The Project Gutenberg EBook of Remarks of Mr. Calhoun of South Carolina on
the bill to prevent the interference of certain federal officers in elections: delivered in the Senate of the United States February 22, 1839, by John C. Calhoun

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Title: Remarks of Mr. Calhoun of South Carolina on the bill to prevent the interference of certain federal officers in elections: delivered in the Senate of the United States February 22, 1839

Author: John C. Calhoun

Posting Date: July 23, 2008 [EBook #740]
Release Date: December, 1996

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REMARKS OF JOHN C. CALHOUN ***

Produced by Anthony J. Adam

John C. Calhoun,
"On Nullification and the Force Bill."
U.S. Senate,
15 February 1833

Mr. President:

At the last session of Congress, it was avowed on all sides that the
public debt, as to all practical purposes, was in fact paid, the small
surplus remaining being nearly covered by the money in the Treasury and
the bonds for duties which had already accrued; but with the arrival of
this event our last hope was doomed to be disappointed. After a long
session of many months, and the most earnest effort on the part of
South Carolina and the other Southern States to obtain relief, all that
could be effected was a small reduction of such a character that, while
it diminished the amount of burden, it distributed that burden more
unequally than even the obnoxious Act of 1828; reversing the principle
adopted by the Bill of 1816, of laying higher duties on the unprotected
than the protected articles, by repealing almost entirely the duties
laid upon the former, and imposing the burden almost entirely on the
latter. It was thus that, instead of relief--instead of an equal
distribution of burdens and benefits of the government, on the payment
of the debt, as had been fondly anticipated--the duties were so
arranged as to be, in fact, bounties on one side and taxation on the
other; thus placing the two great sections of the country in direct
conflict in reference to its fiscal action, and thereby letting in that
flood of political corruption which threatens to sweep aw