!

On a resolution, contemplating resistance to the United States' laws, the vote in the popular branch, or house, was 200 for it, and 39 against it. President Madison was much alarmed at these proceedings. A dissolution of the Union was feared, as the resolves of the Massachusetts and Connecticut legislatures indicated a secession, and the formation of another republic, with a people "the affinity of whose interest is closest, and whose habits of intercourse, from local and other causes," were in common. The Massachusetts legislature appropriated a million of dollars to support a state army of 10,000 men. These and other acts alarmed the whole nation.

The convention met at Hartford, Connecticut, on the 15th of December, 1814, and was composed of delegates from the legislatures of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. There were, also, delegates from counties in Vermont and New Hampshire. It continued in session twenty days, but did nothing more than adopt a report upon the state of the country. The convention did not openly propose secession, nor any ultra or incendiary acts: compared with the resolves of the legislatures it was mild and conservative. It recited various grievances resulting from the policy of the United States' government, all of which were considered, and declared to be unconstitutional. The convention was of the opinion,

that

"Though acts of Congress, in violation of the constitution, were merely void, yet it did not seem to consist with the respect and forbearance due from a confederated state toward the general government, to fly at once, upon every infraction, to open resistance. The mode and energy of opposition ought rather to conform to the

nature of the violation, the intention of its authors, the extent of the injury inflicted by it, the determination manifested to persist in it, and the danger of delay. Yet, in cases of deliberate, dangerous, and palpable infractions of the constitution, affecting the sovereignty of a state and the liberties of the people, it was not only the right, but the duty, also, of the state to interpose its authority for their protection. When emergencies occur, either beyond the reach of the judicial tribunals, or too pressing to admit of the delay incident to their forms, states which have no common umpire must be their own judges, and execute their own decisions."

These and other state-rights sentiments were popular at that time in the New England states. The legislatures. and the people continued to encourage resistance to the national government; but, fortunately for the country, the news of the treaty of peace, signed at Ghent in December, 1814-received in America in the following February―quieted the people, and restored friendly relations between the states and their people. Thus ended the "Hartford Convention" era. It was a near approach to secession-a powerful rebellion!

SOUTH CAROLINA NULLIFICATION IN 1832.

After the passage of the Tariff Bill, in 1832, by the Congress of the United States, the state of South Carolina resolved to secede from the confederacy. The legislature was called together; and it authorised the convening of a convention of the people of the state, by a vote in the senate, of 30 against 13; and, in the House of Representatives, by a vote of 96 to 26. The convention assembled on the second Monday in November, 1832, and passed an ordinance, declaring

"That the several acts and parts of acts of the Congress of the United States, purporting to be laws for the imposing of duties and

imposts on the importation of foreign commodities, and now being in actual operation and effect within the United States, * * * are unauthorised by the constitution of the United States, and violate the true meaning and intent thereof, and are null and void, and no law, nor binding on the citizens of the state of South Carolina."

The said ordinance declared it to be unlawful for any of the constituted authorities of the state, or of the United States, to enforce the payment of the duties imposed by the said acts within the state of South Carolina; and that it was the duty of the legislature to pass such laws as would be necessary to give full effect to the said ordinance. It further

"Ordained, that no case of law or equity shall be decided in the courts of said state, wherein shall be drawn in question the validity of the said ordinance, or of the acts of the legislature that may be passed to give it effect."

No appeal was to be permitted to the Supreme Court of the United States; and if any person should attempt to appeal to the said tribunal, he was to be punished. It further declared

"That the people of South Carolina will maintain the said ordinance at every hazard; and that they will consider the passage of any act by Congress, abolishing or closing the ports of the said state, or otherwise obstructing the free ingress or egress of vessels to and from the said ports, or any other act of the federal government to coerce the state, shut up her ports, destroy or harass her commerce, or to enforce the said acts otherwise than through the civil tribunals of the country, as inconsistent with the longer continuance of South Carolina in the Union; and that the people of the said state will thenceforth hold themselves absolved from all further obligation to maintain or preserve their political connection with the people of the other states, and will forthwith proceed to organise a separate government, and do all other acts and things which sovereign and independent states may of right do.”

This ordinance passed the convention by a vote of 136

against 26. The legislature again met on the 24th of November, and passed the necessary laws to carry out the plan for the new government. The people of South Carolina were energetic, and determined to maintain their doctrine of state rights; to secede from the Union whenever the administration of the general government was oppressive, and in violation of the constitution, as interpreted by the state-the only power that could decide upon the question. In December Congress met; and, on the 4th, the president transmitted his annual message to that body; in which he stated, that, "in one quarter of the United States, opposition to the revenue laws" had arisen; but that he hoped the difficulties would be peaceably overcome. The state of South Carolina proceeded to prepare for war, by the increase of its military forces, and the necessary munitions. At the same time, however, there were many people opposed to the nullification, and they were energetic for the Union. The proceedings of the state authorities were popular among politicians, but not with the yeomanry. There was a Union sentiment among the patriots of the state; but it was well that the president did not attempt coercion. On the 10th of December, the president issued a proclamation to the people of South Carolina, and argued against the constitutionality of secession or nullification. He contended that the Union was perpetual, and that it was not possible for any state to secede from the national government. The proclamation was argumentative, and kindly worded. He urged the people of South Carolina to ponder well over what they were doing, and not to incur the consequences of

carrying out their schemes of secession. He stated that it was his duty

"To warn the citizens of South Carolina, who have been deluded into an opposition to the laws, of the danger they will incur by the obedience to the illegal and disorganising ordinance of the convention; to exhort those who have refused to support it to persevere in their determination to uphold the constitution and the laws of their country; and to point out to all, the perilous situation into which the good people of that state have been led; and that the course they are urged to pursue is one of ruin and disgrace to the very state whose right they affect to support."

On the 16th of December, the president transmitted to Congress a message upon the nullification of South Carolina, and urged the passage of such laws as might be necessary to enable him to maintain the Union. Upon the message being read in the senate, Mr. Calhoun, the senator from South Carolina, repelled the statements made by the president. He asserted that the state authorities had looked only to the judiciary tribunals to effect their protection from the oppressive tariff laws, until the collection of United States' troops within its territory; and that then they were compelled to make provision to defend themselves. The judiciary committee of the senate, to whom the message was referred, reported a bill, vesting full and complete power in the president to carry into effect the revenue laws of the United States, and to employ the army and navy, if he deemed it necessary, to enforce them.

In the meantime the legislatures of the respective states were convened, and the nullification of South Carolina was considered by each of them. Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Delaware, Tennessee, Indiana, and