Denies the right of nullification
"Liberty and Union, one and inseparable"
154. The Greatest Statesman of his Time. Hayne had spoken against a protective tariff and in favor of nullification. Webster felt called upon to reply. He denied the right of a state to nullify a law of Congress, and said that nullification was another name for secession. He closed his great speech with these words: "When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the last time, the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union ... but may I see our flag with not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured ... but everywhere spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land ... that sentiment, dear to every American heart—Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!"
This speech made Daniel Webster immortal. It did more; it fired the heart of every lover of his country.
Opposes Clay's Compromise Tariff
We saw how South Carolina went on toward nullification, and how Clay's Compromise Tariff settled the difficulty. Webster strongly opposed this compromise, and said that South Carolina should get out of the difficulty the best way she could.
Jackson praises Webster
President Jackson was delighted, and praised Webster in public and in private.
Harrison makes him Secretary of State
When Harrison captured the presidency, after the greatest campaign ever seen up to that time, he wanted the best men in the Whig party to advise him, so he made Daniel Webster Secretary of State.