and speeches and his strengthening of federal power through
Supreme Court cases won by his arguments had helped to furnish
the conviction which underlay the Union Party of 1860 and 1964.
His consistent opposition to nullification and secession, and his
appeal to the Union and to the Constitution during twenty years
preceding the Civil War--from his reply to Hayne to his seventh
of March speech--had developed a spirit capable of making
economic and political power effective.

[111] Oct. 2, 1950. Writings and Speeches, XVI. 568-569.


Men inclined to sneer at Webster for his interest in
manufacturing, farming, and material prosperity, may well
remember that in his mind, and more slowly in the minds of the
North, economic progress went hand in hand with the development
of union and of liberty secured by law.

Misunderstandings regarding both the political crisis and the
personal character of the man are already disappearing as fact
replaces fiction, as "truth gets a hearing", in the fine phrase
of Wendell Phillips. There is nothing about Daniel Webster to be
hidden. Not moral blindness but moral insight and sound political
principles reveal themselves to the reader of Webster's own words
in public speech and unguarded private letter. One of those great
men who disdained to vindicate himself, he does not need us but
we need him and his vision that Liberty comes through Union, and
healing through cooperation, not through hate.

Whether we look to the material progress of the North from 1850