The Probert Encyclopaedia of General Information

NULLIFICATION

In America, nullification is the formal suspension by a State government of the operation of a law of the United States within the territory under the jurisdiction of the State. It was first suggested as the rightful remedy in the case of illegal stretches of Federal legislative authority, in the Kentucky Resolutions of 1799. Practical exemplifications of its operation were afforded by Pennsylvania in the Olmstead case in 1809, by Georgia in the matter of the Cherokees 1825 to 1830, etc. But the theory was most completely developed by John C Calhoun, and its most important application was in South Carolina in 1832, in her protest against the tariff of that year, which was exceedingly distasteful to the Southern States. Calhoun's nullification contemplated a suspension of the objectionable law by an aggrieved State, until three-fourths of the States in national convention should overrule the nullification. The question turned upon the dogma of State sovereignty. The State Legislature of 1832, made up of nullifiers, put the State in a position for war and passed various acts resuming powers expressly prohibited to the States by the Constitution. On December the 11th, President Jackson issued the 'nullification proclamation', declaring nullification to be incompatible with the existence of the Union and contrary to the Constitution. On February the 1st, 1833, a bill called the 'bloody bill', was passed by Congress, authorizing the enforcement of the tariff. On February the 26th, Clay submitted a compromise tariff bill, which was enacted. In consequence of this the South Carolina Convention repealed the nullification ordinance on March the 16th, 1833.
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