"The Webster-Hayne Debate centers on the question that consumed the Early Republic: Did state sovereignty or the federal Constitution rightfully claim preeminence? Begun in 1830 during a Senate discussion of western land policy and continuing through the South Carolina legislature's nullification of a federal tariff, Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina took part in a heated debate that landed on the question of union--its nature and its value in a federal republic. Christopher Childers treats this debate as an important moment in the Early Republic, one in which spokesmen for the generation that followed the founders parsed the difference between a confederation of states, any one of which could decide whether to leave the compact of 1789, and a lasting union based on the principles of the revolution"-- Provided by publisher.

Prologue : we the states or we the people? -- New England's march toward nationalism -- The South's march toward sectionalism -- The West asserts its power -- The great debate -- Nullification and nationhood -- Epilogue : the Webster-Hayne Debate in historical memory.