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Speeches of the Hon. Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi; delivered during the summer of 1858. by Jefferson Davis
page 66 of 126 (52%)
when he could drive the British troops out of your city. [Cheers.]

Here, too, you find where once the Old Liberty Tree, connected with so
many of your memories, grew. You ask your legend, and learn that it
was cut down for firewood by the British soldiers, as some of your
meeting houses were pulled down. They burned the old tree, and it
warmed the soldiers enough to enable them to evacuate the city.
[Laughter.] Had they been more slowly warmed into motion, had it
burned a little longer, it might have lighted Washington and his
followers to their enemies.

But they were gone, and never again may a hostile foe tread your
shore. Woe to the enemy who shall set his footprint upon your soil; he
comes to a prison or he comes to a grave! [Applause.] American
fortifications are not intended to protect our country from invasion.
They are constructed elsewhere as in your harbor to guard points where
marine attacks can he made; and for the rest, the breasts of Americans
are our parapets. [Applause.]

But, my friends, it is not merely in these military associations, so
honorably connected with the pride of Massachusetts, that one who
visits Boston finds much for gratification. If I were selecting a
place where the advocate of strict construction of the Constitution,
the extreme asserter of democratic state rights doctrine should go for
his text, I would send him into the collections of your historical
association. Instead of finding Boston a place where the records would
teach only federalism, he would find here, in bounteous store, that
sacred doctrine of state rights, which has been called the extreme and
ultra opinion of the South. He would find among your early records
that at the time when Massachusetts was under a colonial government,
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