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Nullification Crisis

 

After such an event, would take place the federal government would either have to dispose of the tariff or create an amendment to the constitution to validate the tariff. .
             South Carolina's statesmen believed that the federal government should not be allowed to design tariffs or laws to protect American industries from foreign companies. They believed that the Constitution only allows tariffs for the purpose of raising money for the government, not for the purpose of preventing commerce with other markets. No immediate action was taken by South Carolina against the tariff until the Webster-Hayne debate of 1830, a debate that started with the selling of public lands for a lower price and quickly turned into a debate over States" rights and more specifically the rights of South Carolina. Robert Hayne of South Carolina defended the Carolina Doctrine by declaring that the states created the union; and, in order to maintain sovereignty, the states must be free to judge the laws which the federal government adopts. In doing so, the states must be allowed to determine individually if a law is unconstitutional. As the debate began to unravel, Daniel Webster, a Massachusetts senator, commenced delivery of a speech that attacked the south directly. Webster refuted Hayne by pointing out in his speech the importance of the Tariff of 1828 and how nullification would allow states to tear apart the ever so fragile Union and inevitably lead to a Civil War. .
             The Nullification theory was set forth in order to assure more power resided with the states than with the federal government. Nullification would permit a state to hold a convention to determine whether or not a law was constitutional. South Carolina's argument for the Nullification theory was that the Constitution allowed the federal government to tax only for the purpose of revenue and that there was no provision for taxing to protect American companies from foreign competition.


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