A Famous Appeal

In 1837, speaking on the Constitution, Daniel Webster gave an appeal for the Union:

I regard it as the work of the purest patriots and wisest statesmen that ever existed, aided by the smiles of a benignant Providence; for when we regard it as a system of government growing out of the discordant opinions and conflicting interests of thirteen independent States, it almost appears a Divine interposition in our behalf…The hand that destroys the Constitution rends our Union asunder forever.