re refused to call a second meeting of the Nashville
Convention. For this change in position he was bitterly criticized by
Jefferson Davis. [44] Foote recognized the "emergency" at the same time
that Webster did, and on February 25, proposed his committee of thirteen
to report some "scheme of compromise". Parting company with Calhoun,
March 5, on the thesis that the South could not safely remain without
new "constitutional guarantees", Foote regarded Webster's speech as
"unanswerable", and in April came to an understanding with him as to
Foote's committee and their common desire for prompt consideration of
California. The importance of Foote's influence in turning the tide
in Mississippi, through his pugnacious election campaign, and the
significance of his judgment of the influence of Webster and his
speech have been somewhat overlooked, partly perhaps because of Foote's
swashbuckling characteristics. [45]

That the Southern convention movement proved comparatively innocuous in
June is due in part to confidence inspired by the conciliatory policy of
one outstanding Northerner, Webster. "Webster's speech", said Winthrop,
"has knocked the Nashville Convention into a cocked hat." [46] "The
Nashville Convention has been blown by your giant effort to the four
winds." [47] "Had you spoken out before this, I verily believe the
Nashville Convention had not been thought of. Your speech has disarmed
and quieted the South." [48] Webster's speech caused hesitation in the
South. "This has given courage to all who wavered in their resolution or
who were secretly opposed to the measure [Nashville Convention]." [49]

Ames cites nearly a store of issues of newspapers in Mississippi, South
Carolina, Louisiana, North Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia reflecting
the change in public opinion in March. Even some of the radical papers
referred to the favorable effect of Webster's speech and "spirit" in
checking excitement. "The Jackson (Mississippi) Southron had at first
supported the movement [for a Southern Convention], but by March it had
grown lukewarm and before the Convention assembled, decidedly opposed
it. The last of May it said, 'not a Whig paper in the State approves'."
In the latter part of March, not more than a quarter of sixty papers
from ten slave-holding states took decided ground for a Southern
Convention. [50] The Mississippi Free Trader tried to check the growing
support of the Compromise, by claiming that Webster's speech