Two men more utterly incompatible it would have been difficult to find, and nothing could have been more wildly fantastic than to suppose an alliance between them, or to imagine that Mr.Webster could ever have done anything but oppose utterly those mad gyrations of personal government which the President called his "policy." Yet at the same time it is perfectly true that just after the passage of the tariff bill Mr.Webster was at a great crisis in his life.

He could not act with Jackson.

That way was shut to him by nature, if by nothing else.
But he could have maintained his position as the independent and unbending defender of nationality and as the foe of compromise.

He might then have brought Mr.Clay to his side, and remained himself the undisputed head of the Whig party.

The coalition between Clay and Calhoun was a hollow, ill-omened thing, certain to go violently to pieces, as, in fact, it did, within a few years, and then Mr.Clay, if he had held out so long, would have been helpless without Mr.Webster.But such a course required a very strong will and great tenacity of purpose, and it was on this side that Mr.
Webster was weak, as Mr.Benton points out.