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THE AMERICAN EXPERIMENT

DANIEL WEBSTER

It was the extraordinary fortune of Washington that, having been intrusted in revolutionary times with the supreme military command, and having fulfilled that trust with equal renown for wisdom and for valor, he should be placed at the head of the first ⚫ government in which an attempt was to be made on a large scale to rear the fabric of social order on the basis of a written constitution and of a pure representative principle. A government was to be established, without a throne, without an aristocracy, without castes, orders, or privileges; and this government, instead 10 of being a democracy existing and acting within the walls of a single city, was to be extended over a vast country of different climates, interests, and habits, and of various communions of our common Christian faith. The experiment certainly was entirely new. A popular government of this extent, it was evident, 15 could be framed only by carrying into full effect the principle of representation or of delegated power; and the world was to see whether society could, by the strength of this principle, maintain its own peace and good government, carry forward its own great interests, and conduct itself to political renown and glory. 20 At the period of the birth of Washington there existed in Europe no political liberty in large communities except in the provinces of Holland, and except that England herself had set a great example, so far as it went, by her glorious Revolution of 1688. Everywhere else despotic power was predominant, and the 25 feudal or military principle held the mass of mankind in hopeless bondage. One-half of Europe was crushed beneath the Bourbon scepter, and no conception of political liberty, no hope even of religious toleration, existed among that nation which was America's first ally. The King was the state, the King was the coun30 try, the King was all. There was one King, with power not derived from his people, and too high to be questioned, and the rest were all subjects, with no political right but obedience. All above was intangible power; all below was quiet subjection. A recent occurrence in the French chamber shows us how public opinion

on these subjects is changed. A minister had spoken of the "King's subjects." "There are no subjects," exclaimed hundreds of voices at once, "in a country where the people make the King!"

Gentlemen, the spirit of human liberty and of free government, 5 nurtured and grown into strength and beauty in America, has stretched its course into the midst of the nations. Like an emanation from Heaven, it has gone forth, and it will not return void. It must change, it is fast changing, the face of the earth. Our great, our high duty is to show, in our own example, that this 10 spirit is a spirit of health as well as a spirit of power; that its benignity is as great as its strength; that its efficiency to secure individual rights, social relations, and moral order, is equal to the irresistible force with which it prostrates principalities and powers. The world, at this moment, is regarding us with a will15 ing, but something of a fearful admiration. Its deep and awful anxiety is to learn whether free States may be stable as well as free; whether popular power may be trusted as well as feared; in short, whether wise, regular, and virtuous self-government is a vision for the contemplation of theorists, or a truth established, 20 illustrated, and brought into practice in the country of Washington.

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

Biography. Daniel Webster (1782-1852) stands out as America's foremost orator. His eloquence, his clear thinking, and the force of his personality made him equally great whether answering an opponent in the Senate, or delivering less passionate orations on anniversary occasions. He was the champion of the national idea and of complete union, and therefore bitterly opposed Calhoun. His service in the Senate, representing not only the people of Massachusetts but all who believed with him in "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable," and his service as Secretary of State in President Tyler's cabinet, make him one of America's greatest statesmen.

Discussion. 1. This selection is from an address, "The Character of Washington," delivered at a public dinner in Washington on February 22, 1832, the centennial birthday of George Washington; why was a discussion of the American experiment especially appropriate on this occasion? 2. How does Daniel Webster in the first paragraph define this experiment? 3. What great test has this experiment undergone since Webster's day? 4. In the second paragraph he reviews the situation in Europe at the time of

Washington; what was the situation with reference to political liberty? 5. What change in France within the century does Webster note? 6. Find in the last paragraph lines that you think aptly express America's situation in the world today. 7. Find in the Glossary the meaning of: conception; subjection; void; efficiency; stable. 8. Pronounce: ally; benignity

Phrases

various communions of our Chris

tian faith, 371, 12 delegated power, 371, 16

glorious Revolution, 371, 23

feudal or military principle, 371, 25

Bourbon scepter, 371, 26
face of the earth, 372, 8

prostrates principalities, 372, 13
contemplation of theorists, 372, 19

10

THE POOR VOTER ON ELECTION DAY

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER

The proudest now is but my peer,
The highest not more high;
Today, of all the weary year,
A king of men am I.

Today, alike are great and small,

The nameless and the known.
My palace is the people's hall;
The ballot box my throne!

Who serves today upon the list
Besides the served shall stand;

Alike the brown and wrinkled fist,

The gloved and dainty hand!
The rich is level with the poor;
The weak is strong today;

15 And sleekest broadcloth counts no more
Than homespun frock of gray.

Today let pomp and vain pretense
My stubborn right abide;

10

I set a plain man's common sense
Against the pedant's pride.
Today shall simple manhood try

The strength of gold and land;
The wide world has not wealth to buy
The power in my right hand!

While there's a grief to seek redress,
Or balance to adjust,

Where weighs our living manhood less.
Than Mammon's vilest dust-

While there's a right to need my vote,
A wrong to sweep away,

Up! clouted knee and ragged coat!
A man's a man today!

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

Biography. John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) was born near Haverhill, Massachusetts, in the same county as Salem, the birthplace of Hawthorne. The old farm home in which Whittier lived as a child was built by the poet's great-great-grandfather, and is still standing. His family were Quakers, sturdy of character as of stature. Whittier's boyhood was that of a typical New England farm boy, used to hard work, no luxuries, and few pleasures. Unlike Lowell and Longfellow, he did not go to college, but worked his way through an academy. As a boy his one book was the family Bible. When the district schoolmaster lent him a copy of Burns's Poems, his interest in poetry was awakened and he began writing verses of his own. Whittier is often compared with Burns in the simple homeliness of his style, his patriotism, his fiery indignation at wrong, and his sympathy with the humble and the oppressed. He is considered one of the greatest American poets.

Discussion. 1. Notice the points of resemblance between this poem and "For A' That and A' That." 2. What sentence in the Declaration of Independence does this poem help make clear? 3. What are some of the "griefs that seek redress" and "rights to need my vote" at present time? 4. What progress along these lines has been made by legislation since Whittier's time? 5. Why is it so important in a democracy that there be no "slackers" among the citizens who have the qualifications to vote? 6. In some communities voters are "tagged" at the polls in order to make those who have not voted conspicuous and ashamed; what is the situation in an ideal community? 7. Find in the Glossary the meaning of: peer; pedant; Mammon; clouted. 8. Pronounce: sleekest; pretense; redress.

10

GETTYSBURG ADDRESS

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war; testing whether that 5 nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate-we cannot con: secrate we cannot hallow-this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what 15 they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave 20 the last full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

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