spite of Clay's dislike of his insubordination, gave earnest support to the Clay ambition. Clay au again defeated and Webster himself now expected that his turn for the leadership of the Whig party had come. He returned to the Senate in 1845 %%here he renewed his opposition to the annexation of Texas in its final stages. When the war with Mexico began he was, as usual, in full sympathy with the heated and unalterable opposition of his section. But he was too much of a candidate for the presidency to voice his views very strongly. Yet he failed of the Whig nomination in 1848. A successful general and a great slave-holder, Zachary Tay lor, received the nomination as a result of Abolitionist opposition to ‘Webster and Clay. Webster declared that it was an improper and unworthy nomination; and both Mobster and (la) declined to give public support. Yet Tay lor WAS elected Taylor. the slave-holder, urged the ad mission of California as a free State. As a result civil war between the North and the South seemed imminent. Webster was still in the Senate. Calhoun was again a member in 1845. after a retirement that had been designed ie be final. Clay was returned to the Senate at this critical juncture to aid in reconciling the hostile sections of the country, reconcile inter ests that were in violent conflict. Since Web ster. Calhoun and Clay so well represented the three sections—the East. the South and the West — any agreement satisfactory to them was lately to he satisfactory to the country. (la took the lead, as he had done all his life. lilaoan placed himself in direct and bitter op Position The South would never consent to the admission of another free State south of the line of 36' 30', extended to the Pacific.
L:nexpectedly President Taylor maintained the position that California must be admitted as a free State. A deadlock ensued. From the opening of Congress in December 1849 till the first of March 1850 it seemed that a daseupnon of the Union must be the out come. Under these circuenstauces Clay ar ranged his last great compromise. It was prepared early in January. Private meetings of senators and representatives were arranged. Old enemies sat down to dinners together and with Clay. Newspaper editors were consulted aad combinations made. When Clay at last made his appeal to Congress and the country. he had Vs'ebster's consent to follow him with a similar appeal. But President Taylor would have nothing to do with the compromise. Web ster and Clay had both said he was an unfit man to be President. Moreover the Southern leaders challenged Taylor, and a challenge of the Presi dent as to his powers and his independence has almost invariably been fatal to the challenging Party. Taylor would send the United States army into any territory where the Southerners refused to recognise the authority of the United States That meant immediate war.
Webster had been a nationalist since 1830. Hr was not in sympathy with the Administra tion of his own party, which was supported by the Abolitionists. He was by nature a conser
vative, one who liked to have great social changes made slowly or not at all. He reprc sented the manufacturers and the stable busi ness element of New England and not what would be called the democracy of the North He made the only decision that he could have made. It was given to the world on 7 March 1850 in a great and eloquent appeal to the pub lic sentiment of the country. North and South. against the disruption of the Union. This de cision of Webster broke the deadlock; it ranged his great followers alongside that of Clay. The country rallied to the two old chieftains. The President resisted till 9 July, whete_eigath re f Juiss_Jemn....thia.-acene. I friers dre, of Webster and Clay. ceeded and the country breathed freely. In every large town there was a holiday, and big guns announced the passage of the compromise. It had been Webater's decision in March that produced the result. Not even Taylor's mili tary stubbornness could long have withstood the tide of popular demand for a settlement Webster entered President Fillmore's Cabinet as Secretary of State and served the ideals of the country well, particularly in the publication of the Hulsernann letter, in which American sympathy for democratic uprisings everywhere was vigorously expressed. But he was de nounced for his 7th of March speech most un mercifully. His name was anathematised in 'Tchabod, one of the widely read poems of Whittier. But the country as a whole did not think less of him, only the people did not de mand him for President. When the Whig na tional convention met in Baltimore, June 1832, to nominate a candidate for the presidency. Webster was the logical candidate. According to all the rules of regular political procedure, the great New England statesman should have received the nomination. But the convention, under the influence of Thurlow Weed and Wil liam H. Seward, preferred another military Them" General Scott was nominated. Web ster. broken hearted at the way the North had treated his 7th of March speech and deeply wounded by the conduct of the Whig leaders in Baltimore, went home to Northfield. There he made known his wish that his friends would vote for the Democratic candidate, Franklin Pierce. It was a trying ordeal, the public abandonment of his party. He died before the election. Like so many other great leaders, he died despairingof the republic.
Curtis, George T., 'The Life of Daniel Webster' (2 vols., New York 1870); Lodge. Henry. Cabot, 'Daniel Webster' (Boston 18831; Hale, Edward Everett, 'The Works of Daniel Webster' (6 vols. B , oston 1851): McMaster, J B. 'Daniel Webster' (New York 19(V); Rhodes, James Ford, 'His tory of the United States' (Vol. I, New York 1906); Van Tyne, C. H. 'The Letters of Daniel Webster' (New York H., Webster, Fletcher, 'The Private Correspondence of Daniel Web ster' (2 Vols.. Boston 1857).
Wittiest E. Dorm, Professor of American History, University of Chicago.