AND AMERICAN DEMOCRACY SEVENTY YEARS AGO 299 



by public opinion throughout the country. By the 

 Southern people generally the action of South Caro- 

 lina was regarded as precipitate and unconstitutional. 

 Even in that state a Union convention met at Colum- 

 bia and announced its intention of supporting the 

 President. In January Calhoun declared in the Sen- 

 ate that his state was not hostile to the Union and had 

 not meditated an armed resistance ; a " peaceable se- 

 cession," to be accomplished by threats, was probably 

 the ultimatum really contemplated. In spite of Jack- 

 son's warning, the nullifiers were surprised by his 

 unflinching attitude, and complained of it as inconsist- 

 ent with his treatment of Georgia. When the first of 

 February came the nullifiers deferred action. In the 

 course of that month a bill for enforcing the tariff 

 passed both houses of Congress, and at the same time 

 Clay's compromise tariff was adopted, providing for the 

 gradual reduction of the duties until 1842, after which 

 all duties were to be kept at twenty per cent. This 

 compromise was well-meant but pernicious, for it en- 

 abled the nullifiers to claim a victory and retreat from 

 their position with colours flying. Calhoun, indeed, 

 afterward pointed to the issue of the contest as con- 

 clusively proving the beneficent character of his theory 

 of nullification. Here, he said, by merely threatening 

 to nullify an obnoxious, and as he maintained uncon- 

 stitutional, act of federal legislation, South Carolina 

 had secured its repeal, and all was pleasant and peace- 

 ful ! It was not Jackson, however, but Clay, that Cal- 

 houn had to thank for the compromise, nor were the 

 nullifiers by any means as well satisfied as he tried to 

 believe. 



The nullifiers, indeed, had made a great mistake 



