WEBSTER-HAYNE DEBATE

Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina participated in this famous debate of January 19-27, 1830. The highly protective "Tariff of Abominations" of 1828 was the paramount sectional issue in the late 1820s. Southerners, who exported cotton and imported manufactured goods from Europe, paid higher prices on these manufactured items because of the tariff. Increasingly aware that it failed to promote local manufacturing but that it translated into profits for northeastern producers, southern politicians hoped to forge a sectional alliance to repeal the tariff. If westerners and southerners could agree to vote for low tariffs and cheap federal land, both regions would benefit economically.

Hayne proposed such an alliance between the South and West after Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri denounced a pending proposal to restrict the sale of federal lands. Webster, a powerful voice for the northeastern manufacturing interests, responded to Hayne first by goading him into making a passionate claim for states' rights. Hayne blamed the Tariff of 1828 for economic difficulties in South Carolina. He argued that the federal Constitution was a compact among the states and raised the specter of nullification as an option for states harmed by federal action.

Hayne's remarks set the stage for Webster's famous reply. For two days, Webster held the floor and the attention of his colleagues and packed galleries. The Constitution was not a mere agreement of states, he said, but a compact of the American people guaranteeing freedom. "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!" By his impassioned rhetoric, Webster made the states' rights position look like treason, temporarily diffusing its potency.

See also Nullification Controversy; Tariff; Webster, Daniel.