Quotes · Quote card
Quotation from Hayne's Reply to Webster (Speech on Foot's Resolution) by Robert Y. Hayne
“Who, then, Mr. President, are the true friends of the Union? Those who would confine the federal government strictly within the limits prescribed by the constitution; who would preserve to the states and the people all powers not expressly delegated; who would make this a federal and not a national Union, and who, administering the government in a spirit of equal justice, would make it a blessing, and not a curse.”
Hayne's Reply to Webster (Speech on Foot's Resolution), Transition to the constitutional argument (Webster and Hayne's Celebrated Speeches in the United States Senate (1853), Wikisource text)
Hayne turns Webster's charge of disunion around, defining loyalty to the Union as strict construction.
Citation: "Who, then, Mr. President, are the true friends of the Union? Those who would confine the federal government strictly within the limits prescribed by the constitution; who would preserve to the states and the people all powers not expressly delegated; who would make this a federal and not a national Union, and who, administering the government in a spirit of equal justice, would make it a blessing, and not a curse." — Robert Y. Hayne, Hayne's Reply to Webster (Speech on Foot's Resolution), Transition to the constitutional argument (Webster and Hayne's Celebrated Speeches in the United States Senate (1853), Wikisource text). (id hayne-speech-on-foots-resolution-q7)
Portrait: Robert Y Hayne, Unknown author, Public domain.
