This estimate of Mr. Lincoln had already been anticipated by that of
Mr. Webster who, in his speech of March 7th, 1850, in the United
States Senate made a special reference to the disastrous influence
exerted by the Abolitionists upon the cause of emancipation in
Virginia.
"Public opinion," he said, "which in Virginia had begun to be
exhibited against slavery and was opening out for the discussion of
the question, drew back and shut itself up in its castle. I would
like to know whether anybody in Virginia can now talk openly as Mr.
Randolph, Governor McDowell and others talked in 1832, and sent
their remarks to the press? We all know the facts and we all know
the cause; and everything that these agitating people have done has
been not to enlarge but to restrain, not to set free, but to bind
the faster the slave population of the South."[72]