What was the Nullification Crisis of 1832 over?

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On December 10, 1832, President Andrew Jackson issued a Proclamation to the People of South Carolina (also known as the “Nullification Proclamation”) that disputed a states' right to nullify a federal law. Jackson's proclamation was written in response to an ordinance issued by a South Carolina convention that declared that the tariff acts of 1828 and 1832 "are unauthorized by the constitution of the United States, and violate the true meaning and intent thereof and are null, void, and no law, nor binding upon this State." Led by John C. Calhoun, Jackson's vice president at the time, the nullifiers felt that the tariff acts of 1828 and 1832 favored Northern-manufacturing interests at the expense of Southern farmers. After Jackson issued his proclamation, Congress passed the Force Act that authorized the use of military force against any state that resisted the tariff acts. In 1833, Henry Clay helped broker a compromise bill with Calhoun that slowly lowered tariffs over the next decade. The Compromise Tariff of 1833 was eventually accepted by South Carolina and ended the nullification crisis.

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1832 Nullification Crisis

The Nullification Crisis of 1832 centered on Southern protests against a series of protective tariffs that taxed all foreign goods. The tariffs were intended to boost the sales of U.S. products and protect manufacturers in the North from cheap British goods.

• The Tariff of 1816 placed a 20-25% tax on all foreign goods.
• The Tariff of 1824 raised duties still higher.
• The Tariff of 1828 (the Tariff of Abominations) increased taxes to nearly 50%.

South Carolina Exposition

The South was largely agricultural and relied on the North and foreign countries for manufactured goods. Southerners viewed these protective tariffs as severely damaging to their economy. First, they had to pay higher prices on goods. Furthermore, the increased taxes on British imports made it difficult for Britain to pay for the cotton they imported from the South. The South Carolina legislature asked Vice President John C. Calhoun to prepare a report on the tariff situation. This report—known as the South Carolina Exposition—claimed that the tariffs were unconstitutional.

Doctrine of Nullification

John C. Calhoun's South Carolina Exposition outlined a Doctrine of Nullification. It claimed that a state has the right to reject federal law.

Tariffs Declared Unconstitutional

In his South Carolina Exposition, John C. Calhoun argued that the 1828 Tariff of Abominations was unconstitutional for several reasons:

• It favored manufacturing over agriculture and commerce.
• Tariff power could only be used to generate revenue, not to provide protection from foreign competition for U.S. industries.
• The protective system was unjust and unequal in operation.
• One or more states had the power to veto any act of the federal government that violated the Constitution.

Robert Hayne and Daniel Webster

The ideas expressed in John C. Calhoun’s South Carolina Exposition document were first publicly conveyed by Senator Robert Hayne of South Carolina. Daniel Webster of Massachusetts responded in a brilliant speech: "... The people have declared that this constitution ... shall be the supreme law."

South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification

The Nullification Crisis erupted when the South Carolina legislature passed an Ordinance of Nullification on November 24, 1832, declaring the Tariffs of 1828 and 1832 null and void within the state borders of South Carolina.

Jackson issues the Nullification Proclamation

President Jackson was furious that the Tariff of 1832 had been "nullified" by South Carolina. Jackson issued a warning he was prepared to enforce the law. It was called the Nullification Proclamation—disputing a states' right to nullify a federal law. Jackson sent ships and soldiers to Charleston and ordered the collector to collect the duties.

The 1833 Force Bill

President Jackson passed the Force Bill, authorizing the use of military force against any state that resisted the tariff acts and rejected the Nullification Doctrine.

The Compromise Tariff

A Compromise Tariff proposed by Henry Clay passed in March 1833. It gradually lowered the tariff rates over the next 10 years until they returned to the level of the Tariff Act of 1816. And so the Nullification Crisis ended.

Source: 1832 Nullification Crisis
Copyright © February 2017 Siteseen Ltd.

Thirty years before the Civil War broke out, disunion appeared to be on the horizon with the Nullification Crisis. What started as a debate over the Tariff of Abominations soon morphed into debates over state and federal sovereignty and liberty and disunion. These debates transformed into a national crisis when South Carolina threatened secession, an explicit threat of disunion. However, the United States narrowly avoided a civil war through compromise and the reaffirmation of executive authority.

Since 1816, the United States used tariffs to protect American industry against foreign competition. Protective tariffs formed the foundation of Henry Clay’s American System which served as the main economic policy of the United States until President Andrew Jackson’s election. The first tariff passed was relatively low, but it progressively rose each year until 1828, with what became known as the Tariff of Abominations. Representative Silas Wright, an ally of Jackson, first proposed this tariff in 1828 as a ploy to help Old Hickory’s presidential campaign. The tariff raised duties to between 30-50% on certain raw materials, which protected the Mid-Atlantic and western states which produced these raw materials, but left southern states—and its cotton and tobacco industry—unprotected. In retaliation for the high tariff, foreign markets blocked the sale of American cotton, the South’s chief export and the cornerstone of their economy which caused economic issues in the South. Despite the South’s fervent objection to this tariff, Jackson maintained southern support for his campaign and by backing this tariff garnered support from states such as Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Kentucky, and Missouri, which proved to be vital in his campaign and helped him win the presidency. In 1828, Jackson’s soon to be Vice President and ally John C. Calhoun of South Carolina wrote an anonymously published a pamphlet titled “Exposition and Protest” which passionately criticized the tariff and laid the groundwork for nullification theory.

Despite southern objections, the tariff passed and went largely forgotten in American consciousness until an exchange on the Senate floor between South Carolinian Senator Robert Hayne and Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster in January 1830 which reopened the debate. Hayne argued that state sovereignty permitted the nullification of federal rulings when those rulings infringed on states’ rights, going so far as to argue for secession in order to preserve state and personal liberty. Webster famously responded with “liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable,” to Webster and many other unionists, people, not states comprised the union. Nullification propagated secession which in turn would destroy the union: the sole protector of liberty. Thus, to preserve liberty, one must preserve the union. Nullifiers did not believe in this link between union and liberty but rather argued that it was the states alone which protected individual freedoms from an overreaching federal government.

The issue of nullification divided the White House as Vice President Calhoun staunchly supported states’ rights and served as a spokesman for nullification by revealing he wrote “Exposition and Protest.” Jackson, on the other hand, supported states’ rights, but not at the expense of the Union and once stated he “would rather die in the last ditch than see the union dismantled.” The Nullification Crisis was one in a series of issues that destroyed Jackson and Calhoun’s relationship.

In 1832 Congress replaced the Tariff of Abominations with a lower tariff; however, that was not enough to satisfy the South Carolinians who had made faint threats of nullification since 1828. Almost immediately following Jackson’s re-election in 1832, South Carolina, fortified by the recent election of many state nullifiers, formed a convention that denounced the Tariff of Abominations and its 1832 revision and formally adopted an Ordinance of Nullification. This ordinance declared those tariffs null and void and forbade the collection of duties within the boundary of the state following February 1, 1833. Finally, the ordinance declared that any act of force by Congress against South Carolina would lead to its immediate secession from the union.

In the past Jackson simply acknowledged the supremacy of union over state sovereignty without taking any direct action; however, this explicit threat of secession forced him to act against these nullifiers. Jackson advised his Secretary of War Lewis Cass to prepare for war, and over the course of a few months, Cass complied arms and enlisted a militia in preparation to enter South Carolina to enforce the tariff and prevent secession. During his war preparations, Jackson engaged in a national public relations campaign to discredit nullification in the mind of the American public. Jackson gave speeches against nullification that vehemently denounced South Carolina and promoted unionism. Jackson also gave a special speech to Congress asking them to reaffirm his authority to use force to ensure the execution of United States laws, which Congress complied with in a bill aptly known as Jackson’s force bill.

Despite his preparations, Jackson did not desire a civil war, but rather hoped the nullifiers would back down against his threats. In response to Jackson’s vigorous actions, South Carolinians delayed the enactment of their ordinance. Jackson, in turn, discretely supported Speaker of the House Henry Clay’s efforts to lower the tariff that caused this crisis. On March 2, 1833, Congress passed both Jackson’s and Clay’s tariff reduction. In response, South Carolinians rescinded their Ordinance of Nullification and the crisis passed. Many parties claimed to be the victor of this crisis, Calhoun and his nullifiers for receiving a tariff reduction, Clay for his compromise that prevailed; however, Jackson remained the true victor as he reaffirmed his executive authority and prevented a potential civil war days before his second inauguration.

Although not the first crisis that dealt with state authority over perceived unconstitutional infringements on its sovereignty, the Nullification Crisis represented a pivotal moment in American history as this is the first time tensions between state and federal authority almost led to a civil war. Ultimately, the spirit of union prevailed, and Americans reached a compromise which avoided war. However, this crisis laid the groundwork for the secession theory that reemerged in the 1850s at a time of heightened sectional tensions. By then the United States would not be so lucky, and debates over slavery and the legitimacy of secession would plunge Americans into a horrific civil war.