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The nullification controversy of 1832-33 confronted Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) with the greatest crisis of his presidency--the defiance of the federal government by South Carolina. The doctrine of nullification, which asserted that a state could on its own authority declare a federal law unconstitutional, had manifested itself in American life before, but never to such a dangerous degree. The passage of tariff bills in 1828 and 1832, favoring northern manufacturing over southern agriculture, had been the immediate cause of the crisis leading to South Carolina's Ordinance of Nullification of 24 November 1832, declaring the tariff acts null, void, and not binding upon her. Jackson's swift response, his Proclamation to the People of South Carolina, 10 December 1832, considered the greatest state paper of the era, made it clear that any action taken to uphold nullification by armed force was treason. In this 13 January 1833 letter from Jackson to his newly elected vice-president Martin Van Buren (1782-1862), the president shows he was standing firm--nothing would be permitted "to weaken our government at home or abroad," and the Union would be preserved.
John J. McDonough, Manuscript Division
For Additional Information
For additional information on the Martin Van Buren Papers, you can leave this site and read a summary catalog record for the collection.
Reproduction Number:
A89 (color slide; pages 1 and 4); A90 (color slide; pages 2 and 3)
Related Terms:
Constitution | Jackson, Andrew (1767-1845) | Law | Nullification | Presidents | South Carolina | State rights | Tariff | Treason | Van Buren, Martin (1782-1862) | Vice-Presidents
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