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Nullification Controversy in South Carolina
The Fourth of July furnished the Nullifiers another opportunity to parade every uniform. Their toasts were steeped in the nullification doctrines, and many were very ungenerous toward their enemies, Jackson and the Union party.[1]
- ↑ Mercury, July 6, 1833; Messenger, July 10, 24; Niles' Register, August 31. The following are examples of the more ungenerous toasts: "Nullification: a shield against which the poisoned darts of aspiring demagogues and the puny efforts of disappointed ambition have struck in vain. It has preserved the Union from dissolution, the Constitution from infraction, and our government from consolidation." "Andrew Jackson: a political lunatic, exempt from responsibility for his acts, and dependent for their propriety or folly entirely upon the sanity of his keepers." "Drayton, Blair, Mitchell, and all other southern advocates of the tariff and bloody bill: may they ever lie hard, have bad dreams, and die of lingering diseases and leave few friends to weep for them when dead." One editor, in looking over the toasts given by the "plain farmers and working men" of the state, was astonished at the knowledge of the character of our institutions and of the political history of the times displayed by those whose opportunities of education were known to have been extremely limited. Though couched in some instances in homely language, they nevertheless showed that all had been awakened during the recent struggle to an investigation of the affairs of the nation and of the principles on which the government was founded. The editor averred that if no other good had grown out of the contest, this general diffusion of intelligence, which he believed had placed South Carolina people as a mass ahead of any others in the United States for political knowledge, should be set down as great gain (Messenger, July 10).
