Question

What are Calhoun’s main claims to show that the North is treating the South unfairly? What is the main idea of Webster’s response?

Answer 1

The Northern states enjoyed increasing political representation and power born from rapid population growth. Because of the South’s investment in agriculture any attack on slavery, which was witnessed in the North, was an attack on Southern economy itself. Webster viewed slavery as a matter of historical reality rather than moral principle. Congress had prohibited slavery in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and divided regions into slave and free in the 1820 Missouri Compromise. Slavery where it existed could not be eradicated but it could not also take root in the newly acquired agriculturally barren lands on the southwest.