What ruined the pre-civil war politician Daniel Webster? Early on he argued that humility before God and honoring justice would require men to oppose slavery. But decades of compromised political action reduced him to an embarrassment of a man, who by moral relativism now claimed that slavery was perhaps just a difference of opinion. In his 1820 Plymouth Oration, this cousin of lexicographer Noah, Webster rightly declared that “neither the fear of God nor the fear of man exercises a control” in the hearts of those wishing to extend slavery. He called upon Americans to “cooperate with the laws of man, and the justice of Heaven” through efforts “to extirpate and destroy” the wicked institution. Webster's fiery orations inspired many in the North to take strong stances for the elimination of slavery.

Thirty years later, he was less resolute. It seemed abolition was a distant hope and that slavery was firmly ingrained into American society. By the time a junior Illinois Senator named Stephen Douglas proposed an omnibus slavery bill, Webster was ready to join what became known as the Compromise of 1850.

In a speech that he considered one of the most important in his career, Webster criticized abolitionists as extremists who, by agitating Southerners, created tensions that threatened the Union. Unlike his strong denunciations years before of slavery as a moral evil, the Senator now portrayed disagreements only as a “difference of opinion” and questioned even man's ability to know which side was right with any kind of moral certainty. He claimed: