...discharge a clear conscience." And the speech bears out his words.1 " I wish to speak," he began, " not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a northern man,...but as an American and a member of the Senate of the United States. It is fortunate that there is a Senate of the United States ; a body not yet moved from...

...nomination. No one can say just how the motives were mixed in Webster's mind as he rose with the words : " I wish to speak today not as a Massachusetts man nor as a Northern man, but as an American. ... I speak today for the preservation of the Union. 'Hear me for my cause.'" He supported the Compromise...

...disregarded, there I shall vote to reaffirm it with all the sanction of civil authority. Daniel Webster: Mr. President, I wish to speak to-day, not as a Massachusetts...The imprisoned winds are let loose. The East, the North, and the stormy South combine to throw the whole sea into commotion, to toss its billows to the...

...nomination. No one can say how the motives were mixed in Webster's mind as he rose with the words: "I wish to speak today not as a Massachusetts man nor as a Northern man, but as an American. ... I speak today for the preservation of the Union. 'Hear me for my cause.' " He supported the Compromise...

...ear strained to catch the first note of that composed but sonorous voice. 'Mr. President,' he began, 'I wish to speak to-day, not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but as an American. . . . I speak to-day for the preservation of the Union. "Hear me for my cause."' How fortunate that...

...abolition agitation be stopped and that the South be not driven to the last ditch.32 He said that he spoke "not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but as an American . . . for the preservation of the Union," and supported the compromise measures at every point. He...

...say it in the Senate when I rose that day to speak. "Mr. President," I said, "I wish to speak to you today not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but as an American, a member of the Senate of the United States. I speak today for the preservation of the Union. (Pause.)...

...trauma. Generations of schoolchildren recited the famous Senate speeches of the Compromise debate. "I wish to speak to-day, not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but as an American," said Daniel Webster as he began his Seventh of March Address that would cause former antislavery admirers...

...March, 1850, Webster delivered one of his most important and controversial Senate addresses. He began: "I wish to speak to-day not as a Massachusetts man,...as an American, and a member of the Senate of the United States." Webster continued: "It is fortunate that there is a Senate of the United States; a...

...North, backed Clay's compromise efforts. In the course of debate, he spoke in favor of compromise, "not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but as an American." Abolitionists never forgave his statement that slavery was an evil, but not so great an evil as disunion....