In 1830 Daniel Webster stood before the Senate of the United States and described the Federal government thus:
“...made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people"
He spoke further:
"This government, Sir, is the independent offspring of the popular will. It is not the creature of State legislatures; nay, more, if the whole truth must be told, the people brought it into existence, established it, and have hitherto supported it, for the very purpose, amongst others, of imposing certain salutary restraints on State sovereignties."
His words foreshadowed those spoken by President Abraham Lincoln more than 30 years later when he concluded his remarks at Gettysburg by declaring:
“...and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Sadly, both Webster and Lincoln have been proved wrong. Government by the people, by the people, and for the people has perished. It no longer exists. It has expired as surely as did those thousands who fought and died in the peach orchard, the devil's den, and the farm field beneath Picket's charge and thereafter populated the cemetery the Lincoln was asked to dedicate.