But in the state of public opinion at that time it was necessary to discuss nullification on constitutional grounds also, and Mr.Webster did this as eloquently and ably as the nature of the case admitted.

Whatever the historical defects of his position, he put weapons into the hands of every friend of the Union, and gave reasons and arguments to the doubting and timid.

Yet after all is said, the meaning of Mr.
Webster's speech in our history and its significance to us are, that it set forth with every attribute of eloquence the nature of the Union as it had developed under the Constitution.

He took the vague popular conception and gave it life and form and character.

He said, as he alone could say, the people of the United States are a nation, they are the masters of an empire, their union is indivisible, and the words which then rang out in the senate chamber have come down through long years of political conflict and of civil war, until at last they are part of the political creed of every one of his fellow-countrymen.
The reply to Hayne cannot, however, be dismissed with a consideration of its historical and political meaning or of its constitutional significance.
It has a personal and literary importance of hardly less moment.