Shakespeare's plays were ubiquitous in antebellum America. They
inhabited the schoolbooks, including Scott's Lessons in
Elocution, which Lincoln read as a boy. Dozens of editions
circulated through the states and territories. The plays visited
rural and urban stages in scenes and declamatory excerpts as
well as larger productions, and crystallized a turning point in
the Webster-Hayne debate of 1830, in which senators disputing
the future of the union and the territories alleged blame for
the political crisis by fighting over the significance of
Banquo's ghost. Senator Hayne said the ghost was a manifestation
of Senator Webster's uncontrollable desire to revive Whig power
by means of "dark visions of broken hopes, and honors lost
forever, still floating before his heated imagination."
Webster's counter, that Hayne had seriously misread Macbeth, is
an impressive demonstration of the degree to which readings of
Shakespeare could shape political debate. Banquo's "gory locks
were shaken," Webster spoke in correcti