Websters March 7th Speech/Secession | Page 8

the South into disunion. "But for your influence,
Georgia would have been more rampant for dissolution than South
Carolina ever was." "S. Carolina will secede, but we can and must put a
stop to it in Georgia."[23]
[23] Corr., pp. 184,193-195, 206-208, July 21. Newspapers, see Brooks,
in Miss. Valley Hist. Review, IX. 289.
Public opinion in Georgia, which had been "almost ready for
immediate secession", was reversed only after the passage of the
Compromise and by means of a strenuous campaign against the
Secessionists which Stephens, Toombs, and Cobb were obliged to
return to Georgia to conduct to a Successful issue.[24] Yet even the
Unionist Convention of Georgia, elected by this campaign, voted
almost unanimously "the Georgia platform" already described, of
resistance, even to disruption, against the Wilmot Proviso, the repeal of
the fugitive slave law, and the other measures generally selected for
reprobation in the South.[25] "Even the existence of the Union
depended upon the settlement"; "we would have resisted by our arms if
the wrong [Wilmot Proviso] had been perpetuated", were Stephens's
later judgments.[26] It is to be remembered that the Union victory in
Georgia was based upon the Compromise and that Webster's share in
"strengthening the friends of the Union" was recognized by Stephens.
[24] Phillips, Georgia and State Rights, pp. 163-166.
[25] Ames, Documents, pp. 271-272; Hearon, p. 190.
[26] 1854, Amer. Hist. Review, VIII. 92-97; 1857, Johnston, Stephens,
pp. 321-322; infra, pp. 267, 268.
The disunion movement manifested also dangerous strength in Virginia
and Alabama, and showed possibilities of great danger in Tennessee,
North Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Texas, and
Arkansas. The majority of the people may not have favored secession
in 1850 any more than in 1860; but the leaders could and did carry
most of the Southern legislatures in favor of uniting for resistance.
The "ultras" in Virginia, under the lead of Tucker, and in Alabama
under Yancey, frankly avowed their desire to stimulate impossible
demands so that disunion would be inevitable. Tucker at Nashville
"ridiculed Webster's assertion that the Union could not be dissolved
without bloodshed". On the eve of Webster's speech, Garnett of

Virginia published a frank advocacy of a Southern Confederacy,
repeatedly reprinted, which Clay declared "the most dangerous
pamphlet he had ever read".[27] Virginia, in providing for delegates to
the Nashville Convention, announced her readiness to join her "sister
slave states" for "mutual defence". She later acquiesced in the
Compromise, but reasserted that anti-slavery aggressions would "defeat
restoration of peaceful sentiments".[28]
[27] Hammond MSS., Jan. 27, Feb. 8; Virginia Resolves, Feb. 12;
Ambler, Sectionalism in Virginia, p. 246; N. Y. Tribune, June 14; M. R.
H. Garnett, Union Past and Future, published between Jan. 24 and Mar.
7. Alabama: Hodgson, Cradle of the Confederacy, p. 281; Dubose,
Yancey, pp. 247-249, 481; Fleming, Civil War and Reconstruction in
Alabama, p. 13; Cobb, Corr., pp. 193-195, 207. President Tyler of the
College of William and Mary kindly furnished evidence of Garnett's
authorship; see J. M. Garnett, in Southern Literary Messenger, I. 255.
[28] Resolutions, Feb. 12, 1850; Acts, 1850, pp. 223-224; 1851, p. 201.
In Texas there was acute danger of collision over the New Mexico
boundary with Federal troops which President Taylor was preparing to
send. Stephens frankly repeated Quitman's threats of Southern armed
support of Texas.[29] Cobb, Henderson of Texas, Duval of Kentucky,
Anderson of Tennessee, and Goode of Virginia expressed similar views
as to the "imminent cause of danger to the Union from Texas". The
collision was avoided because the more statesmanlike attitude of
Webster prevailed rather than the "soldier's" policy of Taylor.
[29] Stephens, Corr., p. 192; Globe, XXII. II. 1208.
The border states held a critical position in 1850, as they did in 1860.
"If they go for the Southern movement we shall have disunion."
"Everything is to depend from this day on the course of Kentucky,
Tennessee and Missouri."[30] Webster's conciliatory Union policy, in
harmony with that of border state leaders, like Bell of Tennessee,
Benton of Missouri, Clay and Crittenden of Kentucky, enabled
Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri to stand by the Union and refuse to
send delegates to the Nashville Convention.
[30] Boston Daily Advertiser, Feb. 23.
The attitude of the Southern states toward disunion may be followed
closely in their action as to the Nashville Convention. Nine Southern
states approved the Convention and appointed delegates before June,

1850, six during the critical month preceding Webster's speech:
Georgia, February 6, 8; Texas and Tennessee, February 11; Virginia,
February 12; Alabama, just before the adjournment of the legislature,
February 13; Mississippi, March 5, 6.[31] Every one of the nine
seceded in 1860-1861; the border states (Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri)
which kept out of the Convention in 1850 likewise kept out of
secession in 1861; and only two states which seceded in 1861 failed to
join the