test
from a sense of duty. It was an instantaneous impulse of inclination,
not acting against duty, I trust, but hardly waiting for its
suggestions. I felt it to be a contest for the integrity of the
Constitution, and I was ready to enter into it, not thinking, or
caring, personally, how I came out." In a speech characterized by
Henry Cabot Lodge as "one of the most effective retorts, one of the
strongest pieces of destructive criticism, ever uttered in the
Senate," Webster now defended his section against the charges of
selfishness, jealousy, and snobbishness that had been brought against
it, and urged that the Senate and the people be made to hear no more
utterances, such as those of Hayne, tending "to bring the Union into
discussion, as a mere question of present and temporary expediency."

The debate was now fairly started, and the word quickly went round
that a battle of the giants was impending. Each foeman was worthy of
the other's steel. Hayne was representative of all that was proudest
and best in the South Carolina of his day. "Nature had lavished on
him," says Benton, "all the gifts which lead to eminence in public,
and to happiness in private, life." He was tall, well-proportioned,
graceful; his features were clean-cut and expressive of both
intelligence and amiability; his manner was cordial and unaffected;
his mind was vigorous and his industry unremitting. Furthermore, he
was an able lawyer, a fluent orator, a persuasive debater, an adroit
parliamentarian. Upon entering the Senate at the early age of
thirty-two, he had won prompt recognition by a powerful speech in
opposition to the tariff of 1824; and by 1828, when he was reelected,
he was known as the South's ablest and boldest spokesman in the upper
chamber.

Webster was an equally fitting representative of rugged New England.
Born nine years earlier than Hayne, he struggled up from a boyhood of
physical frailty and poverty to an honored place at the Boston bar,
and in 1812, at the age of thirty, was elected to Congress. To the
Senate he brought, in 1827, qualities that gave him at once a
preeminent position. His massive head, beetling brow, flashing eye,
and stately carriage attracted instant attention wherever he went. His
physical impressiveness was matched by lofty traits of character and
by extraordinary powers of intellect; and by 1830 he had acquired a
reputation for forensic ability and legal acumen which were second to
none.

When, theref