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SOUTH CAROLINA ON THE
DEFENSIVE IN THE AGE
OF JACKSON
Why did the Age of Jackson put South Carolina on the defensive?
SELECTED
VOCABULARY
Jacksonian
Democracy
Democratic Party
Spoils system
Veto
Whig Party
Arsenal
Nullification
OVERVIEW
In 1828, Andrew Jackson was
elected president. It was the era
of Jacksonian democracy, when
more and more leaders were chosen by popular vote. The old
Republican Party split into factions. They were the Democratic
Party of Jackson and the Whig
Party. John C. Calhoun emerged
as a national figure.
The people of South Carolina
were very upset. The economy
was unsteady. The Denmark
Vesey insurrection disturbed the
whites. The state was divided
over the tariff and nullification.
This statue by Anna Hyatt
Huntington portrays Andrew
Jackson as a young man in
the Waxhaws where he
grew up. It is in Andrew
Jackson State Park in
Lancaster County. A
copy stands on the
campus of Columbia
College.
S.C. Department of PRT
Who was the only
president who claimed
he was born in South
Carolina?
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TIMELINE
UNITED STATES
SOUTH CAROLINA
1822
Denmark Vesey Insurrection
1824
Disputed presidential
election, J. Q. Adams elected
1828
Andrew Jackson
elected president
Tariff of 1828
1824
John C. Calhoun,
vice president,
until 1832
1828
S. C. Exposition
and Protest
1830
Webster-Hayne debate
1831
Fort Hill Letter
1832
Jackson vetoed
Bank bill
Whig Party began
to form
1832
Nullification Convention
1833
Tariff of 1833
I. JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY
What was Jacksonian Democracy?
The president who shaped American politics more
than any other between Thomas Jefferson and
Abraham Lincoln was Andrew Jackson. He is also the
only president who claimed South Carolina as the
state of his birth. The Age of Jackson was the era when
American politics for the first time was based on the
ideal that all men (that is, all white males) were politically equal in spite of wealth, family, or education.
The role of government, as Jackson understood it, was
to make sure that no group had more privileges than any
other. More and more, political leaders were chosen by
popular vote and, therefore, appealed to the masses. For
the first time candidates for office held campaign rallies,
barbecues, and torchlight parades to ask vast crowds to
vote for them. The older, gentlemen politicians were
swept aside in the new popular elections.
By 1824 the Federalist Party was dead. The
Republican Party had split into factions. That year the
state legislatures nominated their favorite sons for
president. In the election Andrew Jackson received
the largest number of popular and electoral votes, but
not a clear majority. So the House of Representatives
voted, and John Quincy Adams became president.
John C. Calhoun was unopposed for vice president.
Adams was not a popular leader, and Jackson began
his campaign for the 1828 election as soon as Adams
was in the White House.
II. JACKSON AND THE DEMOCRATIC
PARTY
What role did Jackson play in developing the
Democratic Party?
Jackson’s fame rested on his victory over the British
at New Orleans in 1815. Born in the Waxhaws in 1767,
he was put in jail by the British in Camden during the
Revolution. Later he read law in North Carolina. He
moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he became a
wealthy lawyer and planter. He owned over 100 slaves.
To his followers he was a self-made man of the frontier
in an age of rapid change. He molded the old
Republican Party into a vast political machine called
the National Democratic Party. It included urban
workers and immigrants, Western businessmen,
Southern planters, and Northern bankers and industrialists. In 1828, Jackson soundly defeated Adams, and
he was reelected four years later. For thirty years, from
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1828 to 1859, the Democratic Party, which Jackson created, won
the presidency in every election but two.
Once in the White House, Jackson had no program, but he
knew how to keep power. He used the spoils system in which
he replaced federal office holders with persons loyal to him. He
began the national party convention to choose popular candidates for president. He paid little attention to his cabinet, but he
formed a group of his friends into the Kitchen Cabinet. He kept
control of Congress by using his influence with Democratic senators and representatives. When Congress passed laws he did
not like, he freely vetoed them.
III. THE RISE OF THE WHIG PARTY
Who were the Whigs?
In 1832, President Jackson vetoed the bill to renew the charter of the Second Bank of the United States. He said the bank
did not favor all the people: “It made the rich richer and the
potent more powerful.”
Three of the greatest senators in American history were in
Congress. They were John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay, and Daniel
Webster. They began to form a new party to oppose Jackson. At
first they called it the Democratic Whig Party. Later it became
the Whig Party. Like the Democrats, they appealed to a large
number of Americans, usually the more wealthy classes. On the
whole, they believed that the government ought to promote economic growth in the nation.
The Whig Party always had trouble finding a popular candidate for president.
Webster, Clay, and Calhoun wanted to be president, but they were not national candidates. They appealed to their own sections. Only twice did the Whigs win the
White House. In 1840 they successfully ran William Henry Harrison of Ohio and
John Tyler of Virginia. Both were Virginia-born planters, but Harrison ran as a man
of the frontier who lived in a log cabin. He was a military hero who had defeated
the Shawnee leader, Tecumseh, on the Tippecanoe River in Indiana. Harrison had
the first campaign slogan, “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too.” In 1848 the Whigs chose
Zachary Taylor, the hero of the Mexican War. Until the eve of the Civil War, the
Whigs gave the country a strong two-party system.
Andrew Jackson became a
national hero in the Battle of
New Orleans. He became the
seventeenth president of the
United States.
U.S. Senate
What was the Age of
Jackson?
IV. SOUTH CAROLINA ON THE DEFENSIVE
What were two reasons why South Carolina was on the defensive
after 1828?
In 1828, South Carolinians were thrilled with the election of Andrew Jackson
as president. A native son was in the White House, and John C. Calhoun was
Henry Clay was one of the greatest senators in American history.
He was one of the founders of the Whig Party.
U.S. Senate
What did the Whigs believe?
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elected to a second term as vice president. South Carolinians led the nation. But
the state was in trouble. Its economy had not grown after the Panic of 1819 like
the rest of the nation. The debates over Missouri showed how strong the sentiment against slavery was in the North and the Northwest.
V. THE DENMARK VESEY INSURRECTION
What was the Denmark Vesey Plot, and how did it affect
South Carolina?
This painting of Denmark Vesey
shows him leading a class meeting
in the African Methodist Episcopal
Church. It hangs in Gaillard
Auditorium in Charleston.
Why do you suppose the artist
did not show Vesey’s face?
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The census of 1790 indicated that for the first time since about 1705 South
Carolina had a majority of whites, not blacks. But with the invention of the cotton
gin and the reopening of the slave trade, the
black population grew rapidly. With new cotton lands available in Alabama and Mississippi,
whites began to move into the Old Southwest.
In 1820 the census showed that the state had a
black majority once again. Blacks were 52.8
percent of the population. By 1860 they were
58.6 percent of the state’s people.
Since the Stono Rebellion in 1739, white
South Carolinians had been fearful of a slave
revolt. In 1791 slaves in Santo Domingo had a
successful revolt. White planters from the West
Indies poured into Charleston. They told stories of murder and burning. Governor Charles
Pinckney wrote to the Santo Domingo
Assembly: “A day may arrive when [we] may be exposed to the same insurrection
[;] we cannot but sensibly feel for your situation.”
Since the Revolution there had been a small number of people in the state who
believed strongly in the abolition of slavery. Henry Laurens was one of that group.
The few Quaker meetings also believed in abolition. The Methodists openly
preached against slavery. According to church law, no Methodist could own slaves
and be a member in good standing. In 1795 the preachers in the state signed a
pledge never to own slaves. The white aristocracy in Charleston threw rocks at the
Methodist meeting house and mobbed the preachers because of their views.
There were a number of efforts by slaves to free themselves from bondage.
There was one in Columbia in 1805 and in Ashepoo and Camden in 1816. The
largest revolt was organized by Denmark Vesey (VAY-see) in Charleston in 1822.
After the Revolution, ship captain Joseph Vesey came to Charleston with his
slave Denmark, whom he had purchased in the West Indies. In 1799, Denmark
won $1,500 in the East Bay lottery. With $600 he bought his freedom. With the
rest, he set to work as a carpenter. Together with a large number of blacks, he
formed an African Methodist Episcopal church in 1815.
As a class leader in the church, Vesey began to read the book of Exodus. He
believed that God had called him to be the Moses of his people who would set
them free from slavery. He began to recruit blacks to join the movement. He went
from Georgetown to Beaufort. It was said he had 9,000 volunteers. Blacksmiths
made pikes and daggers. Others stole pistols and powder. A barber made wigs
and whiskers for disguises. Gullah Jack, who practiced voodoo, collected crab
claws and parched corn for them to carry in their mouths to protect them.
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Vesey set the time for the revolt on the night of July 14. The moon would be
in the last quarter, and many whites would be out of town. But on May 25, Peter
Prioleau (PRAY-low), a slave of Colonel John Prioleau, told his master that a revolt
was being planned. The colonel informed the mayor. The city council investigated, and on June 16, Governor Thomas Bennett called out the militia. In the end,
117 blacks were arrested. Seventy-nine of them were brought to trial before a special court. Sixty-nine were convicted. Thirty-five were hanged, and thirty-seven
sold into slavery outside the state. Denmark Vesey and five of the leaders were
hanged on July 2. They were true to the words of Peter Poyas (PIE-yas). “Do not
open your lips!” he said. “Die silent as you shall see me do.”
In the fall the legislature added more laws to the slave code, which had been
adopted in 1740 after the Stono Rebellion. They further restricted the lives of free
blacks. No free black person who left the state of his or her own free will could
return. A head tax of $50 was placed on all free blacks who were born in the state
or who had been residents for five years. Free blacks on ships sailing into ports in
the state could not go ashore. They were put in quarantine on their ships. Every
free black over fifteen had to have a guardian. If any person aided a slave revolt,
he or she could be punished by death. The state set aside $100,000 to build two
arsenals---the Arsenal in Columbia and the Citadel in Charleston--- to protect the
white population. In 1842 the legislature converted them into military academies.
Whites stopped criticizing slavery in South Carolina. They began to defend
the institution. As early as 1808 the Methodists permitted slaveholders to join
their churches. Quakers who did not change their views began to move into free
states, like Indiana. Two sisters from a prominent Charleston family, Sarah and
Angelina Grimké (GRIM-key), joined the Quakers, moved north, and became
prominent anti-slavery leaders. In 1823, Dr. Richard Furman, pastor of the
Charleston Baptist Church, wrote a defense of slavery. “The holding of slaves,” he
wrote, “is justifiable by the doctrine and example contained in Holy Writ; and is,
therefore consistent with Christian uprightness.”
VI. THE NULLIFICATION CONTROVERSY
What was Calhoun’s theory of Nullification?
By 1824, American textile manufacturers asked Congress to raise the tariff on
cotton and woolen cloth from Europe. Cheaper cloth from overseas was ruining
Sarah and Angelina Grimké
grew up in Charleston. They
joined the Quaker Meeting and
became convinced that slavery
was wrong.
MCS Oliphant Collection
Where did the Grimkés
move? Why?
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Fort Hill was the plantation home
of John C. Calhoun from 1825 to
1850. Today it is part of the
Clemson University campus.
Which of Calhoun’s writings is
named for the plantation?
their businesses. South Carolina leaders did not want a higher tariff. They said
that European mill owners would punish American cotton growers by paying a
lower price for cotton. However, Congress passed the Tariff of 1824, which raised
the duty from 25 to 33 1/3 percent. The next year the price of cotton in Europe
fell from 32 cents a pound to 13 cents.
In 1827 manufacturers in the North asked for an even higher tariff. There were
protest meetings all over South Carolina. In Columbia on July 2, President
Thomas Cooper of South Carolina College spoke against the tariff and warned
that the future of the United States was at stake. “We shall before long,” he said,
“be compelled to calculate the value of our union.” In Charleston a wealthy
planter, Robert J. Turnbull, wrote The Crisis. He argued that the tariff was unconstitutional and that the state should resist it. He urged that the state refuse to
obey the law.
Despite the protests, Congress passed the Tariff of 1828, which raised the duty
to 50 percent. Opponents called it the “Tariff of Abominations.” Vice President
Calhoun was in a dilemma. He was running for reelection. Yet he wished to help
the state without openly defying the Constitution. He secretly wrote The South
Carolina Exposition and Protest for a committee of the legislature. Calhoun took
the position that Jefferson had once argued. The states, he said, existed before the
nation. It was the states that voted for the Constitution and created the federal government. If a state believed the federal government had passed a law that was
unconstitutional, then the state could nullify that law. That is, a convention of the
people could meet and declare the law null and void within the bounds of the state.
VII. A NATIONAL DEBATE ON NULLIFICATION
What was the debate between Webster and Hayne about?
In January 1830, the issue of nullification came before the United States
Senate. Daniel Webster of Massachusetts attacked it. Robert Y. Hayne of
Charleston responded, using Calhoun’s arguments from the Exposition. At the
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time, Calhoun himself was presiding over the Senate as vice president. In his
reply to Hayne, Webster gave one of the classic defenses of the Constitution. The
people, not the states, he said, had created the federal government. A state could
neither nullify a law nor secede from the Union: “Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.”
It became clear that Andrew Jackson would not support South Carolina. In
fact, nullification was only one of a number of issues on which Jackson and
Calhoun did not agree. Their feud became public in April 1830 at the Jefferson
Day Dinner. Glaring at Calhoun, Jackson roared: “Our Federal Union — It must
be preserved!” Calhoun, who refused to back down, replied: “The Union — next
to our Liberties most dear.”
VIII. NULLIFIERS VS. UNIONISTS
What was the major disagreement between the Nullifiers and the
Unionists?
In South Carolina state leaders began to choose sides. Two parties formed.
The States Rights and Free Trade Party were the Nullifiers, and the States Rights
and Union Party were the Unionists. The Nullifiers persuaded Calhoun to support nullification openly. In July 1831, he wrote the Fort Hill Letter while he was
at his plantation, Fort Hill, near Pendleton. Today Fort Hill is part of the Clemson
University campus.
After three years the Nullifiers had enough votes to nullify the tariff. But in the
election in 1832 there was violence in the state. Armed mobs roamed the streets
of Charleston. In Greenville, Unionist Benjamin F. Perry killed Nullifier Turner
Bynum in a duel. Unionist Joel Poinsett was a secret agent for Jackson. He gathered information in the state and sent it to the president. When the votes were
counted, the Nullifiers had the two-thirds majority in the legislature they needed
to call a convention.
The convention met in Columbia in November and nullified the tariff. In
Washington, Jackson replied by issuing the Nullification Proclamation. He said
that nullification was treason. He said he would use the army to enforce the
Constitution. Congress supported the president by passing the Force Bill. It authorized
him to use military power.
In the meantime Hayne left his seat in the
Senate to become governor of South Carolina.
Calhoun then gave up his office as vice president to go to the Senate. On the Senate floor
he debated the issue of nullification with
Webster. But behind the scenes he worked
with Henry Clay to lower the tariff and avoid
a civil war. The Tariff of 1833, which Jackson
gladly signed, reduced the duty over a period
of nine years. South Carolina then repealed
the Ordinance of Nullification. The crisis was
over. But the state was marked as extremist.
Even other states in the South were suspicious of its actions.
Many prominent South
Carolinians settled their
disputes with a duel. These
dueling pistols were used by
Benjamin Perry and Turner
Bynum during the nulification
controversy. They are in the
State Museum.
S.C. State Museum
On which side was Perry?
Bynum?
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EYEWITNESS TO HISTORY:
South Carolina Exposition and Protest, 1828
Vice President John C. Calhoun secretly wrote a long
essay for a committee of the South Carolina legislature
to use in recommending that the General Assembly
oppose the Tariff of 1828. He outlined the doctrine of
states rights and why it permitted the state to nullify the tariff:
. . . [The Federal] Government is one of specific powers, and it can rightfully exercise only the powers expressly granted, and
those that may be “necessary and proper” to carry them into effect; all
others being reserved expressly to the States, or to the people. It results
necessarily, that those who claim to exercise a power under the
Constitution, are bound to shew [sic], that it is expressly granted, or that
it is necessary and proper, as a means to some of the granted powers. . .
The Constitution grants to Congress the power of imposing a duty on
imports for revenue; which power is abused by being converted into an
instrument for rearing up the industry of one section of the country on the
ruins of another. The violation then consists in using a power, granted for
one object, to advance another, and that by the sacrifice of the original
object. . .
That there exists a case which would justify the interposition of this
State [that is, the nullification of the tariff], and thereby compel the
General Government to abandon an unconstitutional power, or to make
an appeal to the amending power to confer it by express grant, the committee does not in the least doubt. . .
Questions for Reflection:
?
1. Why did Calhoun not want his
name attached to the Exposition?
2. Why is Calhoun’s theory of the
Constitution called a strict construction, or states rights, interpretation?
176 | Chapter 15
Clyde N. Wilson and W. Edwin Hemphill,
editors, The Papers of John C. Calhoun
(Columbia, S. C., 1977), 10: 445ff.
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Recalling wha
t you read
I. Jacksonian Democracy
1.
2.
3.
4.
In which state was Andrew Jackson born?
What were the Jackson years known for as far as politics were concerned?
How did Jackson see the role of government?
What was introduced into campaigns for the first time?
II. Jackson and the Democratic Party
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
How did Jackson become famous?
Where did he establish his law practice and his plantation?
How was he seen by his followers?
What was the “spoils system”?
What was the “kitchen cabinet”?
How did Jackson control Congress?
III. The Rise of the Whig Party
FOR
THOUGHT
1. What was
Jacksonian democracy?
2. Why did slavery
grow in the antebellum period in
South Carolina?
1. Why did Jackson veto the bill to renew the charter of the Second Bank of
the United States?
2. Who were the organizers of the Whig Party?
3. To whom did the Whigs appeal?
4. Name two Whig presidents.
IV. South Carolina on the Defensive
1. What was South Carolina excited about following the election of 1828?
2. What two things were troubling to South Carolina?
V. The Denmark Vesey Insurrection
1. What did the 1820 census show regarding the black population of South
Carolina?
2. What were white South Carolinians fearful of?
3. Why did Vesey take a leadership role in the planned slave revolt?
4. Who was Peter Prioleau?
5. What was the outcome of the planned revolt?
6. How did the legislature try to control the possibility of future rebellions?
7. How did attitudes among whites change regarding slavery?
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Recalling wha
t you read
VI. The Nullification Controversy
1.
2.
3.
Why did South Carolina leaders not want Congress to increase the tariff
on cotton and woolen cloth imported from Europe?
What were the positions of Thomas Cooper and Robert Turnbull on the
tariff?
What was the important point Calhoun made in his secretly written The
South Carolina Exposition and Protest?
VII. A National Debate on Nullification
1. What was Webster’s argument against nullification?
2. What were the positions of Jackson and Calhoun on this issue?
VIII. Nullifiers vs. Unionists
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
178 | Chapter 15
Who wrote the Fort Hill Letter and what did it support?
When a vote was taken, which side had the majority?
What was President Jackson’s reaction?
How did Congress support him?
What did Henry Clay and John Calhoun do to avoid a crisis and possible
civil war?