1828.

RETALIATION PROPOSED.

257

scope, prohibit the introduction of horses, mules, hogs, beef cattle, bacon, and bagging, and what advantage will Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Indiana derive from the tariff bill commensurate with the loss of our markets? Let us prohibit the introduction of whiskey, flour, beef, cheese, and how will New York and Pennsylvania be compensated by the tariff for the loss of our markets? Let us affect them yet more by a municipal tax amounting to a prohibition on all stock in trade consisting of goods, wares, and merchandise the produce of these States. We may be told that such prohibitions cannot be laid. But this is not the case; for most of the States have at some time prohibited the introduction of slaves, and many of them have even stopped the transit of such property. That such measures might be effectual it was necessary that the States concerned should act in concert and support each other. It was therefore proposed that an anti-tariff convention should be held at once.*

A writer in another newspaper pointed out how the system of retaliation might be carried out. Let the next Legislature, said he, in its "act to raise supplies," instead of the usual tax of seventy-five cents on each hundred dollars of stock in trade, lay a tax amounting to a prohibition, and at the same time provide for a remission of it by the Governor whenever he thinks proper. When a British invoice is presented, the Governor will, of course, remit the tax. When no invoice, or a Northern one, is produced, the tax must be paid. It would probably be necessary to prevent British invoices being manufactured in Rhode Island, and an agent would have to be sent to Liverpool to countersign such papers to be sent to the Governor. The students of South Carolina College did not wait for a prohibitory tax, but resolved not to “buy, consume, or wear any article of clothing manufactured north of the Potomac river till the rights of our State shall be fully acknowledged." A journal published at Milledgeville, Georgia, called on the people to say to the North, as Abraham said to Lot, "Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me; if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right;

* Niles's Weekly Register, July 5, 1828, p. 301.

or, if thou depart to the right hand, then will I go to the left." The same newspaper urged an anti-tariff congress to recommend to the Legislatures and the people the best measures for preventing the introduction and use of the "tariffied articles." When the twenty-eighth of June came, the day being the anniversary of the battle of Monmouth, the seces

sionists seized the occasion and celebrated the event with toasts and speeches of a seditious sort."

*

Much the same sentiments were expressed by Mr. McDuffie at a dinner given in his honor by the people of Charleston. He hoped that the citizens of South Carolina would appear on the fourth of July clothed in homespun, the manufacture of the South, and thereby express in a public manner their determination not to submit to the unjust exactions imposed by the tariff. He, too, advocated a prohibitory tax on Northern goods. To do so was perfectly constitutional. The moment the original packages were broken and the goods mixed up and made a component part of the stock and capital of the country, they ceased to be imports and became subject to taxation, as property, by the State. To single them out for taxation was then just as legal as to single out horses or slaves. The expediency was manifest.

The commerce of

* At Charleston, C. C. Pinckney offered the toast, "The battle of the 28th of June and the tariff of June 28th. Let New England beware how she imitates the Old."

By Henry Rutledge: "The rattlesnake of the South! Caveant Moniti. Warned by its rattle, let the foe beware."

Among the fourth of July toasts are these:

"The river Potomac: notable as a barrier between Southern independence and Northern despotism. May its current be the protector of the former to the destruction of the latter."

"The union and independence of the States. Let us never forget that we united to secure our independence. If the choice must be made, we must not prefer the means to the end."

"The union of the States; but, if separation must come, let us separate in peace."

"Internal improvements and the tariff-the firebrands of discord. Let the South look to State rights and State sovereignty."

"The crisis to which we have come. To hesitate now is to submit, and to submit is ruin."

"Down with the tariff, the accursed upas beneath whose poisonous shade the prosperity, the life, perhaps, of this great confederacy is destined to expire."

1828.

RETALIATION PROPOSED.

259

Kentucky was trifling except in hogs, horses, mules, and cattle bought by the Southern States. Yet the Kentucky delegation was unanimously in favor of the tariff. She had done all she could to injure South Carolina; let her feel the effects. Nothing on earth should induce a Carolinian to buy a hog, a horse, a mule from Kentucky. The students of Franklin College followed the example set by those of South Carolina College, and refused to use for apparel goods made in the North. At a public meeting at Milledgeville, it was resolved to abstain, as far as possible, from the use of everything made in the tariff States; to request the Legislature to lay prohibitory taxes on the hogs, mules, horses, cattle, bagging, whiskey, pork, beef, bacon, flax, and hemp of the Western States, and on all the productions and manufactures of the Northern and Eastern.

The Charleston Mercury published a letter from a correspondent at Columbia declaring that on the subject of the tariff the people of the interior were exasperated beyond measure. Not the stump orators, not the court-yard politicians, but the substantial citizens. Such was the state of feeling toward the General Government arising from the repeated and insulting injuries received from it, that, if the delegations from the Southern States to Congress were to secede and recommend the States to call a convention and organize a government for themselves, the recommendation would be received with bonfires and rejoicings all over the State.*

By July fourth sentiments of a different kind began to find expression. The Governor of South Carolina, in response to the address of the people of the Colleton District, positively refused to assemble the Legislature, and at a public dinner spoke strongly against disunion. "This severing of a member from an established confederation," said he, "is by no means so easy as some seem to think. The plan I see discussed in the newspapers of calling conventions and withdrawing our senators and representatives will repeal no law now binding on the whole. Those who act under the authority of the Gen

VOL. V.

*Niles's Weekly Register, July 26, 1828, p. 356.

eral Government, if they do their duty, must bring the two authorities into collision, and then-but I will not go on. I rely on the ballot box. I have not despaired. I see nothing yet to make me willing to give up the ship. If I have any firmness it will be exerted to preserve the Union-to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of this State and of the United States."

A member of Congress from Alabama told his constituents that while he was the last man in the world to submit to oppression, he would be among the first to resist disunion. He for one would not ask, "Of what value is this union to Alabama?" If the Union was ever dissolved, it would be the result of the most awful revolution that ever stained the pages of history. Newspaper after newspaper now made haste to protest. Said one, We are in favor of a temperate and independent opposition. We are by no means willing that the emissaries of Great Britain shall creep in among us, laugh at our simplicity and glory in the idea of a dis solution of the Union. Another urged the people to rely on themselves, to manufacture for themselves, and pay no heed to the protestations of mouthing patriots. A third remarked that in the mercantile centres of Georgia-in Savannah and Augusta, places where the burdens imposed by the tariff, if any, would surely be felt-there were no complaints, no meetings, no resolutions, no threats of disunion. Yet in the back country, among the middling farmers, where nine people out of ten had always worn homespun, and never bought a yard of broadcloth in the whole course of their lives, the belief was prevalent that the tariff would be their ruin. Those who knew nothing about commerce, who could not tell a wheelbarrow from a ship, were crying out that their shipping interests would suffer. Did not this prove that ignorance had much to do with the excitement? *

Ignorance, in truth, had very little to do with the excitement. No man was more eager for disunion, more active in preparing the way, than Doctor Thomas Cooper, President of South Carolina College. McDuffie, in toasts and speeches,

Niles's Weekly Register, September 20, 1828, p. 59.

1828.

*

NULLIFICATION URGED.

261

never lost an opportunity to recommend even an appeal to arms. A writer under the name of Sidney openly urged nullification, and called on the people to uphold the sovereignty of South Carolina and, "if necessary, die in the ditch." When, said he, our sovereignty, using its delegated powers, declares a certain law to be constitutional, and another sovereignty, using its reserved powers, declares the same law to be no law, who is to decide between them? Not the Supreme Court surely, for it is the creature of one of the sovereignties. Plainly the right of judgment rests with the power that made the Constitution. The Legislature of South Carolina, therefore, should meet, cite the tariff acts of 1824 and 1828, declare them null and void, open the ports, and force the General Government to act. An amendment to the Constitution or attempted coercion would follow. With one fourth of the States on her side an amendment would be impossible. If coercion were attempted, the course of the minority would be glorious. No man in all South Carolina was more respected than Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. Yet he, too, repeatedly gave public expression to sentiments that were seditious. At one dinner his toast was: The battle of the 28th of June, and the tariff June 28th-Let New England beware how she imitates the Old." At another he proposed, and those present drank to, "Southern rights and Northern avarice-When the Constitution is degraded to destroy one and support the other, resistance is a virtue."

Led on by such men, the people spoke more plainly than ever. From grand juries, from the muster ground, from meetings called for the especial purpose of protesting, came demands for resistance and appeals to the Legislature to defend the insulted rights of the State.#

* "The Stamp Act of 1765 and the tariff of 1828-kindred acts of despotism. When our oppressors trace this parallel, let them remember that we are the descendants of a noble ancestry, and profit by the admonitions of history." + Charleston Mercury, July 3, 1828.

Charleston Mercury, July 3, 4, 8, 1828.

# See the resolutions adopted at Coosawhatchie, at Edgefield, Beaufort, Abbeville, St. Helena's Parish, All Saints' Parish, Barnwell, and others, as given in Niles's Weekly Register, September 20, 1828, pp. 60–63.