ABSTRACT
The year 1832 was marked by many events which occupy important and conspicuous places in our political history. General Jackson and Mr. Clay were opposing candidates for the Presidency. General Jackson had nothing to do with the convention, nor had it anything to do with him. As he was already a candidate, without its agency, its whole duty consisted in the selection of a candidate for the Vice-Presidency. This opposition led to a course of procedure in South Carolina, far exceeding in violence that in any other State, having been carried, indeed, almost to the extremity of open resistance to the authority of the National Government. Acting upon this theory, and with these objects in view, a State convention was assembled in South Carolina which passed an ordinance declaring that the tariff laws of 1828 and 1832 were unconstitutional, and, therefore, null and void; and put the State in the attitude of open resistance to them.
