Constitutional systems and principles

Nullification Ordinance

The Ordinance of Nullification was made by the State of South Carolina in response to tariffs of 1828 and 1832. It declared the tariffs null and void in South Carolina and led President Jackson to threaten to send troops to enforce the federal laws. This speaks volumes about the tenuous nature of the Union, particularly before the Civil War in which state's believed they to possess a great deal of independence within a highly federalized union. It shows the nature of the Union in the time to be truly as a Union of states and that states, in particular Southern States, believed they to have rights over the federal government.

The Ordinance of Nullification specifies that the state of South Carolina believes the tariffs of the federal government are "the giving of bounties to classes and individuals engaged in particular employments at the expense and to the injury and oppression of other classes and individuals," meaning that the protection afforded in the tariffs is not given to them and they will suffer because of it. This reflects a regional attitude grounded in the states and not as the nation as a whole. The Ordinance makes specific statements towards the "portions of the Confederacy" and such statements reflect the nature of the union to be tenuous at the states to believe them to be semi-independent and semi- autonomous. In this case South Carolina is determining what is "unauthorized by the Constitution," a power that is supposed to be held in the federal government.

This act, in which South Carolina rejects the federal government's role by stating its decision to "prevent the enforcement and arrest the operation of the said acts," according to its own courts and governing bodies. They then take it a step farther in what appears to directly challenge the federal government and can easily be seen as foreshadowing its later secession in which South Carolina says as a state that (we), "Do further Declare that we wil not submit to the application of force, on the part of the Federal Government." This bold statement is challenged by President Andrew Jackson, and as unlikely as it is for a state to stand up to federal force, it is very revealing of the nature of the union. South Carolina, it appears, is ready to fight on the issue on taxation and withdraw from the union to form its own government as a sovereign nation. Surely South Carolina could not have been the only state such opposed to the tariffs and with such strong convictions ready to become independent, as it felt the federal government was not doing them any advantage, but only a disservice. Foreshadowing the looming Civil War, the nature of the Union at this point is one in which state's believe themselves the right to withdraw and apply the federal government's decisions where it sees fitting. Even as early as Andrew Jackson's Presidency the federal government has to threaten and use force to implement its policies. To the states, the union is merely a confederation, yet the federal government believes otherwise.