The Age of Jackson and the Art of American Power, 1815-1848

9. The Nullification Crisis

122 9 The Nullification Crisis Without union, our independence and liberty would have never been achieved; without union they never can be maintained. Andrew Jackson 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 hands on engaged in such treasonable conduct, upon the first tree I shall reach. Andrew Jackson As the nation weathered the bank war and national elections of 1832, a long-simmering dispute erupted into a crisis that threatened to break up the United States into civil war. Ironically, the crisis was sparked when moderates tried to placate rather than confront southern radicals. Henry Clay crafted the 1832 Tariff Bill, which slashed average rates to 25 percent from 45 percent under the 1828 Tariff Bill, hated by southerners as the “Tariff of Abominations.” However, he wrote the bill so that all tariffs on goods, like wine, that were not produced in the United States were eliminated, while those that protected American industries that fueled the nation’s prosperity were upheld. He explained that the tar- The Nullification Crisis 123 iff cuts would cost the Treasury $5 million a year in revenues and delay the national debts’ elimination. The 1832 Tariff Bill passed in July with overwhelming majorities of 132 to 65 in the House and 32 to 16 in the Senate. Jackson signed it into law on July 14. Despite, or more likely because of, the bill’s popularity, South Carolina radicals seized it as an excuse to assert their “nullification” doctrine, the creed that each state held sovereign power and thus could nullify or violate any federal law. The doctrine’s father was none other than Thomas Jefferson, who developed the notion with James Madison in their respective 1798 Kentucky and Virginia Resolves, whereby these states refused to abide by the Alien and Sedition Acts. The trouble was that nothing in the Constitution remotely hints at “nullification.” This would seem to make its assertion an intellectual abyss for anyone, but especially for the Jeffersonians, who otherwise insist on a strict literal interpretation of the Constitution.¹ Oblivious to these glaring realities, Senator Robert Hayne of South Carolina launched a blistering attack against Daniel Webster for arguing that helping to unify the nation was among the tariff’s benefits. For Hayne, “a money interest in the Government is essentially a base interest , and . . . is . . . opposed to all free government, and at war with virtue and patriotism.”² Webster replied in a three-hour speech that spilled into the next day’s session and ended with the stirring words “Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.”³ This long-standing dispute led to a memorable duel in 1830 between Andrew Jackson and John Calhoun. Mercifully, they fought with toasts rather than pistols. The occasion was a banquet for the Democratic Party’s elite to celebrate Jefferson’s birthday on April 13. As president, Jackson proposed the first toast. Raising his glass and staring hard into Calhoun’s eyes, he proclaimed, “Our Union, it must be preserved.” Calhoun notably grimaced at these words. As vice president, protocol allowed him the second toast. He retorted, “The Union. Next to our liberty, the most dear.”4 Fortunately, the tension between the nation’s leading Unionist and Nullifier did not snap into outright rancor. Jackson was not quite as restrained a few days later. When asked by a South Carolina congressman whether the president had a message for the people of his state, Jackson retorted, “Yes I have. . . . Please give my compliments to my friends in your State, and say to them that if a single drop of blood The Nullification Crisis 124 shall be shed there in opposition to the laws of the United States, I will hang the first man I can lay my hands on engaged in such treasonable conduct upon the first tree I shall reach.”5 Jackson had reason for concern. No state was more dominated by radical states’ righters than South Carolina. Slavery and radicalism were inseparable—the larger the portion of slaves in a population, the greater the paranoia and thus virulence of the radicals. South Carolina was the only state in which most people were slaves. Yet support for nullification in South Carolina was hardly universal. The state was split economically and politically between the Tidewater and Piedmont. Nullifiers...