Question

but after he wrote The South Carolina Exposition and Protest he became fully committed to the cause of the South. In this essay he introduced the concept of "nullification" which lent itself to the later Nullification Crisis. Explain how this concept was very much the same idea as that articulated by Jefferson and Madison in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions and how this came to be attached to the South and the "states' rights" position. Again, do not simply summarize. Show your thinking, support your ideas with evidence from the reading!

Answer 1

Calhoun's South Carolina Exposition and Protest was a document written in 1828 that argued that states had the right to nullify, or invalidate, federal laws that they deemed unconstitutional. The document was in response to the Tariff of 1828, which Calhoun and other southerners believed was unfairly burdensome to the South.

Calhoun's argument was based on the principle of states' rights, which held that the states were sovereign entities that could not be overridden by the federal government. He argued that the Constitution was a compact between the states, and that each state had the right to interpret the Constitution for itself. If a state believed that a federal law was unconstitutional, it could nullify the law within its borders.

Calhoun's argument was very similar to the one that had been articulated by Jefferson and Madison in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798. In those resolutions, Jefferson and Madison argued that the states had the right to "interpose" their authority between the federal government and the people if the federal government violated the Constitution.

The concept of nullification was controversial from the beginning. Many northerners argued that it was a dangerous idea that would lead to the breakup of the Union. However, Calhoun and other southerners argued that it was necessary to protect the interests of the South from the tyranny of the federal government.

The Nullification Crisis of 1832-33 was a direct result of Calhoun's argument for nullification. In 1832, South Carolina nullified the Tariff of 1832, which led to a standoff between South Carolina and the federal government. The crisis was eventually resolved when President Andrew Jackson threatened to use military force to enforce the tariff. However, the Nullification Crisis highlighted the growing divisions between the North and the South and helped to set the stage for the Civil War.

In conclusion, Calhoun's argument for nullification was very much the same idea as that articulated by Jefferson and Madison in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. However, the concept of nullification became attached to the South and the "states' rights" position because it was seen as a way to protect the interests of the South from the federal government.