CHAPTER XI.

President Jackson on protection. Nullification in South Carcina. President's proclamation. Mr: Verplank's bill to reduce the tariff. Debate thereon. Force bill. Adoption by the House of Mr. Clay's compromise bill, pending in the Senate. South Carolina pacified.

It had already become apparent, that the protective system was about to be subjected to a trying ordeal; and doubts of its permanency had begun to be seriously entertained. There were indications of its becoming strictly, what it was in a great measure already, a party question. In 1824, of the four candidates for the Presidency, neither of them was supported or opposed, it is believed, on account of his being supposed to be more or less friendly to the protective policy than his competitors. Gen. Jackson and Mr. Clay, in particular, two of the candidates, had given unquestionable evidence of their friendship for that policy; both of them, the former in the Senate, the latter in the House, having taken high and firm ground in favor of the act of 1824.

Nor had this question become as yet a party issue in the presidential election of 1828, immediately ensuing the passage of the tariff act of that year, which produced such high excitement in some of the Southern States. Notwithstanding Gen. Jackson's well known advocacy of high tariff principles, he received the unanimous support of that section of the Union. He had given an unequivocal pledge of his adherence to these principles. The fact that his election was advocated in the Western States on this account, and that he was supported at the South where these measures were so vehemently opposed, gave rise to some suspicions that his opinions had undergone some change Hence, in January, 1828, the Senate of Indiana, in order to ascertain his real sentiments, that the people might vote understandingly, passed a resolution requesting Governor Ray to address a letter to Gen. Jackson, "inviting him to state explicitly whether he favored that construction of the Constitution which authorizes Congress to appropriate money for making internal im

provements in the several States; and whether, if elected President of the United States, he would, in his public capacity, recommend, foster, and support the American system." In his reply to the letter of Gov. Ray, he said: "I pray you, sir, respectfully to state to the Senate of Indiana, that my opinions, at present, are precisely what they were in 1823 and '24, when they were communicated, by letter, to Dr. Coleman, of North Carolina, and when I voted for the present tariff and appropriations for internal improvement."

In 1832, however, it was believed that he had to some extent departed from the views expressed before his election. He had, in his first annual Message, [December, 1829,] reiterated, substantially, the sentiments stated in his Coleman letter, that the protection of manufactures was necessary to the promotion of agriculture. He said: "It is principally as manufactures and commerce tend to increase the value of agricultural productions, and extend their application to the wants and comforts of society, that they deserve the fostering care of Government." And as the extinction of the public debt was at hand, after which there would be a surplus revenue, from the tariff, he suggested the apportionment of this surplus revenue among the several States, and the expediency, if the measure should not be found warranted by the Constitu tion, of proposing to the States an amendment authorizing it. In his next annual Message, [December, 1830,] he again calls the attention of Congress to the subject of the "adjustment of the tariff." He said: "The chief object of duties should be revenue;" but "they may be so adjusted as to encourage manufactures." "Objects of national importance alone ought to be protected." "The present tariff taxes some of the comforts of life unnecessarily high; it undertakes to protect interests too local and minute to justify a general exaction; and it also attempts to force some kinds of manufactures for which the country is not ripe." And he recommends that each particular interest be taken up "singly for deliberation."

The Committee on Manufactures, of which Mr. Mallary was Chairman, in their report on the subject, expressed their dis ɛent from some of the views of the President. They considered the language above quoted as indicating a lowering of his sentiments on this question, and "in plain collision with the sentiments he had previously maintained." He had admitted the power to "foster" our industry; in regard to which the Committee said: "If revenue alone is wanted, du

ties for that object should be imposed. If protection to domestic industry is required, let duties be imposed to 'foster' it. Why should the chief object be revenue? Why protection secondary, when the treasury may be full? Then they should be adjusted to secure protection. This should be the primary object. The protecting power having once belonged to the States, and having, (as the President formerly held,) been. transferred to the General Government, it may be used as the good of the nation demands, for a primary, not a secondary object."

The general expressions, "objects of national importance;" "some of the comforts of life;" "interests too local;" "some kinds of manufactures for which the country is not ripe," the Committee thought, afforded no aid in adjusting the details of a protecting tariff. The Committee also objected to the sug gestion to submit each interest "singly for deliberation," without reference to a general system. They believed also that it was inexpedient to disturb the tariff which had been so recently revised.

Whether the language of the Message, in connection with certain facts and circumstances, justified the allegations of the opponents of Gen. Jackson, that he was shaping his views and policy to secure Southern favor, we will not affirm. But that more moderate views than he formerly held on this subject, were necessary to insure the future support of the uncompromising opponents of the tariff in that section of the Union, probably few were disposed to doubt. Nor will it probably be denied, that his Northern supporters who had almost unanimously maintained, to the full extent, the principles which he had himself advocated in former years, were gradually conforming their views and action to the policy advocated at the South. Indeed, to secure the predominance of the party, a union of his Northern friends with the enemies of protection in the Southern States, was considered indispensable. And the result was, that the party eventually assumed the common ground of opposition to the tariff; and some of the former champions of the protective policy became its most zealous opponents.

The anti-tariff excitement at the South was by no means allayed by the slight reduction of duties by the tariff act of 1832. Public meetings, especially in the State of South Carolina, the addresses of M'Duffie, Hayne, Hamilton, and other high officials, and the acts and proceedings of the State Legislature, kept the public mind in a state of violent agita

tion. Forcible resistance, so long threatened, was at length resolved on, as "the last resort-as the only remedy for the evils inflicted upon the South by the General Government." The Legislatures of Virginia and Georgia had also asserted the principle of nullification; but they were unwilling to carry out that principle by a forcible opposition to the tariff laws. The Legislature of South Carolina was convened by the Governor the 22d of October; and an act was passed calling a convention to be held on the 3d Monday of November, "to consider the character and extent of the usurpation of the General Government." The Convention assembled on the 19th of November, and on the 24th adopted an ordinance declaring the tariff act null and void; making it unlawful for the authorities of either the General or State Government to enforce the payment of duties within that State; and enjoined the legislature to pass laws giving effect to the ordinance.

No sanction was to be given to any appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States from the decisions of the State Courts, involving the authority of the ordinance, or the validity of any acts of the legislature giving effect thereto, or the validity of the tariff act of Congress. All public officers were to be sworn to obey and execute the ordinance and the acts of the State passed in pursuance thereof. Any act that Congress should pass to authorize the employment of force against South Carolina, was declared to be null and void, and would not be submitted to; and from the time of its passage, the State would consider herself absolved from all further obligations to the Union, and proceed to organize a separate Government. The ordinance was to take effect the 1st of February, 1833.

Congress met on the 3d day of December. The President, in his Message, alluded briefly to the opposition to the revenue laws which had arisen in that State. He expressed the belief that the laws themselves were adequate to the suppres sion of any attempt that might be made to thwart their execution; but said: "Should the exigency arise, rendering the execution of the existing laws impracticable, from any cause whatever, 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."

The Message had scarcely been delivered when intelligence of the passage of the ordinance by the South Carolina Convention reached Washington. On the 11th of December was issued the celebrated Proclamation of President Jackson, in

which he stated his views of the Constitution and laws appli cable to the measures adopted by the Convention, and declared the course which duty would require him to pursue.

The legislature of South Carolina met on the 27th of November, 1832, and passed laws to give effect to the ordinance. These laws prohibited the collection of the revenue by the officers of the United States, and placed at the command of the Governor the militia of the State, to resist the enforcement of the laws. The Governor of the State at this time was Mr. Hayne, who had just been elected, and whose place in the Senate of the United States was supplied by the appointment of Mr. Calhoun, on the 28th of December, who, on the 4th of January, resigned the office of Vice President. A proclamation was issued by Gov. Hayne, in which he opposed that of the President by a constitutional exposition similar to that contained in his speeches of 1830; and claimed for the States "nullification as the rightful remedy." He required the people of the State to protect their liberties, "if need be, with their lives and fortunes," concluding with an invocation to "that great and good Being, who, as a 'father, careth for his children,' to inspire them with that holy zeal in a good cause, which is the best safeguard of their rights and liberties." It is proper here to say, that a portion of the people of South Carolina, called "Union Party" men, were determined to sustain the General Gov ernment.

These hostile proceedings of the South Carolina Legislature were followed, Jan. 16, 1833, by a Message of the President to Congress, communicating the proceedings of the Legisla ture of South Carolina, and suggesting the adoption of such measures as the crisis seemed to demand. A bill was reported by the Judiciary Committee, empowering the President to employ the land and naval forces of the Union, to enforce the collection of the revenue, if resistance should be offered.

The tariff of 1832 was destined to be one of short duration. The President, in his annual Message, in December, had again called the attention of Congress to the subject. He recommended a limitation of the revenue to the necessary expenditure under an economical administration of the Government. In the adjustment of duties, he said: "It is due to the interests of the different States, and even to the preservation of the Union itself, that the protection afforded by existing laws to any branches of national industry, should not exceed what may be necessary to counteract the regula