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CONVENTION AT VALLEY FORGE.*

Two days after the foregoing speech was delivered at Philadelphia, Mr. Webster was invited to address a general convention of the Whigs of Chester and Montgomery Counties. The place appointed for the meeting was Valley Forge, a spot for ever famous in the annals of the Revolution, and still preserving the most interesting memorials of the dreadful winter of 1777-78. The information that Mr. Webster was expected to address the meeting had circulated widely throughout the neighboring townships, few of whose inhabitants had ever had an opportunity of hearing him. They accordingly assembled in great numbers, and of both sexes. The village was filled, at an early hour, by the multitude, which poured in from every quarter. Processions were formed, with banners, wreaths, and emblems appropriate to the Revolutionary associations of the place, and significant of the principles and feelings which belonged to the present occasion. A strong mounted escort was in attendance at the railway station; and at nine o'clock, A. M., the train arrived from Philadelphia, with Mr. Webster and a large number of political friends from that city.

After a short time passed in a survey of the interesting localities of the spot, especially the house in which General Washington's quarters were established during the winter of 1777-78, the convention was organized by the appointment of Hon. Jonathan Roberts as President. After a forcible address from the chair, on the general objects of the meeting, Mr. Webster was introduced to the company, and delivered the following speech.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,- There is a mighty power in local association. All acknowledge it, and all feel it! Those places naturally inspire us with emotion, which, in the course of human history, have been connected with great and interesting events;

* Speech delivered at a great Convention of the Whigs of Chester and Montgomery Counties, in Pennsylvania, at Valley Forge, on the 3d of October, 1844.

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CONVENTION AT VALLEY FORGE.

magistrate of this country, and at the same time to give him, intentionally, and by design, a Congress that shall defeat his policy; to elect him to an office wherein he is to be the guardian of the whole people, an office that has been filled by Washington, and an office that we had hoped always to see filled by men of Washington's principles, if not of his ability, - to select and elect a man to fill this office, and then to put him under guardianship in order to defeat his measures!

The case is a serious one. It addresses itself to the conscience of every man, to see that he does not support in any way, as candidate for the Presidency, a man whose whole course of policy and opinions he is utterly opposed to. And it comes to this: Is there such a sense of the great duty which they owe to their fellow-men, to their children, and to generations yet unborn, such a sense of the necessity of preserving unimpaired the benefits and efficiency of our free, our noble institutions, such a sense of the deep responsibility that rests on them at this important crisis, such a sense of patriotism and integrity, that men will prefer their country to their party in the coming contest, or not? (Cries of "There is!" "There is!")

I believe it. And, to take the other hypothesis, if those who vote for Mr. Polk do not do it under the stimulus of party feeling, then it must be that they vote for him because they are opposed to Mr. Clay's principles. They may be supposed to say, "It is true that Mr. Clay is the most distinguished man, it is true that he has rendered infinitely more important services to his country than Mr. Polk, it is true that the country regards him with far more favor than his opponent, still his measures and principles, as he has avowed them, incline us to elect an inferior man, because we like the principles of the latter better, and believe that they will be more beneficial to the country." Very well. If that case be made out, then you and I, and all Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, are bound to take Mr. Polk. Because, if we suppose and believe that his principles and his measures will conform to our principles and our interests, and the interests of the country, and that Mr. Clay's principles and measures will not conform to our principles and our interests, and the interests of the country, then we are bound to take the second best.

And this leads us directly to the inquiry, What are the measures, principles, and opinions of the one and of the other, as sub

CONVENTION AT VALLEY FORGE.*

Two days after the foregoing speech was delivered at Philadelphia, Mr. Webster was invited to address a general convention of the Whigs of Chester and Montgomery Counties. The place appointed for the meeting was Valley Forge, a spot for ever famous in the annals of the Revolution, and still preserving the most interesting memorials of the dreadful winter of 1777-78. The information that Mr. Webster was expected to address the meeting had circulated widely throughout the neighboring townships, few of whose inhabitants had ever had an opportunity of hearing him. They accordingly assembled in great numbers, and of both sexes. The village was filled, at an early hour, by the multitude, which poured in from every quarter. Processions were formed, with banners, wreaths, and emblems appropriate to the Revolutionary associations of the place, and significant of the principles and feelings which belonged to the present occasion. A strong mounted escort was in attendance at the railway station; and at nine o'clock, A. M., the train arrived from Philadelphia, with Mr. Webster and a large num ber of political friends from that city.

After a short time passed in a survey of the interesting localities of the spot, especially the house in which General Washington's quarters were established during the winter of 1777-78, the convention was organized by the appointment of Hon. Jonathan Roberts as President. After a forcible address from the chair, on the general objects of the meeting, Mr. Webster was introduced to the company, and delivered the following speech.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,- There is a mighty power in local association. All acknowledge it, and all feel it! Those places naturally inspire us with emotion, which, in the course of human history, have been connected with great and interesting events;

Speech delivered at a great Convention of the Whigs of Chester and Montgomery Counties, in Pennsylvania, at Valley Forge, on the 3d of October, 1844.

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and this power over all ingenuous minds never ceases, until frequent visits familiarize the mind to the scenes.

There are in this vast multitude many who, like myself, never before stood on the spot where the Whig army of the Revolution, under the immediate command of their immortal leader, went through the privations, the sufferings, and the distress, of the winter of 1777 and 1778. The mention of Washington, the standing on the ground of his encampment, the act of looking around on the scenes which he and his officers and soldiers then beheld, cannot but carry us back, also, to the Revolution, and to one of its most distressing and darkest periods.

In September, the battle of Brandywine had been fought; in October, that of Germantown; and before Christmas, a little before the severity of winter set in, General Washington repaired to this spot, and put his army into huts for the winter. He had selected the position with great care, for the safety of his army, and with equal judgment, also, for the protection of as large a portion of the country as possible, the British troops being then in possession of Philadelphia.

We see, then, the Whig chief of the Whig army of the Revolution, as it were, before us. We see him surrounded by his military friends, distinguished not less for their social virtues than for their bravery in the field. Anthony Wayne was here, that great and good man. He was a native of the County of Chester, where his bones still rest. Green was here, and Knox, and Hamilton; and at that anxious moment, in order to keep alive the connection between the civil authority and the army, (for be it remembered now and at all times, that Washington and his army always acted in submission to the civil authority), a committee of Congress was here, Dana of Massachusetts, Gouverneur Morris, and that worthy gentleman, the especial favorite of Washington, who was afterwards President of your Commonwealth, General Reed.*

And now, Gentlemen, I could not depict, I could not describe, I could not trust my own feelings in attempting to describe, the horrible sufferings of that Whig army. Destitute of clothing, destitute of provisions, destitute of every thing but their trust in

A very interesting letter from the Committee to the President of Congress, on the state of the army, written by General Reed, will be found in the Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed, by his Grandson, William B. Reed. Vol. I. p. 360 et seq.

God, and faith in their immortal leader, they went through that winter. The grounds now around us, particularly the grounds contiguous to the hospital, are rich in Revolutionary dust. Every excavation, as often as the season returns, brings to the surface the bones of Revolutionary officers and soldiers, who perished by disease, brought on by want of food, want of clothing, want of every thing but that boundless sympathy and commiseration for sufferings which he could not alleviate, that filled the bleeding heart of their illustrious leader. Long after peace returned, General Washington declared, at his own table, that it was no exaggeration, it was the literal truth, that the march of the army from Whitemarsh, to take up their quarters at this place, could be tracked by the blood on the snow from the unshod feet of the soldiers.

It is impossible to recall the associations of such a place without deep and solemn reflection. And when we, as Whigs, professing the principles of that great Whig leader and that Whig army, come here to advocate and avow those principles to one another, and professing to exercise the political rights transmitted to us by them, for the security of that liberty which they fought to establish, let us bring ourselves to feel in harmony with the scenes of the past. Let us endeavor to sober and solemnize our minds. For, if I have any apprehension of the condition of things under which we have met here, it is one that ought to produce that effect upon us. I feel, and all should feel, that there is a calamity impending over us. If we would avert that impending calamity, it is only to be done by a serious and manly course. And by the blood of our fathers, which cries to us from this hallowed ground, by the memory of their many virtues and brilliant achievements, by the sad story of their intense sufferings, by the blessings of that blood-bought inheritance of liberty which they suffered and died to obtain for us, we are called upon to perform the important duty that lies before us in the present crisis, to perform that duty fearlessly, to perform it promptly, and to perform it effectually.

It is under this feeling, my friends, that I come here to-day; and it is under this feeling that I intend to speak plainly and manfully, as man should speak to man, at a moment like this, on the important duties which are incumbent on us all.

We are on the eve of a general election, in which the people

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