If to the contempt of right, there should be added the jealousy of partiality, it must be obvious to all that there will be an increased account of unmerited aggravation. How long a People shall be permitted to complain, or how much they can be made to suffer, has always been a matter of dangerous experiment or doubtful calculation; and knowledge, acquired under either issue, has never been without its certain and severe regrets. In conclusion your Committee recommend the following resolution:

Resolved, That His Excellency the Governor be, and he is, hereby requested to cause the foregoing report to be laid before Congress at its next session. And that he forward a copy of the same to each of the other States, to be laid before their respective Legisatures, for the concurrence of such as may approve of the principles therein avowed; and, as due notice to those who may dissent from the same, that Georgia as one of the contracting parties to the Federal Constitntion, and possessing equal rights with the other contracting party, will insist upon the construction of that instrument, contained in said REPORT, and will SUBMIT to no other.

70. Extract from Report of North Carolina on the Tariff.

January, 1828.

Governor Burton, in his message of Nov. 21, 1827, referring to the exertion of South Carolina against the proposed increase in the tariff declares that "the dignity and interest of the State requires that North Carolina should not be silent." (Niles, XXXIII, 283.) The Legislature, acting upon this suggesgestion, adopted the subjoined report. The text is given in Exec. Doc., 20 Cong., I sess., III, No. 62; Senate Doc., I, No. 30; Amer. State Papers, Finance, V, 721, 722. See McMaster, V, 251, 252.

have seldom expressed

The People of North Carolina * a legislative opinion upon the measures of the General Government; being at all times, willing to give a full and fair opportunity to those charged with the management of public affairs, of being "judged by their measures." But a crisis has arisen in the political affairs of our country, which demands a prompt and decisive expression of public opinion. Under such circum

stances, silence would be injustice to ourselves, and a want of candor to the other States of the Union.

The Committee are of opinion, that interests, either pecuniary or political, is the great point of union, from the smallest association up to the Confederacy of the United States; and that, whenever a system of policy is pursued by the General Government which strikes at the very foundation of the Union, it is the right of every member of the Confederacy to call their attention to the fundamental principles upon which the Government was formed; and if, they persist in measures ruinous in themselves, the question may fairly be discussed whether the checks and balances of the Government have not been overthrown; whether they have been instrumental in producing so onerous an effect; and whether the benefits of the Union are not more than counterbalanced by the evils.

The Committee will not assert that Congress have no power, under the Constitution, to lay duties on imports, which are intended to operate as a protection to manufactures; they maintain, however, that the exercise of such a power, as contemplated by the Woollens Bill, is a direct violation of the spirit of that instrument, and repugnant to the objects for which it was formed. It is conceded, that Congress have the express power to lay imposts; but it is maintained, that that power was given for the purpose of revenue, and revenue alone; and that any other use of the power is usurpation on the part of Congress.

Manufactures, in the United States, are not an object of general interest but of local interest; and yet they have received from the Government, not only a moderate and just encouragement, under the operation of a tariff of duties on imports, for purposes of revenue, but a protection by an enormous duty upon importations; which palsies every effort of the agriculturist, withers the product of his industry, and greatly impairs foreign commerce.

The Committee are of opinion, that the woollens bill, which received in the Congress of the United States, at its last session, so full and fair an investigation, is a measure, above all others which has ever occupied the attention of that enlightened body, calculated to produce an enormous tax on the agriculture of the

They believe it to be

South, and to be destructive of revenue. a bill artfully designed for the advancement of the incorporated companies of New England, and admirably adapted to its end. They believe it fatal to the happiness, the morals, and the rights, of a large portion of our common country; for it has its foundation in avarice, and consumes every patriotic feeling.

If such is the character and the operation of this measure, who can tell how long this Union can exist under it, and how soon may be realized the soul-chilling prediction, that "It is a rope of sand?"

*

The following extract is the concluding passage of the Remonstrance, vigorously arraigning the Harrisburg Convention and the protectionists, adopted by the Legislature. The text is given in Acts of Alabama, 1827–28, 169–172; Senate Doc., 20 Cong., 1 sess., III, No. 66; House Exec. Doc., III, No. 113; Amer. State Papers, Finance, V, 848.

The allied powers of avarice, monopoly and ambition, through the Harrisburg Convention, and every subordinate channel of importunity at their command, call for a further subsidy on the labor of the South and Southwest, in the shape of a woolens bill, to pamper the gentlemen wool-growers and wool-carders of the Northeast; and this, too at a time when agriculture is languishing and prostate, yielding a bare support to those who pursue it, and the mercantile and shipping interests partaking of the languor, and manufactures alone in a flourishing and prosperous condition. The interest least in need, thus urging, by the aid of such powerful political machinery, a further tribute from the interest least able to bear it, is surely sufficient to prove to Congress how vain and fruitless is the attempt to satisfy the inordinate cravings of the monopolist: one exaction leads to another, and every concession generates a new and more exorbitant demand.

When combinations, thus formidable, endeavor to throw the overgrown weight of the General Government upon the Southern and Southwestern States, dry up their commerce by sapping its foundation, degrade them from the proved equality of the Com

pact, into the humiliating condition of dependent tributaries to the greedy monopolists of the North and East-the victims would deserve the oppression, were they not promptly to interpose the most determined and unyielding resistance.

Let it not be again said, that, because the Southwest and South send no agents to beset the members of Congress, and have foreborne to petition or remonstrate in every village, or to call a counter-convention, that they are so recreant to duty as to acquiesce in the proposed oppression. On the contrary, let it be distinctly understood, that Alabama, in common with the Southern and Southwestern States, regards the power assumed by the General Government to control her internal concerns, by protecting duties, beyond the fair demands of the revenue, as a palpable usurpation of a power not given by the Constitution; and the proposed woollens bill, as a species of oppression little less than legalized pillage on the property of her citizens, to which she can never submit, until the constitutional means of resistance shall be exhausted.

72. Counter Resolutions.

1828.

Several of the Northern States either made reply to certain of the foregoing protests or passed resolutions favoring an increase of the tariff. Of the former class were the resolutions of Ohio, adopted Feb. 12, 1828, dissenting from the resolutions of South Carolina of 1827 (Amer. State Papers, Finance, V, 879), and of New Jersey, of March 4, 1828, in reply to South Carolina and Georgia, asserting the constitutionality of a protective tariff. (Ibid., 964; Laws of New Jersey, 1827-28, 215.) Governor Lincoln, in transmitting the Georgia report to the Massachusetts Legislature, commented upon it as follows: "How far declarations thus threatening the very existence of the Confederacy are called for by any occasion, or in what better manner they can be met, than with a sad and reproving silence, I respectfully submit to your dispassionate consideration." "The concurrence of Massachusetts in the political doctrines avowed in the Report could not have been anticipated;-and the receipt of the documents may therefore the rather be regarded as notice to her of a determination not to submit to the construction of the Constitution, which probably will be maintained here, with a purpose as firm, if not in language, as ardent, as shall enforce the Resolves of the Sister State." (Resolves of Mass., 1824–28, 679; Niles, XXXIV, 6.) Other resolutions favoring an increase in the protective

tariff were passed in the winter of 1827-28 by the Legislatures of several States, typical of which are those of Pennsylvania (Pamphlet Laws, 1827-28, 496), Rhode Island, Indiana, Ohio and New York. (Amer. State Papers, Finance, V, 757, 873, 884; Laws of Indiana, 1827–28, 143; Laws of New York, 1828, 491.)

Remonstrance against the Tariff of 1828.

The passage of the "tariff of abominations" (Act of May 19, 1828, U. S. Stat. at L., IV, 270–275) greatly increased the popular agitation in the South. During the summer and fall of 1828 it called out strong expressions of opposition, and even threats of resistance from political leaders, popular meetings and the press. (Examples of the same are given in Niles, XXXIV, 288-290, 300, 301, 339, 340, 351-356; XXXV, 14, 15, 203–208; Amer. Annual Reg., 1829-1830, 62-65; see also McMaster, V, 255-262; Elliott, 245-249; Harris, 147-151.) The Governors of the Southern States, at the opening of the legislative session of 1828-29, condemned the new tariff act as unconstitutional and unjust, but counseled further remonstrance. (Niles, XXXV, 223, 260, 263, 273-279.) The Legislatures of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississipp! and Virginia voiced the popular feeling by adopting a notable series of protests and memorials. Several of these follow. Those of Alabama, of Jan. 29, 1829, are similar in tone to the others. They are given in the Acts of Alabama, 1828-29, 101, 102; Senate Doc., 20 Cong., 2 sess,, II, No. 103; Amer. Annual Reg., I, pt. II, 147.

73.

Resolutions of South Carolina.

December 20,

1828.

South Carolina again took the lead in the opposition. Following the advice of Governor Taylor (Niles, XXXV, 274, 275) the Legislature adopted, December 19, a report, the original of which had been drafted by John C. Calhoun, known as the "South Carolina Exposition," which was his first presentation of the doctrine of "nullification." (S. C. Stat. at Large, I, 247-273; Calhoun's Works, VI, 1-59.) The report concludes with a protest directed to Congress. This text is accessible, and is therefore not reprinted. (Acts of South Carolina, 1828, Appx., 17-19; Stat. at L., I, 244, 245; Senate Journal, 20 Cong., 2 sess., 115-117; Niles, XXXV, 308-309; Elliott's Debates, IV, 380-382; MacDonald's Documents, 231-234. For history of, cf. Houston, 70-85; McMaster, V, 262-267; Sumner, Jackson, 207-219; Von Holst, Calhoun, ch. V.) On the following day, December 20, the Legislature also passed the following resolutions expressive of their opinion, which, together with their Resolves of 1825 and 1827, were to be sent to the other States. (Acts of S. C., 1828, Appx., 9; Slat. at L., I, 246; reprinted in Senate Four.