This was the tenor of Webster's speech, and nobly did the country respond to it. TEST: THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT Flashcards | Quizlet 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. Get unlimited access to over 88,000 lessons. This government, sir, is the independent offspring of the popular will. Robert Young Hayne | American politician | Britannica 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. . The real significance of this debate was in each man's interpretation of the United States Constitution. Then, in January of 1830, a senator from Connecticut introduced a proposal to the Senate stating that the federal government should stop surveying the lands west of the Mississippi River. Battle of Fort Sumter in the Civil War | Who Won the Battle of Fort Sumter? . . 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 . . What was going on? . The Webster-Hayne Debate: Defining Nationhood in the Early American 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. . All regulated governments, all free governments, have been broken up by similar disinterested and well-disposed interference! 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. But I take leave of the subject. . Available in hard copy and for download. What started as a debate over the Tariff of Abominations soon morphed into debates over state and federal sovereignty and liberty and disunion. Compare And Contrast The Tension Between North And South In fact, Webster's definition of the Constitution as for the People, by the People, and answerable to the People would go on to form one of the most enduring ideas about American democracy. It is the common pretense. 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. We could not send them back to the shores from whence their fathers had been taken; their numbers forbade the thought, even if we did not know that their condition here is infinitely preferable to what it possibly could be among the barren sands and savage tribes of Africa; and it was wholly irreconcilable with all our notions of humanity to tear asunder the tender ties which they had formed among us, to gratify the feelings of a false philanthropy. Besides that, however, the federal government was still figuring out its role in American society. God grant that, in my day, at least, that curtain may not rise. . We see its consequences at this moment, and we shall never cease to see them, perhaps, while the Ohio shall flow. To all this, sir, I was disposed most cordially to respond. I deem far otherwise of the Union of the states; and so did the Framers of the Constitution themselves. Webster argued that the American people had created the Union to promote the good of the whole. He must say to his followers [members of the state militia], defend yourselves with your bayonets; and this is warcivil war. . The arena selected for a first impression was the Senate, where the arch-heretic himself presided and guided the onset with his eye. Competing Conceptions of Union and Ordered Liberty in 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? . A speech by Louisiana Senator Edward Livingston, however, neatly explains how American nationhood encompasses elements of both Webster and Hayne's ideas. An undefinable dread now went abroad that men were planning against the peace of the nation, that the Union was in danger; and citizens looked more closely after its safety and welfare. Sir, it is because South Carolina loves the Union, and would preserve it forever, that she is opposing now, while there is hope, those usurpations of the federal government, which, once established, will, sooner or later, tear this Union into fragments. Webster also tried to assert the importance of New England in the face of . The taxes paid by foreign nations to export American cotton, for example, generated lots of money for the government. They attack nobody, and menace nobody. Well, it's important to remember that the nation was still young and much different than what we think of today. The purpose of the Constitution was to permit cooperation between states under a shared political standard, but that meant that any growth in a federal government threatened the sovereignty of the states. She has worked as a university writing consultant for over three years. 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. Hayne was a great orator, filled with fiery passion and eloquent prose. No doubt can exist, that, before the states entered into the compact, they possessed the right to the fullest extent, of determining the limits of their own powersit is incident to all sovereignty. The people read Webster's speech and marked him as the champion henceforth against all assaults upon the Constitution. Sir, I will not stop at the border; I will carry the war into the enemys territory, and not consent to lay down my arms, until I shall have obtained indemnity for the past, and security for the future.[4] It is with unfeigned reluctance that I enter upon the performance of this part of my duty. I am opposed, therefore, in any shape, to all unnecessary extension of the powers, or the influence of the Legislature or Executive of the Union over the states, or the people of the states; and, most of all, I am opposed to those partial distributions of favors, whether by legislation or appropriation, which has a direct and powerful tendency to spread corruption through the land; to create an abject spirit of dependence; to sow the seeds of dissolution; to produce jealousy among the different portions of the Union, and finally to sap the very foundations of the government itself. . . . . Web hardcover $30.00 paperback $17.00 kindle nook book ibook. Hayne quotes from the Virginia Resolution (1798), authored by Thomas Jefferson, to protest the Alien and Sedition Acts (1798). We love to dwell on that union, and on the mutual happiness which it has so much promoted, and the common renown which it has so greatly contributed to acquire. At the time of the debate, Webster was serving his term as Senator of Massachusetts. . I understand him to maintain this right, as a right existing under the Constitution; not as a right to overthrow it, on the ground of extreme necessity, such as would justify violent revolution. Webster's argument that the constitution should stand as a powerful uniting force between the states rather than a treaty between sovereign states held as a key concept in America's ideas about the federal government. He must cut it with his sword. 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? Webster stood in favor of Connecticut's proposal that the federal government should stop surveying western land and sell the land it had already surveyed to boost it's revenue and strengthen it's authority. Webster-Hayne Debate by Stefan M. Brooks 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? In The Webster-Hayne Debate, Christopher Childers examines the context of the debate between Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and his Senate colleague Robert S. Hayne of South Carolina in January 1830 . . The great debate, which culminated in Hayne's encounter with Webster, came about in a somewhat casual way. Sir, I should fear the rebuke of no intelligent gentleman of Kentucky, were I to ask whether, if such an ordinance could have been applied to his own state, while it yet was a wilderness, and before Boone had passed the gap of the Alleghany, he does not suppose it would have contributed to the ultimate greatness of that commonwealth? Finding our lot cast among a people, whom God had manifestly committed to our care, we did not sit down to speculate on abstract questions of theoretical liberty. . . Speech of Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, January 20, 1830. Eloquence threw open the portals of eternal day. The object of the Framers of the Constitution, as disclosed in that address, was not the consolidation of the government, but the consolidation of the Union. It was not to draw power from the states, in order to transfer it to a great national government, but, in the language of the Constitution itself, to form a more perfect union; and by what means? . . The Webster-Hayne debate was a series of unplanned speeches in the Senate between January 19th and 27th of 1830 between Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Senator Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina. On that system, Carolina has no more interest in a canal in Ohio than in Mexico. 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. Webster replied to his speech the next day and left not a shred of the charge, baseless as it was. When the gentleman says the Constitution is a compact between the states, he uses language exactly applicable to the old Confederation. Most assuredly, I need not say I differ with him, altogether and most widely, on that point. . 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. The measures of the federal government have, it is true, prostrated her interests, and will soon involve the whole South in irretrievable ruin. Competing Conceptions of Union and Ordered Liberty in The Webster-Hayne 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. Record of the Organization and Proceedings of The Massachusetts Lawmakers Investigate Working Condit State (Colonial) Legislatures>Massachusetts State Legislature. But the feeling is without all adequate cause, and the suspicion which exists wholly groundless. But, sir, the task has been forced upon me, and I proceed right onward to the performance of my duty; be the consequences what they may, the responsibility is with those who have imposed upon me this necessity. He accused them of a desire to check the growth of the West in the interests of protection.

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