Daniel Webster, as Secretary Of State

3 pages (6 7/8 x 4 3/8 in.; 176 x 112) on a bifolium, Washington, 11 December 1850, to William Hickey at "Secretary's Office, U. S. Senate," accompanied by the original autograph envelope signed by Webster ("Danl Webster"), docketed "Copy sent to L. Johnson & Co. Phila to be inserted in the 4. Edition if practicable"; envelope lightly soiled.

"THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES IS A WRITTEN INSTRUMENT; A RECORDED FUNDAMENTAL LAW; IT IS THE BOND, AND THE ONLY BOND, OF THE UNION OF THESE STATES; IT IS ALL THAT GIVES US A NATIONAL CHARACTER."

In expectation of William Hickey's publication of a new edition of his scholarly compilation of The Constitution of the United States of America, with an Alphabetical Analysis, Daniel Webster sent the editor this stirring note of encouragement, evidently intending it to be used in promoting the volume:

"Understanding that you are about to publish a fourth Edition of the Book of the Constitution, I take pleasure in explaining my belief that the extensive distribution of that volume is of public & general importance. 

"The Constitution of the United States is a written Instrument; a recorded fundamental law; it is the Bond, and the only Bond, of the Union of these States; it is all that gives us a National character.

"Almost every man in the country is capable of reading it; and that which so deeply concerns all, should, be made easily accessible to all.  Your publication, I think, is better calculated to accomplish this end, than any which has preceded it."

Daniel Webster was considered the "Defender of the Constitution" throughout his career, which began as a lawyer arguing cases before the John Marshall Supreme Court, and continued as a Senator and as Secretary of State. In debate with Senator Robert Hayne in 1850, Webster said the Constitution was "made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people," an assertion that would be paraphrased by Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address. In this 1850 letter, Webster expresses a conviction shared with Hickey that the Constitution is the expression of the indissoluble bond between all states and Americans. He penned it two and a half months after the Compromise of 1850 was enacted by Congress and signed by President Fillmore, aimed at keeping the Union together. Webster was perhaps the leading American statesman of the second quarter of the nineteenth century. A leading orator and lawyer, he was perhaps the greatest constitutional scholar of his day, and served presidents Harrison, Tyler, and Fillmore as secretary of state.

The recipient, William H. Hickey, clerk of the U.S. Senate and a confidante of senators and presidents from the 1830s to the 1860s, dedicated his career to the faithful reproduction, preservation and dissemination of U.S. government documents. Hickey provided the impetus for the ultimate establishment of the U.S. Senate Library. His publication of the Constitution in 1846, as part of a guidebook to American government documents and state papers, was reprinted thereafter and considered a vade mecum for decades. His printing of the Constitution has been influential to this day in Government Printing Office publications: it corrected errors that were propagated in prior dissemination of the Constitution. Hickey had this Webster letter published, in the 1851 edition of his handbook on the Constitution.