He would not even think of it until the impossibility of Mr.Mills's return was assured, and then he had to meet the opposition of the administration and all its friends, who regarded with alarm the prospect of losing such a tower of strength in the House.

Mr.Webster, indeed, felt that he could render the best service in the lower branch, and urged the senatorship upon Governor Lincoln, who was elected, but declined.

After this there seemed to be no escape from a manifest destiny.

Despite the opposition of his friends in Washington, and his own reluctance, he finally accepted the office of United States senator, which was conferred upon him by the Legislature of Massachusetts in June, 1827.
In tracing the labors of Mr.Webster during three years spent in the lower House, no allusion has been made to the purely political side of his career at this time, nor to his relations with the public men of the day.

The period was important, generally speaking, because it showed the first signs of the development of new parties, and to Mr.Webster in particular, because it brought him gradually toward the political and party position which he was to occupy during the rest of his life.