the imperative decision of the public voice.  Disorder and confusion, indeed, may arise; scenes of commotion and contest are threatened, and perhaps may come.  With my whole heart, I pray for the continuance of the domestic peace and quiet of the country.  I desire, most ardently, the restoration of affection and harmony to all its parts.  I desire that every citizen of the whole country may look to this government with no other sentiments than those of grateful respect and attachment.  But I cannot yield even to kind feelings the cause of the Constitution, the true glory of the country, and the great trust which we hold in our hands for succeeding ages.  If the Constitution cannot be maintained without meeting these scenes of commotion and contest, however unwelcome, they must come.  We cannot, we must not, we dare not, omit to do that which, in our judgment, the safety of the Union requires.  Not regardless of consequences, we must yet meet consequences; seeing the hazards which surround the discharge of public duty, it must yet be discharged.  For myself, Sir, I shun no responsibility justly devolving on me, here or elsewhere, in attempting to maintain the cause.  I am bound to it by indissoluble ties of affection and duty, and I shall cheerfully partake in its fortunes and its fate.  I am ready to perform my own appropriate part, whenever and wherever the occasion may call on me, and to take my chance among those upon whom blows may fall first and fall thickest.  I shall exert every faculty I possess in aiding to prevent the Constitution from being nullified, destroyed, or impaired; and even should I see it fall, I will still, with a voice feeble, perhaps, but earnest as ever issued from human lips, and with fidelity and zeal which nothing shall extinguish, call on the PEOPLE to come to its rescue.

[Footnote 1:  Mr. Rives.]

PUBLIC DINNER AT NEW YORK.

A SPEECH DELIVERED AT A PUBLIC DINNER GIVEN BY A LARGE NUMBER OF CITIZENS OF NEW YORK, IN HONOR OF MR. WEBSTER, ON MARCH 10TH, 1831.

[In February, 1831, several distinguished gentlemen of the city of New York, in behalf of themselves and a large number of other citizens, invited Mr. Webster to a public dinner, as a mark of their respect for the value and success of his efforts, in the preceding session of Congress, in defence of the Constitution of the United States.  His speech in reply to Mr. Hayne (contained in an earlier part of this volume), which, by that time, had been circulated and read through the country to a greater extent than any speech ever before delivered in Congress, was the particular effort which led to this invitation.

The dinner took place at the City Hotel, on the 10th of March, and was attended by a very large assembly.

Chancellor Kent presided, and, in proposing to the company the health of their guest, made the following remarks:—­