State Nullification

Impact of a State’s Right to Nullification

Wei S. Zhuang

Grade 10

US HistoryＩ－Ｈ

Period 4

5/8/05

Wei S. Zhuang

Grade 10

US History

Period 4

5/8/05

Impact of a State’s Right to Nullification

The impact of a state’s right to nullification can ultimately cause a great deal of damage to the country that it resides in. To describe the impacts one would need to take a look back into history when the Nullification Crisis took place. South Carolina had economic hard times after the war of 1812. Cotton prices started to drop and South Carolina was in a state of depression. Southerners however tend to blame their economic woes on the policies of the national government. (Goode 87). The Tariff of Abominations was a series of high taxes that was placed on incoming foreign goods. The South disagreed with this proposal because they thought that the federal government was trying to tax one part of the country to benefit the wealth of another which is the North. Thomas Cooper, the president of the South Carolina College said “Is it worth while to continue in this union of states, where the north demands to be our masters and we are required to be their tributaries.”(Goode 89) John C. Calhoun being Vice President and was from South Carolina strongly disagreed with this Tariff of Abominations. He even wrote “South Carolina Exposition” which used the constitution as an argument against the tariff. Then, there was the Haynes and Webster Debate. They both defended and attacked on the Nullification topic in congress. In 1832 Congress released another tariff that replaced the Tariff of Abominations, but the South Carolinians weren’t still happy. The climax of this nullification swirl happened at Jackson’s birthday dinner where everyone gathered to give speeches. Andrew told everybody in that room what he thought of State Nullification with one simple line: “Our Union, It must be preserved” (Goode 88). The Congress continued with passing a Force Bill that would allow President Jackson to use force to regulate the tariff laws. To clean this mess up and to avoid civil war, both sides decided to compromise due to a plan drawn up by Henry Clay

Hard times in South Carolina

South Carolina was a state that was hit hard by the depression of 1819. The overproduction of cotton made the cotton prices dropped. The price of cotton fell from almost 31 cents a pound in 1818 to less than 10 cents in 1828. The worn out fields produce fewer pounds per acre than did the new fields west of the mountains. South Carolina also had problems with slave conspiracies. Denmark Vesey a free black who lived in Charleston lead a rebellion that cause 36 blacks to be killed and many others exiled. (Internet Source 1) South Carolina said that if a strong federal government is allowed to take money from the South using a protective tariff to benefit the wealth of the north, then eventually they are going to try to abolish slavery which South Carolina lived on.

The Tariff of Abominations

The Tariff of Abominations or Tariff of 1828 was one of the more famous acts passed by Congress. Adams had been a strong advocate for a higher tariff. Andrew Jackson’s supporters in Congress modified Adam’s original tariff bill to include much higher taxes on imported raw materials as well. They believed that the northern legislators and Adams supporters would never vote for such legislation since it would mean that New England manufacturers would pay much higher prices for their raw materials. However the bill passed and consumer prices for a selection of goods increased a whole lot. (Benton 232).

South Carolina fights with the Tariff

When the Tariff of Abominations was passed in 1828, it was chaos in Charleston. South Carolinians wanted to boycott all the states that were profiting from this tariff. One of the biggest retaliation to this tariff came from the Vice President John C. Calhoun. He was one of the biggest supporters of states’ rights including Governor James Hamilton and Robert Barnwell Rheet who called a special convention on the tariff matter. Calhoun published two papers in order to support his position. The first reaffirmed and analyzed