legislature met in November for that body to feel justified in making an official declaration for the state. Both houses approved a set of resolutions which asserted the right of the people or the legislature of any state "to every extent not limited, to remonstrate against violations of the fundamental compact … between the people of the different states with each other as separate independent sovereignties." All tariff acts, the object of which was not the raising of revenue nor the regulation of foreign commerce but the promotion of domestic manufactures, were pronounced violations of the Constitution, "in its spirit," which ought to be repealed. They also denied the constitutional power of Congress to construct internal improvements.[1]
By this time John C. Calhoun saw clearly the danger to which the power of Congress to pass protective tariffs might lead; this power might "make one section tributary to another, and be
- ↑ And, having become somewhat exercised over the recent activities of the American Colonization Society, they resolved that, since it was not an object of national interest, Congress had no power in any way to patronize or direct appropriations for its benefit. The South Carolina senators in Congress were "instructed" and the representatives "requested" to act in accordance with these views (Report and Resolutions of the Special Committee of the Senate on the Subject of State Rights. Pamphlet).
