Jackson Prepares Response

On the 6th of November the President sent secret orders to the collector of the port of Charleston of an energetic character.

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

He [the SC Governor] said more:

If the sacred soil of Carolina should be polluted by the footsteps of an invader, or be stained with the blood of her citizens, shed in her defense. I trust in Almighty God that no son of hers, native or adopted, who has been nourished at her bosom, or been cherished by her bounty, will be found raising a parricidal arm against our common mother. And even should she stand alone, in this great struggle for constitutional liberty, encompassed by her enemies. I trust that there will not be found, in the wide limits of the State, one recreant son who will not fly to the rescue, and be ready to lay down his life in her defense. South Carolina cannot be drawn down from the proud eminence on which she has now placed herself, except by the hands of her own children. Give her but a fair field, and she asks no more. Should she succeed, hers will be glory enough to have led the way in the noble work of reform. And if, after making these efforts due to her own honor, and the greatness of the cause, she is destined utterly to fail, the bitter fruits of that failure, not to herself alone, but to the entire South, nay, to the whole Union, will attest her virtue.”

The Legislature instantly responded to the message by passing the acts requisite for carrying the ordinance into practical effect. The Governor was authorized to accept the services of volunteers, who were to hold themselves in readiness to march at a moment’s warning. The State resounded with the noise of warlike preparation. Blue cockades, with a palmetto button in the center, appeared upon thousands of hats, bonnets, and bosoms. Medals were struck ere long, bearing this inscription: “John C. Calhoun, First President of the Southern Confederacy.” The Legislature proceeded soon to fill the vacancy created in the Senate of the United States by the election of Hayne to the governorship, John C. Calhoun, Vice-President of the United States. was selected, and he accepted the seat. He resigned the Vice-Presidency and began his journey to Washington in December, leaving his State in the wildest ferment.

Two months of the autumn of this year General Jackson spent in visiting his beloved Hermitage. But he had had an eye upon South Carolina. Soon after his return to Washington in October came news that the convention of the South Carolina Nullifiers was appointed to meet on November 19th. On the 6th of that month the President sent secret orders to the collector of the port of Charleston of an energetic character:

Upon the supposition that the measures of the convention or the acts of the Legislature may consist, in part at least, in declaring the laws of the United States imposing duties unconstitutional, and null and void, and in forbidding their execution and the collection of the duties within the State of South Carolina, you will, immediately after it shall be formally announced, resort to all the means provided by the laws, and particularly by the Act of March 2, 1799, to counteract the measures which may be adopted to give effect to that declaration.

For this purpose, you will consider yourself authorized to employ the revenue cutters which may be within your district, and provide as many boats and employ as many inspectors as may be necessary for the execution of the law and for the purposes of the act already referred to. You will, moreover, cause a sufficient number of officers of cutters and inspectors to be placed on board and in charge of every vessel arriving from a foreign port or place with goods, wares, or merchandise, as soon as practicable after her first coming within your district, and direct them to anchor her in some safe place within the harbor, where she may be secure from any act of violence and from any unauthorized attempt to discharge her cargo before a compliance with the laws; and they will remain on board of her at such place until the reports and entries required by law shall be made, both of vessel and cargo, and the duties paid, or secured to be paid to your satisfaction, and until the regular permit shall be granted for landing the cargo; and it will be your duty, against any forcible attempt, to retain and defend the custody of the said vessel, by the aid of the officers of the customs, inspectors, and officers of the cutters, until the requisitions of the law shall be fully complied with; and in case of any attempt to remove her or her cargo from the custody of the officers of the customs, by the form of legal process from State tribunals, you will not yield the custody to such attempt, but will consult the law officer of the district, and employ such means as, under the particular circumstances, you may legally do, to resist such process and prevent the removal of the vessel and cargo.

Should the entry of such vessel and cargo not be completed and the duties paid, or secured to be paid by bond or bonds with sureties to your satisfaction, within the time limited by law, you will at the expiration of that time take possession of the cargo, and land and store the same at Castle Pinckney or some other safe place, and in due time, if the duties are not paid, sell the same, according to the direction of the fifty-sixth section of the Act of March 2, 1799: and you are authorized to provide such stores as may be necessary for that purpose.”

A few days after the dispatch of these orders General Scott was quietly ordered to Charleston, for the purpose, as the President confidentially informed the collector, “of superintending the safety of the ports of the United States in that vicinity.” Other changes were made in the disposition of naval and military forces, designed to enable the President to act with swift efficiency if there should be occasion to act.

More information here and here, and below.

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