state nullification

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Impact of a State’s Right to Nullification

Impact of a State’s Right to Nullification

The impact of a state’s right to nullification can ultimately cause a great deal of damage to the country that it resides in. To describe the impacts one would need to take a look back into history when the Nullification Crisis took place. South Carolina had economic hard times after the war of 1812. Cotton prices started to drop and South Carolina was in a state of depression. Southerners however tend to blame their economic woes on the policies of the national government. (Goode 87). The Tariff of Abominations was a series of high taxes that was placed on incoming foreign goods. The South disagreed with this proposal because they thought that the federal government was trying to tax one part of the country to benefit the wealth of another which is the North. Thomas Cooper, the president of the South Carolina College said “Is it worth while to continue in this union of states, where the north demands to be our masters and we are required to be their tributaries.”(Goode 89) John C. Calhoun being Vice President and was from South Carolina strongly disagreed with this Tariff of Abominations. He even wrote “South Carolina Exposition” which used the constitution as an argument against the tariff. Then, there was the Haynes and Webster Debate. They both defended and attacked on the Nullification topic in congress. In 1832 Congress released another tariff that replaced the Tariff of Abominations, but the South Carolinians weren’t still happy. The climax of this nullification swirl happened at Jackson’s birthday dinner where everyone gathered to give speeches. Andrew told everybody in that room what he thought of State Nullification with one simple line: “Our Union, It must be preserved” (Goode 88). The Congress continued with passing a Force Bill that would allow President Jackson to use force to regulate the tariff laws. To clean this mess up and to avoid civil war, both sides decided to compromise due to a plan drawn up by Henry Clay

Hard times in South Carolina

South Carolina was a state that was hit hard by the ...

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...t got turned into a civil war because one state did not agree with the government. If it wasn’t for Clay to draw up the bill, South Carolina would have seceded from the Union and Civil World would have come earlier. All these events will eventually lead to bloodshed and that’s the last thing we want.

Work Cited

Bassett, Joseph M. “Encyclopedia of American Government” Pasadena, California 1975: 671

Benton, William “The Annuls of America” New York 1968: 232

Goode, Stephen “The New Federalism” New York 1983: 87 - 92

MacDonald, William “The American Nation a History, the Jacksonian Democracy” New York 1909: 67 – 88

National Urban League – Quasi Judicial Agencies “Dictionary of American History” New York 1976: 125

Shaw, Ronald E. Bremer, Howard F. “Andrew Jackson 1767 – 1845 “ Dobbs Ferry, New York 1969: 59

Schlesinger, Arthur M. “The Age of Jackson” Boston 1945: 15

Schlesinger, Arthur M. “The Age of Jackson” New York 1945: 34, 403, 95-96

Stamp, Kenneth M. “The Causes of the Civil War” New York 1959: 68

http://web9.epnet.com/DeliveryPrintSave.asp?tb=1&_ug==5970ADF3-526D-4D75-ADE

http://www.fofweb.com/History/HisRefMain.asp?SID=3&DataType=AmericanHistory&R

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