Question #a3c42

2 Answers
May 4, 2017

South Carolina refused to pay tariffs

Explanation:

Before the Civil War, tariffs and free trade were a major source of enmity between the North and the South. The nullification crisis is one of the best examples to illustrate that phenomenon.

What was the Nullification Crisis?

May 4, 2017

The key issue in the Nullification Crisis was State's Rights versus Federal Laws.

Explanation:

John C. Calhoun of South Carolina declared that the States did not have to obey laws that the states found repugnate and unfair. Calhoun also maintained that if the Federal government treated individual states unfairly the States had the right to withdrawal from the Union. This doctrine of Succession would be put to the test with the Civil War.

The issue that spark the demand for the nullification and possible succession were the tariff laws of 1828. These tariffs were called by the South the intolerable tariffs. These tariffs made the importation of factory goods extremely expensive forcing the south to buy the goods that its agriculturally based economy did not produce from the Northern factories at much higher prices. The tariffs also taxed the export of cotton, the South's main source of income. This forced the southern plantations to sell their cotton to the factories in the north for much lower prices.

These tariff laws were blatantly unfair. The laws were written for the exclusive benefit of the Northern states to the detriment of the Southern states. This unfair treatment led to the call by Calhoun for the states rights to declare a Federal law null and void, and for the possibility of succession from the Union.

Daniel Webster used similar logic to call for the nullification of the fugitive slave laws, and the possible withdrawal from the Union if the laws were enforced. Webster's support of the compromise of 1850 led to the end of the his political career. The compromise of 1850 which was intended to prevent the Civil War actually contributed to the Civil War. On one hand the 1850 compromise promoted states rights to choice or not choice to be slave, while violating states rights by imposing the fugitive slave laws recognizing slavery on states that were opposed to slavery.

The issue of States rights and Federal law led to the Civil War, on the specific issue of slavery. The tug of war between individual and States rights versus Federal law remains an issue today.