[Rarebooks] FS: 1851 July 4th Oration by Daniel Webster @ Cornerstone Capitol Building

[Joslin Hall Rare Books, Ephemera & Photographs]

Mr. Webster’s Address at the Laying of the Corner Stone of the Addition 
to the Capitol; July 4th, 1851.

Daniel Webster. Printed in Washington by Gideon and Co. in 1851.

As the rush to admit new states resulted in more representatives in 
Washington, and as accommodations in the original Capitol building 
became more and more cramped, in 1850 it was decided to add two large 
new wings- a new chamber for the House of Representatives on the south 
side, and a new chamber for the Senate on the north. The original plan 
was to import European builders to do the work, but few could be found 
who wanted to labor through Washington’s foul, fetid summers, with a 
swamp of sewage percolating just down the street. So, in one of those 
accommodations that characterized the period, the additions to this 
symbol of American freedom and opportunity were largely built using the 
labor of slaves. As if that were not ironic enough, by the time they 
finished it was found that the enlarged building made Charles’ 
Bullfinch’s original copper-sheeted dome in the middle look impossibly 
small and silly, so that had to be rebuilt too. But all that is getting 
ahead of our story- we now return to July 4, 1851, as Daniel Webster, 
great orator, defender of the Union, and occasional debating partner of 
Beelzebub himself, declaims at the laying of a dramatic expansion of the 
United States’ own Capitol building -what could be more July 4thy?

Disbound. 5.5”x8.5”, 30 pages. Minor wear, light soil. [43548]  $35


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