Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1993. [Vol. 1.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 21)

STUDIES - András Tamóc: The Politics of a Cast-Iron Man. John C. Calhoun and His Views on Government.

to abolish the Tariff and preserve the fragile intersectional balance. He continued to serve as Andrew Jackson's Vice-President, but the passage of the 1828 Tariff made him reveal his true colors. He registered his grievances in a seminal essay, titled "The South Carolina Exposition and Protest". Written anonymously, the Exposition reinforced the idea of states' rights and its progeny, the nullification principle. States' rightists argued that the United States Constitution was based on a political contract between the states and the federal government. This was contrary to the accepted view that derived the power of the national administration from the people. The state compact theory of government was first expressed by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison's "Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions". Responding to the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, the authors condemned the Adams administration's suppression of civil liberties and emphasized a state's power to decide the constitutionality of the legislative branch's actions.

9 Calhoun, seeking a way to preserve the Union and protect Southern interests, went beyond the Resolutions. He proposed a state convention for the purpose of adjudicating federal statutes. If an act of Congress was declared unconstitutional, a state had the power to pronounce it "null and void" and prevent its enforcement. The national administration could respond either by acceptance or by calling a constitutional convention. Should a three-fourths majority overrule a nullification proclamation, a state could have two options: acquiescence or secession.

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0 Calhoun viewed secession as the last possibility and felt his concept would in fact keep the Union intact. The nullification theory distinguished between two powers: constitution and law making authorities, leaving little doubt about the indentity of each. The author considered the South's code writing ability the only guarantee against Northern tyranny and its dire consequence, the break up of the United States.

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1 9 George Brown Tindall and David E. Shi, America (New York: W. W. Norton, 1984), p. 200. 1

0 Alfred H. Kelly et al., The American Constitution (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), p. 215. 1

1 Ibid., p. 215. 93