When Daniel Webster with his masterly eloquence evolved from his imagination the great speech of John Adams upon the Declaration, he could have had in his mind no qualifying phrases, no doubts as to the eternal truths which were proclaimed, and no question but that independence was the ideal for and the right of every nation of the earth; otherwise his words failed to ring true, and he never could have closed with such statements as these:
“Read this Declaration at the head of the army, every sword will be drawn from its scabbard and the solemn vow uttered to maintain it or perish on the bed of honor. Publish it from the pulpit, religion will approve it and the love of religious liberty will cling round it, resolved to stand with it or fall with it; send it to the public halls,—proclaim it there,—let them hear it who first heard the roar of the enemy’s cannon,—let them see it who saw their brothers and their sons fall on the field of Bunker Hill and in the streets of Lexington and Concord, and the very walls will cry out in its support.”
Transcriber’s Notes:
Obvious spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.