. Other
things, Gentlemen, have had a similar origin. We all know that the term
"Whig" was bestowed in derision, two hundred years ago, on those who
were thought too fond of liberty; and our national air of "Yankee
Doodle" was composed by British officers, in ridicule of the American
troops. Yet, erelong, the last of the British armies laid down its arms
at Yorktown, while this same air was playing in the ears of officers
and men. Gentlemen, it is only shallow-minded pretenders who either make
distinguished origin matter of personal merit, or obscure origin matter
of personal reproach. Taunt and scoffing at the humble condition of
early life affect nobody, in this country, but those who are foolish
enough to indulge in them, and they are generally sufficiently punished
by public rebuke. A man who is not ashamed of himself need not be
ashamed of his early condition.

Gentlemen, it did not happen to me to be born in a log cabin; but my
elder brothers and sisters were born in a log cabin, raised amid the
snow-drifts of New Hampshire, at a period so early that, when the smoke
first rose from its rude chimney, and curled over the frozen hills,
there was no similar evidence of a white man's habitation between it and
the settlements on the rivers of Canada. Its remains still exist. I make
to it an annual visit. I carry my children to it, to teach them the
hardships endured by the generations which have gone before them. I love
to dwell on the tender recollections, the kindred ties, the early
affections, and the touching narratives and incidents, which mingle with
all I know of this primitive family abode. I weep to think that none of
those who inhabited it are now among the living; and if ever I am
ashamed of it, or if I ever fail in affectionate veneration for him who
reared it, and defended it against savage violence and destruction,
cherished all the domestic virtues beneath its roof, and, through the
fire and blood of a seven years' revolutionary war, shrunk from no
danger, no toil, no sacrifice, to serve his country, and to raise his
children to a condition better than his own, may my name and the name of
my posterity be blotted for ever from the memory of mankind!

ADDRESS TO THE LADIES OF RICHMOND.

REMARKS AT A PUBLIC RECEPTION BY THE LADIES OF RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, ON
THE 5TH OF OCTOBER, 1840.

[The visit of Mr. Webster to Richmond was short, and his public
engagements so numerous, as to put it out of his po