Southern reaction in Phillips, South in the Building of the
Nation, IV, 401-403; and unpublished letters approving Webster's
speech.

[5] Calhoun, Corr., Amer. Hist. Assoc., Annual Report (1899, vol
11.), pp. 1193-1194.

[6] To Crittenden, Dec. 20, 1849, Smith, polit. Hist. Slavery, I.
122; Winthrop MSS., Jan. 6, 1850.


Calhoun, desiring to save the Union if he could, but at all
events to save the South, and convinced that there was "no time
to lose", hoped "a decisive issue will be made with the North".
In February, 1850, he wrote, "Disunion is the only alternative
that is left us."[7] At last supported by some sort of action in
thirteen Southern states, and in nine states by appointment of
delegates to his Southern Convention, he declared in the Senate,
March 4, "the South, is united against the Wilmot proviso, and
has committed itself, by solemn resolutions, to resist should it
be adopted". "The South will be forced to choose between
abolition and secession." "The Southern States . . . cannot
remain, as things now are, consistently with honor and safety, in
the Union."[8]

[7] Calhoun, Corr., p. 781; cf. 764-766, 778, 780, 783-784.

[8] Cong. Globe, XXI. 451-455, 463; Corr., p. 784. On Calhoun's
attitude, Ames, Calhoun, pp. 6-7; Stephenson, in Yale Review,
1919, p. 216; Newbury in South Atlantic Quarterly, XI. 259;