USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -John C. Calhoun contended in the South Carolina Exposition and Protest of 1828 that the states were sovereign and had the right to rule. Since the Constitution was a compact formed by the states, the states could decide on the legality and constitutionality of federal laws.

Detailed explanation-2: -Therefore, if a state found a federal law unconstitutional and detrimental to its sovereign interests, it would have the right to “nullify” that law within its borders. Calhoun advanced the position that a state could declare a national law void.

Detailed explanation-3: -In response to the Tariff of 1828, vice president John C. Calhoun asserted that states had the right to nullify federal laws.

Detailed explanation-4: -A staunch defender of the institution of slavery, and a slave-owner himself, Calhoun was the Senate’s most prominent states’ rights advocate, and his doctrine of nullification professed that individual states had a right to reject federal policies that they deemed unconstitutional.