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Details
VAN BUREN, Martin. Autograph letter signed ("M Van Buren") as Vice President, TO ATTORNEY GENERAL BENJAMIN F. BUTLER, Washington, 9 March 1833. 4 pages, 4to (9 11/16 x 7 7/8 in.), in fine condition.
"EXCITING SCENES" IN CONGRESS DURING THE NULLIFICATION CRISIS: VAN BUREN DESCRIBES PASSAGE OF THE FORCE BILL. NOW, "EVERY EYE IS DIRECTED TOWARDS S. CAROLINA"
A scant four days after his inauguration, the new Vice President (President Pro Tem of the Senate) describes the tension following the the passage of the Force Bill in response to South Carolina's attempt to nullify the Tariff of Abominations. As of February 1, 1833, South Carolina had declared, it would be illegal for the Federal Government to collect duties within the borders of their state. Jackson, condemned nullification as "insurrection," and responded by asking Congress to grant him authority to use the Army or any means necessary to enforce collecting the tariff. The Force Bill, with support in debate from Daniel Webster, passed on February 28 by an overwhelming majority. An incensed Calhoun and the South Carolina delegation walked out of the Senate in protest.
After the "exciting scenes through which we have passed," Van Buren tells Butler that a new spirit of reconciliation prevails in the Senate: "I...witnessed a very general disposition on the part of the rejectors [those favoring nullification] to be civil. Most of them came up to me & shook hands. With Webster that ceremony did not take place until the inauguration ball." He expresses his belief that the crisis is nearly over: "Every eye is directed towards S. Carolina. Her delegation went off in a great rage in consequence of the passage of the Enforcement Bill by so unprecedented a majority. Her course is not certain but my impression is that she will revoke her ordinance but denounce bitterly the enforcement law & possibly nullify it although that madness is not probable." Van Buren is critical of the nullifiers' efforts: "The crusade has been an unfortunate one..." and they have "been too heavily pressed by the peculiarity of their position to allow them to sustain their eminent[?] reputations...Those who would have been most willing to court them if successful will now be foremost to assault them."
South Carolina did in fact pass an act nullifying the Force Bill, but as Van Buren predicted, nullification failed to win support outside South Carolina and a proposed compromise tariff eventually led to the revocation of the ordinance of nullification. The crisis would pass, this time, without violence.
"EXCITING SCENES" IN CONGRESS DURING THE NULLIFICATION CRISIS: VAN BUREN DESCRIBES PASSAGE OF THE FORCE BILL. NOW, "EVERY EYE IS DIRECTED TOWARDS S. CAROLINA"
A scant four days after his inauguration, the new Vice President (President Pro Tem of the Senate) describes the tension following the the passage of the Force Bill in response to South Carolina's attempt to nullify the Tariff of Abominations. As of February 1, 1833, South Carolina had declared, it would be illegal for the Federal Government to collect duties within the borders of their state. Jackson, condemned nullification as "insurrection," and responded by asking Congress to grant him authority to use the Army or any means necessary to enforce collecting the tariff. The Force Bill, with support in debate from Daniel Webster, passed on February 28 by an overwhelming majority. An incensed Calhoun and the South Carolina delegation walked out of the Senate in protest.
After the "exciting scenes through which we have passed," Van Buren tells Butler that a new spirit of reconciliation prevails in the Senate: "I...witnessed a very general disposition on the part of the rejectors [those favoring nullification] to be civil. Most of them came up to me & shook hands. With Webster that ceremony did not take place until the inauguration ball." He expresses his belief that the crisis is nearly over: "Every eye is directed towards S. Carolina. Her delegation went off in a great rage in consequence of the passage of the Enforcement Bill by so unprecedented a majority. Her course is not certain but my impression is that she will revoke her ordinance but denounce bitterly the enforcement law & possibly nullify it although that madness is not probable." Van Buren is critical of the nullifiers' efforts: "The crusade has been an unfortunate one..." and they have "been too heavily pressed by the peculiarity of their position to allow them to sustain their eminent[?] reputations...Those who would have been most willing to court them if successful will now be foremost to assault them."
South Carolina did in fact pass an act nullifying the Force Bill, but as Van Buren predicted, nullification failed to win support outside South Carolina and a proposed compromise tariff eventually led to the revocation of the ordinance of nullification. The crisis would pass, this time, without violence.