Proclamation to the People of South Carolina
Encyclopedia
The Proclamation to the People of South Carolina was written by Edward Livingston
Edward Livingston
Edward Livingston was an American jurist and statesman. He was an influential figure in the drafting of the Louisiana Civil Code of 1825, a civil code based largely on the Napoleonic Code. He represented both New York, and later Louisiana in Congress and he served as the U.S...

 and issued by Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...

 on December 10, 1832. Written at the height of the Nullification Crisis
Nullification Crisis
The Nullification Crisis was a sectional crisis during the presidency of Andrew Jackson created by South Carolina's 1832 Ordinance of Nullification. This ordinance declared by the power of the State that the federal Tariff of 1828 and 1832 were unconstitutional and therefore null and void within...

, the proclamation directly responds to the Ordinance of Nullification
Ordinance of Nullification
The Ordinance of Nullification declared the Tariff of 1828 and 1832 null and void within the state borders of South Carolina. It began the Nullification Crisis...

 passed by the South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

 legislature in November 1832. Its purpose was to subdue the Nullification Crisis created by South Carolina’s ordinance and to denounce the doctrine of nullification.

The proclamation outlines the actions taken by the South Carolina legislature and rejects the insistence on state sovereignty, focusing on the preservation of the Union as the primary issue. It declares nullification to be "incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which It was founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed.” The proclamation also appeals to citizens to resist the violation of the constitution.

Background

Jackson’s Proclamation to the People of South Carolina was written in response to the growing opposition to the Tariff of 1828
Tariff of 1828
The Tariff of 1828 was a protective tariff passed by the Congress of the United States on May 19, 1828, designed to protect industry in the northern United States...

, which was perceived to heavily affect the economy of the antebellum South, and the Tariff of 1832
Tariff of 1832
The Tariff of 1832 was a protectionist tariff in the United States. It was largely written by former President John Quincy Adams, who had been elected to the House of Representatives and been made chairman of the Committee on Manufactures, and reduced tariffs to remedy the conflict created by the...

, which cut overall revenues of the previous tariff by half but was still regarded as unconstitutional by South Carolina. The South Carolina legislature declared these tariffs to be null and void within their Ordinance of Nullification. Besides nullifying the tariffs, it also forbade the appeal of the ordinance to the Supreme Court and prohibited the federal government from collecting duties in South Carolina after February 1, 1833.

The immediate response to the Ordinance of Nullification was to substantially reduce the tariffs imposed on South Carolina and other colonies in the South. Jackson proposed this approach in his annual message to Congress on December 4, 1832, shortly before the creation of the Proclamation to the People of South Carolina.

Aftermath

After issuing the Proclamation to the People of South Carolina, Jackson received reports in January 1833 that the legislature had not only persisted in the nullification of the Tariff of 1828 and 1832, but also rescinded all other tariff laws passed by the federal government for revenue purposes. This action continued South Carolina’s efforts to assert state sovereignty, as the state refused to financially contribute to any part of the federal financial burden. Following this, Henry Clay
Henry Clay
Henry Clay, Sr. , was a lawyer, politician and skilled orator who represented Kentucky separately in both the Senate and in the House of Representatives...

 proposed the Compromise Tariff of 1833, which was later signed into law alongside the Force Bill
Force Bill
The United States Force Bill, formally titled "An Act further to provide for the collection of duties on imports", 4 Stat. 632 , enacted by the 22nd U.S. Congress, consists of eight sections expanding Presidential power...

by Jackson on March 2, 1833. The Compromise Tariff of 1833 called for a series of reductions at two-year intervals, culminating in the same rates as the Tariff of 1816, and was supported primarily by the South and West. The Force Bill, however, authorized the US president to employ military forces to uphold federal law. Although South Carolina nullified the Force Bill, it did rescind its earlier ordinance regarding nullification. The combination of the two bills allowed the federal government to assert its authority, while also permitting South Carolina to accept the reduced tariffs without diminishing its own stance.
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