Essay On The Nullification Crisis

The growing support for nullification was quite obvious during the days of the Jackson Administration, as events such as the Webster-Hayne Debate, Tariff of 1832, Order of Nullification, and Worcester v. Georgia all made the tension grow between the North and the South. To understand this conflict and tension one must first know what made the North and South so different. The North was an industrial powerhouse, full of bustling cities, and all kinds of cultures and peoples, on the other hand was the South. The South was seen as unadvanced and prehistoric to the Northerners, as the South relied heavily on the growth of cotton to fuel their economy, giving them their name , “King Cotton”. The main difference between the two were their economies.

One of these policies was the nullification crisis in South Carolina. The nullification crisis started when Andrew Jackson was elected president and southerners thought he was going to lift the tariff of 1828, which raised taxes on European goods and forced southerners to purchase merchandise from northern states at higher prices and caused European countries to have high tariffs. South Carolina acted due to their poor economic state and feat the tariff was a way into the removal of slavery. When Jackson did not lift the tariff, John C. Calhoun, Jackson's vice president write the “South Carolina Exposition and Protest,” which stated a nullified state may leave the union. Jackson responded to all of this by first replacing Calhoun after his first term, then stating South Carolina was committing treason and anyone associated with it would be hung, and the military would be sent in to enforce the tariff (Locke, Wright, 2019).

The Nullification Crisis was an event that happened between the years of 1828 and 1832. There were many reasons that this crisis occurred. Many of these reasons could have been avoided from happening. The event that really started it all was the Tariff of 1828. One of the tariffs done during the presidency of Andrew Jackson, it was tax on goods that were imported and sold.

Secondly, the Nullification Crisis and Force Act, this really created more hate between the North and the South. In the Nullification Crisis Jackson created and law and it was passed but the state of South Carolina did not want to follow it. Andrew Jackson threatened South Carolina that he would kill if they didn’t follow the law. It was and is still against the constitution for any state to not follow a federal law.

The nullification crisis occurred during 1832 through 1833, during the time of Andrew Jackson’s time as president. The conflict was mainly about the idea that a state could practice the act of ignoring federal law. There were also a multitude of different tariffs that had led to inevitable conflicts. The south had felt that this series of tariffs had specifically impacted their agricultural economy, as the tariffs were putting heavy taxes on all of the imported goods. Of which the government had done in order to boost manufactured goods of which primarily came from the north.

Many northerners were worried about states entering. The compromise in 1820 by Henry Clay allowed Missouri a slave state, while Maine would become a free state. Also a line

Eventually, an agreement between the states was made known as the Great Compromise. The Great Compromise combined the New

South Carolina was furious about the new acts that Henry Clay had put into order. South Carolina felt that the high tariffs were unconstitutional and were pushing their citizens into poverty. Later South Carolina published an Ordinance of Nullification saying that they did not have to abide by the law of the higher tariffs, and that their officials did not have to enforce their citizens to follow it either. South Carolina also threatened to leave the Union if anyone tried to stop them from following this new Ordinance of Nullification. Of course President Andrew Jackson saw this as a huge issue.

The Nullification Crisis of 1832-1833 could have caused a civil war. According to “Andrew Jackson Shifting Legacy” the Nullification Crisis was caused when “South Carolina declared the tariff law unconstitutional and therefore null and void” (Feller). The protective tariff was an “import tax that provided much of the government’s revenue and also aided American manufacturers by raising the prices of competing foreign (mainly British) goods” (Feller). This meant that the southern economy would suffer because they would have to pay more for manufactured goods as competition was decreased. South Carolina schemed to get other southern states to nullify the tariff.

Tariffs are taxes on imports that increase the prices of foreign goods in order to stimulate domestic industry. The Northerners saw the tariff as a benefit to the economy while the Southerners saw it as a burden on their people brought forth from the federal government. This placed Northern manufacturers and Southern plantation owners at odds end with each other setting the scene for the secession of states and the nullification of

The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was an attempt by Congress to ease some of the political rivalries between the North and the South (history.com 2009). The compromise stated the fact that all states up north would not have slavery and all states south would allow and continue the act of slavery (history.com 2009). It went both ways since it split the country up evenly between slave and free. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was handwritten by Henry Clay in 1820 (ancestralfindings.com 1995). On March 6th of 1820, President James Monroe signed the Missouri Compromise and made it the new law of the land (loc.gov 2017).

The “Era of Good Feelings,” from 1815-1825, was not an accurate label of the period after the War of 1812 because of various conflicts in economic nationalism , disagreements in politics, and the disunion of the citizens. In addition, several sectional issues emerged, mostly between the North and the South, regarding to the Tariff of 1816 and the conflict over slavery. Both nationalism and sectionalism had a great influence on whether the period from 1815-1825 was actually the “Era of Good Feelings.” Despite the fact that nationalism was emerging, it also caused many economic issues, thus, the “Era of Good Feelings” was not labeled accurately. After the War of 1812, many Americans had a feeling of patriotism in the 1820s when they were still celebrating the Fourth of July after many years, which shows how unified the citizens were.

Thesis Both Nationalism and Sectionalism developed concurrently during the Era of Good Feelings. The two main reasons why nationalism increased was because of Henry Clay’s American System and Monroe’s policy to increase nationalism. Clay’s AS created a better national infrastructure that tightened America together. Monroe’s policy was to promote national unity and America’s power, which strengthens nationalism.

All of the issues in the Articles of Confederation were resolved in the Constitution. For example, under the Articles of Confederation, Congress had zero power to tax, regulate trade between the states or enforce laws. This problem was fixed in the Constitution because it had the U. S ruled by a strong central government that could tax, regulate trade and enforce laws. The Articles of Confederation also had many weaknesses like having no national army or currency. This was fixed by the Constitution because now, there is a national army and a national currency (dollars).

Slavery was one of the biggest problems between 1820 and 1860. Sometimes two states had to be added to the Union at the same time, to make things fair. The North and the South fought almost constantly over the issue of slavery, sometimes things were able to be worked out about it, but as the years passed, the problems with slavery and territory started to become too big to ignore or