is generally known as
the "States Rights" or "Strict Construction" party.

In 1824 there was a very large increase in protective duties. In 1828 a
still higher tariff act, the so-called "Bill of Abominations," was
passed, avowedly for the purpose of protection. The passage of these
acts caused great discontent, especially among the Southern states,
which were strictly agricultural. They felt that the great burden of
this increased tariff fell on them, as they consumed, but did not
produce, manufactured articles. Under such conditions the Southern
states questioned the constitutionality of the imposition. Calhoun
himself now perceived that the North and the South represented diverse
tendencies. The North was outstripping the South in population and
wealth, and already by the tariff acts was, as he believed, selfishly
levying taxes for its sole benefit. The minority must, he insisted, be
protected from "the tyranny of the majority." In his first important
political essay, "The South Carolina Exposition," prepared by him in the
summer of 1828, he showed how this should be done. To him it was clear
that the Federal Constitution was a limited instrument, by which the
sovereign states had delegated to the Federal government certain general
powers. The states could not, without violating the constitutional
compact, interfere with the activities of the Federal government so long
as the government confined itself to its proper sphere; but the attempt
of Congress, or any other department of the Federal government, to
exercise any power which might alter the nature of the instrument would
be an act of usurpation. The right of judging such an infraction
belonged to the state, being an attribute of sovereignty of which the
state could not be deprived without being reduced to a wholly
subordinate condition. As a remedy for such a breach of compact the
state might resort to nullification (q.v.), or, as a last resort, to
secession from the Union. Such doctrines were not original with Calhoun,
but had been held in various parts of the Union from time to time. It
remained for him, however, to submit them to a rigid analysis and reduce
them to a logical form.

Meantime the friendship between Calhoun and Jackson had come to an end.
While a member of President Monroe's cabinet, Calhoun had favoured the
reprimanding of General Jackson (q.v.) for his high-handed course in
Florida in 1818, during the first Seminole War. In 1831 W.H. Crawford,