States Rights
Nullification, Succession,
and the Civil War
Presented by
Kelly Curtright
Director, Social Studies
Office of Standards and Curriculum
Oklahoma State Department of
Education
Meets Grade 8 U.S. History
PASS Standards
Standard 7: The student will examine
the significance of the Jacksonian era.
3. Describe and explain the
Nullification Crisis and the
development of the states’ rights
debates.
Topics in the Item Specs Document
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John C. Calhoun
Henry Clay
Andrew Jackson
Force Bill
Hartford Convention, 1814
Nullification Ordinance
Tariff of 1828
Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, 1798
“The powers not delegated to
the United States by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by
it to the States, are reserved to
the States respectively, or to the
people.”
- Tenth Amendment, 1791
United States Constitution
Impact on U.S. History
by State’s Rights Debate
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Tariffs
Public land policies
National banks
Native Americans within state
boundaries
• Internal improvement (infrastructure)
• Extension of slavery
A Deep Rooted History
• Regional colonial differences
• Confederal philosophy fear of
strong central government
• Constitutional Convention &
ratification fight
• Hamiltonians versus
Jeffersonians
With the birth of
the nation the
argument began
over what kind of
government
should the
colonies/states
have and what
kind of powers
should it
exercise.
Articles of Confederation, 1781-1789
• First written U.S. Constitution
• Limited powers of central government
• No independent judiciary or executive
branch
• Confederation of equal states
• States retained individual sovereignty
• States executed laws
• Each state had one vote in Congress
U.S. Constitution, 1789
• Designed to remedy weaknesses in the
Articles of Confederation
• Set up a federal system of government
• National government was to be
supreme
• No “bill of rights”
• Dissension between federalists and
Anti-Federalists
The Supremacy Clause
"This Constitution, and the Laws of the
United States which shall be made in
Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made,
or which shall be made, under the
authority of the United States, shall be the
supreme Law of the land; and the Judges
in every State shall be bound thereby, any
Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any
State to the Contrary notwithstanding."
The Alien
and
Sedition Acts
1798
President John Adams, 1797-1801
The Alien and
Sedition Acts
marked an attempt by
Federalists to
suppress opposition at
home.
Alien Enemies Act
• Wartime powers
• Allowed for the arrest,
imprisonment, & deportation
of aliens
• Impacted aliens subject to
enemy authority
Sedition Act
• Expanded treasonable activities
• Prohibited the publication of “any
false, scandalous and malicious
writing”
• Twenty five people were arrested
under the Sedition law and ten of
them were convicted.
Thomas Jefferson and James
Madison opposed the acts,
and drafted the Kentucky and
Virginia Resolutions in
protest.
“That the several states . . .
being sovereign and
independent, have the
unquestionable right to judge
of its infraction; and that a
nullification, by those
sovereignties, . . . is the rightful
remedy . . . .”
- Kentucky Resolution, 1798
O-grab-me
The Hartford Convention, 1814
• New England Federalists opposed
Republican anti-foreign trade policies
• During the War of 1812, New England’s
economic interests suffered
• Secret meetings were held in Hartford,
Connecticut
• Secession from the Union was discussed
• Echoes of the Virginia and Kentucky
Resolutions
Doctrine of Supremacy
• Chief Justice John Marshall
• Uses the “supremacy clause”
to disallow taxing the
National Bank
“the government of the Union,
though limited in its power, is
supreme within its sphere of action.”
- McCulloch v. Maryland, 1819
Trade and Tariffs
• A major and continuous strain on the
Union, 1820 to the Civil War
• The South imports manufactured goods
from Europe and the Northern states
• The Northern states viewed foreign trade
as competition
• Protective tariffs were viewed as harmful
to the South’s economy
Tariff of 1828
In 1828, the Congress
passed protective tariffs
to benefit trade in the
Northern States, but were
detrimental to the South.
Nullification Crisis
• The Tariff of 1828 is also known
as the “Tariff of Abominations”
• Southerners express
their opposition
• South Carolina
Exposition and Protest,
penned by John C. Calhoun
South Carolina’s
Nullification Ordinance
• Declared the tariffs of 1828 and
1832 “null and void within the
borders of South Carolina”
• Passed by a state convention
November 24, 1832
• This began the
“Nullification Crisis”
President Jackson
Responds
• Sends an navy flotilla to
Charleston, November 1832
• Declares that South Carolina
stands “on the brink of
insurrection and treason"
• Congresses passes the
“Force Bill” in 1833
“Seduced as you have been, my
fellow countrymen by the delusion
theories and misrepresentation of
ambitious, deluded & designing
men, I call upon you in the
language of truth, and with the
feelings of a Father to retrace your
steps.”
- President Andrew Jackson
1830 Webster-Hayne Debate
Daniel Webster
Massachusetts
(unionist)
Robert Hayne
South Carolina
(states rights)
Daniel Webster, 1835
“Liberty
and
Union,
now and for
ever, one and
inseparable!”
Compromise Tariff of 1833
• Proposed by the Great Compromiser,
Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky
• Agreed to by John Calhoun
• South Carolina repeals it’s nullification of
the Force Bill on the same day.
• It was to gradually cut back import taxes
to the Tariff of 1816 levels (average of 20%)
• Protectionism was reinstated in 1845
Impact of the State’s Debate
and
Nullification Crisis
• South Carolina expected the other Southern
states to support her resistance
• Jackson commits the federal government to
the principle of Union supremacy
• The conflict helped enforce the idea of
secession leading to secession by South
Carolina in December 1860
• South Carolina’s resistance showed that one
state could impose its will on Congress
“Nullification has done its
work. It has prepared the
minds of men for a
separation of the states and when the question is
moved again it will be
distinctly union or
disunion.”
- James Petigru, a Unionist
from South Carolina
Grade 8
United States History
CRT Assessment Information
For Standard 7.3
Standard 7.3 Content Limits
Sample Item 1
Sample Item 2
Sample Item 3
Released Item
From the Multiple-
Choice Released
Items Booklet,
2004-05
Correct answer: B
Presentation created by:
Kelly Curtright
Director, Social Studies
Office of Standards and Curriculum
Oklahoma State Department of Education
Contact:
Telephone (405) 522-3523 or
E-mail
<Kelly_Curtright@sde.state.ok.us>