what idea was espoused with the webster hayne debates

Create your account. 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. Web hardcover $30.00 paperback $17.00 kindle nook book ibook. Perhaps a quotation from a speech in Parliament in 1803 of Lord Castlereagh, Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry (17691822) during a debate over the conduct of British officials in India. Debate on the Constitutionality of the Mexican War, Letters and Journals from the Oregon Trail. This seemed like an Eastern spasm of jealousy at the progress of the West. 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. Far, indeed, in my wishes, very far distant be the day, when our associated and fraternal stripes shall be severed asunder, and when that happy constellation under which we have risen to so much renown, shall be broken up, and be seen sinking, star after star, into obscurity and night! The main issue of the Webster-Hayne Debate was the nature of the country that had been created by the Constitution. Why? Certainly, sir, I am, and ever have been of that opinion. lessons in math, English, science, history, and more. This leads, sir, to the real and wide difference, in political opinion, between the honorable gentleman and myself. . It is one from which we are not disposed to shrink, in whatever form or under whatever circumstances it may be pressed upon us. . The militia of the state will be called out to sustain the nullifying act. Shedding weak tears over sufferings which had existence only in their own sickly imaginations, these friends of humanity set themselves systematically to work to seduce the slaves of the South from their masters. A speech by Louisiana Senator Edward Livingston, however, neatly explains how American nationhood encompasses elements of both Webster and Hayne's ideas. By the time it ended nine days later, the focus had shifted to the vastly more cosmic concerns of slavery and the nature of the federal Union. She has a BA in political science. . 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. . . Drama, suspense, it's all there. First, New England was vindicated. The Webster Hayne Debate. The debaters were Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Senator Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina. we find the most opposite and irreconcilable opinions between the two parties which I have before described. There yet remains to be performed, Mr. President, by far the most grave and important duty, which I feel to be devolved on me, by this occasion. . 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. Let us look at the historical facts. Correspondence Between Anthony Butler and Presiden State of the Union Address Part II (1846). He served as a U.S. senator from 1823 to 1832, and was a leading proponent of the states' rights doctrine. Visit the dark and narrow lanes, and obscure recesses, which have been assigned by common consent as the abodes of those outcasts of the worldthe free people of color. 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. 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. When they shall become dissatisfied with this distribution, they can alter it. - 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. Webster-Hayne Debate. Judiciary Act of 1801 | Overview, History & Significance, General Ulysses S. Grant Takes Charge: His Strategic Plan for Ending the War. The debate was important because it laid out the arguments in favor of nationalism in the face of growing sectionalism. I regard domestic slavery as one of the greatest of evils, both moral and political. He had allowed himself but a single night from eve to morn to prepare for a critical and crowning occasion. . He accused them of a desire to check the growth of the West in the interests of protection. 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. Enrolling in a course lets you earn progress by passing quizzes and exams. 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. . . What can I say? The Significance of the Frontier in American Histo South Carolinas Ordinance of Nullification. Even Benton, whose connection with the debate made him at first belittle these grand utterances, soon felt the danger and repudiated the company of the nullifiers. In 1830, the federal government collected few taxes and had two primary sources of revenue. . . [was] fixed, forever, the character of the population in the vast regions Northwest of the Ohio, by excluding from them involuntary servitude. . . Wilmot Proviso of 1846: Overview & Significance | What was the Wilmot Proviso? And now, Mr. President, let me run the honorable gentlemans doctrine a little into its practical application. But, sir, we will pass over all this. 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. . We met it as a practical question of obligation and duty. copyright 2003-2023 Study.com. The Webster-Hayne Debate between New Hampshire Senator Daniel Webster and South Carolina Senator Robert Young Hayne highlighted the sectional nature of the controversy. Where in these debates do we see a possible argument in defense of Constitutional secession by the states, later claimed by the Southern Confederacy before, during, and after the Civil War? 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. An error occurred trying to load this video. . 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. 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. But, sir, the gentleman is mistaken. 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. . As sovereign states, each state could individually interpret the Constitution and even leave the Union altogether. 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. Then, in January of 1830, a senator from Connecticut introduced a proposal to the Senate stating that the federal government should stop surveying the lands west of the Mississippi River. 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. Enveloping all of these changes was an ever-growing tension over the economy, as southern states firmly defended slavery and northern states advocated for a more industrial, slave-free market. . Are we in that condition still? . 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! 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. 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'm imagining that your answer is probably 'I do.' . 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. . succeed. Robert Young Hayne, (born Nov. 10, 1791, Colleton District, S.C., U.S.died Sept. 24, 1839, Asheville, N.C.), American lawyer, political leader, and spokesman for the South, best-remembered for his debate with Daniel Webster (1830), in which he set forth a doctrine of nullification. . If the gentleman provokes the war, he shall have war. . An undefinable dread now went abroad that men were planning against the peace of the nation, that the Union was in danger; and citizens looked more closely after its safety and welfare. 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! We do not impose geographical limits to our patriotic feeling or regard; we do not follow rivers and mountains, and lines of latitude, to find boundaries, beyond which public improvements do not benefit us. Whose agent is it? I understand the gentleman to maintain, that, without revolution, without civil commotion, without rebellion, a remedy for supposed abuse and transgression of the powers of the general government lies in a direct appeal to the interference of the state governments. In our contemplation, Carolina and Ohio are parts of the same country; states, united under the same general government, having interests, common, associated, intermingled. This means that South Carolina is essentially its own nation, Georgia is its own nation, and so on. Be this as it may, Hayne was a ready and copious orator, a highly-educated lawyer, a man of varied accomplishments, shining as a writer, speaker, and counselor, equally qualified to draw up a bill or to advocate it, quick to memories, well fortified by wealth and marriage connections, dignified, never vulgar nor unmindful of the feelings of those with whom he mingled, Hayne moved in an atmosphere where lofty and chivalrous honor was the ruling sentiment. 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. 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. Hayne was a great orator, filled with fiery passion and eloquent prose. 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. MTEL Speech: Public Discourse & Debate in the U.S. 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. Speech of Senator Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina, January 19, 1830. New England, the Union, and the Constitution in its integrity, all were triumphantly vindicated. 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. Under that system, the legal actionthe application of law to individuals, belonged exclusively to the states. All of these contentious topics were touched upon in Webster and Hayne's nine day long debate. I am a Unionist, and in this sense a national Republican. Speech of Senator Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina, January 25, 1830. . But his calm, unperturbed manner reassured them in an instant. They switched from a. the tariff of 1828 to national power . It is worth noting that in the course of the debate, on the very floor of the Senate, both Hayne and Webster raised the specter of civil war 30 years before it commenced. Before his term as a U.S. senator, Hayne had served as a state senator, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, South Carolina's Speaker of the House, and Attorney General of South Carolina. Some of Webster's personal friends had felt nervous over what appeared to them too hasty a period for preparation. . . It was plenary then, and never having been surrendered, must be plenary now. Webster's articulation of the concept of the Union went on to shape American attitudes about the federal government. Rachel Venter is a recent graduate of Metropolitan State University of Denver. Try refreshing the page, or contact customer support. . ", What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?. Get unlimited access to over 88,000 lessons. . It was a great and salutary measure of prevention. . . But his standpoint was purely local and sectional. foote wanted to stop surveying lands until they could sell the ones already looked at . . 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. 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. They had burst forth from arguments about a decision by Connecticut Senator Samuel Foote. He was a lawyer turned congressional representative who eventually worked his way to the office of U.S. Secretary of State. Besides that, however, the federal government was still figuring out its role in American society. Thousands of these deluded victims of fanaticism were seduced into the enjoyment of freedom in our Northern cities. Webster's speech aroused the latent spirit of patriotism. Daniel webster, in a dramatic speech, showed the. 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. This government, sir, is the independent offspring of the popular will. All regulated governments, all free governments, have been broken up by similar disinterested and well-disposed interference! 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. . 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 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. . The Union to be preserved, while it suits local and temporary purposes to preserve it; and to be sundered whenever it shall be found to thwart such purposes. 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). 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, I should fear the rebuke of no intelligent gentleman of Kentucky, were I to ask whether, if such an ordinance could have been applied to his own state, while it yet was a wilderness, and before Boone had passed the gap of the Alleghany, he does not suppose it would have contributed to the ultimate greatness of that commonwealth? The War With Mexico: Speech in the United States H What Are the Colored People Doing for Themselves? - Women's Rights Facts & Significance, Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points: Definition, Speech & Summary, Fireside Chats: Definition & Significance, JFK's New Frontier: Definition, Speech & Program. 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. Webster and the North treated it as binding the states together as a single union. . For Calhoun, see the Speech on Abolition Petitions and the Speech on the Oregon Bill. Hayne argued that the sovereign and independent states had created the Union to promote their particular interests. The action, the drama, the suspensewho needs the movies? 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. We see its consequences at this moment, and we shall never cease to see them, perhaps, while the Ohio shall flow. 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? In many respects, his speech betrays the mentality of Massachusetts conservatives seeking to regain national leadership and advance their particular ideas about the nation. 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. Excerpts from Ratification Documents of Virginia a Ratifying Conventions>New York Ratifying Convention. Go to these cities now, and ask the question. . The Webster-Hayne debates began over one issue but quickly switched to another. 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. There is not, and never has been, a disposition in the North to interfere with these interests of the South. Religious Views: Letter to the Editor of the Illin Democratic Party Platform 1860 (Douglas Faction), (Northern) Democratic Party Platform Committee. . . . The Webster-Hayne debate, which again was just one section of this greater discussion in the Senate, is traditionally considered to have begun when South Carolina senator Robert Y. Hayne stood to argue against Connecticut's proposal, accusing the northeastern states of trying to stall development of the West so that southern agricultural interests couldn't expand. So they could finish selling the lands already surveyed. They significantly declare, that it is time to calculate the value of the Union; and their aim seems to be to enumerate, and to magnify all the evils, real and imaginary, which the government under the Union produces. Nor shall I stop there. . . Sir, I cordially respond to that appeal. 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 attack nobody, and menace nobody. I would strengthen the ties that hold us together. See what I mean? Beyond that I seek not to penetrate the veil. Under the circumstances then existing, I look upon this original and seasonable provision, as a real good attained. 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. The Destiny of America, Speech at the Dedication o An Address. . This was the tenor of Webster's speech, and nobly did the country respond to it. Explore the Webster-Hayne debate. Rush-Bagot Treaty Structure & Effects | What was the Rush-Bagot Agreement? . The people read Webster's speech and marked him as the champion henceforth against all assaults upon the Constitution. Their own power over their own instrument remains. States' rights (South) vs. nationalism (North). Webster-Hayne Debate book. . 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. Speech to the U.S. House of Representatives. 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. This statement, though strong, is no stronger than the strictest truth will warrant. Which of the following statements best represents the desires of the Northern states during the debate of Missouri statehood? Battle of Fort Sumter in the Civil War | Who Won the Battle of Fort Sumter? Webster believed that the Constitution should be viewed as a binding document between the United States rather than an agreement between sovereign states. . There was an end to all apprehension. Foot calling for the temporary suspension of further land surveying until land already on the market was sold (to effectively stop the introduction of new lands onto the market). It is the common pretense. . 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. . 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. . The Constitutional Convention: The Great Compromise, The Webster-Hayne Debate of 1830: Summary & Issues, The History of American Presidential Debates, Jonathan Edwards and the Great Awakening: Sermons & Biography, Who Was Susan B. Anthony? . . 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.. On the one side it is contended that the public land ought to be reserved as a permanent fund for revenue, and future distribution among the states, while, on the other, it is insisted that the whole of these lands of right belong to, and ought to be relinquished to, the states in which they lie. I feel like its a lifeline. The United States, under the Constitution and federal government, was a single, unified nation, not a coalition of sovereign states. Southern states advocated for strong, sovereign state governments, a small federal government, the western expansion of the agricultural economy, and with it, the maintenance of the institution of slavery. 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. 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. . The real significance of this debate was in each man's interpretation of the United States Constitution. . While the debaters argued about slavery, the economy, protection tariffs, and western land, the real implication was the meaning of the United States Constitution. By means of missionaries and political tracts, the scheme was in a great measure successful. It impressed on the soil itself, while it was yet a wilderness, an incapacity to bear up any other than free men. 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. Now, I wish to be informedhowthis state interference is to be put in practice, without violence, bloodshed, and rebellion. . Eloquence threw open the portals of eternal day. Plus, get practice tests, quizzes, and personalized coaching to help you 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. Having thus distinctly stated the points in dispute between the gentleman and myself, I proceed to examine them. Would it be safe to confide such a treasure to the keeping of our national rulers? . . Democratic Party Platform 1860 (Breckinridge Facti (Southern) Democratic Party Platform Committee.

Editor Decision Started Nature Rejection, Ruth Madeley Actress Parents, Articles W