Arguments and disagreements over tariffs became one of the key issues Jackson faced during
his presidency.
Who favored protective tariffs?
Who opposed them?
How did Jackson handle the situation?
As the John Q. Adams Administration drew to a close in 1828, manufacturers in the rapidly
industrializing Northeast began demanding a tariff (tax) on imported woolen goods to
protect their industries from foreign competition, especially from Great Britain.
Congress responded by passing a bill that added to the growing sectional disputes that
were plaguing the young nation.
In the South, the economy relied heavily on trade in raw materials such as rice, indigo,
and cotton.
European nations, especially Great Britain, bought raw goods from the South, turned them
into manufactured products (such as fabric), and exported them back to the United States.
Many Southerners argued that the tariffs made it too costly for Americans to buy these European
goods and that it reduced the need for the South’s raw materials (at the expense of
benefitting the North).
Angry Southerners referred to the bill as the “Tariff of Abominations,” declaring
that the tariff was so high that it would make importing many goods from Britain impossible.
They strongly opposed the bill, but Adams signed it into law.
The opposition to the tariff was led by Jackson’s first vice president, John C. Calhoun.
Calhoun’s home state of South Carolina had been severely damaged by previous tariffs,
and he argued that the law was both discriminatory against the South and unconstitutional.
Calhoun, championing the states’ rights doctrine, believed that since states had formed
the Union, state power should be greater than federal power.
Calhoun drafted the South Carolina Exposition and Protest in 1828, declaring that the federal
government should not favor one state over another and that a state could declare a federal
law “null and void” if they deemed it unconstitutional.
Calhoun’s move was not unprecedented, as James Madison and Thomas Jefferson had introduced
the concept of nullification in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 and 1799,
which declared that the Alien and Sedition Acts were “null and void” in those states.
Calhoun’s exposition caused a great deal of controversy.
Many Northerners, whose states benefited from the tariffs, argued that the people, not the
states, made up the Union.
Many spirited debates took place in Congress, including an 1830 standoff between Robert
Y.
Hayne and Daniel Webster.
Hayne, a senator from South Carolina, argued that nullification provided a way for states
to lawfully protest federal legislation.
Webster, from Massachusetts, declared that the United States was one nation, rather than
a pact of individual states, and that the welfare of the nation overrode that of individual
states.
As president, Jackson was forced to respond to this dispute.
Many Southerners believed that President Jackson, a Southerner who had campaigned on tariff
reform, would take a firm stand against the tariffs.
In 1832, Jackson asked for a new tariff (Tariff Act of 1832) that would lower the tax rate,
but Calhoun and South Carolina believed that the slight change was inadequate.
The South Carolina legislature then took the monumental step of testing the doctrine of
states’ rights!
On November 24, 1832, a South Carolina convention passed an Ordinance of Nullification, which
forbade the collection of tariff duties in the state.
Vice President Calhoun and his home state of South Carolina hoped that, as a “Son
of the South,” Jackson would side with them.
Instead, on December 10th, Jackson issued a declaration upholding the constitutionality
of the tariff.
The declaration also denied the power of any state to block the enforcement of a federal
law and threatened the use of military intervention to enforce the collection of duties.
To further drive the point home, Jackson got Congress to pass the Force Act, a bill authorizing
the use of US troops to enforce the law, an act which could have very well led to civil
war if South Carolina or any other state attempted to resist.
The same year that the Force Act became law, another law also came into effect.
Henry Clay of Kentucky introduced a bill to gradually lower the tariff over the course
of several years.
Although South Carolina stubbornly nullified the Force Act, they accepted Clay’s compromise.
Despite the agreement, neither side changed their stance on states’ rights.
As Chief Executive, President Jackson took his role as the top enforcer of federal law
seriously, even preparing to use troops to enforce the law if necessary.
As a champion of states’ rights, Calhoun determined that his position as vice president
was an ineffective platform to bring about change.
Citing political differences with President Jackson, and a desire to fill a vacant Senate
seat in South Carolina, Calhoun became the first vice president to resign.
He did so in December of 1832.