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How did Daniel Webster argue against nullification during the debate with Robert Y. Hayne?

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Jackson's “Proclamation to the People of South Carolina” — Nullification Crisis U.S. Pres. Andrew Jackson issued his “Proclamation to the People of South Carolina” on December 10, 1832, in response to South Carolina's refusal to be bound by federal tariffs. In it Jackson asserted the supremacy of the federal government and rejected South Carolina's argument that it, as a state, had the right to reject laws made by the federal government that it deemed unconstitutional. Jackson's proclamation was an escalation of the Nullification Crisis, and some argue that it helped lay the foundation for the American Civil War.

In the famous 1830 debate, Daniel Webster countered the doctrine of nullification—which had been presented by Robert Y. Hayne based on theories from John C. Calhoun—by eloquently defending the supremacy of the federal government over the states.12

While Hayne argued that the U.S. Constitution was a compact among sovereign states, allowing any state to nullify federal laws it deemed unconstitutional, Webster rejected this interpretation. In his second reply to Hayne, Webster asserted that the federal government possessed the necessary authority to maintain the Union, famously concluding his argument with the appeal: "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!"12

By framing the Union as an indivisible entity rather than a mere collection of states, Webster’s position became a rallying cry for nationalists. His defense of federal power was so significant that he later supported President Andrew Jackson when South Carolina attempted to put the theory of nullification into practice during the 1832–1833 crisis.2