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Daniel Webster

Daniel Webster Quotes

Former United States Senator

Daniel Webster, a former United States Senator, was born on January 18, 1782, and passed away on October 24, 1852. He was a renowned lawyer, orator, and politician in American history, known for his eloquent speeches and steadfast convictions.

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Famous Daniel Webster Quotes

“The inherent right in the people to reform their government, I do not deny; and they have another right, and that is to resist unconstitutional laws without overturning the government.”

People Government Law Deny Reform Nationalism Inherent Unconstitutional

Book:Webster and Hayne's speeches in the United States Senate, on Mr. Foot's resolution of January 1830: Also, Daniel Webster's speech, in the United States Senate, March 7, 1850, on the slavery compromise

Source: Webster and Hayne's speeches in the United States Senate, on Mr. Foot's resolution of January 1830: Also, Daniel Webster's speech, in the United States Senate, March 7, 1850, on the slavery compromise

“On the other hand, the cultivation of the religious sentiment represses licentiousnessinspires respect for law and order, and gives strength to the whole social fabric, at the same time that it conducts the human soul upward to the Author of its being.”

Giving Humans Soul Whole Hands Law Order Social Religious Sentiments Fabric Human Soul Law And Order Cultivation

Author:Daniel Webster

“Nothing is more deceptive or more dangerous than the pretence of a desire to simplify government. The simplest governments are despotisms; the next simplest, limited monarchies; but all republics, all governments of law, must impose numerous limitations and qualifications of authority, and give many positive and many qualified rights.”

Source: The beauties of the Hon. Daniel Webster: selected and arranged, with a critical essay on his genius and writings

“In the nature of things, those who have no property and see their neighbors possess much more than they think them to need, cannot be favorable to laws made for the protection of property. When this class becomes numerous, it becomes clamorous. It looks on property as its prey and plunder, and is naturally ready, at times, for violence and revolution.”

Thinking Needs Looks Made Law Political Class Violence Ready Revolution Program Property Protection Neighbor Prey Plunder Government Programs

Author:Daniel Webster

“We are bound to maintain public liberty, and, by the example of our own systems, to convince the world that order and law, religion and morality, the rights of conscience, the rights of persons, and the rights of property, may all be preserved and secured, in the most perfect manner, by a government entirely and purely elective. If we fail in this, our disaster will be significant, and will furnish an argument, stronger than has yet been found, in support of those opinions which maintain that government can rest safely on nothing but power and coercion.”

Source: A Discourse, Delivered at Plymouth, December 22, 1820: In Commemoration of the First Settlement of New-England

“Our profession is good, if practiced in the spirit of it; it is damnable fraud and iniquity when its true spirit is supplied by a spirit of mischief-making and money catching.”

Ifs Law Spirit Profession Fraud Catching Mischief Iniquity

Book:The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster

Source: The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster

“If the States were not left to leave the Union when their rights were interfered with, the government would have been National, but the Convention refused to baptize it by that name.”

Ifs Has Beens States Government Law Names Left Rights Constitution Independence Unions Republic Conventions Sovereignty

Author:Daniel Webster

“Let us hold fast the great truth, that communities are responsible, as well as individuals; that no government is respectable which is not just. Without unspotted purity of public faith, without sacred public principle, fidelity, and honor, no machinery of laws, can give dignity to political society.”

Giving Wells Government Law Political Individual Community Principles Honor Dignity Responsible Sacred Purity Machinery Respectable Fidelity Hold Fast

Book:The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster

Source: The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster

“A representative form of government rests nor more on political contributions than on those laws which regulate the descent and transmission of property.”

Wisdom Government Form Law Political Politics Economy Property Contribution Liberalism Representatives Forms Of Government Descent Transmission

Author:Daniel Webster

“It would seem, then, to be the part of political wisdom to found government on property; and to establish such distribution of property, by the laws which regulate its transmission and alienation, as to interest the great majority of society in the protection of the government.”

Wisdom Seems Government Law Political Found Politics Interest Economy Majority Property Protection Liberalism Distribution Alienation Transmission Political Wisdom

Book:Speeches and Forensic Arguments

Source: Speeches and Forensic Arguments

“The freest government, if it could exist, would not be long acceptable, if the tendency of the laws were to create a rapid accumulation of property in a few hands, and to render the great mass of the population dependent and penniless.”

Ifs Long Hands Government Law Politics Economy Mass Property Population Tendencies Liberalism Dependent Acceptable Rapids Accumulation

Book:The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster

Source: The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster

“The law: it has honored us; may we honor it.”

May Law Honor Honored

Author:Daniel Webster