Thus the "tariff of abominations," shaped by the south for defeat,
satisfactory to but a fraction of the protectionists, was passed by
a vote of 26 to 21 in the Senate, May 13, 1828, and was concurred in
by the House. John Randolph did not greatly overstate the case when
he declared that "the bill referred to manufactures of no sort or
kind, but the manufacture of a President of the United States"; for,
on the whole, the friends of Jackson had, on this issue, taken sides
against the friends of Adams, and in the effort to make the latter
unpopular had produced a tariff which better illustrated sectional
jealousies and political intrigues than the economic policy of the
nation. [Footnote: Register of Debates, 20 Cong., I Sess., IV., pt.
ii., 2472; Niles' Register, XXV., 55-57, analyzes the votes to show
the political groupings; cf. Taussig, Tariff History, 101, 102.]
The tariff agitation of 1827 and the passage of the act of 1828
inflamed the south to the point of conflagration. John Randolph's
elevation of the standard of revolt in 1824 now brought him credit
as the prophet of the gospel of resistance.
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