76 REFORM AND DEMOCRACY 



movement on its political side, and sustained it 

 by fervent appeals for an &quot;American system&quot; 

 that should make the United States in all re 

 spects economically self-sufficient, and independ 

 ent of foreign, especially British, producers. 

 The result was tariff legislation, culminating 

 in 1828, by which heavy protective duties were 

 imposed on textiles, iron, and other leading com 

 modities. 



Protectionism of this species was not destined, 

 however, to be permanent. Accepted with much 

 misgiving in the North and West, it aroused 

 violent hostility in the slaveholding States of 

 the South. Their sole commercial product was 

 cotton, and three-fourths of the crop was ex 

 ported, mostly to Great Britain. To them, 

 therefore, the high tariff meant only a disas 

 trous increase of taxation, for the benefit of 

 the manufacturers of the North. A bitter op 

 position to the new system was carried on by 

 the State of South Carolina, involving serious 

 threats of a dissolution of the Union. The 

 policy that was proclaimed as necessary to the 

 free life and full development of the republic 

 thus proved fraught with peril to its very exist 

 ence. Clay himself bowed before the storm 

 that he had evoked, and took the lead in legis- 



