Pet Banks History & Effects | What are Pet Banks? Speech of Senator Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina, January 19, 1830. 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. . Nullification, Webster maintained, was a political absurdity. First, New England was vindicated. It was motivated by a dispute over the continued sale of western lands, an important source of revenue for the federal government. copyright 2003-2023 Study.com. ", What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?. He must cut it with his sword. On that system, Carolina has no more interest in a canal in Ohio than in Mexico. Read reviews from world's largest community for readers. 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. South Carolinas Declaration of the Causes of Sece Distribution of the Slave Population by State. Edited and introduced by Jason W. Stevens. 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. Explore the Webster-Hayne debate. Most assuredly, I need not say I differ with him, altogether and most widely, on that point. . Sir, I am one of those who believe that the very life of our system is the independence of the states, and that there is no evil more to be deprecated than the consolidation of this government. . I would definitely recommend Study.com to my colleagues. 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. After his term as a senator, he served as the Governor of South Carolina. I propose to consider it, and to compare it with the Constitution. Why? Webster's articulation of the concept of the Union went on to shape American attitudes about the federal government. The taxes paid by foreign nations to export American cotton, for example, generated lots of money for the government. One was through protective tariffs, high taxes on imports and exports. If slavery, as it now exists in this country, be an evil, we of the present day found it ready made to our hands. Get unlimited access to over 88,000 lessons. The main issue of the Webster-Hayne Debate was the nature of the country that had been created by the Constitution. Web hardcover $30.00 paperback $17.00 kindle nook book ibook. During the course of the debates, the senators touched on pressing political issues of the daythe tariff, Western lands, internal improvementsbecause behind these and others were two very different understandings of the origin and nature of the American Union. The gentleman takes alarm at the sound. 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. Do they mean, or can they mean, anything more than that the Union of the states will be strengthened, by whatever continues or furnishes inducements to the people of the states to hold together? Benton was rising in renown as the advocate not only of Western settlers but of a new theory that the public lands should be given away instead of sold to them. MTEL Speech: Public Discourse & Debate in the U.S. It moves vast bodies, and gives to them one and the same direction. Debate on the Constitutionality of the Mexican War, Letters and Journals from the Oregon Trail. . Are we yet at the mercy of state discretion, and state construction? . While the debaters argued about slavery, the economy, protection tariffs, and western land, the real implication was the meaning of the United States Constitution. 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. Liberty has been to them the greatest of calamities, the heaviest of curses. . Our notion of things is entirely different. . . . . Now, have they given away that right, or agreed to limit or restrict it in any respect? 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. . Enrolling in a course lets you earn progress by passing quizzes and exams. The gentleman has made an eloquent appeal to our hearts in favor of union. South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification 1832 | Crisis, Cause & Issues. This means that South Carolina is essentially its own nation, Georgia is its own nation, and so on. 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. It would be equally fatal to the sovereignty and independence of the states. Conversation-based seminars for collegial PD, one-day and multi-day seminars, graduate credit seminars (MA degree), online and in-person. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. Address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural So "The Whole Affair Seems the Work of a Madman", John Brown and the Principle of Nonresistance. Now that was a good debate! 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. They switched from a. the tariff of 1828 to national power . It makes but little difference, in my estimation, whether Congress or the Supreme Court, are invested with this power. Webster's "Second Reply to Hayne" was generally regarded as "the most eloquent speech ever delivered in Congress."[1]. 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. . . . . . One of those was the Webster-Hayne debate, a series of unplanned speeches presented before the Senate between January 19th and 27th of 1830. What they said I believe; fully and sincerely believe, that the Union of the states is essential to the prosperity and safety of the states. It develops the gentlemans whole political system; and its answer expounds mine. 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. Crittenden Compromise Plan & Reception | What was the Crittenden Compromise? You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll hopefully stay awake until the end of the lesson. Address to the Slaves of the United States. Speech to the U.S. House of Representatives. 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 debates between daniel webster of massachusetts and robert hayne of south carolina gave. . 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? Some of Webster's personal friends had felt nervous over what appeared to them too hasty a period for preparation. . To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. Mr. Webster arose, and, in conclusion, said: A few words, Mr. President, on this constitutional argument, which the honorable gentleman has labored to reconstruct. The measures of the federal government have, it is true, prostrated her interests, and will soon involve the whole South in irretrievable ruin. They attack nobody, and menace nobody. "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.. . . They ordained such a government; they gave it the name of a Constitution, and therein they established a distribution of powers between this, their general government, and their several state governments. 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. Let us look at the historical facts. Sir, if we are, then vain will be our attempt to maintain the Constitution under which we sit. 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. The debate was on. . The significance of Daniel Webster's argument went far beyond the immediate proposal at hand. Sir, we narrow-minded people of New England do not reason thus. . [2] We deal in no abstractions. Rachel Venter is a recent graduate of Metropolitan State University of Denver. He served as a U.S. senator from 1823 to 1832, and was a leading proponent of the states' rights doctrine. It is only regarded as a possible means of good; or on the other hand, as a possible means of evil. . Would it be safe to confide such a treasure to the keeping of our national rulers? Hayne launched his confident javelin at the New England States. This seemed like an Eastern spasm of jealousy at the progress of the West. 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 . An equally. We met it as a practical question of obligation and duty. Hayne quotes from the Virginia Resolution (1798), authored by Thomas Jefferson, to protest the Alien and Sedition Acts (1798). Northern states intended to strengthen the federal government, binding the states in the union under one supreme law, and eradicating the use of slave labor in the rapidly growing nation. Webster-Hayne Debate book. 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. . . Consolidation, like the tariff, grates upon his ear. Webster and the North treated it as binding the states together as a single union. .Readers will finish the book with a clear idea of the reason Webster's "Reply" became so influential in its own day. . If the government of the United States be the agent of the state governments, then they may control it, provided they can agree in the manner of controlling it; if it be the agent of the people, then the people alone can control it, restrain it, modify, or reform it. 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. The Webster-Hayne debates began over one issue but quickly switched to another.