aggression is deep and settled in their hearts, and cannot be eradicated.

Sir, the declaration of independence will inspire the people with increased courage. Instead of a long and 5 bloody war for the restoration of privileges, for redress of grievances, set before them the glorious object of entire independence, and it will breathe into them anew the spirit of life.

Read this declaration at the head of the army; every 10 sword will be drawn, and the solemn vow uttered to maintain it or perish on the bed of honor. Publish it from the pulpit; religion will approve it, and the love of religious liberty will cling around it, resolved to stand with it, or fall with it. Send it to the public halls; 15 proclaim it there; let them see it, who saw their

brothers and their sons fall on the field of Bunker Hill, and in the streets of Lexington and Concord, and the very walls will cry out in its support.

Sir, I know the uncertainty of human affairs, but 20 I see, I see clearly through this day's business. You and I indeed may rue it. We may not live to the time when this Declaration shall be made good. We may die; die colonists; die slaves; die, it may be, ignominiously and on the scaffold. Be it so! Be it 25 SO! If it be the pleasure of Heaven that my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready, at the appointed hour of sacrifice, come

when that hour may. But while I live, let me have a country, or at least the hope of a country, and that a free country!

When 10

But whatever may be our fate, be assured, be assured that this Declaration will stand. It may 5 cost treasure, and it may cost blood; but it will stand, and it will richly compensate for both. Through the thick gloom of the present, I see the brightness of the future as the sun in heaven. We shall make this a glorious, an immortal day. we are in our graves, our children will honor it. They will celebrate it with thanksgiving, with festivity, with bonfires and illuminations. On its annual return they will shed tears, copious, gushing tears, not of subjection and slavery, not of agony and distress, but 15 of exaltation, of gratitude, and of joy.

Sir, before God, I believe the hour is come. My judgment approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope in this life, I am now ready here to stake 20 upon it, and I leave off as I began, that live or die, sink or swim, survive or perish, I am for the Declaration. It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment, Independence now and Independence forever.

DANIEL WEBSTER.

25

HELPS TO STUDY

After the fight at Concord bridge, over a year passed before the American colonies finally declared their independence of Great Britain. Meanwhile the colonies were in a state of war. Washington had been appointed commander of their troops before Boston, and in March, 1776, the British forces had evacuated the city. In Philadelphia the Continental Congress was in session, and on June 7th Richard Henry Lee introduced a resolution "that these United Colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states." In the debate which followed, John Adams was the leader of the more aggressive who wished an immediate declaration without waiting for foreign aid. News that General Howe had landed near New York with a large army hastened the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.

Fifty years later the two men who had been most concerned in the great paper died, on the anniversary of its adoption. John Adams, its ardent advocate and the second President of the United States, was in his ninetieth year, and Thomas Jefferson, its author, was eighty-three. A month later Daniel Webster delivered an oration at a meeting held in Boston in memory of the two founders of the nation. A part of this oration on "Adams and Jefferson " contains the speech which Adams was supposed to have made in favor of the "Declaration of Independence."

1. What reasons does Adams urge for adopting the Declaration? 2. Which reason seems to you most strongly presented? 3. Find passages where the orator asks questions that he may answer them. 4. In what passage does he express his willingness to die for the cause? 5. In what passage does he predict a glorious future for Independence Day? 6. Note repetitions of language

in order to give emphasis. 7. Which seems to you the most stirring passage in the oration?

For Study with the Glossary: aggression, eradicated, rue, ignominiously, compensate, exultation.

Phrases: a divinity that shapes our ends (see Hamlet v. ii. 10), one jot or tittle, plighted faith, Boston port-bill, redress of grievances, bed of honor.

Review Questions. 1. Who were the first three presidents of the United States? 2. Tell what you can of Washington's youth. 3. When was the fight at Concord bridge? 4. What war was begun by this battle? 5. Who was made commander of the American troops? 6. When was the Declaration of Independence adopted? 7. Who wrote it? 8. Who was a leading speaker in favor of it? 9. When did John Adams and Thomas Jefferson die?

The dictionary should be used freely by pupils. The Glossary at the end of this volume is convenient for reference, but it should not be used as a substitute for the dictionary. The Glossary gives the meaning of the words in the places where they occur in the Reader. For full meanings of the words, and especially for phrases, the dictionary should be consulted.

LIBERTY AND UNION

Daniel Webster was the greatest of American orators. A man of magnificent presence, his powerful personality helped to make his eloquence irresistible whether he spoke in law court, or in the Senate, or on the occasion of some celebration. His great abilities, both as an orator and a statesman, won their greatest achievement in convincing the people that our government was not merely a confederation but a union, with all the powers necessary to its maintenance.

Within four years after Webster had made his address on the deaths of Adams and Jefferson, a great debate arose in the Senate over the interpretation of the Constitution. Senator Robert Hayne in two brilliant speeches set forth the doctrine of independence of the states. Webster's reply elaborated the national conception of the Union. Our selection gives its most celebrated passage.

I profess, sir, in my career hitherto, to have kept steadily in view the prosperity and honor of the whole country, and the preservation of our Federal Union.

I have not allowed myself, sir, to look beyond the 5 Union, to see what might lie hidden in the dark recess behind. I have not coolly weighed the chances of preserving liberty when the bonds that unite us together shall be broken asunder. I have not accustomed myself to hang over the precipice of disunion, 10 to see whether, with my short sight, I can fathom the