AND THE SENTIMENT OF UNION 387 



the West was shared by many Southern senators, who 

 desired to unite South and West in opposition to the 

 tariff. On the igth of January, 1830, Robert Y. Hayne 

 of South Carolina attacked the New England states, 

 accusing them of aiming by their protective policy at 

 aggrandizing themselves at the expense of all the rest 

 of the Union. On the next day Mr. Webster deliv- 

 ered his " first speech on Foote's resolution," in which 

 he took up Mr. Hayne's accusations and answered them 

 with great power. This retort provoked a long and 

 able reply from Mr. Hayne, in which he not only 

 assailed Mr. Webster and Massachusetts and New 

 England, but set forth quite ingeniously and elabo- 

 rately the doctrines of nullification. In view of the 

 political agitation then going on in South Carolina, it 

 was felt that this speech would work practical mischief 

 unless it should meet with instant refutation. It was 

 finished on the 25th of January, and on the next two 

 days Mr. Webster delivered his " second speech on 

 Foote's resolution," better known in history as the 

 " Reply to Hayne." The debate had now lasted so 

 long that people had come from different parts of the 

 country to Washington to hear it, and on the 26th of 

 January the crowd not only filled the galleries and 

 invaded the floor of the senate-chamber, but occupied 

 all the lobbies and entries within hearing and even 

 beyond. In the first part of his speech Mr. Webster 

 replied to the aspersions upon himself and New Eng- 

 land; in the second part he attacked with weighty 

 argument and keen-edged sarcasm the doctrine of nulli- 

 fication. He did not undertake to deny the right of 

 revolution, as a last resort in cases with which legal 

 and constitutional methods are found inadequate to 



