Cord Byrd: “Daniel Webster, in his reply to Hayne, in 1830, January 26, was critical of Hayne for asking a question as to why he…”

“Daniel Webster, in his reply to Hayne, in 1830, January 26, was critical of Hayne for asking a question as to why he, the Senator from South Carolina, should support a canal of importance to the State of Ohio. And Webster said that we who represent the people of New England do not limit our patriotic feeling to geographical limits such as 'rivers and mountains, and lines of latitude, beyond which public improvements do not benefit us.' But, he said, 'I look upon a road over the Alleghanies'--and that struck me as being pretty significant. Daniel Webster, speaking of a road across the Alleghenies, or 'a canal round the falls of the Ohio, or a . . . railway from the Atlantic to the western waters' saw these as being 'an object large and extensive enough to be . . . for the common benefit.' If he were to question such things, said Webster, since they are of sufficient import to be 'for the common benefit,' he would not be willing to face his constituents in New England.”