Religion. The South. Party organization. all social classes, is not easily overestimated. But little later in origin were the normal schools, in which teachers are trained for the common schools. These have more slowly but steadily multiplied. Not the least valuable part of their influence is seen in the somewhat recent establishment of courses in the art of teaching in the leading universities. In religion, there was a great upheaval. The old forms of thought everywhere gave way, and new sects began to rise. The greatest blow given to the old order of things was the disestablishment of the Congregational Church in New England, and the vigorous growth of Unitarianism on its ruin. The Unitarians were not formidable in point of number, but the liberalizing tendencies of which they were the exponent were soon to dominate American life in the North. In all this march of progress, in all this great mental and material awakening, the South had no part; the census of 1840 showed a large growth in every Northern state; at least one Western state had doubled its population in ten years; the old South, on the other hand, seemed at a standstill. Georgia, alone, had made an important gain. As it was in material affairs, so it was in intellectual matters: not one of the writers, poets, essayists, historians, or men of science whose names have been given above lived and worked in the South. Moreover, in 1840, no less than sixty-three per cent of the illiterate white adults were to be found in that section of the country. 280. The Spoils System, 1829.-Jackson's administrations mark not only a great change in the material and mental development of the nation; they mark, also, a great change in political methods and modes of action. Up to this time there had been no national party machinery; in most states, there had been no local party machinery. In two states, however, Pennsylvania and New York, most highly developed party organizations had been built up by Van Buren, Marcy, and other politicians of the new type. 1830] Webster and Hayne 391 It is hardly necessary to describe in detail the means by which these politicians compassed their ends: they are familiar to all. In brief, it may be said that they organized the party workers on a semimilitary plan, paying the laborers for their labor by public offices — when the party was success- The "spoils ful. These politicians saw "nothing wrong in the rule that system." to the victors belong the spoils of victory." They now introduced the spoils system of party organization into national politics. the civil service. 451-461. Jackson, it was well known, regarded his fight for the Jackson and presidency as a personal matter: those who helped him were his personal friends; those who opposed him were his per- Schouler's sonal enemies. It was generally expected that he would United States, III, "reward his friends and punish his enemies." Removals at once began, and all who had not shouted loudly for Jackson were displaced. Then came the turn of those who had been long in office, for long tenure was in itself an evidence of "corruption." In nine months, more than a thousand officials had been removed, as against one hundred and sixty during all the preceding administrations. Appointments were made on similar principles; those who had "worked" for Jackson were presumably honest and efficient. The new President was anxious that only good men should be employed, but it was impossible for him personally to examine into the credentials of such hordes of applicants. In the end it appeared that many very unfit persons had been admitted to the public service. In his management of public business, also, Jackson broke away from all precedents. He held few cabinet meetings, and made up his mind chiefly on the advice of a small group of personal friends, men of ability, — who formed what was known at the time as the "kitchen cabinet." Position of 281. Webster and Hayne, 1830. - A student skilled in the South. the interpretation of historic facts might have predicted Schouler's in 1828 that the moment was not far off when the South would again take up the weapon of "state interposition," III, 482. United which Jefferson had referred to in the original draft of the Kentucky Resolutions, and the New England Federalists had adopted during the troublous years 1807-15, and had finally set forth in the resolutions of the Hartford Convention (pp. 343, 345). It was the weapon of the minority: the Southerners were now rapidly falling behind in point of numbers, and they naturally occupied the position which the New Englanders, who were now strong in their alliance with the Westerners, had abandoned. As one means of strengthening their position the Southerners tried to separate the Western men from those of the East on the ground that the latter were hostile to the further development of the West. The leaders in the debate were Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina and Daniel Webster of Massachusetts. Drifting far away from the subject under discussion, Hayne set forth in luminous phrases the Calhoun theory of states' rights. In his splendid rejoinder, Webster stated the theory of national existence. This latter speech, full of burning enthusiasm, 1830] Webster and Hayne 393 richly deserves the foremost place it occupies among the masterpieces of American eloquence. Hayne rested his argument on the premises used by Jefferson and the men of New England: the Constitution was a compact, the states were sovereign when they formed it, and had retained their sovereignty, although creating another sovereign power. "In case of deliberate and settled differences of opinion Webster and Schouler's American between the parties to the compact as to the extent of the powers of either," Hayne maintained that "resort must be had to their common superior, three fourths of the states speaking through a constitutional convention." This appeal could be made by any state, for "the federal government is bound to acquiesce in a solemn decision of a sovereign state, acting in its sovereign capacity, at least so far as to make an appeal to the people for an amendment to the Constitution." Webster, on his part, contended that the Constitution was in no sense a compact, but an instrument whereby the "People of the United States" established a strong centralized government and endowed it with ample powers to enforce its rights; for a state to resist the enforcement of a national law was revolution if it succeeded, rebellion if it failed. The student will do well to study the more important portions of these speeches. 66 Careless use Webster and Hayne between them had stated the two of language. ideas of the Constitution around which the history of the United States was to center for the next thirty years. Unfortunately, in all these controversies, there was a most persistent use of loose language on the part of the Southerners. For instance, in the speech just quoted, Hayne spoke of sovereign states" as having a "common superior." Of course a sovereign state has no superior; if a state has a superior, it is not sovereign. The Southerners, however, continued to use precise terms in inaccurate senses, and thus deluded themselves with the belief that their states really were sovereign. Another example of the same misuse of language is to be found in the sentences above quoted, for Hayne appeared to regard the federal government as a party to "the compact" by which it had been brought into existence. Comments argument. Henry Cabot Lodge, in his interesting life of Webster, on Webster's maintains that Webster's argument was historically unsound; he asserts that in 1787-88 "there was not a man in the country. . . who regarded the new system as anything but an experiment entered upon by the states, and from which each and every state had the right peaceably to withdraw, a right which was very likely to be exercised." He asserts, furthermore," that when the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions appeared they were not opposed on constitutional grounds, but on those of expediency and of hostility to the revolution [of 1800] which they were considered to embody." With this statement Professor Woodrow Wilson |