it there must be no duties on imports, and that home
manufactures of needed articles for consumption would restrict the
foreign demand for the raw material. Besides, the South with its
slave labor could not indulge in manufacturing. A tariff on imports
meant protection to home industries and to free white labor, both
inimical to slavery. Some leading Southern statesmen, adherents
of slavery, had vehemently opposed the ratification of the Constitution
of 1787, on the ground that as it empowered Congress to levy import
duties, it would encourage and build up home industries, with free
labor; and they prophesied that with them slavery would eventually
become unprofitable and therefore unpopular, hence would die. This
idea never left the Southern mind, so, when the Confederacy of 1861
was formed, its Constitution (framed at Montgomery, Alabama)
prohibited such duties for the express reason that no branch of
industry was to be promoted in the new slave government, using this
language:

"Nor shall any duties or taxes on importations from foreign nations
be laid to promote or foster any branch of industry."(45)

This was then supposed to be the highest bulwark of slavery. Its
votaries understood its strength and weakness. Independent, well-
paid free labor and industries (46) would ennoble the men of toil,
bring wealth and power, build up populous towns and cities, and
consequently overwhelm, politically and otherwise, the institution
of slavery, or draw into successful social competition with plantation
life wealthy inhabitants who knew not slavery and its demoralizing
influences.

Already, in 1832, the effects of protection on the prosperity of
our country were manifest, especially since the Tariff Act of 1828,
which levied a duty equivalent to 45 per cent. ad valorem. The
Act of 1832 made a small reduction in the duties, but because it
was claimed it did not distribute them equally, nullification was
determined on as the remedy.

It was agreed by the strict constructionists of that day that a
State Legislature could not declare a law of the United States
void, but to do this the _people_ must speak through a convention.
Such a convention met in South Carolina, in November, 1832, and
passed a Nullification Ordinance, declaring the tariff acts "null
and void," not binding on the State, and that under them no duties
should be paid in the State after February 1, 1833.

Immediately thereafter medals were struck, i