Boston, November 14,
1850.
GENTLEMEN,—I have
the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 11th of this month,
inviting me, in behalf of the friends of the
Constitution and the Union, without distinction of party, resident in the
city and county of Philadelphia, to attend a public meeting in that city on the
21st instant. I most sincerely wish that it was in my power to attend that
meeting. That great central city is not only full of the friends of the
Constitution, but full, also, of recollections connected with its adoption, and
other great events in our history. In Philadelphia the first revolutionary
Congress assembled. In Philadelphia the Declaration
of Independence was made. In Philadelphia the Constitution was formed, and
received the signatures of Washington and his associates; and now, when there
is a spirit abroad evidently laboring to effect the separation of the Union,
and the subversion of the Constitution, Philadelphia, of all places, seems the
fittest for the assembling together of the friends of that Constitution, and
that Union, to pledge themselves to one another and to the country to the last
extremity.
My public duties,
gentlemen, require my immediate presence in Washington; and for that reason,
and that alone, I must deny myself the pleasure of accepting your invitation.
I have the honor,
gentlemen, to be, with great regard, your fellow-citizen and humble servant,
DANIEL WEBSTER.
TO JOSIAH RANDALL,
ISAAC HAZLEHURST, ROBERT M. LEE, C. INGERSOLL, JNO. W. FORNEY, JOHN S. RIDDLE.
SOURCE: Fletcher
Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol.
2, p. 403-4
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