Nullification Crisis Essay

Tiffany Collier

Mr. Burke

History 2010

April 6, 2015

                                  The Nullification Crisis: Essay 2

        Andrew Jackson won the presidential election in 1828 against John Quincy Adams’. When Jackson took presidency there was a proposal being pushed through Congress by the people. The proposal was to raise tariffs on manufactured items. The people had pushed this proposal through to help Jackson win the election and to embarrass Adams’ so he would not win the election again. The people were angry with Adams’ because he was a New Englander and people believed he favored his home land much more than the Americas. The proposal passed in 1828 when Jackson took presidency and the people believed that the proposal would be an embarrassment to Adams’ but it only caused havoc during Jackson’s presidency. The proposal became known as the “Tariff of Abominations.”

        Southerners complained about the tariff and had to suffer drastically because of it. The financial strain was too much on Southerners; they began to take out their frustration on Jackson and rallied against the Tariff of 1828. Northerners were experiencing a boom because they had assistance from a “protective tariff,” Southerners felt they were being treated unfair due to this. With the problems that the Southerners faced due to the tariff, is the main cause as to why the nullification came about.

        South Carolina nullified the Tariff of 1828 because of the states’ rights acts that Jefferson and Maddison had previously written. The U.S Constitution states that federal laws can be nullified by any state for the whole union. South Carolina believed that the Tariff of 1828 was unjust and unconstitutional; “The South Carolina Exposition” was a way to argue this about the tariff. Eventually the true author of the “The South Carolina Exposition” and the main person responsible for the nullification was released as John C. Calhoun, which was the vice president to Jackson. John C. Calhoun was from South Carolina and supported what they were doing but when Jackson found out he wasn’t pleased and fell out of favor as Jackson’s successor thanks to Martin Van Buren.

        Jackson responds to the nullification by stating that anybody willing to disobey his authority will be punished. If they try to bring in their own goods from any port then he will have that port closed and so on. Jackson takes his presidency very serious and anybody willing to try and over throw his authority gets punished by laws that are in place. He states that with the constitution in place, no matter what, he was still not going to let states actually go by all those laws. He is the president and he was the one going to allow or no allow people to use certain laws. He states that some of the laws in the constitution were not dated to the present day and people from the Union may had misplaced the real laws. He also states that all people of the U.S declared everybody to be a nation not individually states and with that being said the constitution should be revised and no one should obtain to the laws written in it. He states that the constitution is unequal and mainly only refers to manufactures. The laws were to only protect them mostly. He does not agree with the constitution only the preamble, which states mostly that they are a nation and everything they do is to better their nation.