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The 1828 document was a protest against the Tariff Of 1828 also known as the Tariff Of Abominations . It stated that if the tariff was not repealed, South Carolina would secede. It stated also Calhoun's Doctrine of nullification, i.e., the idea that a state has the right to reject federal law, first introduced by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in their Kentucky And Virginia Resolutions . On December 19 , 1828 , it was presented to the South Carolina State House of Representatives. It was not formally adopted by the legislature, nor did it affect the tariff, but a pamphlet of it was published and circulated. Since Calhoun was a Vice President and a Vice-Presidential candidate, he chose to conceal his authorship. However, South Carolina did adopt the nullification doctrine, nullifying the tariffs and voting to build its own army. 1. The Constitution is a compact in which the states willingly entered. 2. The states are completely sovereign. 3. The Federal Government was merely an agent of the states. 4. If Congress exceeded its authority and encroached upon the powers of the states, then the states had the right to resist. 5. The Constitutionality of Congressional acts and encroachment were to be decided by the state or state conventions. 6. Laws so declared unconstitutional are null and void. 7. Furthermore, such nullifications were not final. The final decision rested on the judgment of 3/4ths of the states. Calhoun insisted, therefore, on three claims: a) A law declared null and void by a state convention was merely suspended until other states could pass on it. b) If 3/4ths of all the States declared, through their conventions, that the law was Constitutional, it would be in effect everywhere in the Union but not in the state that objected to it. That state would have the right to withdraw secede from the Union. c) If, on the other hand, the conventions of more that 1/4th of the states objected to the act, then the law would remain null and void. |
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