CHAPTER XXIX.

GENERAL JACKSON AND THE NULLIFIERS—NULLIFICATION PROCLAMATION-A COMPROMISE-WHO TRIUMPHS?

HE great subject now occupying the attention of

THE

the President and the country was nullification. Since the General had given utterance to the famous sentiment, "The Federal Union: it must be preserved," he had been watching the advocates of this new doctrine, new at least, in the extent to which it was meant to be carried, and he had come to hate its supporters, and is said to have regretted all the rest of his days that he did not, at that very time, hang its most able champion, J. C. Calhoun, as an example for future ages, as he had done Hillis Hajo and Alexander Arbuthnot, in 1818. But unfortunately neither the efforts of this giant, nor the great war against slavery with its evil teachings, entirely uprooted this baneful doctrine. At the time of the meeting of Congress, South Carolina, by the acts of her Legislature and governor, was in the attitude of direct and determined opposition to the Federal Government. No more revenues under the very tariff which Mr. Calhoun and other Southerners had advocated, were to be collected in South Carolina after February 1, 1833; the Supreme Court of the United States was to have no more authority over that State; null and void was to be any tariff law; South Carolinians were only to obey the State authority; and

in case the United States attempted to oppose her will as thus expressed, she would proceed to do those things which any sovereign and independent country should do. So said the Nullification Convention of November, 1832. And so said the Legislature and Governor of that State. From the beginning of the disaffection with Mr. Calhoun and his Southern friends, there had been a determination to make this doctrine of nullification rest on the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 and 1799, and be supported by the name of Mr. Jefferson, at least. It was natural enough to trace this doctrine to those resolutions. In them it had foundation enough. But to make Mr. Jefferson responsible for the present idea and purposes of nullification was not an easy task. Mr. Madison was yet left to speak for himself, which he did with great minuteness, destroying all hopes of the nullifiers as to his own position, as well as removing some of the odium from the Resolutions of 1798.

No man can doubt the patriotism of General Jackson, or believe that it was of that kind which could be limited to a State or a section. But how far his hatred of nullification at that time and throughout his life was colored and intensified by his hatred of Mr. Calhoun, who was really the beginning and the ending of nullification, it is not necessary to speculate here. This fourth message granted, or laid the foundation for granting, all that South Carolina asked, but her conduct was in opposition to the will of General Jackson. To oppose the Government was to oppose him. And even while Congress was reading this mild message, he was preparing, or having prepared, a very different document. No public man in

this country relied so much on the pen as did Jackson. This fact becomes more a matter of note since he was not educated in books, nor was he a reader of books, to any great extent. But if Jackson could gain his object in no other way, he would resort to the pen. Nor did he ever seem to fear that these pen attacks would be handled to his disadvantage at some other time. He often preferred to risk the address or proclamation rather than to resort to other means. This effective instrument he now took up to remind the nullifiers of what they might next expect from him.

On the 11th of December, 1832, he issued the following, his most celebrated public paper:

PROCLAMATION.

WHEREAS, a Convention assembled in the State of South Carolina, have passed an Ordinance, by which they declare, "That the several acts and parts of acts of the Congress of the United States, purporting to be laws for imposing of duties and imposts on the importation of foreign commodities, and now having actual operation and effect within the United States, and more especially," two acts for the same purposes passed on the 29th of May, 1828, and on the 14th of July, 1832, "are unauthorized by the Constitution of the United States, and violate the true meaning and intent thereof, and are null and void, and no law," nor binding on the citizens of that State or its officers; and by the said Ordinance, it is further declared to be unlawful for any of the constituted authorities of the State or of the United States to enforce the payment of the duties imposed by the said acts within the same State, and that it is the duty of the Legislature to pass such laws as may be necessary to give full effect to the said Ordinance;

And whereas, by the said Ordinance it is further ordained, that in no case of law or equity, decided in the courts of said State, wherein shall be drawn in question the validity of the said Ordinance, or of the acts of the Legislature that may be passed to give it effect, or of the said laws of the United States, no appeal shall be allowed to the Supreme Court of the United

States, nor shall any copy of the record be permitted or allowed for that purpose, and that any person attempting to take such appeal shall be punished as for a contempt of court;

And, finally, the said Ordinance declares, that the people of South Carolina will maintain the said Ordinance at every hazard; and that they will consider the passage of any act by Congress abolishing or closing the ports of the said State, or otherwise obstructing the free ingress or egress of vessels to and from the said ports, or any other act of the Federal Government to coerce the State, shut up her ports, destroy or harass her commerce, or to enforce the said acts otherwise than through the civil tribunals of the country, as inconsistent with the longer continuance of South Carolina in the Union; and that the people of the said State will thenceforth hold themselves absolved from all further obligation to maintain or preserve their political connection with the people of the other States, and will forthwith proceed to organize a separate government, and do all other acts and things which sovereign and independent States may of right do;

And whereas, the said Ordinance prescribes to the people of South Carolina a course of conduct, in direct violation of their duty as citizens of the United States, contrary to the laws of their country, subversive of its Constitution, and having for its object the destruction of the Union; that Union which, coeval with our political existence, led our fathers, without any other ties to unite them than those of patriotism and a common cause, through a sanguinary struggle to a glorious independence; that sacred Union, hitherto inviolate, which, perfected by our happy Constitution, has brought us by the favor of Heaven to a state of prosperity at home, and high consideration abroad, rarely, if ever, equaled in the history of nations: To preserve this bond of our political existence from destruction, to maintain inviolate this state of national honor and prosperity, and to justify the confidence my fellow-citizens have reposed in me, I, Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, have thought proper to issue this my proclamation, stating my views of the Constitution and laws applicable to the measures adopted by the Convention of South Carolina, and to the reasons they have put forth to sustain them, declaring the course which duty will require me to pursue, and, appealing to the understanding and patriotism of the people, warn them of the consequences that must inevitably result from an observance of the dictates of the Convention.

Strict duty would require of me nothing more than the exercise of those powers with which I am now or may hereafter be invested, for preserving the peace of the Union and for the execution of the laws. But the imposing aspect which opposition has assumed in this case, by clothing itself with State authority, and the deep interest which the people of the United States must all feel in preventing a resort to stronger measures, while there is a hope that anything will be yielded to reasoning and remonstrance, perhaps demand, and will certainly justify, a full exposition to South Carolina and the Nation of the views I entertain of this important question, as well as a distinct enunciation of the course which my sense of duty will require me to pursue.

The Ordinance is founded not on the indefeasible right of resisting acts which are plainly unconstitutional and too oppressive to be endured; but on the strange position that any one State may not only declare an act of Congress void, but prohibit its execution, that they may do this consistently with the Constitution, that the true construction of that instrument permits a State to retain its place in the Union, and yet be bound by no other of its laws than those it may choose to consider as Constitutional. It is true they add, that to justify this abrogation of a law, it must be palpably contrary to the Constitution; but it is evident, that to give the right of resisting laws of that description, coupled with the uncontrolled right to decide what laws deserve that character, is to give the power of resisting all laws. For, as by the theory there is no appeal, the reasons alleged by the State, good or bad, must prevail. If it should be said that public opinion is a sufficient check against the abuse of this power, it may be asked why it is not deemed a sufficient guard against the passage of an unconstitutional act by Congress. There is, however, a restraint in this last case, which makes the assumed power of a State more indefensible, and which does not exist in the other. There are two appeals from an unconstitutional act passed by Congress, one to the Judiciary, the other to the People and the States. There is no appeal from the State decision in theory, and the practical illustration shows that the Courts are closed against an application to review it, both judges and jurors being sworn to decide in its favor. But reasoning on this subject is superfluous when our social compact in express terms declares, that the laws of the United States, its Constitution, and treaties made under it, are the