Hayden Daniels

So my article is really about the nullification crisis in 1832.

Basically, the story is in 1828 and 1832, Congress passes a couple of very, funnily enough, the whole crisis is about tariffs.

So they pass a couple of very high tariff laws.

Now, the North favors tariffs to protect American industry.

The South opposes tariffs because they import most of their manufactured goods, mostly from Britain.

But the South opposes it.

And especially these two tariffs, South Carolina vehemently opposes these tariffs.

And they get so mad about it that they start arguing what's called nullification theory, which says that a state, if it finds a federal law unconstitutional, it can say, we don't have to follow that law anymore.

We are totally exempt from following federal law if we, the state, believe that it's unconstitutional.

So it has a state convention that

and declares that these two tariff laws are null and void, therefore nullification.

The governor of South Carolina, Robert Hain, even starts to raise a state militia to forcefully resist the collection of tariff revenue from the government.

And Jackson doesn't hesitate when this happens.

gets to work, informs his Secretary of War, Louis Cass, to start mobilizing troops in case this escalates out of hand.

It almost does.

And he has Congress pass the Force Bill in early 1833, which authorizes him to use military force to put down this potential insurrection.

Now, Jackson's a very big states' rights guy.

He's not some big government guy.

But he correctly

argues, along with other opponents of nullification, that if any state's allowed to just decide a federal law doesn't apply to them, you're not going to have a country.