of the twelve jurors rose, and said that they were quite familiarly acquainted with it, having seen it often.

The occurrence, I dare say, is remembered by that most worthy man and eminent judge, now living, as I am happy to know, and enjoying in advanced life the affection of friends, and the respect of all who know him; I mean Judge Putnam. This incident shows the nature of the employments pursued by your neighbors and yourselves.

With the more elderly gentlemen of your county I have had the pleasure of frequent conversations concerning early Revolutionary times, and especially respecting that extraordinary man, James Otis. I have been where he lived, and examined such of his papers as I could find; but in the latter part of his life he destroyed most of his correspondence. Mr. Tudor has written a very good history of his life, and you all know the emphatic eulogy pronounced on him by the elder Adams, namely, that it was James Otis who set the ball of the Revolution in motion. Warm, eloquent, and highly impassioned in the cause of liberty, his brilliant life was terminated by a stroke of lightning.

None were earlier to begin, none more cordially embraced, or more zealously struggled to maintain, the cause of the Revolution, than the people of the Cape. All the region about the birthplace of James Otis, and the Thomas's, and the other true-hearted patriots of those times, is to me a sort of classic ground; remote from large cities, scattered along an extensive coast, there was yet, I think, in no part of the country, a more fervent devotion to the patriotic cause than was manifested by your ancestors.

Gentlemen, I am sure you ascribe quite too much merit to my efforts in behalf of the Union and of the Constitution. 1 can only say, I have done what I could, and all that I could; and that I shall not slacken my hand. Perhaps it is natural that you should be attached to free and regular constitutions of government, since all know that the first written constitution. in the country was composed and signed on board of the Mayflower, while she was riding at anchor in one of the harbors of the Cape. Your own prosperity, Gentlemen, the success of all your leading pursuits, the prosperity of your county, and of the whole State of Massachusetts, are at this moment living

monuments of the benefits conferred by the Constitution of the United States, and the administration of government under it.

Your soil has always been a free soil; as such, you and your ancestors have cultivated it for centuries; it needs no new christening. But what the people of Massachusetts wanted, and your country among the rest, before the adoption of the present Constitution, was FREE SEAS; free seas, on which their industry could be displayed, and their national rights protected. By the blessing of Providence they have enjoyed this freedom and this protection for a long course of years, and have flourished and prospered under them beyond all former example.

What if your soil be not of the richest quality? What if it be not fertile, like Western New York and the Western States? I still hardly know a part of the country in which the people enjoy more substantial comfort. I have traversed the whole, from the "outside" in Provincetown to the line of Plymouth, without seeing an instance of ragged poverty or of absolute want. Your labors are on the sea. In a more emphatic sense than can be said of any other people, your home is on the deep. Nevertheless, the home of your families, the home of your affections, the home to which you return with so much gladness of heart, is in the various towns on the Cape, "where all your treasures be."

I trust that there is not a man among you who does not feel and see that the prosperity of his labor is mainly connected with the administration of the government of the United States; and therefore I trust that the political air of the Cape will always remain as healthy as its natural atmosphere, and that it will be as free from faction and fanaticism as that is from fogs and vapors.

If your hardy and enterprising young men go eastward, pursuing their employment, to the Bay of Chaleur, the Straits, or the Grand Bank, do they not receive a positive protection and encouragement from the laws of the United States? If they take a wider range, and, in pursuit of larger objects, coast along Brazil, double the Cape, and thence steer west, or south, or north, in the vast Pacific, do they not find that they are safely covered by the shelter of their flag, which no power on earth ventures to treat with disrespect?

My friends of West Dennis, discourage fanciful ideas, ab

stract notions, and all inconsiderate attempts to reach ends, which, however desirable in themselves, are not placed within the compass of your abilities or duties. Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution of your country, and the government established under it. Leave evils which exist in some parts of the country, but which are beyond your control, to the all-wise direction of an overruling Providence. Perform those duties which are present, plain, and positive. Respect the laws of your country, uphold our American institutions as far as you are able, consult the chart and the compass, keep an eye on the sun by day, and on the constellations, both of the South and the North, by night; and, always feeling and acting as if our united constitutional American liberty were in some degree committed to your charge, keep her, so far as it depends on you, clear of the breakers. Whatever latitudes you traverse, on whatever distant billows you are tossed, let your country retain her hold on your affections. Keep her in your hearts, and let your carol to her ever be,

"Lashed to the helm,
Should seas o'erwhelm,
I'll think on thee."

I am, my friends, with sincere regard, your obliged fellowcitizen, and obedient servant,

DANIEL WEbster.

To Mark A. Cooper, Esq., Macon, Georgia.

Marshfield, October 6, 1851. MY DEAR SIR, -I have received the friendly invitation addressed to me by you as the organ of the Southern Central Agricultural Association, to meet its members at their Agricultural Fair in Macon. I thank you for your kindness in thus remembering me at the approach of an anniversary so interesting to all engaged in agriculture.

I am a farmer, on a small scale, on the sea-coast of New England; a very different occupation from that of him who possesses a rich cotton or rice plantation in Georgia. Attention to agriculture has been one of my ruling propensities from

my earliest years; and I like to see it, and to study it, in whatsoever form it is prosecuted. Your rice-meadows and cottonfields it has afforded me great pleasure to visit; and I am aware that in other parts of Georgia the great staple of wheat is produced in an abundance that we do not witness in New England. For these reasons, my dear Sir, it would give me much gratification to accept your invitation to attend the fair.

But there is another reason. Men are more important than things. Those who own the soil, and cultivate it, are mor interesting than the soil itself. My chief pleasure, therefore, in such a meeting would be, to see an assembly of the people of Georgia; to exchange with them the congratulations of countrymen; to assure them that I rejoice in their prosperity, and feel towards them the proper sympathies of a fellow-citizen.

Let me take the occasion to add, my dear Sir, that, as the forms and products of your agriculture are quite different from ours, as your soil and climate are different, and as your social and domestic institutions are also different, it was never intended by the Constitution under which we live, that so foolish and impracticable a thing as amalgamation, in these respects, or any of them, should be attempted between Northern and Southern States. The States are united, confederated;

"Not, chaos-like, together crushed and bruised,

But, like the world, harmoniously confused;
Where order in variety we see,

And where, though all things differ, all agree."

My prayer to Heaven is, that, in the midst of all this "variety" pervading the several States, "order" may still be preserved among them all; and that the Constitution of this country, the main foundation on which this "order" rests, may be always loved and venerated by all, and continue for ever, as the greatest civil blessing for us and our posterity. And since my public duties will not allow me to be present at the fair in Macon, I pray you, my dear Sir, to present, not only to the committee, but to all who may be assembled, my cordial regards and good wishes.

I am, Sir, your obliged fellow-citizen and obedient servant,

DANIEL WEbster.

To Mr. J. T. Woodbury, Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements for the Celebration at Acton, Mass.

Marshfield, October 15, 1851.

MY DEAR SIR, If my public duties would permit, there is no occasion of the kind which I would attend with more pleasure than the erection of a monument to the memory of Isaac Davis. His brief public history and untimely grave not only called forth my admiration, but enkindled my enthusiasm, in youth; and in later years, when I have conversed respecting him with those who saw him on the morning of that eventful 19th of April, marked the undaunted courage with which he marched up and met the fire of the foe, the manner in which he received the fatal shot, and the complacency and beauty of his manly countenance as he lay a corpse, with wounds still fresh and bleeding, my heart has melted within me, and my eyes gushed out with tears.

I have read all that I could find, and gathered up all that I could learn, of his high and noble character. He fell in his early manhood, one of the very first martyrs in the cause of liberty, and, if I mistake not, the first American officer who sealed his devotion to the cause with his own blood. In the scene at Concord Bridge, he seems to stand out in marked, prominent, and bold relief. I have had the pleasure of speaking of his character as I thought of it in the Senate of the United States; and most happy should I be in passing a day with those who are the children of fathers who were his neighbors, and perhaps with some who may remember to have seen him.

Let me ask you to present, in my name, the following sentiment to the company:

ISAAC DAVIS: An early grave in the cause of liberty has secured to him the long and grateful remembrance of his country.

I am, my dear Sir, with high regard, your obedient servant, DANIEL Webster.