DUTY OF LEGISLATORS.
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tive would recall to his memory the words of the gifted and eloquent Webster, as uttered in his speech on the President's protest:
"We have been taught to regard a representative of the people as a sentinel upon the watch-tower of liberty. Is he to be blind, though visible danger approaches? Is he to be deaf, though sounds of peril fill the air? Is he to be dumb, while a thousand duties impel him to raise the cry of alarm? Is he not rather to catch the lowest whisper that breathes intention or purpose of encroachment on the public liberties, and to give his voice, breath, and utterance at the first appearance of danger? Is not his eye to traverse the whole horizon, with the keen and eagle vision of an unhooded hawk, detecting through all disguises, every enemy, advancing in any form towards the citadel he guards?"
