He believed it to be seriously endangered.

His apprehensions were ridiculed by many who, ten years after Mr.
Webster was in his grave, saw for the first time how real and how terrible were the perils upon which those apprehensions were founded.
When the hour of actual conflict came, every patriot realized that a great magazine of strength for the Union was stored in the teachings of Mr.Webster.

For thirty years preceding the Nullification troubles in South Carolina, the government had been administered on the States'-rights theory, in which the power of the nation was subordinated, and its capacity to subdue the revolt of seceding States was dangerously weakened.

His speech in reply to Hayne in 1830 was like an amendment to the Constitution.

It corrected traditions, changed convictions, revolutionized conclusions.