Summary Of Webster's Response To Calhoun

The supremacy of federal power must be maintained by a popular majority, and the individual must participate in that popular majority is the central theme Webster’s response to Calhoun’s suppositions that freedoms are in danger from a strong federal authority. Webster asserts that the authority of the federal government is derived from the power the people have placed in it from the constitution, and in turn to each other. Webster further explains that Calhoun’s argument cannot stand based upon his false premises from which the authority of a government is derived. Webster’s argument is that an individual serves his fellow countryman by granting power to the government to serve interests of the people as whole without prejudice or favoritism over the individual. He supports his argument with examples from the Constitution that directly show from which the source and application of law are derived. Webster counter points Calhoun’s argument by equating that an individual or state that willfully countermands a federal law is not only an illegal act but a treasonous one as well. Webster denies that a state government has the authority or power to protect the people from oppression, He asserts that an individual has the authority and responsibility to protect themselves in those most extreme of cases. Webster runs a thought exercise on the results of Calhoun’s argument that would result in a force meeting force, to the detriment of all without benefit. In Webster’s exercise, …show more content…
Webster strongly opposed that a state has the right or the legal authority to enact any act in direct opposition of the federal government. In the time, this was written it was a critical issue. Webster’s argument that it the pathway that state’s rights being placed before a federal government would prove prophetic and led to the American Civil