From the Articles of Confederation to the ratification of the Constitution in June, 21 1788, the concept of the power that is held between the state and the federal government in the United States was that of a blur. An example of this blur was the Nullification Crisis in which it was strongly supported by South Carolinian and vice President John Caldwell Calhoun and took place from 1832 to 1833 under the presidency of Andrew Jackson. Influenced heavily by constitutional philosophies such as the tenth amendment in which it states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”and also ideals of former presidents James Madison …show more content…
Before the passing of the first protective tariff in 1828, the economic state in which South Carolina was in had been weakening. One of the major cities in South Carolina as well as in the south,Charleston, saw a decrease in its exports, and an increase in unemployment. In addition, there had became threats of less representation in the government due to less productivity. In the famous debate between senators of South Carolina Robert Y. Hayne and of Massachusetts Daniel Webster also known as the Webster-Hayne debate where it showed how there was also an unbalance of political power between the North and the South as Hayne argued that the discontinuation of westward policies was to maintain the political and economic power in the north. Subsequently, following the tariff of 1828 and the lessened protective tariff of 1832, John C Calhoun thought that it was threatening to not only South Carolina but also the South economy as the tariff really only protected northern states industries. As a result the political stance in north carolina shifted more towards a nullified majority and the end result as the nullification ordinances. The advocation of the nullification ordinances led to an increase in productivity as seen in Charleston where there was shown that construction started to pop up minimizing