The Webster-Hayne Debate on the Nature of the Union: Selected Documents

by Herman Belz (Editor), Robert Young Hayne

The debates between Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Robert Hayne of South Carolina gave fateful utterance to the differing understandings of the nature of the American Union that had come to predominate in the North and the South by 1830. To Webster, the Union was the indivisible expression of one nation of people. To Hayne, the Union was the voluntary compact among sovereign states. The Webster-Hayne Debate consists of speeches delivered in the United States Senate in January of 1830. Herman Belz is Professor of History at the University of Maryland.

509 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2000

Reviews

[Chris McDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

profound

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Long and slow read but well worth it. This was one of the most prominent debates in Congressional history taking place from January 19-27, 1830 and cutting to the core nature of what the Union is. With multiple Senators speaking in 65 speeches, this debate may be one of the most important in Congressional history. Daniel Webster, one of the great orators in U.S. history, may have given the more moving argument with, “Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.” This, however did not diminish the opposing view of the voluntary compact among sovereign states. As important a debate now as it ever has been.

[Craig Bolton]

"WEBSTER-HAYNE DEBATE ON THE NATURE OF THE UNION, THE by HERMAN BELZ (2000)"