His death (July
4, 1826) removed from Virginia the most influential advocate of
state sovereignty and the greatest of the Virginia dynasty since
Washington. On the same day John Adams died. The men who made the
declaration of independence were passing away, but the spirit of
that epoch was reviving in the south.
South Carolina was the theatre of a conflict between the old-time
forces of nationalism, of which Calhoun had been the most prominent
exponent, and the newer tendencies which would safeguard the
interests of the commonwealth by appealing to the doctrine of state
sovereignty. [Footnote: Houston, Nullification in S. C., chap. iv. ]
At first, the conservative party was in the ascendancy. In 1820 the
House of Representatives of South Carolina passed a resolution which
deprecated the system of protection as premature and pernicious, but
admitted that Congress possessed the power of enacting all laws
relating to commerce, and lamented the practice "of arraying upon
the questions of national policy the states as distinct and
independent sovereignties in opposition to, or (what is much the
same thing), with a view to exercise a control over the general
government"; [Footnote 2: Ames, State Docs.
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