Such interference has never been supposed to be within the power of government; nor has it been, in any way, attempted. The gentleman has made an eloquent appeal to our hearts in favor of union. 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. 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. 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. The gentleman insists that the states have no right to decide whether the constitution has been violated by acts of Congress or not,but that the federal government is the exclusive judge of the extent of its own powers; and that in case of a violation of the constitution, however deliberate, palpable and dangerous, a state has no constitutional redress, except where the matter can be brought before the Supreme Court, whose decision must be final and conclusive on the subject. 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. . TeachingAmericanHistory.org is a project of the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University, 401 College Avenue, Ashland, Ohio 44805 PHONE (419) 289-5411 TOLL FREE (877) 289-5411 EMAIL [emailprotected], The Congress Sends Twelve Amendments to the States, The Lincoln-Douglas Debates 3rd Debate Part I, The Lincoln-Douglas Debates 3rd Debate Part II, The Lincoln-Douglas Debates 4th Debate Part I, The Lincoln-Douglas Debates 4th Debate Part II, The Lincoln-Douglas Debates 6th Debate Part I, The Lincoln-Douglas Debates 6th Debate Part II, The Lincoln-Douglas Debates 7th Debate Part I, National Disfranchisement of Colored People, William Lloyd Garrison to Thomas Shipley. Union, of itself, is considered by the disciples of this school as hardly a good. Judiciary Act of 1801 | Overview, History & Significance, General Ulysses S. Grant Takes Charge: His Strategic Plan for Ending the War. Speech of Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, January 20, 1830. . This episode was used in nineteenth century America as a Biblical justification for slavery. The Webster-Hayne debate laid out key issues faced by the Senate in the 1820s and 1830s. To them, this was a scheme to give the federal government more control over the cost of land by creating a scarcity. Webster-Hayne debate - Wikisource, the free online library . The Webster-Hayne debate was a series of spontaneous speeches presented to the United States Senate by senators Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina. . 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 . Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819) | Case, Significance & Summary. Those who are in favor of consolidation; who are constantly stealing power from the states and adding strength to the federal government; who, assuming an unwarrantable jurisdiction over the states and the people, undertake to regulate the whole industry and capital of the country. . Several state governments or courts, some in the north, had espoused the idea of nullification prior to 1828. . Now that was a good debate! The next day, however, Massachusetts senator Daniel Webster rose with his reply, and the northern states knew they had found their champion. It is the servant of four-and-twenty masters, of different wills and different purposes, and yet bound to obey all. 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 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. 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. 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 Webster-Hayne debate was a series of spontaneous speeches delivered before the Senate in 1830. . Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions | Overview, Impact & Significance, Public Speaking for Teachers: Professional Development, AEPA Earth Science (AZ045): Practice & Study Guide, ORELA Early Childhood Education: Practice & Study Guide, Praxis Middle School English Language Arts (5047) Prep, MTLE Physical Education: Practice & Study Guide, ILTS Mathematics (208): Test Practice and Study Guide, MTLE Earth & Space Science: Practice & Study Guide, AEPA Business Education (NT309): Help & Review, Counselor Preparation Comprehensive Examination (CPCE): Exam Prep & Study Guide, GACE Special Education Adapted Curriculum Test I (083) Prep, GACE Special Education Adapted Curriculum Test II (084) Prep, Create an account to start this course today. . . 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. We will not look back to inquire whether our fathers were guiltless in introducing slaves into this country. A speech by Louisiana Senator Edward Livingston, however, neatly explains how American nationhood encompasses elements of both Webster and Hayne's ideas. Webster-Hayne Debate - Federalism in America - CSF It is only regarded as a possible means of good; or on the other hand, as a possible means of evil. Nullification, Webster maintained, was a political absurdity. . The debate continued, in some ways not being fully settled until the completion of the Civil War affirmed the power of the federal government to preserve the Union over the sovereignty of the states to leave it. Hayne, Robert Young | South Carolina Encyclopedia The scene depicted in the painting is Webster concluding his debate with Senator Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina. Webster-Hayne Debate by Stefan M. Brooks 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). . Speech on Assuming Office of the President. Post-Civil War, as the nation rebuilt and reconciled the balance between federal and state government, federal law became the supreme law of the land, just as Webster desired. 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. . . 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. Hayne and the South saw it as basically a treaty between sovereign states. Address to the Slaves of the United States. 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. It was about protectionist tariffs.The speeches between Webster and Hayne themselves were not planned. What was the main issue of the Webster-Hayne debate? We see its consequences at this moment, and we shall never cease to see them, perhaps, while the Ohio shall flow. Sir, if we are, then vain will be our attempt to maintain the Constitution under which we sit. Sir, I deprecate and deplore this tone of thinking and acting. 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. But it was the honor of a caste; and the struggling bread-winners of society, the great commonalty, he little studied or understood. This leads, sir, to the real and wide difference, in political opinion, between the honorable gentleman and myself. The arena selected for a first impression was the Senate, where the arch-heretic himself presided and guided the onset with his eye. Well, you're not alone. But until they shall alter it, it must stand as their will, and is equally binding on the general government and on the states. God grant that, in my day, at least, that curtain may not rise. . Well, let's look at the various parts. I propose to consider it, and to compare it with the Constitution. It would be equally fatal to the sovereignty and independence of the states. So what was this debate really about? Rush-Bagot Treaty Structure & Effects | What was the Rush-Bagot Agreement? Who, then, Mr. President, are the true friends of the Union? I would strengthen the ties that hold us together. Webster also tried to assert the importance of New England in the face of . . Speech of Senator Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina, January 27, 1830. . 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 We look upon the states, not as separated, but as united. 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. I shrink almost instinctively from a course, however necessary, which may have a tendency to excite sectional feelings, and sectional jealousies. 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 main issue of the Webster-Hayne Debate was the nature of the country that had been created by the Constitution. 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. Having thus distinctly stated the points in dispute between the gentleman and myself, I proceed to examine them. Consolidation, like the tariff, grates upon his ear. Next, the Union was held up to view in all its strength, symmetry, and integrity, reposing in the ark of the Constitution, no longer an experiment, as in the days when Hamilton and Jefferson contended for shaping its course, but ordained and established by and for the people, to secure the blessings of liberty to all posterity. Webster's articulation of the concept of the Union went on to shape American attitudes about the federal government.