rvant,

"DANIEL WEBSTER.

"To Messrs. P.R. FENDALL,
HORACE STRINGFELLOW,
JOSHUA N. DANFORTH,
R.R. GURLEY,
WILLIAM RUGGLES,
JOEL S. BACON,
THOMAS SEWALL,
WILLIAM B. EDWARDS."]

The following mottoes were prefixed to this speech, in the original
pamphlet edition.

"_Socrates._ If, then, you wish public measures to be right and
noble, _virtue_ must be given by you to the citizens.

"_Alcibiades._ How could any one deny that?

"_Socrates._ _Virtue_, therefore, is that which is to be first
possessed, both by you and by every other person who would have
direction and care, not only for himself and things dear to
himself, but for the state and things dear to the state.

"_Alcibiades._ You speak truly.

"_Socrates._ To act justly and wisely (both you and the state), YOU
MUST ACT ACCORDING TO THE WILL OF GOD.

"_Alcibiades._ It is so."--_Plato._

"Sic igitur hoc a principio persuasum civibus, dominos esse omnium
rerum ac moderatores, deos."--_Cicero de Legibus._

"We shall never be such fools as to call in an enemy to the
substance of any system, to supply its defects, or to perfect its
construction."

"If our religious tenets should ever want a further elucidation, we
shall not call on atheism to explain them. We shall not light up
our temple from that unhallowed fire."

"We know, and it is our pride to know, that man is, by his
constitution, a religious animal."--_Burke._

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR HONORS:--

It is not necessary for me to narrate, in detail, the numerous
provisions of Mr. Girard's will. This has already been repeatedly done
by other counsel, and I shall content myself with stating and
considering those parts only which are immediately involved in the
decision of this cause.

The will is drawn with apparent care and method, and is regularly
divided into clauses. The first nineteen clauses contain various devises
and legacies to relatives, to other private individuals and to public
bodies. By the twentieth clause the whole residue of his estate, real
and personal, is devised and bequeathed to the "mayor, aldermen, and
citizens of Philadelphia," in trust for the several uses to be after
mentioned and declared.

The twenty-first clause contains the devise or bequest to the college,
in these words:--