Excerpt from Mr. Webster's Speeches: At Buffalo, Syracuse, and Albany, May, 1851
I have already stated, gentlemen, what your Observation of these things must have taught you. I will only recur to the subject for a moment, for the purpose Of persuading you, as public men and private men, as good men and patriotic men, that you ought, to the extent of your ability and influence, to see to it, that such laws are established and maintained as Shall keep you, and the South, and the West, and all the country together, as far as it is just and right, and as far as the Constitution demands. I say, that what is demanded Of us is, to be up to our constitutional duties, and to do for the South what the South have a right to demand.
Gentlemen, I have been some time before the public. My character is known, my life is before the country. I profess to love liberty as much as any man living; but I profess to love American liberty, that liberty which is secured to the country by the Constitution under which we live and I have no great Opinion Of that other and higher liberty which goes over the restraints Of law and Of the Constitution. I hold the Constitution Of the�uni ted States to be the bulwark, the only bulwark, of our liberties and Of our national charter. I do not mean that you should become slaves under the Constitution. That is not American liberty. That is not the liberty of, the Union for which our fathers fought, that liberty which has given us a right to be known and respected all over the world. I mean only to say, that I am for Constitutional Liberty. It is enough for me to be as free as the Constitution Of the country makes me.
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Daniel Webster was a leading American statesman during the nation's Antebellum Period. He first rose to regional prominence through his defense of New England shipping interests. His increasingly nationalistic views and the effectiveness with which he articulated them led Webster to become one of the most famous orators and influential Whig leaders of the Second Party System.
Daniel Webster was an attorney, and served as legal counsel in several cases that established important constitutional precedents that bolstered the authority of the Federal government. As Secretary of State, he negotiated the Webster-Ashburton Treaty that established the definitive eastern border between the United States and Canada.
Webster tried three times to achieve the Presidency; all three bids failed, the final one in part because of his compromises. Similarly, Webster's efforts to steer the nation away from civil war toward a definite peace ultimately proved futile. Despite this, Webster came to be esteemed for these efforts and was officially named by the U.S. Senate in 1957 as one of its five most outstanding members.
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