It was no longer regarded as an experiment from which the contracting parties had a right to withdraw, but as the charter of a national government.

"It is a critical moment," said Mr.Bell of New Hampshire to Mr.Webster, on the morning of January 26, "and it is time, it is high time that the people of this country should know what this Constitution _is_." "Then," answered Mr.Webster, "by the blessing of heaven they shall learn, this day, before the sun goes down, what I understand it to be." With these words on his lips he entered the senate chamber, and when he replied to Hayne he stated what the Union and the government had come to be at that moment.

He defined the character of the Union as it existed in 1830, and that definition so magnificently stated, and with such grand eloquence, went home to the hearts of the people, and put into noble words the sentiment which they felt but had not expressed.

This was the significance of the reply to Hayne.

It mattered not what men thought of the Constitution in 1789.