Webster, with all his power,
came to Jackson's support. It includes the time of the Reply
to Hayne, and the great debate with Calhoun.
Daniel Webster, I need not say, would have been a great figure
anywhere. But if Mr. Lincoln had acted otherwise, there would
have been absent from our history and literature Webster's
Reply to Hayne, the support of Jackson in the day of Nullification,
the debate with Calhoun including the speech, "The Constitution
not a Compact between Sovereign States," and the powerful
attack on Jackson's assertion of power in the removal of the
deposits. The speech on the President's Protest, with the
wonderful passage describing the power of England, would not
have been made.
If the sentiment of Patriotism, and love of Liberty and Union
are to be dominant in this Republic, we cannot measure the
value of the influence of Daniel Webster and the speech in
reply to Hayne. I am not sure that, without Mr. Webster's
powerful championship of the side which prevailed, Mr. Calhoun's
theory would not have become established. At any rate, it
was the fortune of Daniel Webster that the doctrine of National
Unity, whenever it has prevailed in the hearts of his countrymen,
has been supported by his argument and clothed in his language.
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