By devoting almost exclusive attention to
her great staple, South Carolina had made herself dependent on the
grain and live-stock of the west and the manufactures of the north
or of England; and, when the one crop from which she derived her
means of purchasing declined in value, the state was plunged in
unrelieved distress. Nevertheless, the planters of the old south saw
clearly but two of the causes of their distress: the tariff, which
seemed to them to steal the profits of their crops; and internal
improvements, by which the proceeds of their indirect taxes were
expended in the west and north. Their indignation was also fanned to
a fiercer flame by apprehensions over the attitude of the north
towards slavery.
In the summer of 1828, Calhoun addressed himself to the statement of
these grievances and to the formulation of a remedy. After
consultation with leading men in his home at Fort Hill, he was ready
to shape a document which, nominally a report of a legislative
committee (since it was not expedient for the vice-president to
appear in the matter), put in its first systematic form the doctrine
of nullification.
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