firm, the wise, the inflexible Adams, who with steady hand draws the disguising veil from the intrigues of foreign enemies and the plots of domestic foes.”  It is amusing to read, as the utterance of Daniel Webster, that “Columbia is now seated in the forum of nations, and the empires of the world are amazed at the bright effulgence of her glory.”  But it is interesting to observe, also, that at eighteen, not less fervently than at forty-eight, he felt the importance of the message with which he was charged to the American people,—­the necessity of the Union, and the value of the Constitution as the uniting bond.  The following passage has, perhaps, more in it of the Webster of 1830 than any other in the oration.  The reader will notice the similarity between one part of it and the famous passage in the Bunker Hill oration, beginning “Venerable men,” addressed to the survivors of the Revolution.

“Thus, friends and citizens, did the kind hand of overruling Providence conduct us, through toils, fatigues, and dangers, to independence and peace.  If piety be the rational exercise of the human soul, if religion be not a chimera, and if the vestiges of heavenly assistance are clearly traced in those events which mark the annals of our nation, it becomes us on this day, in consideration of the great things which have been done for us, to render the tribute of unfeigned thanks to that God who superintends the universe, and holds aloft the scale that weighs the destinies of nations.

“The conclusion of the Revolutionary War did not accomplish the entire achievements of our countrymen.  Their military character was then, indeed, sufficiently established; but the time was coming which should prove their political sagacity, their ability to govern themselves.

“No sooner was peace restored with England, (the first grand article of which was the acknowledgment of our independence,) than the old system of Confederation, dictated at first by necessity, and adopted for the purposes of the moment, was found inadequate to the government of an extensive empire.  Under a full conviction of this, we then saw the people of these States engaged in a transaction which is undoubtedly the greatest approximation towards human perfection the political world ever yet witnessed, and which, perhaps, will forever stand in the history of mankind without a parallel.  A great republic, composed of different States, whose interest in all respects could not be perfectly compatible, then came deliberately forward, discarded one system of government, and adopted another, without the loss of one man’s blood.

“There is not a single government now existing in Europe which is not based in usurpation, and established, if established at all, by the sacrifice of thousands.  But in the adoption of our present system of jurisprudence, we see the powers necessary for government voluntarily flowing from the people, their only proper origin,