plain citizen is expressed by Barker, of Beaver, Pennsylvania, on
the same day: "do it, Mr. Webster, as you can, do it as a bold
and gifted statesman and patriot; reconcile the North and South
and PRESERVE the UNION". "Offer, Mr. Webster, a liberal
compromise to the South." On March 4 and 5, Calhoun's Senate
speech reasserted that the South, no longer safe in the Union,
possessed the right of peaceable secession. On the 6th of March,
Webster went over the proposed speech of the next morning with
his son, Fletcher, Edward Curtis, and Peter Harvey.[70]

[69a] Writings and Speeches, XVI. 534-5.

[70] Webster to Harvey, Apr. 7, MS. Middletown (Conn.) Hist.
Soc., adds Fletcher's name. Received through the kindness of
Professor George M. Dutcher.


III.

It was under the cumulative stress of such convincing
evidence, public and private utterances, and acts in Southern
legislatures and in Congress, that Webster made his Union speech
on the 7th of March. The purpose and character of the speech are
rightly indicated by its title, "The Constitution and the Union",
and by the significant dedication to the people of Massachusetts:
"Necessity compels me to speak true rather than pleasing things."
"I should indeed like to please you; but I prefer to save you,
whatever be your attitude toward me."[71] The malignant charge
that this speech was "a bid for the presidency" was long ago
discarded, even by Lodge. It unfortunately survives in text-books