Antebellum America: Andrew Jackson and the Nullification Crisis
The first state to threaten secession from the Union was South Carolina. This occurred long before the start of the Civil War. This occurred during the Presidency of Andrew Jackson, when South Carolina "declared" that the federal Tariffs of 1828 and 1832 were unconstitutional and therefore null and void within the boundaries of the state. It was position unfounded in law, and courts subsequently ruled as much, but that didn't seem to matter to Vice-President John C. Calhoun who was from that state.
Some of the blame for Calhoun's position can be placed at the feet of a former President, Thomas Jefferson. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights increased the strength of the central government at the expense of the power formerly held by the states. But the extent to which this was true was never clear. In the early 1790s the debate over this subject led to the formation of two political parties: Alexander Hamilton's federalists and Jefferson's Democratic-Republicans. During the Presidency of John Adams, the Alien and Sedition Acts were passed (probably the worst aspect of Adams' presidency). Opponents of these acts articulated their opposition in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. The Kentucky Resolutions were written by Thomas Jefferson, and in them, he wrote the following statement, which has since been cited as justification for both nullification and secession:
"That in cases of an abuse of the delegated powers, the members of the general government, being chosen by the people, a change by the people would be the constitutional remedy; but, where powers are assumed which have not been delegated, a nullification of the act is the rightful remedy: that every State has a natural right in cases not within the compact to nullify of their own authority all assumptions of power by others within their limits: that without this right, they would be under the dominion, absolute and unlimited, of whosoever might exercise this right of judgment for them: that nevertheless, this commonwealth, from motives of regard and respect for its co-States, has wished to communicate with them on the subject: that with them alone it is proper to communicate, they alone being parties to the compact, and solely authorized to judge in the last resort of the powers exercised under it."
Jefferson was not alone in this sentiment. In the Virginia Resolutions, written by James Madison, Madison similarly wrote of states having "the right... to arrest the evil." He added that "The Constitution of the United States was formed by the sanction of the States, given by each in its sovereign capacity. It adds to the stability and dignity, as well as to the authority of the Constitution, that it rests on this solid foundation. The States, then, being parties to the constitutional compact, and in their sovereign capacity, it follows of necessity that there can be no tribunal above their authority to decide, in the last resort, whether the compact made by them be violated; and, consequently, as parties to it, they must themselves decide, in the last resort, such questions as may be of sufficient magnitude to require their interposition."
Madison stopped short however of asserting that each state legislature had the power to act within its borders against the authority of the general government to oppose laws the legislature deemed unconstitutional. His commitment to Federalism grew stronger following the War of 1812 during his presidency.
The Tariff of 1824 was the first protective tariff linked to a specific program of internal improvements. It was sponsored by Henry Clay, and provided a general level of protection at 35%. It raised duties on iron, woolens, cotton, hemp, and wool and cotton bagging. The bill passed the federal House of Representatives by a vote of 107 to 102, with support from the western and northern states. The South and Southwest opposed it, and New England split its vote with a majority opposing it. In the Senate, the bill, with the support of Tennessee Senator Andrew Jackson, passed by four votes, and President James Monroe signed the bill on March 25, 1824. Protest against these higher tariffs began in 1826 and 1827 with resolutions from the Virginia legislature which denied the power of Congress to pass protective tariffs, citing the Virginia Resolutions of 1798.
The Tariff of 1828 levied heavy taxes on raw materials consumed by New England such as hemp, flax, molasses, iron, and sail duck. With an additional tariff on iron to satisfy Pennsylvania interests. Over opposition from the South and some from New England, the tariff was passed with the full support of many Jackson supporters in Congress and signed by President John Quincy Adams in early 1828. Jackson and his running mate John C. Calhoun carried the entire South in the election of 1828 and were successful in electing Jackson as President. But many Southerners soon became dissatisfied as Jackson, because in his first two annual messages to Congress, he failed to promise to do anything to lower the tariff. Southerners came to refer to the tariff as the "Tariff of Abominations." They saw protection as benefiting the North and hurting the South.
South Carolina's economy had been adversely affected by the national economic decline of the 1820s. During this decade, the population of the state decreased with many wealthy citizens moving their wealth to other states. The state had been devastated by the Panic of 1819 and the tariff made economic recovery for the state more difficult. State leaders argued that the 40% tariff on cotton finished goods devastated the cotton economy.
After the final vote on the Tariff of 1828, South Carolina's congressional delegation held two caucuses, in an attempt to coordinate a united Southern response. They were unsuccessful in this effort and turned their focus on to how their state representatives would respond. Calhoun felt that the first step in reducing the tariff was to defeat Adams and his supporters in the upcoming election. But Calhoun also argued that the tariff of 1828 was unconstitutional because it favored manufacturing over commerce and agriculture. He believed the tariff power could be used only to generate revenue, not to provide protection from foreign competition for American industries, and that the people of a state or several states had the power to veto any act of the federal government that violated the Constitution. He wrote a report setting out this position and also listing specific southern grievances over the tariff. His report was submitted to the state legislature, which had 5,000 copies printed and distributed. Calhoun was not identified as the author, but this soon became known. The legislature took no action on the report at that time.
In the summer of 1828, state representative Robert Barnwell Rhett called for the governor to convene a special session of the legislature to take action against the tariff. In the summer of 1828 but, with the election of Jackson looking like a certainty, on October 28, the formal nullification campaign was launched. It called for implementation of Jefferson's remedy of nullification. A copy of the speech launching the campaign was sent to President-elect Jackson. But despite a statewide campaign, a proposal to call a nullification convention in 1829 was defeated by the South Carolina legislature at the end of 1828.
The state election campaign of 1830 focused on the tariff issue and the need for a state convention. In South Carolina, the governor was selected by the legislature. It chose James Hamilton, the leader of the radical movement, and fellow radical Henry L. Pinckney as speaker of the South Carolina House. For the open Senate seat, the legislature chose another radical, Stephen Decatur Miller. With radicals in leading positions, in 1831 momentum grew in support of nullification. But the margin in the legislature fell short of the two-thirds majority needed for a convention. At Hamilton's prompting, a speech in the legislature called for "nullification of the tariff at any cost."
On July 26, 1831, John C. Calhoun published an address in support of the nullifiers. The nullifiers accelerated their organization and in July 1831, the States Rights and Free Trade Association was formed in Charleston. In the winter of 1831 and spring of 1832, Governor Hamilton held conventions and rallies throughout the state to mobilize the nullification movement. In the state elections of 1832 the nullifiers won and on October 20, 1832, Hamilton called the legislature into a special session to consider a convention. The legislative vote was 96-25 in the House and 31-13 in the Senate in favor of a nullification convention.
In November 1832, the Nullification Convention met. The convention declared the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 unconstitutional and unenforceable within the state of South Carolina after February 1, 1833. It was also declared that any attempts to use force to collect the taxes would lead to the state's secession. Robert Hayne succeeded Hamilton as governor in 1833, and he established a 2,000-man group of mounted minutemen and 25,000 infantry who would march to Charleston in the event of a military conflict. These troops were to be armed with $100,000 in arms purchased in the North.
Governor Hayne declared in his inaugural address: "If the sacred soil of Carolina should be polluted by the footsteps of an invader, or be stained with the blood of her citizens, shed in defense, I trust in Almighty God that no son of hers who has been nourished at her bosom will be found raising a parricidal arm against our common mother. And even should she stand alone in this great struggle for constitutional liberty that there will not be found, in the wider limits of the state, one recreant son who will not fly to the rescue, and be ready to lay down his life in her defense"
When Andrew Jackson took office in March 1829, he still felt protectionism was justified for products essential to military preparedness and did not believe that the current tariff should be reduced until the national debt was fully paid off. In December 1831, with nullification in South Carolina gaining momentum, Jackson called for "the exercise of that spirit of concession and conciliation" but he held firm on his position that nullification was not a valid action.
The issue of nullification was debated in the Senate in 1830. Nullification supporter Robert Hayne and opponent Daniel Webster debated the issue in what became known as the Webster-Hayne debates. Webster asserted that the people of the United States acted as one aggregate body. Many people expected Jackson to side with Hayne, but once the debate shifted to secession and nullification, he sided with Webster.
On April 13, 1830, at the traditional Democratic Party celebration honoring Jefferson's birthday, Jackson made his position clear. In a series of toasts, Hayne proposed, "The Union of the States, and the Sovereignty of the States." Jackson's response, when his turn came, was, "Our Federal Union: It must be preserved." Calhoun responded with his own toast: "The Union. Next to our liberty, the most dear." Finally, Martin Van Buren said: "Mutual forbearance and reciprocal concession. Through their agency the Union was established. The patriotic spirit from which they emanated will forever sustain it."
A few days later, when a visitor from South Carolina asked if Jackson had any message he wanted relayed to his friends back in the state. Jackson replied: "Yes I have; please give my compliments to my friends in your State and say to them, that if a single drop of blood shall be shed there in opposition to the laws of the United States, I will hang the first man I can lay my hand on engaged in such treasonable conduct, upon the first tree I can reach."
As the 1832 Presidential election approached, Calhoun, as vice president presiding over the Senate, cast the tie-breaking vote to deny Martin Van Buren the post of minister to England. In response, Jackson selected Van Buren as his running mate at the 1832 Democratic National Convention held in May.
In February 1832, Henry Clay, spoke in the senate for three days and called for a new tariff schedule. He proposed a $10 million revenue reduction based on the budget surplus he anticipated for the coming year. Jackson proposed an alternative that reduced overall tariffs to 28%. John Quincy Adams, now in the House of Representatives, used his Committee of Manufacturers to produce a compromise bill that reduced revenues by $5 million, lowered duties on noncompetitive products, and retained high tariffs on woolens, iron, and cotton products. Jackson signed the Tariff of 1832 on July 14, 1832.
With Congress adjourned, Jackson watched events in South Carolina. The nullifiers saw no significant compromise in the Tariff of 1832 and Jackson heard rumors of efforts to subvert members of the army and navy in Charleston. He ordered the secretaries of the army and navy to begin rotating troops and officers based on their loyalty. He also ordered General Winfield Scott to prepare for military operations and ordered a naval squadron in Norfolk to prepare to go to Charleston. On October 29, 1832, Jackson instructed his Secretary of War, Lewis Cass that "attempt will be made to surprise the Forts and garrisons by the militia, and must be guarded against with vestal vigilance and any attempt by force repelled with prompt and exemplary punishment."
On December 3, 1832, Jackson sent his fourth annual message to Congress. He addressed the nullifiers by stating:
It is my painful duty to state that in one quarter of the United States opposition to the revenue laws has arisen to a height which threatens to thwart their execution, if not to endanger the integrity of the Union. What ever obstructions may be thrown in the way of the judicial authorities of the General Government, it is hoped they will be able peaceably to overcome them by the prudence of their own officers and the patriotism of the people. But should this reasonable reliance on the moderation and good sense of all portions of our fellow citizens be disappointed, it is believed that the laws themselves are fully adequate to the suppression of such attempts as may be immediately made. Should the exigency arise rendering the execution of the existing laws impracticable from any cause what ever, prompt notice of it will be given to Congress, with a suggestion of such views and measures as may be deemed necessary to meet it.
On December 10, Jackson issued the Proclamation to the People of South Carolina, in which he criticized the position of the nullifiers as "impractical absurdity." He added: "I consider, then, the power to annul a law of the United States, assumed by one State, incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which It was founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed."
With the conflict coming to a head, a group of Democrats, led by Van Buren and Thomas Hart Benton, saw the only solution to the crisis as being a substantial reduction of the tariff.
On January 16 Jackson sent his Force Bill Message to Congress. He directed that the custom houses in Beaufort and Georgetown would be closed and replaced by ships at each port. In Charleston, the custom house would be moved to either Castle Pinckney or Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor. Direct payment of tariffs rather than bonds would be required, and federal jails would be established for violators the state refused to arrest. All cases arising under the state's nullification act could be removed to the United States Circuit Court. Enforcement of the customs laws would be handled by both the militia and the regular United States military.
The Force bill went to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which gave Jackson everything he asked for. On January 28, the Senate defeated a motion by a vote of 30 to 15 to postpone debate on the bill. In the House, the Judiciary Committee voted 4-3 to reject Jackson's request to use force. Calhoun made a major speech on February 15 strongly opposing it, and the Force Bill was temporarily stalled.
The drafting of a compromise tariff was assigned to the House Ways and Means Committee, which proposed reductions back to 1816 levels over the next two years while maintaining the basic principle of protectionism. In South Carolina, efforts were being made to avoid an unnecessary confrontation. Governor Hayne ordered the 25,000 troops he had created to train at home rather than gather in Charleston. At a meeting in Charleston on January 21, it was decided to postpone the February 1 deadline for implementing nullification, while Congress worked on a compromise tariff.
Despite his defeat in the presidential election, Henry Clay started to work on a specific compromise plan. Clay indirectly out his proposals to Calhoun, who was receptive to them, and after a private meeting with Clay, negotiations proceeded. Clay introduced the negotiated tariff bill on February 12, and it was immediately referred to a select committee. On February 21, the committee reported a bill to the floor of the Senate that was largely Clay's original bill. The Tariff of 1832 would continue except that reduction of all rates above 20% would be reduced by one tenth every two years, with the final reductions back to 20% coming in 1842. Protectionism as a principle was confirmed and provisions were made for raising the tariff if national interests demanded it.
In his February 25 speech ending the debate on the tariff, Clay criticized Jackson's Proclamation to South Carolina, calling it inflammatory. He said that the Compromise Tariff would restore balance, promote the rule of law, and avoid a violent confrontation. The House passed the Compromise Tariff, 119-85, but it also passed the Force Bill, 149-48. In the Senate, the tariff passed 29-16 and the Force bill 32-1, with opponents of it walking out rather than voting.
The Nullification Convention met again on March 11. It repealed the November Nullification Ordinance. Nullifiers claimed victory on the tariff issue, even though they had made concessions. But their defeat on the issue of nullification was seen as a blow to the interests of slaveholders. Robert Barnwell Rhett predicted that "A people, owning slaves, are mad, or worse than mad, who do not hold their destinies in their own hands." He added, "Let Gentlemen not be deceived. It is not the Tariff—not Internal Improvement—nor yet the Force bill, which constitutes the great evil against which we are contending. These are but the forms in which the despotic nature of the government is evinced—but it is the despotism which constitutes the evil: and until this Government is made a limited Government, there is no liberty—no security for the South."
Andrew Jackson also saw a coming conflict in the future. On May 1, 1833, Jackson said, "the tariff was only a pretext, and disunion and Southern confederacy the real object. The next pretext will be the negro, or slavery question."
A Southern wing of the Whig Party soon formed. It was a coalition of those united by their opposition to Jackson. In the years leading up to the Civil War the nullifiers and their proslavery allies used the doctrine of states' rights and state sovereignty in such a way as to try to expand protect the institution of slavery. Jackson's victory in support of federalism would accelerate the emergence of southern pro-slavery as a strong political force. It would also solidify northern antislavery opinion, leading to a clash between two fundamentally incompatible points of view.
In 1860, South Carolina would became the first state to secede. It was more internally united in support of that position than any other Southern state, most likely because of its having a long memory over what had occurred during the nullification crisis.
Some of the blame for Calhoun's position can be placed at the feet of a former President, Thomas Jefferson. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights increased the strength of the central government at the expense of the power formerly held by the states. But the extent to which this was true was never clear. In the early 1790s the debate over this subject led to the formation of two political parties: Alexander Hamilton's federalists and Jefferson's Democratic-Republicans. During the Presidency of John Adams, the Alien and Sedition Acts were passed (probably the worst aspect of Adams' presidency). Opponents of these acts articulated their opposition in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. The Kentucky Resolutions were written by Thomas Jefferson, and in them, he wrote the following statement, which has since been cited as justification for both nullification and secession:
"That in cases of an abuse of the delegated powers, the members of the general government, being chosen by the people, a change by the people would be the constitutional remedy; but, where powers are assumed which have not been delegated, a nullification of the act is the rightful remedy: that every State has a natural right in cases not within the compact to nullify of their own authority all assumptions of power by others within their limits: that without this right, they would be under the dominion, absolute and unlimited, of whosoever might exercise this right of judgment for them: that nevertheless, this commonwealth, from motives of regard and respect for its co-States, has wished to communicate with them on the subject: that with them alone it is proper to communicate, they alone being parties to the compact, and solely authorized to judge in the last resort of the powers exercised under it."
Jefferson was not alone in this sentiment. In the Virginia Resolutions, written by James Madison, Madison similarly wrote of states having "the right... to arrest the evil." He added that "The Constitution of the United States was formed by the sanction of the States, given by each in its sovereign capacity. It adds to the stability and dignity, as well as to the authority of the Constitution, that it rests on this solid foundation. The States, then, being parties to the constitutional compact, and in their sovereign capacity, it follows of necessity that there can be no tribunal above their authority to decide, in the last resort, whether the compact made by them be violated; and, consequently, as parties to it, they must themselves decide, in the last resort, such questions as may be of sufficient magnitude to require their interposition."
Madison stopped short however of asserting that each state legislature had the power to act within its borders against the authority of the general government to oppose laws the legislature deemed unconstitutional. His commitment to Federalism grew stronger following the War of 1812 during his presidency.
The Tariff of 1824 was the first protective tariff linked to a specific program of internal improvements. It was sponsored by Henry Clay, and provided a general level of protection at 35%. It raised duties on iron, woolens, cotton, hemp, and wool and cotton bagging. The bill passed the federal House of Representatives by a vote of 107 to 102, with support from the western and northern states. The South and Southwest opposed it, and New England split its vote with a majority opposing it. In the Senate, the bill, with the support of Tennessee Senator Andrew Jackson, passed by four votes, and President James Monroe signed the bill on March 25, 1824. Protest against these higher tariffs began in 1826 and 1827 with resolutions from the Virginia legislature which denied the power of Congress to pass protective tariffs, citing the Virginia Resolutions of 1798.
The Tariff of 1828 levied heavy taxes on raw materials consumed by New England such as hemp, flax, molasses, iron, and sail duck. With an additional tariff on iron to satisfy Pennsylvania interests. Over opposition from the South and some from New England, the tariff was passed with the full support of many Jackson supporters in Congress and signed by President John Quincy Adams in early 1828. Jackson and his running mate John C. Calhoun carried the entire South in the election of 1828 and were successful in electing Jackson as President. But many Southerners soon became dissatisfied as Jackson, because in his first two annual messages to Congress, he failed to promise to do anything to lower the tariff. Southerners came to refer to the tariff as the "Tariff of Abominations." They saw protection as benefiting the North and hurting the South.
South Carolina's economy had been adversely affected by the national economic decline of the 1820s. During this decade, the population of the state decreased with many wealthy citizens moving their wealth to other states. The state had been devastated by the Panic of 1819 and the tariff made economic recovery for the state more difficult. State leaders argued that the 40% tariff on cotton finished goods devastated the cotton economy.
After the final vote on the Tariff of 1828, South Carolina's congressional delegation held two caucuses, in an attempt to coordinate a united Southern response. They were unsuccessful in this effort and turned their focus on to how their state representatives would respond. Calhoun felt that the first step in reducing the tariff was to defeat Adams and his supporters in the upcoming election. But Calhoun also argued that the tariff of 1828 was unconstitutional because it favored manufacturing over commerce and agriculture. He believed the tariff power could be used only to generate revenue, not to provide protection from foreign competition for American industries, and that the people of a state or several states had the power to veto any act of the federal government that violated the Constitution. He wrote a report setting out this position and also listing specific southern grievances over the tariff. His report was submitted to the state legislature, which had 5,000 copies printed and distributed. Calhoun was not identified as the author, but this soon became known. The legislature took no action on the report at that time.
In the summer of 1828, state representative Robert Barnwell Rhett called for the governor to convene a special session of the legislature to take action against the tariff. In the summer of 1828 but, with the election of Jackson looking like a certainty, on October 28, the formal nullification campaign was launched. It called for implementation of Jefferson's remedy of nullification. A copy of the speech launching the campaign was sent to President-elect Jackson. But despite a statewide campaign, a proposal to call a nullification convention in 1829 was defeated by the South Carolina legislature at the end of 1828.
The state election campaign of 1830 focused on the tariff issue and the need for a state convention. In South Carolina, the governor was selected by the legislature. It chose James Hamilton, the leader of the radical movement, and fellow radical Henry L. Pinckney as speaker of the South Carolina House. For the open Senate seat, the legislature chose another radical, Stephen Decatur Miller. With radicals in leading positions, in 1831 momentum grew in support of nullification. But the margin in the legislature fell short of the two-thirds majority needed for a convention. At Hamilton's prompting, a speech in the legislature called for "nullification of the tariff at any cost."
On July 26, 1831, John C. Calhoun published an address in support of the nullifiers. The nullifiers accelerated their organization and in July 1831, the States Rights and Free Trade Association was formed in Charleston. In the winter of 1831 and spring of 1832, Governor Hamilton held conventions and rallies throughout the state to mobilize the nullification movement. In the state elections of 1832 the nullifiers won and on October 20, 1832, Hamilton called the legislature into a special session to consider a convention. The legislative vote was 96-25 in the House and 31-13 in the Senate in favor of a nullification convention.
In November 1832, the Nullification Convention met. The convention declared the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 unconstitutional and unenforceable within the state of South Carolina after February 1, 1833. It was also declared that any attempts to use force to collect the taxes would lead to the state's secession. Robert Hayne succeeded Hamilton as governor in 1833, and he established a 2,000-man group of mounted minutemen and 25,000 infantry who would march to Charleston in the event of a military conflict. These troops were to be armed with $100,000 in arms purchased in the North.
Governor Hayne declared in his inaugural address: "If the sacred soil of Carolina should be polluted by the footsteps of an invader, or be stained with the blood of her citizens, shed in defense, I trust in Almighty God that no son of hers who has been nourished at her bosom will be found raising a parricidal arm against our common mother. And even should she stand alone in this great struggle for constitutional liberty that there will not be found, in the wider limits of the state, one recreant son who will not fly to the rescue, and be ready to lay down his life in her defense"
When Andrew Jackson took office in March 1829, he still felt protectionism was justified for products essential to military preparedness and did not believe that the current tariff should be reduced until the national debt was fully paid off. In December 1831, with nullification in South Carolina gaining momentum, Jackson called for "the exercise of that spirit of concession and conciliation" but he held firm on his position that nullification was not a valid action.
The issue of nullification was debated in the Senate in 1830. Nullification supporter Robert Hayne and opponent Daniel Webster debated the issue in what became known as the Webster-Hayne debates. Webster asserted that the people of the United States acted as one aggregate body. Many people expected Jackson to side with Hayne, but once the debate shifted to secession and nullification, he sided with Webster.
On April 13, 1830, at the traditional Democratic Party celebration honoring Jefferson's birthday, Jackson made his position clear. In a series of toasts, Hayne proposed, "The Union of the States, and the Sovereignty of the States." Jackson's response, when his turn came, was, "Our Federal Union: It must be preserved." Calhoun responded with his own toast: "The Union. Next to our liberty, the most dear." Finally, Martin Van Buren said: "Mutual forbearance and reciprocal concession. Through their agency the Union was established. The patriotic spirit from which they emanated will forever sustain it."
A few days later, when a visitor from South Carolina asked if Jackson had any message he wanted relayed to his friends back in the state. Jackson replied: "Yes I have; please give my compliments to my friends in your State and say to them, that if a single drop of blood shall be shed there in opposition to the laws of the United States, I will hang the first man I can lay my hand on engaged in such treasonable conduct, upon the first tree I can reach."
As the 1832 Presidential election approached, Calhoun, as vice president presiding over the Senate, cast the tie-breaking vote to deny Martin Van Buren the post of minister to England. In response, Jackson selected Van Buren as his running mate at the 1832 Democratic National Convention held in May.
In February 1832, Henry Clay, spoke in the senate for three days and called for a new tariff schedule. He proposed a $10 million revenue reduction based on the budget surplus he anticipated for the coming year. Jackson proposed an alternative that reduced overall tariffs to 28%. John Quincy Adams, now in the House of Representatives, used his Committee of Manufacturers to produce a compromise bill that reduced revenues by $5 million, lowered duties on noncompetitive products, and retained high tariffs on woolens, iron, and cotton products. Jackson signed the Tariff of 1832 on July 14, 1832.
With Congress adjourned, Jackson watched events in South Carolina. The nullifiers saw no significant compromise in the Tariff of 1832 and Jackson heard rumors of efforts to subvert members of the army and navy in Charleston. He ordered the secretaries of the army and navy to begin rotating troops and officers based on their loyalty. He also ordered General Winfield Scott to prepare for military operations and ordered a naval squadron in Norfolk to prepare to go to Charleston. On October 29, 1832, Jackson instructed his Secretary of War, Lewis Cass that "attempt will be made to surprise the Forts and garrisons by the militia, and must be guarded against with vestal vigilance and any attempt by force repelled with prompt and exemplary punishment."
On December 3, 1832, Jackson sent his fourth annual message to Congress. He addressed the nullifiers by stating:
It is my painful duty to state that in one quarter of the United States opposition to the revenue laws has arisen to a height which threatens to thwart their execution, if not to endanger the integrity of the Union. What ever obstructions may be thrown in the way of the judicial authorities of the General Government, it is hoped they will be able peaceably to overcome them by the prudence of their own officers and the patriotism of the people. But should this reasonable reliance on the moderation and good sense of all portions of our fellow citizens be disappointed, it is believed that the laws themselves are fully adequate to the suppression of such attempts as may be immediately made. Should the exigency arise rendering the execution of the existing laws impracticable from any cause what ever, prompt notice of it will be given to Congress, with a suggestion of such views and measures as may be deemed necessary to meet it.
On December 10, Jackson issued the Proclamation to the People of South Carolina, in which he criticized the position of the nullifiers as "impractical absurdity." He added: "I consider, then, the power to annul a law of the United States, assumed by one State, incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which It was founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed."
With the conflict coming to a head, a group of Democrats, led by Van Buren and Thomas Hart Benton, saw the only solution to the crisis as being a substantial reduction of the tariff.
On January 16 Jackson sent his Force Bill Message to Congress. He directed that the custom houses in Beaufort and Georgetown would be closed and replaced by ships at each port. In Charleston, the custom house would be moved to either Castle Pinckney or Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor. Direct payment of tariffs rather than bonds would be required, and federal jails would be established for violators the state refused to arrest. All cases arising under the state's nullification act could be removed to the United States Circuit Court. Enforcement of the customs laws would be handled by both the militia and the regular United States military.
The Force bill went to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which gave Jackson everything he asked for. On January 28, the Senate defeated a motion by a vote of 30 to 15 to postpone debate on the bill. In the House, the Judiciary Committee voted 4-3 to reject Jackson's request to use force. Calhoun made a major speech on February 15 strongly opposing it, and the Force Bill was temporarily stalled.
The drafting of a compromise tariff was assigned to the House Ways and Means Committee, which proposed reductions back to 1816 levels over the next two years while maintaining the basic principle of protectionism. In South Carolina, efforts were being made to avoid an unnecessary confrontation. Governor Hayne ordered the 25,000 troops he had created to train at home rather than gather in Charleston. At a meeting in Charleston on January 21, it was decided to postpone the February 1 deadline for implementing nullification, while Congress worked on a compromise tariff.
Despite his defeat in the presidential election, Henry Clay started to work on a specific compromise plan. Clay indirectly out his proposals to Calhoun, who was receptive to them, and after a private meeting with Clay, negotiations proceeded. Clay introduced the negotiated tariff bill on February 12, and it was immediately referred to a select committee. On February 21, the committee reported a bill to the floor of the Senate that was largely Clay's original bill. The Tariff of 1832 would continue except that reduction of all rates above 20% would be reduced by one tenth every two years, with the final reductions back to 20% coming in 1842. Protectionism as a principle was confirmed and provisions were made for raising the tariff if national interests demanded it.
In his February 25 speech ending the debate on the tariff, Clay criticized Jackson's Proclamation to South Carolina, calling it inflammatory. He said that the Compromise Tariff would restore balance, promote the rule of law, and avoid a violent confrontation. The House passed the Compromise Tariff, 119-85, but it also passed the Force Bill, 149-48. In the Senate, the tariff passed 29-16 and the Force bill 32-1, with opponents of it walking out rather than voting.
The Nullification Convention met again on March 11. It repealed the November Nullification Ordinance. Nullifiers claimed victory on the tariff issue, even though they had made concessions. But their defeat on the issue of nullification was seen as a blow to the interests of slaveholders. Robert Barnwell Rhett predicted that "A people, owning slaves, are mad, or worse than mad, who do not hold their destinies in their own hands." He added, "Let Gentlemen not be deceived. It is not the Tariff—not Internal Improvement—nor yet the Force bill, which constitutes the great evil against which we are contending. These are but the forms in which the despotic nature of the government is evinced—but it is the despotism which constitutes the evil: and until this Government is made a limited Government, there is no liberty—no security for the South."
Andrew Jackson also saw a coming conflict in the future. On May 1, 1833, Jackson said, "the tariff was only a pretext, and disunion and Southern confederacy the real object. The next pretext will be the negro, or slavery question."
A Southern wing of the Whig Party soon formed. It was a coalition of those united by their opposition to Jackson. In the years leading up to the Civil War the nullifiers and their proslavery allies used the doctrine of states' rights and state sovereignty in such a way as to try to expand protect the institution of slavery. Jackson's victory in support of federalism would accelerate the emergence of southern pro-slavery as a strong political force. It would also solidify northern antislavery opinion, leading to a clash between two fundamentally incompatible points of view.
In 1860, South Carolina would became the first state to secede. It was more internally united in support of that position than any other Southern state, most likely because of its having a long memory over what had occurred during the nullification crisis.