fieldston american reader volume i – fall 2007 - Ethical Culture ...

South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification(November 24,1832)South Carolina and other southern states were upset when Congresspassed the Tariff of 1828, which Southerners dubbed the “Tariff ofAbominations.” Southerners saw the tariff as protecting Northernindustry at the expense of the South, and as unconstitutionallyexpanding the powers of the federal government.her ports, destroy or harass her commerce, or to enforce theacts hereby declared null and void, otherwise than through thecivil tribunals of the country, as inconsistent with the longercontinuance of South Carolina in the Union: and that thepeople of this state will thenceforth hold themselves absolvedfrom all further obligation to maintain or preserve theirpolitical connection with the people of the other States, andwill forthwith proceed to organize a separate Government, anddo all other acts and things which sovereign and independentStates may of right do....Many Southerners was not satisfied when Congress lowered tariffsslightly in 1832. In response, South Carolina’s state legislaturepassed laws nullifying the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 and forbiddingthe collection of the tariffs in South Carolina. South Carolina alsothreatened to secede - to withdraw from the United States - if itsstance on the tariff was not respected. As you read, consider SouthCarolina’s position on the tariff and its response. How might SouthCarolina have defended its position on the tariff and on a state’spower to nullify the laws of the federal government?Whereas the Congress of the United States, by various acts,purporting to be acts laying duties and imposts on foreignimports, but in reality intended for the protection of domesticmanufactures, and the giving of bounties to classes andindividuals engaged in particular employments, at the expenseand to the injury and oppression of other classes and individuals...hath exceeded its just powers under the Constitution....We, therefore the people of the state of South Carolina inConvention assembled, do declare and ordain .... That thetariff acts of 1828 and 18321 purporting to be laws for theimposing of duties and imposts on the importation of foreigncommodities.... are unauthorized by the Constitution of theUnited States, and violate the true meaning and intent thereof,and are null, void, and no law, nor binding upon this State, itsofficers or citizens....And it is further Ordained, That it shall not be lawful for anyof the constituted authorities, whether of this State or of theUnited States, to enforce payment of the duties imposed bysaid acts.... [and] it shall be the duty of the [South Carolina]Legislature to adopt such measures and pass such acts as maybe necessary to give full effect to this Ordinance....And we, the people of South Carolina, to the end that it maybe fully understood by the Government of the United States,and the people of the co-States, that we are determinedto maintain this, our Ordinance and Declaration, at everyhazard, Do further Declare that we will not submit to theapplication of force, on the part of the Federal Government,to reduce this State to obedience; but that we will consider thepassage by Congress, of any act... to coerce the State, shut up239