This debate exposed the critically different understandings of the nature of the American. 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. . The honorable gentleman from Massachusetts [Senator Daniel Webster] has gone out of his way to pass a high eulogium on the state of Ohio. "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.. Hayne, South Carolina's foremost Senator, was the chosen champion; and the cause of his State, both in its right and wrong sides, could have found no abler exponent while [Vice President] Calhoun's official station kept him from the floor. They cherish no deep and fixed regard for it, flowing from a thorough conviction of its absolute and vital necessity to our welfare. It was not a Union to be torn up without bloodshed; for nerves and arteries were interwoven with its roots and tendrils, sustaining the lives and interests of twelve million inhabitants. 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. Who doesn't? Well, it's important to remember that the nation was still young and much different than what we think of today. 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. The Webster-Hayne Debate - 1830 - YouTube We had no other general government. The taxes paid by foreign nations to export American cotton, for example, generated lots of money for the government. This was the tenor of Webster's speech, and nobly did the country respond to it. Hayne's First Speech (January 19, 1830) Webster's First Reply to Hayne (January 20, 1830) Hayne's Second Speech (January 21, 1830) Webster's Second Reply to Hayne (January 26-27, 1830) This page was last edited on 13 June 2021, at . 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). He joined Hayne in using this opportunity to try to detach the West from the East, and restore the old cooperation of the West and the South against New England. 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. It was a speech delivered before a crowded auditory, and loud were the Southern exultations that he was more than a match for Webster. The people read Webster's speech and marked him as the champion henceforth against all assaults upon the Constitution. Hayne's few but zealous partizans shielded him still, and South Carolina spoke with pride of him. . Several state governments or courts, some in the north, had espoused the idea of nullification prior to 1828. For the next several days, the men traded speeches which contemporaries of the time described as the greatest orations ever delivered in the Senate. 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. . I would definitely recommend Study.com to my colleagues. The Significance of the Frontier in American Histo South Carolinas Ordinance of Nullification. . Sir, I may be singularperhaps I stand alone here in the opinion, but it is one I have long entertained, that one of the greatest safeguards of liberty is a jealous watchfulness on the part of the people, over the collection and expenditure of the public moneya watchfulness that can only be secured where the money is drawn by taxation directly from the pockets of the people. . He must cut it with his sword. While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratifying prospects spread out before us, for us and our children. A four-speech debate between Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Robert Hayne of South Carolina, in January 1830. 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. 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? . Lincoln-Douglas Debates History & Significance | What Was the Lincoln-Douglas Debate? 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. . 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. 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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. All of these ideas, however, are only parts of the main point. . Thirty years before the Civil War broke out, disunion appeared to be on the horizon with the Nullification Crisis. Robert Young Hayne | American politician | Britannica . . That led into a debate on the economy, in which Webster attacked the institution of slavery and Hayne labeled the policy of protectionist tariffs as the consolidation of a strong central government, which he called the greatest of evils. The debate itself, a nine-day long unplanned exchange between Senators Robert Y. Hayne and Daniel Webster, directly addressed the methods by which the federal government was generating revenue, namely through protective tariffs and the selling of federal lands in the newly acquired western territories. Webster believed that the Constitution should be viewed as a binding document between the United States rather than an agreement between sovereign states. One was through protective tariffs, high taxes on imports and exports. APUSH CH 9 Flashcards | Quizlet . They had burst forth from arguments about a decision by Connecticut Senator Samuel Foote. . I distrust, therefore, sir, the policy of creating a great permanent national treasury, whether to be derived from public lands or from any other source. Sir, when gentlemen speak of the effects of a common fund, belonging to all the states, as having a tendency to consolidation, what do they mean? It is the common pretense. An equally. . . . Sir, when the gentleman provokes me to such a conflict, I meet him at the threshold. But, sir, the gentleman is mistaken. Noah grew a vineyard, got drunk on wine and lay naked. 136 lessons The Destiny of America, Speech at the Dedication o An Address. 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? . The growing support for nullification was quite obvious during the days of the Jackson Administration, as events such as the Webster-Hayne Debate, Tariff of 1832, Order of Nullification, and Worcester v. Georgia all made the tension grow between the North and the South. The Webster-Hayne Debate between New Hampshire Senator Daniel Webster and South Carolina Senator Robert Young Hayne highlighted the sectional nature of the controversy. He was dressed with scrupulous care, in a blue coat with metal buttons, a buff vest rounding over his full abdomen, and his neck encircled with a white cravat. 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. They will also better understand the debate's political context. This episode was used in nineteenth century America as a Biblical justification for slavery. . . . In the course of my former remarks, I took occasion to deprecate, as one of the greatest of evils, the consolidation of this government. . 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. I have but one word more to add. Now, I wish to be informedhowthis state interference is to be put in practice, without violence, bloodshed, and rebellion. The Webster Hayne Debate - DEBETE CJK Speech on the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise. . 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. . Edited and introduced by Jason W. Stevens. [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. . MTEL Speech: Notable Debates & Speeches in U.S. History, The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858: Summary & Significance, Psychological Research & Experimental Design, All Teacher Certification Test Prep Courses, The Significance of Daniel Webster's Argument, MTEL Speech: Principles of Argument & Debate, MTEL Speech: Understanding Persuasive Communication, MTEL Speech: Public Argument in Democratic Societies. 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. Speech on Assuming Office of the President. 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. The debates between daniel webster of massachusetts and robert hayne of south carolina gave. The arena selected for a first impression was the Senate, where the arch-heretic himself presided and guided the onset with his eye. The gentleman, therefore, only follows out his own principles; he does no more than arrive at the natural conclusions of his own doctrines; he only announces the true results of that creed, which he has adopted himself, and would persuade others to adopt, when he thus declares that South Carolina has no interest in a public work in Ohio. 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: Sir, I have had some opportunities of making comparisons between the condition of the free Negroes of the North and the slaves of the South, and the comparison has left not only an indelible impression of the superior advantages of the latter, but has gone far to reconcile me to slavery itself. It laid the interdict against personal servitude, in original compact, not only deeper than all local law, but deeper, also, than all local constitutions. Mr. Hayne having rejoined to Mr. Webster, especially on the constitutional question. 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? . I did not utter a single word, which any ingenuity could torture into an attack on the slavery of the South. 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. It makes but little difference, in my estimation, whether Congress or the Supreme Court, are invested with this power. Andrew Jackson & the Nullification Crisis | The Hermitage That's what was happening out West. . 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. . When, however, the gentleman proceeded to contrast the state of Ohio with Kentucky, to the disadvantage of the latter, I listened to him with regret. Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819) | Case, Significance & Summary. 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. . They will also better understand the debate's political context. Tariff of 1816 History & Significance | What was the Tariff of 1816? For one, Hayne and Webster were arguing for the fate of the West and, in particular, whether the North or South would control western development. I am a Unionist, and in this sense a national Republican. The debate can be seen as a precursor to the debate that became . The Webster-Hayne debate was a series of spontaneous speeches delivered before the Senate in 1830. There is not, and never has been, a disposition in the North to interfere with these interests of the South. Correct answers: 2 question: Which of the following is the best definition of a hypothesis? Francis O. J. Smith to Secretary of State Dan Special Message to the House of Representatives, Special Message to Congress on Mexican Relations. Such interference has never been supposed to be within the power of government; nor has it been, in any way, attempted. . As a member, you'll also get unlimited access to over 88,000 This government, sir, is the independent offspring of the popular will. Ah! we find the most opposite and irreconcilable opinions between the two parties which I have before described. . An equally talented orator, Webster rose as the advocate of the North in the debate with his captivating reply to Hayne's initial argument. The people of the United States cherish a devotion to the Union, so pure, so ardent, that nothing short of intolerable oppression, can ever tempt them to do anything that may possibly endanger it. . . . 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. . Religious Views: Letter to the Editor of the Illin Democratic Party Platform 1860 (Douglas Faction), (Northern) Democratic Party Platform Committee. Who Won the Webster-Hayne Debate of 1830? - Abbeville Institute . In a time when the country was undergoing some drastic changes, this debate managed to encapsulate the essence of the growing tensions dividing the nation. U.S. Senate: The Most Famous Senate Speech See what I mean? State governments were in control of their own affairs and expected little intervention from the federal government. - Definition and Uses, Public Speaking: Assignment 1 - Informative Speech, Public Speaking: Assignment 3 - Special Occasion Speech, The Role of Probability Distributions, Random Numbers & the Computer in Simulations, The Monte Carlo Simulation: Scope & Common Applications, Working Scholars Bringing Tuition-Free College to the Community, The methods by which the federal government earned its revenue, The federal government's surveying and selling of land west of the Mississippi River, The issue of slavery, which was beginning to divide the Northern and Southern states, The balance of power between federal and state governments. . . Wilmot Proviso of 1846: Overview & Significance | What was the Wilmot Proviso? These irreconcilable views of national supremacy and state sovereignty framed the constitutional struggle that led to Civil War thirty years later. The people had had quite enough of that kind of government, under the Confederacy. Would it be safe to confide such a treasure to the keeping of our national rulers? Excerpts from Ratification Documents of Virginia a Ratifying Conventions>New York Ratifying Convention. 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 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. . 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. It was of a partizan and censorious character and drew nearly all the chief senators out. The debate, which took place between January 19th and January 27th, 1830, encapsulated the major issues facing the newly founded United States in the 1820s and 1830s; the balance of power between the federal and state governments, the development of the democratic process, and the growing tension between Northern and Southern states. Strange was it, however, that in heaping reproaches upon the Hartford Convention he did not mark how nearly its leaders had mapped out the same line of opposition to the national Government that his State now proposed to take, both relying upon the arguments of the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions of 179899. 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. 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. I supposed, that on this point, no two gentlemen in the Senate could entertain different opinions. I understand the honorable gentleman from South Carolina to maintain, that it is a right of the state legislatures to interfere, whenever, in their judgment, this government transcends its constitutional limits, and to arrest the operation of its laws. Since as Vice President and President of the Senate, Calhoun could not take place in the debate, Hayne represented the pro-nullification point-of-view. The Northwest Ordinance. Webster-Hayne debate - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia New England, the Union, and the Constitution in its integrity, all were triumphantly vindicated. I say, the right of a state to annul a law of Congress, cannot be maintained, but on the ground of the unalienable right of man to resist oppression; that is to say, upon the ground of revolution. Some of Webster's personal friends had felt nervous over what appeared to them too hasty a period for preparation. . The heated speeches were unplanned and stemmed from the debate over a resolution by Connecticut Senator Samuel A. Connecticut and other northeastern states were worried about the pace of growth and wanted to slow this down. This absurdity (for it seems no less) arises from a misconception as to the origin of this government and its true character. Read reviews from world's largest community for readers. . Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster's "Second Reply" to South Carolina Senator Robert Y. Hayne has long been thought of as a great oratorical celebration of American Nationalism in a period of sectional conflict. This, sir, is General Washingtons consolidation. The whole form and structure of the federal government, the opinions of the Framers of the Constitution, and the organization of the state governments, demonstrate that though the states have surrendered certain specific powers, they have not surrendered their sovereignty. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. The measures of the federal government have, it is true, prostrated her interests, and will soon involve the whole South in irretrievable ruin. . . 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. It was plenary then, and never having been surrendered, must be plenary now. . The Webster-Hayne Debate: An Inquiry into the Nature of Union by Stefan Debate on the Constitutionality of the Mexican War, Letters and Journals from the Oregon Trail. On January 19, 1830, Hayne attacked the Foot Resolution and labeled the Northeasterners as selfish and unprincipled for their support of protectionism and conservative land policies. If an inquiry should ever be instituted in these matters, however, it will be found that the profits of the slave trade were not confined to the South. . Webster and Hayne on the American Constitution The people were not satisfied with it, and undertook to establish a better. 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. 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No hanging over the abyss of disunion, no weighing of the chances, no doubting as to what the Constitution was worth, no placing of liberty before Union, but "liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable." . But I do not understand the doctrine now contended for to be that which, for the sake of distinctness, we may call the right of revolution. The impression which has gone abroad, of the weakness of the South, as connected with the slave question, exposes us to such constant attacks, has done us so much injury, and is calculated to produce such infinite mischiefs, that I embrace the occasion presented by the remarks of the gentleman from Massachusetts, to declare that we are ready to meet the question promptly and fearlessly. On that system, Carolina has no more interest in a canal in Ohio than in Mexico. But until they shall alter it, it must stand as their will, and is equally binding on the general government and on the states. . . But, sir, we will pass over all this. I hold it to be a popular government, erected by the people; those who administer it responsible to the people; and itself capable of being amended and modified, just as the people may choose it should be. Webster-Hayne debate - Wikisource, the free online library The gentleman has made an eloquent appeal to our hearts in favor of union. For Calhoun, see the Speech on Abolition Petitions and the Speech on the Oregon Bill. . . The Webster Hayne Debate. 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. 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. 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.Readers will finish the book with a clear idea of the reason Webster's "Reply" became so influential in its own day. . Is it the creature of the state legislatures, or the creature of the people? . This is the sum of what I understand from him, to be the South Carolina doctrine; and the doctrine which he maintains. Webster and the North treated it as binding the states together as a single union. . Webster also tried to assert the importance of New England in the face of . We met it as a practical question of obligation and duty. Historians love a good debate. Plus, get practice tests, quizzes, and personalized coaching to help you . Sir, all our difficulties on this subject have arisen from interference from abroad, which has disturbed, and may again disturb, our domestic tranquility, just so far as to bring down punishment upon the heads of the unfortunate victims of a fanatical and mistaken humanity. . Why was the Hayne-Webster debate important? - eNotes.com We will not look back to inquire whether our fathers were guiltless in introducing slaves into this country. 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?