Details
CLAY, HENRY. Autograph letter signed as Secretary of State to William Jarvis, Ashland [Kentucky], 3 August 1833. One page, 4to, dampstains along left-hand edge, affecting but not obscuring text.
"THE GREAT COMPROMISER" ON THE NULLIFICATION CONTROVERSY AND THE NEED TO AVERT A FUTURE "CIVIL WAR"
An important political letter in which Senator Clay (who had been Secretary of State in the previous administration), alludes to the causes and dangers of the Nullification controversy, referring to Congressional compromises enacted to preserve "the American system" and prevent civil war. "...I deeply regretted the state of things which appeared to me to call for the measure of Compromise adopted in the last Session [of Congress]. It was a state of things mainly produced, in my opinion, by the triumph of Genl. [Andrew] Jackson over Mr. [John Quincy] Adams in 1828. To that event is to be attributed the origin and progress of the spread of Nullification in the South, which was victorious in Georgia because it coincided with the sentiments of Genl. Jackson, and failed in South Carolina, because it was opposed to his vindictive passions. My opinions about the American system are totally unchanged; but I distinctly saw that if nothing were done to preserve it at the last session, we should, at the next, witness its entire destruction or a Civil War. There was a concurrence of favorable circumstances, to avoid both calamities, and I endeavored to avail the Country of it....It should now be the effort of all to maintain unviolated the conditions of the Compromise...."
The Nullification crisis was the foremost instance of the sectional divisions which ultimately brought on, as Clay perceptively foresaw, civil war. Opposition to protective tariffs enacted by Congress in 1832, grew to such intensity, particularly in the south, that in November 1832, South Carolina'as legistlature called a statewide convention which adopted a Nullification Ordinance, proclaiming the tariffs void in that state as of 1 February 1833. President Jackson denounced their measure as treasonous, "uncompatible with the Union," and warned South Carolina that it must comply with the national law. Congress granted him emergency powers to employ the Army and Navy for enforcement. The threat was averted before the Ordinance of Nullification went into effect, however, by a Compromise Triff of 1833, sponsored by Clay and acceptable to both Jackson and the South. The South Carolina convention reassembled and rescinded the Ordinance of Nullification, but argued that their actions had been justified by the Federal government's reduction of tariff duties. William Jarvis (1770-1859) was an ardent supporter of the protective tariff.
"THE GREAT COMPROMISER" ON THE NULLIFICATION CONTROVERSY AND THE NEED TO AVERT A FUTURE "CIVIL WAR"
An important political letter in which Senator Clay (who had been Secretary of State in the previous administration), alludes to the causes and dangers of the Nullification controversy, referring to Congressional compromises enacted to preserve "the American system" and prevent civil war. "...I deeply regretted the state of things which appeared to me to call for the measure of Compromise adopted in the last Session [of Congress]. It was a state of things mainly produced, in my opinion, by the triumph of Genl. [Andrew] Jackson over Mr. [John Quincy] Adams in 1828. To that event is to be attributed the origin and progress of the spread of Nullification in the South, which was victorious in Georgia because it coincided with the sentiments of Genl. Jackson, and failed in South Carolina, because it was opposed to his vindictive passions. My opinions about the American system are totally unchanged; but I distinctly saw that if nothing were done to preserve it at the last session, we should, at the next, witness its entire destruction or a Civil War. There was a concurrence of favorable circumstances, to avoid both calamities, and I endeavored to avail the Country of it....It should now be the effort of all to maintain unviolated the conditions of the Compromise...."
The Nullification crisis was the foremost instance of the sectional divisions which ultimately brought on, as Clay perceptively foresaw, civil war. Opposition to protective tariffs enacted by Congress in 1832, grew to such intensity, particularly in the south, that in November 1832, South Carolina'as legistlature called a statewide convention which adopted a Nullification Ordinance, proclaiming the tariffs void in that state as of 1 February 1833. President Jackson denounced their measure as treasonous, "uncompatible with the Union," and warned South Carolina that it must comply with the national law. Congress granted him emergency powers to employ the Army and Navy for enforcement. The threat was averted before the Ordinance of Nullification went into effect, however, by a Compromise Triff of 1833, sponsored by Clay and acceptable to both Jackson and the South. The South Carolina convention reassembled and rescinded the Ordinance of Nullification, but argued that their actions had been justified by the Federal government's reduction of tariff duties. William Jarvis (1770-1859) was an ardent supporter of the protective tariff.