Nullification Quotes
The words are those of President Andrew Jackson. See {604550}. After occupying New Orleans, General Butler infuriated the Confederate Sympathizers with this act. Jackson was the hero of the Battle of New Orleans and an unapologetic slave owner. The Southerners had erected a magnificent statue of their hero Jackson on horseback in a major section of the city. Butler, then ordered that the Jackson quotation be chiseled in the stone base. The townspeople were furious that this Union General would make up words and attribute them to Jackson; however, when they finally realized that Jackson had actually said those words they felt even more humiliated. There are still a few Southernors who consider this terrible insult to the Confederacy, and of course that is just what Butler intended.
At the time his Vice President, John C. Calhoun, was expounding a theory of “nullification” by which the states could supersede and nullify federal law in their states. When Jackson finished his toast, it was Calhoun’s turn (See {635896}.) His toast supported the States’ Rights position over the federal government. In those days Presidents and Vice President’s were often political enemies or of opposite parties. The President’s advisors thought that his toast might be misinterpreted. So when they gave the toast to the press as “The Federal Union: It must be preserved.” That was the form in which the press reported the President’s toast and for many years that was the version most quoted even though it was never delivered that way. However Jackson was responsible for both versions.
South Carolina passed a state law which overrode and nullified Federal Laws that they did not like. It was a type of secession. President Jackson, in his own blunt style, let them know that they had better not try to implement their nullification law. Of all the Presidents in American History, Jackson had the least respect for Constitutionality and due process. He had a history of summary execution where he was the judge, jury and almost the personal executioner. He is the only president in American history who refused to obey and order of the Supreme Court. There were few who doubted that he would make good on his threat. The South Carolina convention reconvened and repealed its Nullification Ordinance on March 11, 1833.
The article he wrote was the first serious plan and proposal to repeal Prohibition which was opposed by most people after the country had experienced the negative unintended consequents of making alcohol illegal. This was not unlike the second thoughts that many Americans began to develop regarding the War on Drugs at the end of the 20th century. Many felt the good that prohibition did (it improved the nation’s healt) was not worth the bad that came with it (crime, corruption, police brutality, disrespect for the law.)
What makes this quotation so historically interesting is that the abiding by the Supreme Court’s decisions on constitutionality was even an issue. It was because of the terrible Dred Scott decision which required Northern States to return fugitive slaves to their owners despite the constitutions of those states which stated that all men were free. A substantial part of the Democratic Party was the “solid South” and the return of fugitive slaves was one of the major issues of the 1860 Presidential Election. Ironically, the Southern States were arguing AGAINST states’ rights when the Northern States’ laws and Constitutions made fugitive slaves free the minute they set foot in the state.
Warning to John Calhoun and other South Carolinians about the implications of their nullification of the Tariff Act of 1832:
Jackson was reacting to the claimed right of South Carolina to nullify Federal tariffs and other Federal laws.
She was always an American optimist. Most of the Southern States did everything possible to try and defy the Supreme Court’s decisions on school segregation and other matters regarding their “traditional rights” to discriminate racially. Entire public school systems closed rather than desegregate. The Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act in 1964 made it much more difficult, But change took place inexorably over the next years as the older generation gave way to the new—one that was more educated and better informed as a result of television. Mississippi had more Black elected public officials than white. By the 21st century, there were relatively few areas where the Southern States still tried to evade the Supreme Court.
It is often said that “elections have consequences”. The 1960 election was one that certainly had profound consequences. Lincoln was unwilling to force the Northern states to return fugitive slaves against the constitution, laws and will of the people of those states as Buchanan said he was (but had a hard time doing). Also Lincoln was unwilling to allow new territories to enter the union if they allowed slavery. In the end, most pro Slavery politicians realized that with the greater growth rate of the North, they Southern disproportionate power in the Congress was doomed as would be the institution of slavery itself. Crittendon a strong Unionist from a border state, understood the implication of Lincoln’s election for the Union.
In response to South Carolina's nullification of the Tariff Act of 1832, President Jackson proclaimed:
