Daniel Webster Quotes
Let it be borne on the flag under which we rally in every exigency, that we have one country, one constitution, one destiny.
Webster, Daniel. "Reception at New York." The Works of Daniel Webster, Vol. 1, Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1851, p. 411.
At the time sectionalism was extensive in America. Most Iowa and Northern families still remembered a relative who had been “killed by the rebels” in the Civil War. The South still resented the rest of the country. The East and Midwest had much better educated than the rest of the country. Most important, there was very little contact between Americans of different sections. Until the great Eisenhower initiative of a National Highway System sectionalism was common. Presidents were constantly trying to develop a national American spirit.
President Benjamin Harrison and Congress proclaimed that October 31, 1892 be a national celebration of the 400th Anniversary of Columbus landing in America. Bellamy represented a juvenile weekly publication and was named chairman of the committee to conduct the celebration. A first draft of the pledge was written by James B. Upham, a staff member of the publication. The words "under God" were added in 1952 by an Act of Congress. The original had “to my flag.” The pledge was first used publicly at the Chicago World’s Fair on October 21, 1892. It was not endorsed by Congress until 1942. It is officially recognized as law in 36 United State Code 172.
The League refers to The Tenant League which united Irish factions that had been disparate before.
Daniel Webster was an American lawyer and statesman who represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress and served as the U.S. Secretary of State under Presidents William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, and Millard Fillmore. As one of the most prominent American lawyers of the 19th century, he argued over 200 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court between 1814 and his death in 1852. During his life, he was a member of the Federalist Party, the National Republican Party, and the Whig Party.
