Daniel Webster was not a forceful man. He was one of the famous compromisers in American history, and the notorious Fugitive Slave Act was his masterpiece.
Unlike Lincoln, Daniel Webster believed slavery was a moral wrong, yet insisted that slaveholding states had the right to keep slaves. His attitude toward abolition was deeply ambiguous.
This successfully offended both North and South. Coupled with Zachary Taylor's death and the scandal involving Millard Fillmore, the Whig Party was now on the verge of collapse.
Daniel Webster advocated raising tariffs to protect domestic industry, yet he opposed expansion and did everything he could to avoid friction with the European powers, or even the nations of the Americas.
Such a man, whose left and right brains seemed locked in mutual combat, had become President of the United States. Even Franz rarely sent a letter of congratulations.
Yet in the eyes of other nations, this was a signal. Combined with the Austrian Empire's earlier decision to let the United States off so easily during the Cuban Crisis, it was hard not to think Austria was courting America.
In fact, Franz had also sent Daniel Webster an invitation, inviting him to Vienna as a guest.
However, this was not a means of splitting the American political scene. Franz merely felt that displaying sufficient strength and sincerity before such a man would spare him a great deal of trouble.
But in the eyes of American politicians, it was ironclad proof that the two sides were in collusion.
On the Cuban side.
De la Concha was dismissed by Ferdinand II, but before long, he was hired by the Austrian Empire as a special adviser on Cuban affairs, with an annual salary of one hundred thousand Florins.
In addition, Franz gave de la Concha the former Governor's Mansion as