not be. You may disturb its peace-you may interrupt the course of its prosperity-you may cloud its reputation of stability-but its tranquillity will be restored, its prosperity will return, and the stain upon its national character will be transferred, and remain an eternal blot on the memory of those who caused the disorder."

353. This gentle and proper attempt to stay the wayward and dangerous career of the State, was unavailing. By instructions from the Legislature, its Governor, on the 20th December, 1832, issued a counter-proclamation, "warning the good people of the State, against the attempt of the President of the United States, to seduce them from their allegiance, exhorting them to disregard his vain menaces, and to be prepared to sustain the dignity and protect the liberty of the State, against the arbitrary measures of the President." This service was performed by Governor Hayne, with all the earnestness and sincerity which has marked his course in this unhappy affair, and the ability which distinguishes him. In its execution, however, very little matter of new interest was evolved. The State was formally arrayed against the United States, and the occasion, which might soon present itself, was alone wanting, to plunge the whole country into all the horrors of a servilé and a civil war-to settle an abstruse point in the uncertain science of political economy.

354. But the forceful collision which was thus growing up between South Carolina and the General Government was but a part of the melancholy case. The citizens of the State were nearly equally divided among themselves, and it became necessary to prepare, not only for a conflict with the military power of the Union, but, for the armed resistance of the Union party within the State; and it became obvious that secession from the Union, if attained, must be through a civil war, in which father would be arrayed against son, brother against brother, and friend against friend.

355. Legislative measures were adopted by the State, to render the revenue laws inoperative; by removing, from the custody of the revenue officers, such goods as should be seized for non-payment of duties; and the military resources of the State were organized to sustain the State authorities. At the opening of the session of Congress, the President had expressed his conviction, that the existing laws of the United States were adequate to the occasion; but, with the development of the warlike character of the opposition, the necessity of new powers became apparent, and these on the 16th of

1

January, 1833, were demanded from Congress, and soon after given to him by law.

356. Before the 1st of February, 1933, the day fixed for the commencement of nullification, a change came over the spirit of South Carolina, honorable alike to its sagacity and its patriotism. Although the tariff burden was sufficient to provoke complaint, it was not so grievous as to induce the other complaining States to separate from the Union, or to plunge desperately into civil war. The adjacent States were more disposed to assume the character of umpires and peacemakers, than of allies, in the war. The State of Virginia, by a formal embassy, of which Mr. Benjamin Watkins Leigh was the commissioner, urged peace and procrastination. This event was so seasonable and appropriate, that it could not better have fitted the denouement, had it been an originally prepared part of the drama. Light, too, was seen to break forth from the clouds of debate in the congressional Halls; and even in the message of the President, asking new powers to enforce the laws, auspicious signs were recognized.

Instead, therefore, of nullification and its dreadful consequences, the 1st of February, 1833, found the nullifiers armed with patience; and resolute to endure, for another year, at least, the intolerable burdens they had so long borne. This temper, prudent and patriotic, was fated to meet a speedy reward.

357. A combination of causes had borne conviction to the minds of the friends of the tariff system, that it stood in the most imminent danger of early death. The power of the administration was known to be against it-the influence of that power had predominated in the late presidential elections, it was foreseen, that, thorough partisans, now perfectly drilled, would surrender all the principles which did not tend to party and official ends-it was to be dreaded, that, violence, committed by the General Government against one southern State, might induce a southern confederacy-and it became daily more probable, that, even the protecting duties would produce a larger revenue, than the country required. Under these circumstances, it was deemed more prudent to yield for a season to the tide, than to be swept before it;-to bend to the blast, than to be uprooted; and that the friends of domestic manufactures should take the modification of the law into their own hands, rather than entrust it to the mercy of their enemies.

358. Mr. Clay, with sagacity and civil courage which has

more than once distinguished him in political dangers, stepped forth, at the risk of present popularity, and, proposed, by a gradual reduction, within the period of nine and a half years, to abandon the policy of tariff protection. This proposition coincided with the interests of the North, as it gave time for the manufactures, which could be acclimated, to take root, and with the professed generosity of the South, which boasted that it did not seek prematurely to destroy-what it had forcibly aided to plant. The proposition was not a surrender, but a covenant of non user, of the right of protection, after a designated period of enjoyment. It was a compromise of interests; such a compromise, as we shall probably find, repeatedly, necessary, and as will, we trust, be as repeatedly made, for the UNION.

After momentary astonishment, the proposition was received, with enthusiastic pleasure by a large majority of both Houses, and of the people; the proposer was hailed as a general pacificator; and when the amending bill had passed, the country breathed with the freedom of a man who had been relieved from an agonizing burden.

359. The South Carolina Convention re-assembled, early in March, and during a short session passed two ordinances: the one repealing the nullifying ordinance of the preceding November, and all laws passed by the Legislature in pursuance thereof, excepting that relating to the militia; the other nullifying the act of Congress, passed upon the recommendation of the President, "further to provide for the collection of the duties on imports," which they denominated the force bill. The last was an offering to self-complacency. With the opposition of the State, that bill became a nullity, had nothing to operate upon, and the peaceful relations between the State and the Union were again restored. The crisis had been to the State one of great interest and injury. The dominant party had pursued their course with the usual intolerance of party; had prescribed unconstitutional oaths and pledges; had excited fearful alarm among the peaceful and better disposed population; had disturbed commercial confidence, and interrupted the usual course of business—and had driven from the confines of the State very many of her most useful and respectable inhabitants, among whom were Judge Smith, late a Senator of the United States, and Wm. Henry Drayton, late a distinguished representative in Congress; who, though unfriendly to the tariff, reprobated nullification as the

instrument of disunion.-She drew upon herself evils which may require years of prosperity to remedy.

360. But South Carolina was not without the show. of triumph. Seven States of the Union, whose whole free population amounted only to 771,218 souls, by the last census, a majority of whom would be less than 400,000, scarce double the population of New York, had obtained from the nation, consisting of ten millions of freemen, a sacrifice which might cripple its energies, and stay or impede its march to power and happiness. But this is a triumph of demons blasting the happiness of the human race. Such, however, as it is, she owes it to the mercy, the forbearance, the philanthropy of the vanquished. In a conflict of force, which she desperately, madly sought, there was, scarcely, in the scope of human conception a mean of safety for her. She sleeps upon a volcano, which war would put into immediate and destructive action. Her whole military array, could it be brought to the field, might be 150,000 against millions! Verily she has had a triumphant escape, and, in her anthems of praise, let her not forget the magnanimity of her fancied foes.

361. She owes not her unscathed condition to Gen. Jackson. His sympathy and his countenance made her mad. The performance of his duty to the nation, unavoidably compelled, was preparing for her the prison, straight-jacket and stripes, when the champion of the American System, in the true spirit of patriotism, provided for her, perhaps, the only means, by which she could, reputably, recover from her intoxication.

CHAPTER XIV.

ELECTION OF 1832.

362. The election of 1832 demonstrated the efficiency of the presidential influence, when energetically employed, for the corruption of the elective franchise. The administration was highly popular; but was it justly entitled to the favour of the people? In all its leading measures it was opposed to the popular voice. It had sought to prostrate the system of protection of domestic industry, but had been defeated in Congress: It had sought, in some instances, successfully, to overthrow all efforts for internal improvement, but Congress refused to second the parricidal arm: It had forfeited the public faith with the feeble Indian tribes; dishonoring the nation before the world and posterity: It had striven to establish a national Bank, which might give to it an illimitable money influence in every section of the Union; but, the object had been detected, exposed and indignantly rebuked, by the House of Representatives: It had abased the country by supplicating, in the tone of a mendicant, favours from a foreign pow er, when it should have demanded the enjoyment of rights; and the adviser of the humiliation, had been branded by the Senate of the United States, as destitute of the first quali ty of the statesman, a due regard for the country he would govern: It had most audaciously calumniated the fiscal organ of the country, charging insolvency, where were the most abundant means of payment, and the highest commercial reputation; and the falsehood was cast into its teeth, by the House of Representatives, after deliberate consideration and thorough investigation: It had opposed the caprice and the veto of the President, against the deliberate judgment of the representatives of the people upon questions of sheer expediency; reducing the country, in repeated instances, to the condition of despotism, where the will of an individual mars the wishes and the weal of the nation.

Still, the administration was popular, very popular. It had entered upon power with a decisive majority in both Houses of Congress; the first term of service ended with a decisive majority in both Houses against it. Still, with all its principal measures rejected and condemned, by the representatives of the peo