"the tariff was only a pretext, and disunion and southern confederacy the real object. The next pretext will be the negro, or slavery question."-Andrew Jackson
March 1833:
How could this have happened to us, the elite of South Carolina, or rather what remained of them asked, in shock that their gamble could have backfired so massively. It seemed so simple on paper. They were simply calling the president’s bluff, and besides the rest of the south will back us up if he actually gets serious.
As it turns out, Old Hickory was wiser man than many imagined. He had come to the conclusion that unless crushed decisively, disunion would spread. Knowing that the people running South Carolina were more prideful than even himself, he made sure to sabotage every face saving solution that was proposed by congress, leaving them no option but confrontation. Later generations of historians would come to question just how justified his paranoia of disunion was, scoffing at the notion that secession could ever become a widely accepted idea.
Blue=Loyal Brown=neutral or unclear Red=hostile
The so called “southern solidarity” South Carolina gambled upon, simply put, did not materialize. Louisiana for one actually benefited from the tariffs, The President’s home state remained as loyal to him as ever, and North Carolina even furnished troops of their own to put down the revolt. Three other deep south states made superficial pronouncements about neutrality and troop movements, but for all practical purposes remained in the union, leaving South Carolina isolated.
A more interesting case was that of Virginia’s John Floyd, the only governor sympathetic to South Carolina. He was arrested quickly by president Jackson before he had any chance to mobilize. The bewildered legislature called for an emergency session however, by that time, with Jackson's troops in Richmond it had become fait accompli.
South Carolina was left smoldering, in more ways than one. While they were defeated militarily, and were setback economically, The more devastating blow was to their influence across the south. Considering Calhoun had been executed, along with the governor and many of the legislators, the other states would think twice before considering following in their example, not that South Carolina has any trust left in them anyway.
March 1833:
How could this have happened to us, the elite of South Carolina, or rather what remained of them asked, in shock that their gamble could have backfired so massively. It seemed so simple on paper. They were simply calling the president’s bluff, and besides the rest of the south will back us up if he actually gets serious.
As it turns out, Old Hickory was wiser man than many imagined. He had come to the conclusion that unless crushed decisively, disunion would spread. Knowing that the people running South Carolina were more prideful than even himself, he made sure to sabotage every face saving solution that was proposed by congress, leaving them no option but confrontation. Later generations of historians would come to question just how justified his paranoia of disunion was, scoffing at the notion that secession could ever become a widely accepted idea.
Blue=Loyal Brown=neutral or unclear Red=hostile
The so called “southern solidarity” South Carolina gambled upon, simply put, did not materialize. Louisiana for one actually benefited from the tariffs, The President’s home state remained as loyal to him as ever, and North Carolina even furnished troops of their own to put down the revolt. Three other deep south states made superficial pronouncements about neutrality and troop movements, but for all practical purposes remained in the union, leaving South Carolina isolated.
A more interesting case was that of Virginia’s John Floyd, the only governor sympathetic to South Carolina. He was arrested quickly by president Jackson before he had any chance to mobilize. The bewildered legislature called for an emergency session however, by that time, with Jackson's troops in Richmond it had become fait accompli.
South Carolina was left smoldering, in more ways than one. While they were defeated militarily, and were setback economically, The more devastating blow was to their influence across the south. Considering Calhoun had been executed, along with the governor and many of the legislators, the other states would think twice before considering following in their example, not that South Carolina has any trust left in them anyway.
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