he hour of actual conflict came, every patriot realized that
a great magazine of strength for the Union was stored in the
teachings of Mr. Webster. For thirty years preceding the Nullification
troubles in South Carolina, the government had been administered
on the States'-rights theory, in which the power of the nation was
subordinated, and its capacity to subdue the revolt of seceding
States was dangerously weakened. His speech in reply to Hayne in
1830 was like an amendment to the Constitution. It corrected
traditions, changed convictions, revolutionized conclusions. It
gave to the friends of the Union the abundant logic which established
the right and the power of the government to preserve itself. A
fame so lofty, a work so grand, cannot be marred by one mistake,
if mistake it be conceded. The thoughtful reconsideration of his
severest critics must allow that Mr. Webster saw before him a
divided duty, and that he chose the part which in his patriotic
judgment was demanded by the supreme danger of the hour.

Mr. Clay's resolutions were referred to a special committee of
thirteen, of which he was made chairman. They reported a bill
embracing the principal objects contemplated in his original speech.
The discussion on this composite measure was earnest and prolonged,
and between certain senators became exasperating. The Administration,
through its newspapers, through the declarations of its Cabinet
minsters, through the unreserved expressions of President Taylor
himself, showed persistent hostility to Mr. Clay's Omnibus Bill,
as it was derisively and offensively called. Mr. Clay, in turn,
did not conceal his hostility to the mode of adjustment proposed
in the messages of the President, and defended his own with vigor
and eloquence. Reciting the measures demanded for a fair and
lasting settlement, he said there were five wounds, bleeding and
threatening the body politic, all needing to be healed, while the
President proposed to heal but one. He described the wounds,
numbering them carefully on his fingers as he spoke. Colonel
Benton, who was vindictively opposed to the Omnibus Bill, made
sport of the five gaping wounds, and believed that Mr. Clay would
have found more wounds if he had had more fingers. This strife
naturally grew more and more severe, making for a time a somewhat
serious division among the Democrats, and rending the Whig party
asunder, one section following Mr. Clay with great zeal, the oth