toast the Mercury said "Amen," observing that there was but one way to preserve the Union, and that was to induce the majority to respect the rights and feelings of the minority; or, in other words, to induce the North and East to repeal or modify the "iniquitous measures by which the South" was "impoverished and enslaved." That the President alluded to this way was too evident to admit of the shadow of a doubt, said the Nullifiers, and to them appeared most ridiculous the interpretation of such papers as the National Intelligencer, with which the Courier agreed, that in view of the speeches which had preceded Jackson's toast it meant: "You may complain of the tariff, and perhaps with reason; but so long as it is the law, it shall as certainly be maintained as that my name is Andrew Jackson." The Mountaineer took the toast as a plain threat that any hostile feeling in any part of the country toward the Union must and should be put down; that the
Union would be preserved at all hazards.[1]
- ↑ Mercury, April 24, 27, 1830; Courier, April 26; Mountainneer, May 7.
