Why Jackson Was Blamed For The Nullification Crisis

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Jackson, President or King? Many hate him, many love him. I strongly believe Jackson was not in the wrong for the Nullification Crisis, but rather the opposite. The Nullification Crisis was South Carolina’s conflict against the U.S Government and Jackson by refusing to follow the Tariff of abominations, while threating to seceede. Jackson was blamed for this incident because of John C. Calhoun who incited everything, causing Jackson to lower the Tax of Abominations multiple times to appease the South, preventing the South from setting a terrible precedent. Jackson received hate for the Nullification Crisis, despite him trying to lower it to appease the South to stop them from seceding and setting a cataclysmic precedent. If he had done nothing, …show more content…

Calhoun, Jackson’s Vice President, his right-hand man, was the start of the Nullification Crisis. Calhoun anonymously released a pamphlet called “South Carolina Exposition and Protest” (Khan Acadamy, 2016) which proposed the theory of Nullification. Nullification was proclaiming a federal law issued by the government is void within a state’s border. He did this because of a terrible expensive tariff nicknamed “The Tariff of Abominations. Calhoun argued that “since the authority of the Federal Government derived from the Federal Government, states could nullify any law they considered unconstitutional.” (Khan Academy, 2016) This was a very unrealistic and terrible idea, as this would mean any state could nullify any law they wanted and blame it on being “unconstitutional”. Because of the pamphlet, South Carolina began to claim that The Tariff of Abominations was unconstitutional and planned to refuse to follow it. Jackson heard about this, and despite being a fan of the South, knew this would set the stage for the entire South to secede from the U.S, as he thought of “Nullification as a prelude into secession” (Khan Academy, 2016). So, Jackson began lowering The Tariff of Abominations to appease South Carolina and other …show more content…

Calhoun, which Jackson then fixed by lowering the Tariff of Abominations to the acceptable standards of South Carolina and prevented South Carolina from setting a precedent which would turn the U.S into utter and complete chaos. We have learned how John C. Calhoun stroked the fires with the “match” that was the “South Carolina Exposition and Protest” (Khan Academy, 1832). How Jackson fixed The Tariff of Abominations that was causing all the problems through the Tariff bills of 1832. As well as how Jackson prevented a horrifying precedent being set, that precedent giving us a glimpse into a horrifying United States through his speech against South Carolina’s seceding attempt. Without Jackson’s involvement in The Nullification Crisis, America would have become a down ridden, war torn, and impoverished nation that could not even hold what stiches it has left together. While Jackson was terrible for events such as the Indian Removal Act and the Trail of Tears, he prevented a terrible future from