.//^^f 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 DDDn31bT44 
 
%\)t Hiberfiioe ^literature Series; 
 
 HE GREAT DEBATE 
 
 EN HAYNE AND WEBSTER 
 
 THE SPEECH 
 
 w 
 
 BY 
 
 ROBERT YOUNG HAYNE 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 LINDSAY SWIFT 
 
 OF THB BOSTON PUBLIC LIBBABT 
 
 'HTON. MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 Park Street: New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street 
 Chicago : 378-388 Wabash Avenne 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I'AUE 
 A REPRODUCTION FROM A PHOTOGRAPH OF G. P. A. HeALY's 
 PAINTING OF THE GrEAT DeBATE IN FaNEUIL HaLL. 
 
 Key TO THE Portraits in Healy's Painting. 
 
 The Great Debate : The Occasion and the Event . 7 
 
 Sketch of Robert Young Hayne 19 
 
 Speech of Mk. Hayne 25 
 
 [No. 122 of the Riverside Literature Series contains Mr. Webster's 
 Speech in Rei)ly to Mr. Hayne, together with a sketch of Mr. Webster, 
 a fac-simile of a page of his manuscript, and tlie stenographic report of 
 the corresponding portion of the speech as actually delivered.] 
 
 2?32 "^ 
 
 Copyright, 1898, 
 By HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN &. CO. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 I 
 
 The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U.i 
 Klectrotyped and Printed by H. O. Huiighton and 
 
y' 
 
WEBSTER REPLYING 
 
 TO HAVXK. IX THE SEN. 
 {Painted in Paris by Gco> 
 
 I 
 
PE OF THE UNITED STATES, JANUARY 26, 1830 
 i Peter AUxatider Healy) 
 
 Ar 
 
THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 THE OCCASION AND THE EVENT. 
 
 Although neither of the speeches m the Great Debate 
 dwelt at any length on the topic which called them forth, 
 it is desirable to understand something of the causes and 
 occasion of such an event, possibly the most remarkable 
 episode which has happened in the national Congress. 
 During the first session of the Twenty-first Congress, and 
 on December 29, 1829, Samuel A. Foote of Connecticut 
 moved in the Senate the following resolution : — 
 
 " Resolved, That the Committee on Public Lands be 
 instructed to inquire and report the quantity of public 
 lands remaining unsold within each State and Territory, 
 and whether it be expedient to limit for a certain period 
 the sales of the public lands to such lands only as have 
 heretofore been offered for sale, and are now subject to 
 entry at the minimum price. And, also, whether the 
 ofl&ce of surveyor-general, and some of the land offices, may 
 not be abolished without detriment to the public interest." 
 
 It is important to notice that Mr. Foote acted on his own 
 responsibility in offering this resolution ; that it was moved 
 with a view to inquiry only ; and that a personal examina- 
 tion of a late report of the Commissioner of the Land 
 Office revealed that, -while the annual demand for public 
 land would not probably exceed a million acres, the quan- 
 tity remaining unsold at the minimum price was more than 
 seventy-two million acres. 
 
 Harmless as the resolution probably -was, it roused oppo- 
 sition from the "West and South. Mr. Benton of Missouri 
 thought that it implied an intention to harm the new West- 
 
8 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 ern States, while Mr. Holmes of Maine supported it as an 
 important measure. After Mr. Foote had asserted that he 
 held no purposes unfriendly to the Western States, there 
 was a postponement of consideration until January 11, 1830. 
 In the present instance the customary procrastination on 
 the part of Congress resulted in a real and lasting henefit 
 to the country. When the consideration was again taken 
 up on January 13, it was opposed by several Western 
 Senators, but on the 18th Mr. Benton spoke at length in 
 opposition ; on the next day Mr. Holmes rejoined and was 
 followed by other members. At this point Mr. Hayne 
 entered the debate and spoke for the remainder of the 
 day, and in the audience of Mr. Webster, who had come 
 into the Senate from an adjournment of the Supreme 
 Court, where he \vas then engaged on the imi)ortant case 
 of Carver v. Jackson ex dem. Astor. The tone of Mr. 
 Hayne's remarks was such that at an intimation from 
 some of his friends as to the necessity of an answer by a 
 Northern man, Mr. Webster, absorbed as he was with an 
 important legal case, rose to reply, but made room for a 
 motion to adjourn. On the next day. the 20th, the resolu- 
 tion under debate was altered, as suggested by Senators 
 Sprague of Maine and Woodbury of New Hampshire, by 
 the addition of the following clause : " Or whether it be 
 expedient to adopt measures to hasten the sales and extend 
 more rapidly the surveys of the public lands." In regard 
 to this matter of the public lands, brief explanations will be 
 made in the form of notes to the text of the two s])eeches. 
 
 After this modification of the original resolution Mr. 
 Webster took up the debate, and defended the course of 
 the government in its management of the public lands ; 
 he denied that any hostility had been shown the West ; in 
 particular he sought to show that New England had been 
 free from an adverse spirit. It was then that he so warmly 
 revived the memory of Nathan Dane as the author of the 
 Ordinance of 1787, by which was organized the govern- 
 
THE OCCASION AND THE EVENT. 9 
 
 ment of the Northwest Territory. As he had done before 
 and as he was often to do again in his political career, 
 Mr. Webster felt called upon to defend the consistency of 
 his own course. Though his second speech has wellnigh 
 caused his first on Foote's resolution to become faint in the 
 popular memory, one passage is worthy of the great orator 
 at his best, — his contrast between the Ohio of 1794 and 
 that of 1830. Mr. Benton followed him on that day. On 
 the 21st, Mr. Hayne began his second and famous speech, 
 not. however, before he had expressed an unwillingness to 
 postpone the discussion, at the request of Mr. Chambers of 
 Maryland, to allow Mr. Webster to be present. In reply 
 to this somewhat unusual refusal on the part of his oppo- 
 nent, Mr. Webster said : " Let the discussion proceed ; I 
 am ready now to receive the gentleman's fire." After Mr. 
 Benton had ended his speech which he had begun the day 
 before, Mr. Bell of New Hampshire moved a postponement 
 until the 25th, but the motion was lost. When Mr. Hayne 
 had spoken for about an hour, the Senate did adjourn 
 until the 25th, which fell on Monday, and on that day he 
 finished his argument in about two hours and a half. A 
 motion to adjourn, to which Mr. Webster yielded, pre- 
 vented the opening of his reply, \vith which he was then 
 ready. On January 26 ]\Ir. Webster began his speech 
 and spoke for three hours, when the Senate adjourned. 
 On the following day he finished. Thereupon Mr. Hayne, 
 acting with wisdom, decided to say what he had to say at 
 once, and spoke for half an hour entirely on constitutional 
 points. To this Mr. Webster rejoined with a close and pre- 
 cise summary of his own line of reasoning. It is pleasantly 
 remembered that on the evening of this eventful day the 
 combatants met courteously at one of the President's 
 levees in the White House, and exchanged the greetings of 
 gentlemen. 
 
 On May 21, 1830, Foote's resolution, after much discus- 
 sion, from which the life had mainly departed, was indeti- 
 
10 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 nitely postponed. Before the topic was dismissed, however, 
 it had been discussed by many of the strongest men of the 
 Senate ; and the arguments, some of them very able, ranged 
 from the temperate considerations of Sprague of Maine to 
 the splenetic utterances of Barton of Missouri, the residuary 
 legatee of John Randolph's invective. 
 
 One element of greatness in these speeches of Hayne 
 and Webster is the extreme simijlicity of each. They 
 could hardly have won the place which they hold in the 
 minds of all Americans had they been complex, or in any 
 wise unintelligible. Both orators rose so high above the 
 level of every-day politics that they saw and considered 
 only the larger historical landmarks. In one especial point, 
 however, the orations differ widely, Hayne, in both his 
 first and second effort, introduced far more of the personal 
 note. At the time, it was thought that his remarks were 
 offensive, and were deliberately meant to be so, to his oppo- 
 nent. Time has softened the impression, though his words 
 remain unchanged. If the charge is true, it is also in a 
 measure easy of explanation. If offense was given, it was 
 bold and direct, and not insinuating and allusive. Mr. 
 Hayne aimed at a section of the country which he thought 
 was intentionally hostile to the South and its adopted ally 
 the West, and he struck at New England through the per- 
 sonality of Mr. Webster, who was, even then, as some one 
 has said, almost an institution by himself. Mr. Webster 
 was a lawyer as well as a statesman ; and his practiced skill 
 taught him not only to turn the edge of his enemy's weapon, 
 as he did in the use which he made of Hayne's allusion to 
 Ban(j[uo's ghost, but also artfully to lift the whole discussion 
 to serener heights. Webster seems never to have indulged 
 in flattery toward an o]i]K)nent, but, largely throngh the 
 greatness of his nature, which had in it something of the in- 
 dolent, he was disposed to be tolerant, as he certainly was in 
 the present instance. One sees, therefore, nothing of that 
 terrible potency for denunciation in which he occasionally 
 
THE OCCASION AND THE EVENT. 11 
 
 indulged, as in his defense of the Ashburton Treaty, and in 
 his reply to IngersoU of Pennsylvania (1846). In another 
 important attribute also the two men differed. Mr. Webster 
 '^ was so fortunate as to possess a full and refreshing sense of 
 humor. The tense and more nervously wrought Southerner 
 lacked that powerful aid to the comprehensive intellect. 
 
 At the outset Mr. Hayne advances to attack the attitude 
 of New England toward the West; belittles the renown 
 of Nathan Dane ; and then challenges the consistency of 
 Webster in the latter 's course on public lands. He accuses 
 the East of a mercenary standard, and rehearses the change 
 of sentiment toward internal improvements and Western 
 interests. He then charges Webster with unfairly contrast- 
 ing the conditions of the slaveholding and the free States, 
 expounds the Southern attitude regarding slavery, and 
 makes a comparison between it and the poverty of the 
 North. He shows the profits derived by the whole country 
 from slave labor, and assails the spirit of false philanthropy 
 which seeks to disturb an existing security, and explains the 
 quality of the spirit of freedom at the South. He traces 
 the differing theories in regard to a federal or a national 
 union, and repudiates the consolidation of government. 
 Sharply turning from this point, he questions Mr. Web- 
 ster's change of attitude on the tariff. Perhaps in no part 
 of his speech is Mr. Hayne more telling. Then follows his 
 eloquent laudation of South Carolina, and of her devotion 
 during the Revolution and the War of 1812. At this junc- 
 ture he enters upon a prolonged criticism of the course of 
 New England, and particularly of Massachusetts, during 
 the events preceding and during the latter war. He cites 
 speeches and sermons to substantiate his arguments, and 
 closes this portion with a severe arraignment of the Hart- 
 ford Convention, accusing it of treasonable projects. Inci- 
 dentally he praises the democracy of New England for its 
 patriotism. From this point to the end he traces the South 
 Carolina doctrine of " constitutional remedy " from the Vir- 
 
12 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 ginia and Kentucky Resolutions and Madison's Report, 
 introducing the authority of Jefferson to support his views. 
 His conclusion is that the federal government is not the 
 exclusive judge of the extent of its powers. 
 
 Mr. Webster in beginning his reply calls for a reading 
 of the resolution ; denies in an easy manner that he has 
 been irritated by his opponent's thrusts, or that he first 
 sought the contest. He then takes up the charge of coa- 
 lition, in which he lightly turns the quotation from Mac- 
 beth regarding Banquo's ghost back upon Mr. Hayne. 
 This is followed by his tribute to Nathan Dane, and by a 
 denial that he, Mr. Webster, intended to attack the insti- 
 tution of slavery, though regarding it as " one of the great- 
 est evils," referring, the while, to early legislation on this 
 matter. He reverts to the Ordinance of 1787 and its 
 exclusion of slavery from the J^orthwest Territory ; then 
 defends his own consistency and that of New England in 
 regard to the public lands, and discusses at some length 
 the policy of internal improvements and of national develop- 
 ment, and shows that New England has supported mea- 
 sures favorable to the West. His own course in regard to 
 the various tariffs next receives attention, but a willingness 
 to drop this matter is jilainly shown. As to charges against 
 New England, he seeks to prove that such attitude as was 
 open to criticism there, as well as elsewhere, was partisan 
 rather than sectional. He denies the charge that he has 
 attacked South Carolina, and proceeds to eulogize the 
 memory of distinguished sons of that State. This portion 
 of his speech is rounded out with the famous apostrophe to 
 Massachusetts. From this point to the end he proclaims 
 his defense of the Constitution, and traces the origin of 
 our government and the source of its power, and contrasts 
 the opposition in New England before and during the War 
 of 1812 with the present attitude of South Carolina. He 
 differentiates the power of the States and that of the Union ; 
 denies the com])etency of the States to decide the validity 
 
THE OCCASION AND THE EVENT. 13 
 
 of laws ; portrays an hypothetical case of resistance by 
 South Carolina, and its mo<his ojjerandi. Then he exhibits 
 the legitimate remedies for imperfections in the Constitu- 
 tion, but denies all right to nullify its provisions. In con- 
 clusion follow his exhortation for the preservation of the 
 Union and the closing adjuration for Liberty and Union. 
 
 In this speech he carried out a threefold purpose : first, 
 in a dignified and yet good-humored way, to turn aside Mr. 
 Hayne's personalities from himself; second, to introduce 
 a more serious note into his defense of the East ; and, 
 third, advancing to his highest position, to proclaim, as he 
 had never done before, his full creed as to the powers of 
 the Constitution. There are various legends in regard to 
 the anxiety felt by his friends lest he did not fuUy realize 
 the gravity of the task before him, knowing that it devolved 
 upon him, with only slight preparation, to sustain an attack, 
 carefully preconcei-ted, of which the gallant and impetuous 
 Hayne represented only the vanguard. His preparation 
 certainly was slight and the time short, but Mr. Webster, 
 like most great men, was able to compensate for long inaction 
 by incredible swiftness at a push. Even then he could not 
 have compassed his purpose had not this tremendous effort 
 been the successful birth of ideas which had long been 
 gestating in his fertile and comprehensive intellect. 
 
 Mr. Hayne, on the other hand, seems to have relied 
 on a few lines of thought, derived mainly from Burke's 
 speeches, Mathew Carey's political writings, the reputed 
 doings of the Hartford Convention, the familiar text of the 
 Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, and Mr. Jefferson's 
 and Mr. Madison's views on the Constitution. The chief 
 merit of Hayne's speech lies, then, in the great spirit, cour- 
 age, and conviction of its author. There can be no fair 
 contrast between these two speeches ; it was a contest be- 
 tween a very able man and a preeminently great one. 
 
 The debate was held in the old senate chamber, after- 
 ward used by the Supreme Court. The memorable event 
 
14 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 was made the subject of an historical painting, of heroic 
 size, by Mr. George P. A. Healy, which now hangs in 
 Faneuil Hall in Boston. Over one hundred faces are ac- 
 curately represented in this impressive work. 
 
 In regard to the scene and the occasion much has been 
 written, including several contemporary accounts, but the 
 vivacious description by Charles W. March, in his " Daniel 
 Webster and his Contemporaries," has come to be regarded 
 as embodying, on the whole, the most graphic pen-picture 
 extant. Certain portions of this description here follow, 
 but it should be read in its entirety in Mr. March's volume. 
 
 " Those who had doubted Mr. Webster's ability to cope 
 with and overcome his opponents were fully satisfied of 
 their error before he had proceeded far in his speech. 
 Their fears soon took another direction. When they heard 
 his sentences of powerful thought, towering in accumula- 
 tive gi'andeur one above the other, as if the orator strove, 
 Titan-like, to reach the very heavens themselves, they were 
 giddy with an apprehension that he would break down in 
 his flight. They dared not believe that genius, learning, 
 any intellectual endowment however uncommon, that was 
 simply mortal, could sustain itself long in a career seem- 
 ingly so perilous. They feared an Icarian fall. 
 
 '' Ah ! who can ever forget, that was present to bear, 
 the tremendous, the awful burst of eloquence with which 
 the orator spoke of the Old Bay State ! or the tones of 
 deep pathos in which the words were pronounced ! 
 
 " What New Enoland heart was there but throbbed with 
 vehement, tumultuous, irrepressible emotion as he dwelt 
 upon New England sufferings. New England struggles, 
 and New England triumphs during the War of tlie Revo- 
 lution ? There was scarcely a dry eye in the Senate ; all 
 hearts were overcome ; grave judges and mfen grown old 
 in dijrnified life turned aside their heads to conceal the 
 evidences of their emotion. 
 
 " In one corner of the gallery was clustered a group of 
 
THE OCCASION AND THE EVENT. 15 
 
 Massachusetts men. They had hung from the first moment 
 upon the words of the speaker, with feelings variously but 
 always warmly excited, deepening in intensity as he pro- 
 ceeded. At first, while the orator was going through his 
 exordium, they held their breath and hid their faces, mind- 
 ful of the savage attack upon him and New England, and 
 the fearful odds against him, her champion ; as he went 
 deeper into his speech they felt easier ; when he turned 
 Hayne's flank on Banquo's ghost, they breathed freer and 
 deeper. But now, as he alluded to Massachusetts, their 
 feelings were strained to the highest tension ; and when 
 the orator, concluding his encomium upon the land of their 
 birth, turned, intentionally or otherwise, his burning eye 
 full upon them, they shed tears like girls ! 
 
 " No one who was not present can understand the excite- 
 ment of the scene. No one, who was, can give an ade- 
 quate description of it. No word-painting can convey the 
 deep, intense enthusiasm, the reverential attention, of that 
 vast assembly, nor limner transfer to canvas their earnest, 
 eager, awe-struck countenances. Though language were 
 as subtile and flexible as thought, it still would be impos- 
 sible to represent the full idea of the scene. There is 
 something intangible in an emotion which cannot be trans- 
 ferred. The nicer shades of feeling elude pursuit. Every 
 description, therefore, of the occasion seems to the narrator 
 himself most tame, spiritless, unjust. 
 
 " Much of the instantaneous effect of the speech arose, 
 of course, from the orator's delivery, — the tones of his 
 voice, his countenance and manner.^ These die mostly 
 
 ^ " The personal appearance of Mr. Webster has been a theme of 
 frequent discussion. Time had not thinned nor bleached his hair: 
 it was as dark as the raven's plumage, surmounting' his massive brow 
 in ample folds. His eyes, always dark and deep-set, enkindled by 
 some glowing thought, shone from beneath his sombre, overhanging 
 brow like lights, in the blackness of night, from a sepulchre. It was 
 such a countenance as Salvator Rosa delighted to paint. 
 
 " No one understood, or understands, better than Mr. Webster the 
 
16 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 with the occasion that calls them forth ; the impression 
 is lost in the attempt at transmission from one mind to 
 another. They can only be described in general terms. 
 'Of the effectiveness of Mr. Webster's manner in many 
 parts,' says Mr. Everett, 'it would be in vain to attempt 
 to give any one not present the faintest idea. It has been 
 my fortune to hear some of the ablest speeches of the great- 
 est living orators on both sides of the water, but I must 
 confess I never heard anything which so completely real- 
 ized my conception of what Demosthenes was when he de- 
 livered the Oiation for the Crown.' 
 
 " The exulting rush of feeling with which he went 
 through the peroration threw a glow over his countenance 
 like inspiration. Eye, brow, each feature, every line of the 
 face, seemed touched as with a celestial fire. All gazed 
 as at something moi'e than human. So Moses might have 
 appeared to the awe-struck Israelites as he emerged from 
 the dark clouds and thick smoke of Sinai, his face all ra- 
 diant with the breath of divinity ! 
 
 " The swell and roll of his voice struck upon the ears of 
 the spell-bound audience, in deep and melodious cadence, 
 as waves upon the shore of the ' far-resounding ' sea. The 
 Miltonic grandeur of his words was the fit expression of 
 his thought and raised his hearers up to his theme. His 
 voice, exerted to its utmost power, peneti'ated every recess 
 or corner of the Senate, — penetrated even the ante-rooms 
 and stairways as he pronounced in deepest tones of jiathos 
 these words of solemn significance. 
 
 " The speech was over, but the tones of the orator still 
 lingered upon the ear, and the audience, unconscious of the 
 
 pliilosophy of dress, — what a powerful auxiliary it is to speech and 
 manner wlien liarmonizing with them. On this occasion he appeared 
 in a blue coat and buff vest, — the Rerolutionai y colors of buff and 
 blue, — with a white cravat ; a costume than which none is more 
 becoming- to his face and expression. This courtly particularity of 
 dress adds no little to the influence of his manner and appearance." 
 (March.) 
 
THE OCCASION AND THE EVENT. 17 
 
 close, retained their positions. The agitated countenance, 
 the heaving breast, the suffused eye attested the continued 
 influence of the spell upon them. Hands that in the 
 excitement of the moment had sought each other, still re- 
 mained closed in an unconscious grasp. Eye still turned 
 to eye, to receive and repay mutual sympathy, and every- 
 where around seemed forgetfulness of all but the orator's 
 presence and words. 
 
 " When the Vice-President, hastening to dissolve the 
 spell, angrily called to order ! order ! there never was a 
 deeper stillness — not a movement, not a gesture had been 
 made, not a whisper uttered, — order ! Silence could 
 almost have heard itself, it was so supernaturally still. 
 The feeling was too overpowering to allow expression by 
 voice or hand. It was as if one was in a trance, all motion 
 paralyzed. 
 
 '^ But the descending hammer of the Chair awoke them 
 with a start, and with one universal, long-drawn, deep 
 breath, with which the overcharged heart seeks relief, the 
 crowded assembly broke up and departed." 
 
 The excitement which prevailed when it was known that 
 Webster would reply to Hayne was not confined to Wash- 
 ington. According to an interesting tradition which is worth 
 recalling though perhaps not accepting, the Providence 
 papers showed the most enterprise. It was determined that 
 if the weather was favorable, in addition to the relay of 
 horses, the Providence papers were to take advantage of the 
 quiet waters on Long Island Sound and place on board a 
 steamer frames and cases and type and compositors. The 
 water proved to be remarkably calm, and on arriving at 
 Providence the speech was in type, set up on the passage, 
 ready for proving and correcting, 'and of course was pub- 
 lished in an " extra " immediately. Of this legend the 
 editor finds no verification. It is probably a variant of a 
 story told of Henry J. Raymond. In 1843 Raymond re- 
 ported a speech by Webster, delivered at Boston in the 
 
18 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 afternoon, and had the type set up on board the night boat 
 for New York ; the next morning the speech appeared in 
 full in the " Tribune." 
 
 Mr. Hayne was in his thirty-ninth and Mr. Webster in 
 his forty-ninth year at the time of the Great Debate. It 
 is worthy of note that Webster calls his reply *' No. 1 
 among my political efforts." (" Private Correspondence," 
 ii. 415.) 
 
SKETCH OF ROBERT YOUNG HAYNE. 
 
 Robert Young Hayne was born in St. Paul's parish, 
 Colleton district, South Carolina, November 10, 1791 ; he 
 died at Asheville, North Carolina, September 24, 1839, 
 while attending a convention there, as president of the 
 Cincinnati and Charleston Railroad. 
 
 His career was typical of the best sort of Southern men 
 of his day, determined by a chivalrous love for his country 
 and his State, and by unselfish efforts to further their best 
 interests. Into the forty-eight years of his life was crowded 
 a succession of demands upon his courage, prudence, and 
 wisdom that severely tested his moral and intellectual re- 
 sources, and to none of them did he fail to respond. Edu- 
 cated in Charleston, he afterward studied and practiced 
 law there, having been admitted to the bar eight days 
 before his twenty-first birthday. A well-known anecdote 
 of Hayne gives a hint of at least one factor in the devel- 
 opment of his character. Judge Cheves, with whom he 
 studied law, being forced to abandon his legal practice 
 upon his election to Congress, left his large business in the 
 hands of this young pupil. When the latter expressed 
 some doubt as to his ability to carry on so responsible a 
 work, the judge said, '• My young friend, never distrust 
 yourself." Mr. Hayne is believed to have acted from that 
 time upon this advice, and we may readily believe it ; for 
 only this self-confidence, — which was far removed from 
 self-conceit, — combined with an unusually accurate know- 
 ledge of his own intellectual powers, could have carried him 
 so well through emergencies which seldom come to any but 
 the greatest men. 
 
 During the War of 1812 he served as captain in the 
 
20 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 third Soutli Carolina regiment, and at about this time he 
 married Miss Frances Pinckney, who died in 1818. Miss 
 Rebecca B. Alston became his wife two years later, and sur- 
 vived him. From 1814 to 1818 he was a member of the 
 legislature of the State, and during the last year of that 
 time he served as Speaker of the House. A characteristic 
 story is that which relates his preparation for entering upon 
 the duties of the last-named office. His election to the 
 speakership was unexpected, and he felt his knowledge of 
 parliamentary rules to be quite inadequate to the accept- 
 able i)erformance of the duties of the position. The House 
 having adjourned on the first day of the session after its 
 organization, Mr. Hayne borrowed from a friend a cojjy of 
 Jefferson's '' Manual " for the night, and the next day his 
 ability as a piesiding officer was unquestioned. General 
 McDuffie quotes him as saying on this occasion, " I have 
 always found that good sense and a firm ])urpose, with com- 
 petent general education, qualify a man for anything." 
 
 From 1818 to 1823 he held the attorney-generalship 
 of South Carolina, an office which he abandoned only to 
 take his seat in the Senate of the United States. It was a 
 peculiarly significant call at this crisis, when South Carolina 
 was striving to defeat the purpose of Congress to impose a 
 protective tariff". In common with the rest of the South, 
 South Carolina believed that she could hojje to avert this 
 catastrophe only through the influence and eloquence of her 
 ablest men. Hayne was barely old enough to take his seat, 
 but from the first he ranged himself with the op])osition to 
 the tariff, and unhesitatingly and unremittingly denied the 
 constitutional power of Congress to impose duties on im})orts 
 for the purpose of protecting American manufactures. 
 
 Mr. Hayne's debate with Webster was his first important 
 speech in the Senate. Accoi'ding to March, he had oc- 
 casionally addressed the Senate, and displayed qualities of 
 mind which seemed to justify all previous encomiums. He 
 was, too, personally poi)ular, — an advantage of no incon- 
 
SKETCH OF ROBERT YOUNG HAYNE. 21 
 
 siderable nature in whatever contest or undertaking a man 
 is engaged with liis fellows. Colonel Hayne deserved his 
 popularity. He had a courteous and frank address, con- 
 ciliatory manners and deportment. He was high-minded 
 and sincere ; easy and agreeable in conversation ; of gi'eat 
 vivacity of intellect, and mercurial talent. 
 
 " Hayne dashed into debate, like the Mameluke cavalry 
 upon a charge. There was a gallant air about him that 
 could not but win admiration. He never provided for 
 retreat ; he never imagined it. He had an invincible con- 
 fidence in himself, which arose partly from constitutional 
 temperament, partly from previous success. . . . His ora- 
 tory was graceful and persuasive. An impassioned man- 
 ner, somewhat vehement at times, but rarely if ever 
 extravagant; a voice well modulated and clear; a distinct 
 though rapid enunciation ; a confident but not often offen- 
 sive address : these, accompanying and illustrating language 
 well selected and periods well turned, made him a popular 
 and effective speaker. . . . 
 
 " Colonel Hayne was, incontestably, the most formidable 
 of Mr. Webster's opponents. He had more native and 
 acquired ability than any of them. Such is the concurrent 
 opinion of all who witnessed this great forensic contest ; 
 among others, of the Hon. Mr. Everett of Massachu- 
 setts." ^ 
 
 His speech, delivered January 9, 1832, in opposition to 
 Clay's proposal that duties should be repealed on all im- 
 ported articles which did not come into competition with 
 American manufactures, contains strong arguments for free 
 trade which have done duty ever since. Hayne's amend- 
 ment to Clay's resolution provided for the reduction of 
 duties to a revenue standard, " allowing a reasonable time 
 for the gradual reduction of the present high duties on the 
 articles coming into competition with similar articles made 
 or produced within the United States." But the tariff act 
 
 ^ Daniel Webster and his Contemporaries, by C. W. March. 
 
22 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 of 1832 was passed; and the legislature of South Caro- 
 lina, in response to an appeal from Hayne and his fellow- 
 congressmen, called a sovereign convention of the people, 
 which, on November 24, 1832, adopted the Ordinance of 
 Nullification, reported by Hayne as chairman of the com- 
 mittee of twenty-one. 
 
 Hayne resigned his seat in the Senate shortly afterward 
 to take the governorship of South Carolina at a time when 
 civil war seemed imminent if not inevitable. His belief in 
 the justice of South Carolina's cause held him firmly to a 
 purpose from the possible consequences of which his whole 
 nature recoiled, but he saw no honorable alternative. He 
 only affirmed that the United States must strike the first 
 blow ; then South Carolina would not flinch. During the 
 interval between the passing of the Ordinance and Clay's 
 consent to a compromise act which virtually granted 
 Hayne's original demand. General Jackson issued his Nul- 
 lification Proclamation, to which Hayne, at the request of 
 the legislature, responded by a counter-proclamation. The 
 compromise was accepted, and on March 11, 1833, South 
 Carolina called another convention and repealed the Nulli- 
 fication Ordinance. 
 
 Hayne's term of office as governor expired in 1834, and 
 he was then chosen the first mayor (intendant) of Charles- 
 ton, an office which he administered with his usual energy 
 and firmness. His natural business ability was unusual, 
 and his varied experiences had strengthened his grasp in 
 this direction, so that, having instigated and encouraged 
 the formation of the Louisville, Cincinnati, and Charleston 
 Railroad Company, he was naturally chosen as its president. 
 This was in January, 1837, and he was forced to resign his 
 position as mayor in order to accept it. 
 
 He became deei)ly interested in the growing problems of 
 conmmnicationand transjiortation, and advocated, among 
 otlier things, the establishment of direct commercial inter- 
 course between the Southern ports and Europe ; and it was 
 
SKETCH OF ROBERT YOUNG HAYNE. 23 
 
 while devoting his organizing ability to the development of 
 the material interests of the South that he was attacked by 
 a bilious fever, from which he died after a ten days' illness. 
 His body, temporarily interred at Asheville, was afterwards 
 taken to Charleston. 
 
 Mr. Hayne's character was singularly harmonious. Gen- 
 eral George McDuffie in his " Eulogy upon the Life and 
 Character of the late Robert Y. Hayne," delivered at the 
 request of the citizens of Charleston, says : " It is not so 
 much by any one faculty standing out in prominent relief, 
 as by the admirable adjustment of all his moral and intel- 
 lectual qualities that he was distinguished from other men." 
 He was not a great man, and yet he was not without some 
 of the qualities of greatness. Like all versatile men he did 
 many things well, but nothing supremely well. His gifts 
 as a lawyer made him an admirable attorney-general ; a 
 certain innate quickness in grasping the essentials of a 
 subject, and a naturally fluent and lucid speech easily 
 gained him a high place as a parliamentary debater ; his 
 coolness and tirniness at critical moments indicated him 
 as a leader in troublous times ; and his practical sense and 
 judgment in business affairs rendered it difficult not to 
 choose him to head a new and important enterprise of that 
 nature. His uncompromising character stood out in violent 
 contrast to Clay, who was, as Carl Schurz says, '' a natural 
 compromiser." And this was singularly noticeable at a 
 time when compromise was almost the watchword of the 
 hour. His enthusiasms, controlled in the main by the 
 judgment of a disciplined mind, produced that balance 
 which distinguishes the statesman from the politician. 
 
 He was, perhaps, one of the men to be loved rather than 
 venerated, and the tribute of affection has been generously 
 showered upon him and upon his memory. 
 
^ 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE 
 
 IN THE SENATE, ON MR. FOOTE'S RESOLUTION, 
 Thursday, Januaky 21, ahv Monday, January 25, 1830. 
 
 When I took occasion, Mr. President, two days 
 ago, to throw out some ideas with respect to the policy 
 of the government in relation to the public lands, 
 nothing certainly could have been further from my 
 thoughts than that I should be compelled again to 
 throw myself upon the indulgence of the Senate, 
 yliittle did I expect to be called upon to meet such an 
 argument as was yesterday urged by the gentleman 
 from Massachusetts [Mr. Webster]. Sir, I questioned 
 no "man's opinions, 1 impeached no man's motives, I 
 charged no party, or State, or section of country with 
 hostility to any other ; but ventured, I thought in a 
 becoming spirit, to put forth my own sentiments in 
 relation to a great national question of public policy. 
 Such was my course. The gentleman from Missouri 
 [Mr. Benton], it is true, had charged upon the East- 
 ern States an early and continued hostility toward the 
 West, and referred to a number of historical facts 
 and documents in support of that charge. Now, sir, 
 how have these different argiunents been met? The 
 honorable gentleman from Massachusetts, after delib- 
 erating a whole night upon his course, comes into this 
 chamber to vindicate New England ; and, instead of 
 making up his issue with the gentleman from ]\Iis- 
 souri on the charges which he had preferred, chooses 
 
26 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 to consider me as the author of those charges, and, 
 losing sight entii-ely of that gentleman, selects me as 
 his adversaiy and pours out all the vials of his mighty 
 wrath upon my devoted head. Nor is he willing to 
 stop there. He goes on to assail the institutions and 
 policy of the South, and calls in question the prin- 
 ciples and conduct of the State which I have the 
 honor to represent. When I find a gentleman of 
 mature age and experience, of acknowledged talents 
 and profound sagacity, pursuing a course like this, 
 declining the contest from the West and making war 
 upon the unoffending South, I must believe, I am 
 bound to believe, he has some object in view that he 
 has not ventured to disclose. Mr. President, why is 
 this? Has the gentleman discovered in former con- 
 troversies with the gentleman from Missouri that he 
 is overmatched by that Senator ? And does he hope 
 for an easy victory over a more feeble adversary? 
 Has the gentleman's distempered fancy been disturbed 
 by gloomy forebodings of " new alliances to be 
 formed," at which he hinted ? Has the ghost of the 
 murdered Coalition ^ come back, like the ghost of 
 Banquo, to "sear the eyeballs"'-^ of the gentleman, 
 and will it not "down at his bidding"? Are dark 
 
 ^ Tlie coalition or bargain alleged to have been made between 
 John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay, by which Adams was 
 chosen to the presidency and Clay became Secretary of State. 
 No one seriously believes this charge now, but it dogged the 
 career of Clay, and was instrumental in keeping him from the 
 presidency. Carl Schnrz, in his Henry Clay, vol. i. (American 
 Statesmen Series), tolls the story concisely. Clay's duel with 
 John Ilandolph arose from the charge of a combination pre- 
 ferred by the latter in his speech on the President's message in 
 182G. 
 
 - A reference to Shakespeare's Macbeth, act iv., scene 1, line 
 113. 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE. 27 
 
 visions of broken hopes and honors lost forever still 
 floating before his heated imagination ? Sir, if it be 
 his object to thrust me between the gentleman from 
 Missouri and himself, in order to rescue the East 
 from the contest it has provoked with the West, he 
 shall not be gratified. Sir, I will not be dragged into 
 the defense of my friend from Missouri. The South 
 shall not be forced into a conflict not its own. The 
 gentleman from Missouri is able to fight his own 
 battles. The gallant West needs no aid from the 
 South to repel any attack which may be made on 
 them from any quarter. Let the gentleman from 
 Massachusetts controvert the facts and arguments of 
 the gentleman from Missouri if he can ; and if he win 
 the victory, let him w ear its honors ; I shall not de- 
 prive him of his laurels. 
 
 The gentleman from Massachusetts, in reply to ray 
 remarks on the injurious operations of our land system 
 on the prosperity of the West, pronounced an extrava- 
 gant eulogium on the paternal care which the govern- 
 ment had extended toward the West, to which he 
 attributed all that was great,, and excellent in the 
 present condition of the new States. The language 
 of the gentleman on this topic fell upon my ears like 
 the almost forgotten tones of the Tory leaders of the 
 British Parliament at the commencement of the Ameri- (^ 
 can Revolution. They, too, discovered that the colo- 
 nies had grown great under the fostering care of the 
 mother country ; and I must confess, while listening 
 to the gentleman, I thought the appropriate reply to 
 his aro'ument was to be found in the remark of a cele- 
 brated orator, made on that occasion : " They have 
 grown great in spite of your protection." ^ 
 
 1 This is an adaptation rather than a quotation from Colonel 
 
28 THE GllEAT DEBATE. 
 
 The gentleman, in commenting on the policy of 
 the government in relation to the new States, has 
 introduced to our notice a certain Nathan Dane ^ of 
 ]\Iassachusetts, to whom he attributes the celebrated 
 Ordinance of '87,^ by which he tells us " slavery was 
 forever excluded from the new States north of the 
 Ohio." After eulogizing the wisdom of this provision 
 in terms of the most extravagant praise, he breaks 
 forth in admiration of the greatness of Nathan Dane ; 
 and great indeed he must be, if it be true, as stated 
 
 Barrd's speech on the Stamp Act, in the conrse of which he 
 said, "Tliey noniished by your indulgence! They grew by 
 your neglect of them ! " 
 
 1 Tlie animus shown by Hayne against Nathan Dane was due 
 to the provision in the Ordinance of 1787 which excluded " slav- 
 ery and involuntary servitude " from the Northwest Territory. 
 Dune was the framer of this Ordinance. He held numerous 
 public offices, but he is best remembered as founder of the Dane 
 professorship in the Harvard Law School. On three several 
 occasions he was employed by his native State on the revision 
 of laws, charters, and statutes. His most important work is A 
 General Abridgment and Digest of American Law. He was born 
 in Ipswich, ^lassachusetts, in 1752, graduated at Harvard Col- 
 lege in 1778, and received the degree of LL. D. from that insti- 
 tution. He died in Beverly in 1835. Dane's own view of the 
 Ordinance of 1787 is given in a letter to Webster. {Proceedings 
 of Maasockuselts Historical Societi/, 1807-69, pp. 475-80.) 
 
 - " An ordinance for the government of tlie territory of the 
 United States northwest of the river Ohio" was reported in 
 1787 to the Continental Congress. It provided, among other 
 matters, for the immediate abolition of slavery in the Territory, 
 wherein it dilVerr<l Irom -letterson's plan known as the Ordi- 
 nance of 1784, wbicli it hirgcly followed. The reason for its 
 adoption lay in the fact that, containing a jjrovisiou for the re- 
 turn of fugitive slaves, it did not encounter Southern opposition. 
 Tills territory included the area east of tlie Mississippi, west of 
 Pennsylvania, and north of the Ohio Kivci-. cedsd to Congress 
 bv Virginia, New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE. 29 
 
 by the Senator from Massacliusetts, that '' he was 
 greater than Solon and Lvcurgus, Minos, Numa Pom- 
 pilius, and all the legislators and philosophers of the 
 world," ancient and modern. ^ Sir, to such high 
 authority it is certainly my duty, in a becoming spirit 
 of humility, to submit. And yet the gentleman wall 
 pardon me when I say that it is a little unfortunate 
 for the fame of this great legislator that the gentleman 
 from ^Missouri should have proved that he was not 
 the author of the Ordinance of '87,^ on which the 
 Senator from Massachusetts has reared so glorious a 
 monument to his name. Sir, I doubt not the Senator 
 will feel some compassion for our ignorance when I 
 tell him that so little are we acquainted with the 
 modern great men of New England that, until he 
 informed us yesterday that we possessed a Solon and 
 a Lvcurgus in the person of Nathan Dane, he was 
 only known to the South as a member of a celebrated 
 assembly called and known by the name of the " Hart- 
 ford Convention." ^ In the proceedings of that assem- 
 
 ' Webster, in his first speech on Foote's resohition {Works, 
 1853, vol. iii. p. 2G3), says : " We help to perpetuate the fame 
 of Solon and Lvcurgus ; but 1 doubt whether one single law of 
 any lawgiver, ancient or modern, has produced effects of more 
 distinct, marked, and lasting character." 
 
 2 In answer to Benton on this matter, Webster said in his 
 second speech, " It so happened that he [Dane] drew the Ordi- 
 nance of 1787," — making no further defense of his assertion. 
 
 8 Twenty-six rejn-esentatives from Massachusetts, Connecti- 
 cut, and Rhode. Island, and from two counties in New Hamp- 
 shire and one in Vermont, met at Hartford, Connecticut, on 
 December 15, 1814, and adjourned January 5, 1815. This con- 
 vention was an open expression of dissatisfaction on tlic part 
 of the Federalists of New England with the War of ISl'J, in 
 which that section of the country had taken little part. To this 
 day an impression exists that the convention was treasonable in 
 
/ 
 
 30 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 bly, which I hold in my hand (at page 19)/ will be 
 found, in a few lines, the history of Nathan Dane ; 
 and a little further on there is conclusive evidence of 
 that ardent devotion to the interest of the new States 
 which, it seems, has given him a just claim to the title 
 of " Father of the West." By the second resolution 
 of the " Hartford Convention " it is declared " that it 
 is expedient to attempt to make provision for restrain- 
 ing Congress in the exercise of an unlimited poVer to 
 make new States and admit them into this Union." 
 So much for Nathan Dane of Beverly, Massachusetts. 
 In commenting upon my views in relation to the 
 public lands, the gentleman insists that, it being one 
 of the conditions of the grants that these lands should 
 be applied to " the common benefit of all the States, 
 they must always remain a fund for revenue ; " and 
 adds, "they must be treated as so much treasure." 
 Sir, the gentleman could hardly find language strong 
 enough to convey his disapprobation of the policy 
 which I had ventured to recommend to the favorable 
 consideration of the country. And what, sir, was that 
 policy, and what is the difference between that gentle- 
 man and myself on this subject? I threw out the 
 idea that the public lands ought not to be reserved 
 forever as " a great fund for revenue : ' that they 
 ought not to be treated " as a great treasure ; " but 
 that the course of our policy should rather be directed 
 toward the creation of new States, and building up 
 great and flourishino- communities. 
 
 its piu'poscs, and intoiulcd to dissolve the Union. It is true that 
 grievances were phiinly expressed and changes urged in the 
 Constitution. These changes were to he proposed by a conven- 
 tion of all the States, to wliich the Hartford Convention was 
 jireliniinary. 
 
 ' Tlic reference is to Lyman's Short Account of the Hartford 
 Convention. 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE. 31 
 
 Now, sir, \\\\\ it be believed, by those who now hear 
 me, and who listened to the gentleman's denunciation 
 of my doctrines yesterday, that a book lay open before 
 him, — nay, that he held it in liis hand and read from 
 it certain passages of his own speech delivered to the 
 House of Representatives in 1825, in which speech he 
 himself contended for the very doctrines I had advo- 
 cated, and almost in the very same terms ? Here is the 
 speech of the Hon. Daniel Webster, contained in the 
 first volume of Gales and Seaton's " Register of De- 
 bates" (page 251), delivered in the House of Rej^re- 
 sentatives on the 18th of January, 1825, in a debate on 
 the Cumberland Road,^ — the very debate from which 
 the Senator read yesterday. I shall read from the cele- 
 brated sj^eech two passages from which it will appear 
 that, both as to the past and the future policy of the 
 government in relation to the public lands, the gentle- 
 man from Massachusetts maintained in 1825 substan- 
 tially the same opinions which I have advanced, but 
 which he now so strongly reprobates. I said, sir, that 
 the system of credit sales by which the West had 
 been kept constantly in debt to the United States, 
 and by which their wealth was drained off to be ex- 
 pended elsewhere, had operated injuriously on their 
 prosperity. On this point the gentleman from jMassa- 
 chusetts in January, 1825, expressed himself thus : 
 " There could be no doubt, if gentlemen looked at the 
 
 ^ The Ciiniberlancl or National Road was first projected from 
 Cumberland, Maryland, to the Ohio River, but was extended as 
 far as Illinois. From 1806 to 1838, as many as sixty bills were 
 passed regarding its establishment, maintenance, and extension, 
 the total appropriations amounting to nearly .'?7,000,000. The 
 constitutionality of an act of Congress tiuis to provide for an 
 internal improvement was vigorously denied, and Monroe vetoed 
 one bill in 1822 which provided for repairing the road. 
 
32 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 money received into the Treasury from the sale of the 
 public lands to the West, and then looked to the 
 whole amount expended by government (even includ- 
 ing the whole amount of what was laid out for the 
 army), the latter must be allowed to be very incon- 
 siderable, and there must be a constant drain of 
 money from the West to pay for the public lands. It 
 might indeed be said that this was no more than the 
 refluence of capital which had previously gone over 
 the mountains. Be it so. Still its practical effect 
 was to produce inconvenience, if not distress, by ab- 
 sorbing the money of the people." 
 
 I contended that the public lands ought not to be 
 treated merely as " a fund for revenue : '" that they 
 ouffht not to be hoarded " as a q:reat treasure." On 
 this point the Senator expressed himself thus : Govern- 
 ment, he believed, had received eighteen or twenty mil- 
 lions of dollars from the public lands, and it was with 
 the greatest satisfaction he adverted to the change 
 which had been introduced in the mode of paying for 
 them ; yet he could never think the national domain 
 was to be regarded as any great source of revenue. The 
 great object of the government, in respect to these 
 lands, was not so much the money derived from their 
 sale as it was the getting them settled. What he 
 meant to say was, he did not think they ought to hug 
 that domain as a great treasure which was to enrich 
 the exchequer. 
 
 Now, Mr. President, it will be seen that the very 
 doctrines which the gentleman so indiguantlv abau- 
 dons were urged by liim in 1825 ; and if I had ac- 
 tually borrowed my sentiments from those which he 
 then avowed, I could not have followed more closely 
 in his footsteps. Sir, it is only since the gentleman 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE. 33 
 
 qiK^ted this book, yt'sterday. that my attention has 
 been turned to the sentiments lie expressed in 1825 : 
 and if 1 had remembered them, I might possibW have 
 been deterred from uttering sentiments here which, it 
 might well be supposed, I had borrowed from that 
 gentleman. 
 
 In 1825 the gentleman told the worhl that the pub- 
 lie lands •* ought not to be treated as a treasure." He 
 now tells us that " they must be treated as so much a 9 
 treasure." What the deliberate opinion of the gen- 
 tleman on this subject may be, belongs not to me to 
 determine ; but I do not think he can, with the shadow 
 of justice or proprietj% impugn my sentiments, while 
 his own recorded opinions are identical with my own. 
 When the gentleman refers to the conditions of the 
 grants under wdiich the United States have acquired 
 these lands, and insists that, as they are declared to 
 be " for the connnon benefit of all the States," they 
 can only be treated as so much treasure, I think he 
 has applied a rule of construction too narrow for the 
 case. If, in the deeds of cession, it has been declared 
 that the grants were intended " for the common benefit 
 of all the States," it is clear, from other provisions, that 
 they were not intended merely as so much property ; 
 for it is expressly declared that the object of tlie grants 
 is the erection of new States ; and the United States, 
 in accepting this trust, bind themselves to facilitate 
 the foundation of those States, to be admitted into the 
 Union with all the rights and privileges of the original 
 States. 
 
 This, sir, was the great end to which all parties 
 looked, and it is by the fulfillment of this high trust 
 that '• the common benefit of all the States " is to be 
 best promoted. Sir, let me tell the gentleman that in 
 
34 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 the part of the country in which I live we do not 
 measure political benefits by the money standard. We 
 consider as more valuable than gold, liberty, principle, 
 and justice. But, sir, if we are bound to act on the 
 narrow principles contended for by the gentleman, I 
 am wholly at a loss to conceive how he can reconcile 
 his principles with his own practice. The lands are, 
 it seems, to be treated " as so much treasure," and 
 must be applied to the " common benefit of all the 
 States." Now, if this be so, whence does he derive 
 the right to appropriate tliem for partial and local 
 objects ? How can the gentleman consent to vote away 
 immense bodies of these lands for canals in Indiana 
 and Illinois, to the Louisville and Portland Canal,^ 
 to Kenyon College in Ohio, to schools for the deaf 
 and dumb, and other objects of a similar description ? 
 If grants of this character can fairlv be considered as 
 made " for the common benefit of all the States," it 
 can only be because all the States are interested in 
 the welfare of each, — a principle which, carried to the 
 full extent, destroys all distinction between local and 
 national objects, and is certainly broad enough to 
 embrace the principles for which I have ventured to 
 contend. Sir, the true difference between us I take 
 to be this : the gentleman wishes to treat the public 
 lands as a great treasure, just as so much money in 
 the treasury, to be applied to all objects, constitu- 
 tional and unconstitutional, to which the public money 
 is now constantly a]>plied. I consider it as a sacred 
 trust which we ought to fulfill on the principles for 
 which I have contended. 
 
 The Senator from Massachusetts has thought proper 
 to present, in strong contrast, the friendly feelings of 
 ' Incorporated January 12, 1825. 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HA YNE. 35 
 
 the East toward the West, with sentiments of an op- 
 posite character displayed by the South in relation to 
 appropriations for internal improvement. Now, sir, 
 let it be recollected that the South have made no pro- 
 fessions (I have certainly made none in their behalf) 
 of rejrard for the West. It has been reserved to the 
 gentleman from Massachusetts, while he vaunts his 
 own personal devotion to Western interests, to claim 
 for the entire section of country to which he belongs 
 an ardent friendship for the West, as manifested by 
 their support of the system of internal improvement, 
 while he casts in our teeth the reproach that the South 
 has manifested hostility to Western interests in op- 
 posing appropriations for such objects. That gentle- 
 man, at the same time, acknowledged that the South 
 entertains constitutional scruples on this subject. Are 
 we then, sir, to understand that the gentleman consid- 
 ers it a just subject of reproach that we respect our 
 oaths by which we are bound " to preserve, protect, 
 and defend the Constitution of the United States " ? 
 Would the gentleman have us manifest our love to 
 the West by trampling under foot our constitutional 
 scruples ? Does he not perceive, if the South is to be 
 reproached with unkindness to the West in voting 
 against appropriations which the gentleman admits 
 they could not vote for without doing violence to their 
 constitutional opinions, that he exposes himself to 
 the question whether, if he were in our situation, he 
 could vote for these appropriations, regardless of his 
 scruples? No, sir, I will not do the gentleman so 
 great injustice. He has fallen into this error from 
 not havinof dulv weijrhed the force and effect of the 
 reproach which he was endeavoring to cast upon the 
 South. In relation to the other point, the friendship 
 
36 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 nianifested by New England toward the West in their 
 support of the system of internal improvement, the 
 gentleman will pardon me for saying that I think he 
 is eqi;ally unfortunate in having introduced that topic. 
 As that gentleman has forced it upon us, however, I 
 cannot suffer it to pass unnoticed. When the gentle- 
 man tells us that the appropriations for internal 
 improvement in the West would, in almost every 
 instance, have failed but for the New England votes, 
 he has forgotten to tell us the when, the how, and the 
 wherefore this new-born zeal for the West sprung up 
 in the bosom of New England. If we look back only 
 a few 5'ears, we will find in both Houses of Congress 
 a uniform and steady opposition on the part of the 
 members from the Eastern States generally to all 
 appropriations of this character. At the time I be- 
 came a member of this House, and for some time 
 afterwards, a decided majority of the New England 
 Senators were opposed to the very measures which the 
 Senator from Massachusetts tells us they now cordially 
 support. Sir, the Journals are before me, and an 
 examination of them will satisfy every gentleman of 
 that fact. 
 
 It must be well known to every one whose experi- 
 ence dates back as far as 1825 that, up to a certain 
 period. New England was generally opposed to appro- 
 priations for internal improvements in the West. The 
 gentleman from Massachusetts may be himself an 
 exception, but if he went for the system before 1825, 
 it is certain that his colleagues did not go with him. 
 In the session of 1821 and 1825, however (a memora- 
 ble era in the history of this country), a wonderful 
 change took place in New England in relation to 
 Western interests. Sir. an extraordinary union of 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE. 37 
 
 s^Tiipatliies and of interests was then effected, which 
 brouoht the East and the West into close alliance. 
 The book from which I have before read contains the 
 first pul)lic annunciation of that ha])py reconciliation 
 of conflicting interests, personal and political, which 
 bi-ought the East and West together, and locked in a 
 fraternal embrace the two great orators ^ of the East 
 and the West. Sir, it was on the 18th of January, 
 1825, while the result of the Presidential election, in 
 the House of Representatives, was still doubtful, while 
 the whole country was looking with intense anxiety to 
 that legislative hall where the mighty drama was so 
 soon to be acted, that we saw the leaders of two great 
 parties in the House and in the nation " taking sweet 
 counsel together," and in a celebi-ated debate on the 
 Cumberland Road fighting side by side for Western 
 interests. It was on that memorable occasion that 
 the Senator from Massachusetts held out the white 
 flas: to the West, and uttered those liberal sentiments 
 which he yesterday so indignantly repudiated. Then 
 it was that that happy union between the members of 
 the celebrated Coalition was consummated, whose im- 
 mediate issue was a President from one quarter of the 
 Union, with a succession (as it was supposed) secured 
 to another. The "-American System," ^ before a rude, 
 disjointed, and misshapened mass, now assumed form 
 and consistency. Then it was that it became " the set- 
 tled policy of the government " that this system should 
 be so administered as to create a reciprocity of interests 
 
 1 Clay and Webster. 
 
 - Heiiry Clay gave the name oj "American System" to his 
 plan of protection and internal improvement brought forward 
 during the debates which preceded the passage of the tarilf of 
 1824. 
 
38 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 and a reciprocal distribution of government favors, 
 East and M'est (the tariff and internal improvements), 
 while the South — yes, sir, the impracticable South — 
 was to be " out of your protection." The gentleman 
 may boast as much as he pleases of the friendship of 
 New England for the West, as displayed in their sup- 
 port of internal improvement ; but, when he next 
 introduces that topic, I trust that he will tell us when 
 that friendship commenced, how it was brought about, 
 and why it was established. Before I leave this topic 
 I must be permitted to say that the true character of 
 the policy now pursued by the gentleman from Massa- 
 chusetts and his friends, in relation to appropriations 
 of land and money for the benefit of the West, is in 
 my estimation very similar to that pursued by Jacob 
 of old toward his brother Esau : "it robs them of 
 their birthright for a mess of pottage." 
 
 The gentleman from Massachusetts, in alluding to 
 a remark of mine that, before any disposition could be 
 made of the public lands, the national debt, for which 
 they stand pledged, must be first paid, took occasion 
 to intimate " that the extraordinary fervor which 
 seems to exist in a certain quarter [meaning the 
 South, sir], for the payment of the debt, arises from 
 a disposition to weaken the ties which bind the people 
 to the Union." While the gentleman deals us this 
 blow, he professes an ardent desire to see the debt 
 speedily extinguished. He must excuse me, however, 
 for feeling some distrust on that subject until I find 
 this disposition manifested by something stronger than 
 professions. I shall look for acts, decided and une- 
 quivocal acts, for the peiformance of which an oppor- 
 tunity will very soon (if I am not greatly mistaken) 
 be afforded. Sir, if I were at liberty to judge of the u 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE. 39 
 
 course wliieh that gentleman would pursue, from the 
 principles which he has laid down in relation to this 
 matter, 1 should be bound to conclude that he will be 
 found acting with those with whom it is a darling 
 object to prevent the payment of the public debt. 
 He tells us he is desirous of paying the debt, "because 
 we are under an obligation to discharge it." Now, 
 sir, suppose it shoidd happen that the public credit- 
 ors, with whom we have contracted the obligation, 
 should release us from it, so far as to declare their 
 willingness to wait for payment for fifty years to 
 come, provided only the interest shall be punctually 
 discharged. The gentleman from Massachusetts will 
 then be released from the obligation which now makes 
 him desirous of paying the debt ; and, let me tell 
 the gentleman, the holders of the stock will not 
 only release us from this obligation, but they will 
 implore, nay, they will even pay us not to pay them. 
 " But," adds the gentleman, " so far as the debt may 
 have an effect in binding the debtors to the country, 
 and thereby serving as a link to hold the States 
 together, he would be glad that it should exist for- 
 ever." Surely then, sir, on the gentleman's own 
 principles, he must be opposed to the payment of the 
 debt. 
 
 Sir, let me tell that gentleman that the South repu- 
 diates the idea that a pecuniary dependence on the 
 federal oovernment is one of the legitimate means of 
 holding the States together. A moneyed interest in 
 the government is essentially a base interest ; and just 
 so far as it operates to bind the feelings of those who 
 are subjected to it to the government, — just so far 
 V as it operates in creating sympathies and interests 
 
 / that would not otherwise exist, — is it opposed to all 
 
40 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 the principles of free government, and at war with 
 virtue and patriotism. Sir, the link which binds the 
 public creditors, as such, to their country, binds them 
 equally to all governments, whether arbitrary or free. 
 In a free government, this principle of abject depend- 
 ence, if extended thi'ough all the ramifications of 
 society, must be fatal to liberty. Already have we 
 made alarming^ strides in that direction. The entire 
 class of manufacturers, the holders of stocks, with 
 their hundreds of millions of capital, are held to the 
 government by the strong link of pecuniary interests ; 
 millions of people — entire sections of country, inter- 
 ested, or believing themselves to be so, in the public 
 lands and the public treasure — are bound to the gov- 
 ernment by the expectation of pecuniary favors. If 
 this system is carried much further, no man can fail 
 to see that every generous motive of attachment to 
 the country will be destroyed, and in its place will 
 spring up those low, groveling, base, and selfish feel- 
 ings which bind men to the footstool of a despot by 
 bonds as strong and enduring as those which attach 
 them to free institutions. Sir, I would lay the foun- 
 dation of this government in the affections of the 
 people. I would teach them to cling to it by dis- 
 pensing equal justice and, above all, by securing the 
 " blessings of liberty " to " themselves and to their 
 posterity." 
 
 The honorable gentleman from Massachusetts has 
 gone out of his way to pass a high eulogium on the 
 State of Ohio. In the most impassioned tones of elo- 
 quence he described her nuijestic march to greatness. 
 He told us that, having already left all the other States 
 far behind, she was now passing by Virginia and 
 Pennsylvania, and about to take her station by the 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HA YNE. 41 
 
 side of New York. To all this, sir, I was disposed 
 most cordially to respond. When, however, the gen- 
 tleman proceeded to contrast the State of Ohio with 
 Kentucky, to the disadvantage of the latter, I listened 
 to him with regret ; and when he proceeded further to 
 attribute the great and, as he supposed, acknowledged 
 superiority' of the former in population, wealth, and 
 general prosperity to the policy of Nathan Dane of 
 Massachusetts, which had secured to the peojde of 
 Ohio (by the Ordinance of '87) a population of free- 
 men, I will confess that my feelings suffered a revul- 
 sion which I am now unable to describe in any lan- 
 guage sufficiently respectful toward the gentleman 
 from Massachusetts. In contrasting the State of Ohio 
 with Kentucky, for the purpose of pointing out the 
 superiority of the former, and of attributing that 
 superiority to the existence of slavery in the one State 
 and its absence in the other, I thought I could dis- 
 cern the very spirit of the Missouri question ^ intruded 
 
 1 The Missouri Compromise came about in the following 
 manner : In the first session of the Sixteenth Congress the 
 House passed a bill admitting Maine, but refused to admit Mis- 
 souri as a slave State. In the Senate the Maine bill and another 
 for the admission of Missouri with slavery were combined in one 
 bill and passed, but this bill was rejected by the House. By 
 means of a compromise effected by Clay and other moderate 
 members, the Senate then allowed each State to be voted on 
 separately, and the House agreed to permit slavery in ]Missouri. 
 Then both Houses prohibited slavery north of 36° 30', and Maine 
 was admitted to the Union, while the formation of a State gov- 
 ernment in Missouri was authorized. In the second session of 
 the Sixteenth Congress Missouri applied for admission, and the 
 House rejected the application because a clause in the Constitu- 
 tion of Missouri prohibited the entrance of free negroes. On 
 March 2, 1821, Clay managed to admit Missouri on the condition 
 that it should never pass an act to interfere with the constitu- 
 tional privileges of citizens of another State. 
 
42 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 into this debate for objects best known to the gentle- 
 man himself. Did that gentleman, sir, when he 
 formed the determination to cross the Southern border 
 in order to invade the State of South Carolina, deem 
 it prudent or necessary to enlist under his banners the 
 prejudices of the world, which, like Swiss troops, may- 
 be engaged in any cause, and are prepared to serve 
 under any leader ? Did he desire to avail himself of 
 those remorseless allies, the passions of mankind, of 
 which it may be more truly said than of the savage 
 tribes of the wilderness that their '• known rule of 
 warfare is an indiscriminate slaughter of all ages, 
 sexes, and conditions " ? ^ Or was it supposed, sir, 
 that, in a premeditated and unprovoked attack upon 
 the South, it was advisable to begin by a gentle ad- 
 monition of our supposed weakness, in order to prevent 
 us from making that firm and manly resistance due to 
 our own character and our dearest interests? Was 
 the significant hint of the weakness of slaveholding 
 States, when contrasted with the superior strength of 
 free States, — like the glare of the weapon half drawn 
 from its scabbard, — intended to enforce the lessons 
 of prudence and of patriotism which the gentleman 
 had resolved, out of his abundant generosity, gratui- 
 tously to bestow upon us ? Mr. President, the impres- 
 sion 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 in- 
 jury, and is calculated to produce such infinite mis- 
 
 1 " He has excited domestic insurrection among us, and has 
 endeavored to brinsr on the inhabitants of our frontiers the 
 merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an 
 undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions " 
 (Declaration of Independence). 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE. 43 
 
 chiefs, that I embrace the occasion presented by the 
 remarks of the gentleman from ISIassaehusetts to 
 declare that we are ready to meet the question 
 promptly and fearlessly. It is one from which we are 
 not disposed to shrink, in whatever form or under 
 whatever circumstances it may be pressed upon us. 
 
 We are ready to make up the issue ^^'ith the gentle- 
 man as to the influence of slavery on individual and 
 national character, — on the prosperity and greatness 
 either of the United States or of particular States. 
 Sir, when arraigned before the bar of public opinion 
 on this charge of slavery, we can stand up with con- 
 scious rectitude, plead not guilty, and put ourselves 
 upon God and our country. Sir, we will not consent 
 to look at slavery in the abstract. We will not stop 
 to inquire whether the black man, as some philoso- 
 phers have contended, is of an inferior race, nor 
 whether his color and condition are the effects of a 
 curse inflicted for the ofi^enses of his ancestors. We 
 deal in no abstractions. We will not look back to 
 inquire whether our fathers were guiltless in introdu- 
 cing slaves into this country. If an inquiry should 
 ever be instituted into these matters, however, it will 
 be found that the profits of the slave trade were not 
 confined to the South. Southern ships and Southern 
 sailors were not the instruments of bringing slaves to 
 the shores of America, nor did our merchants reap the 
 profits of that " accursed traffic." But, sir, we will 
 pass over all this. If slavery, as it now exists in this 
 country, be an evil, we of the present day found it 
 ready made to our hands. Finding our lot cast among 
 a people whom God had manifestly committed to our 
 care, we did not sit down to speculate on abstract 
 questions of theoretical liberty. We met it as a prac- 
 
44 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 tical question of obligation and duty. We resolved 
 to make the best of the situation in which Providence 
 had placed us, and to fidfill the high trust which had 
 devolved upon us as the owners of slaves, in the only- 
 way in which such a trust could be fulfilled without 
 spreading misery and ruin throughout the land. AVe 
 found that we had to deal with a people whose phy- 
 sical, moral, and intellectual habits and character 
 totally disqualified them for the enjoyment of the 
 blessings of freedom. 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 bar- 
 ren 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 gTatify the feelings of a false philan- 
 thropy. What a commentary on the wisdom, justice, 
 and humanity of the Southern slave-owner is presented 
 by the example of certain benevolent associations and 
 charitable individuals elsewhere ! 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. By means of 
 missionaries and political tracts, the scheme was in a 
 great measure successful. Thousands of these deluded 
 victims of fanaticism were seduced into the enjoyment 
 of freedom in our Northern cities. And what has 
 been the consequence? Go to these cities now and 
 ask the question. Visit the dark and narrow lanes, 
 and obscure recesses, which have been assigned by 
 common consent as the abodes of those outcasts of the 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE. 45 
 
 world, the free people of color. 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 de- 
 cencies of life, as the unfortunate blacks of Philadel- 
 phia, and New York, and Boston. Liberty has been 
 to them the greatest of calamities, the heaviest of 
 curses. Sir, I have had some opportunities of making 
 comparison 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. Never have I 
 felt so forcibly that touching description, " the foxes 
 have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but 
 the Son of man hath not where to lay his head," as 
 when I have seen this unhappy race, naked and house- 
 less, almost starving in the streets, and abandoned by 
 all the world. Sir, I have seen in the neighborhood 
 of one of the most moral, religious, and refined cities 
 of the North a family of free blacks driven to the 
 caves of the rock, and there obtaining a precarious 
 subsistence from charity and plunder. 
 
 When the gentleman from jMassachusetts adopts 
 and reiterates the old charge of weakness as resulting 
 from slavery, I must be permitted to call for the proof 
 of those blighting effects which he ascribes to its in- 
 fluence. I suspect that when the subject is closely 
 examined, it will be found that there is not much 
 force even in the plausible objection of the want of 
 physical power in slaveholding States. The power 
 of a country is compounded of its poi)ulation and its 
 wealth : and in modern times, where, from the very 
 form and structure of society, by far the greater por- 
 
46 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 tion of the people must, even during the continuance 
 of the most desolating wars, be employed in the culti- 
 vation of the soil and other peaceful pursuits, it may be 
 well doubted whether slaveholding States, by reason 
 of the superior value of their productions, are not able 
 to maintain a number of troops in the field fully equal 
 to what could be supported by States with a larger 
 white population but not possessed of equal resources. 
 It is a popular error to suppose that in any possible 
 state of things the people of a country could ever be 
 called out en ?7iasse, or that a half, or a third, or even 
 a fifth part of the physical force of any country could 
 ever be brought into the field. The difficulty is not 
 to procure men, but to provide the means of maintain- 
 ing them ; and in this view of the subject it may be 
 asked whether the Southern States are not a source 
 of strength and power, and not of weakness, to the 
 country, — whether they have not contributed and 
 are not now contributing largely to the wealth and 
 prosperity of every State in this Union. From a 
 statement which I hold in my hand it appears that 
 in ten yeai's, from 1818 to 1827 inclusive, the whole 
 amount of the domestic exports of the United States 
 was $521,811,045 ; of which three articles (the pro- 
 duct of slave labor), viz., cotton, rice, and tobacco, 
 amounted to 1339,203,232, equal to about two thirds 
 of the whole. It is not true, as has been supposed, 
 that the advantages of this labor are confined al- 
 most exclusively to the Soutliern States. Sir, I am 
 thoroughly convinced that, at this time, the States 
 north of the Potomac actually derive greater profits 
 from the labor of our slaves than we do ourselves. 
 It appears from our public documents that in seven 
 years, from 1821 to 1827 inclusive, the six Southern 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE. 47 
 
 States exported .fl90,337,281 and imported only 
 $55,646,301. Now, the difference between these two 
 sums (near $140,000,000) passed through the hands 
 of the Northern merchants, and enabled them to carry 
 on their commercial operations with all the world. 
 Such part of these goods as found its way back to our 
 hands came charged with the duties, as well as the 
 profits, of the merchant, the shipowner, and a host of 
 others, who found employment in carrying on these 
 immense exchanges ; and for such part as was con- 
 sumed at the North we received in exchange Northern 
 manufactures, charged with an increased price, to 
 cover all the taxes which the Northern consumer has 
 been compelled to pay on the imported article. It 
 will be seen, therefore, at a glance, how much slave 
 labor has contributed to the wealth and prosperity 
 of the United States, and how largely our Northern 
 brethren have participated in the profits of that labor. 
 Sir, on this subject I will quote an authority which 
 will, I doubt not, be considered by the Senator from 
 Massachusetts as entitled to high respect. It is from 
 the great father of the " American System," honest 
 Mathew Carey, no great friend, it is true, at this 
 time, to Southern rights and Southern interests, but 
 not the worst authority, on that account, on the point 
 in question. 
 
 Speaking of the relative Importance to the Union of 
 the Southern and the Eastern States, Mathew Carey, 
 in the sixth edition of his ''Olive Branch "^ (page 
 
 ^ Mathew Carey was born in Ireland in 17G0 ; obliged to 
 fly to Paris on account of his political synipatliics, he was be- 
 friended by Franklin. In 1784 he came to Philadelphia, where 
 he became both a bookseller and a publisher. For six years he 
 conducted The American Museum. His Olive Branch, which 
 
48 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 278), after exhibiting a number of statistical tables 
 to show the decided superiority of the former, thus 
 proceeds : — 
 
 " But I am tired of this investigation. I sicken 
 for the honor of the human species. AVhat idea must 
 the world form of the arrogance of the pretensions of 
 the one side (the East), and, on the other, of the folly 
 and weakness of the rest of the Union, to have so long 
 suffered them to pass without exposui*e and detection ? 
 The naked fact is that the demagogues in the Eastern 
 States, not satisfied with deriving all the benefit from 
 the Southern section of the Union that they woidd 
 from so many wealthy colonies, — with making princely 
 fortunes by the carriage and exportation of its bidky 
 and valuable productions, and supplying it with their 
 own manufactures and the productions of Europe and 
 the East and AYest Indies, to an enormous amount 
 and at an immense profit, — have uniformly treated it 
 with outrage, insult, and injury. And, regardless of 
 their vital interests, the Eastern States were lately 
 courting their own destruction by allowing a few 
 restless, turbulent men to lead them blindfolded to 
 a separation which was pregnant with their certain 
 ruin. AVhenever that event takes place, they sink to 
 their native insignificance. If a separation were de- 
 sirable to any part of the Union, it would be to the 
 ISIiddle and Southern States, particularly the latter, 
 who have been so long harassed with the complaints, 
 the restlessness, the turbulence, and the ingratitude 
 
 appeared first in 1814, was meant to produce a spirit of political 
 liarinony during- the conduct of the War of 1812. It is full of 
 int'ormation industriously brought together. Carey is best re- 
 membered for his zeal in promoting the cause of protection to 
 American industries. He died in 1839. 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE. 49 
 
 of the Eastern States, that their patience has been 
 tried ahuost beyond endurance. 'Jeshurun waxed 
 fat, and kicked.* ^ And he will be severely punished 
 for his kickinc: in the event of a dissolution of the 
 L nion. 
 
 Sir, I wish it to be distinctly understood that I do 
 not adopt these sentiments as my own. I quote them 
 to show that very different sentiments have prevailed 
 in former times as to the weakness of the slavehold- 
 ino- States from those which now seem to have become 
 fashionable in certain quarters. I know it has been 
 supposed by certain ill-informed persons that the 
 South exists only by the countenance and protection 
 of the North. Sir, this is the idlest of all idle and 
 ridiculous fancies that ever entered into the mind of 
 man. In every State of this Union, except one, the 
 free white population actually preponderates ; while 
 in the British AVest India Islands (where the average 
 white population is less than ten per cent of the 
 whole) the slaves are kept in entire subjection, it is 
 preposterous to suppose that the Southern States 
 coidd ever find the smallest difficidty in this respect. 
 On this subject, as on 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. Sir, all our difficidties on this 
 subject have arisen from interference from abroad, 
 which has disturbed and may again disturb our do- 
 mestic tranquillity just so far as to bring down pun- 
 ishment upon the heads of the unfortunate victims of 
 a fanatical and mistaken humanity. 
 
 There is a spirit which, like the father of evil, is 
 ^ See Denterouomv xxxii, 15. 
 
50 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 constantly " walking to and fro about the earth, seek- 
 ing whom it may devour ; " it is the spirit of False 
 Philanthropy. The persons whom it possesses do 
 not indeed throw themselves into the flames, but they 
 are employed in lighting up the torches of discord 
 throughout the community. Their first principle of 
 action is to leave their own affairs, and neglect their 
 own duties, to regulate the affairs and duties of others. 
 Theirs is the task to feed the hungry and clothe the 
 naked of other lands, while they thrust the naked, 
 famished, and shivering beggar from their own doors ; 
 to instruct the heathen, while their own children want 
 the bread of life. When this spirit infuses itself into 
 the bosom of a statesman (if one so possessed can be 
 called a statesman), it converts him at once into a 
 visionary enthusiast. Then it is that he indidges in 
 golden dreams of national greatness and prosperity. 
 He discovers that " liberty is power," and not content 
 with vast schemes of improvement at home, which it 
 would bankrupt the treasury of the world to execute, he 
 flies to foreign lands to fulfill obligations to " the hu- 
 man race " by inculcating the principles of " political 
 and religious liberty," and promoting the " general wel- 
 fare " of the whole human race. It is a spirit which 
 has long been busy with the slaves of the South, and 
 is even now displaying itself in vain efforts to drive 
 the government from its wise policy in relation to the 
 Indians. It is this spirit which has filled the land 
 with thousands of wild and visionary projects, which 
 can have no effect but to waste the energies and dis- 
 sipate the resources of the country. It is the spirit of 
 which the aspiring politician dexterously avails him- 
 self when, by inscribing on his banner the magical 
 words Liberty and Philanthropy, he draws to his sup- 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HA YNE. 51 
 
 port that entire class of persons who are ready to bow 
 down to the very names of their idols. 
 
 But, sir, whatever difference of opinion may exist 
 as to the effect of slavery on national wealth and 
 prosperity, if we may trust to experience, there can 
 be no doubt that it has never yet produced any injuri- 
 ous effect on individual or national character. Look 
 through the whole history of the country, from the 
 commencement of the Revolution down to the present 
 hour ; where are there to be found brighter examples 
 of intellectual and moral greatness than have been 
 exhibited by the sons of the South ? From the Father 
 of his Country down to the distinguished chieftain who 
 has been elevated by a grateful people to the highest 
 office in their gift, the interval is filled up by a long 
 line of orators, of statesmen, and of heroes, justly en- 
 titled to rank among the ornaments of their country 
 and the benefactors of mankind. Look at the Old 
 Dominion, great and magnanimous Virginia, " whose 
 jewels are her sons." Is there any State in this Union 
 which has contributed so much to the honor and wel- 
 fare of the country ? Sir, I will yield the whole ques- 
 tion ; I will acknowledge the fatal effects of slavery 
 upon character, if any one can say that for noble dis- 
 interestedness, ardent love of country, exalted virtue, 
 and a pure and holy devotion to liberty, the people of 
 the Southern States have ever been surpassed by any 
 in the world. I know, sir, that this devotion to lib- 
 erty has sometimes been supposed to be at war with 
 our institutions : but it is in some degree the result of 
 those very institutions. Burke, the most philosophical 
 of statesmen, as he was the most accomplished of ora- 
 tors, well understood the operation of this principle in 
 elevating the sentiments and exalting the princijiles of 
 
62 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 the people in slaveholding States. I will conclude ray 
 remarks on this branch of the subject by reading a 
 few passages from his speech " On moving his resolu- 
 tions for conciliation with the Colonies," the 22d of 
 March, 1775 : — 
 
 " There is a circumstance attending these [the 
 Southern] colonies which . . . makes the spirit of 
 liberty still more high and haughty than in those 
 to the northward. It is that in Virginia and the 
 Carolinas they have a vast multitude of slaves. Where 
 this is the case in any part of the world, those who 
 are free are by far the most proud and jealous of their 
 freedom. Freedom is to them not only an enjoyment, 
 but a kind of rank and privilege. Not seeing there 
 that freedom, as in countries where it is a common 
 blessing and as broad and general as the air, may 
 be united with much abject toil, with great misery, 
 with all the exterior of servitude, liberty looks amongst 
 them like something that is more noble and liberal. 
 I do not mean, sir, to commend the superior morality 
 of this sentiment, which has at least as much pride as 
 virtue in it ; but I cannot alter the nature of man. 
 The fact is so, and these people of the Southern colo- 
 nies are much more strongly, and with a higher and 
 more stubborn spirit, attached to liberty than those 
 to the northward. Such were all the ancient com- 
 monwealths ; such were our Gothic ancestors ; sucli in 
 our days were the Poles : and such will be all masters 
 of slaves who are not slaves themselves. In such a 
 people the haughtiness of domination combines with 
 the spirit of freedom, fortifies it, and renders it invin- 
 cible." 1 
 
 ^ From Burke's speech on Conciliation with the Colonies, 
 March 22, 1775. (See Riverside Literature Series, No. 100, p. 25.) 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HA YNE. 53 
 
 In the course of my former remarks/ Mr. President, 
 I took occasion to deprecate, as one of the greatest 
 evils, the consolidation of this government. The gen- 
 tleman takes alarm at the sound. " Consolidation," 
 like the tariff, grates upon his ear. 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 to 
 Congress, which he assumes to be an authority on his 
 side of the question. But, sir, the gentleman is mis- 
 taken. 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? 
 By " establishing justice, promoting domestic tran- 
 quillity, and securing the blessings of liberty to our- 
 selves and our posterity." This is the true reading of 
 the Constitution. But, according to the gentleman's 
 reading, the object of the Constitution was to consoli- 
 date 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 bless- 
 ings of liberty " forever. 
 
 ^ It is possible that at this point Mr. Ilayne took up his 
 speech ou January 25, where he had left it on the 21st ; the 
 National Intelligencer makes this division in its issues of Febru- 
 ary 15 and 16, in which the entire speech is printed. 
 
54 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 The gentleman boasts of belonging to the party 
 of National Republicans. National Republicans ! A 
 new name, sir, for a very old thing. The National 
 Republicans of the present day were the Federalists 
 of "98, who became Federal Republicans during the 
 War of 1812, and were manufactured into National 
 Republicans somewhere about the year 1825. As a 
 party (by whatever name distinguished) they have 
 always been animated by the same principles, and 
 have kept steadily in view a common object, the con- 
 solidation of the government. Sir, the party to which 
 I am proud of having belonged, from the very com- 
 mencement of my political life to the present day, 
 were the Democrats of '98 (Anarchists, Anti-Federal- 
 ists, Revolutionists, I think they were sometimes 
 called). They assumed the name of Democratic Re- 
 publicans in 1812,^ and have retained their name and 
 principles up to the present hour. True to their 
 political faith, they have always, as a party, been in 
 favor of limitations of power ; they have insisted that 
 all powers not delegated to the federal government 
 are reserved, and have been constantly struggling, as 
 they now are, to preserve the rights of the States, and 
 to prevent them from being drawn into the vortex, 
 and swallowed up by one great consolidated govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Sir, any one acquainted with the history of parties 
 in this country will recognize in the jioints now in dis- 
 pute between the Senator from Massachusetts and 
 myself the very grounds which have, from the begin- 
 ning, divided the two great parties in this country, 
 
 1 "About this time [1792, the Anti-Federalists] adopted the 
 name Democratic-Kepuhlican. . . . This has always been the 
 official party title." (Johnston's History of American Politics.) 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE. 55 
 
 and which (call those parties by what names j'ou will, 
 and amalgamate them as you may) will divide them 
 forever. The true distinction between these parties is 
 laid down in a celebrated manifesto, issued by the 
 Convention of the Federalists of Massachusetts, as- 
 sembled in Boston in February, 1824, on the occasion 
 of oi-ganizing a party opposition to the reelection 
 of Governor Eustis.^ The gentleman will recognize 
 this as " the canonical book of political scripture ; " 
 and it instructs us that, " when the American Colonies 
 redeemed themselves from British bondage, and be- 
 came so many independent nations, they proposed to 
 form a national Union (not a federal Union, sir, but 
 a national Union). Those who were in favor of a 
 union of the States in this form became known by the 
 name of Federalists ; those who wanted no union of 
 the States, or disliked the proposed form of union, 
 became known by the name of Anti-Federalists. By 
 means which need not be enumerated, the Anti-Fed- 
 eralists became (after the expiration of twelve years) 
 our national rulers, and for a period of sixteen years, 
 until the close of Mr. Madison's administration in 
 1817, continued to exercise the exclusive direction of 
 our public affairs." Here, sir, is the true history of 
 the origin, rise, and progress of the party of National 
 Republicans, who date back to the very origin of the 
 government, and who then, as now, chose to consider 
 the Constitution as having created not a federal but a 
 national Union ; who regarded " consolidation " as no 
 evil, and who doubtless consider it a " consummation 
 
 ^ William Eustis was elected Governor of Massachusetts in 
 1823 as the candidate of the Democratic-Republican party. 
 Practically, the Federalist party at the time of his election had 
 ceased to exist. 
 
56 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 devoutly to be wished " to build up a great " central 
 government," "one and indivisible." Sir, there have 
 existed in every age and every country two distinct 
 orders of men, — the lovers of freedom, and the de- 
 voted advocates of power. 
 
 The same great leading principles, modified only 
 by peculiarities of manners, habits, and institutions, 
 divided parties in the ancient republics, animated the 
 Whigs and Tories of Great Britain, distinguished in 
 our own times the Liberals and Ultras of France, and 
 may be traced even in the bloody struggles of unhappy 
 Spain. Sir, when the gallant Riego,^ who devoted 
 himself and all that he possessed to the liberties of his 
 country, was dragged to the scaffold, followed by the 
 tears and lamentations of every lover of freedom 
 throughout the world, he perished amid the deafening 
 cries of " Long live the absolute kiug ! " The people 
 whom I represent, Mr. President, are the descendants 
 of those who brought with them to this country, as 
 the most precious of their possessions, " an ardent 
 love of liberty ; " and while that shall be preserved, 
 they will always be found manfully struggling against 
 the consolidation of the government AS THE wokst 
 
 OF EVILS. 
 
 The Senator from JVIassachusetts, in alluding to the 
 tariff, becomes quite facetious. He tells us that " he 
 hears of nothing but tariff, tariff, tariff; and, if a 
 word could be found to rhyme with it, he presumes it 
 would be celebrated in verse and set to music." Sir, 
 perhaps the gentleman, in mockery of our complaints, 
 may be himself disposed to sing the praises of the 
 tariff, in doggerel verse, to the tune of " Old Hun- 
 
 1 Riego was executed as a traitor in 1823. He had fought 
 against Napoleon, and led the revolt in southern Spain in 1820. 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE. 57 
 
 dred." I am not at all surprised, however, at the 
 aversion of the gentleman to the very name of tariff. 
 1 doubt not that it must always bring up some very 
 unpleasant recollections to his mind. If 1 am not 
 greatly mistaken, the Senator from Massachusetts was 
 a leading actor at a great meeting got up in Boston in 
 1820 against the tariff. It has generally been suj)- 
 posed that he drew up the resolutions adopted by that 
 meeting, denouncing the tariff system as unequal, op- 
 pressive, and unjust, and, if I am not much mistaken, 
 denying its constitutionality. Certain it is that the 
 gentleman made a speech on that occasion in supjDort 
 of those resolutions, denouncing the system in no very 
 measured terms, and, if my memory serves me, calling 
 its constitutionality in question. I regret that I have 
 not been able to lay my hands on those proceedings ; 
 but I have seen them, and cannot be mistaken in 
 their character. At that time, sir, the Senator from 
 Massachusetts entertained the very sentiments in re- 
 lation to the tariff which the South now entertains. 
 We next find the Senator from Massachusetts ex- 
 pressing his opinion on the tariff as a member 
 of the House of Representatives from the city of 
 Boston, in 1824. On that occasion, sir, the gentle- 
 man assumed a position which commanded the respect 
 and admiration of his country. He stood forth the 
 powerful and fearless champion of free trade. He 
 met, in that conflict, the advocates of restriction and 
 monopoly, and they "' tied from before his face." With 
 a profound sagacity, a fullness of knowledge, and a 
 richness of illustration that have never been surpassed, 
 he maintained and established the principles of com- 
 mercial freedom on a foundation never to be shaken. 
 Great indeed was the victory achieved by the gentle- 
 
58 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 man on that occasion ; most striking the contrast 
 between the clear, forcible, and convincing arguments 
 by which he carried away the understandings of his 
 hearers, and the narrow views and wretched sophistry 
 of another distinguished orator, who may be truly 
 said to have held up his " farthing candle to the sun." ^ 
 Sir, the Senator from Massachusetts, on that, the 
 proudest day of his life, like a mighty giant, bore 
 away upon his shoulders the pillars of the temple of 
 error and delusion, escaping himself unhurt, and leav- 
 ins: his adversaries overwhelmed in its ruins. Then 
 it was that he erected to free trade a beautiful and 
 enduring monument, and " inscribed the marble with 
 his name." Mr. President, it is with pain and regret 
 that I now go forward to the next great era in the 
 political life of that gentleman, when he was found on 
 this floor supporting, advocating, and finally voting 
 for the Tarife of 1828, — that "bill of abominations." 2 
 By that act, sir, the Senator from Massachusetts has 
 destroyed the labors of his whole life, and given a 
 wound to the cause of free trade never to be healed. 
 Sir, when I recollect the position which the gentleman 
 once occupied, and that which he now holds in public 
 estimation, in relation to this subject, it is not at all 
 surprising that the tariff should be hateful to his eai-s. 
 Sir, if I had erected to my own fame so proud a monu- 
 ment as that which the gentleman built up in 182-4, 
 
 ^ Young's Love of Fame, Satire vii. 
 
 2 The Tariff of 1828, called the Tariff of Abominations, be- 
 cause of the excessive duties, particularly on wool (70 per cent) 
 and hemp (860 a ton). Its purpose was twofold, — to aid 
 Western growers and to aim a blow at Adams. Of this tariff 
 John Randolph said : " Tlie bill referred to manufactures of no 
 sort or kind except the manufacture of a President of the 
 United States." 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE. 59 
 
 and I could have been tempted to destroy it with my 
 own hands, I shoiild hate the voice that shoukl ring 
 " the accursed tariff " in my ears. I doubt not the 
 gentleman feels very much, in relation to the tariff, as 
 a certain knight did to " instinct," and with him would 
 be disposed to exclaim, 
 
 " Ah, no more of that, Hal, an thou lovest me ! " ^ 
 
 But, Mr. President, to be serious, what are we of 
 the South to think of what we have heai'd this day ? 
 The Senator from Massachusetts tells us that the tariff 
 is not an Eastern measure, and treats it as if the East 
 had no interest in it. The Senator from Missouri 
 insists it is not a Western measure, and that it has 
 done no good to the West. The South comes in, and, 
 in the most earnest manner, represents to you that this 
 measure, which we are told " is of no value to the 
 East or the West," is " utterly destructive of our 
 interests." We represent to you that it has spread 
 ruin and devastation through the land, and prostrated 
 our hopes in the dust. AYe solemnly declare that we 
 believe the system to be wholly unconstitutional, and 
 a violation of the compact between the States and the 
 Union ; and our brethren turn a deaf ear to our com- 
 plaints, and refuse to relieve us from a system " which 
 not enriches them, but makes us poor indeed." Good 
 God ! Mr. President, has it come to this ? Do gentle- 
 men hold the feelinofs and wishes of their brethren at 
 so cheap a rate that they refuse to gratify them at so 
 small a price? Do gentlemen value so lightly the 
 peace and harmony of the country that they will not 
 yield a measure of this description to the affectionate 
 entreaties and earnest remonstrances of their friends ? 
 Do gentlemen estimate the value of the Union at so 
 
 ^ See Shakespeare's Henry IV., First Part, act ii. scene 4. 
 
60 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 low a price that they will not even make one effort to 
 bind the States together with the cords of affection ? 
 And has it come to this ? Is this the spirit in which 
 this government is to be administered? If so, let me 
 tell gentlemen, the seeds of dissolution are already 
 sown, and our children will reap the bitter fruit. 
 
 The honorable gentleman from Massachusetts []Mr. 
 Webster] , while he exonerates me personally from the 
 charge, intimates that there is a party in the country 
 who are looking to disunion. Sir, if the gentleman 
 had stopped there, the accusation would have " passed 
 by me as the idle wind, which I regard not." ^ But 
 when he goes on to give to his accusation a local habi- 
 tation and a name by quoting the expression of a dis- 
 tinguished citizen of South Carolina [Dr. Cooper], 
 " that it was time for the South to calculate the value 
 of the Union," and in the language of the bitterest 
 sarcasm adds, " Surely, then, the Union cannot last 
 longer than July, 1831," it is impossible to mistake 
 either the allusion or the object of the gentleman. 
 Now, Mr. President, I call upon every one who hears 
 me to bear witness that this controversy is not of my 
 seeking. The Senate will do me the justice to remem- 
 ber that, at the time this unprovoked and uncalled-for 
 attack was made upon the South, not one word had 
 been uttered by me in disparagement of New Eng- 
 land ; nor had I made the most distant allusion either 
 to the Senator from jSIassaehusetts or the State he 
 represents. But, sir, that gentleman has thought 
 proper, for ])urposes best known to himself, to strike 
 the South, through me, the most unworthy of her ser- 
 vants. He has crossed the border, he has invaded the 
 
 ' An inexact quotation from Shakespeare's Julius Ccesar, act 
 iv. scene 3. 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE. 61 
 
 State of South Carolina, is making war upon her citi- 
 zens, and endeavoring to overthrow her principles and 
 her institutions. Sir, when the gentleman provokes 
 me to such a conflict, I meet him at the threshold ; I 
 will struoole, while I have life, for our altars and our 
 firesides ; and, if God gives me strength, 1 will drive 
 back the invader discomfited. Nor shall I stop there. 
 If the gentleman provokes the war, he shall have war. 
 Sir, I will not stop at the border ; I will carry the war 
 into the enemy's territory, and not consent to lay down 
 my arms until I shall have obtained " indemnity for 
 the past and security for the future." It is with un- 
 feigned reluctance, Mr. President, that I enter upon 
 the performance of this part of my duty ; I shrink 
 ahnost instinctively from a course, however necessary, 
 which may have a tendency to excite sectional feelings 
 and sectional jealousies. 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 Senator from 
 Massachusetts has thought proper to cast the first 
 stone ; and if he shall find, according to a homely 
 adage, that " he lives in a glass house," on his head 
 be the consequences. The gentleman has made a 
 great flourish about his fidelity to jMassachusetts. I 
 shall make no professions of zeal for the interests and 
 honor of South Carolina ; of that my constituents shall 
 judge. If there be one State in the Union, ]Mr. Presi- 
 dent (and I say it not in a boastful spirit), that may 
 challenge comparison with any other for a imiform, 
 zealous, ardent, and uncalculating devotion to the 
 Union, that State is South Carolina. Sir, from the 
 very commencement of the Revolution up to this hour. 
 
62 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 there is no sacrifice, however great, she has not cheer- 
 fully made, no service she has ever hesitated to per- 
 form. She has adhered to you in your prosperity ; but 
 in your adversity she has clung to you with more than 
 filial affection. No matter what was the condition of 
 her domestic affairs, though deprived of her resources, 
 divided by parties, or surrounded with difficulties, the 
 call of the country has been to her as the voice of 
 God. Domestic discord ceased at the sound ; every 
 man became at once reconciled to his brethren, and 
 the sons of Carolina were all seen crowding together 
 to the temple, bringing their gifts to the altar of their 
 common country. 
 
 What, sir, was the conduct of the South during the 
 Revolution ? Sir, I honor New England for her con- 
 duct in that glorious struggle. But great as is the 
 praise which belongs to her, I think at least equal 
 honor is due to the South. They espoused the quarrel 
 of their brethren with a generous zeal, which did not 
 suffer them to stop to calculate their interest in the 
 dispute. Favorites of the mother countr}^ possessed 
 of neither ships nor seamen to create a commercial 
 rivalship, they might have foimd in their sitiiation a 
 guaranty that their trade would be forever fostered 
 and protected by Great Britain. But, trampling on 
 all considerations either of interest or of safety, they 
 rushed into the conflict, and, fighting for principle, 
 periled all in the sacred cause of freedom. Never 
 were there exhibited in the history of the world higher 
 examples of noble daring, dreadful suffering, and 
 heroic endurance than by the AVhigs of Carolina dur- 
 ing the Revolution. The whole State, from the moun- 
 tains to the sea, was overrun by an overwhelming force 
 of the enemy. The fruits of industry perished on the 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE. 63 
 
 spot where they were produced, or were consumed by 
 the foe. The " plains of Carolina " drank up the most 
 precious blood of her citizens. Black and smoking 
 ruins marked the places where had been the habita- 
 tions of her children. Driven from their homes into 
 the gloomy and almost impenetrable swamps, even 
 there the spirit of liberty survived, and South Caro- 
 lina (sustained by the example of her Sumters ^ and 
 her Marions^) proved by her condixct that, though 
 her soil might be overrun, the spirit of her peojjle 
 was invincible. 
 
 But, sir, our country was soon called upon to 
 engage in another revolutionary struggle, and that 
 too was a struggle for principle. I mean the politi- 
 cal revolution which dates back to '98,^ and which, if 
 it had not been successfully achieved, would have left 
 us none of the fruits of the Revolution of '76. The 
 revolution of '98 restored the Constitution, rescued 
 the liberty of the citizen from the grasp of those who 
 were aiming at its life, and, in the emphatic language 
 of Mr. Jefferson, " saved the Constitution at its last 
 gasp." And by whom was it achieved ? By the 
 South, sir, aided only by the democracy of the North 
 and West. 
 
 1 Thomas Sumter, an American general, was active in the 
 Southern campaigns during the Revohition. He had two severe 
 encounters with Colonel Tarletou, in which he was once success- 
 ful and once defeated. 
 
 2 Francis Marion, a colonel during the American Revolution, 
 was conspicuous in the manoeuvres around Charleston, and 
 afterwards organized a brigade famous for the swiftness of its 
 movements. 
 
 ^ The reference is to the revolt against the Alien and Sedi- 
 tion laws, which expressed itself through the Kentucky and 
 Virginia Resolutions of 1798, and resulted in the defeat of the 
 Federalist party and the election of Jefferson in 1801. 
 
64 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 I come now to the War of 1812, a war which I 
 well remember was called in derision (wliile its event 
 was doubtful) the Southern war, and sometimes the 
 Carolina war, but which is now universally acknow- 
 ledged to have done more for the honor and prosper- 
 ity of the counti'y than all other events in our history 
 put together. What, sir, were the objects of that 
 war ? " Free ti-ade and sailors' rights ! " It was for 
 the protection of Northern shipping and New England 
 seamen that the country flew to arms. What interest 
 had the South in that contest ? If they had sat down 
 coolly to calculate the value of their interests involved 
 in it, they would have found that they had everything 
 to lose and nothing to gain. But, sir, with that gen- 
 erous devotion to country so characteristic of the 
 South, they only asked if the rights of any portion of 
 their fellow citizens had been invaded ; and when told 
 that Northern ships and New England seamen had 
 been arrested on the common highway of nations, 
 they felt that the honor of their country was assailed ; 
 and, actins" on that exalted sentiment " which feels a 
 stain like a wound," they resolved to seek, in open 
 war, for a redress of those injuries which it did not 
 become freemen to endure. Sir, the whole South, 
 animated as by a common impulse, cordially united 
 in declaring and promoting that war. South Carolina 
 sent to your councils, as the advocates and supporters 
 of that war, the noblest of her sons. How they ful- 
 filled tliat trust, let a grateful country tell. Not a 
 measure was adopted, not a battle fought, not a vic- 
 tory won, which contributed in any degree to the 
 success of that war, to which Southern councils and 
 Southern valor did not largely contribute. Sir, since 
 South Carolina is assailed, I must be suffered to speak 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HA YNE. 65 
 
 it to her praise that, at the very moment when in one 
 quarter we heard it solemnly proclaimed " that it did 
 not become a religious and moral people to rejoice at 
 the victories of our army or our navy," her Legisla- 
 ture imanimously 
 
 " Resolved^ That we will cordially support the gov- 
 ernment in the vigorous prosecution of the war until 
 a peace can be obtained on honorable terms, and we 
 will cheerfully submit to every privation that may be 
 required of us by our government for the accomplish- 
 ment of this object." 
 
 South Carolina redeemed that pledge. She threw 
 open her treasury to the government. She put at the 
 absolute disposal of the officers of the United States 
 all that she possessed, — her men, her money, and her 
 arms. She appropriated half a million of dollars, on 
 her own account, in defense of her maritime frontier ; 
 ordered a brigade of State troops to be raised : and, 
 w^hen left to protect herself by her own means, never 
 suffered the enemy to touch her soil without being 
 instantly driven off or captured. 
 
 Such, sir, was the conduct of the South — such the 
 conduct of my own State — in that dark hour " which 
 tried men's souls." 
 
 When I look back and contemplate the spectacle 
 exhibited at that time in another quarter of the 
 Union, when I think of the conduct of certain por- 
 tions of New England, and remember the ])art which 
 was acted on that memorable occasion by the political 
 associates of the gentleman from Massachusetts, — 
 nay, when I follow that gentleman into the councils 
 of the nation, and listen to his voice during the dark- 
 est period of the war, — I am indeed astonished that 
 he should venture to touch upon the topics which he 
 
66 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 has introduced into this debate. South Carolina re- 
 proached by Massachusetts ! And from whom does 
 the accusation come? Not from the democracy of 
 New England ; for they have been in times past, as 
 they are now, the friends and allies of the South. 
 No, sir, the accusation comes from that party whose 
 acts during- the most trying and eventful period of 
 our national histoi-y were of such a character that 
 their own Legislature, but a few years ago, actually 
 blotted them out from their records as a stain upon 
 the honor of the country. But how can they ever be 
 blotted out from the recollection of any one who had 
 a heart to feel, a mind to comprehend, and a memory 
 to retain the events of that day ? Sir, I shall not 
 attempt to write the history of the party in New Eng- 
 land to which I have alluded, — the war party in 
 peace, and the peace party in war. That task I shall 
 leave to some future biographer of Nathan Dane, 
 and I doubt not it will be found quite easy to prove 
 that the peace party of Massachusetts were the only 
 defenders of their country during tlie war, and actu- 
 ally achieved all our victories by land and sea. In 
 the meantime, sir, and until that history shall be 
 written, I propose, with the feeble and glimmering- 
 lights which I possess, to review the conduct of this 
 party, in connection with the war and the events 
 which immediately preceded it. 
 
 It will be recollected, sir, that our great causes of 
 quarrel with Great Britain were her depredations on 
 Northern commerce, and the impressment of New 
 England 'seamen. From every quarter we are called 
 upon for protection. Importunate as the West is now 
 represented to be on another subject, the importunity 
 of the East on that occasion was far greater, I hold 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE. 67 
 
 in my hands the evidence of the fact. Here are peti- 
 tions, memorials, and remonstrances from all parts 
 of New England, setting forth the injustice, the op- 
 pressions, the depredations, the insults, the outrages 
 committed by Great Britain against the unoffending 
 commerce and seamen of New England, and calling 
 upon Congress for redress. Sir, I cannot stop to 
 read these memorials. In that from Boston, after 
 stating the alarming and extensive condemnation of 
 our vessels by Great Britain which threatened " to 
 sweep our commerce from the face of the ocean," and 
 " to involve our merchants in bankruptcy," they call 
 upon the government " to assert our rights, and to 
 adopt such measures as will support the dignity and 
 honor of the United States." 
 
 From Salem we heard a language still more deci- 
 sive ; they call explicitly for " an appeal to arras," 
 and pledge their lives and property in support of any 
 measures which Congress might adopt. From New- 
 buryport an appeal was made " to the firmness and 
 justice of the government to obtain compensation and 
 protection." It was here, I think, that, when the 
 war was declared, it was resolved " to resist our 
 own government even unto blood." (Olive Branch, 
 page 101.) 
 
 In other quarters the common language of that 
 day was that our commerce and our seamen were 
 entitled to protection, and that it was the duty of the 
 government to afford it at every hazard. The con- 
 duct of Great Britain, we were then told, was " an 
 outrage upon our National Independence." These 
 clamors, which commenced as early as January, 1806, 
 were continued up to 1812. In a message from the 
 governor of one of the New England States,^ as late 
 ^ Roger Griswold, Governor of Connecticut. 
 
68 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 as the 10th of October, 1811, this language is held : 
 " A manly and decisive course has become indispen- 
 sable ; a course to satisfy foreign nations that, while 
 we desire peace, we have the means and the spirit 
 to repel aggression. We are false to ourselves when 
 our commerce or our territory is invaded with im- 
 punity." 
 
 About this time, however, a remarkable change was 
 observable in the tone and temper of those who had 
 been endeavoring to force the country into a war. 
 The language of complaint was changed into that 
 of insult, and calls for protection converted into 
 reproaches. " Smoke, smoke I " says one writer ; ^ 
 " my life on it, our Executive have no more idea of 
 declaring war than my grandmother." '' The Com- 
 mittee of Ways and Means," says another, "have 
 come out wdth their Pandora's Box- of taxes, and 
 yet nobody dreams of war." " Congress do not mean 
 to declare war ; they dare not." But why multi- 
 ply examples ? An honorable member of the other 
 House, from the city of Boston (Mr. Quincy 3), in 
 a speech delivered on the 3d of April, 1812, says, 
 " Neither promises, nor threats, nor asseverations, nor 
 oaths will make me believe that you will go to war. 
 
 1 In the (Boston) Repertory, January 9, 1810. 
 
 - Pandora (all-gifted), the wife of Epinietheus, brother of 
 Prometheus. Out of curiosity she opened a box and loosed 
 therefrom the evils henceforth to afflict the human race, retain- 
 ino- only Hope. According to the Greeks, she was the first 
 woman ; her resemblance to Eve is obvious. 
 
 8 Josiah Quincy (1772-18G4) was Mayor of Boston from 
 1823 to 1828, his conspicuous services in that office causing him 
 to be remembered as the "Great Mayor." From 1829 to 1845 
 he was President of Harvard College. His Life by his son 
 Edmund is one of the worthiest of American biographies. 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE. 69 
 
 The navigation States are sacrificed, and the spirit 
 and character of the country prostrated by fear and 
 avarice."' " You cannot," said the same gentleman 
 on another occasion, " be kicked into a war." 
 
 Well, sir, the war at length came, and what did we 
 behold ? The very men who had been for six years 
 clamorous for war, and for whose protection it was 
 waged, became at once equally clamorous against it. 
 They had received a miraculous visitation ; a new 
 light suddenly beamed upon their minds, the scales 
 fell from their eyes, and it was discovered that the 
 war was declared from " subserviency to France," 
 and that Congress and the Executive " had sold them- 
 selves to Napoleon ;" that Great Britain had in fact 
 " done us no essential injury ; " that she was " the 
 bulwark of our religion ; " that where " she took one 
 of our ships, she protected twenty ; " and that, if% 
 Great Britain had impressed a few of our seamen, it 
 was because " she could not distinguish them from her 
 own." And so far did this spirit extend that a com- 
 mittee of the Massachusetts Legislature actually fell 
 to calcidation, and discovered, to their infinite satis- 
 faction, but to the astonishment of all the world be- 
 side, that only eleven Massachusetts sailors had ever 
 been impressed. Never shall I forget the appeals 
 that had been made to the sympathies of the South 
 in behalf of the " thousands of impressed Americans " 
 who had been torn from their families and friends, 
 and '* immured in the floating dungeons of Britain." 
 The most touching pictures were drawn of the hard 
 condition of the American sailor, " treated like a slave," 
 forced to fight the battles of his enemy, "lashed to 
 the mast to be shot at like a dog." But, sir, the veiy 
 moment we had taken up arms in their defense, it was 
 
70 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 discovered that all these were mere " fictions of the 
 brain ; " and that the whole number in the State of 
 Massachusetts was but eleven, and that even these 
 had been " taken by mistake. ' Wonderful discovery ! 
 The Secretary of State had collected authentic lists of 
 no less than six thousand impressed Americans. Lord 
 Castlereagh ^ himself acknowledged sixteen hundred. 
 Calculations on the basis of the number found on 
 board of the Guerriere, the Macedonian, the Java, 
 and other British ships (captured by the skill and 
 gallantrj'^ of those heroes whose achievements are the 
 treasured monuments of their country's glory), fixed 
 the number at seven thousand ; and yet it seems ]\Ias- 
 sachusetts had lost but eleven ! Eleven Massachusetts 
 sailors taken by mistake ! A cause of war indeed ! 
 Their ships, too, the capture of which had threatened 
 V universal bankruptcy : " it was discovered that Great 
 Britain was their friend and protector ; " where she 
 had taken one, she had protected twenty ! " Then 
 was the discovery made that subserviency to France, 
 hostility to commerce, " a determination on the part 
 of the South and the "West to break down the East- 
 ern States," and especially (as reported by a commit- 
 tee of the Massachusetts Legislature) " to force the 
 sons of commerce to populate the wilderness," were 
 the true causes of the war. (Olive Branch, pages 
 134, 291.) 
 
 But let us look a little farther into the conduct of 
 the Peace party of New England at that imjjortant 
 
 1 Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, afterwards second 
 Marquis of Londonderry, was Secretary for War from 1807 to 
 1809, when occurred his duel with George Canning. From 
 1812 to his death, which he inflicted upon himself, he was Sec- 
 retary for Foreign Affairs. 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE. 71 
 
 crisis. Whatever difference of opinion might have 
 existed as to the causes of the war, the country had a 
 right to expect that, when once involved in the con- 
 test, all America would have cordially united in its 
 sup})ort. Sir, the war effected in its progress a union 
 of all parties at the South. But not so in New Eng- 
 land ; there great efforts were made to stir up the 
 minds of the people to oppose it. Nothing was left 
 undone to embarrass the financial operations of the 
 government, to prevent the enlistment of troops, to 
 keep back the men and mone}^ of New England from 
 the service of the Union, to force the President from 
 his seat. Yes, sir, " the Island of Elba or a halter ! " 
 were the alternatives they presented to the excellent 
 and venerable James Madison. Sir, the war was fur- 
 ther opposed by openly carrying on illicit trade v.ith 
 the enemy, by permitting that enemy to establish her- 
 self on the very soil of Massachusetts, and by opening 
 a free trade between Great Britain and America, with 
 a separate custom-house ; — yes, sir, those who cannot 
 endure the thouoht that we should insist on a free 
 trade in time of profound peace could, without scruple, 
 claim and exercise the right of carrying on a free 
 trade with the enemy in a time of war ; — and finally 
 by getting "up the renowned "Hartford Convention," 
 and preparing the way for an open resistance to the 
 government and a separation of the States. Sir, if I 
 am asked for the proof of those things, I fearlessly ap- 
 peal to contemporary history, to the public documents 
 of the cou7itry, to the recorded opinion and acts of 
 public assemblies, to the declaration and acknowledg- 
 ments, since made, of the Executive and Legislature 
 of Massachusetts herself.^ 
 
 ^ " In answer to an address of Governor Eustis, denouncing 
 
72 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 Sir, the time has not been allowed me to trace this 
 subject through, even if I had been disposed to do so. 
 But I cannot refrain from referring to one or two 
 documents which have fallen in my way since this 
 debate began. I read, sir, from the " Olive Branch " 
 of Mathew Carey, in which are collected " the actings 
 and doings '' of the Peace party of New England, 
 during the continuance of the embargo and the war, 
 I know the Senator from Massachusetts will respect 
 the high authority of his political friend and fellow 
 laborer in the great cause of "■ domestic industry." 
 
 the conduct of the Peace party during the war, the House of 
 Representatives of Massachusetts, in June, 1823, say : * The 
 change of the political sentiment, evinced in the late elections, 
 forms indeed a new era in the history of our Commonwealth. 
 It is the triumph of reason over passion, of patriotism over 
 party spirit. Massachusetts has returned to her first love, and 
 is no longer a stranger in the Union. We rejoice that though, 
 during the last war, such measures were adopted iu this State 
 as occasioned a double sacrifice of treasure and of life, covered 
 the friends of the nation with humiliation and mourning, and 
 fixed a stain on the page of our history, a redeeming spirit has 
 at length arisen to take away our reproach and restore to us 
 our good name, our rank among our sister States, and our just 
 influence in the Union. 
 
 "'Thoutrhwe would not renew contentions, or irritate wan- 
 tonly, we believe that there are eases when it is necessary we 
 should " wound to heal." And we consider it among the first 
 duties of the friends of our national government, on tliis return 
 of power, to disavow the unwarrantable course pursued by this 
 State during the late war, and to hold ud the measures of that 
 period as beacons, that the present and succeeding generations 
 may sliuu that career wiiich must luevirably terminate in the 
 destruction of the individual or party who pursues it ; and may 
 learn the important lesson that, in all times, the path of duty 
 is the path of safety, and that it is never dangerous to rally 
 rouiul tlie standard of our country.' " (Note in the earlier edi- 
 tions of Hayne's Speech.) 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE. 73 
 
 In page 301 et seq. 309 of this work is a detailed 
 account of the measures adopted in Massachusetts 
 during- the war, for the express. purpose of enibai-rass- 
 ing" the financial operations of the government, by 
 preventing loans, and thereby driving our rulers from 
 their seats, and forcing the country into a dishonora- 
 ble peace. It appears that the Boston banks com- 
 menced an operation by which a run was to be made 
 upon all the banks at the South, at the same time 
 stopping their own discounts, the effect of which was 
 to produce a sudden and most alarming diminution of 
 the circulating medium, and imiversal distress over 
 the whole country, a distress which they failed not to 
 attribute to the " unholy war." 
 
 To such an extent was this system carried that 
 it appears, from a statement of the condition of the 
 Boston banks made up in January, 1814, that with 
 nearly $5,000,000 of specie in their vaults they had 
 but $2,000,000 of bills in circulation. It is added by 
 Carey that at this very time an extensive trade was 
 carried on in British government bills, for which 
 specie was sent to Canada for the ])ayment of the 
 British troops, then laying waste our Northern fron- 
 tier ; and this, too, at the very moment when New 
 England ships, sailing under British licenses (a trade 
 declared to be lawful by the courts both of Great 
 Britain and Massachusetts), were sup]ilying with pro- 
 visions those very armies destined for the invasion 
 of our own shores. Sir, the author of the " Olive 
 Branch," with a holy indignation, denounces these 
 acts as "treasonable;" " giving aid and comfort to the 
 enemy." I shall not follow his example. But 1 will 
 ask. With what justice or propriety can the South be 
 accused of disloyalty from that quarter ? If we had 
 
71 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 any evidence tliat the Senator from Massachusetts 
 had admonished his brethren then, he might with a 
 better grace assume tl>e office of admonishing us now. 
 
 When I look at the measures adopted in Boston at 
 that day to deprive the government of the necessary 
 means for carrying on the war, and think of the suc- 
 cess and the consequences of these measures, I feel 
 my pride as an American humbled in the dust. Hear, 
 sir, the language of that day. I read from pages 301 
 and 302 of the "Olive Branch." "Let no man who 
 wishes to continue the war, by active means, by vote, 
 or lending money, dare to prostrate himself at the 
 altar on the fast-day." " "Will Federalists subscribe 
 to the loan ? Will they lend money to our national 
 rulers? It is impossible, first because of principle, 
 and secondly because of principle and interest." " Do 
 not prevent the abusers of their trust from becoming 
 bankrupt. Do not jjrevent them from becoming odi- 
 ous to the public, and being replaced by better men." 
 " Any Federalist who lends money to government 
 must go and shake hands wath James Madison, and 
 claim fellowship with Felix Grundy." ^ (I beg par- 
 don of my honorable friend from Tennessee, but he 
 is in good company. I had thought it was " James 
 Madison, Felix Grundy, and the Devil.") " Let him 
 no more call himself a Federalist, and a friend to his 
 country, — he will be called by others infamous," etc. 
 
 Sir, the spirit of the peojile sunk under these ap- 
 
 1 Felix Grundy (1777-1840), a celebrated criminal lawyer of 
 Tennessee. He served in tlie House from ISll to 1S14, and in 
 18lJ9 was elected to the Senate. He took part in the debate on 
 Foote's Resolution, and is thought to have leaned favorably 
 toward n'liUifieation. He was Attorney-General in Van Buren's 
 Cabinet for a little more than a year, when he was again elected 
 to the Senate. 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE. 75 
 
 peals. Such was the efPeet produced by them on the 
 public mind that the very agents of the government 
 (as appears from their public advertisements now be- 
 fore me) could not obtain loans without a pledge that 
 " the names of the subscribers should not be known." 
 Here are the advertisements : " The names of all sub- 
 scribers " (say Gilbert and Dean, the brokers em- 
 ployed by government) " shall be known only to the 
 undersisfned."' As if those who came forward to aid 
 their country, in the hour of her utmost need, were 
 engaged in some dark and foul conspiracy, they were 
 assured " that their names should not be known." 
 Can anything show moi'e conclusively the unhappy 
 state of public feeling which prevailed at that day 
 than this single fact? Of the same character with 
 these measures was the conduct of Massachusetts in 
 withholdino- her militia from the service of the United 
 States, and devising measures for withdrawing her 
 quota of the taxes, thereby attempting, not merely to 
 cripple the resources of the country, but actually de- 
 priving the government (so far as depended upon her) 
 of all the means of carrying on the war, of the bone, 
 and muscle, and sinews of war, " of man and steel, 
 the soldier and his sword." But it seems Massachu- 
 setts was to reserve her resources for herself, — she 
 was to defend and protect her own shores. And how 
 was that duty performed? In some places on the 
 coast neutrality was declared, and the enemy was suf- 
 fered to invade the soil of Massachusetts, and allowed 
 to occupy her territory until the peace, without one 
 effort to rescue it from his grasp. Nay, more, — while 
 our owTi government and our own rulers were consid- 
 ered as enemies, the troops of the enemy were treated 
 like friends, — the most intimate commercial relations 
 
76 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 were established with them, and maintained up to the 
 peace. At this dark period of our national affairs 
 where was the Senator from Massachusetts? How 
 were his political associates employed ? " Calculating 
 the value of the Union ? " Yes, sir, that was the pro- 
 pitious moment, when our country stood alone, the 
 last hope of the world, struggling- for existence against 
 the colossal power of Great Britain, *' concentrated in 
 one mighty effort to crush us at a blow," — that was 
 the chosen hour to revive the grand scheme of build- 
 ing up " a great Northern confederacy," — a scheme 
 which, it is stated in the w'ork before me, had its 
 origin as far back as the year 1796, and which ap- 
 pears never to have been entirely abandoned. 
 
 In the language of the writers of that day (1796), 
 " rather than have a Constitution such as the Anti- 
 Federalists were contending for " (such as we now 
 are contending for), "the Union ought to l)e dis- 
 solved : " and to prepare the way for that measure, 
 the same methods were resorted to then that have 
 always been relied on for that purpose, — exciting 
 prejudice against the South. Yes, sir, our Northern 
 brethren were then told " that if the negroes were 
 o-ood for food, their Southern masters would claim the 
 right to destroy them at pleasure." (Olive Branch, 
 page 267.) Sir, in 1814 all these topics were revived. 
 Again we hear of " a Northern confederacy ; " " the 
 slave States by themselves ; " " the mountains are the 
 natural boundary:" we want neither ''the counsels 
 nor the power of the West," etc. The papers teemed 
 with accusations against the South and the West, and 
 the calls for a dissolution of all connection with them 
 were loud and strong. I cannot consent to go through 
 the disgusting details. But, to show the height to 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE. 11 
 
 which the spirit of disaffection was carried, I will 
 take you to the temple of the living God, and show 
 you that sacred place (which should be devoted to the 
 extension of " peace on earth and good will towards 
 men," where one day's truce ought surely to be allowed 
 to the dissensions and animosities of mankind) con- 
 verted into a fierce arena of political strife, where, 
 from the lips of the priest standing between the horns 
 of the altar, there went forth the most terrible denun- 
 ciations auainst all who should be true to their couu- 
 try in the hour of her utmost need. 
 
 " If you do not wish," said a reverend clergyman ^ 
 in a sermon preached in Boston on the 23d of July, 
 1812, " to become the slaves of those who own slaves, 
 and who are themselves the slaves of French slaves, 
 you must either, in the language of the day, CUT THE 
 CONNECTION, or SO far alter the national compact as to 
 insure to yourselves a due share in the government." 
 (Olive Branch, page 319.) '' The Union," says the 
 same waiter (page 320), " has been long since virtu- 
 ally dissolved, and it is full time that this part of 
 the disunited States should take care of itself." 
 
 Another reverend gentleman ,2 pastor of a church at 
 Medford (page 321), issues his anathema, " Let him 
 stand accursed," against all, all who, by their " per- 
 sonal services," or '^ loans of lyoney," '' conversations," 
 or "• writing," or " influence," give countenance or sup- 
 port to the unrighteous war, in the following terms : 
 "•T4iat man is an accomplice in the wickedness, he 
 h)ads his conscience witli the blackest crimes, he brings 
 the guilt of blood upon his soul, and in the sight of 
 God and his law he is a murderer." 
 
 1 The Rev. J. S. J. Gardiner, rector of Trinity Church. 
 
 2 The Rev. David Osgood. 
 
78 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 One or two more quotations, sir, and I shall have 
 done. A reverend doctor of divinity, the pastor of a 
 church at Byfield,^ Massachusetts, on the 7th of April, 
 1814, thus addresses his flock (page 321) : '* The Is- 
 raelites became weary of yielding the fruit of their 
 labor to pamper their splendid tyrants. They left their 
 political woes. They separated. Where is our Moses ? 
 Where the rod of his miracles? Where is our Aaron? 
 Alas ! no voice from the burning bush has directed 
 them here." " We must trample on the mandates of 
 despotism, or remain slaves forever '' (page 322). 
 " You must drag the chains of Virginian desi^otism, 
 unless you discover some other mode of escape." 
 " Those Western States which have been violent for 
 this abominable war, those States which have thirsted 
 for blood, God has given them blood to drink " (page 
 323). Mr. President, I can go no further. The records 
 of the day are full of such sentiments, issued from the 
 press, spoken in public assemblies, poured oi;t from 
 the sacred desk. God forbid, sir, that I should cliarge 
 the people of ^Massachusetts witli participating in these 
 sentiments. The South and the West had there their 
 friends, — men who stood by their country, though 
 encompassed all around by their enemies. The Sen- 
 ator from Massachusetts [Mr. Silsbee] ^ was one of 
 them ; the Senator from, Connecticut [Mr. Foote] was 
 another ; and there are others now on this floor. The 
 sentiments 1 have read were the sentiments of a party 
 embracing the political associates of the gentleaian 
 
 1 The Rev. Elijah Parish. 
 
 - Nathaniel Silsbee was a member of the national House of 
 Representatives from 1817 to 1821, and of the United States 
 Senate from 182G to 1835. During most of this time he was 
 the colleague of Mr. Webster, who was elected in 1827. 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HA YNE. 79 
 
 from Massachusetts. If they could only be found in 
 the columns of a newspajjer, in a few occasional pam- 
 phlets, issued by men of intemperate feeling, I should 
 not consider them as affording any evidence of the 
 opinions even of the Peace party of New England. 
 But, sir, they were the common language of that day ; 
 they pervaded the whole land ; they were issued from 
 the legislative hall, from the pulpit, and the press. 
 Our books are full of them ; and there is no man who 
 now hears me but knows that they were the sentiments 
 of a party by whose members they were promulgated. 
 Indeed, no evidence of this would seem to be required 
 beyond the fact that such sentiments found their way 
 even into the pulpits of New England. What must 
 be the state of public opinion where any respectable 
 clergyman would venture to preach and to print ser- 
 mons containing the sentiments I have quoted? I 
 doubt not the piety or moral worth of these gentle- 
 men. I am told they were respectable and pious men. 
 But they were men, and they " kindled in a common 
 blaze." And now, sir, I must be suffered to remark 
 that, at this awful and melancholy period of our 
 national history, the gentleman from Massachiisetts, 
 who now manifests so great a devotion to the Union, 
 and so much anxiety lest it should be endangered 
 from the South, was " with his brethren in Israel." 
 He saw all these things passing before his eyes, — 
 he heard these sentiments uttered all around him. 
 I do not charge that gentleman with any particij^a- 
 tion in these acts, or with approving of these senti- 
 ments. 
 
 But I will ask, why if he was animated by the same 
 sentiments then which he now professes, if he can 
 " augur disunion at a distance, and snuff up rebellion 
 
80 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 in every tainted breeze," why did he not, at that day, 
 exert his great talents and acknowledged inflnence 
 with the political associates by whom he was sur- 
 rounded,^ and who then, as now, looked up to him for 
 guidance and direction, in allaying this general excite- 
 ment, in pointing out to his deluded friends the value 
 of the Union, in instructing them that, instead of look- 
 ing " to some prophet to lead them out from the land 
 of Egypt," they should become reconciled to their bre- 
 thren, and unite with them in the support of a just and 
 necessary war? Sir, the gentleman must excuse me 
 for saying that, if the records of our country afforded 
 any evidence that he had pursued such a course, then, 
 if we could find it recorded in the history of those 
 times that, like the immortal Dexter,^ he had breasted 
 that mighty torrent which was sweeping before it all 
 tliat was great and valuable in our political insti- 
 tutions ; if like him he had stood by his country in 
 opposition to his part}', — sir, we would, like little 
 children, listen to his precepts, and abide by his 
 counsels. 
 
 As soon as the public mind was suffici(>ntly pre- 
 pared for the measure, the celebrated Hartford Con- 
 vention was got up ; not as the act of a few 
 unauthorized individuals, but by authority of the 
 Legislature of Massachusetts, and, as has been 
 shown by the able historian of that convention, in 
 accordance with the views and wishes of the i)arty of 
 
 1 "lie [Webster] (liscounteuaiH-od the measures whieh led 
 to the Hartford Convention, and he helped to keep New llanip- 
 sliire out of that movement." Lodge's Daniel Webster, p. 58 
 (AnuMiean Statesmen Series). 
 
 ■- Samuel Dexter (17(')1-181(")) ; at first a strong Federalist, 
 he supported the Uepublieans in tlie war policy of ISl'J, and 
 was their nominee for Governor of Massaehusetts in ISIG. 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HA VNE. 81 
 
 which it was the organ. Now, sir, 1 do not desire to 
 call in question the motives of the gentlemen who 
 composed that assembly. I knew many of them to be 
 in private life accomplished and honorable men, and I 
 doubt not there were some among them who did not 
 perceive the dangerous tendency of their ])roceedings. 
 I will even go further, and say that if the authors of 
 the Hartford Convention believed that "• gross, delib- 
 erate, and palpable violations of the Constitution " 
 had taken place, utterly destructive of their rights 
 and interests, I should be the last msm to deny their 
 right to resort to any constitutional measures for 
 redress. But, sir, in any view of the case, the time 
 when and the circumstances under which that conven- 
 tion assembled, as well as the measures recommended, 
 render their conduct, in my opinion, wholly indefen- 
 sible. Let us contemplate, for a moment, the spec- 
 tacle then exhibited to the view of the world. I will 
 not go over the disasters of the war, nor describe the 
 difficulties in which the government was involved. It 
 will be recollected that its credit was nearly gone, 
 Washington had fallen, the whole coast was block- 
 aded, and an immense force, collected in the West 
 Indies, was about to make a descent which it was sup- 
 posed we had no means of resisting. In this awful 
 state of our public affairs, when the government 
 seemed almost to be tottering on its base, when Great 
 Britain, relieved from all her other enemies, had pro- 
 claimed her purpose of '' reducing us to unconditional 
 submission," we beheld the Peace party of New Eng- 
 land (in the language of the work before us) pursu- 
 ing a course calculated to do more injury to thcdr 
 country, " and to render England more effective ser- 
 vice than all her armies." Those who could not find 
 
82 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 it in their hearts to rejoice at our victories sang Te 
 Deura at the King's Chapel in Boston for the resto- 
 ration of the Bourbons. Those who could not consent 
 to illuminate their dwellings for the capture of the 
 Guerriere could give visible tokens of their joy at the 
 fall of Detroit. The '' beacon fires " of their hills 
 were lighted up, not for the encouragement of their 
 friends, but as signals to the enemy ; and in the 
 gloomy hours of midnight the veiy lights burned 
 blue. Such wei-e the dark and portentous signs of 
 the times which ushered into being the renowned 
 Hartford Convention. That convention met, and 
 from their proceedings it appears that their chief 
 object was to keep back the men and money of New 
 England from the service of the Union, and to effect 
 radical changes in the government, — changes that can 
 never be effected without a dissolution of the Union. 
 
 Let us now, sir, look at their proceedings. 1 read 
 from " A Short Account of the Hartford Convention " 
 (written by one of its members i), a very rare book, 
 of which I was fortunate enough, a few years ago, to 
 obtain a copy. [Here Mr. Hayne read from the pro- 
 ceedings.^] 
 
 1 Tlieodore Lyman, Jr., 1792-1849. 
 
 2 " It appears, at page 6 of the Account, that l)v a vote of the 
 House of Representatives of Massachusetts ('2G0 to 90), dele- 
 gates to this Convention were ordered to be appointed, to consult 
 upon the subject ' of tiu'ir public grievances and concerns," and 
 ujton ' the best means of preserving their resources,' and for 
 procuring. a revision of the Constitution of the United States, 
 * more eiVcctually to secure the support and attachment of all 
 the i)eople by placing all upon the basis of fair representation.' 
 
 " The Convention assembled at Hartford on the loth of De- 
 cember, 1814. On the next day it was 
 
 ' Resolved, Tliat the' most inviolable secrecy shall be observed 
 by each member of this Convention, including the Secretary, as 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE. 83 
 
 It is unnecessary to trace the matter further, or to 
 ask what would have been the next chapter in this 
 
 to all propositions, debates, and proceedings thereof, until tbis 
 injunction sball be suspended or altered.' 
 
 " On the 24th of December, the committee appointed to pre- 
 pare and report a general project of such measures as it may 
 be proper for the Convention to adopt, reported, among other 
 things : — 
 
 1. ' That it was expedient to recommend to the legislatures 
 of the States the adoption of the most effectual and decisive 
 measures to protect the militia of the States from the usurpa- 
 tions contained in these proceedings [the proceedings of Con- 
 gress aud the Executive in relation to the militia and the war]. 
 
 2. * That it was expedient also to prepare a statement 
 exhibiting the necessity which the improvidence and inability 
 of the general government have imposed upon the States of 
 providing for their own defense, and the impossibility of their 
 discharging this duty and at the same time fulfilling the requi- 
 sitions of the general government ; and also to recommend to 
 the legislatures of the several States to make provision for mu- 
 tual defense, and to make an earnest application to the govern- 
 ment of the United States with a view to some arranjrement 
 whereby the States may be enabled to retain a portion of the 
 taxes levied by Congress for the purposes of self-defense, and 
 for the reimbursement of expenses already incurred on account 
 of the United States. 
 
 3. ' That it is expedient to recommend to the several State 
 legislatures certain amendments to the Constitution, viz. : — 
 
 ' That the power to declare or make war by the Congress of 
 the United States be restricted. 
 
 ' That it is expedient to attempt to make provision for re- 
 straining Congress in the exercise of an unlimited power to 
 make new States and admit them into the Union. 
 
 ' Tiiat an amendment bo proposed respecting slave representa- 
 tion and slave taxation.' 
 
 " On the 29th December, 1814, it was proposed ' that the ca- 
 pacity of naturalized citizens to hold offices of trust, honor, or 
 profit ought to be restrained,' etc. 
 
 " The subsequent proceedings are not given at large. But it 
 seems that the report of the committee was adopted, and also a 
 
84 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 history if the measures recommended had been car- 
 ried into effect ; and if, with the men and money of 
 New England withheld from the government of the 
 United States, she had been withdrawn from the war ; 
 if New Orleans had fallen into the hands of the 
 enemy ; and if, without troops and almost destitute 
 of money, the Southern and the Western States had 
 been thro\vn upon their own resources for the prose- 
 cution of the war and the recovery of New Orleans. 
 Sir, whatever may have been the issue of the contest, 
 the Union must have been dissolved. But a wise and 
 just Providence, which " shapes our ends, rough-hew 
 them how we will," ^ gave us the victory, and crowned 
 our efforts with a glorious peace. The Ambassadors 
 of Hartford^ were seen retracing their steps from 
 Washington, " the bearers of the glad tidings of 
 great joy." Courage and jiatriotism triumphed ; the 
 country was saved ; the Union was preserved. And 
 are we, Mr. President, who stood by our country then, 
 who threw open our coffers, who bared our bosoms, 
 who freely periled all in that conflict, to be reproached 
 with want of attachment to the Union ? If, sir, we 
 
 reconimeiidation of certain measures (of the character of which 
 we are not informed) to the States for their mutual defense ; 
 and having voted ' that the injunction of secrecy in regard to 
 all the debates and proceedings of tlie Convention (except so 
 far as relates to the Report finally adopted) be continued," the 
 Convention adjourned sine die, but (as it was supposed) to meet 
 again when circumstances should require it." (Note in the 
 earlier editions of Ilayno's Speech, printed without change.) 
 
 1 See Shakespeare's Hamlet, act v. scene 2. 
 
 2 Three commissioners, lieaded by Harrison Gray Otis and 
 bearing the recommendation of the New England (or Hartford) 
 Convention, started for Wasliington early in February, 1815, but 
 were met by the news of the battle of New Orleans, and quickly 
 returned. 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HA YNE. 85 
 
 are to have lessons of patriotism read to us, they must 
 come from a different quarter. The Senator from 
 Massachusetts, who is now so sensitive on all subjects 
 connected with the Union, seems to have a memory 
 forgetful of the political events that have passed 
 away. I must therefore refresh his recollection a 
 little further on these subjects. The history of dis- 
 union has been written by one whose authority stands 
 too high with the American people to be questioned, 
 — I mean Thomas Jeffej'son. I know not how the 
 gentleman may receive this authority. When that 
 great and good man occupied the Presidential chair, 
 I believe he commanded no portion of that gentle- 
 man's respect. 
 
 1 hold in my hand a celebrated pamphlet on the 
 Embargo,^ in which language is held, in relation to 
 Mr. Jefferson, wdiich my respect for his memory will 
 prevent me from i-eading, unless any gentleman should 
 call for it. But the Senator from Massachusetts has 
 since joined in singing hosannas to his name ; he has 
 assisted at his apotheosis, and has fixed him as " a 
 brilliant star in the clear upper sky." I hope, there- 
 fore, he is now prepared to receive with deference and 
 respect the high authority of Mr. Jefferson. In the 
 fourth volume of his Memoirs,^ which have just issued 
 
 • On December 22, 1807, Congress passed an Embargo Act, 
 which prohibited exportations from this country. The object 
 was to force P^nghmd to abandon her Orders in Conncil, and 
 France the Berlin and Milan Decrees, and to stop the seizure of 
 American vessels and the impressment of our seamen. Tlie 
 effect, however, was most disastrous to the commerce of this 
 country, which siirank ominously, especially in New England. 
 The Embargo terminated on ]\Iarch 4, 1809. 
 
 2 The edition edited by T. J. Randolph (Charlottesville, 
 1829). 
 
86 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 from the press, we have the following history of dis- 
 union from the pen of that illustrious statesman : 
 " Mr. Adams called on me pending the Embargo, and 
 while endeavors were making to obtain its repeal ; he 
 spoke of the dissatisfaction of the Eastern portion of 
 our confederacy with the restraints of the Embargo 
 then existing, and their restlessness under it ; that 
 there was nothing which might not be attempted to 
 rid themselves of it ; that he had information of the 
 most unquestionable authority that certain citizens of 
 the Eastern States (I think he named Massachusetts 
 particularly) were in negotiation with agents of the 
 British government, the object of which was an agree- 
 ment that the New England States should take no 
 further part in the war (the commercial war, the ' war 
 of restrictions,' as it was called) then going on, and 
 that, without formally declaring their separation from 
 the Union, they should withdraw from all aid and obe- 
 dience to them," etc. 
 
 " From that moment," says Mr. Jefferson, " I saw 
 the necessity of abandoning it [the Embargo], and, 
 instead of effecting our purpose by this peaceful mea- 
 sure, we must fight it out or break the Union." In 
 another letter ISIr. Jefferson adds : " I doubt whether 
 a sinsrle fact known to the world will carrv as clear 
 conviction to it of the correctness of our knowledge of 
 the treasonable views of the Federal party of that day 
 as that disclosed by this, the most nefarious and dar- 
 ing attempt to dissever the Union, of which the Hart- 
 ford Convention was a subsequent chapter ; and, both 
 of these having failed, consolidation becomes the 
 fourth chapter of the next book of their history. But 
 this opens with a vast accession of strengtli from their 
 younger recruits, who, having nothing in them of the 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HA YNE. 87 
 
 feelings and principles of '76, now look to a single 
 and splendid government, etc., riding and ruling over 
 the jilundered plouglnnan and beggared yeomanry." 
 (Vol. iv. pp. 419, 422.) 
 
 The last chapter, says Mr. Jefferson, of that his- 
 tory is to be found in the conduct of those who are 
 endeavoring to bring about consolidation ; ay, sir, that 
 very consolidation for which the gentleman from ]\Ias- 
 sachusetts is contending, — the exercise by the federal 
 government of powers not delegated in relation to 
 "internal improvements" and "the protection of manu- 
 factures." And why, sir, does Mr. Jefferson consider 
 consolidation as leading directly to disunion ? Because 
 he knew that the exercise by the federal government 
 of the powers contended for would make this " a gov- 
 ernment without limitation of powers," the submission 
 to which he considered as a greater evil than disunion 
 itself. There is one chapter in this history, however, 
 which Mr. Jefferson has not filled up, and I must 
 therefore supply the deficiency. It is to be found in 
 the protests made by New England against the acqui- 
 sition of Louisiana. In relation to that subject, the 
 New England doctrine is thus laid down by one of her 
 learned political doctors of that day, now a doctor of 
 laws at the head of the great literary institution of the 
 East ; I mean Josiah Qnincy, President of Harvard 
 College. I quote from the speech delivered by that 
 gentleman on the floor of Congress, on the occasion of 
 the admission of Louisiana into the Union. 
 
 Mr. Quincy repeated and justified a remark he had 
 made, which, to save all misapprehension, he had com- 
 mitted to writing, in the following words : " If this 
 bill passes, it is my deliberate opinion that it is vir- 
 tually a dissolution of the Union ; that it \\\\\ free the 
 
88 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 States from their moral obligation ; and as it will be 
 the right of all, so it will be the duty of some, to pre- 
 pare for a separation, amicably if they can, violently 
 if they must." 
 
 Mr. Pi-esident, I wish it to be distinctly understood 
 that all the remarks I have made on this subject are 
 intended to be exclusively applied to a party which I 
 have described as the " Peace party of New England," 
 — embracing the political associates of the Senator 
 from Massachusetts, — a party which controlled the 
 operations of that State during the Embargo and the 
 War, and who are justly chargeal)le with all the mea- 
 sures I have reprobated. Sir, nothing has been fur- 
 ther from my thoughts than to impeach the character 
 or conduct of the people of New England. For their 
 steady habits and hardy virtues I trust I entertain a 
 becoming respect. I fully subscribe to the truth of 
 the description given before the Revolution, by one 
 whose praise is the highest eulogy, " that the perse- 
 verance of Holland, the activity of France, and the 
 dexterous and firm sagacity of English enterprise 
 have been more than equaled by this recent people." ^ 
 Hardy, enterprising, sagacious, industrious, and moral, 
 the peo])le of New England of the present day are 
 worthy of their ancestors. Still less, Mr. President, 
 has it been my intention to say anything that could 
 be construed into a want of respect for that l^irty who, 
 trampling on all narrow, sectional feeling, have been 
 
 1 " Neither the perseverance of Holland, nor the activity of 
 France, nor the dexterons and firm sagacity of English enter- 
 prise, ever carried this most perilous mode of hardy industry to 
 the extent to which it has been pushed by this recent people." 
 From Burke's Conciliation with the Colonies. (See Riverside 
 Literature Series, No. 100, p. 10.) 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE. 89 
 
 true to their principles in the worst of times ; I mean 
 the democracy of New England. 
 
 Sir, I will declare that, highly as I appreciate the 
 democracy of the South, I consider even higher praise 
 to be due to the democracy of New England, who 
 have maintained their principles " through good and 
 through evil report," who, at every period of our 
 national history, have stood up manfully for " their 
 country, their whole country, and nothing but their 
 country." In the great political revolution of '98 they 
 were found united with the democracy of the South, 
 marchino- under the banner of the Constitution, led 
 on by the patriarch of liberty, in search of the land 
 of political promise, which they lived not only to 
 behold, but to possess and to enjoy. Again, sir, in 
 the darkest and most gloomy period of the wai", when 
 our country stood single-handed against " the con- 
 queror of the conquerors of the world," when all about 
 and around them was dark and dreary, disastrous and 
 discouraging, they stood a Spartan band in that nar- 
 row pass, where the honor of their country was to be 
 defended, or to find its grave. And in the last great 
 struggle, involving, as we believe, the very existence 
 of the principle of popular sovereignty, where were 
 the democracy of New England ? Where they have 
 always been found, sir, struggling side by side with 
 their brethren of the South and the West for ])()pu- 
 lar rights, and assisting in that glorious triumph by 
 which the man of the people was elevated to the high- 
 est office in tlieir gift. 
 
 Who then, ISIr. President, are the true friends of 
 the Union ? Those who would confine the federal 
 government strictly within the limits prescribed by 
 the Constitution ; who would preserve to the States 
 
90 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 and the people all powers not expressly delegated ; 
 who would make this a federal and not a national 
 Union, and who, administering the government in a 
 spirit of equal justice, would make it a blessing and 
 not a curse. And who are its enemies ? Those who 
 are in favor of consolidation : who are constantly steal- 
 ing 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 coun- 
 try. But, sir, of all descriptions of men, I consider 
 those as the worst enemies of the Union who sacrifice 
 the equal rights which belong to every member of the 
 Confederacy to combinations of interested majorities 
 for personal or political objects. But the gentleman 
 apprehends no evil from the dependence of the States 
 on the federal government ; he can see no danger of 
 corruption from the influence of money or of patron- 
 age. Sir, I know that it is supposed to be a wise say- 
 ing that " patronage is a source of weakness ; " and in 
 support of that maxim it has been said that " every 
 ten appointments make a hundred enemies." But I 
 am rather inclined to think, wdth the eloquent and 
 sagacious orator now reposing on his laurels on the 
 banks of the Roanoke,^ that " the power of conferring 
 favors creates a crowd of dependents." He gave a 
 forcible illustration of the truth of the remark when 
 he told us of the effect of holding up the savory mor- 
 sel to the eager eyes of the hungry hounds gathered 
 around his door. It mattered not whether the gift 
 was bestowed on Towser or Sweetlips, " Tray, Blanch, 
 or Sweet-heart ; " ^ while held in suspense, they were 
 
 ^ John Raudolpb of Roanoke, born 1773, died 1833. 
 "^ See Shakespeare's King Lear, act iii. scene 6. 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE. 91 
 
 all governed by a nod, and, when the morsel was 
 bestowed, the expectation of the favors of to-morrow 
 kept n]) the subjection of to-day. 
 
 The Senator from Massachusetts, in denouncing 
 what he is pleased to call the Carolina doctrine, has 
 attempted to throw ridicule upon the idea that a State 
 has any constitutional remedy, by the exercise of its 
 sovereign authority, against " a gross, palpable, and 
 deliberate violation of the Constitution." He called 
 it " an idle " or " a ridiculous notion," or something to 
 that effect, and added that it would make the Union 
 a "mere rope of sand." Now, sir, as the gentleman 
 has not condescended to enter into any examination 
 of the question, and has been satisfied with throwing 
 the weight of his authority into the scale, I do not 
 deem it necessary to do more than to throw into the 
 opposite scale the authority on which South Carolina 
 relies ; and there, for the present, I am perfectly will- 
 ing to leave the controversy. The South Carolina 
 doctrine, that is to say, the doctrine contained in an 
 exposition reported by a committee of the Legislature 
 in December, 1828, and published by their authority, 
 is the good old Republican doctrine of '98, — the doc- 
 trine of the celebrated " Virginia Resolutions " of that 
 year, and of "Madison's Report" of '99. It will be 
 recollected that the Legislature of Virginia, in Decem- 
 ber, '98, took into consideration the Alien and Sedition 
 laws, then considered by all Republicans as a gross 
 violation of the Constitution of the United States, 
 and on that day ^ passed, among others, the following 
 resolutions : — 
 
 " The General Assembly . , . doth explicitly and 
 peremptorily declare that it views the powers of the 
 ^ December 21, 1798. 
 
92 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 federal government, as resulting from the compact to 
 which the States are parties, as limited by the plain 
 sense and intention of the instrument constituting that 
 compact ; as no farther valid than they are authorized 
 by the grants enumerated in that compact ; and that, 
 in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exer- 
 cise of other powers not granted by the said compact, 
 the States who are parties thereto have the right, and 
 are in duty bound, to interpose for arresting the pro- 
 gress of the evil, and for maintaining, within their 
 respective limits, the authorities, rights, and liberties 
 appertaining to them." 
 
 In addition to the above resolution, the General 
 Assembly of Virginia " appealed to the other States, 
 in the confidence that they would concur with that 
 Commonwealth that the acts aforesaid [the Alien and 
 Sedition laws ^] are unconstitutional, and that the 
 necessary and proper measures would be taken by 
 each for cooperating with Virginia in maintaining 
 unimpaired the authorities, rights, and liberties re- 
 served to the States respectively, or to the people." 
 
 The Legislatures of several of the New England 
 States ha^^ng, contrary to the expectation of the 
 Legislature of Virginia, expressed tlieir dissent from 
 these doctrines, the subject came up again for con- 
 
 1 The Alien Law was passed in 1798, and its action was lim- 
 ited to two years ; the Sedition Law was passed in the same 
 year, to expire in 1801. Both were extreme measures, and 
 undoubtedly led to a reaction against the Federalists in the 
 next election. Tliey were opposed by Hamilton. Their real 
 if not expressed purpose was to discourage undue political sym- 
 pathy with France, and to punish scurrilous attacks on the Execu- 
 tive and the government. Among the immediate results of 
 these measures was the passage of the Kentucky and Virginia 
 resolutions of 1708. 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE. 93 
 
 sideration during the session of 1799-1800, when it 
 was referred to a select committee, by whom was made 
 that celebrated report which is familiarly known 
 as " Madison's Report," and which deserves to last 
 as long as the Constitution itself. In that report, 
 which was subsequently adopted by the Legislature, 
 the whole subject was deliberately reexamined, and 
 the objections urged against the Virginia doctrines 
 carefully considered. The result was that the Legis- 
 lature of Virginia reaffirmed all the principles laid 
 down in the resolutions of 1798, and issued to the 
 world that admirable report which has stamped the 
 character of Mr. Madison as the preserver of that 
 Constitution which he had contributed so largely to 
 create and establish. 1 will here quote from Mr. 
 Madison's report one or two passages which bear more 
 immediately on the point in controversy. " The reso- 
 lution, having taken this \aew of the federal compact, 
 proceeds to infer ' that in case of a deliberate, pal- 
 pable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, not 
 granted by the said compact, the, States who are par- 
 ties thereto have the right, and are in duty boimd, to 
 interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and 
 for maintaining, within their respective limits, the 
 authorities, rights, and liberties appertaining to them.' 
 " It appears to your committee to be a ]ilain princi- 
 ple, founded in common sense, illustrated by common 
 practice, and essential to the nature of compacts, that, 
 where resort can be had to no tribunal superior to the 
 authority of the parties, the parties themselves must 
 be the rightful judges in the last resort whether the 
 bargain made has been pursued or violated. The 
 Constitution of the United States was formed by the 
 sanction of the States, given by each in its sovereign 
 
94 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 capacity. It adds to the stability and dignity, as 
 well as to the authoa'ity of the Constitution, that it 
 rests upon this legitimate and solid foundation. The 
 States, then, being the parties to the constitutional 
 compact, and in their sovereign capacity, it follows of 
 necessity that there can be no tribunal above their 
 authority to decide, in the last resort, whether the 
 compact made by them be violated, and consequently 
 that, as the parties to it, they must themselves decide 
 in the last resort such questions as may be of sufficient 
 magnitude to require their interposition. 
 
 " The resolution has guarded against any misappre- 
 hension of its object by expressly requiring for such 
 an interposition ' the case of a deliberate, palpable, 
 and dangerous breach of the Constitution by the exer- 
 cise of powers not granted by it.' It must be a case, 
 not of a light and transient nature, but of a nature 
 dangerous to the great purposes for which the Consti- 
 tution was established. 
 
 " But the resolution has done more than guard 
 against misconstruction, by expressly referring to 
 cases of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous nature. 
 It specifies the object of the interposition which it 
 contemplates, to be solely that of arresting the pro- 
 gress of the evil of usurpation, and of maintaining 
 the authorities, rights, and liberties appertaining to 
 the States as parties to the Constitution. 
 
 " From this view of the resolution it would seem 
 inconceivable that it can incur any just disapproba- 
 tion from tliose who, laying aside all momentary im- 
 pressions, and recollecting the genuine source and 
 object of the federal Constitution, shall candidly and 
 accurately interpret the meaning of the General As- 
 sembly. If the deliberate exercise of dangerous 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE. 95 
 
 powers, palpably withheld by the Constitution, could 
 not justify the parties to it in interposing even so far 
 as to arrest the progress of the evil, and thereby to 
 preserve the Constitution itself, as well as to provide 
 for the safety of the parties to it, there would be an 
 end to all relief from usurped power, and a direct 
 subversion of the rights specified or recognized under 
 all the State constitutions, as well as a plain denial of 
 the fundamental principles on which our independence 
 itself was declared." , -' 
 
 But, sir, our authorities do not stop here. The 
 State of Kentucky responded to Virginia, and on the 
 10th of November, 1798, adopted those celebrated 
 resolutions well known to have been penned by the 
 author of the Declaration of American Independence. 
 In those resolutions the Legislature of Kentucky de- 
 clare " That the government created by this compact 
 was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent 
 of the powers delegated to itself, since that would have 
 made its discretion, and not the Constitution, the mea- 
 sure of its powers ; but that, as in all other cases of 
 compact among parties having no common judge, each 
 party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of 
 infractions as of the mode and measure of redress." 
 
 At the ensuing session of the Legislature the sub- 
 ject was reexamined, and on the 14th of November, 
 1799, the resolutions of the preceding year were de- 
 liberately reaffirmed, and it was among other things 
 solemnly declared : — 
 
 " That, if those who administer the general govern- 
 ment be permitted to transgress the limits fixed by that 
 compact, by a total disregai-d to the special delegations 
 of power therein contained, an annihilation of the 
 State governments, and the erection upon their ruins 
 
96 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 of a general consolidated government, will be the 
 inevitable consequence. That the principle and con- 
 struction contended for by sundry of the State Legis- 
 latures, that the general government is the exclusive 
 judge of the extent of the powers delegated to it, stop 
 not short of despotism, since the discretion of those 
 who administer the government, and not the Consti- 
 tution, would be the measure of their powers. That 
 the several States who formed that instrument, being 
 sovereign and independent, have the unquestionable 
 right to judge of the infraction, and that a nullifica- 
 tion by those sovereignties of all unauthorized acts 
 done under color of that instrument is the rightful 
 remedy." 
 
 Time and experience confirmed ]Mr. Jefferson's 
 opinion on this all-important point. In the year 1821 
 he expressed himself in this emphatic manner : " It is 
 a fatal heresy to suppose that either our State govern- 
 ments are superior to the federal, or the federal to the 
 State ; neither is authorized literally to decide which 
 belongs to itself or its copartner in government ; in 
 differences of opinion between their different sets of 
 public servants, the appeal is to neither, but to their 
 employers peaceably assembled by their representa- 
 tives in convention." The opinion of Mr. Jefferson 
 on this subject has been so repeatedly and so solemnly 
 expressed that it may be said to have been among the 
 most fixed and settled convictions of his mind. 
 
 In the protest prepared by him for the Legislature 
 of Virginia in December, 1825, in respect to the 
 powers exercised by the federal government in rela- 
 tion to the tariff and internal iuiprovements, which he 
 declares to be " usurpations of the ))owers retained by 
 the States, mere interpolations into the compact, and 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE. 97 
 
 direct infractions of it," he solemnly reasserts all the 
 principles of the Virginia Resolutions of '98 ; protests 
 against " these acts of the federal branch of the gov- 
 ernment as null and void ; and declares that, altliough 
 Virginia would consider a dissolution of the Union 
 as among the greatest calamities that could befall 
 them, yet it is not the greatest. There is one yet 
 greater, — submission to a government of unlimited 
 powers. It is only when the hojie of this shall be- 
 come absolutely desperate that further forbearance 
 could not be indulsfed." 
 
 In his letter to Mr. Giles, written about the same 
 time, he says : — 
 
 " I see as you do, and wath the deepest affliction, 
 the rapid strides with which the federal branch of our 
 government is advancing towards the usurpation of all 
 the rights reserved to the States, and the consolida- 
 tion in itself of all powers, foreign and domestic, and 
 that, too, by constructions which leave no limits to 
 their powers, etc. Under the power to regulate com- 
 merce, they assume indefinitely that also over agi'icul- 
 ture and manufactures, etc. Under the authority to 
 establish post roads they claim that of cutting down 
 mountains for the construction of roads, and diofajufj 
 canals, etc. And what is our resource for the preser- 
 vation of the Constitution? Eeason and aroument? 
 YoTi might as well reason and argue with the marble 
 columns encircling them, etc. Are we, then, to stand 
 to our arms with the hot-headed Georgian ? ^ No (and 
 I say no, and South Carolina has said no) : that must 
 be the last resource. AVe must have patience and 
 long endurance with our brethren, etc., and separate 
 from our companions only when the sole alternatives 
 ^ Probably William H. Crawford is indicated. 
 
98 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 left are a dissolution of our union with them, or 
 submission to a government without limitation of 
 powers. Between these two evils, when we must 
 make a choice, there can be no hesitation."' 
 
 Such, sir, are the high and imposing authorities in 
 support of " the Carolina doctrine," which is, in fact, 
 the doctrine of the Virginia Resolutions of 1798. 
 
 Sir, at that day the whole country was divided on 
 this very question. It formed the line of demarcation 
 between the Federal and Republican parties ; and the 
 great political revolution which then took place turned 
 upon the very question involved in these resolutions. 
 That question was decided by the people, and by that 
 decision the Constitution was, in the emphatic lan- 
 guage of Mr. Jefferson, " saved at its last gasp." I 
 should suppose, sir, it would require more self-respect 
 than any gentleman here woidd be willing to assume, 
 to treat lightly doctrines derived from such high 
 sources. Resting on authority like this, I will ask 
 gentlemen, whether South Carolina has not mani- 
 fested a high regard for the Union when, under 
 a tyranny ten times more grievous than the Alien 
 and Sedition laws, she has hitherto gone no further 
 than to petition, remonstrate, and to solemnly protest 
 against a series of measures which she believes to be 
 wholly unconstitutional and utterly destructive of her 
 interests. Sir, South Carolina has not gone one step 
 farther than iVIr. Jefferson himself was disposed to go 
 in relation to the present subject of our present com- 
 plaints ; not a step farther than the statesmen from 
 New England were disposed to go under similar cir- 
 cumstances ; no farther than the Senator from iSIas- 
 sachusetts himself once considered as within '' the 
 limits of a constitutional opposition." The doctrine 
 
SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE. 99 
 
 that it is the right of a State to judge of the violations 
 of the Constitution on the part of the federal govern- 
 ment, and to protect her citizens from the operations 
 of unconstitutional laws, was held by the enlightened 
 citizens of Boston who assembled in Faneuil Hall on 
 the 25th of January, 1809. They state in that cele- 
 brated memorial that " they looked only to the State 
 Legislatures, who were competent to devise relief 
 against the unconstitutional acts of the general gov- 
 ernment. That your power (say they) is adequate to 
 that object is evident from the organization of the 
 confederacy." 
 
 A distinguished Senator from one of the New Eng- 
 land States (Mr. Hillhouse^), in a speech delivered 
 here on a bill for enforcing the Embargo, declared : " I 
 feel myself bound in conscience to declare (lest the 
 blood of those who shall fall in the execution of this 
 measure shall be on my head) that I consider this to 
 be an act which directs a mortal blow at the liberties 
 of my country, — an act containing unconstitutional 
 provisions, to which the people are not bound to 
 submit, and to which, in my opinion, they will not 
 submit." 
 
 And the Senator from ISIassachusetts himself, in a 
 speech delivered on the same subject in the other 
 House, said : " This opposition is constitutional and 
 legal ; it is also conscientious. It rests on settled and 
 sober conviction that such policy is destructive to the 
 interests of the people and dangerous to the being of 
 government. The experience of every day confirms 
 
 * James Ilillhouse served in the American cause during the 
 Revolution. He was a United States Senator from Connecticut 
 from 1796 to 1810, and treasurer of Yale College from 1782 till 
 ■\his death in 1832. 
 
100 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
 these sentiments. Men who act from such motives 
 are not to be discouraged by trifling obstacles, nor 
 awed by any dangers. They know the limit of con- 
 stitutional opposition ; up to that limit, at their own 
 discretion, they will walk, and walk fearlessly." How 
 " the being of government " was to be endangered by 
 "constitutional opposition " to the Embargo, I leave 
 to the gentleman to explain. 
 
 Thus it will be seen, Mr. President, that the South 
 Carolina doctrine is the republican doctrine of '98 ; 
 that it was promidgated by the fathers of the faith ; 
 that it was maintained by Virginia and Kentucky in 
 the worst of times ; that it constituted the very pivot 
 on which the political revolution of that day turned ; 
 that it embraces the very principles the triumph of 
 which, at that time, saved the Constitution at its last 
 gasp, and which New England statesmen were not 
 unwilling to adopt when they believed themselves to 
 be the victims of unconstitutional legislation. Sir, as 
 to the doctrine that the federal government is the 
 exclusive jndge of the extent as well as the limitations 
 of its powers, it seems to me to be uttei'ly subversive 
 of the sovereignty and independence of the States. It 
 makes but little difference, in my ostituation, whether 
 Congress or the Supreme Court are invested witli this 
 power. If the federal government, in .11 or any of 
 its departinents, is to prescribe the limit ^ of its own 
 authority, and the States are bound to suomit to the 
 decision, and are not to be allowed to examine and 
 decide for themselves when the bai'riers of the Con- 
 stitution shall bo overleaped, this is practically " a 
 government without limitation of powers." The 
 States are at once reduced to mere petty corpora- 
 
r 
 
 I 
 
 SPEKcU of MR. HAYNE. 101 
 
 tions, and the people are entirely at your mercy. I 
 have but one word moi-e to add. 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 jneserva- 
 tion of the Union by the only means by which she 
 believes it can be long preserved, — a firm, manly, and 
 steady resistance against usurpation. The measures 
 of the federal government have, it is true, prostrated 
 her interests, and will soon involve the whole South 
 in irretrievable ruin. But even this evil, great as it 
 is, is not the chief ground of our complaints. It is 
 the principle involved in the contest, a principle which, 
 substituting the discretion of Congress for the limita- 
 tions of the Constitution, brings the States and the 
 people to the feet of the federal government, and 
 leaves them nothing they can call their own. Sir, if 
 the measures of the federal government were less op- 
 pressive, we should still strive against this usurpation. 
 The South is acting on a principle she has always held 
 sacred, — resistance to unauthorized taxation. These, 
 sir, ai-e the principles which induced the innnortal 
 Hampden to resist the i)ayment of a tax of twenty 
 shillings. " Would twenty shillings have ruined his 
 fortune ? No ! but the payment of half twenty shil- 
 lings, on the princi))le on which it was demanded, w^ould 
 have made him a slave." ^ Sir, if, acting on these high 
 motives, — if, animated by that ardent love of liberty 
 which has always been the most ]iromincnt trait in 
 e Southern character, — we should be luirricd beyond 
 h bounds of a cold and calculating prudence, who is 
 /there, with one noble and generous sentiment in his 
 1 Burke's speech on American taxation, April 19, 1774. 
 
102 THE GREAT DEBATE. 
 
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 to the spirit of liberty " ? ^ 
 
 ^ " I pardon something to the spirit of liberty." From Burke's 
 Conciliation with the Colonies. (See Riverside Literature Series, 
 No. 100, p. 19.) 
 
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