N the preceding volumes of our annals we have had occasion to record the dissensions excited in the United States by the heavy duties which Congress had imposed on the importation of foreign commodities. The states of the south treated the tariff as a partial and unjust sacrifice of their welfare to the interests, or the supposed interests, of the manufacturing states of the north. Year after year, from 1828, when it was first enacted, they had attempted to procufe its repeal. In every session it had led to angry discussions, in which sentiments were openly promulgated that threatened a dissolution of the union; but on every occasion, the numerical majority of the northern states secured the victory. In the session of the present year, an act was passed which lowered the duties upon some articles; but it was far from meeting the wishes of Georgia and the Carolinas. On the con

trary, the southern states, regarding it as a miserably scanty concession, and yet as the only amount of concession which the northern states were prepared to grant them, resolved to throw off the sovereignty of a confederation whose constitution enabled states, only their equals, to sacrifice their interests as if they had been inferiors. They asked, where was their independence, if they were to be governed, not for their own benefit, nor even for the general welfare of the union, but for the particular good of a certain number of its members. Were they bound to submit to the tariff, any more than the colonies had submitted to the far less injurious tea and stamp acts of the mother country? They had members, indeed, in congress; but how could they protect themselves by their representatives against the votes of a score of states, legislating for their own profit, and the injury of their neighbours, much more

than the British parliament had ever done in regard to the unrepresented colonies? The tariff bills were partial, unjust, and ruinous to the southern states; and being so, their character could not be improved by the fact that they emanated from a body in which the injured were allowed to complain, but not to complain with effect. The union consisted of independent states; if some of those states could not continue to be members of it, without submiting to the annihilation of all their most vital interests, this was a concession which could not be demanded, and it was time that so unequal an union should come to an end.

After the adjournment of Congress towards the end of July, these sentiments began to be sounded more and more loudly through the southern states, and the inhabitants began to refuse to pay the obnoxious impost duties. This was a virtual denial of the authority of congress, and it soon assumed a more regular and imposing form. South Carolina took the lead. In the beginning of November, a convention of delegates from all parts of the state assembled at Columbia, and, assuming legislative power, enacted an ordinance which brought them at once into collision with the federal government. By this ordinance the tariff acts of 1828 and 1832 were declared null and void, and not binding on the citizens of the state; and that, if the United States should attempt to enforce these enactments by naval or military force, or shutting the ports, the union was to be dissolved, and a convention called to form a government for South Carolina. As there was a considerable party by no means inclined to go to

such extreme lengths, it was farther enacted by the convention of " Nullifiers". '-a name bestowed on them in consequence of their thus annulling the acts of congress,-that all officers of the state, civil and military, should take an oath on or before the 1st of February, (if in the state), to support the ordinance and the laws which might be passed in pursuance of it; otherwise their commissions were to be vacated as in case of death or resignation. The House of Representatives of Georgia did not go so far; but it voted a resolution "that if a southern convention be desirable, it is expedient for the state of Georgia to invite the states of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Tenessee,and Mississippi to concur with her in electing delegates to a southern convention, which shall take into consideration the tariff system of the general government, and devise and recommend the most effectual and proper mode of obtaining relief from the evils of that system." They resolved, however, at the same time, that they abhorred the doctrine of nullification, and they deplored the proceedings of the convention of South Carolina as being "rash and revolutionary."

But the legislature of South Carolina, which assembled in the end of November, took even more decided steps in support of the ordinance than the convention which had passed it. The governor, in his speech, plainly recommended to both houses immediately to provide means for repelling force by force. An act was immediately passed, proceeding on the narrative of the ordinance, and giving it the full effect of law, as nullifying the original tariff act of 1828, and the modifying act of the present ses◄

sion, from and after the 1st of February, 1833. It was farther provided, that if, after that period, any goods or merchandize should be seized for non-payment of the impost duties, the owners or consignees should be entitled to recover them by legal proceedings, as in the case of other unlawful seizures of personal property; that if the goods were removed, or refused to be delivered, the estate of the person so refusing or removing should be seized and sold to indemnify the owner; that imprisonment under any decree of a federal court for payment of the duties should be treated as false imprisonment; and that all judgments and process of federal courts, directed against any man's estate, for the recovery of such duties should be held, by the courts of the state, as utterly illegal. This act was immediately followed by another for organizing a military force to resist any attempt of the federal government to compel obedience. By this act, if the government of the United States should attempt, by the employment of naval or military force, to coerce South Carolina into submission to the nullified acts of congress, the governor was authorised to resist; and in order to render resistance effectual, he was empowered to order into service the whole military force of the state, or so much of it as he might deem necessary. In case of any positive act of coercion, or an intention on the part of the government of the United States to commit such an act, manifested by an unusual assemblage of naval or military forces in or near the state, or the adoption of any measures indicating a determination to employ such force, the governor was to issue his proclamation calling on

volunteers. He was likewise directed to cause the militia who should not have volunteered their services to be divided into four classes, and, should the public exigency require it, to call them into service by classes. The governor was authorised to purchase for the use of the state, ten thousand stand of small arms, with the requisite quantity of ammunition, and such ordnance as he might deem advisable.

While civil war, and a dissolution of the Union seemed thus to be approaching, General Jackson, his four years having expired, had been re-elected President. He lost no time in assembling Congress. In his message, the attitude assumed by South Carolina, and the financial legislation which had occasioned it, necessarily formed leading topics. He stated that reflection had only strengthened the opinions, which he had expressed on former occasions, of the impolicy of high protecting duties. It was due to the interests of the different States, and even to the preservation of the Union itself, that the protection, afforded by existing laws to any branches of the national industry, should not exceed what might be necessary to counteract the regulations of foreign nations, and to secure a supply of articles of manufacture, essential to the national independence and safety in time of war. Upon investigation, he believed it would be found, that the legislative protection granted to particular interests was greater than was indispensably requisite for those objects. He recommended, therefore, that it should be gradually diminished, and that, as far as might be consistent with those objects, the

whole scheme of duties should be reduced to the revenue standard, as soon as a just regard to the faith of the government, and to the preservation of the large capital invested in establishments of domestic industry would permit. That manufactures, adequate to the supply of domestic consumption, would, in the abstract, be beneficial to the country, there was no reason to doubt. But even for this purpose, the Tariff of high duties, as a measure of perpetual protection, had entered into the minds of but few statesmen. The most they anticipated was a temporary and generally incidental protection. Experience, however, made it doubtful whether the advantages of this system were not counterbalanced by many evils, and whether it did not tend to beget in the minds of a large portion of citizens a spirit of discontent and jealousy dangerous to the stability of the Union. some sections of the republic the influence of the system had been deprecated as tending to concentrate wealth into a few hands, and as creating those germs of dependence and vice which in other countries characterized the existence of monopolies, and proved so destructive of liberty and the general good. A large portion of the people in one section of the republic declared it not only inexpedient on these grounds, but as disturbing the equal relations of property by legislation, and therefore unconstitutional and unjust. "It is my painful duty to state, that in one quarter of the United States, opposition to the revenue laws has arisen to a height which threatens to thwart their execution, if not to endanger the integrity of the Union. Whatever

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obstructions may be thrown in the way of the judicial authorities of the general government, it is hoped they will be able peaceably to overcome them by the prudence of their own officers and the patriotism of the people. But should this reasonable reliance on the moderation and good sense of all portions of our fellow citizens be disappointed, it is believed that the laws themselves are fully adequate to the suppression of such attempts as may be immediately made. Should the exigency arise, rendering the execution of the existing laws impracticable from any cause whatever, prompt notice of it will be given to Congress, with the suggestion of such views and measures as may be deemed necessary to meet it." The message was followed, on the 10th of December, by a proclamation, in which the President both argued the question with Carolinian Nullifiers, and announced that he would not hesitate to bring them back to their duty by force. "A small majority of the citizens of one State in the Union have elected delegates to a State Convention: that Convention has ordained that all the revenue laws of the United States must be repealed, or that they are no longer a member of the Union. The Governor of that State has recommended to the Legislature, the raising of an army to carry the secession into effect, and that he may be empowered to give clearances to vessels in the name of the State. No act of violent opposition to the laws has yet been committed, but such a state of things is hourly apprehended, and it is the intent of this instrument to proclaim not only that the duty imposed on me by the Constitution to take care

that the laws be faithfully executed,' shall be performed to the extent of the powers already vested in me by law, or of such others as the wisdom of Congress shall devise and intrust to me for that purpose; but to warn the citizens of South Carolina, who have been deluded into an opposition to the laws, of the danger they will incur by obedience to the illegal and disorganizing Ordinance of the Convention. The laws of the United States must be executed -I have no discretionary power on the subject-my duty is emphatically pronounced in the constitution. Those who told you that you might peaceably prevent their execution, deceived youthey could not have been deceived themselves. They know that a forcible opposition could alone prevent the execution of the laws, and they know that such opposition must be repelled. Their object is disunion; but be not deceived by names; disunion, by armed force, is treason."

In his message the President announced that the public debt of the United States would be all paid off in the course of 1833. During the four years of his presidency 58,000,000 of dollars had been applied to its extinction. On the 1st of January 1833, the debt, both funded and unfunded, would amount to only seven millions of dollars, of which 2,227,263 were not redeemable till January 1834, and 4,735,296 not redeemable till January 1835. But as the commissioners of the sinking fund had authority to purchase the debt at the market price, and the funds of the treasury were ample, it was hoped that the whole would be discharged in 1833.

The President, however, seemed

to have adopted a mortal antipathy to the United States Bank. There were still about three years and a half of its charter to run and a bill was introduced to renew it. The bill encountered considerable opposition, ostensibly on the ground that the Bank was a source of influence inconsistent with the constitution, but truly because it was an inconvenient competitor to the private bankers, because it had branches in almost every state of the Union. The bill passed both houses of Congress, but was rejected by the President. This exercise of his veto was imputed to electioneering objects. The Directors of the Bank had opposed him in his administration; he dreaded their influence in the ensuing election, and wished to gain the support of the local bankers, who were hostile to the general establishment. In his mes sage to Congress, after his reelection, he even attacked the solvency of this great National Institution, in which the federal government held stock to the amount of seven millions of dollars. After complaining of some arrangement which the bank had made with the holders of the three per cents, he added, "Such measures as are within the reach of the secretary of the treasury, to enable him to judge whether the public deposits in that institution may be regarded as entirely safe, had been taken by him; but as his limited powers may prove inadequate to this object, I recommend the subject to the attention of Congress. An inquiry into the transactions of the institution, embracing the branches as well as the principal banks, seems called for by the credit which is given throughout the country to many