of the fugitive slave law, and the other
measures generally selected for reprobation in the South. [25] "Even
the existence of the Union depended upon the settlement"; "we would
have resisted by our arms if the wrong [Wilmot Proviso] had been
perpetuated", were Stephens's later judgments. [26] It is to be
remembered that the Union victory in Georgia was based upon the
Compromise and that Webster's share in "strengthening the friends of the
Union" was recognized by Stephens.

The disunion movement manifested also dangerous strength in Virginia and
Alabama, and showed possibilities of great danger in Tennessee, North
Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Texas, and Arkansas.
The majority of the people may not have favored secession in 1850 any
more than in 1860; but the leaders could and did carry most of the
Southern legislatures in favor of uniting for resistance.

The "ultras" in Virginia, under the lead of Tucker, and in Alabama under
Yancey, frankly avowed their desire to stimulate impossible demands
so that disunion would be inevitable. Tucker at Nashville "ridiculed
Webster's assertion that the Union could not be dissolved without
bloodshed". On the eve of Webster's speech, Garnett of Virginia
published a frank advocacy of a Southern Confederacy, repeatedly
reprinted, which Clay declared "the most dangerous pamphlet he had
ever read". [27] Virginia, in providing for delegates to the Nashville
Convention, announced her readiness to join her "sister slave states"
for "mutual defence". She later acquiesced in the Compromise, but
reasserted that anti-slavery aggressions would "defeat restoration of
peaceful sentiments". [28]

In Texas there was acute danger of collision over the New Mexico
boundary with Federal troops which President Taylor was preparing to
send. Stephens frankly repeated Quitman's threats of Southern armed
support of Texas. [29] Cobb, Henderson of Texas, Duval of Kentucky,
Anderson of Tennessee, and Goode of Virginia expressed similar views as
to the "imminent cause of danger to the Union from Texas". The collision
was avoided because the more statesmanlike attitude of Webster prevailed
rather than the "soldier's" policy of Taylor.

The border states held a critical position in 1850, as they did in
1860. "If they go for the Southern movement we shall have disunion."
"Everything is to depend from this day on the course of Kentucky,
Tennessee and Missouri." [30] Webster's conciliatory Un