Page:Nullification Controversy in South Carolina.djvu/380

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The Test Oath
361

a Union press, were said to be the only ones of either party which expressed dissatisfaction. The former objected because the treason bill was dropped, and the latter because it claimed that if a close examination and literal interpretation were made, it would be found that the oath and explanation still demanded allegiance to the state and only obedience to the United States, which to the editor seemed to be giving paramount obligation to the state. He thought that the Union party had disgracefully yielded all. But even this one Union leader, after expressing his views, determined to speak of it no more.[1]

On the day after the compromise was reached came the election of the governor of the state. George McDuffie received the unanimous vote of the Union party as well as of his own. Apparently concord was restored in South Carolina. The Union men would take the oath, but whether the bitterness of party feeling was to be much allayed was questionable. It would evidently be long before it was entirely extinguished.[2]

The year 1835 opened with nearly every editor in the state doing his utmost to promote harmony.

  1. Mountaineer, December 13, 1834; Messenger, January 14, 1835.
  2. Messenger, December 17, 1834; Niles' Register, December 20.