Mr. G. M. Pinckney, the most sympathetic of all Calhoun’s biographers, thus sums up the situation in 1850: “If Mr. Calhoun had lived a little longer, it seems highly probable that history would have been different. He certainly would have forced matters to head at this session, and at this time, had the South taken definite action it seems probable that there was left genuine love enough for the Union on all sides to save it. To delay ten years was necessarily fatal. Every moment lost but added fuel to the kindling flame of sectional hatred. Mr. Calhoun’s death was a stunning blow. The South fell into confusion. Delay resulted and natural causes taking their course produced natural results.”[147] Professor Paxson’s view of the situation for the same time seems somewhat in accord with the above: “Had the secession movement of 1850 grown into war, none of these factors (i. e. railroads) would have been effective, and success for separation could hardly have been questioned. But in 1860 secession came too late. The Northwest was crossed and recrossed by an intricate entanglement of tracks.”[148] Such a coincidence of view in such widely separated quarters is entitled to the highest respect; but it is not the view entertained by the writer of this work, to whom 1850 seems to have been too late to affect the situation favorably for secession, even if Calhoun had survived; for, judged by his career, it is exceedingly doubtful if he would have forced matters to a head. It would not have been in accord with his past. He was a great parliamentarian and an even greater debater; but all through his career his hand had been forced. He was never quite ready for the situation as it developed. It may have been greatly to his credit and consistent with his views; but he always consulted and pondered. His political methods so disclose him. McDuffie forced his hand with regard to Nullification. Clay forced his hand with regard to the tariff of 1833. For Rhett’s resolution of 1838, he was not ready, although that was the logical time and the logical course.