They are harsh and bitter; they do not ring true.
Daniel Webster knew when he was delivering them that that was not the way to save the Union, or that, at all events, it was not the right way for him to do it.
The same peculiarity can be discerned in his letters.

The fun and humor which had hitherto run through his correspondence seems now to fade away as if blighted.

On September 10, 1850, he writes to Mr.Harvey that since March 7 there has not been an hour in which he has not felt a "crushing sense of anxiety and responsibility." He couples this with the declaration that his own part is acted and he is satisfied; but if his anxiety was solely of a public nature, why did it date from March 7, when, prior to that time, there was much greater cause for alarm than afterwards.

In everything he said or wrote he continually recurs to the slavery question and always in a defensive tone, usually with a sneer or a fling at the abolitionists and anti-slavery party.

The spirit of unrest had seized him.
He was disturbed and ill at ease.