[Rarebooks] FS: Daniel Webster's second Bunker Hill oration, newspaper Extra, 1943

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Boston Daily Mail, Extra.   Address of Mr. Webster at Bunker Hill – June, 17, 1843 (caption title).    Single sheet (2pp.), a ppx. 15 ¾ by 20 ½ inches, printed in seven columns on both sides.   Folded several times, with   a few spots of browning that don’t hamper legibility unduly, otherwise very good. 







Webster’s speech at the dedication of the newly-completed Bunker Hill Monument takes the entire front page, and extends for a column and a third on the verso.   He opens by thanking all the donors, committees, boosters, etc., who helped make the completion of the task possible; he pays homage to the soldiers and their struggle and the significance it had for the whole country, taking the opportunity to warn against the divisions that were growing wider in the country: 







"Woe betide the man, who brings to this day’s worship feeling less than wholly American!   Woe betide the man, who can stand here with the fires of local resentments burning or the purpose of fomenting jealousies and the strifes of local interest, festering and rankling in his heart.   Union, founded in justice, in patriotism, and the most plain and obvious common interest; union, founded on the same love of liberty, cemented by blood shed in the same common cause; union has been the same source of all our glory and greatness thus far, and is the ground of all our highest hopes   This column stands on Union.   I know not that it might not keep its position, if the American Union, in the mad conflict of human passions, and in the strife of parties and fractions, should be broken up and destroyed.   I know not that it would totter and fall to the earth, and mingle its fragments with the fragments of Liberty and the Constitution, when State should be separated from State, and faction and dismemberment obliterate forever all the hopes of the founders of our Republic, and the great inheritance of their children.   It might stand.   But who, from beneath the weight of mortification and shame, that would oppress him, could look up to behold it?   For my part, should I live to such a time, I shall avert my eyes from it forever." 









He then reviews the settlement of the English colonies and the English traditions, transplanted and preserved there, that led to our unique form of government, twice praising the Virginia House of Burgesses.   Much of the speech contrasts the example and consequences of English colonization with that of the French and Spanish.   He closes by invoking the life of George Washington:   “I claim him for America.   In all the perils, in every darkened moment of the state, in the midst of the reproaches of enemies and the misgivings of friends—I turn to that transcendent name for courage and for consolation.” 







Following the speech is the text of a poem written for the occasion by Lydia Sigourney.   The next four columns on the verso report international news provided by the arrival of the steamship Columbia (some of which echoes the problems of European countries mentioned by Webster in his speech).   The last column includes other news about the monument celebration: “Soon after the Orator commenced, the crowd on the south side of the monument made a rush on the military and broke down the chairs and in a moment the area was completely filled…One of the Marshals while on the common was thrown from his horse and somewhat bruised about the head, but we believe not seriously.”   







Webster’s speech was given on Saturday.   This last column also includes the following note, which indicates this Extra was issued on Monday the 19 th , and give some insight into the rivalries of Boston’s newspapers: “We issued the only paper published in the city on Saturday afternoon, containing an account of the Procession, the Address, &c.   Our press hands held on until 9 o’clock, then finding it utterly impossible to supply the demand, they gave up and went home.   Yesterday being Sunday, we did not try to make much display; but having made our share of money, gave the field to our neighbors of the ‘Times,’ who consider money earned on the Sabbath better than any other.   ‘The better the day the better the money,’ they say.” 







The byline says this was printed from the original manuscript, “furnished [by] the Editor of the Courier,” and the number of typographic errors betray the haste with which it was set up for the press (possibly hoping to beat out the Courier itself).    The speech was also published as a pamphlet by Tappan and Dennet in 1843.  Although less stirring than his celebrated speech at the laying of the cornerstone for the monument eighteen years prior, this is still an impassioned piece of oratory, and certainly an early, if not the first, printing. 



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