SPEECH OF DANIEL WEBSTER, IN REPLY TO MR. HAYNE, OF SOUTH CAROLINA: THE RESOLUTION OF MR. FOOT, OF CONNECTICUT, RELATIVE TO THE PUBLIC LANDS, BEING UNDER CONSIDERATION. DELIVERED IN THE SENATE, JANUARY 26, 1830

Washington: Printed by Gales & Seaton, 1830. 96pp. Dbd. Scattered tanning and foxing. About very good. The second edition, closely following the first, and from Webster's corrected text of Joseph Gales' on-the-spot shorthand transcription of the speech. This is one of two issues of this edition, without the "Ah Sir" passage on page 96.

One of the most important American political speeches of the 19th century. Webster's speech was technically a response to a bill restricting western land sales, but in reality it was prompted by South Carolina's recently propounded theory of "nullification" - that the individual states had the authority to resist federal legislation, and to secede from the Union if the federal government used force against a state to execute its laws. The speech enunciated Webster's theory of a united, national identity. As such, it exemplified the progress toward that identity that had been made over the previous fifty years, and foreshadowed the fractures and fissures that would develop over the next thirty years, culminating in the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln called it "the very best speech that was ever delivered" (quoted in David Herbert Donald, LINCOLN, p.270). "The most famous American oration of the nineteenth century" - Howes.

Webster invited Joseph Gales of the NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER, who was known for his shorthand expertise, to report the speech personally. Gales then prepared a readable manuscript and delivered it to Webster, who revised it for publication. Gales' newspaper printed it in its editions of February 23, 25, and 27, 1830, and it was published as a seventy-six-page pamphlet from that standing type. This is Gales' second edition, closely following the first.

A landmark American oration. HOWES W200. AMERICAN IMPRINTS 5384. SABIN 102272. THE PAPERS OF DANIEL WEBSTER, SPEECHES AND FORMAL WRITINGS, VOLUME 1, 1800-1833, pp.285- 393. Robert Remini, DANIEL WEBSTER: THE MAN AND HIS TIME (New York, 1997), pp.314-34. Merrill D. Peterson, THE GREAT TRIUMVIRATE: WEBSTER, CLAY, AND CALHOUN (New York, 1987), pp.170-83.