Nullification and Secession in the United States: A History of the Six Attempts During the First Century of the Republic

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The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd., 2002 - 461 pages

A study of sucession and nullification movements in the United States from the nullification resolutions of 1798 to the American Civil War. Powell proposes that the secession of the southern states in 1861 was not a unique event in American history, but the culmination of a tradition as old as the nation. Indeed, he argues, it was an expression of the "intense individualism which was the most potent factor in the creation of the republic" (Preface). Sensitive to the continued animosity between the North and South, Powell hoped that the historical context provided by his study would help to promote a spirit of reconciliation.

The six attempts at nullification and secession that he examines are:

- the Nullification Resolutions of 1798

- the plot for a northern confederacy (1803-1804)

- the Burr plot (1805-1806)

- New England nullification and the Hartford Convention (1812-1814)

- South Carolina's attempts at nullification (1832)

- the secession of 11 states and creation of the confederacy (1861).

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Contents

Thomas Jefferson 2 Instructions for the Deputies
21
5 Jeffersons Original Draft of the Declaration
37
CHAPTER II
50
June 25 1798 2 The Sedition Act July 14 1798
97
CHAPTER III
105
ugees in New York 2 Letter of Hamilton to
150
PAGE
153
tory to the United States Senate 2 President Jef
198
SOUTH CAROLINA NULLIFICATION IN 1832
241
Proposal of Canning 2 President Monroes Mes
294
CHAPTER VII
328
CONCLUDING
435
from Hon T M Cooley on Centralization 2
449
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Page 292 - In the discussions to which this interest has given rise and in the arrangements by which they may terminate the occasion has been judged proper for asserting, as a principle in which the rights and interests of the United States are involved, that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.
Page 97 - ... in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the states, who are parties thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose, for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining, within their respective limits, the authorities, rights and liberties, appertaining to them.
Page 27 - But, from the necessity of the case, and a regard to the mutual interest of both countries, we cheerfully consent to the operation of such Acts of the British Parliament, as are bona fide restrained to the regulation of our external commerce, for the purpose of securing the commercial advantages of the whole empire to the mother country, and the commercial benefits of its respective members ; excluding every idea of taxation, internal or external, for raising a revenue on the subjects in America...
Page 41 - Determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce.
Page 46 - The committee of the states, or any nine of them, shall be authorized to execute, in the recess of congress, such of the powers of congress as the united states in congress assembled, by the consent of nine states, shall from, time to time think expedient to vest them with ; provided that no power be delegated to the said committee, for the exercise of which, by the articles of confederation, the voice of nine states in the congress of the united states assembled is requisite.
Page 39 - He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining, in the meantime, exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
Page 32 - We will neither import nor purchase, any slave imported after the first day of December next; after which time, we will wholly discontinue the slave trade, and will neither be concerned in it ourselves, nor will we hire our vessels, nor sell our commodities or manufactures to those who are concerned in it.
Page 45 - No two or more states shall enter into any treaty, confederation or alliance whatever between them, without the consent of the United States in congress assembled, specifying accurately the purposes for which the same is to be entered into, and how long it shall continue.
Page 354 - If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery.

About the author (2002)

EDWARD PAYSON POWELL (1833-1915) was an American author and journalist. He graduated from Hamilton College and Union Theological Seminary and was ordained as a Congregational minister in 1817. He embarked on his journalism career in 1886 when he joined the St. Louis Globe-Democrat in 1886 as an editorial writer; he later (1900) moved to The Independent of New York, a civil rights and anti-slavery newspaper.

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