Instead of denouncing and deploring it, and striking at it whenever the Constitution permitted, he apologized for its existence, and urged the enforcement of its most obnoxious laws.

This was not his attitude in 1820; this was not what the people of the North expected of him in 1850.
In regard to the policy of compromise there is a much stronger contrast between Mr.Webster's attitude in 1850 and his earlier course than in the case of his views on the general subject of slavery.

In 1819, although not in public life, Mr.Webster, as is clear from the tone of the Boston memorial, was opposed to any compromise involving an extension of slavery.
In 1832-33 he was the most conspicuous and unyielding enemy of the principle of compromise in the country.

He then took the ground that the time had come to test the strength of the Constitution and the Union, and that any concession would have a fatally weakening effect.

In 1850 he supported a compromise which was so one-sided that it hardly deserves the name.