CONTENTS. Extract from President Fillmore's Message, Table of the Presidents of the United States, Table of dates in which Mr. Webster was in Congress, SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF DANIEL WEBSTER. Completion of the Bunker Hill Monument, The Christian Ministry, and the Religious instruction of the Letter to Messrs. John Haven and others, of Portsmouth, N. H., 426 Letter to Messrs. William Kinney and others, of Staunton, Va., 429 PREFACE. THE presentation of the CONSTITUTIONAL TEXT Book to the People of the United States certainly needs no apology; for it contains the Fundamental Law of our Country, with an Introduction selected from the writings of him who has justly been styled the EXPOUNDER AND THE DEFENDER OF THE CONSTITUTION. In making the Selections from the Writings of Mr. WEBSTER, great care has been taken to select such parts as may be considered National, and which will tend to strengthen the opinions of the old, and to impress the young with A LOVE OF COUNTRY, A VENERATION FOR THE CONSTITUTION, A RESPECT FOR THE MEMORY OF THE GREAT AND GOOD MEN WHO FOUNDED OUR REPUBLIC AND WHO HAVE PASSED AWAY, A FERVENT ATTACHMENT TO THE UNION, TO LIBERTY, TO PEACE, TO Order, AND TO LAW; and will also teach lessons of WISDOM, of MORALITY, and of RELIGION. When the work is used as a Class Book, the instructor will readily find in the Indexes suggestions for all the Questions necessary to be asked; and the Answers of the students should always be in the very words of the text. BOSTON, January 1, 1854. DEATH OF DANIEL WEBSTER. "WITHIN a few weeks, the public mind has been deeply affected by the death of DANIEL WEBSTER, filling, at his decease, the office of Secretary of State. His associates in the Executive Government have sincerely sympathized with his family, and the public generally, on this mournful occasion. His commanding talents, his great political and professional eminence, his well-tried patriotism, and his long and faithful services in the most important public trusts, have caused his death to be lamented throughout the country and have earned for him a lasting place in our history." [Extract from the President's Message. (8) SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1852. AFTER various topics of the Message of the President had been referred to the appropriate Committees, Mr. Davis* rose, and addressed the Senate as follows: MR. PRESIDENT:-I rise to bring to the notice of the Senate an event which has touched the sensibilities and awakened sympathies in all parts of the country. ·an event which has appropriately found a place in the message of the President, and ought not to be passed in silence by the Senate. Sir, we have, within a short space, mourned the death of a succession of men illustrious by their services, their talents, and worth. Not only have seats in this Chamber, in the other House, and upon the bench of the Court been vacated, but death has entered the Executive Mansion, and claimed that beloved patriot who filled the Chair of State. The portals of the tomb had scarcely closed upon the remains of a great and gifted member of this House, before they are again opened to receive another marked man of our day- one who stood out with a singular prominence before his countrymen, challenging, by his extraor dinary intellectual power, the admiration of his fellow-men. DANIEL WEBSTER, (a name familiar in the remotest cabin upon the frontier,) after mixing actively with the councils of his country for forty years, and having reached the limits of life assigned to mortals, has descended to the mansions of the dead, and the damp earth now rests upon his manly form. That magic voice, which was wont to fill this place with admiring listeners, is hushed in eternal silence. The multitude will no longer bend in breathless attention from the galleries to catch his words, and to watch the speaking eloquence of his countenance, animated by the fervor of his mind; nor will the Senate again be instructed by the outpourings of his profound intellect, matured by long experience, and enriched by copious streams from the fountains of knowledge. The thread of life is cut; the immortal is separated from the mortal; and the products of a great and cultivated mind are all that remain to us of the jurist and legislator. Few men have attracted so large a share of public attention, or maintained for so long a period an equal degree of mental distinction. In this and the other House there were rivals for fame, and he grappled in *John Davis, of Massachusetts. |