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Nullification Controversy in South Carolina
victory.[1] The returns showed that there would be in the Senate 32 State Rights men and 13 Union men, and in the House 93 of the former and 31 of the latter.[2]
- ↑ Patriot, October 15, 1834; Courier, October 16; Mercury, October 16. The State Rights men declared that the malpractice of their opponents was all that accounted for their increase over the last election. A writer in the Courier, January 1, 1835, thus described the preceding fall elections: "That period arrived and the debasing struggle of bribery, corruption, and intrigue was conducted with a virulence that surpassed all that had been before enacted amongst us. The virtuous man forgot the precepts he had inculcated and practiced; honorable men laid aside for the time the badge that they valued dearer than life; the rich man opened his purse strings to feed the unprincipled villains who were willing to sell their birthright for a mess of pottage; the working-man abandoned his daily employment for the haunts of vice, with the view of obtaining from among the filthy horde some creature whom he might suborn to vote for the cause he advocated; all, all were engaged in the unholy work of breaking down the very pillars of virtue, upon which rests the fabric of our government."
- ↑ Mercury, October 30, 1834; Journal, November 8. The popular vote was roughly estimated at 15,000 Union and 2o,oop State Rights, by the Mountaineer, November 1, and the Journal, November 8; at from 17,000 to 18,000 Union and 21,000 to 22,000 State Rights, by the Patriot, October 25; and more closely at 17,446 Union and 22,901 State Rights, 18,242 Union and 22,742 State Rights, 20,601 Union and 23,085 State Rights, by the Patriot, November 6, 11, and 15, 1834. The returns were alleged by the Union men to show diminished majorities in the districts where the Nullifiers had been hitherto in the ascendancy, and increased vote of the Union party in those districts where they held the power (Journal, October 25). The State Rights men claimed that their party polled a smaller vote than two years previously because the excitement was not so
