Page "Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions" Paragraph 28

During the " nullification crisis " of 1828 – 1833, South Carolina passed an Ordinance of Nullification purporting to nullify two federal tariff laws.

South Carolina asserted that the Tariff of 1828 and the Tariff of 1832 were beyond the authority of the Constitution, and therefore were " null, void, and no law, nor binding upon this State, its officers or citizens ".

Andrew Jackson issued a proclamation against the doctrine of nullification, stating: " I consider … the power to annul a law of the United States, assumed by one State, incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed.

" He also denied the right to secede: " The Constitution … forms a government not a league .… To say that any State may at pleasure secede from the Union is to say that the United States is not a nation.