He is usually considered as the most eloquent and effective expositor of American nationalism who played an important part during the Middle Period; and unquestionably he came nearer to thinking nationally than did any American statesman of his generation.

He defended the Union against the Nullifiers as decisively in one way as Jackson did in another.

Jackson flourished his sword, while Webster taught American public opinion to consider the Union as the core and the crown of the American political system.

His services in giving the Union a more impressive place in the American political imagination can scarcely be over-estimated.

Had the other Whig leaders joined him in refusing to compromise with the Nullifiers and in strengthening by legislation the Federal government as an expression of an indestructible American national unity, a precedent might have been established which would have increased the difficulty of a subsequent secessionist outbreak.