39 2 DANIEL WEBSTER 



more than balanced by the accession of Mr. Webster, 

 who upon this measure came promptly to the support 

 of the administration. For this, says Benton, "his 

 motives . . . were attacked, and he was accused of 

 subserviency to the President for the sake of future 

 favour. At the same time, all the support which he 

 gave to these measures was the regular result of the 

 principles which he laid down against nullification in 

 the debate with Mr. Hayne, and he could not have 

 done less without being derelict to his own principles 

 then avowed. It was a proud era in his life, support- 

 ing with transcendent ability the cause of the Consti- 

 tution and of the country, in the person of a chief 

 magistrate to whom he was politically opposed, bursting 

 the bonds of party at the call of duty, and display- 

 ing a patriotism worthy of admiration and imitation. 

 General Jackson felt the debt of gratitude and admira- 

 tion which he owed him ; the country, without distinc- 

 tion of party, felt the same. . . . He was the colossal 

 figure on the political stage during that eventful time ; 

 and his labours, splendid in their day, survive for the 

 benefit of distant posterity " (" Thirty Years' View," 

 I. 334). The support of the President's policy by Mr. 

 Webster, and its enthusiastic approval by nearly all 

 the Northern and a great many of the Southern peo- 

 ple, seems to have alarmed Mr. Calhoun, probably not 

 so much for his personal safety as for the welfare of 

 his nullification schemes. The story that he was 

 frightened by the rumour that Jackson had threatened 

 to begin by arresting him on a charge of treason is 

 now generally discredited. He had seen enough, 

 however, to convince him that the theory of peace- 

 ful nullification was not now likely to be realized. It 



