Last Best Hope of Earth

Tag: Nullification Crisis

  • The Responsiveness of the Courts

    baltimore
    Map of Baltimore, showing construction and location of Barron’s wharf.

    The Nullification Crisis had an impact on the jurisprudence of American law, changing the interaction of the federal government with the states.

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  • The Nullification Crisis

    edward_livingston2c_u-s-_secretary_of_state
    Edward Livingston as Secretary of State.

    John Calhoun and his like-minded supporters hoped that nullification would become a legitimate alternative to secession for the South. Nullification was the doctrine that Calhoun believed meant that states could nullify a federal law, on the basis that states had their own sovereignty and the federal government could not infringe on that sovereignty. See Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: Transformation of America, 1815-1848, 402. This approach was designed to primarily perpetuate the institution of slavery, without the conflict culminating in secession, or worse, civil war.

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