Chapter 32: Vice-President John Calhoun sparks the “Nullification Crisis.”  

The most dramatic challenge to Jackson comes in 1832 from his own Vice-President, John C. Calhoun, a Machiavellian figure, who turns on him to rally the South against threats to its slavery and to advance his own political career.

His attack centers on what he calls the “abomination of tariffs” being levied on imported cotton goods, claiming they are unfair to the Southern economy. To protest them, he creates the Nullifier Party, intending to block collection of the tariff in the “sovereign state” of South Carolina. Calhoun bases this on what he calls the need for “concurrent majorities” between state and federal officials whenever policy debates materialize. Thus the States’ Rights argument attempting to limit the authority of the central government in DC.

Jackson is shocked by the betrayal, and Calhoun resigns on December 28, 1832.

“Old Hickory” then tells friends that he will march to the state in person and hang any agents who refuse to collect the tariffs. On March 2, 1833 he persuades Congress to pass a “Force Bill” authorizing him to send U.S. troops to ensure compliance with the law.

While this response cripples Calhoun’s Nullifier Party, it establishes the theme of a Southern economy being attacked by Northern aggressors and secession as a possible way out.