l." The stock market might, of course, change from many
causes, but Parker was wrong as to the facts. An examination of the
daily sales of United States bonds in New York, 1849-1850, shows that
the change, instead of being, "not one mill," as Parker asserted, was
four or five dollars during this period; and what change there was, was
downward before Webster's speech and upward thereafter. [67]

We now realize what Webster knew and feared in 1849-1850. "If this
strife between the South and the North goes on, we shall have war,
and who is ready for that?" "There would have been a Civil War if the
Compromise had not passed." The evidence confirms Thurlow Weed's mature
judgment: "the country had every appearance of being on the eve of a
Revolution." [68] On February 28, Everett recognized that "the radicals
at the South have made up their minds to separate, the catastrophe seems
to be inevitable". [69]

On March 1, Webster recorded his determination "to make an honest,
truth-telling speech, and a Union speech" [691] The Washington
correspondent of the Advertiser, March 4, reported that Webster will
"take a large view of the state of things and advocate a straightforward
course of legislation essentially such as the President has
recommended". "To this point public sentiment has been gradually
converging." "It will tend greatly to confirm opinion in favor of this
course should it meet with the decided concurrence of Mr. Webster."
The attitude of the plain citizen is expressed by Barker, of Beaver,
Pennsylvania, on the same day: "do it, Mr. Webster, as you can, do it as
a bold and gifted statesman and patriot; reconcile the North and South
and PRESERVE the UNION". "Offer, Mr. Webster, a liberal compromise to
the South." On March 4 and 5, Calhoun's Senate speech reasserted that
the South, no longer safe in the Union, possessed the right of peaceable
secession. On the 6th of March, Webster went over the proposed speech
of the next morning with his son, Fletcher, Edward Curtis, and Peter
Harvey. [70]

III.

It was under the cumulative stress of such convincing evidence, public
and private utterances, and acts in Southern legislatures and in
Congress, that Webster made his Union speech on the 7th of March. The
purpose and character of the speech are rightly indicated by its title,
"The Constitution and the Union", and by the significant dedication to
the people of Massachusetts: "Necessity compels me to speak true rathe