American Civics Research Library
From his book:
GOVERNMENT FOR THIRTY YEARS
Senator
Thomas H. Benton
From
his book "Thirty Years in the US
Senate: 1830 - 1850"
published
in 1893 by
D.
APPLETON AND COMPANY
1,
3, AND 5 BOND
STREET
NEW
YORK
CHAPTER
LXVIII
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 article 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 when 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 the 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 usage's 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 impaneled 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,
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 will 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 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 county, 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.