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The Congress
Chapter 5
Section 3
Nullification
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Nullification- The belief that
states had the right to
nullify (disregard) laws
passed by the national
government.
Alien and Sedition Acts
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State legislatures in Virginia and
Kentucky passed resolutions that
protested these measures and
claimed the right to nullify them as
unconstitutional.
After the debate over the Alien and
Sedition Acts subsided, the country
entered a period of expansion and
consolidation.
Tariffs
 The
effect of high tariffs on
foreign goods was extremely
positive northern industry in the
United States.
 Tariffs not only lessened foreign
competition but also enabled
northern manufactures to raise
the prices of their goods sold to
U.S. consumers
Negative side of Tariffs
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First, the tariffs made manufactured
goods more expensive to buy.
Second, the tariffs reduced the market
for British-made cotton cloth.
This meant that the South would sell less
raw cotton to Britain, its chief customer
because Britain was upset over its goods
being heavily taxed sold in the United
States.
John C. Calhoun
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John C. Calhoun of South Carolina was
leading the southern resistance to high
tariffs.
John C. Calhoun argued that every state
should have a right to ignore, or nullify,
any act of Congress that in the state’s
judgment violated the Constitution. The
right of nullification applied to the tariff
of 1828 because it benefited one section
of the country at the expense of
another.
John C. Calhoun
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To President
Jackson,
Calhoun’s
nullification
ideas seemed
treasonable.
The Union
must be
preserved.
Ordinance of Nullification
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South Carolina threatened to secede
from the Union if the federal
government tried to enforce the
collection of tariffs in southern ports.
Seceding- Leaving the union.
Clay persuaded Congress to pass a
new tariff act in 1833, which
provided for a gradual reduction of
tariff rates.
Growing Sectional Conflict (1850-1861)
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During the first half of the 19th century, the nation
expanded westward at an ever-increasing pace.
Expansion came at a price, however.
As new territories were added, arguments over
whether to allow slavery in the West became more
and more heated.
Various compromises were proposed, and two of them
were tried.
But as we shall see, despite these compromises, the
South eventually seceded and the Civil War began.
Slavery was more difficult to resolve than the
differences over the tariff.
The Missouri Compromise of
1820
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Southern slave-owners who moved to the Missouri
Territory brought their slaves with them.
In 1819 the people of Missouri applied for admission
to the Union as a new state – a state permitting
slavery.
There was much debate.
Both northerners and southerners were well aware
that Missouri’s admission would end the fragile
balance of power between slave states of the South
and free, or non-slave, states of the North.
Finally in 1820 Congress passed a compromise
measure.
Missouri Compromise
1.
2.
3.
Missouri would enter the Union as a
slave state.
Maine would enter the Union as a
free state.
All the territory north of the 36 30’
line of latitude in the lands of the
Louisiana Purchase would be closed
to slavery.
Slavery Issue
This agreement of course did not
apply to western lands (such as
California or New Mexico) that
the United States did not yet
own.
 Thus, the crisis over slavery in
the West was not solved, only
put off to a later time.
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Compromise of 1850
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After the war with Mexico and the
addition of the California territory
to the United States, the Missouri
Compromise was no longer
acceptable to either northerners or
southerners on the issue of
California and the new territories
becoming slave or free states.
Compromise of 1850
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Henry Clay of Kentucky proposed to
settle the dispute with the issue of
California.
California would be admitted to the
Union as a free state.
In other parts of the Mexican Cession,
settlers would decide by majority vote
whether or not to allow slavery.
The issue, in other words, would be
decided by popular sovereignty.
Mexican Cession
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Lands given by Mexico to the United
States after the 1848 war, including
what would be the states of Arizona,
New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada.
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He suggested a
compromise that
the practice of
buying and selling
slaves at public
auction in
Washington D.C.,
would be
abolished.
Fugitive Slave Act
will be enforced in
North with heavy
fines for those who
disobey.
Fugitive Slave Act
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Government officials in the North
would assist in the capture of
escaped slaves and return them to
their masters in the south.
California would be admitted as a
free state and the territories from
the Mexican Cession would decide
by majority vote whether or not to
allow slavery.
Dred Scott Case
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Dred Scott had lived in Missouri as a
slave before being taken by his owner to
Illinois, a free state.
Returning to the slave state of Missouri,
Scott went to court to sue for his
freedom.
He argued that he had lived in a free
territory and therefore should be
declared a free citizen.
His case eventually was appealed to the
U.S. Supreme Court.
Ruling
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In 1857 the Supreme Court ruled that Scott’s
petition was not valid.
The reason for the verdict that Chief Justice
Roger Taney, a southerner gave was even free
African Americans could not sue in a federal
court, since they were not citizens of the
United States.
Slaves brought into free territory remained
slaves because they were a form of property.
Owners would not be denied their property
rights without due process of law.
The Missouri Compromise, which had
excluded slavery from free territory, was
unconstitutional because it denied slave
owners their property rights.
Reactions
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The South’s reaction to the Supreme
Courts decision in the Dred Scott Case
was that they were very pleased that
the court system confirmed their views
on slavery.
The North’s reaction to the Supreme
Courts decision in the Dred Scott Case
was that they were shocked to think
that all western territories were now
thrown open to slavery.