On the 29th of December, 1829, Senator Foot of Connecticut moved a resolution in regard to the Public Lands, and a long and weary discussion followed until Mr. Hayne, a Senator from South Carolina, on June 19, 1830, took part and introduced a new element into the discussion by making an elaborate attack on the New England States. Mr. Webster had taken no special interest in the question, and on the day in which Mr. Hayne began his speech he was engaged in the Supreme Court, but came into the Senate in season to hear the closing paragraphs. Thinking that such an attack upon New England required a reply, Mr. Webster at once rose, but yielded to a motion to adjourn. On the next day, the 20th, Mr. Webster proceeded with his reply, in which he showed the absurdity of Hayne's accusations and by which he completely shattered his whole elaborate argument. There was hardly an allusion in Mr. Webster's speech to the question of the tariff as it concerned South Carolina, but so aroused was Hayne by Webster's defence of New England, that on the following day he spoke a second time and in a tone of even greater severity and bitterness than that which marked his previous speech; he indulged in personal allusion to Mr. Webster, and strove to bring odium upon him and the State which he represented; he openly espoused the cause of Nullification and declared war upon the tariff. Before he concluded the Senate adjourned until the 25th, when he completed his speech; Mr. Webster immediately rose to reply, but as it was late yielded to a motion to adjourn. Mr. Hayne's speech had caused the greatest alarm throughout the North; many were afraid that it was unanswerable. This was an evidence that the true nature of the Constitution was not thoroughly understood. "It is a critical moment," said Mr. Bell of New Hampshire to Mr. Webster on the morning of the 26th, "and it is time, it is high time, that the people of this country should know what this Constitution _is_." "Then," said Mr. Webster, "by the blessing of Heaven, they shall learn, this day, before the sun goes down, what I understand it to be." With this utterance upon his lips, he entered the Senate Chamber, which was already crowded. Every seat on the floor and in the galleries was occupied; the House of Representatives was deserted; the lobbies and staircases were packed. The vast audience was composed, on the one hand, of those who feared and trembled lest the rushing tide of hostility to the Constitution and the Union should sweep over the country; and on the other, of those who believed that New England had no champion strong enough to stand in the breach. This scene in the Senate Chamber is rivalled only by that in the House of Commons, when Burke, in 1774, stood forth as the defender of the American colonies. Such was the anxiety to hear the speech that all the ordinary preliminaries of senatorial action were postponed, and Mr. Webster began his "Second Speech on Foot's Resolution," better