Simultaneously, and in direct contradiction to this favoring of States Rights legislation over federal jurisdiction, Jackson took the opposite position in regard to the U.S. v State of South Carolina on the matter of tariff laws. In 1830 a famous Congressional debate ensued between Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Robert Hayne of South Carolina, the gist of its several days oration being that Southern states contended they had the right to "nullify" - refuse to enforce - any federal law until it had been approved by three-quarters of the states. Jackson's enigmatic response then, at a banquet attended by the contending parties, had been to proclaim in a toast "Our Union: It must be preserved." Two years later Jackson made it clear what he meant when the State of South Carolina convened a special legislative session to "nullify" a new tariff law passed by Congress: federal officers were forbidden to collect any import duties in South Carolina effective February 1, 1833. In addition, the state legislature declared by ordinance, if the federal government tried to use force to enforce the tariff, South Carolina would secede from the Union.With the War the old America, with all its virtues and defects, was dead. With the War the new America, with its promise of realizing the vision inherited from the old America, was born. Kirchberger, Joe H. An Eyewitness History: The Civil War and Reconstruction. New York: Facts On File, 1991. But Machiavelli perceptively noted "this [defeated] government, being created by the prince, knows that it cannot exist without his friendship and protection" - and Southern leaders immediately understood the implications that the assassination of Lincoln foreboded. "For an enemy so relentless in the war for our subjugation, we could not be expected to mourn," wrote Jefferson Davis, whose government-in-flight had yet to surrender, "yet in view of the political consequences, it could not be regarded otherwise tha |
