"
Mr. Webster then rose, and, after making his acknowledgments to the
Senators from Wisconsin (Mr. Walker) and New York (Mr. Seward) for their
courtesy in yielding the floor to him, delivered the following speech,
which, in consideration of its character and of the manner in which it
was received throughout the country, has been entitled a speech for "the
Constitution and the Union." In the pamphlet edition it was dedicated in
the following terms to the people of Massachusetts:--
WITH THE HIGHEST RESPECT,
AND THE DEEPEST SENSE OF OBLIGATION,
I DEDICATE THIS SPEECH
TO THE
PEOPLE OF MASSACHUSETTS.
"HIS EGO GRATIORA DICTU ALIA ESSE SCIO; SED ME VERA PRO GRATIS LOQUI,
ETSI MEUM INGENIUM NON MONERET, NECESSITAS COGIT. VELLEM, EQUIDEM, VOBIS
PLACERE; SED MULTO MALO VOS SALVOS ESSE, QUALICUMQUE ERGA ME ANIMO
FUTURI ESTIS."
DANIEL WEBSTER.]
Mr. President,--I wish to speak to-day, not as a Massachusetts man, nor
as a Northern man, but as an American, and a member of the Senate of the
United States. It is fortunate that there is a Senate of the United
States; a body not yet moved from its propriety, not lost to a just
sense of its own dignity and its own high responsibilities, and a body
to which the country looks, with confidence, for wise, moderate,
patriotic, and healing counsels. It is not to be denied that we live in
the midst of strong agitations, and are surrounded by very considerable
dangers to our institutions and government.
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