THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS III ON THE CLAY COMPROMISE^ assoi Slavery did exist in the States before the adoption of this Constitution, and at that time. Let us, therefore, consider for a moment what was the state of sentiment, North and South, in regard to slavery — in regard to slavery, at the time this Constitution was adopted. A remark- able change has taken place since ; but what did the wise and great men of ail parts of the country think of slavery then? In what estima- 1 otherwise known as "The Seventh of March Speech." Deliv- ered in the United States Senate in support of Clay's compromise resolutions. Abridged. Curtis, the biographer of Webster, admits that this speech met with general disfavor throughout the North. Schurz describes the antislavery men as contemplating " the fall of an archangel." Webster was called " a recreant son of Massa- chusetts," "a fallen star," and "a bankrupt politician gambling for the presidency," while Whittier in one of his poems wrote: " All else is gone; from those gre&t eyes The soul has fled; When faith is lost, when honor dies, The man is dead.
- ' Then pay the reverence of old days
To his dead fame; Walk backward with averted gaze And hide his shame." The calmer judgment of later times has dealt more favorably with Webster's speech. It has even been held that owing to its 64
