Columbia, South Carolina: The Nullifiers

What is a Nullifier?  A proponent of States' Rights, one who believes that primary power should rest with each state government. Nullifiers assume the "right" of state government to void laws made at the local or federal level. Nullification is still being used as a tactic in the 21st century, even though its constitutionality is dubious at best (looking to the vague Tenth Amendment for support) and usually untenable in the long run. Peter Johnston, Jr. (1763-1831), as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, took a more moderate position during the debates regarding the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798.   

[Robert M. Hughes, General Johnston (Great Commanders). New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1897], page 17: 

In the fall of [1832] the nullification troubles in South Carolina were at their height, and Johnston [Joseph Eggleston Johnston, 1807-1891)] was with the small body of United States troops stationed at Charleston by President [Andrew] Jackson for the purpose of preserving order. Here the contingencies of civil war were forcibly impressed upon his mind, for three of his brothers [Edward William Johnston, Algernon Sidney Johnston and Benjamin Franklin Johnston] resided in Columbia and belonged to the South Carolina minutemen then drilling for the conflict with the United States which every one expected, and they would have been the first to come into collision with the national forces if matters had proceeded to extremities. Fortunately, events took a turn which prevented them from being confronted in fratricidal strife.

[Edwin J. Scott, Random Recollections of a Long Life, 1860-1876. Columbia: Charles A. Calvo, Jr., Printer, 1884].

Page 104: 

The office of Tax Collector, if properly filled, is the best of all stepping stones to public favor. It brought me in direct contact with every property holder in the District, and enabled me, by diligence and courtesy, to secure their good will, so that any place in their gift was at my command, as was proven, after my re-election for a second term, by their making me twice Clerk of the Court and a delegate to the Nullification Convention of 1832 and 1833.

Pages 28-29: 

At “a great jollification . . . in October 1832 . . .,”  many Nullifier toasts were made, including one by William Campbell Preston after a fireworks rocket was shot at the sky, to “The State of South Carolina; may she rise like that rocket, not to descend like it in silence and darkness, but to remain a fixed star in the firmament.”

From Coleman's the crowd marched with military music to greet some of the leading Nullifiers, calling first on Colonel James Gregg, who went with us to the College, where old Dr. Cooper made a short speech, and then to Colonel J. J. Chappell's, on the corner now occupied by the Presbyterian printing office. After hearing him, F. C. Barber exclaimed, "if the church isn't with us, the chapel is." Finally we adjourned to Charley Dukes's saloon, near where Palmer's tin shop now is; and at n o'clock I left Barber and Colonel Preston engaged in an encounter of wits, while old Tom Baker was singing a smutty song to Colonel Gregg, probably the only one of the kind the Colonel ever heard.

Page 138:

NULLIFICATION.

The Nullification Convention that met at Columbia in November, 1832, brought together as great an array of talent and patriotism as ever was assembled in the State. James Hamilton, Jr., then Governor, presided, and among its members were William Harper, Robert Y. Hayne, George McDuffie, Robert J. Turnbull, Job Johnston, F. H. Wardlaw, Armistead Burt, Stephen D. Miller, John Lide Wilson, Daniel E. Huger, John B. O'Neall, C. J. Colcock, John S. Richardson, R. W. Barnwell, R. Barnwell Rhett, Benjamin F. Perry, ex- Governor Richard I. Manning, and F. H. Elmore. Its proceedings were also approved by Mr. Calhoun, Colonel Preston and Governor Hammond, the two last named attending and taking part in the caucus discussions of the Nullifiers as to the measures that were adopted. These were an ordinance declaring the tariff law of July, 1832, unconstitutional, null and void, and directing and authorizing the Legislature to provide the means for prohibit[ing] . . .

Page 139: 

. . . its enforcement within the State after the 1st of March, 1833; at the same time announcing that South Carolina would secede from the Union if any attempt should be made to use force in carrying out the law, but signifying her willingness to submit to the decision of a convention of all the States. The General Government was then practically out of debt, and a few years later distributed among the several States a surplus of many millions, collected, not for revenue, but mainly and avowedly for protection. As one of the original framers of the Constitution which gave the General Government all its powers and defined their limitations, the State claimed the right to decide when that instrument was violated, and, in case of a deliberate, palpable and dangerous infraction thereof, to interpose, in her sovereign capacity, for the correction of the evil and the protection of her citizens from its consequences, or to peaceably with draw from a Union that failed to observe the conditions and subserve the purposes for which it had been created. President Jackson, on the other hand, issued an address and proclamation denying that the States ever were separate or sovereign; asserting the supremacy of the Federal Government, and threatening to enforce the law by military power, if necessary; whilst Congress enacted the Force Bill, empowering him to coerce the State into submission. This proclamation he afterwards authorized the Richmond Enquirer to explain, modify or qualify so as to show that he meant not what he had said but something different.

In response, Governor Hayne's proclamation (one of the most eloquent and powerful State papers ever issued) defied him to execute his threats and commanded all good citizens to sustain the State, to whom their allegiance was due, on pain of the penalties for treason. The condition of affairs was for some time extremely critical. But the firm stand taken by the State effected the passage of Mr. Clay's com[promise]

Page 140: 

Act, reducing the duties on all imports in a course of years to the uniform rate of 20 per cent., which was regarded as a fair revenue standard. Before the expiration of the prescribed time this compromise was violated, and the tariff question has ever since been the subject of debate and dissension. Although the stern and irrevocable arbitrament of war has since annihilated State rights and established the paramount authority of the National Government, yet the reports and addresses of the convention deserve the careful perusal and study of young politicians, for they contain a fund of useful and instructive information on the tariff and on the origin and character of the General Government not to be found elsewhere, and not inapplicable to the condition of our country as it is now and may be in the future. They are perfect models of a style both pure and forcible. After all was over, Governor Hamilton declared that South Carolina had come out of the contest "armed cap a pie and not a feather quivering in her plume." On looking over a list of the delegates, I recognize but two besides myself as surviving, Rev. Peter J. Shand and ex-Governor B. F. Perry.

I was informed, confidentially, some years after, that Governor Hayne had made arrangements, if a blow had been struck at the State, to kidnap General Jackson at Washington and bring him a prisoner to South Carolina, where he was to be held as a hostage, in the belief that Vice-President Van Buren had neither the nerve nor the influence to carry on a war, and that a compromise would be made or the State be allowed to secede peaceably.