OR SELECTIONS FROM THE SPEECHES От EMINENT AMERICANS COMPILED BY A MEMBER OF THE PHILADELPHIA BAR. PHILADELPHIA: E. C. & J. BIDDLE, 6 SOUTH FIFTH ST. 895s A51 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1836, BY KEY AND Biddle, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Pennsylvania. Printed by T K. & P. G. Collins. PREFACE. No apology can be required for presenting to the American public a volume of Speeches selected from the best efforts of their own statesmen. Public discussion is elsewhere the province of a few; in our country, it is the duty of almost all. It is not only desirable, therefore, but absolutely necessary, that all should have at hand those models, which the peculiar character of our institutions, the tone of our national thought, and the exigencies of our history, have combined to produce. Foreign orators may serve as examples of style, but the inhabitants of a republic must seek at home for the intellectual results of the government they have chosen, and for the illustration of those principles by which it is to be sustained. If they cannot always find the same refinement of language, or the same elaborateness of thought, which in older countries is the result of hereditary wealth and more scholastic education, they will discover at least a vigorous and masculine diction, patriotic sentiments, and unflinching independence, the appropriate attendants upon themes for the most part grave, and frequently severe. The editor does not affect to have used any extraordinary research in the compilation now presented to the reader. The character of the subjects discussed has had great influence with him in the selections he has made. For many years past, the newspaper press has carried the opinions expressed in congress to every |