Select Speeches of Daniel Webster, 1817-1845Webster, Daniel
General
Select Speeches of Daniel Webster, 1817-1845
Webster, Daniel
Speeches, addresses, etc., American
Mr. Dexter, Sir, such as I have described him, argued the New England
cause. He put into his effort his whole heart, as well as all the
powers of his understanding; for he had avowed, in the most public
manner, his entire concurrence with his neighbors on the point in
dispute. He argued the cause; it was lost, and New England submitted.
The established tribunals pronounced the law constitutional, and New
England acquiesced. Now, Sir, is not this the exact opposite of the
doctrine of the gentleman from South Carolina? According to him,
instead of referring to the judicial tribunals, we should have broken
up the embargo by laws of our own; we should have repealed it, _quoad_
New England; for we had a strong, palpable, and oppressive case. Sir,
we believed the embargo unconstitutional; but still that was matter of
opinion, and who was to decide it? We thought it a clear case; but,
nevertheless, we did not take the law into our own hands, because we
did not wish to bring about a revolution, nor to break up the Union;
for I maintain, that between submission to the decision of the
constituted tribunals, and revolution, or disunion, there is no middle
ground; there is no ambiguous condition, half allegiance and half
rebellion. And, Sir, how futile, how very futile it is, to admit the
right of State interference, and then attempt to save it from the
character of unlawful resistance, by adding terms of qualification to
the causes and occasions, leaving all these qualifications, like the
case itself, in the discretion of the State governments. It must be a
clear case, it is said, a deliberate case, a palpable case, a dangerous
case. But then the State is still left at liberty to decide for herself
what is clear, what is deliberate, what is palpable, what is dangerous.
Do adjectives and epithets avail any thing?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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