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Quotation from Second Reply to Hayne by Daniel Webster
“They are, in truth, the keystone of the arch! With these it is a government; without them it is a confederation.”
Second Reply to Hayne, Constitutional argument, on the supremacy clause and judicial power (The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster, ed. Whipple (1879))
Webster names the two constitutional provisions that make the United States a government rather than a league.
Citation: "They are, in truth, the keystone of the arch! With these it is a government; without them it is a confederation." — Daniel Webster, Second Reply to Hayne, Constitutional argument, on the supremacy clause and judicial power (The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster, ed. Whipple (1879)). (id webster-second-reply-to-hayne-q5)
Portrait: Webster's Reply to Hayne, by Healy (cropped), George Peter Alexander Healy, Public domain.
