Chapter LXXVIII

NULLIFICATION ORDINANCE IN SOUTH CAROLINA.

It has been seen that the whole question of the American system, and especially its prominent feature of a high protective tariff, was put in issue in the presidential canvass of 1832; and that the long session of Congress of that year was occupied by the friends of this system in bringing forward to the best advantage all its points, and staking its fate upon the issue of the election. That issue was against the system; and the Congress elections taking place contemporaneously with the presidential were of the same character. The fate of the American system was sealed. Its domination in federal legislation was to cease. This was acknowledged on all hands; and it was naturally expected that all the States, dissatisfied with that system, would be satisfied with the view of its speedy and regular extinction, under the legislation of the approaching session of Congress; and that expectation was only disappointed in a single State--that of South Carolina. She had held aloof from the presidential election--throwing away her vote upon citizens who were not candidates--and doing nothing to aid the election of General Jackson, with whose success her interests and wishes were apparently identified. Instead of quieting her apprehensions, and moderating her passion for violent remedies, the success of the election seemed to inflame them; and the 24th of November, just a fortnight after the election which decided the fate of the tariff, she issued her ordinance of nullification against it, taking into her own hands the sudden and violent redress which she prescribed for herself. That ordinance makes an era in the history of our Union, which requires to be studied in order to understand the events of the times, and the history of subsequent events. It was in these words:

"ORDINANCE.

"_An ordinance to nullify certain acts of the Congress of the
United States, purporting to be laws laying duties and imposts
on the importation of foreign commodities._

"Whereas the Congress of the United States, by various acts,
purporting to be acts laying duties and imposts on foreign
imports, but in reality intended for the protection of
domestic manufactures, and the giving of bounties to classes
and individuals engaged in particular employments, at the
expense and to the injury and oppression of other classes and
individuals, and by wholly exempting from taxation certain
foreign commodities, such as are not produced or manufactured
in the United States, to afford a pretext for imposing higher
and excessive duties on articles similar to those intended to be
protected, hath exceeded its just powers under the constitution,
which confers on it no authority to afford such protection, and
hath violated the true meaning and intent of the constitution,
which provides for equality in imposing the burdens of taxation
upon the several States and portions of the confederacy: And
whereas the said Congress, exceeding its just power to impose
taxes and collect revenue for the purpose of effecting and
accomplishing the specific objects and purposes which the
constitution of the United States authorizes it to effect and
accomplish, hath raised and collected unnecessary revenue for
objects unauthorized by the constitution.

"We, therefore, the people of the State of South Carolina, in
convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby
declared and ordained, that the several acts and parts of acts
of the Congress of the United States, purporting to be laws
for the imposing of duties and imposts on the importation of
foreign commodities, and now having actual operation and effect
within the United States, and, more especially, an act entitled
'An act in alteration of the several acts imposing duties on
imports,' approved on the nineteenth day of May, one thousand
eight hundred and twenty-eight, and also an act entitled 'An act
to alter and amend the several acts imposing duties on imports,'
approved on the fourteenth day of July, one thousand eight
hundred and thirty-two, are unauthorized by the constitution
of the United States, and violate the true meaning and intent
thereof, and are null, void, and no law, nor binding upon this
State, its officers or citizens; and all promises, contracts,
and obligations, made or entered into, or to be made or entered
into, with purpose to secure the duties imposed by the said
acts, and all judicial proceedings which shall be hereafter had
in affirmance thereof, are and shall be held utterly null and
void.

"And it is further ordained, that it shall not be lawful for any
of the constituted authorities, whether of this State or of the
United States, to enforce the payment of duties imposed by the
said acts within the limits of this State; but it shall be the
duty of the legislature to adopt such measures and pass such
acts as may be necessary to give full effect to this ordinance,
and to prevent the enforcement and arrest the operation of
the said acts and parts of acts of the Congress of the United
States within the limits of this State, from and after the 1st
day of February next, and the duty of all other constituted
authorities, and of all persons residing or being within the
limits of this State, and they are hereby required and enjoined
to obey and give effect to this ordinance, and such acts and
measures of the legislature as may be passed or adopted in
obedience thereto.

"And it is further ordained, that in no case of law or equity,
decided in the courts of this State, wherein shall be drawn
in question the authority of this ordinance, or the validity
of such act or acts of the legislature as may be passed for
the purpose of giving effect thereto, or the validity of the
aforesaid acts of Congress, imposing duties, shall any appeal be
taken or allowed to the Supreme Court of the United States, nor
shall any copy of the record be permitted or allowed for that
purpose; and if any such appeal shall be attempted to be taken,
the courts of this State shall proceed to execute and enforce
their judgments, according to the laws and usages of the State,
without reference to such attempted appeal, and the person or
persons attempting to take such appeal may be dealt with as for
a contempt of the court.

"And it is further ordained, that all persons now holding any
office of honor, profit, or trust, civil or military, under this
State (members of the legislature excepted), shall, within such
time, and in such manner as the legislature shall prescribe,
take an oath well and truly to obey, execute, and enforce this
ordinance, and such act or acts of the legislature as may be
passed in pursuance thereof, according to the true intent and
meaning of the same; and on the neglect or omission of any such
person or persons so to do, his or their office or offices shall
be forthwith vacated, and shall be filled up as if such person
or persons were dead or had resigned; and no person hereafter
elected to any office of honor, profit, or trust, civil or
military (members of the legislature excepted), shall, until
the legislature shall otherwise provide and direct, enter on
the execution of his office, or be in any respect competent to
discharge the duties thereof, until he shall, in like manner,
have taken a similar oath; and no juror shall be empannelled in
any of the courts of this State, in any cause in which shall be
in question this ordinance, or any act of the legislature passed
in pursuance thereof, unless he shall first, in addition to the
usual oath, have taken an oath that he will well and truly obey,
execute, and enforce this ordinance, and such act or acts of the
legislature as may be passed to carry the same into operation
and effect, according to the true intent and meaning thereof.

"And we, the people of South Carolina, to the end that it may
be fully understood by the government of the United States, and
the people of the co-States, that we are determined to maintain
this our ordinance and declaration, at every hazard, do further
declare that we will not submit to the application of force, on
the part of the federal government, to reduce this State to
obedience; but that we will consider the passage, by Congress,
of any act authorizing the employment of a military or naval
force against the State of South Carolina, her constitutional
authorities or citizens; or any act abolishing or closing the
ports of this State, or any of them, or otherwise obstructing
the free ingress and egress of vessels to and from the said
ports, or any other act on the part of the federal government,
to coerce the State, shut up her ports, destroy or harass her
commerce, or to enforce the acts hereby declared to be null and
void, otherwise than through the civil tribunals of the country,
as inconsistent with the longer continuance of South Carolina in
the Union; and that the people of this State wilt thenceforth
hold themselves absolved from all further obligation to maintain
or preserve their political connection with the people of the
other States, and will forthwith proceed to organize a separate
government, and do all other acts and things which sovereign and
independent States may of right do.

"Done in convention at Columbia, the twenty-fourth day of
November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and
thirty-two, and in the fifty-seventh year of the declaration of
the independence of the United States of America."

This ordinance placed the State in the attitude of open, forcible resistance to the laws of the United States, to take effect on the first day of February next ensuing--a period within which it was hardly possible for the existing Congress, even if so disposed, to ameliorate obnoxious laws; and a period a month earlier than the commencement of the legal existence of the new Congress, on which all reliance was placed. And, in the mean time, if any attempt should be made in any way to enforce the obnoxious laws except through her own tribunals sworn against them, the fact of such attempt was to terminate the continuance of South Carolina in the Union--to absolve her from all connection with the federal government--and to establish her as a separate government, not only unconnected with the United States, but unconnected with any one State. This ordinance, signed by more than a hundred citizens of the greatest respectability, was officially communicated to the President of the United States; and a case presented to him to test his patriotism, his courage, and his fidelity to his inauguration oath--an oath taken in the presence of God and man, of Heaven and earth, "_to take care that the laws of the Union were faithfully executed_." That President was Jackson; and the event soon proved, what in fact no one doubted, that he was not false to his duty, his country, and his oath. Without calling on Congress for extraordinary powers, he merely adverted in his annual message to the attitude of the State, and proceeded to meet the exigency by the exercise of the powers he already possessed.