Certainly, sir, I am, and ever have been of that opinion. The Destiny of America, Speech at the Dedication o An Address. Webster also tried to assert the importance of New England in the face of . I have but one word more to add. There was no winner or loser in the Webster-Hayne debate. It is the servant of four-and-twenty masters, of different wills and different purposes, and yet bound to obey all. Sir, when the gentleman provokes me to such a conflict, I meet him at the threshold. Sir, the very chief end, the main design, for which the whole Constitution was framed and adopted, was to establish a government that should not be obliged to act through state agency, or depend on state opinion and state discretion. He served as a U.S. senator from 1823 to 1832, and was a leading proponent of the states' rights doctrine. Nullification, Webster maintained, was a political absurdity. These verses recount the first occurrence of slavery. If slavery, as it now exists in this country, be an evil, we of the present day found it ready made to our hands. The gentleman, indeed, argues that slavery, in the abstract, is no evil. I now proceed to show that it is perfectly safe, and will practically have no effect but to keep the federal government within the limits of the Constitution, and prevent those unwarrantable assumptions of power, which cannot fail to impair the rights of the states, and finally destroy the Union itself. . A state will be restrained by a sincere love of the Union. The arena selected for a first impression was the Senate, where the arch-heretic himself presided and guided the onset with his eye. Where in these debates do we see a possible argument in defense of Constitutional secession by the states, later claimed by the Southern Confederacy before, during, and after the Civil War? The War With Mexico: Speech in the United States H What Are the Colored People Doing for Themselves? [was] fixed, forever, the character of the population in the vast regions Northwest of the Ohio, by excluding from them involuntary servitude. God grant that on my vision never may be opened what lies behind. We are ready to make up the issue with the gentleman, as to the influence of slavery on individual and national characteron the prosperity and greatness, either of the United States, or of particular states. sir, this is but the old story. Sir, as to the doctrine that the federal government is the exclusive judge of the extent as well as the limitations of its powers, it seems to be utterly subversive of the sovereignty and independence of the states. . Wilmot Proviso of 1846: Overview & Significance | What was the Wilmot Proviso? But still, throughout American history, several debates have captured the nation's attention in a way that would make even Hollywood jealous. . This absurdity (for it seems no less) arises from a misconception as to the origin of this government and its true character. During his first years in Congress, Webster railed against President James Madison 's war policies, invoking a states' rights argument to oppose a conscription bill that went down to defeat.. Finally, sir, the honorable gentleman says, that the states will only interfere, by their power, to preserve the Constitution. Now, I wish to be informedhowthis state interference is to be put in practice, without violence, bloodshed, and rebellion. I am a Unionist, and in this sense a national Republican. If this is to become one great consolidated government, swallowing up the rights of the states, and the liberties of the citizen, riding and ruling over the plundered ploughman, and beggared yeomanry,[8] the Union will not be worth preserving. They had burst forth from arguments about a decision by Connecticut Senator Samuel Foote. . Create your account. Tariff of Abominations of 1828 | What was the Significance of the Tariff of Abominations? . . Noah grew a vineyard, got drunk on wine and lay naked. He rose, the image of conscious mastery, after the dull preliminary business of the day was dispatched, and with a happy figurative allusion to the tossed mariner, as he called for a reading of the resolution from which the debate had so far drifted, lifted his audience at once to his level. Hayne quotes from the Virginia Resolution (1798), authored by Thomas Jefferson, to protest the Alien and Sedition Acts (1798). Every scheme or contrivance by which rulers are able to procure the command of money by means unknown to, unseen or unfelt by, the people, destroys this security. In this moment in American history, the federal government had relatively little power. . The militia of the state will be called out to sustain the nullifying act. I must now beg to ask, sir, whence is this supposed right of the states derived?where do they find the power to interfere with the laws of the Union? It was about protectionist tariffs.The speeches between Webster and Hayne themselves were not planned. What can I say? Webster's "Second Reply to Hayne" was generally regarded as "the most eloquent speech ever delivered in Congress."[1]. The WebsterHayne debate was a debate in the United States between Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Senator Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina that took place on January 1927, 1830 on the topic of protectionist tariffs. At the time of the debate, Webster was serving his term as Senator of Massachusetts. Allow me to say, as a preliminary remark, that I call this the South Carolina doctrine, only because the gentleman himself has so denominated it. We, sir, who oppose the Carolina doctrine, do not deny that the people may, if they choose, throw off any government, when it becomes oppressive and intolerable, and erect a better in its stead. . I deem far otherwise of the Union of the states; and so did the Framers of the Constitution themselves. Rather, the debate eloquently captured the ideas and ideals of Northern and Southern representatives of the time, highlighting and summarizing the major issues of governance of the era. . . It is, sir, the peoples Constitution, the peoples government; made for the people; made by the people; and answerable to the people. This episode was used in nineteenth century America as a Biblical justification for slavery. . Their own power over their own instrument remains. The debaters were Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Senator Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina. Sir, the opinion which the honorable gentleman maintains, is a notion, founded in a total misapprehension, in my judgment, of the origin of this government, and of the foundation on which it stands. Well, you're not alone. This is the sense in which the Framers of the Constitution use the word consolidation; and in which sense I adopt and cherish it. . foote wanted to stop surveying lands until they could sell the ones already looked at Sir, we narrow-minded people of New England do not reason thus. I wish to see no new powers drawn to the general government; but I confess I rejoice in whatever tends to strengthen the bond that unites us, and encourages the hope that our Union may be perpetual. Enveloping all of these changes was an ever-growing tension over the economy, as southern states firmly defended slavery and northern states advocated for a more industrial, slave-free market. . Go to these cities now, and ask the question. An equally. Who, then, Mr. President, are the true friends of the Union? Let us look at his probablemodus operandi. The 1830 Webster-Hayne debate centered around the South Carolina nullification crisis of the late 1820s, but historians have largely ignored the sectional interests underpinning Webster's argument on behalf of Unionism and a transcendent nationalism. The gentleman has made an eloquent appeal to our hearts in favor of union. The idea of a strong federal government The ability of the people to revolt against an unfair government The theory that the states' may vote against unfair laws The role of the president in commanding the government 2 See answers Advertisement holesstanham Answer: I admit that there is an ultimate violent remedy, above the Constitution, and in defiance of the Constitution, which may be resorted to, when a revolution is to be justified. We all know that civil institutions are established for the public benefit, and that when they cease to answer the ends of their existence, they may be changed. The Northwest Ordinance. Is it the creature of the state legislatures, or the creature of the people? . He entered the Senate on that memorable day with a slow and stately step and took his seat as though unconscious of the loud buzz of expectant interest with which the crowded auditory greeted his appearance. . These irreconcilable views of national supremacy and state sovereignty framed the constitutional struggle that led to Civil War thirty years later. Will it promote the welfare of the United States to have at our disposal a permanent treasury, not drawn from the pockets of the people, but to be derived from a source independent of them? Francis O. J. Smith to Secretary of State Dan Special Message to the House of Representatives, Special Message to Congress on Mexican Relations. They will also better understand the debate's political context. This important consideration, seriously and deeply impressed on our minds, led each state in the Convention to be less rigid, on points of inferior magnitude, than might have been otherwise expected.. lessons in math, English, science, history, and more. . While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratifying prospects spread out before us, for us and our children. . In this regard, Webster anticipated an argument that Abraham Lincoln made in his First Inaugural Address (1861). Can any man believe, sir, that, if twenty-three millions per annum was now levied by direct taxation, or by an apportionment of the same among the states, instead of being raised by an indirect tax, of the severe effect of which few are aware, that the waste and extravagance, the unauthorized imposition of duties, and appropriations of money for unconstitutional objects, would have been tolerated for a single year? If I had, sir, the powers of a magician, and could, by a wave of my hand, convert this capital into gold for such a purpose, I would not do it. This was the tenor of Webster's speech, and nobly did the country respond to it. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. This, sir, is General Washingtons consolidation. Then he began his speech, his words flowing on so completely at command that a fellow senator who heard him likened his elocution to the steady flow of molten gold. . . Webster rose the next day in his seat to make his reply. They tell us, in the letter submitting the Constitution to the consideration of the country, that, in all our deliberations on this subject, we kept steadily in our view that which appears to us the greatest interest of every true Americanthe consolidation of our Unionin which is involved our prosperity, felicity, safety; perhaps our national existence. If the gentleman provokes the war, he shall have war. South Carolinas Declaration of the Causes of Sece Distribution of the Slave Population by State. It moves vast bodies, and gives to them one and the same direction. . "The most eloquent speech ever delivered in Congress" may have been Webster's 1830 "Second Reply to Hayne", a South Carolina Senator who had echoed John C. Calhoun's case for state's rights.. He remained a Southern Unionist through his long public career and a good type of the growing class of statesman devoted to slave interests who loved the Union as it was and doted upon its compromises. He was a lawyer turned congressional representative who eventually worked his way to the office of U.S. Secretary of State. Mr. Webster arose, and, in conclusion, said: A few words, Mr. President, on this constitutional argument, which the honorable gentleman has labored to reconstruct. We who come here, as agents and representatives of these narrow-minded and selfish men of New England, consider ourselves as bound to regard, with equal eye, the good of the whole, in whatever is within our power of legislation. When the honorable member rose, in his first speech, I paid him the respect of attentive listening; and when he sat down, though surprised, and I must say even astonished, at some of his opinions, nothing was farther from my intention than to commence any personal warfare: and through the whole of the few remarks I made in answer, I avoided, studiously and carefully, everything which I thought possible to be construed into disrespect. . Even Benton, whose connection with the debate made him at first belittle these grand utterances, soon felt the danger and repudiated the company of the nullifiers. The United States' democratic process was evolving and its leaders were putting the newly ratified Constitution into practice. Address to the Slaves of the United States. . In 1830, the federal government collected few taxes and had two primary sources of revenue. We look upon the states, not as separated, but as united. But his standpoint was purely local and sectional. The following states came from the territory north and west of the Ohio river: Ohio (1803), Indiana (1816), Illinois (1818), Michigan (1837), Wisconsin (1848) and Minnesota (1858). Webster's articulation of the concept of the Union went on to shape American attitudes about the federal government. The honorable member himself is not, I trust, and can never be, one of these. I love a good debate. He tells us, we have heard much, of late, about consolidation; that it is the rallying word for all who are endeavoring to weaken the Union by adding to the power of the states. But consolidation, says the gentleman, was the very object for which the Union was formed; and in support of that opinion, he read a passage from the address of the president of the Convention[3] to Congress (which he assumes to be authority on his side of the question.) Shedding weak tears over sufferings which had existence only in their own sickly imaginations, these friends of humanity set themselves systematically to work to seduce the slaves of the South from their masters. The Webster-Hayne debate was a series of spontaneous speeches presented to the United States Senate by senators Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina. The United States, under the Constitution and federal government, was a single, unified nation, not a coalition of sovereign states. Sir, we will not stop to inquire whether the black man, as some philosophers have contended, is of an inferior race, nor whether his color and condition are the effects of a curse inflicted for the offences of his ancestors. On this subject, as in all others, we ask nothing of our Northern brethren but to let us alone; leave us to the undisturbed management of our domestic concerns, and the direction of our own industry, and we will ask no more. . Webster spoke in favor of the proposed pause of federal surveyance of western land, representing the North's interest in selling the western land, which had already been surveyed. . Our notion of things is entirely different. . In January 1830, a debate on the nature of sovereignty in the American federal union occurred in the United States Senate between Senators Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Robert Hayne of South Carolina. Webster believed that the Constitution should be viewed as a binding document between the United States rather than an agreement between sovereign states. . One of the most storied match-ups in Senate history, the 1830 Webster-Hayne debate began with a beef between Northeast states and Western states over a plan to restrict . . But that was found insufficient, and inadequate to the public exigencies. . Inflamed and mortified at this repulse, Hayne soon returned to the assault, primed with a two-day speech, which at great length vaunted the patriotism of South Carolina and bitterly attacked New England, dwelling particularly upon her conduct during the late war. President John Quincy Adams and the Election of 1824. Hayne quotes from Thomas Jefferson to William Branch Giles, December 26, 1825, https://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/letter-to-william-branch-giles/?_sft_document_author=thomas-jefferson. Connecticut's proposal was an attempt to slow the growth of the nation, control westward expansion, and bolster the federal government's revenue. Eloquence threw open the portals of eternal day. Sir, when arraigned before the bar of public opinion, on this charge of slavery, we can stand up with conscious rectitude, plead not guilty, and put ourselves upon God and our country. Hayne argued that the sovereign and independent states had created the Union to promote their particular interests. Most are forgettable, to put it charitably. If the federal government, in all or any of its departments, are to prescribe the limits of its own authority; and the states are bound to submit to the decision, and are not to be allowed to examine and decide for themselves, when the barriers of the Constitution shall be overleaped, this is practically a government without limitation of powers; the states are at once reduced to mere petty corporations, and the people are entirely at your mercy. What followed, the Webster Hayne debate, was one of the most famous exchanges in Senate history. At the foundation of the constitution of these new Northwestern states, . New England, the Union, and the Constitution in its integrity, all were triumphantly vindicated. For all this, there was not the slightest foundation, in anything said or intimated by me. Crittenden Compromise Plan & Reception | What was the Crittenden Compromise? The taxes paid by foreign nations to export American cotton, for example, generated lots of money for the government. It has been said that Hayne was Calhoun's sword and buckler and that he returned to the contest refreshed each morning by nightly communions with the Vice-President, drawing auxiliary supplies from the well-stored arsenal of his powerful and subtle mind. It develops the gentlemans whole political system; and its answer expounds mine. . If I could, by a mere act of my will, put at the disposal of the federal government any amount of treasure which I might think proper to name, I should limit the amount to the means necessary for the legitimate purposes of the government. . The excited crowd which had packed the Senate chamber, filling every seat on the floor and in the galleries, and all the available standing room, dispersed after the orator's last grand apostrophe had died away in the air, with national pride throbbing at the heart. Be this as it may, Hayne was a ready and copious orator, a highly-educated lawyer, a man of varied accomplishments, shining as a writer, speaker, and counselor, equally qualified to draw up a bill or to advocate it, quick to memories, well fortified by wealth and marriage connections, dignified, never vulgar nor unmindful of the feelings of those with whom he mingled, Hayne moved in an atmosphere where lofty and chivalrous honor was the ruling sentiment. I said, only, that it was highly wise and useful in legislating for the northwestern country, while it was yet a wilderness, to prohibit the introduction of slaves: and added, that I presumed, in the neighboring state of Kentucky, there was no reflecting and intelligent gentleman, who would doubt, that if the same prohibition had been extended, at the same early period, over that commonwealth, her strength and population would, at this day, have been far greater than they are. I understand him to maintain, that the ultimate power of judging of the constitutional extent of its own authority, is not lodged exclusively in the general government, or any branch of it; but that, on the contrary, the states may lawfully decide for themselves, and each state for itself, whether, in a given case, the act of the general government transcends its power. And what has been the consequence? . Compare And Contrast The Tension Between North And South. So soon as the cessions were obtained, it became necessary to make provision for the government and disposition of the territory . When the gentleman says the Constitution is a compact between the states, he uses language exactly applicable to the old Confederation. This statement, though strong, is no stronger than the strictest truth will warrant. Daniel Webster, in a dramatic speech, showed the danger of the states' rights doctrine, which permitted each State to decide for itself which laws were unconstitutional, claiming it would lead to civil war. This leads us to inquire into the origin of this government, and the source of its power. . This feeling, always carefully kept alive, and maintained at too intense a heat to admit discrimination or reflection, is a lever of great power in our political machine. The action, the drama, the suspensewho needs the movies? He must say to his followers [members of the state militia], defend yourselves with your bayonets; and this is warcivil war. The Webster-Hayne debate, which again was just one section of this greater discussion in the Senate, is traditionally considered to have begun when South Carolina senator Robert Y. Hayne stood to argue against Connecticut's proposal, accusing the northeastern states of trying to stall development of the West so that southern agricultural interests couldn't expand. . we find the most opposite and irreconcilable opinions between the two parties which I have before described. Address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural So "The Whole Affair Seems the Work of a Madman", John Brown and the Principle of Nonresistance. Even more pointedly, his speech reflected a decade of arguments from other Massachusetts conservatives who argued against supposed threats to New England's social order.[2]. President Andrew Jackson had just been elected, most of the states got rid of property requirements for voting, and an entire new era of democracy was being born. He must cut it with his sword. The Webster-Hayne debates began over one issue but quickly switched to another. Whose agent is it? 1. emigration the movement of people from one place to another 2. immigration a situation in which resources are being used up at a faster rate than they can be replenished 3. migration the leaving of one's homeland to settle in a new place 4. overpopulation the movement of people to a new country 5. sustainable development a situation in which the birth rate is not sufficient to replace the . Gloomy and downcast of late, Massachusetts men walked the avenue as though the fife and drum were before them. An error occurred trying to load this video. There is not, and never has been, a disposition in the North to interfere with these interests of the South. Between January and May 1830, twenty-one of the forty-eight senators delivered a staggering sixty-five speeches on the nature of the Union. More specifically, some of the issues facing Congress during this period included: Robert Y. Hayne served as Senator of South Carolina from 1823 to 1832. Plus, get practice tests, quizzes, and personalized coaching to help you Daniel webster, in a dramatic speech, showed the. Speech on the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise. First, New England was vindicated. So they could finish selling the lands already surveyed. They significantly declare, that it is time to calculate the value of the Union; and their aim seems to be to enumerate, and to magnify all the evils, real and imaginary, which the government under the Union produces. . And now, Mr. President, let me run the honorable gentlemans doctrine a little into its practical application. . An equally talented orator, Webster rose as the advocate of the North in the debate with his captivating reply to Hayne's initial argument. flashcard sets. On that system, Ohio and Carolina are different governments, and different countries, connected here, it is true, by some slight and ill-defined bond of union, but, in all main respects, separate and diverse. The measures of the federal government have, it is true, prostrated her interests, and will soon involve the whole South in irretrievable ruin. . . 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They undertook to form a general government, which should stand on a new basisnot a confederacy, not a league, not a compact between states, but a Constitution; a popular government, founded in popular election, directly responsible to the people themselves, and divided into branches, with prescribed limits of power, and prescribed duties. Webster pursued his objective through a rhetorical strategy that ignored Benton, the principal opponent of New England sectionalism, and that provoked Hayne into an exposition and defense of what became the South Carolina doctrine of nullification.
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