Clay Introduces Compromise Bill

The object of Clay was to save all that he could save of the protective policy, and to postpone further action upon the tariff to a more auspicious day.

Continuing The South Carolina Nullification Crisis,
our selection from Life of Andrew Jackson by James Parton published in 1860. The selection is presented in seven easy 5 minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in The South Carolina Nullification Crisis.

Time: 1832

On February 12th Clay introduced his celebrated Compromise Bill for the regulation of the tariff. It differed from the measure devised by the Administration and engineered by Verplanck chiefly in this: Verplanck proposed a sudden, and Clay a gradual, reduction of duties. The Verplanck Bill tended mainly to the conciliation of the Nullifiers; the Clay compromise, to the preservation of the manufacturers. Clay’s bill provided that on the last day of the year 1833 all ad-valorem duties of more than 20 per cent, should be reduced one-tenth; on the last day of the year 1835 there should be a second and a similar reduction; another, to the same amount, at the close of 1837; and so on, reducing the duties every two years, until on June 31, 1842, all duties should be reduced to or below the maximum of 20 per cent. The object of Clay was to save all that he could save of the protective policy, and to postpone further action upon the tariff to a more auspicious day.

The most remarkable narrative left by Colonel Benton for the entertainment of posterity is that which he gives, in his Thirty Years ‘ View, of the strange coalition between Clay and Calhoun for the passage of the Compromise Bill. Clay, he tells us, had introduced the measure into the Senate, but the manufacturers could not be reconciled to some of its provisions; and without their consent nothing could be done. At this stage of the affair Senator John M. Clayton, of Delaware, a protectionist, gave Clay a piece of advice, which he followed. “These South Carolinians,” said Clayton to Clay, “are acting very badly, but they are fine fellows, and it is a pity to let Jackson hang them.” He urged Clay to make a “new move” with his bill, get it referred to a select committee, and so modify it as to render it acceptable to a majority.

The bill was referred to a select committee, accordingly, and that select committee was appointed, of course, by Judge White, the President of the Senate. Respecting the appointment of this important committee Judge White has left on record a little tale which shows, among other things, how keenly the President watched the proceedings of Congress, and how resolved he was to deprive the Opposition of all the glory of pacificating the country.

“Before the members of the committee were named,” writes Judge White, “I received a note from the President requesting me to go to his house, as he wished to see me. I returned for answer that while the Senate was in session it was out of my power to go, but that as soon as it adjourned, I would call on him. I felt the high responsibility which rested on me in appointing the committee: the fate of the bill, in a good degree, depended on it; and if the bill failed, we would probably be involved in a most painful conflict. I endeavored to make the best selection I could, by taking some tariff men, some anti-tariff men, one Nullifier, and Clay himself — hoping that if a majority of a committee, in which all interests and views were represented, could agree on anything, it was likely it would pass.

Taking these principles for my guide. I wrote down the names of seven members. Clayton, of Delaware, being one; and immediately before we adjourned handed the names to the secretary, with directions to put them on the Journal, and in the course of the evening waited on the President. Soon after we met, he mentioned that he had wished to see me on the subject of appointing a committee on Clay’s bill, to ask that Clayton might not be put on it; as he was hostile to the Administration and unfriendly to McLane, he feared he would use his endeavor to have a preference given to Clay’s bill over that of the Secretary of the Treasury, or words to that effect. I observed, in answer, that it would always give me great pleasure to conform to the wishes of my political friends, whenever I could do so with propriety; but that the Treasury Bill had been so altered and mangled, and that, as I understood, in a good degree by the votes of his own party, that it had but few friends; that we seemed to be on the eve of a civil war, and that, for the sake of averting such a calamity, I would further all in my power any measure, come from whom it might, which would give peace to the country; and that any bill having that for its object was esteemed by me a measure above party, and any man who was the author of it was welcome to all the credit he could gain by it. But, at all events, it was too late to talk on the subject, as I had handed the names of the committee to the secretary before we adjourned; and that as I had a very high opinion of Mr. Clayton’s talents and liberal feelings. I had put him on the committee, without knowing he was personally unkind to the Secretary of the Treasury. He then asked me if I could not see the secretary of the Senate that evening, and substitute some other name for Clayton, before the Journal was made up. I told him I could not —- in my judgment it would be wrong; and then the interview terminated.”

Clayton was retained on the committee, therefore, and it was directly owing to his tact and firmness, according to Colonel Benton, that the bill was passed. He began by making it a sine qua non that the Compromise Bill, with all the amendments agreed upon, should be voted for by Calhoun and the other Nullifiers, so as to commit them to the principles involved in the bill, and to give the manufacturers an assurance of the perpetuity of the compact. He was equally explicit in demanding that Clay, also, should record his vote upon the bill and its amendments.

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