By 1824, more and more Americans demanded a market open to any who dared to venture in, an economy as democratic as the political arena increasingly was.66 Ogden’s attorneys were also to assert a state’s authority to interfere with interstate commerce. The claim affronted both Webster’s nationalism and his economic vision. If it prevailed, it would establish a constitutional rule that would turn the United States into a collection of feuding principalities, each erecting its own barriers to trade.
