Webster's speech aroused the latent spirit of patriotism. He describes fully that old state of things then existing. Hayne maintained that the states retained the authority to nullify federal law, Webster that federal law expressed the will of the American people and could not be nullified by a minority of the people in a state. The action, the drama, the suspensewho needs the movies? Webster denied it and, attempting to draw Hayne into a direct confrontation, disparaged slavery and attacked the constitutional scruples of southern nullifiers and their apparent willingness to calculate the Union's value in monetary terms. . 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. I understand the gentleman to maintain, that, without revolution, without civil commotion, without rebellion, a remedy for supposed abuse and transgression of the powers of the general government lies in a direct appeal to the interference of the state governments. And here it will be necessary to go back to the origin of the federal government. Robert Young Hayne spent more than two decades in elected offices, including mayor of Charleston, member of South Carolina's legislature, attorney general, and then governor of the state. There was no winner or loser in the Webster-Hayne debate. 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. The theory that the states' may vote against unfair laws. . . This is a delicate and sensitive point, in southern feeling; and of late years it has always been touched, and generally with effect, whenever the object has been to unite the whole South against northern men, or northern measures. It is one from which we are not disposed to shrink, in whatever form or under whatever circumstances it may be pressed upon us. Consolidation, like the tariff, grates upon his ear. It is only by a strict adherence to the limitations imposed by the Constitution on the federal government, that this system works well, and can answer the great ends for which it was instituted. Representatives of the northern states were concerned by the rapid growth of the nation; just 27 years earlier, the Louisiana Purchase had nearly doubled the size of the nation, and the newly elected President Andrew Jackson was hungry for more territory. . 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. . It is not the creature of state Legislatures; nay, more, if the whole truth must be told, the people brought it into existence, established it, and have hitherto supported it, for the very purpose, amongst others, of imposing certain salutary restraints on state sovereignties. Record of the Organization and Proceedings of The Massachusetts Lawmakers Investigate Working Condit State (Colonial) Legislatures>Massachusetts State Legislature. I would strengthen the ties that hold us together. Excerpts from Ratification Documents of Virginia a Ratifying Conventions>New York Ratifying Convention. Address to the People of the United States, by the What are the main points of difference between Webster and Hayne, especially on the question of the nature of the Union and the Constitution? . But, sir, we will pass over all this. Expert Answers. His speech was indeed a powerful one of its eloquence and personality. Well, you're not alone. But it was the honor of a caste; and the struggling bread-winners of society, the great commonalty, he little studied or understood. . The heated speeches were unplanned and stemmed from the debate over a resolution by Connecticut Senator Samuel A. Ostend Manifesto of 1854 Overview & Purpose | What was the Ostend Manifesto? . The measures of the federal government have, it is true, prostrated her interests, and will soon involve the whole South in irretrievable ruin. . Most assuredly, I need not say I differ with him, altogether and most widely, on that point. The United States, under the Constitution and federal government, was a single, unified nation, not a coalition of sovereign states. 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. . But, the simple expression of this sentiment has led the gentleman, not only into a labored defense of slavery, in the abstract, and on principle, but, also, into a warm accusation against me, as having attacked the system of domestic slavery, now existing in the Southern states. This leads, sir, to the real and wide difference, in political opinion, between the honorable gentleman and myself. It was about protectionist tariffs.The speeches between Webster and Hayne themselves were not planned. After his term as a senator, he served as the Governor of South Carolina. The discussion took a wide range, going back to topics that had agitated the country before the Constitution was formed. . Sir, when the gentleman provokes me to such a conflict, I meet him at the threshold. . Hayne began the debate by speaking out against a proposal by the northern states which suggested that the federal government should stop its surveyance of land west of the Mississippi and shift its focus to selling the land it had already surveyed. succeed. Congress could only recommendtheir acts were not of binding force, till the states had adopted and sanctioned them. 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. . . Religion and the Pure Principles of Morality: The American Anti-Slavery Society, Declaration of Sent Constitution of the American Anti-Slavery Society, Appeal to the Christian Women of the South, Protest in Illinois Legislature on Slavery. It was a speech delivered before a crowded auditory, and loud were the Southern exultations that he was more than a match for Webster. Read reviews from world's largest community for readers. [O]pinions were expressed yesterday on the general subject of the public lands, and on some other subjects, by the gentleman from South Carolina [Senator Robert Hayne], so widely different from my own, that I am not willing to let the occasion pass without some reply. The United States' democratic process was evolving and its leaders were putting the newly ratified Constitution into practice. we find the most opposite and irreconcilable opinions between the two parties which I have before described. The main issue of the Webster-Hayne Debate was the nature of the country that had been created by the Constitution. Hayne launched his confident javelin at the New England States. In coming to the consideration of the next great question, what ought to be the future policy of the government in relation to the public lands? Let us look at his probablemodus operandi. The dominant historical opinion of the famous debate between Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Robert Young Hayne of South Carolina which took place in the United States Senate in 1830 has long been that Webster defeated Hayne both as an orator and a statesman. Nor shall I stop there. The Destiny of America, Speech at the Dedication o An Address. To them, the more money the central government made, the stronger it became and the more it took rights away from the states to govern themselves. Some of Webster's personal friends had felt nervous over what appeared to them too hasty a period for preparation. . Webster's "Second Reply to Hayne" was generally regarded as "the most eloquent speech ever delivered in Congress."[1]. Let us look at the historical facts. The taxes paid by foreign nations to export American cotton, for example, generated lots of money for the government. This episode was used in nineteenth century America as a Biblical justification for slavery. Sir, if we are, then vain will be our attempt to maintain the Constitution under which we sit. . . Its like a teacher waved a magic wand and did the work for me. - Women's Rights Facts & Significance, Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points: Definition, Speech & Summary, Fireside Chats: Definition & Significance, JFK's New Frontier: Definition, Speech & Program. This was the man to fire an aristocracy of fellow citizens ready to arm when their interests were in danger, and upon him, it devolved to advance the cause of South Carolina, break down the tariff, and fascinate the Union with the new rattlesnake theories. They will also better understand the debate's political context. . Webster scoffed at the idea of consolidation, labeling it "that perpetual cry, both of terror and delusion." What Hayne and his supporters actually meant to do, Webster claimed, was to resist those means that might strengthen the bonds of common interest. 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. Nor those other words of delusion and folly,liberty first, and union afterwardsbut everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole Heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true American heartliberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable! But until they shall alter it, it must stand as their will, and is equally binding on the general government and on the states. . What a commentary on the wisdom, justice, and humanity, of the Southern slave owner is presented by the example of certain benevolent associations and charitable individuals elsewhere. Francis O. J. Smith to Secretary of State Dan Special Message to the House of Representatives, Special Message to Congress on Mexican Relations. . . 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. 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. I'm imagining that your answer is probably 'I do.' 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]. I will yield to no gentleman here in sincere attachment to the Union,but it is a Union founded on the Constitution, and not such a Union as that gentleman would give us, that is dear to my heart. 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. Now, I wish to be informedhowthis state interference is to be put in practice, without violence, bloodshed, and rebellion. Speech of Senator Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina, January 27, 1830. . Who, then, Mr. President, are the true friends of the Union? . . . The Union to be preserved, while it suits local and temporary purposes to preserve it; and to be sundered whenever it shall be found to thwart such purposes. Now, have they given away that right, or agreed to limit or restrict it in any respect? The Virginia Resolution asserted that when the federal government undertook the deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of powers not granted to it in the constitution, states had the right and duty to interpose their authority to prevent this evil. It is observable enough, that the doctrine for which the honorable gentleman contends, leads him to the necessity of maintaining, not only that this general government is the creature of the states, but that it is the creature of each of the states severally; so that each may assert the power, for itself, of determining whether it acts within the limits of its authority. It was a great and salutary measure of prevention. Foot calling for the temporary suspension of further land surveying until land already on the market was sold (to effectively stop the introduction of new lands onto the market). . The 1830 WebsterHayne 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. It would enable Congress and the Executive to exercise a control over states, as well as over great interests in the country, nay, even over corporations and individualsutterly destructive of the purity, and fatal to the duration of our institutions. . Who doesn't? We do not impose geographical limits to our patriotic feeling or regard; we do not follow rivers and mountains, and lines of latitude, to find boundaries, beyond which public improvements do not benefit us. But his reply was gathered from the choicest arguments and the most decadent thoughts that had long floated through his brain while this crisis was gathering; and bringing these materials together in a lucid and compact shape, he calmly composed and delivered before another crowded and breathless auditory a speech full of burning passages, which will live as long as the American Union, and the grandest effort of his life.
Losing Fat On One Side Of Face, Articles W