This speech is singular among the speeches of Mr. Webster, as it
exhibits him as a "Strict-Constructionist," and as a master of that
peculiar kind of deductive reasoning which is commonly considered the
special distinction of his great antagonist, Mr. Calhoun. In subtilty
and refinement of argument it is fully the match of most of Mr.
Calhoun's elaborate disquisitions. At the time of its delivery it
excited the almost savage ire of John Quincy Adams, as will be seen by
reference to the latter's "Diary." It was in connection with this speech
that Mr. Adams speaks of "the rotten heart of Daniel Webster." How such
a purely intellectual feat as this, one so entirely passionless and
impersonal, should be referred to rottenness of heart, is one of the
unexplained mysteries of the operations of Mr. Adams's understanding,
when that understanding was misled by personal antipathy.
[Footnote 1: Mr. Madison. See the discussion in Gales and Seaton's
Debates in Congress, Vol. I. p. 473 _et seq._]