Some favored
secession; others advocated nullification, and this was what was done.
They nullified the law and refused to stand by it. Clamor for State
rights was heard on every side. But they did not take this step till
they had waited two or three years for Congress to give relief by
reducing the tariff. In 1832 the crisis came; nullification was
pronounced by South Carolina, and she forbade the collection of tariff
duties in her own State. She also declared that if the United States
used force, she would withdraw from the Union and organize a separate
government. Andrew Jackson, who was President, determined to enforce the
tariff law in the State, and asked Congress for the power to use the
army to sustain the law. Volunteers had offered in South Carolina, and
the country stood aghast at the prospect of civil war. Here again Henry
Clay's eloquence saved the day. He proposed the measure of gradually
reducing the tariff through a period of ten years till it would provide
only for the expenses of the government.
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