At the outset he severely and sternly rebukes two terms of Calhoun's, one being the use of _constitutional compact_ for _constitution_, and the other being _the accession of a State to the constitution_. These terms are utterly impermissible, and are to be scouted. If we accept them, _we must acquiesce in the monstrous conclusions which the author of the resolutions draws from them_. That is really what Webster says. Note the confident positiveness of his pertinent language, some of which we subjoin: "It is easy, quite easy, to see why the honorable gentleman has used it [constitutional compact] in these resolutions. He cannot open the book, and look upon our written frame of government, without seeing that it is called a _constitution_. This may well be appalling to him. It threatens his whole doctrine of compact, and its darling derivatives, nullification and secession, with instant confutation. Because, if he admits our instrument of government to be a _constitution_, then, for that very reason, it is not a compact between sovereigns; a constitution of government and a compact between sovereign powers being things essentially unlike in their very natures, and incapable of ever being the same. We know no more of a constitutional compact between sovereign powers than we know of a _constitutional_ indenture of copartnership, a _constitutional_ bill of exchange. But we know what the _constitution_ is; we know what the bond of our union and the security of our liberties is; and we mean to maintain and to defend it, in its plain sense and unsophisticated meaning." This is enough of the exorcism of that malignant spirit, constitutional compact. Now as to the other malignant spirit. Webster says: "The first resolution declares that the people of the several States '_acceded_' to the constitution, or to the constitutional compact, as it is called. This word 'accede,' not found either in the constitution itself, or in the ratification of it by any one of the States, has been chosen for use here, doubtless, not without a well-considered purpose.