Daniel Webster was born on January 18, 1782, and died October 24, 1852; he was an American politician and diplomat. He spent almost four decades in politics. He is one of the five greatest U.S. senators in history. He was one of the great people in American history serving as a Secretary of the State for President William Henry Harrison, President John Tyler and President Millard Fillmore. Daniel Webster was an U.S. Representative and lawyer. Daniel Webster was a very good speaker; when he spoke everyone listened to him. He was known for his good speeches, and voice. When he spoke everyone would agree with him.
Below is part of a speech that Mr. Webster made at Bunker Hill on the completion of the Bunker Hill Monument.
In our day and generation let us seek to raise and improve the moral sentiment, so that we may look, not for a degraded, but for an elevated and improved future. And when both we and our children shall have been consigned to the house appointed for all living, may love of country and pride of country glow with equal descended! And then, when honored and decrepit age shall lean against the bass of this monument, and troops of ingenuous youth shall be gathered round it, and when the one shall speak to the great and glorious events with which it is connected, there shall rise from every youthful breast the ejaculation, ‘Thank God, I - I also - AM AN AMERICAN!’
He said: “If there be anything in my style or thoughts to be commended, the credit is due to my kind parents for instilling into my mind an early love of the Scriptures.” He also said: “I have read [the Bible] through many times. I now make a practice of going through it once a year. It is the Book of all others for lawyers as well as divines. I pity the man who cannot find in it a rich supply of thought and rules for conduct.”
During one summer he lived in New Hampshire and went to all the little country church services. When asked why he went there, when he normally attended “great” churches, he replied: “In Washington they preach to Daniel Webster, the statesman, but this man has been telling Daniel Webster, the sinner, of Jesus of Nazareth.”
Regarding the importance of getting people everywhere to read and understand the Word of God he said:
If religious books are not circulated among the masses and the people do not turn to God, I do not know what is to become of us as a nation. If truth be not diffused, error will be. If God and His Word are not received, the devil and his works will gain the ascendency. If the evangelical volume does not reach every hamlet, the pages of a corrupt and licentious literature will. If the power of the Gospel is not felt through the length and the breadth of the land, anarchy, misrule, degradation, misery, corruption, and darkness will reign without mitigation or end.
When Mr. Webster was on his death bed he told his physician, Dr. Jeffries, to read Cowper's hymn. It begins with:
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There is a fountain filled with blood, |
The doctor read it through to the last stanza that says:
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Then in a nobler, sweeter song, |
Mr. Webster then said, “Amen! Amen! Amen!”
Sources
Federer, W.J. Great Quotations. St. Louis, MO: AmeriSearch, 2001.
Gamaliel Bradford, Encyclopaedia Britannica. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 1961. Vol. 23, page 473-474.
Picture and information can be found at: http://www.marshfield.net/History/webster.htm
McGee, J.V. Thru the Bible Commentary. electronic ed. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1981. Vol. 1.
Tan, P.L. Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations. Garland TX: Bible Communications, 1996, c1979.
Federer, W.J. Great Quotations: A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Quotations Influencing Early and Modern World History Referenced According to Their Sources in Literature, Memoirs, Letters, Governmental Documents, Speeches, Charters, Court Decisions and Constitutions. St. Louis, MO: AmeriSearch, 2001.
