
severity of the law. I invoke the ministers of
our religion, that they proclaim its
denunciation of these crimes, and add its solemn
sanctions to the authority of human laws. If the
pulpit be silent whenever or wherever there may
be a sinner bloody with this guilt within the
hearing of its voice, the pulpit is false to its
trust. I call on the fair merchant, who has
reaped his harvest upon the seas, that he assist
in scourging from those seas the worst pirates
that ever infested them. That ocean, which seems
to wave with a gentle magnificence to waft the
burden of an honest commerce, and to roll along
its treasures with a conscious pride,—that
ocean, which hardy industry regards, even when
the winds have ruffled its surface, as a field
of grateful toil,—what is it to the victim of
this oppression, when he is brought to its
shores, and looks forth upon it, for the first
time, loaded with chains, and bleeding with
stripes? What is it to him but a wide-spread
prospect of suffering, anguish, and death? Nor
do the skies smile longer, nor is the air longer
fragrant to him. The sun is cast down from
heaven. An inhuman and accursed traffic has cut
him off in his manhood, or in his youth, from
every enjoyment belonging to his being, and
every blessing which his Creator intended for
him.
The Christian communities send forth their
emissaries of religion and letters, who stop,
here and there, along the coast of the vast
continent of Africa, and with painful and
tedious efforts make some almost imperceptible
progress in the communication of knowledge, and
in the general improvement of the natives who
are immediately about them. Not thus slow and
imperceptible is the transmission of the vices
and bad passions which the subjects of Christian
states carry to the land. The slave-trade having
touched the coast, its influence and its evils
spread, like a pestilence, over the whole
continent, making savage wars more savage and
more frequent, and adding new and fierce
passions to the contests of barbarians.
I pursue this topic no further, except again to
say, that all Christendom, being now blessed
with peace, is bound by every thing which
belongs to its character, and to the character
of the present age, to put a stop to this
inhuman and disgraceful traffic.
We are bound, not only to maintain the general
principles of public liberty, but to support
also those existing forms of government which
have so well secured its enjoyment, and so
highly promoted the public prosperity. It is now
more than thirty years that these States have
been united under the Federal Constitution, and
whatever fortune may await them hereafter, it is
impossible that this period of their history
should not be regarded as distinguished by
signal prosperity and success. They must be
sanguine indeed, who can hope for benefit from
change. Whatever division of the public judgment
may have existed in relation to particular
measures of the government, all must agree, one
should think, in the opinion, that in its
general course it has been eminently productive
of public happiness. Its most ardent friends
could not well have hoped from it more than it
has accomplished; and those who disbelieved or
doubted ought to feel less concern about
predictions which the event has not verified,
than pleasure in the good which has been
obtained. Whoever shall hereafter write this
part of our history, although he may see
occasional errors or defects, will be able to
record no great failure in the ends and objects
of government. Still less will he be able to
record any series of lawless and despotic acts,
or any successful usurpation. His page will
contain no exhibition of provinces depopulated,
of civil authority habitually trampled down by
military power, or of a community crushed by the
burden of taxation. He will speak, rather, of
public liberty protected, and public happiness
advanced; of increased revenue, and population
augmented beyond all example; of the growth of
commerce, manufactures, and the arts; and of
that happy condition, in which the restraint and
coercion of government are almost invisible and
imperceptible, and its influence felt only in
the benefits which it confers. We can entertain
no better wish for our country, than that this
government may be preserved; nor have a clearer
duty than to maintain and support it in the full
exercise of all its just constitutional powers.
The cause of science and literature also imposes
upon us an important and delicate trust. The
wealth and population of the country are now so
far advanced, as to authorize the expectation of
a correct literature and a well formed taste, as
well as respectable progress in the abstruse
sciences. The country has risen from a state of
colonial subjection; it has established an
independent government, and is now in the
undisturbed enjoyment of peace and political
security. The elements of knowledge are
universally diffused, and the reading portion of
the community is large. Let us hope that the
present may be an auspicious era of literature.
If, almost on the day of their landing, our
ancestors founded schools and endowed colleges,
what obligations do not rest upon us, living
under circumstances so much more favorable both
for providing and for using the means of
education? Literature becomes free institutions.
It is the graceful ornament of civil liberty,
and a happy restraint on the asperities which
political controversies sometimes occasion. Just
taste is not only an embellishment of society,
but it rises almost to the rank of the virtues,
and diffuses positive good throughout the whole
extent of its influence. There is a connection
between right feeling and right principles, and
truth in taste is allied with truth in morality.
With nothing in our past history to discourage
us, and with something in our present condition
and prospects to animate us, let us hope, that,
as it is our fortune to live in an age when we
may behold a wonderful advancement of the
country in all its other great interests, we may
see also equal progress and success attend the
cause of letters.
Finally, let us not forget the religious
character of our origin. Our fathers were
brought hither by their high veneration for the
Christian religion. They journeyed by its light,
and labored in its hope. They sought to
incorporate its principles with the elements of
their society, and to diffuse its influence
through all their institutions, civil,
political, or literary. Let us cherish these
sentiments, and extend this influence still more
widely; in the full conviction, that that is the
happiest society which partakes in the highest
degree of the mild and peaceful spirit of
Christianity.
The hours of this day are rapidly flying, and
this occasion will soon be passed. Neither we
nor our children can expect to behold its
return. They are in the distant regions of
futurity, they exist only in the all-creating
power of God, who shall stand here a hundred
years hence, to trace, through us, their descent
from the Pilgrims, and to survey, as we have now
surveyed, the progress of their country, during
the lapse of a century. We would anticipate
their concurrence with us in our sentiments of
deep regard for our common ancestors. We would
anticipate and partake the pleasure with which
they will then recount the steps of New
England's advancement. On the morning of that
day, although it will not disturb us in our
repose, the voice of acclamation and gratitude,
commencing on the Rock of Plymouth, shall be
transmitted through millions of the sons of the
Pilgrims, till it lose itself in the murmurs of
the Pacific seas.
We would leave for the consideration of those
who shall then occupy our places, some proof
that we hold the blessings transmitted from our
fathers in just estimation; some proof of our
attachment to the cause of good government, and
of civil and religious liberty; some proof of a
sincere and ardent desire to promote every thing
which may enlarge the understandings and improve
the hearts of men. And when, from the long
distance of a hundred years, they shall look
back upon us, they shall know, at least, that we
possessed affections, which, running backward
and warming with gratitude for what our
ancestors have done for our happiness, run
forward also to our posterity, and meet them
with cordial salutation, ere yet they have
arrived on the shore of being.
Advance, then, ye future generations! We would
hail you, as you rise in your long succession,
to fill the places which we now fill, and to
taste the blessings of existence where we are
passing, and soon shall have passed, our own
human duration. We bid you welcome to this
pleasant land of the fathers. We bid you welcome
to the healthful skies and the verdant fields of
New England. We greet your accession to the
great inheritance which we have enjoyed.
We welcome you to
the blessings of good government and religious
liberty. We welcome you to the treasures of
science and the delights of learning. We welcome
you to the transcendent sweets of domestic life,
to the happiness of kindred, and parents, and
children. We welcome you to the immeasurable
blessings of rational existence, the immortal
hope of Christianity, and the light of
everlasting truth!
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