Mr.
Webster's place at that moment was at the head of a new party based on the principles which he had himself formulated against the extension of slavery.

Such a change might have destroyed his chances for the presidency, if he had any, but it would have given him one of the greatest places in American history and made him the leader in the new period.

He lost his opportunity.

He did not change his party, but he soon after accepted the other alternative and changed his opinions.
His course once taken, he made the best of it, and delivered a speech in Faneuil Hall, in which it is painful to see the effort to push aside slavery and bring forward the tariff and the sub-treasury.

He scoffed at this absorption in "one idea," and strove to thrust it away.