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.

The Exposition became one of the most controversial political documents of its time. Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts impassionately declared that one state's ability to overturn a federal law could relegate the Union into a "rope of sand".

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2 Calhoun also fell out of favor in Washington as Andrew Jackson selected a new running mate for the upcoming election. Although Jackson shrewdly lowered tariff rates to cool nullificationist tempers, such Southern staples as cotton, wool and iron carried a fifty percent extra charge. In 1832 South Carolina called a convention to debate the constitutionality of the Tariffs of 1828 and 1832. The assembly issued the South Carolina Ordinance deeming both measures illegal and banning their collection effective February 1, 1833. Dashing Charleston's hopes of a regional alliance, no other state joined the nullification drive. Georgia rejected it as "rash and revolutionary" and Alabama branded Calhoun's ideas "unsound and dangerous". Despite Jackson's private threats against Calhoun's life, the administration's response was relatively moderate.

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3 A presidential decree called on South Carolinians to disobey the state's misguided leaders and warned that any opposition to federal tax collection amounted to treason. When the Commander in Chief sent government troops to Charleston Harbor, South Carolina began to organize her defense. Fifty-six years after its inception the nation stood on the brink of civil war. Having resigned from the Vice-Presidency Calhoun openly championed the nullificationist cause in the Senate. His motivation was threefold: after losing the President's confidence he had no other avenues for advancement, by taking the helm of the movement he hoped to prevent South Carolina's secession and he felt nullification was the only constitutional method of keeping the South in the Union and protecting it from Northern dominance. Calhoun, along with Henry Clay of Kentucky, introduced a compromise tariff calling for a gradual reduction of import duties to twenty 1

2 George Brown Tindall and David E. Shi, America (New York: W. W. Norton, 1984), p. 258. 1

3 Ibid., p. 261. 94