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of the public debt, and during those inter- | by him with reference to new objects, vals when the purposes of war shall not call not to those already provided for. for them? Shall we suppress the impost and give that advantage to foreign over domestic Had these required such enlargement, manufactures? On a few articles of more the duties should have been repealed general and necessary use, the suppression, in due season, will doubtless be right; but or reduced at once, to be reimthe great mass of the articles on which im- posed whenever Congress should be post is paid is foreign luxuries, purchased by clothed with the requisite constituthose only who are rich enough to afford themselves the use of them. Their patriotTheir patriot- tional power. ism would certainly prefer its continuance and application to the great purposes of the public education, roads, rivers, canals, and such other objects of public improvement as it may be thought proper to add to the constitutional enumeration of federal powers. By these operations, new channels of communication will be opened between the States; the lines of separation will disap;

pear; their interests will be identified, and their Union cemented by new and indissolu

ble ties."

"Education is here placed among the arti

cles of public care, not that it would be proposed to take its ordinary branches out of the hands of private enterprise, which manages so much better all the concerns to which it is equal; but a public institution can alone supply those sciences which, though rarely called for, are yet necessary to complete the circle, all the parts of which contribute to the improvement of the country, and some of them to its preservation. The subject is now proposed for the consideration of Congress, because, if approved, by the time the State Legislatures shall have

deliberated on this extension of the federal

trusts, and the laws shall be passed, and other arrangements made for their execution, the necessary funds will be on hand and without employment. I suppose an amendment to the Constitution, by consent of the States, necessary, because the objects now recommended are not among those enu

merated in the Constitution, and to which it permits the public moneys to be applied." Mr. Jefferson, it will be seen, suggests an amendment to the Constitution, to give Congress power to raise and appropriate money to the "great purposes of education, roads, rivers, canals," etc.; but he betrays no suspicion that the incidental Protection then confessedly enjoyed by our Home Manufactures was given in defiance of "the Constitution as it is." On the contrary, an enlargement of federal power was suggested

HENRY CLAY entered Congress under Jefferson, in 1806, and was Protectionist from the start.. an earnest, thorough, enlightened Mr. Calhoun first took his seat in 1811, when the question of war with Great Britain dwarfed all others; and his zealous efforts, together with those of Clay, Felix Grundy, and other ardent young Republicans, finally overbore the reluctance of Madison and his more sedate councilors, and secured a Declaration of War on the 18th of June, 1812. At the close of that war, a revision of the existing Tariff was imperatively required; and no man did more than John C. Calhoun-then, for his last term, a leading member of the House-to secure the efficient Protection of Home Manufactures, but especially of the Cotton Manufacture, by the Tariff of 1816; which Massachusetts, and most of New England, opposed, precisely because it was Protective, and therefore, in the short-sighted view, hostile to the interests of Commerce and Navigation. Internal Improvements, and all other features of what was termed the National in contradistinction to the Radical or strict-construction theory of the nature and functions of our Federal Government, found in Mr. Calhoun and his personal adherents their most thorough-going champions: and South Carolina was, about 1820, the

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THE TARIFF OF 1828.

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arena of a stirring conflict between | by most of the members from the Cother "National" school of politicians, ton States, and by a majority of those headed by Calhoun and McDuffie, from New England-some provisions and the "Radicals," whose chief was having been engrafted upon it with the William H. Crawford, of Georgia. alleged purpose and the certain effect Repeated duels between Mr. McDuffie of making it obnoxious to Massachuand Colonel William Cuming, of Geor- setts and the States which, on either gia, in one of which McDuffie was se- side, adjoined her. On the other verely wounded, were among the in- hand, the members from the Middle cidents of this controversy. Yet but and Western Free States, without few years elapsed before Mr. Calhoun distinction of party, supported.it aland his trusty henchman, McDuf- most unanimously. This Tariff imfie, appeared in the novel character posed high duties on Iron, Lead, of champions of "State Rights," and Hemp, Wool, and other bulky starelentless antagonists of Protection, ples, and was very generally popular. and all the "National" projects they Under it, the industry of the Free had hitherto supported! Mr. Calhoun States, regarded as a whole, was attempted, some years afterward, to more productive, more prosperous, reconcile this flagrant inconsistency; better rewarded, than ever before, but it was like "arguing the seal off and the country exhibited a rapid the bond”—a feat to which the sub-growth in wealth, intelligence, and tlest powers of casuistry are utterly general comfort. inadequate. He did prove, however, that his change did not follow, but preceded, his quarrel with General Jackson-his original, though then unacknowledged, demonstration against Protection as unconstitutional, and in favor of Nullification as a reserved right of each State, having been embodied in an elaborate document known as "The South Carolina Exposition," adopted and put forth by the Legislature of his State near the close of 1828. The doctrines therein affirmed were those propounded by Hayne and refuted by Webster in the great debate already noticed.

The Tariff of 1828-the highest and most protective ever adopted in this country-was passed by a Jackson Congress, of which Van Buren, Silas Wright, and the Jacksonian feaders in Pennsylvania and Ohio, were master-spirits. It was opposed

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The South-that is, the cottongrowing region-for region for Louisiana, through her sugar-planting interest, sustained the Protective policy, and shared in the prosperity thence resulting-now vehemently opposed the Tariff, declaring herself thereby plundered and impoverished. There is no evidence that her condition was less favorable, her people less comfortable, than they had been; but the contrast between the thrift, progress, and activity of the Free States, and the stagnation, the inertia, the poverty, of the cotton region, was very striking. And, as the South was gradually unlearning her Revolutionary principles, and adopting instead the dogma that Slavery is essentially right and beneficent, she could not now be induced to apprehend, nor even to consider, the real cause of her comparative wretchedness; though she was more than once

kindly and delicately reminded of it. Mr. George M. Dallas, of Pennsylvania a life-long Democrat and anti-Abolitionist, cautious, conservative, conciliatory-replying to one of Mr. Hayne's eloquent and highwrought portrayals of the miserable state to which the South and her industry had been reduced by the Protective policy, forcibly and truthfully

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What, Sir, is the cause of Southern distress? Has any gentleman yet ventured to designate it? I am neither willing nor competent to flatter. To praise the honorable Senator from South Carolina would be

'To add perfume to the violet— Wasteful and ridiculous excess.' But, if he has failed to discover the source of the evils he deplores, who can unfold it? Amid the warm and indiscriminating denunciations with which he has assailed the policy of protecting domestic manufactures and native produce, he frankly avows that he would not deny that there are other causes, besides the Tariff, which have contributed to produce the evils which he has depicted.' What are those other causes?' In what proportion have they acted? How much of this dark shadowing is ascribable to each singly, and to all in combination? Would the Tariff be at all felt or denounced, if those other causes were not in operation? Would not, in fact, its influence, its discriminations, its inequalities, its oppressions, but for those 'other causes,' be shaken, by the elasticity, energy, and exhaustless spirit of the South, as 'dew-drops from the lion's mane?' These inquiries must be satisfactorily answered before we can be justly required to legislate away an entire system. If it be the root of all evil, let it be exposed and demolished. If its poisonous exhalations be but partial, let us preserve such portions as are innoxious. If, as the luminary of day, it be pure and salutary in itself, let us not wish it extinguished, because of the shadows, clouds, and darkness, which obscure its brightness, or impede its vivifying

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Senators not to suppose that I do it in the spirit of taunt, of reproach, or of idle declamation. Regarding it as a misfortune merely, not as a fault-as a disease inherited, not incurred-perhaps to be alleviated, but

not eradicated-I should feel self-condemned were I to treat it other than as an existing fact, whose merit or demerit, apart from the question under debate, is shielded from commentary by the highest and most just considerations. I refer, Sir, to the character of Southern labor, in itself, and in its into the ever-varying changes of human sociefluence on others. Incapable of adaptation

ty and existence, it retains the communities in which it is established, in a condition of apparent and comparative inertness. The lights of Science and the improvements of Art, which vivify and accelerate elsewhere, cannot penetrate, or if they do, penetrate with dilatory inefficiency, among its operatives. They are not merely instinctive and passive. While the intellectual industry of other parts of this country springs elastically forward at every fresh impulse, and manual laboris propelled and redoubled by countless inventions, machines, and contrivances, instantly understood and at once exercised, the South remains stationary, inaccessible to such encouraging and invigorating aids. Nor is it possible to be wholly blind to the moral effect of this species of labor upon those freemen among whom it exists. A disrelish for humble and hardy occupation; a pride adverse to drudgery and toil; a dread that to partake in the employments allotted to color may be accompanied also by its degradation, are natural and inevitable. The high and lofty qualities which, in other scenes and for other purposes, characterize and adorn our Southern brethren, are fatal to the enduring patience, the corporal exertion, and the painstaking simplicity, by which only a successful yeomanry can be formed. When, in fact, Sir, the Senator from South Carolina asserts that 'Slaves are too improvident, too incapable of that minute, constant, delicate attention, and that persevering industry which are essential to manufacturing establishments,' he himself admits the defect in Southern labor, by which the progress of his favorite section must be retarded. He admits an inability to keep pace with the rest of the world. He admits an inherent weakness; a weakness neither engendered nor aggravated by the Tariff-which, as societies are now constituted and directed, must drag in the rear, and be distanced in the common race."

South Carolina did not heed these

16 Speech in the Senate, February 27, 1832.

NULLIFICATION MADE PRACTICAL.

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gentle admonitions. The convictions | States against the validity of said act should be permitted; no copy of the proceedings should be taken for the purpose of making such appeal; and any attempt to appeal to the Judiciary of the United States from any decision of a State court affirming and upholding this Ordinance, should be "dealt with as for a contempt of the court" thus upholding and affirming. Every office-holder of the State, and "every juror" was required expressly to swear to obey this Ordinance, and all legislative acts based thereon. Should the Federal Government undertake to enforce the law thus nullified, or in any manner to harass or obstruct the foreign commerce of the State, South Carolina should thereupon consider herself no longer a member of the Federal Union :

of her leading men were, doubtless, Pro-Slavery and Anti-Tariff; but their aspirations and exasperations likewise tended to confirm them in the course on which they had resolved and entered. General Jackson and Mr. Calhoun had become estranged and hostile not long after their joint election as President and Vice-President, in 1828. Mr. Calhoun's sanguine hopes of succeeding to the Presidency had been blasted. Mr. Van Buren supplanted him as VicePresident in 1832, sharing in Jack son's second and most decided triumph. And, though the Tariff of 1828 had been essentially modified during the preceding session of Congress, South Carolina proceeded, directly after throwing away her vote in the election of 1832, to call a Convention of her people, which met at her Capitol on the 19th of November. That Convention was composed of her leading politicians of the Calhoun school, with the heads of her great families, forming a respectable and dignified assemblage. The net. result of its labors was an Ordinance of Nullification, drafted by a grand Committee of twenty-one, and adopted with entire unanimity. By its terms, the existing Tariff was formally pronounced "null, void, and no law, nor binding on this State, its officers, or citizens," and the duties on imports imposed by that law were forbidden to be paid within the State of South Carolina after the 1st day of February ensuing. The Ordinance contemplated an act of the Legislature nullifying the Tariff as aforesaid; and prescribed that no appeal to the Supreme Court of the United

"The people of this State will thenceforth hold themselves absolved from all further obligation to maintain or preserve their poliStates, and will forthwith proceed to organtical connection with the people of the other ize a separate government, and do all other acts and things which sovereign and independent States may of right do."

Thus was Nullification" embodied in an Ordinance preparatory to its reduction to practice. The Legislature, in which the Nullifiers were an overwhelming majority, elected Mr. Webster's luckless antagonist, Robert Y. Hayne, Governor of the State; and the Governor, in his Message, thoroughly indorsed the action of the nullifying Convention, whereof he had been a member.

"I recognize," said he, "no allegiance as paramount to that which the citizens of birth or their adoption. I here publicly declare, and wish it to be distinctly understood, that I shall hold myself bound, by the

South Carolina owe to the State of their

highest of all obligations, to carry into effect, not only the Ordinance of the Con

17 November 24, 1832.

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He proceeded:

“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 her defense, I trust in Almighty God that no son of hers, native or adopted, who has been nourished at her bosom, or been cherished by her bounty, will be found raising a parricidal arm against our common mother. And even should she stand Alone in this great struggle for constitutional liberty, encompassed by her enemies, that there will not be found, in the wide 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. South Carolina can

not be drawn down from the proud eminence on which she has now placed herself, except by the hands of her own children. Give her but a fair field, and she asks no more. Should she succeed, hers will be glory enough to have led the way in the noble work of REFORM. And if, after making these efforts due to her own honor, and the greatness of the cause, she is destined utterly to fail, the bitter fruits of that failure, not to herself alone, but to the entire South, nay, to the whole Union, will attest her virtue."

The Legislature proceeded to pass the acts requisite to give practical effect to the Ordinance, and the Governor to accept the services of volunteers, who were not mustered into service, but directed to hold themselves in readiness for action at a moment's notice. Mr. Calhoun resigned the Vice-Presidency when he had three months still to serve, and was chosen to the Senate to fill the seat vacated by Mr. Hayne's acceptance of the governorship. Leaving his State foaming and surging with preparations for war, Mr. Calhoun, in December, calmly proceeded to Washington, where he took his seat in the Senate, and swore afresh to

maintain the Constitution, as if unconscious of the tempest he had excited, and which was now preparing to burst upon his head.

General Jackson had already 18 made provision for the threatened emergency. Ordering General Scott to proceed to Charleston for the purpose of "superintending the safety of the ports of the United States in that vicinity," and making the requisite disposition of the slender military and naval forces at his command, the President sent confidential orders to the Collector for the port of Charleston, whereof the following extract sufficiently indicates the character and purpose:

"Upon the supposition that the measures of the Convention, or the acts of the Legislature may consist, in part, at least, in declaring the laws of the United States imposing duties unconstitutional, and null and void, and in forbidding their execution, and the collection of the duties within the State of South Carolina, you will, immediately after it shall be formally announced, resort to all the means provided by the laws, and particularly by the act of the 2d of March, 1799, to counteract the measures which may be

adopted to give effect to that declaration. "For this purpose, you will consider yourself authorized to employ the revenue cutters which may be within your district, and provide as many boats and employ as many inspectors as may be necessary for the execution of the law, and for the purposes of the act already referred to. You will, moreover, cause a sufficient number of officers of cutters and inspectors to be placed on board, and in charge of every vessel arriving from a foreign port or place, with goods, wares, or merchandise, as soon as practicable after her first coming within your district, and direct them to anchor her she may be secure from any act of violence, in some safe place within the harbor, where and from any unauthorized attempt to discharge her cargo before a compliance with the laws; and they will remain on board of her at such place until the reports and entries required by law shall be made, both of secured to be paid, to your satisfaction, and vessel and cargo, and the duties paid, or until the regular permit shall be granted for

18 November 6th.

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