NULLIFICATION 



NUMBER 



in determining whether or not a thing is a 

 nuisance. The slaughterhouse in the open 

 country is not a nuisance, because it annoys no 

 one. Even a steam engine, if placed in a 

 building so near a dwelling that the jar and 

 noise of the machinery annoy the occupants, 

 may be declared a nuisance. If the nuisance is 

 such that it annoys the whole or a part of a 

 community it is a public nuisance. If it annoys 

 but few people it is a private nuisance. The 

 >laughterhouse in a residential section would be 

 .t public nuisance. 



A nuisance may be abated by persuading the 

 owner to remove to some other locality, or by 

 suit at law. A nuisance may usually be pre- 

 vented if taken in season by securing an in- 

 junction (which see) against the one who is 

 about to establish it, but an injunction cannot 

 prevent something already done. A private 

 nuisance may be abated by mutual agreement 

 between the parties or by a suit for damages. 

 It may also be prevented by injunction. It is 

 often difficult to determine when an annoy- 

 ance becomes a nuisance, and in cases where 

 the parties cannot mutually agree, the courts 

 must decide. 



NULLIFICATION, nul ifi ka'shun. To nul- 

 lify is to render a proposal or an act void. The 

 word nullification refers to a phase of United 

 States history in which the people of one sec- 

 tion sought to declare certain laws of no effect, 

 so far as said laws related to them. The period 

 was critical, but a resolute President restored 

 order and respect for the nation's mandates. 



The nullification doctrine implied the theory 

 of the sovereignty of the state that it could 

 accept or reject any law passed by the United 

 States Congress. The first serious proposal in 

 this direction was the ''Exposition and Protest" 

 of 1828 in South Carolina, which John C. Cal- 

 houn prepared at the request of the legislature 

 of that state. It objected to the protective 

 tariff passed in that year by Congress, argued 

 any state was free to annul it and that tin 

 Federal government was but the servant of the 

 states. This event led to the great Webster- 

 Hayne debate in the United States Senate in 

 1830, which \\ land with the thrilling 



peroration- 

 Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and 

 Inseparable. 



The theory of nullification yet persisted, and 

 in 1833 South Carolina again declared the tariff 

 laws of 1828 and 1832 null and void, so far as 

 that state was concerned. It threatened, more- 

 over, to leave the American Union if the Fed- 



eral government attempted to enforce the tariff 

 laws anywhere in South Carolina. President 

 Andrew Jackson met the challenge by a procla- 

 mation warning the people that the laws would 

 be enforced, and he took steps to secure obe- 

 dience to tariff regulations at the important 

 port of Charleston. It became apparent, after 

 passage of a Force Bill in Congress providing 

 for obedience to the Federal law, that resist- 

 ance was unwise; compromises in tariff rates 

 were agreed upon, and the nullification ordi- 

 nance was repealed. 



The states' rights theory, of which the above 

 was one manifestation, was declared, early in 

 the nation's history, in the Kentucky and Vir- 

 ginia Resolutions. It was not finally disposed 

 of until the War of Secession. 



Related Subject*. The reader is referred to 

 the following 1 articles In these volumes: 

 Calhoun, John Caldwell Kentucky and Virginia 

 Force Bills Resolutions 



Mayne, Robert Young: States' Rights 

 Jackson, Andrew 



See, also, references suggested in the above 

 articles. 



NU'MA POMPIL'IUS, in Roman legendary 

 history, the second king of Rome, the successor 

 of Romulus. According to tradition, he came 

 to the throne in 715 B.C., and reigned until 

 672 B.C. The Romans of a later day looked 

 back to that time as a period of blessing and 

 peace and ascribed to Numa most of the in- 

 stitutions, religious or civil, upon which the 

 prosperity of the early state rested. Thus it 

 was he who built tho temple of Janus, the doors 

 of which were shut during his reign to show 

 that peace prevailed; it was he who originated 

 the order of the Vestal Virgins (see VESTA), and 

 who appointed the first priests and augurs. 

 In reality, however, these institutions which 

 were ascribed to him were the slow growth of 

 centuries. 



NUM'BER. The picture developed in the 

 mind by the word tr,< i> th:it of only one of 

 those tall-growing plants. From the word trees, 

 on the contrary, one gets the image of several 

 trees, a row, a grove, or a forest, as the con- 

 text may imply. Similarly, the pronoun Ac 

 conveys to us the idea of one person; they 

 compels one to think of a number of persona. 

 The property of a noun or a pronoun which 

 thus distinguishes one from more than one is 

 called number. 



Tr, , and he are said to be in the singular 

 number. Trees and they are in the plural num- 

 ber, the word plural coming from the Latin 

 plus, meaning more. 



