what idea was espoused with the webster hayne debates

Daniel Webster stood as a ready and formidable opponent from the north who, at different stages in his career, represented both the states of New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Hayne argued that the sovereign and independent states had created the Union to promote their particular interests. . 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. The debate was on. The gentleman, indeed, argues that slavery, in the abstract, is no evil. 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. flashcard sets. The United States, under the Constitution and federal government, was a single, unified nation, not a coalition of sovereign states. . 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. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. . Webster rose the next day in his seat to make his reply. 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 Nullification, Webster maintained, was a political absurdity. 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. You see, to the south, the Constitution was essentially a treaty signed between sovereign states. There is not, and never has been, a disposition in the North to interfere with these interests of the South. . First, New England was vindicated. Edited and introduced by Jason W. Stevens. It was a great and salutary measure of prevention. We found that we had to deal with a people whose physical, moral, and intellectual habits and character, totally disqualified them from the enjoyment of the blessings of freedom. 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. . In 1830, the federal government collected few taxes and had two primary sources of revenue. We will not look back to inquire whether our fathers were guiltless in introducing slaves into this country. Crittenden Compromise Plan & Reception | What was the Crittenden Compromise? Well, you're not alone. . 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. Ostend Manifesto of 1854 Overview & Purpose | What was the Ostend Manifesto? South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification 1832 | Crisis, Cause & Issues. This important consideration, seriously and deeply impressed on our minds, led each state in the Convention to be less rigid, on points of inferior magnitude, than might have been otherwise expected.. ", What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?. 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 . 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. Webster replied to his speech the next day and left not a shred of the charge, baseless as it was. The gentleman takes alarm at the sound. 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. . 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. Webster's description of the U.S. government as "made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people," was later paraphrased by Abraham Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address in the words "government of the people, by the people, for the people." . Thirty years before the Civil War broke out, disunion appeared to be on the horizon with the Nullification Crisis. The main issue of the Webster-Hayne Debate was the nature of the country that had been created by the Constitution. . Representatives of the northern states were concerned by the rapid growth of the nation; just 27 years earlier, the Louisiana Purchase had nearly doubled the size of the nation, and the newly elected President Andrew Jackson was hungry for more territory. They will not destroy it, they will not impair itthey will only save, they will only preserve, they will only strengthen it! The heated speeches were unplanned and stemmed from the debate over a resolution by Connecticut Senator Samuel A. The faction of voters in the North were against slavery and feared it spreading into new territory. . . But the feeling is without all adequate cause, and the suspicion which exists wholly groundless. I did not utter a single word, which any ingenuity could torture into an attack on the slavery of the South. We met it as a practical question of obligation and duty. A speech by Louisiana Senator Edward Livingston, however, neatly explains how American nationhood encompasses elements of both Webster and Hayne's ideas. By means of missionaries and political tracts, the scheme was in a great measure successful. . 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. 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. 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. Even the revenue system of this country, by which the whole of our pecuniary resources are derived from indirect taxation, from duties upon imports, has done much to weaken the responsibility of our federal rulers to the people, and has made them, in some measure, careless of their rights, and regardless of the high trust committed to their care. 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. . . It is only by a strict adherence to the limitations imposed by the Constitution on the federal government, that this system works well, and can answer the great ends for which it was instituted. Go to these cities now, and ask the question. But until they shall alter it, it must stand as their will, and is equally binding on the general government and on the states. . . . . This means that South Carolina is essentially its own nation, Georgia is its own nation, and so on. The honorable member himself is not, I trust, and can never be, one of these. And what has been the consequence? They will also better understand the debate's political context. Plus, get practice tests, quizzes, and personalized coaching to help you . In the course of my former remarks, I took occasion to deprecate, as one of the greatest of evils, the consolidation of this government. While the debaters argued about slavery, the economy, protection tariffs, and western land, the real implication was the meaning of the United States Constitution. . The honorable gentleman from Massachusetts [Senator Daniel Webster] has gone out of his way to pass a high eulogium on the state of Ohio. In January 1830, a debate on the nature of sovereignty in the America. Certainly, sir, I am, and ever have been of that opinion. Consolidation, like the tariff, grates upon his ear. God grant that on my vision never may be opened what lies behind. . He tells us, we have heard much, of late, about consolidation; that it is the rallying word for all who are endeavoring to weaken the Union by adding to the power of the states. But consolidation, says the gentleman, was the very object for which the Union was formed; and in support of that opinion, he read a passage from the address of the president of the Convention[3] to Congress (which he assumes to be authority on his side of the question.) Gloomy and downcast of late, Massachusetts men walked the avenue as though the fife and drum were before them. . Tariff of Abominations of 1828 | What was the Significance of the Tariff of Abominations? In this regard, Webster anticipated an argument that Abraham Lincoln made in his First Inaugural Address (1861). . 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. . The action, the drama, the suspensewho needs the movies? He speaks as if he were in Congress before 1789. Historians love a good debate. 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. . Correspondence Between Anthony Butler and Presiden State of the Union Address Part II (1846). The Commercial Greatness of the United States, Special Message to Congress (Tyler Doctrine), Estranged Labour and The Communist Manifesto, State of the Union Address Part II (1848). . . 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. At the foundation of the constitution of these new Northwestern states, . 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! It has always been regarded as a matter of domestic policy, left with the states themselves, and with which the federal government had nothing to do. Webster argued that the American people had created the Union to promote the good of the whole. Webster-Hayne Debate 1830, 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. Though the debate began as a standard policy debate, the significance of Daniel Webster's argument reached far beyond a single policy proposal. . The excited crowd which had packed the Senate chamber, filling every seat on the floor and in the galleries, and all the available standing room, dispersed after the orator's last grand apostrophe had died away in the air, with national pride throbbing at the heart. I understand him to maintain, that the ultimate power of judging of the constitutional extent of its own authority, is not lodged exclusively in the general government, or any branch of it; but that, on the contrary, the states may lawfully decide for themselves, and each state for itself, whether, in a given case, the act of the general government transcends its power. 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. And who are its enemies? The honorable gentleman from Massachusetts while he exonerates me personally from the charge, intimates that there is a party in the country who are looking to disunion. . Broadside Advertisement for Runaway Slave, Forcing Slavery Down the Throat of a Free-Soiler, Free & Slave-holding States and Territories. Enrolling in a course lets you earn progress by passing quizzes and exams. It is the servant of four-and-twenty masters, of different wills and different purposes, and yet bound to obey all. Debate on the Constitutionality of the Mexican War, Letters and Journals from the Oregon Trail. 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. 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. . Who doesn't? The measures of the federal government have, it is true, prostrated her interests, and will soon involve the whole South in irretrievable ruin. Speech on the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise. In whatever is within the proper sphere of the constitutional power of this government, we look upon the states as one. . Those who would confine the federal government strictly within the limits prescribed by the Constitutionwho would preserve to the states and the people all powers not expressly delegatedwho would make this a federal and not a national Unionand who, administering the government in a spirit of equal justice, would make it a blessing and not a curse. . I regard domestic slavery as one of the greatest of evils, both moral and political. Our Core Document Collection allows students to read history in the words of those who made it. . The speech is also known for the line Liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable, which would subsequently become the state motto of North Dakota, appearing on the state seal. 1824 Presidential Election, Candidates & Significance | Who Won the Election of 1824? 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. 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 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. . Congress could only recommendtheir acts were not of binding force, till the states had adopted and sanctioned them. This episode was used in nineteenth century America as a Biblical justification for slavery. 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. . Expert Answers. The militia of the state will be called out to sustain the nullifying act. There was no clear winner of the debate, but the Union's victory over the Confederacy just a few decades later brought Webster's ideas to fruition. . 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. . What started as a debate over the Tariff of Abominations soon morphed into debates over state and federal sovereignty and liberty and disunion. They will also better understand the debate's political context. 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. . . This was the tenor of Webster's speech, and nobly did the country respond to it. . . . 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. 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. . 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? 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. 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. President John Quincy Adams and the Election of 1824. . South Carolinas Declaration of the Causes of Sece Distribution of the Slave Population by State. I would definitely recommend Study.com to my colleagues. 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. 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. Connecticut's proposal was an attempt to slow the growth of the nation, control westward expansion, and bolster the federal government's revenue. . Finally, sir, the honorable gentleman says, that the states will only interfere, by their power, to preserve the Constitution. Sir, we will not stop to inquire whether the black man, as some philosophers have contended, is of an inferior race, nor whether his color and condition are the effects of a curse inflicted for the offences of his ancestors. I maintain that, from the day of the cession of the territories by the states to Congress, no portion of the country has acted, either with more liberality or more intelligence, on the subject of the Western lands in the new states, than New England. The WebsterHayne debate was a debate in the United States between Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Senator Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina that took place on January 1927, 1830 on the topic of protectionist tariffs. If this Constitution, sir, be the creature of state Legislatures, it must be admitted that it has obtained a strange control over the volitions of its creators. . 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.

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