Changes

Many southerners, whose economic well-being was based on exporting cotton, were so upset with the 1828 tariff that it became known to them as “The Tariff of Abominations” and nowhere was this attitude more prevalent than in South Carolina. The leader of the anti-tariff movement in South Carolina was a former congressman and secretary of state and future vice president and senator, John C. Calhoun. Although Calhoun supported the 1816 tariff for the purpose of national defense, he was against anymore, arguing that tariffs were anti-free trade. <ref> Freehling, William W. <i> [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195076818/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0195076818&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=5948c6859f2ec8b4f647ea93084c0c7d Prelude to Civil War: The Nullification Crisis in South Carolina, 1816-1836].</i> (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 95</ref> An anti-tariff philosophy began to be disseminated throughout South Carolina and in Washington by some of South Carolina’s congressional representatives. They logically argued that the tariffs could start a trade war that would hurt their export based livelihoods, but there were also political and racial components to their anti-tariff stance. Many in South Carolina’s slave-owning planter class saw tariffs as a violation of state’s rights. They supported the “slippery slope” argument by stating that if South Carolina’s economic freedoms could be usurped by tariffs, then it was only a matter of time until the federal government told them they had to free their slaves. <ref> Freehling, pgs. 115-16</ref>

====The Crisis====

[[File: JohnCalhoun.png|200px|thumbnail|left|John C. Calhoun (1782-1850)]]