Limits of Civil Authority

Daniel Webster developed his fondness for penknives at a young age. Actually Master James Tappan, one of Daniel's first schoolteachers, informed the story about how Daniel received his first penknife :

Daniel was always the brightest boy in the high-school. He would learn more in 5 minutes than any other boy in five hours. One saturday, i remember, I held up a good-looking new jack-knife to the scholars and said the boy who would commit to memory the best number of verses in the Bible by Monday morning should have it. Plenty of the boys did well ; but when it came to Daniel's turn to recite, I found that he had committed so much [to memory] that after hearing him repeat some sixty or seventy verses, I was obliged to give up, he telling me [still] that there were several chapters yet that he had learned. Daniel got that jack-knife.

Daniel Webster learned early to like the Bible, and his liking for that Book never faded. In reality on the fourth of July, 1851, the year before his passing, Webster stood just outside the Capitol on its east side and delivered the speech at the laying of the foundation stone for the additions to the Capitol that have now become the present chambers for the House and the Senate. Talking to the thousands gathered there at the Capitol that day, Webster summed up not only what he had thought all though his life but also what he thought must remain part of America's public policy. He explained :

Man is not only an intellectual but he is also a religious being, and his non secular feelings and habits require cultivation. Let the non secular part in man's nature be neglected - let him be influenced by no higher motivations than low self-interest, and put through no stronger restraint than the boundaries of civil authority - and he becomes the creature of selfish keenness or blind fanaticism. The melodrama of a nation [France], dynamic and enlightened, but without Christian faith, has been presented. As a warning beacon for the states. On the other hand, the cultivation of the non secular sentiment represses licentiousness, incites to general benevolence and the practical admission of the brotherhood of man, inspires respect for law and order, and gives strength to the whole social fabric.


About David Barton Wallbuilders

David Barton is the founder and President of WallBuilders, a state pro-family organization that presents America's forgotten history and heroes, with the concentration on our moral, non secular and constitutional heritage.
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