South Carolina Nullification Crisis Previews Slave Power Secession Tactics

A South Carolina state convention adopts the Ordinance of Nullification, declaring the federal Tariffs of 1828 and 1832 “null, void, and no law, nor binding upon this State, its officers or citizens,” and threatening secession if the federal government attempts to collect tariff duties by force. The ordinance, rooted in Vice President John C. Calhoun’s 1828 theory that states can declare federal laws unconstitutional and unenforceable within their borders, forbids appeal to federal courts and requires state officeholders to take an oath supporting nullification. While ostensibly about tariff policy—southern agrarian states opposed protective tariffs that increased costs for imported manufactured goods—the crisis serves as a dry run for the secessionist arguments that slaveholding states will deploy three decades later to defend slavery, establishing the constitutional theories and confrontational tactics that ultimately lead to Civil War.

Calhoun’s nullification theory, published anonymously in 1828’s “Exposition and Protest,” advances the radical position that the federal government exists only at the will of states, which retain sovereign authority to invalidate national laws detrimental to their interests. This doctrine directly challenges constitutional governance by claiming states can unilaterally override federal law, federal courts, and congressional majorities—creating a theoretical framework that effectively grants veto power to any state opposing national policy. The crisis divides the Jackson White House internally, with Vice President Calhoun serving as spokesman for nullification while President Jackson firmly rejects the doctrine. Jackson’s December 10, 1832 Proclamation to the People of South Carolina declares that “Disunion by armed force is treason” and asserts his constitutional duty to execute federal law, while Congress passes the Force Act authorizing military action against South Carolina if necessary.

Henry Clay brokers a compromise in 1833, gradually lowering tariffs over the next decade, which South Carolina accepts on March 15, 1833. However, South Carolina symbolically nullifies the Force Act three days later as a “gesture of principle,” demonstrating that the underlying constitutional conflict remains unresolved. The Nullification Crisis represents the first instance where friction between state and federal authority creates sufficient tension to nearly trigger civil war, establishing a precedent where southern states claim sovereignty grants them the right to defy federal authority—a claim that resurfaces when 11 southern states secede in 1860-1861. The crisis exemplifies kakistocracy through the elevation of sectional economic interests (protecting slavery-based agricultural systems) over constitutional governance, using legal theory as cover for preserving elite power while threatening violence to enforce regional prerogatives against national consensus.