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 has not manifested 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 further than Mr. Jefferson himself was disposed to go, in relation to the present sub-the doctrine that the federal government is ject of our present complaints-not a step the exclusive judge of the extent as well as further than the statesman from New Eng- the limitations of its powers, it seems to me land was disposed to go, under similar cir- to be utterly subversive of the sovereignty cumstances; no further than the senator and independence of the states. It makes from Massachusetts himself once considered but little difference, in my estimation, as within "the limits of a constitutional whether Congress or the Supreme Court are opposition." The doctrine that it is the invested with this power. If the federal right of a state to judge of the violations of government, in all, or any, of its departthe constitution on the part of the federal ments, is to prescribe the limits of its own government, and to protect her citizens authority, and the states are bound to subfrom the operations of unconstitutional mit to the decision, and are not to be allaws, was held by the enlightened citizens lowed to examine and decide for themof Boston, who assembled in Faneuil Hall, selves, when the barriers of the constitution on the 25th of January, 1809. They state, shall be overleaped, this is practically "a in that celebrated memorial, that "they government without limitation of powers." looked only to the state legislature, who The states are at once reduced to mere were competent to devise relief against the petty corporations, and the people are enunconstitutional acts of the general gov-tirely at your mercy. I have but one word ernment. That your power (say they) is more to add. In all the efforts that have adequate to that object, is evident from the organization of the confederacy." A distinguished senator from one of the New England 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." been made by South Carolina to resist the unconstitutional laws which Congress has extended over them, she has kept steadily in view the preservation of the Union, by the only means by which she believes it can be long 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 limitations of And the senator from Massachusetts him- the constitution, brings the states and the self, in a speech delivered on the same sub-people to the feet of the federal governject in the other house, said, "This opposi-ment, and leaves them nothing they can tion is constitutional and legal; it is also call their own. Sir, if the measures of the conscientious. It rests on settled and sober federal government were less oppressive, conviction, that such policy is destructive we should still strive against this usurpato the interests of the people, and danger- tion. The south is acting on a principle ous to the being of government. The ex- she has always held sacred-resistance to perience of every day confirms these senti- unauthorized taxation. These, sir, are the ments. Men who act from such motives principles which induced the immortal are not to be discouraged by trifling obsta- Hampden to resist the payment of a tax cles, nor awed by any dangers. They know of twenty shillings. Would twenty shilthe limit of constitutional opposition; up lings have ruined his fortune? No! but to that limit, at their own discretion, they the payment of half twenty shillings, will walk, and walk fearlessly." How "the on the principle on which it was demanded, being of the government" was to be endan- would have made him a slave. Sir, if actgered by "constitutional opposition" to the ing on these high motives-if animated by embargo, I leave the gentleman to explain. that ardent love of liberty which has always Thus it will be seen, Mr. President, that been the most prominent trait in the souththe South Carolina doctrine is the republi-ern character-we should be hurried becan doctrine of '98-that it was promul-yond the bounds of a cold and calculating gated by the fathers of the faith-that it prudence, who is there, with one noble and generous sentiment in his bosom, that would not be disposed, in the language of Burke, to exclaim, "You must pardon something to the spirit of liberty?"" Webster's Great Reply to Hayne, Following Mr. Hayne in the debate, Mr. Webster addressed the Senate as follows: Mr. President: When the mariner has been tossed, for many days, in thick weather, and on an unknown sea, he naturally avails himself of the first pause in the storm, the earliest glance of the sun, to take his latitude, and ascertain how far the elements have driven him from his true course. Let us imitate this prudence, and before we float farther, refer to the point from which we departed, that we may at least be able to conjecture where we now I ask for the reading of the resolu are. tion. The Secretary read the resolution as follows: "Resolved, That the committee on public lands be instructed to inquire and report the quantity of the 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 office of surveyor general, and some of the land offices, may not be abolished without detriment to the public interest; or whether it be expedient to adopt measures to hasten the sales, and extend more rapidly the surveys of the public lands."] be elsewhere. The honorable member, however, did not incline to put off the discussion to another day. He had a shot, he said, to return, and he wished to discharge it. That shot, sir, which it was kind thus to inform us was coming, that we might stand out of the way, or prepare ourselves to fall before it, and die with decency, has now been received. Under all advantages, and with expectation awakened by the tone which preceded it, it has been discharged, and has spent its force. It may become me to say no more of its effect than that, if nobody is found, after all, either killed or wounded by it, it is not the first time in the history of human affairs that the vigor and success of the war have not quite come up to the lofty and sounding phrase of the manifesto. The gentleman, sir, in declining to postpone the debate, told the Senate, with the emphasis of his hand upon his heart, that there was something rankling here, which he wished to relieve. [Mr. Hayne rose and disclaimed having used the word rankling.] It would not, Mr. President, be safe for the honorable member to appeal to those around him, upon the question whether he did, in fact, make use of that word. But he may have been unconscious of it. At any rate, it is enough that he disclaims it. But still, with or without the use of that particular word, he had yet something here, he said, of which he wished to rid himself by an immediate reply. In this respect, sir, I have a great advantage over the honorable gentleman. There is nothing here, sir, which gives me the slightest uneasiness; neither fear, nor anger, nor that which is sometimes more troublesome than either, the consciousness of having been in the wrong. There is nothing either originating here, or now received here, by the gentleman's shot. Nothing original, We have thus heard, sir, what the reso- for I had not the slightest feeling of disrelution is, which is actually before us for spect or unkindness towards the honorable consideration; and it will readily occur to member. Some passages, it is true, had every one that it is almost the only subject occurred, since our acquaintance in this about which something has not been said body, which I could have wished might in the speech, running through two days, have been otherwise; but I had used philby which the Senate has been now enter-osophy, and forgotten them. When the tained by the gentleman from South Caro- honorable member rose, in his first speech, lina. Every topic in the wide range of our I paid him the respect of attentive listenpublic affairs, whether past or present,-ing; and when he sat down, though surevery thing, general or local, whether be-prised, and I must say even astonished, at longing to national politics or party politics, seems to have attracted more or less of the honorable member's attention, save only the resolution before us. He has spoken of every thing but the public lands. They have escaped his notice. To that subject, in all his excursions, he has not paid even the cold respect of a passing glance. some of his opinions, nothing was farther from my intention than to commence any personal warfare; and through the whole of the few remarks I made in answer, I avoided, studiously and carefully, every thing which I thought possible to be construed into disrepect. And, sir, while there is thus nothing originating here, which I wished at any time, or now wish When this debate, sir, was to be resumed, to discharge, I must repeat, also, that noon Thursday morning, it so happened that thing has been received here which rankles, it would have been convenient for me to lor in any way gives me annoyance. I will not accuse the honorable member of violat- | bate from the consciousness that I should ing the rules of civilized war-I will not find an overmatch if I ventured on a consay that he poisoned his arrows. But test with his friend from Missouri. If, sir, whether his shafts were, or were not, dipped the honorable member, ex gratia modestia, in that which would have caused rankling had chosen thus to defer to his friend, and if they had reached, there was not, as it to pay him a compliment, without intenhappened, quite strength enough in the tional disparagement to others, it would bow to bring them to their mark. If he have been quite according to the friendly wishes now to find those shafts, he must courtesies of debate, and not at all ungratelook for them elsewhere; they will not be ful to my own feelings. I am not one of found fixed and quivering in the object at those, sir, who esteem any tribute of regard, which they were aimed. whether light and occasional, or more serious and deliberate, which may be bestowed on others, as so much unjustly withholden from themselves. But the tone and manner of the gentleman's question, forbid me thus to interpret it. I am not at liberty to consider it as nothing more than a civility to his friend. It had an air of taunt and disparagement, a little of the loftiness of asserted superiority, which does not allow me to pass it over without notice. It was put as a question for me to answer, and so put as if it were difficult for me to answer, whether I deemed the member from Missouri an overmatch for myself in debate here. It seems to me, sir, that is extraordinary language, and an extraordinary tone for the discussions of this body. The honorable member complained that I had slept on his speech. I must have slept on it, or not slept at all. The moment the honorable member sat down, his friend from Missouri arose, and, with much honeyed commendation of the speech, suggested that the impressions which it had produced were too charming and delightful to be disturbed by other sentiments or other sounds, and proposed that the Senate should adjourn. Would it have been quite amiable in me, sir, to interrupt this excellent good feeling? Must I not have been absolutely malicious, if I could have thrust myself forward to destroy sensations thus pleasing? Was it not much better and kinder, both to sleep upon them myself, and to allow others, also, the pleasure of Matches and overmatches? Those sleeping upon them? But if it be meant, terms are more applicable elewhere than by sleeping upon his speech, that I took here, and fitter for other assemblies than time to prepare a reply to it, it is quite a this. Sir, the gentleman seems to forget mistake owing to other engagements, I where and what we are. This is a Senate; could not employ even the interval be- a Senate of equals; of men of individual tween the adjournment of the Senate and honor and personal character, and of abits meeting the next morning in attention solute independence. We know no masto the subject of this debate. Nevertheless, ters; we acknowledge no dictators. This sir, the mere matter of fact is undoubtedly is a hall of mutual consultation and distrue-I did sleep on the gentleman's speech, cussion, not an arena for the exhibition of and slept soundly. And I slept equally champions. I offer myself, sir, as a match well on his speech of yesterday, to which for no man; I throw the challenge of deI am now replying. It is quite possible bate at no man's feet. But, then, sir, that, in this respect, also, I possess some since the honorable member has put the advantage over the honorable member, at- question in a manner that calls for an tributable, doubtless, to a cooler tempera- answer, I will give him an answer; and I ment on my part; for in truth I slept upon tell him that, holding myself to be the his speeches remarkably well. But the humblest of the members here, I yet know gentleman inquires why he was made the nothing in the arm of his friend from object of such a reply. Why was he Missouri, either alone or when aided by singled out? If an attack had been made the arm of his friend from South Carolina, on the east, he, he assures us, did not be- that need deter even me from espousing gin it-it was the gentleman from Missouri. whatever opinions I may choose to esSir, I answered the gentleman's speech, be- pouse, from debating whenever I may cause I happened to hear it; and because, choose to debate, or from speaking whatalso, I choose to give an answer to that ever I may see fit to say on the floor of the speech, which, if unanswered, I thought Senate. Sir, when uttered as matter of most likely to produce injurious impres- commendation or compliment, I should sions. I did not stop to inquire who was dissent from nothing which the honorable the original drawer of the bill. I found a member might say of his friend. Still less responsible endorser before me, and it was do I put forth any pretensions of my own. my purpose to hold him liable, and to But when put to me as a matter of taunt, I bring him to his just responsibility without throw it back, and say to the gentleman delay. But, sir, this interrogatory of the that he could possibly say nothing less honorable member was only introductory likely than such a comparison to wound to another. He proceeded to ask me my pride of personal character. The anwhether I had turned upon him in this de-ger of its tone rescued the remark from |