A Letter from Andrew Jackson to Martin Van Buren 
discussing his views on nullification.
Click for close up.

Calhoun had graduated from Yale College and after that he studied law. Calhoun was a leader of the War Hawks, which is a group of young nationalists who believed that the quarrel over American ships between Britain and America could only be settled by war. In 1817 Calhoun was elected vice president under John Quincy Adams. In 1829 when Andrew Jackson became president, Calhoun became vice president again. In 1828 Congress passed a tariff, tax on imported goods, that Southern planters didn't like. To protest this tariff, Calhoun wrote the South Carolina Exposition. It said that if the federal government overstepped its power in passing laws, the people could refuse to pay attention to it. This theory by Calhoun became known as nullification. Calhoun resigned from the position of vice president in 1832, because he wanted to be in the senate, he thought he could help his country more, if he was in the senate. He spent the rest of his life as a senator.
 
 
 

Andrew Jackson, our president during the nullification crisis, was surrounded by many problems.  It all began when a group got the idea of nullification.  So, Jackson, Calhoun, and the group got together in the white house for dinner, but the idea of nullification didn't work.  The election of 1832 was an anti-climax.  The nominees were Henry Clay from National Republicans and Andrew Jackson from the Democratic Republicans. Jackson got elected by beating Clay 31 electoral votes.  During this election Calhoun resigned and elected himself as senator of South Carolina.  Also a resistance group had formed in South Carolina during 1832.  They told Jackson that if the government forces them to pay the tariff, they will secede and make their own government.  South Carolina tried to fight the Union so, Jackson  countered the South Carolina Ordinance with a proclamation.  Then, in Congress Calhoun gave a speech but, Daniel Webster challenged him and won.  Andrew Jackson issued a call for action so, he sent a Force Bill to stop the rebellion in South Carolina, but they passed the Compromise Tariff instead.  On March 15, his birthday, the South Carolina Ordinance repealed and celebrated four days in Philadelphia. 
 Then, began the battle of the bank.  Jackson was convinced that the Bank can override his veto and put over anything they wanted.  In 1833 Jackson discussed to remove government funds from the bank.  In 1834 Jackson finally won.  Meanwhile his son Andrew Jackson, Jr. married a Quaker girl named Sarah Yorke.  Then, when he was attending a funeral, a man fired at him twice but, it was misfired.  On the last day of his term in 1836 his administration ended in triumph.  The Bank was destroyed, nullification was put down, Indians were herded west, and the Democrats were in control.  Also France paid their debt to the U.S.