The Webster-Hayne Debate on the Nature of the Union

SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE, OF SOUTH CAROLINA

Debate_ 001-050.indd 35 5/4/12 3:03 PM SPEECH OF MR. HAYNE, oF SouTH CAROLINA The motion ofMr. Webster to postpone indefinitely, the resolution proposed by Mr. Foot, concerning the public lands, being under consideration, Mr. Hayne addressed the Chair as follows: M R. HAYNE BEGAN BY SAYING that when he took occasion, two days ago, to throw out some ideas with respect to the policy ofthe Government in relation to the public lands, nothing certainly could have been further from his thoughts than that he should be compelled again to throw himselfupon the indulgence of the Senate. Little did I expect [said Mr. H.] to be called upon to meet such as was yesterday urged by the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. WEBSTER.] Sir, I questioned no man's opinions; I impeached no man's motives; I charged no party, or State, or section ofcountry, 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 ofpublic policy. Such was my course. The gentleman from Missouri, [Mr. BENTON] it is true, had charged upon the Eastern States an early and continued hostility towards the West, and referred to a number ofhistorical facts and documents in support of that charge. Now, sir, how have these different arguments been met? The honorable gentleman from Massachusetts, after deliberating 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 Missouri, on the charges which he had preferred, chooses to consider me as the author of those charges; and, losing sight entirely of that gentleman, selects me as his adversary, 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 principles and conduct of the State which I have the honor to represent. When I find a gentleman of mature age and experience, ofacknowledged talents and profound sagacity, pur35 Debate_ 001-050.indd 36 5/4/12 3:03 PM THE WEBSTER-HAYNE DEBATE ON THE NATURE OF THE UNION suing a course like this, declining the contest offered 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. Why is this? [asked Mr. H.] Has the gentleman discovered in former controversies 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 ofthe murdered Coalition come back, like the ghost ofBanquo, to "sear the eye-balls" ofthe gentleman, and will it not "down at his bidding?" Are dark visions of broken hopes, and honors lost forever, still floating before his heated imagination ? Sir, ifit 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 defence ofmy 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-ifhe can; and ifhe win the victory, let him wear its honors: I shall not deprive him ofhis laurels. The gentleman from Massachusetts, in reply to my remarks on the injurious operation of our land system on the prosperity of the West, pronounced an extravagant eulogium on the paternal care which the Government had extended towards the West, to which he attributed all that was great and excellent in the present condition of the new States. The language ofthe 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 American Revolution. They, too, discovered, that the colonies had grown great under the fostering care ofthe mother country ; and...