Speech of Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, January 26 and 27, 1830. In all the efforts that have been made by South Carolina to resist the unconstitutional laws which Congress has extended over them, she has kept steadily in view the preservation of the Union, by the only means by which she believes it can be long preserveda firm, manly, and steady resistance against usurpation. This seemed like an Eastern spasm of jealousy at the progress of the West. When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the last time, the sun in Heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on states dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! But, according to the gentlemans reading, the object of the Constitution was to consolidate the government, and the means would seem to be, the promotion of injustice, causing domestic discord, and depriving the states and the people of the blessings of liberty forever. . It moves vast bodies, and gives to them one and the same direction. Nullification, Webster maintained, was a political absurdity. Differences between Northern and Southern ideas of good governance, which eventually led to the American Civil War, were beginning to emerge. The Curious Case of Evangelist Pat Robertson | Winter Watch MTEL Speech: Public Discourse & Debate in the U.S. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. Webster rose the next day in his seat to make his reply. . The Webster-Hayne Debate | Hopkins Press Hayne and the South saw it as basically a treaty between sovereign states. The honorable member himself is not, I trust, and can never be, one of these. flashcard sets. . The Webster-Hayne debate laid out key issues faced by the Senate in the 1820s and 1830s. Speech of Senator Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina, January 25, 1830. . 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? Pet Banks History & Effects | What are Pet Banks? The heated speeches were unplanned and stemmed from the debate over a resolution by Connecticut Senator Samuel A. Historians love a good debate. The Hayne-Webster Debate was an unplanned series of speeches in the Senate, during which Robert Hayne of South Carolina interpreted the Constitution as little more than a treaty between sovereign states, and Daniel Webster expressed the concept of the United States as one nation. 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. He was a lawyer turned congressional representative who eventually worked his way to the office of U.S. Secretary of State. 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. 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. Its like a teacher waved a magic wand and did the work for me. The people read Webster's speech and marked him as the champion henceforth against all assaults upon the Constitution. The Significance of the Frontier in American Histo South Carolinas Ordinance of Nullification. . . The debates between daniel webster of massachusetts and robert hayne of south carolina gave. Address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural So "The Whole Affair Seems the Work of a Madman", John Brown and the Principle of Nonresistance. . Connecticut's proposal was an attempt to slow the growth of the nation, control westward expansion, and bolster the federal government's revenue. See Genesis 9:2027. One of those was the Webster-Hayne debate, a series of unplanned speeches presented before the Senate between January 19th and 27th of 1830. Finally, sir, the honorable gentleman says, that the states will only interfere, by their power, to preserve the Constitution. 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. . We had no other general government. But the gentleman apprehends that this will make the Union a rope of sand. Sir, I have shown that it is a power indispensably necessary to the preservation of the constitutional rights of the states, and of the people. . Try refreshing the page, or contact customer support. [was] fixed, forever, the character of the population in the vast regions Northwest of the Ohio, by excluding from them involuntary servitude. And, therefore, I cannot but feel regret at the expression of such opinions as the gentleman has avowed; because I think their obvious tendency is to weaken the bond of our connection. The people had had quite enough of that kind of government, under the Confederacy. All of these ideas, however, are only parts of the main point. This episode was used in nineteenth century America as a Biblical justification for slavery. The Senate debates between Whig Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Democrat Senator Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina in January 1830 started out as a disagreement over the sale of Western lands and turned into one of the most famous verbal contests in American history. . Such interference has never been supposed to be within the power of government; nor has it been, in any way, attempted. This debate exposed the critically different understandings of the nature of the American. His speech was indeed a powerful one of its eloquence and personality. 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 . Well, let's look at the various parts. 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? [2] We deal in no abstractions. Webster's second reply to Hayne, in January 1830, became a famous defense of the federal union: "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable." Just beneath the surface of this debate lay the elements of the developing sectional crisis between North and South. 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. webster hayne debate Flashcards | Quizlet 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. The debaters were Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Senator Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina. . Would it be safe to confide such a treasure to the keeping of our national rulers? Let their last feeble and lingering glance, rather behold the gorgeous Ensign of the Republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original luster, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscuredbearing for its motto, no such miserable interrogatory as, what is all this worth? Winners and Losers History's Famous Debates - Medium . we find the most opposite and irreconcilable opinions between the two parties which I have before described. . To all this, sir, I was disposed most cordially to respond. . The real significance of this debate was in each man's interpretation of the United States Constitution. The gentleman, indeed, argues that slavery, in the abstract, is no evil. The Hayne-Webster Debate - Constitution.org In the course of my former remarks, I took occasion to deprecate, as one of the greatest of evils, the consolidation of this 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. The Webster-Hayne debate was a series of spontaneous speeches delivered before the Senate in 1830. Foote Idea To Limit The Sale Of Public Lands In The West To New Settlers. He served as a U.S. senator from 1823 to 1832, and was a leading proponent of the states' rights doctrine. While the debaters argued about slavery, the economy, protection tariffs, and western land, the real implication was the meaning of the United States Constitution. In January 1830, a debate on the nature of sovereignty in the America. I know, full well, that it is, and has been, the settled policy of some persons in the South, for years, to represent the people of the North as disposed to interfere with them, in their own exclusive and peculiar concerns. The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions Add Song of the Spinners from the Lowell Offering. 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. But the feeling is without all adequate cause, and the suspicion which exists wholly groundless. The theory that the states' may vote against unfair laws. . Webster-Hayne Debate. 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. They switched from a. the tariff of 1828 to national power . 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. . They will not destroy it, they will not impair itthey will only save, they will only preserve, they will only strengthen it! Web hardcover $30.00 paperback $17.00 kindle nook book ibook. Create your account, 15 chapters | God grant that on my vision never may be opened what lies behind. . . 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. Van Buren responded to the Panic of 1837 with the idea of the independent treasury, which was a. a system of depositing money in select independent banks 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 measures of the federal government have, it is true, prostrated her interests, and will soon involve the whole South in irretrievable ruin. Webster realized that if the social, political, and economic elite of Massachusetts and the Northeast were to once again lay claim to national leadership, he had to justify New England's previous history of sectionalism within a framework of nationalistic progression. 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. Webster argued that the American people had created the Union to promote the good of the whole. His ideas about federalism and his interpretation of the Constitution as a document uniting the states under one supreme law were highly influential in the eyes of his contemporaries and would influence the rebuilding of the nation after the Civil War. 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. . . I would strengthen the ties that hold us together. Ostend Manifesto of 1854 Overview & Purpose | What was the Ostend Manifesto? | 12 There was an end to all apprehension. 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. . ", What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?. Andrew Jackson & the Nullification Crisis | The Hermitage . . . After his term as a senator, he served as the Governor of South Carolina. Ham, one of Noahs sons, saw him uncovered, for which Noah cursed him by making Hams son, Canaan, a slave to Ham's brothers. . So soon as the cessions were obtained, it became necessary to make provision for the government and disposition of the territory . All regulated governments, all free governments, have been broken up by similar disinterested and well-disposed interference! . God grant that, in my day, at least, that curtain may not rise. Congress could only recommendtheir acts were not of binding force, till the states had adopted and sanctioned them. By establishing justice, promoting domestic tranquility, and securing the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. This is the true reading of the Constitution. . Sir, there exists, moreover, a deep and settled conviction of the benefits, which result from a close connection of all the states, for purposes of mutual protection and defense. . 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. This is the sum of what I understand from him, to be the South Carolina doctrine; and the doctrine which he maintains. Help if you can :) please and ty Whose agent is it? All of these contentious topics were touched upon in Webster and Hayne's nine day long debate. 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. 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. . Let us look at the historical facts. So what was this debate really about? Sir, I cordially respond to that appeal. . I'm imagining that your answer is probably 'I do.' Sir, there does not exist, on the face of the whole earth, a population so poor, so wretched, so vile, so loathsome, so utterly destitute of all the comforts, conveniences, and decencies of life, as the unfortunate blacks of Philadelphia, and New York, and Boston. What was going on? Webster and the northern states saw the Constitution as binding the individual states together as a single union. . Mr. Hayne having rejoined to Mr. Webster, especially on the constitutional question. The people of the United States have declared that this Constitution shall be the Supreme Law. It was plenary then, and never having been surrendered, must be plenary now. 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. That's what was happening out West. Under that system, the legal actionthe application of law to individuals, belonged exclusively to the states. The taxes paid by foreign nations to export American cotton, for example, generated lots of money for the government. a. an explanation of natural events that is well supported by scientific evidence b. a set of rules for ethical conduct during an experiment c. a statement that describes how natural events happen d. a possible answer to a scientific question Hayne entered the U.S. Senate in 1823 and soon became prominent as a spokesman for the South and for the . sir, this is but the old story. 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. He had allowed himself but a single night from eve to morn to prepare for a critical and crowning occasion. But, sir, the gentleman is mistaken. Speech of Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, January 20, 1830. 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. What interest, asks he, has South Carolina in a canal in Ohio? Sir, this very question is full of significance. Sheidley, Harlow W. "The Wester-Hayne Debate: Recasting New England's Sectionalism", Virginia and Kentucky resolutions of 179899, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=WebsterHayne_debate&oldid=1135315190, This page was last edited on 23 January 2023, at 22:54. I know that there are some persons in the part of the country from which the honorable member comes, who habitually speak of the Union in terms of indifference, or even of disparagement. 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!