Nullification Crisis Timeline

The Tariff of 1816 included protective features and received support across the nation, including from John C. Calhoun and fellow South Carolinian William Lowndes.

Image source: Tariff of 1816

Sponsored by Henry Clay, the Tariff of 1824 established a general protection level of 35 percent and raised duties on several industrial and agricultural products. Andrew Jackson supported it in the Senate, and President James Monroe signed it on March 25.

William Branch Giles helped persuade the Virginia legislature to pass resolutions denying Congress's power to enact protective tariffs and citing the Virginia Resolutions of 1798 and Madison's defense of them.

The highly protective Tariff of 1828 was largely developed by Martin Van Buren, with Silas Wright Jr. preparing its main provisions. It was partly intended to help elect Andrew Jackson, passed over Southern opposition, and was signed by President John Quincy Adams.

Image source: Tariff of Abominations

In February 1832, Henry Clay delivered a three-day Senate speech calling for a new tariff schedule and an expansion of his American System.

Image source: Tariff of 1832

Jackson signed the Tariff of 1832 on July 14, 1832, shortly after vetoing the Bank of the United States recharter bill. South Carolina nullifiers found no meaningful compromise in the measure.

After the Panic of 1819 devastated South Carolina, state leaders including William Smith and Thomas Cooper blamed economic problems on the Tariff of 1816 and national internal-improvement projects.

South Carolina's first effort at nullification occurred in 1822, preceding the later tariff confrontation with the federal government.

Image source: Nullification crisis

In August 1823, Charleston sheriff Francis G. Deliesseline boarded the British merchantman Homer and arrested Henry Elkison, a Jamaican sailor, under South Carolina's Negro Seaman Act.

After the final vote on the Tariff of 1828, South Carolina's congressional delegation held two caucuses; the second took place at Senator Robert Y. Hayne's home.

John C. Calhoun completed his Exposition in late 1828. It argued that the Tariff of 1828 was unconstitutional because it favored manufacturing over commerce and agriculture.

Image source: South Carolina Exposition and Protest

Despite a statewide campaign by James Hamilton Jr. and George McDuffie, the South Carolina legislature rejected a proposal to call a nullification convention at the end of 1828.

At the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterborough, James Hamilton Jr. launched the formal nullification campaign. He called for Jefferson's supposed rightful remedy of nullification.

Radicals and conservatives remained divided in South Carolina through 1829 and 1830. The 1830 election focused on the tariff and the need for a state convention.

During the winter of 1831 and spring of 1832, James Hamilton Jr. held conventions and rallies across South Carolina to mobilize the nullification movement.

The States Rights and Free Trade Association was formed in Charleston in July 1831 and expanded throughout South Carolina, organizing opposition to protective tariffs.

Published on July 26, 1831, the address repeated and expanded the constitutional arguments Calhoun had made in the Exposition.

The 1832 South Carolina election was marked by tension and violence and presented voters with a clear choice between nullifiers and unionists. The nullifiers won.

After the nullifiers' victory, James Hamilton Jr. called the South Carolina legislature into a special session on October 20, 1832, to consider a convention.

A South Carolina convention adopted the Ordinance of Nullification on November 24, 1832. It declared the Tariffs of 1828 and 1832 unconstitutional and unenforceable within the state after February 1, 1833.

South Carolina initiated military preparations. Governor Robert Hayne established 2,000 mounted minutemen and 25,000 infantry who could march to Charleston in the event of military conflict.

By 1860, when South Carolina became the first state to secede, it was more internally united than any other Southern state. Its leaders had prepared the state for the issues of 1860 over roughly thirty years.

Image source: South Carolina in the American Civil War

When Andrew Jackson became president in March 1829, he was aware of the turmoil caused by the Tariff of Abominations. He continued to regard protection as justified for goods important to military preparedness.

Image source: Andrew Jackson

At the traditional Democratic celebration of Thomas Jefferson's birthday, Jackson publicly clarified his position on the constitutional conflict and the limits of state resistance.

Jackson vetoed the Maysville Road Bill in May 1830 and followed it with additional vetoes of internal-improvement projects before Congress adjourned.

The National Republican convention in Baltimore in December 1831 nominated Henry Clay for president. The convention also featured the conflict over rechartering the Bank of the United States.

Image source: 1832 United States presidential election

In December 1831, Jackson recommended a spirit of concession and conciliation toward the crisis, but he did not retreat from his conviction that states could not nullify federal law.

The conflict between Clay and Jackson over rechartering the Bank of the United States reopened a long-running political dispute. The recharter proposal was formally introduced in Congress on January 6, 1832.

Martin Van Buren was selected as Jackson's running mate at the Democratic National Convention held in May 1832.

On December 3, 1832, Jackson sent his fourth annual message to Congress. The administration proposed revising militia laws so federal customs laws could be enforced with militia and regular military forces.

Although no formal negotiated agreement joined the measures, it became clear that the Force Bill and Compromise Tariff of 1833 were politically and practically linked in resolving the crisis.

On March 1, 1833, Congress passed the Force Bill, authorizing the president to use military forces against South Carolina, and the Compromise Tariff of 1833, which negotiated reductions satisfactory to South Carolina.

The South Carolina convention reconvened and repealed its Nullification Ordinance on March 15, 1833, ending the state's formal attempt to block the tariffs.

Three days after repealing the Nullification Ordinance, South Carolina nullified the Force Bill as a symbolic statement that it still rejected the principle of federal coercion.

On May 1, 1833, Jackson predicted that the tariff was only a pretext and that disunion and a Southern confederacy were the real objectives of the nullification movement.