"inactive" before Webster's speech; "firmer," Mar. 8; advanced to
117, 119, May; 116-117 after Compromise.


We now realize what Webster knew and feared in 1849-1850. "If
this strife between the South and the North goes on, we shall
have war, and who is ready for that?" "There would have been a
Civil War if the Compromise had not passed." The evidence
confirms Thurlow Weed's mature judgment: "the country had every
appearance of being on the eve of a Revolution."[68] On February
28, Everett recognized that "the radicals at the South have made
up their minds to separate, the catastrophe seems to be
inevitable".[69]

[68] E. P. Wheeler, Sixty Years of American Life, p. 6; cf.
Webster's Buffalo Speech, Curtis, Life, II. 576; Weed,
Autobiography, p. 596.

[69] Winthrop MSS.


On March 1, Webster recorded his determination "to make an
honest, truth-telling speech, and a Union speech"[69a] The
Washington correspondent of the Advertiser, March 4, reported
that Webster will "take a large view of the state of things and
advocate a straightforward course of legislation essentially such
as the President has recommended". "To this point public
sentiment has been gradually converging." "It will tend greatly
to confirm opinion in favor of this course should it meet with
the decided concurrence of Mr. Webster." The attitude of the