CALHOUN WEBSTER : AND TWO VISIONS OF THE FEDERAL UNION SOUTH CAROLINA SENATOR JOHN C. CALHOUN SAW THE FEDERAL UNION AS A COMPACT OF STATES. MASSACHUSETTS SENATOR DANIEL WEBSTER SAW IT AS A NATION OF ONE PEOPLE. THEIR DIFFERING VISIONS LED TO HISTORIC DEBATES, BUT UNDERLYING THEM ALL WAS THE QUESTION OF SLAVERY. The intent of the writers of the Calhoun also pursued a career in Constitution was to create a politics. He was elected to the U.S. stronger central government than House of Representatives in 1810 and Library of Congress of Library existed under the old Articles of was the chief deputy of Speaker of John C. Calhoun (1782–1850), who served Confederation. During the ratifica- the House Henry Clay. Calhoun was as vice president, U.S. senator, and tion of the Constitution, many ex- a strong nationalist who pushed for member of Congress in his long political pressed fears the federal war against Britain in 1812. career, was the leading advocate for states’ rights. government would expand its pow- After the war, Calhoun sup- ers at the expense of the states. ported Henry Clay’s “American Sys- to the South, such a majority might The Bill of Rights, in the form of tem,” which called for Congress to someday vote to abolish slavery. 10 amendments, was added to the fund roads, canals, ports and other These developments changed Cal- Constitution to further limit the pow- national improvements. In 1816, he houn from a nationalist to an advo- ers of the federal government. The voted for a tariff (a tax on foreign cate for states’ rights. 10th Amendment attempted to ad- imports) that gave an advantage to In the fall of 1828, Calhoun dress the concerns of those who American manufacturers. wrote a report for the South Car- wanted the states to act as a check on In 1824, Calhoun was elected vice olina state legislature on the unfair- the powers of the federal government: president with John Quincy Adams ness of the new tariff law and what The powers not delegated to the as president. Calhoun was re-elected the legislators should do about it. In United States by the Constitu- vice president in 1828, but this time his South Carolina Exposition and tion, nor prohibited by it to the served with Andrew Jackson, hoping Protest , Calhoun declared that the states, are reserved to the states to follow him as president. 1828 tariff law was “unconstitu- respectively, or to the people. As vice president, Calhoun began tional, unequal, and oppressive.” having second thoughts about his na- Calhoun agreed that the Consti- As the issue of slavery heated up tionalist beliefs. He concluded that tution granted Congress the power before the Civil War, John C. Cal- Clay’s American System and tariffs to enact tariffs. But he argued their houn and Daniel Webster debated mainly benefited the North. only purpose could be to raise the scope of federal government Congress increasingly passed revenue to run the federal govern- powers and whether states could “protective tariffs,” designed to pro- ment and pay its debts. He pointed nullify (veto) laws passed by a ma- tect America’s new industries in the to Article I, Section 8, of the jority in Congress. Calhoun champi- North from foreign competition. Cal- Constitution: oned states’ rights while Webster houn realized that they enriched the The Congress shall have Power stood for a nation of one people industrial North, but burdened the To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, based on majority rule. agricultural South with high prices. Imposts and Excises, to pay the In 1828, Northern manufacturers Debts and provide for the com- ‘Philosopher of Nullification’ persuaded a majority in Congress to mon Defence and general Wel- Born in 1782, John C. Calhoun pass a new law that sharply in- fare of the United States . was the son of a well-off South Car- creased tariff rates. This further olina farmer who owned slaves. Cal- boosted prices on manufactured The purpose of the new tariff, he houn graduated from Yale and then items needed in the South. argued, was to protect industries, not studied law. He married his wealthy Calhoun and other Southerners to raise revenue. Congress, he contin- cousin, became a cotton planter, were angered. He began to worry ued, had no power in the Constitu- and when he died in 1850, he that if a Northern majority in Con- tion to erect protective tariffs that owned about 200 slaves. gress could pass a tariff law harmful made purchases of many goods in 10 U.S. HISTORY the South more expensive. “We are the War of 1812 because it inter- ful voice had a hypnotic effect on his the serfs of the system,” he declared. rupted New England’s trade with listeners. Webster countered Hayne Calhoun insisted that the federal Britain. He voted against war by arguing that “the people’s Consti- government (including the Supreme taxes and a military draft bill. He tution” and the laws passed by its Court) should not decide disputes argued that states had a duty to government, not the states, were the over what constitutional powers it stand between their citizens and supreme law of the land. He stated possessed. Instead, he asserted that the “arbitrary power” of the that under the Constitution, the U.S. each state held the 10th Amendment federal government. Supreme Court had the “last appeal” power to nullify an unconstitutional After the war, Webster voted in disputes between the federal gov- federal law. Calhoun stated that this against protective tariffs that ernment and the states. nullification power prevented the harmed New England’s shipping in- Webster also asserted that the U.S. government from invading dustry. But by the 1820s, New Eng- federal union was “founded on the states’ rights. land was booming with factories principle of one nation.” He denied Finally, Calhoun explained that and producing manufactured goods. that the U.S. was a league of inde- the ultimate judgment on a federal pendent states that possessed the law nullified by a state would rest right to secede from the union. with a convention of all the states. In November 1832, Webster said if a state nullified a The convention would consider a federal law, it would have to back constitutional amendment, requiring South Carolina this up with military force. “To re- a three-fourths vote of the states. sist by force the execution of a law,” This would resolve the matter one held a state he warned, “is treason.” way or the other. A nullifying state Webster concluded by listing that refused to accept an amend- convention and the blessings of the federal union. ment adopted by three-fourths of He prayed that he would never see the states would have no choice but voted to nullify the union “rent with civil feuds, or to secede from the federal union. drenched, it may be, in fraternal Calhoun’s “Carolina Doctrine” the tariffs of 1828 blood!” He denounced those who provided nullification as a states’ cried “Liberty first and Union after- rights defense against what he and 1832. wards.” He exclaimed, “Liberty called “the oppression of the major- and Union, now and forever, one ity.” Before long, many called him Webster therefore changed and inseparable!” the “Philosopher of Nullification.” course again and became a firm ad- At a banquet a few months later, vocate for protective tariffs. After President Andrew Jackson made this ‘Godlike Daniel’ his election as a U.S. senator from toast: “Our Federal Union: It must be Daniel Webster was born the Massachusetts, he voted for the tar- preserved.” Vice President Calhoun same year as Calhoun. Webster’s fa- iff of 1828 that so distressed Cal- also made a toast: “The Union: ther was a New Hampshire farmer, houn. (At this time, U.S. senators [After] our Liberty the most dear.” state legislator, and judge. were elected by state legislatures.) Webster graduated from Dart- In January 1830, Webster found The Nullification Crisis mouth College where he excelled at himself in a historic Senate debate In 1832, Congress passed an- public speaking. He studied law and over Calhoun’s Carolina Doctrine of other protective tariff. An angry Cal- became a wealthy Massachusetts nullification. The Senate galleries, houn proclaimed, “The question is lawyer who represented Boston even the stairways, were crowded no longer one of free trade, but of businesses in court and argued with onlookers. Webster’s debate op- liberty and despotism.” Talk of se- cases before the U.S. Supreme ponent was not Calhoun, but Senator cession spread across the South. Court. He married a minister’s Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina. Calhoun defined the federal daughter, and after she died, he Vice President Calhoun, as president union as a “compact of states,” each married a second time. of the Senate, chaired the debate. holding sovereignty (supreme politi- Like Calhoun, Webster entered Hayne followed Calhoun’s argu- cal power). He believed that if a fed- politics and had ambitions to be- ments that the states could check eral law threatened the interests of come president. He was elected to the power of the federal government a state, that state could challenge it the House of Representatives in by nullification. By some accounts, — not by going to federal court, but 1812 as a nationalist who supported Calhoun sent notes to Hayne during by asking other states to rule on it. policies encouraging commerce. the debate to help him. The law would be upheld only if a Webster reversed his nationalist Many already called Webster three-fourths majority of the states course, however, when he opposed “Godlike Daniel” because his power- agreed.