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Daniel Webster
"Godlike" Daniel Webster [1782–1852] was the greatest orator of his time. One of the most successful
attorneys to practice in front of the Supreme Court, he argued in McCulloch v. Maryland and
other cases to support the Founding Fathers’ constitutional framework and promote a strong national government.
Among his greatest speeches were the first public praise of the Pilgrims [1812] and his Senate speeches
calling for nationalism and unity, presented in 1830, 1833, and 1850. His "Second Reply to Hayne"
in 1830 became required reading for generations of students well into the twentieth century. During Senate
debates on the tariff, Sen. Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina suggested that states retained their sovereignty,
and could "nullify" or void any federal law they believed unconstitutional [or they did not
like]. Furthermore, Hayne claimed that states could secede from the Union if the national government tried
to enforce these unpopular laws. This was a resurrection of Jefferson’s "compact theory" of
the Constitution. In a speech that required twelve pages of notes, took two days to deliver, and ran seventy-five
pages long in his collected works, Webster defended national authority and legally demolished Hayne’s
states’ rights arguments. He attacked the "Carolina doctrine" of Calhoun and Hayne as un-American,
and asserted that their arguments were made for local political expediency. Webster pointed out that the
powers of the national government came from the people and not from the state governments. "We
are here to administer a Constitution emanating directly from the people, and trusted by them to our administration."
To claim state sovereignty and unbridled liberty, he said, asked for civil war and anarchy. What the nation
required was ". . . liberty and union . . ." under the Constitution. In the excerpts
that follow, locate the rest of Webster’s appeal and arguments for the national Union. According to Webster,
who is to decide if laws are constitutional? If the people of the state do not like laws, what actions
can they legally pursue under the Constitution? What do you think of Webster’s appeal to patriotism?
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