s one of the men who did not think the Missouri Compromise
was a good thing for the country. He therefore strongly opposed it.

The next clash between the free States and the slave States was caused by
the question of the tariff, or tax upon goods brought from foreign
countries. Not long after the Missouri Compromise was agreed upon,
Northern manufacturers were urging Congress to pass a high-tariff law.
They said that, inasmuch as factory labor in England was so much cheaper
than in this country, goods made in England could be sold for less money
here than our own factory-made goods, unless a law was passed requiring a
tax, or duty, to be paid upon the goods brought over. Such a tax was
called a protective tariff.

Calhoun, who voiced the feeling of the Southern planters, said: "This high
tariff is unfair, for, while it protects the Northern man, it makes us of
the South poorer, because we have to pay so high for the things we do not
make."

You understand, there were no factories in the South, for the people were
mostly planters. With the cheap slave labor, a Southern man could make
more money by raising rice, cotton, sugar, or tobacco than he could by
manufacturing. Also, it was thought that the soil and climate of the South
made that section better fitted for agriculture than for anything else.

"So the South should be allowed," said Calhoun, "to buy the manufactured
goods--such as cheap clothing for her slaves, and household tools and
farming implements--where she can buy them at the lowest prices."

[Illustration: The Home of Daniel Webster, Marshfield, Mass.]

But in spite of this bitter opposition in the South, Congress passed the
high-tariff law in 1828, and another in 1832.

The people of South Carolina were indignant. So, under the guidance of
Calhoun, some of the leading men there met in convention and declared: "We
here and now nullify the tariff laws." By these words they meant that the
laws should not be carried out in South Carolina. Then they added: "If the
United States Government tries to enforce these laws on our soil, South
Carolina will go out of the Union and form a separate nation."

Andrew Jackson was at that time President of the United States. Although
he himself did not favor a high tariff, he was firm in his purpose that
whatever law Congress might pass should be enforced in every State in the
Union. When the news came to him of what South Carolina had done, he was
quietly smoking his