December 19, 1828 – John C. Calhoun Claimed the Right of a State to Nullify Federal Laws

In 1832 John C. Calhoun of South Carolina resigned the office of Vice President of the United States to lead the fight against the “Tariff of Abominations.” The tariff protected domestic – mostly northern – manufacturers from foreign competition, but also drove up the price of manufactured goods purchased by southerners.

John C. Calhoun

Earlier, Calhoun fought the tariff, passed in 1828, albeit anonymously. The South Carolina Exposition and Protest, also known as Calhoun’s Exposition, was presented to the South Carolina House of Representatives on this date in history, and was widely distributed. Calhoun was not identified as the author but word on this soon leaked out. The legislature took no action on the report at that time.

In the “Exposition,” Calhoun argued that the tariff was unconstitutional because it favored manufacturing over commerce and agriculture. He believed that the people of a state or several states, acting in a democratically elected convention, had the retained power to veto any act of the federal government which violated the Constitution. This veto, the core of the doctrine of nullification, was explained by Calhoun in the Exposition:

If it be conceded, as it must be by every one who is the least conversant with our institutions, that the sovereign powers delegated are divided between the General and State Governments, and that the latter hold their portion by the same tenure as the former, it would seem impossible to deny to the States the right of deciding on the infractions of their powers, and the proper remedy to be applied for their correction. The right of judging, in such cases, is an essential attribute of sovereignty, of which the States cannot be divested without losing their sovereignty itself, and being reduced to a subordinate corporate condition. In fact, to divide power, and to give to one of the parties the exclusive right of judging of the portion allotted to each, is, in reality, not to divide it at all; and to reserve such exclusive right to the General Government (it matters not by what department) to be exercised, is to convert it, in fact, into a great consolidated government, with unlimited powers, and to divest the States, in reality, of all their rights, it is impossible to understand the force of terms, and to deny so plain a conclusion.”

After Calhoun resigned as vice president, he was free to devote his time to the pursuit of tariff nullification. But just before his resignation, President Andrew Jackson signed into law another tariff, the Tariff of 1832. This compromise tariff received the support of most northerners and half of the southerners in Congress. The reductions were too little for South Carolina, however.

President Andrew Jackson

A state convention was held in November, 1832, at which time it passed The Ordinance of Nullification, declaring the Tariff of 1828 and 1832 null and void within the state borders of South Carolina, beginning on February 1, 1833. Thus began the “Nullification Crisis,” leading to a proclamation by President Andrew Jackson on December 10, 1832, which threatened to send government ground troops to enforce the tariffs. In the face of the military threat, and following a Congressional revision of the law which lowered the tariff, South Carolina repealed the ordinance on March 15, 1833.