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 more 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.

INDEX.