2004-4-21
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VOICE ONE:
THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English.
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In our last few programs of THE MAKING OF A NATION, we described
the violence of the presidential election campaign of
eighteen-twenty-eight. It split the old Republican Party of Thomas
Jefferson into two hostile groups: the National Republicans of John
Quincy Adams and the Democrats of Andrew Jackson. The election of
Jackson deepened the split. It became more serious as a new dispute
arose over import taxes. This is what happened:
VOICE TWO:
Congress passed a bill in eighteen-twenty-eight that put high
taxes on a number of imported products. The purpose of the import
tax was to protect American industries from foreign competition. The
south opposed the tax, because it had no industry to protect. Its
chief product was cotton, which was exported to Europe. The American
import taxes forced European nations to put taxes on American
cotton. This meant a drop in the sale of cotton and less money for
the planters of the south. It also meant higher prices in the
American market for manufactured goods. South Carolina refused to
pay the import tax. It said the tax was not constitutional...that
the constitution did not give the federal government the power to
order a protective tax.
VOICE ONE:
At one time, the Vice President of
the United States -- John C. Calhoun of South Carolina -- had
believed in a strong central government. But he had become a strong
supporter of states' rights. Calhoun wrote a long statement against
the import tax for the South Carolina legislature. In it, he
developed the idea of nullification -- cancelling federal powers. He
said the states had created the federal government and, therefore,
the states had the greater power. He argued that the states could
reject, or nullify, any act of the central government which was not
constitutional. And, Calhoun said, the states should be the judge of
whether an act was constitutional or not. Calhoun's idea was debated
in the Senate by Robert Hayne of South Carolina and Daniel Webster
of Massachusetts. Hayne supported nullification, and Webster opposed
it. Webster said Hayne was wrong in using the words "liberty first,
and union afterwards." He said they could not be separated. Said
Webster: "Liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable."
VOICE TWO:
No one really knew how President
Andrew Jackson felt about nullification. He made no public statement
during the debate. Leaders in South Carolina developed a plan to get
the president's support. They decided to hold a big dinner honoring
the memory of Thomas Jefferson. Jackson agreed to be at the dinner.
The speeches were carefully planned. They began by praising the
democratic ideas of Jefferson. Then speakers discussed Virginia's
opposition to the alien and sedition laws passed by the federal
government in seventeen-ninety-eight. Next they discussed South
Carolina's opposition to the import tax. Finally, the speeches were
finished. It was time for toasts. President Jackson made the first
one. He stood up, raised his glass, and looked straight at John C.
Calhoun. He waited for the cheering to stop. "Our union," he said.
"It must be preserved."
VOICE ONE:
Calhoun rose with the others to drink the toast. He had not
expected Jackson's opposition to nullification. His hand shook, and
he spilled some of the wine from his glass. Calhoun was called on to
make the next toast. The vice president rose slowly. "The union," he
said, "next to our liberty, most dear." He waited a moment, then
continued. "May we all remember that it can only be preserved by
respecting the rights of the states and by giving equally the
benefits and burdens of the union." President Jackson left a few
minutes later. Most of those at dinner left with him.
VOICE TWO:
The nation now knew how the president felt. And the people were
with him -- opposed to nullification. But the idea was not dead
among the extremists of South Carolina. They were to start more
trouble two years later. Calhoun's nullification doctrine was not
the only thing that divided Jackson and the vice president. Calhoun
had led a campaign against the wife of Jackson's friend and
Secretary of War, John Eaton. Three members of Jackson's cabinet
supported Calhoun. Mister Calhoun and the three cabinet wives would
have nothing to do with Mister Eaton. Jackson saw this as a
political trick to try to force Eaton from the cabinet, and make
Jackson look foolish at the same time.
VOICE ONE:
The hostility between Jackson and his vice president was
sharpened by a letter that was written by a member of President
Monroe's cabinet. It told how Calhoun wanted Jackson arrested in
eighteen-eighteen. The letter writer, William Crawford, was in the
cabinet with Calhoun. Jackson had led a military campaign into
Spanish Florida and had hanged two British citizens. Calhoun
proposed during a cabinet meeting that Jackson be punished. Jackson
did not learn of this until eighteen-twenty-nine. Jackson wanted no
further communications with Calhoun. Several attempts were made to
soften relations between Calhoun and Jackson. One of them seemed to
succeed. Jackson told Secretary of State Martin van Buren that the
dispute had been settled. He said the unfriendly letters that he and
Calhoun sent each other would be destroyed. And he said he would
invite the vice president to have dinner with him at the White
House.
VOICE TWO:
With the dispute ended, Calhoun thought he saw a way to destroy
his rival for the presidency -- Secretary of State Martin van Buren.
He decided not to destroy the letters he and Jackson sent to each
other. Instead, he had a pamphlet written, using the letters. The
pamphlet also contained the statement of several persons denying the
Crawford charges. And, it accused Mister van Buren of using Crawford
to try to split Jackson and Calhoun. One of Calhoun's men took a
copy of the pamphlet to Secretary Eaton and asked him to show it to
President Jackson. He told Eaton that the pamphlet would not be
published without Jackson's approval. Eaton did not show the
pamphlet to Jackson and said nothing to Calhoun's men. Calhoun
understood this silence to mean that Jackson did not object to the
pamphlet. So he had it published and given to the public.
VOICE ONE:
Jackson exploded when he read it. Not only had Calhoun failed to
destroy the letters, he had published them. Jackson's newspaper,
"The Washington Globe," accused Calhoun of throwing a firebomb into
the party. Jackson declared that Calhoun and his supporters had cut
their own throats. Only later did Calhoun discover what had gone
wrong. Eaton had not shown the pamphlet to Jackson. He had not even
spoken to the president about it. This was Eaton's way of punishing
those who treated his wife so badly.
VOICE TWO:
Jackson continued to defend Margaret Eaton's honor. He even held
a cabinet meeting on the subject. All the secretaries but John Eaton
were there. Jackson told them that he did not want to interfere in
their private lives. But, he said it seemed that their families were
trying to get others to have nothing to do with Mister Eaton. "I
will not part with John Eaton," Jackson said. "And those of my
cabinet who cannot harmonize with him had better withdraw. I must
and I will have harmony." Jackson said any insult to Eaton would be
an insult to himself. Either work with Eaton or resign. There were
no resignations.
VOICE ONE:
But the problem got no better. Many people just would not accept
Margaret Eaton as their social equal. Mister van Buren saw that the
problem was hurting Jackson deeply. But he knew better than to
propose to Jackson that he ask for Secretary Eaton's resignation. He
already had heard Jackson say that he would resign as president
before he would desert his friend Eaton. Mister van Buren decided on
a plan of action.
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VOICE TWO:
You have been listening to the Special English program, THE
MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were stuart spencer and Maurice
Joyce. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A
NATION can be heard Thursdays.