This book traces how early Americans imagined what a 'nation' meant during the first fifty years of the country's existence.

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The debates between Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Robert Hayne of South Carolina gave fateful utterance to the differing understandings of the nature of the American Union that had come to predominate in the North and the South by 1830. To Webster, the Union was the indivisible expression of one nation of people. To Hayne, the Union was the voluntary compact among sovereign states. The Webster-Hayne Debate consists of speeches delivered in the United States Senate in January of 1830. Herman Belz is Professor of History at the University of Maryland. Please note: This title is available as an ebook for purchase on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iTunes.