The Tariff of 1832

The Nullification

Move

ment in South

Caro

lina

houn first made his appearance in that body; and for nearly twenty years the two men served in the Senate together. As Calhoun was the defender of the rights of the State, so Webster was the defender of the Constitution. "Webster defended the Constitution," said Edward Everett, "because he felt that it was a kind of earthly providence surrounding us alike while we wake and while we sleep, and assuring us blessings such as never before were enjoyed by any people since the creation of the world." Webster saw that the authority of the Constitution was threatened by the doctrine of nullification, and against the doctrine enunciated by Hayne he threw all the force of his matchless eloquence. He contended that a State had no right to judge for itself whether a law was contrary to the Constitution or not; only the Supreme Court of the United States had the right to make such a decision (p. 253). "If each State," he asked, "had the right to find judgment on questions in which she is interested, is not the whole Union a rope of sand?"

Inasmuch as it was the tariff that was responsible for so much unrest in the South, Congress in 1832 overhauled the Tariff of Abominations and passed a law that reduced some of the rates of which the Southern people complained. But in the law there was a specific declaration to the effect that it was the purpose of Congress to establish the protective system upon a permanent basis. Heretofore the system of protection was regarded by most persons as a shifting and temporary policy. The tariff of 1832 therefore marked a new era in the history of protection: for the system that had been tentative and temporary was now fixed and permanent.

ever.

When the South saw that it was to be burdened by a permanent protective system its indignation rose higher than South Carolina at once prepared for "interposition." Her legislature called a convention, which met at Columbia and declared (November, 1832) that the tariff acts of 1828 and 1832 were void, that they need not be obeyed by the citizens or officers of the State and that the people of South Carolina would not submit to the Federal Government if it should undertake to use force. In order to show that this declara

tion was not an idle threat, the State armed itself and prepared for war.

The nullification ordinance struck at the authority of the National Government, and it aroused the fighting spirit in Jackson. He promptly informed South Carolina that the laws of the United States must be obeyed by the people of all the States, and he warned her of the danger into which she

The Compromise Tariff

of

1833

was running. "If force should be necessary," he said, "I will have 40,000 men in South Carolina to put down resistance and enforce the law." To a member of Congress he said: "Please give my compliments to my friends in your State and say to them that if a single drop of blood shall be shed there in opposition to the laws of the United States I will hang the first man I lay my hands on engaged in such conduct upon the first tree I can reach." Congress in response to Jackson's request quickly passed what is known as the Force Bill, a measure that gave the President power to employ force in the execution of the tariff laws.

But there was no occasion to use force, for Henry Clay came forward with a timely compromise measure that saved the situation from violence. Next to Jackson, Clay was the most striking figure upon the political stage. He was less eloquent than Webster and less logical and profound than Calhoun, but he was more popular and influential than either. Like Jackson, he was a man of the people, but he was better loved than Jackson. The power of Clay consisted in a rare ability to organize the forces that work for compromise, for to his mind compromise was one of the "white virtues." "All wise human legislators," he said, "must consult in some degree the passions and prejudices and feelings, as well as the interests of the people. It would be vain and foolish to proceed at all times and under all circumstances upon the notion of absolute certainty in any system or infallibility in any dogma." In this spirit of concession and compromise Clay pushed through Congress (in 1833) a tariff bill that was more favorable to the South. The compromise measure provided for a gradual reduction of rates so that by 1842 there should be a uniform duty of twenty per cent upon all dutiable articles and no article thereafter should pay a duty higher than twenty per cent. This concession was satisfactory to the South, and it had the effect of bringing the nullification movement to an end, for South Carolina repealed the nullifying ordinance and yielded obedience to the new tariff law.

XXV

THE JACKSONIAN ERA (Continued)

JACKSON AND THE BANK

Jackson
Seeks a

nation

While the nullification storm was brewing, the Presidential campaign of 1832 was in progress. The candidates were RenomiJackson and Clay. Jackson had hardly begun his first term before his friends began to plan for his reëlection. It did not accord with Jackson's notions of democracy that a President should hold office for more than one term, and in his messages to Congress he repeatedly urged that there should be an amendment to the Constitution limiting the eligibility of the President to a single term of four or six years. But as no action was taken in regard to the matter he did not hesitate to avail himself of the privilege of reëlection. As far as his personal inclinations were concerned he did not desire a second term, but political considerations and the pressure of his friends caused him to accept the nomination, which was tendered him by legislatures and political societies in all parts of the Union. Perhaps the thing that did most to prevent Jackson from Jackson's returning to private life at the close of his first term was his deep-seated determination to destroy the second Bank of the Bank United States, an institution which in 1816 had been rechartered for a period of twenty years. The opposition of the President was due chiefly to the fact that some of the officials of the bank had presumed to meddle in political affairs. In his first message (1829) Jackson had used threatening words in regard to this bank, and his hostility to it seemed to increase year by year. He came to hate the bank so bitterly that it is said that he would sometimes choke when he uttered its name. In 1832 the bank applied to Congress for a renewal of its charter, which was to expire in 1836. A charter was granted, but Jackson vetoed the bill on the ground that the privileges

Opposi

tion

to the

The

Campaign

of 1832

The

Removal of the Deposits

granted to the bank were monopolistic in character and on the further ground that the bank was unconstitutional. It was true the Supreme Court had declared such a bank to be constitutional, "but this tribunal," said Jackson, "ought not to control the coördinate authority of this government. Each public officer who takes an oath (128) to support the Constitution swears that he will support it as he understands it, and not as it is understood by others. . . . The opinion of the judges has no more authority over Congress than the opinion of Congress has over the judges and on that point the President is independent of both." Strong efforts were made to override the veto, but it was sustained.

The veto carried the bank question into the campaign of 1832 and caused a sharp division of party lines. Enemies of the bank called themselves Democrats and rallied around Jackson. Friends of the bank called themselves National Republicans and rallied to the support of Clay. The election was a memorable event in the history of American politics, for it marked the beginning of nominating candidates at national conventions.1 Jackson was nominated in convention at Baltimore, delegates from every State but one being present. Clay was also nominated at Baltimore, seventeen States being represented by delegates. The campaign was a spirited one. The bank was the chief question, and the stumps throughout the country rang with cries for and against the bank until the November election was held. Jackson's 219 electoral votes to Clay's 49 showed that the country was against the bank.

Jackson, accepting the result of the election as the voice of the people, waged war upon the bank more ferociously than ever. In 1833 he directed the secretary of the treasury to issue an order forbidding the collectors of the United States to deposit any more money in the bank. The money that was already on deposit-about $10,000,000-was drawn out in the ordinary course of meeting the expenses of the Govern

The first national nominating convention was held at Baltimore in 1831 by the Anti-Masons. This party was organized to oppose the alleged influence of freemasonry in politics. It nominated William Wirt for President and secured seven electoral votes. The party soon dissolved and was absorbed chiefly by the Whigs.