John+C.+Calhoun



John C. Calhoun was the Vice President of South Carolina. He was known as Webster’s greatest opponents in the struggle between states’ rights and federal authority. John called the 1824 tariff a “Tariff of Abominations” where he described it as "disgusting and loathsome". This tariff was a high tariff on manufactured goods which reduced British exports and forced the south to buy more expensive Northern manufactured goods. South Carolinians started to wonder if he cared about needs of the state, so John devised a nullification theory. This theory questioned the legality of applying federal laws in sovereign states. His argument was that the U.S constitution was based on a compact among the sovereign states and that each sovereign state had the right to reject or nullify a federal law as long as it was unconstitutional. In 1828 he wrote another theory called “The South Carolina Exposition” where if government refused to permit a state to nullify, the state had the right to withdraw from the union.

Information provided by: McDougal, Holt. //The Americans//. Evanston: Gerald A. Danzer, 2012. Print.

Picture provided by: //Hard Road to Texas//. Texas State Library, 5 Apr. 2011. Web. 21 Aug. 2013. .