[Illustration: DANIEL WEBSTER, 1833.]
Hayne's speech, 1830.
Webster's reply to Hayne.
305. Webster and Hayne, 1830.--Calhoun was Vice-President and presided over the debates of the Senate. So it fell to Senator Hayne of South Carolina to state Calhoun's ideas. This he did in a very able speech. To him Daniel Webster of Massachusetts replied in the most brilliant speeches ever delivered in Congress. The Constitution, Webster declared, was "the people's constitution, the people's government; made by the people and answerable to the people. The people have declared that this constitution ... shall be the supreme law." The Supreme Court of the United States alone could declare a national law to be unconstitutional; no state could do that. He ended this great speech with the memorable words, "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable."
Tariff of 1832.
"Nullified" by South Carolina, 1833.
Jackson's warning.
He prepares to enforce the law.
The Force Bill, 1833.
306. Nullification, 1832-33.--In 1832 Congress passed a new tariff act. The South Carolinians decided to try Calhoun's weapon of nullification. They held a convention, declared the act null and void, and forbade South Carolinians to obey the law. They probably thought that Jackson would not oppose them. But they should have had no doubts on that subject. For Jackson already had proposed his famous toast on Jefferson's birthday, "Our federal Union, it must be preserved." He now told the Carolinians that he would enforce the laws, and he set about doing it with all his old-time energy. He sent ships and soldiers to Charleston and ordered the collector of that port to collect the duties. He then asked Congress to give him greater power. And Congress passed the Force Bill, giving him the power he asked for. The South Carolinians, on their part, suspended the nullification ordinance and thus avoided an armed conflict with "Old Hickory," as his admirers called Jackson.
Tariff of 1833.
307. The Compromise Tariff, 1833.--The nullifiers really gained a part of the battle, for the tariff law of 1832 was repealed. In its place Congress passed what was called the Compromise Tariff. This compromise was the work of Henry Clay, the peacemaker. Under it the duties were to be gradually lowered until, in 1842, they would be as low as they were by the Tariff Act of 1816 (p. 231).
Second United States Bank, 1816.
Jackson's dislike of the bank.
308. The Second United States Bank.--Nowadays any one with enough money can open a national bank under the protection of the government at Washington. At this time, however, there was one great United States Bank. Its headquarters were at Philadelphia and it had branches all over the country. Jackson, like Jefferson (p. 163), had very grave doubts as to the power of the national government to establish such a bank. Its size and its prosperity alarmed him. Moreover, the stockholders and managers, for the most part, were his political opponents. The United States Bank also interfered seriously with the operations of the state banks--some of which were managed by Jackson's friends. The latter urged him on to destroy the United States Bank, and he determined to destroy it.
Jackson, Clay, and the bank charter.
Constitution, Art. I, sec. 7, par. 3.
Reëlection of Jackson, 1832.