Vinegar and Honey

Vinegar and Honey
An American Without Reserve
by Daniel Webster

I was born an American; I live an American; I shall die an American; and I intend to perform the duties incumbent upon me in that character to the end of my career. I mean to do this with absolute disregard of personal consequences.

What are the personal consequences? What is the individual man, with all the good or evil that may betide him, in comparison with the good or evil which may befall a great country, and in the midst of great transactions which concern that country's fate?

Let the consequences be what they will, I am careless. No man can suffer too much, and no man can fall too soon, if he suffer, or if he fall, in the defense of the liberties and constitution of his country.


In spite of everything that's going on in our great country right now, I know that there are still those who echo those very words of Daniel Webster, and have within their hearts, a commitment to do whatever is required to preserve the freedoms for which so many have sacrificed and died.