USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The tariff was so unpopular in the South that it generated threats of secession. John C. Calhoun, Andrew Jackson’s vice president and a native of South Carolina, proposed the theory of nullification, which declared the tariff unconstitutional and therefore unenforceable.

Detailed explanation-2: -Andrew Jackson, generally in favor of states’ rights, saw nullification as a threat to the Union. In his view, the federal government derived its power from the people, not from the states, and the federal laws had greater authority than those of the individual states.

Detailed explanation-3: -Calhoun developed the idea of nullification-first put forth in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798-as a strategy for the South to preserve slavery in the face of a Northern majority in Congress.

Detailed explanation-4: -John Caldwell Calhoun was one of the most powerful politicians of the Antebellum Era. He argued that slavery was a positive good for the enslaved on the floor of the US Senate. He advocated for the nullification of federal law.