13.3
THE TARIFF OF ABOMINATIONS
*Congress passes a tariff in 1828 causing the price of foreign good to increase.
This made it easier for Northern manufacturers and Western farmers to sell their goods.
PROFIT
Southern Planters hated the tariff because they used many imported goods.
TOO EXSPENSIVE
*Southerners referred to this as the Tariff of Abominations. They looked to Vice
President John. C. Calhoun to do something about it.
The Argument for States Rights
*In 1828 Calhoun said that the Union is an agreement of sovereign states. A sovereign
state has the right to nullify any federal law that is seen as unconstitutional.
*The question is “does a state have the right to limit federal power (states’ rights),
or is federal law final?”
The Argument in Favor of the Union
*January 1830, Webster of Mass. challenges Haynes of South Carolina and attacks states’
rights as a threat to the Union. Haynes defends his position in support of nullification.
JACKSON vs CALHOUN
*No one knew where Jackson stood on states’ rights
*Jackson declares to Calhoun: “Our Federal Union, it must be preserved”
*Calhoun’s reply: “The Union, next to our liberty, the most dear”
*Calhoun resigns as Vice President. Seeks and wins election as South Carolina Senator.
NULLIFICATION CRISIS
*Southern states want the Tariff repealed. Congress passes one that is slightly less costly.
South Carolina passes the Nullification Act and threatens to secede, but no other state
follows.
*Jackson vows to use force to uphold the law.
Clay proposes a compromise that passes in 1833 that lowers the Tariff.
South Carolina agrees to the proposal, repeals the Nullification Act,
but secession remains in the minds of Southerners.
TRAGIC POLICY FOR NATIVE AMERICANS
*Jackson stood firm against Southerners on the Tariff, but with them in regards to
resettlement of Native Americans
*Jackson believed that Native Americans should give up their land to white settles and
move to Indian Territory (Oklahoma)
*By the 1820s only 120,000 Native Americans lived east of the Mississippi River.
Cotton Planters wanted their eastern land.
Resistance
*In 1828 Georgia claimed they had the right to make laws for the Cherokee.
The Cherokee asked the Supreme Court to uphold a federal treaty that protected Native
Americans as sovereign, self-ruling nations.
*Most Cherokee had adopted customs of the white settlers.
Cherokee leader, Sequoya developed a written alphabet.
Cherokee people write a constitution (representative gov’t)
*Chief Justice Marshall sides with the Cherokee stating that Georgia’s actions are
unconstitutional. Jackson sides with Georgia and ignores the court’s decision.
The Trail of Tears
*Congress passes the Indian Removal Act of 1830
*Native Americans refuse to sign treaties recognizing the Act.
Jackson sends troops to have Native Americans sing them at gunpoint.
*The Cherokee hold out until 1838. That fall the Cherokee leader John Ross
Leads his people on a forced march to Indian Territory
*By the time they arrive, one-eighth of the Cherokee had died on the “Trail of Tears”