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This tax was created to support the growing industry in America by raising the costs of imported goods. South Carolinians believed that this tariff unfairly offered up all of its protective benefits to the Northern states and left the South poorer. They pleaded with the government to abolish it and were met with the response that individual states had the right to nullify any oppressive governmental legislation. -
This act was passed in an effort to smooth out some of the conflict created by the "tariff of abominations" in 1828. It actually only further divided the Northern and Southern states as Southerners believed that the government was simply biased against them and that their economy was suffering solely because of it. -
South Carolinians were the most upset by these two past tariffs, and, as a response to an increase in the price of goods, declared that they had the right to nullify them AND any other law passed by the government which they deemed unconstitutional. -
President Andrew Jackson formally responded to South Carolina's ordinance by stating that the federal government was the supreme law of the land and no state could nullify a tariff issued by them. -
This bill allowed Jackson to issue federal troops to enforce tariffs in states that declared nullification. -
Still angry, South Carolina held a convention and agreed to repeal their illegal nullification of federal tariffs.