The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-04


 to vindicate the liberty of our citisens and our right to be recognized as an in- dependent government--we are confront- ed with the Hartford Convention, when the States of New England. including delegates from the States of Massachu- setts. Rhode Island. Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont. including the Territory of Maine. not yet admitted as a State. met in convention to consider measures preparatory to withdrawal from the Union. And why? Because, in the exercise of an express and undoubted power. the Congress of the United States had declared war with England. to vim dicate the honor of the country and the dignity of our common government!
 They did not secede, 1t is true, but the right of secession is asserted with em- phasis They say: If the Union be des- tined to dissolution by reason of the null tiplied abuses of bad administration. 1t should, if possible. be the work of peace able times and deliberate consent. Some new form of confederacy should be sub- stituted among those States which shall intend to maintain the Federal relation to each other. Events may prove that the causes of our calamities are deep and permanent. They may be found to proceed not merely from the blindness of prejudice, pride of opinion, violence
 
 times, but they may be traced to implac- able combinations of individuals or of States, to monopolize power and office. and to trampie without remorse upon the rights and interests of commercial sec- tions of the Union Whenever 1t shall appear that the causes are radical or permanent, a separation by equitable ar rangement will be preferable to an alli- ance by constraint among nominal friends but real enemies"
 Why, my friends, no fact is historically more certain than that, at the time of the formation of this Union. and for many years afterwards. 1t was recog- nized and understood by all tile States, | and the leading men both from the North and South, that the Constitution was compact between sovereign States. from which each and every State had the right to withdraw at pleasure-a right which remained uncontested, so far as I am advised. until Mir. Webster. in 1880 and 1888, receiving a new inspiration. sought, with great ingenuity of argument, to show that the Constitution was not a compact between sovereign States. but a fundamental law ordained and estab- lished by them to form a permanent Union.
 The Giants of Debate.
 Now, please do not understand from this that mean 10 disparage Mir. Web ster. Some very able lawyers and some very great men have been known to take untenable positions. and support them with arguments which, while able. were inconclusive.
 Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, John c. Calhoun--in those three names, American patriotism and statesmanship touched high water mark. And while every American may feel sense of pride in the lives of such men. it is not surpris- ing that each section should regard with peculiar pride and affection her chosen champion!
 Many years ago. on my first visit to Boston, visited Faneuil Hall. in which. as many of you are no doubt aware, is a life-sized picture of Mir. Webster ad- dressing the. United States Senate in 1S3O, upon the Foote resolutions. While | there. a man came in whom took to be rural school teacher, with number | of pupils, and who. from appearances, outlying district in one or the other of the New England States. | The teacher essayed to explain the pie | ture to his pupils. and was not long | in discovering that, while want | ing in erudition, he was not in the sectional feel | ing which then and always has been pronounced m that teFFltoEys 11e Saiu | that this was the first great sectional debate, and was MT. webster's greatest speech. Proceeding. he said that MT. Calhoun, who. as I recollect, also ap- pears in the picture in somewhat re- tired and elevated position, was the great champion of Southern ideas, and had been expected to participate in the debate, but since he had been signaliy | overcome by Mir Webster in a previous debate, the South had now put forward MT. Hayne to cope with MT. Webster. and then he proceeded to show how MT Hayne, in his turn, had been annihi- lated I listened to the remarks until my combatativeness asserted itself, and arose to say: If you will pardon me. sir, your statement of the facts of his tory is inaccurate. It is true that Mir. Calhoun appears in this picture, and so, as he was at this time Vice-President of the United States, and as such, the presiding officer of the Sen ate, but 1t is not true that he was ex- pected to participate in this discussion. He was not member of the Senate and on this account could not have taken