NNEC - The 1820s and 1830s (Lesson)
The 1820s and 1830s
Missouri Compromise of 1820
The state constitution proposed by Missouri allowed slavery. Half the states in the Union allowed slavery while the other half did not; statehood for Missouri would upset the U.S. Senate's equal balance between proslavery and antislavery senators. This issue was resolved when Congress passed the Missouri Compromise. The act said Maine would be admitted to the Union as a free state, Missouri would be admitted as a slave state, and slavery would be prohibited in the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase (north of the 36-30 parallel which was the southern border of Missouri) except for the state of Missouri itself. Once again, half the states would allow slavery while the other half did not, and the Senate would retain its equal balance between proslavery and antislavery senators - until the next state asked to enter the Union.
ONE DATE EVERYONE GETS WRONG
It seems almost everyone is unable to remember the year—or even the decade—in which Congress enacted the Missouri Compromise. It was 1820. The compromise admitted Missouri to the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free one, but it also divided the rest of the land obtained from France by the Louisiana Purchase into slave and free territory at 36°30’ north latitude, Missouri’s southern boundary. Although this legislation satisfied moderates for a generation, by mid-century the slavery issue was becoming ever more intense.
It was addressed again by the Compromise of 1850; the 1820 act itself was repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which permitted the residents of those territories to decide the slavery question for themselves. Passed in the forlorn hope of maintaining peace, the new legislation instead triggered a bloody civil war in Kansas Territory between proslavery and antislavery settlers.
The violence of the 1850s throws the hopeless compromises of that decade into high relief and makes us less aware of the earlier measure.
Nat Turner
An African American preacher from Virginia, Nat Turner (1800-1831,) believed his mission on Earth was to free his people from slavery. Turner saw a solar eclipse as a message from above, he led a slave rebellion on four Virginia plantations on August 21, 1831, in Southampton County.
Turner had been born on Benjamin Turner’s plantation in 1800; Benjamin Turner allowed Nat to be instructed in reading, writing, and religion. During his childhood, Nat was sold three times and was hired out to John Travis’ farm in the 1820s. During the 1820s, Turner became a “fire and brimstone” preacher.
Turner and six other participants killed the Travis family, confiscated weapons and horses, sought the help of 75 other enslaved people, and killed 55 whites. Turner hid for 6 weeks before he was caught.
The rebellion is commonly called Nat Turner’s Rebellion or the Southampton Insurrection because it occurred near Southampton, Virginia. Turner was captured, tried, and executed along with 16 of his followers at Jerusalem, Virginia in November 1831.
In an attempt to stop such uprisings, white leaders passed new, more stringent laws to further limit the activities of slaves and to strengthen the institution of slavery. (Slave codes were in existence before Nat Turner’s Rebellion, but lawmakers in Virginia added to the restrictions.) The newest legislation as a result of Nat Turner’s Rebellion included restrictions on education and assembly and ended the emancipation movement in the area. The revolt also deepened the divide between slaveholders and “free-soilers” (an anti-slavery political coalition whose slogan was “free soil, free speech, free labor, and free men”).
White Southerners were always preoccupied with the threat of slave revolts; but as the enslaved population outstripped the white population in the Deep South, the white population was increasingly concerned about uprisings and never more so than on the rare occasion that an organized revolt was attempted by enslaved people.
Nullification Crisis of 1832
Vice President John C. Calhoun argued with President Andrew Jackson about the rights of states to nullify (to cancel) federal laws they opposed. Trouble, known as the Nullification Crisis, resulted when southern states sought to nullify a high tariff (tax) Congress had passed on manufactured goods imported from Europe. This tariff helped northern manufacturers but hurt southern plantation owners, so legislators nullified the tariff in South Carolina. Calhoun, a South Carolinian, resigned from the vice presidency to lead the efforts of the southern states in this crisis. His loyalty to the interests of the southern region, or section, of the United States, not to the United States as a whole, contributed to the rise of sectionalism.
Calhoun and the advocates of sectionalism argued in favor of states' rights - the idea that states have certain rights and political powers separate from those held by the federal government that the federal government may not violate. The supporters of sectionalism were mostly Southerners. Their opponents were afraid that, if each state could decide for itself which federal laws to obey, the United States would dissolve into sectional discord or even warfare.
More information on the Nullification Crisis
The concept of nullification was debated by founders Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions respectively in 1798-1799.
Thomas Jefferson in the Kentucky Resolution posited that the Union was a “compact of states” and the federal government was their agent with only specific powers.
Per both Jefferson and James Madison, the states retained the power to determine when (and if) the federal government exceeded its powers and to declare federal acts to be “void and of no force” within a state’s borders.
In 1828 Congress passed legislation that came to be labeled the “Tariff of Abominations” which provided Northern manufacturers protection through high tariffs but was bad for Southern states that depended on foreign trade for their livelihoods---a market for their cotton exports.
Additionally, agriculture in South Carolina was already unstable because of soil depletion and many South Carolinians believed that the tariffs would further damage the state’s economy.
During the year, protests occurred in newspapers and town hall meetings; on December 19, 1828, the South Carolina legislature issued the South Carolina Exposition and Protest which declared that the tariff was unconstitutional. The document was secretly authored by Vice President (Yes, the VP!) John C. Calhoun, a South Carolinian, without his name to identify him as the author. The South Carolina Exposition and Protest was a list of grievances that furthered the nullification doctrine; Calhoun also asserted that while the states could block federal laws, the states were obliged to follow the federal law in question only if ¾ of the states passed/ratified the law as an amendment to the Constitution.
Fast-forward to 1832 when the Tariff of 1828 was minimally changed in the Tariff of 1832---and South Carolina decided to put the nullification theory to the test.
The legislature called a special session/convention and the delegates to the convention adopted the Ordinance of Nullification on November 24, 1832. The ordinance declared the Tariffs of 1828 and 1832 “null, void and no law” and threatened secession if the federal government tried to collect tariffs by force.
Vice President John C. Calhoun resigned his office in order to speak to the Senate on behalf of his state.
Enter President Andrew Jackson on the scene. Jackson deemed the Ordinance of Nullification a threat to the Union and to national authority. He submitted to Congress a Force Bill that authorized the use of federal troops in South Carolina if needed to collect tariffs.
Moreover, in December 1832 President Jackson issued the “Proclamation to the People of South Carolina” in which he asserted the supremacy of the federal government and warned that “disunion by armed force is treason.”
Meanwhile, South Carolina tried to gain the support of other Southern states for its cause without success. (Fast forward less than 30 years and the situation would be very different.)
On March 1, 1833, Congress passed Jackson’s Force Bill; South Carolina’s isolation and Jackson’s determination to use military force if needed forced South Carolina to give up on nullification for the time being.
With Senator Henry Clay’s (KY) help, Congress was able to pass a more moderate tariff bill which was more acceptable to South Carolina on March 1.
On March 15, South Carolina’s legislature rescinded the Ordinance of Nullification, but on March 18 the same legislature nullified the Force Bill!
Results of the Nullification Crisis
- The Nullification Crisis was one of President Andrew Jackson’s better moments and he became a hero to nationalists.
- Southerners became increasingly aware of their isolation in the nation (and really the world as other nations abolished slavery one by one), their minority position, and were ever more cognizant of their vulnerability to the Northern majority as long as they remained in the Union.
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MISSOURI COMPROMISE MAP COURTESY OF PBS