AN ORDINANCE

To Nullify certain acts of the Congress of the United States, purporting to be Laws laying Duties and Imposts on the importation of Foreign Commodities.

WHEREAS, the Congress of the United States, by various acts, purporting to be acts laying duties and imposts on foreign imports, but in reality intended for the protection of domestic manufactures, and the giving of bounties to classes and individuals engaged in particular employments, at the expense and to the injury and oppression of other classes and individuals, and by wholly exempting from taxation certain foreign commodities, such as are not produced or manufactured in the United States, to afford a pretext for imposing higher and excessive duties on articles similar to those intended to be protected, hath exceeded its just powers under the Constitution, which confers on it no authority to afford such protection, and hath violated the true meaning and intent of the Constitution, which provides for equality in imposing the burdens of taxation upon the several States and portions of the Confederacy: And, Whereas, the said Congress, exceeding its just power to impose taxes and collect revenue for the purpose of effecting and accomplishing the specific objects and purposes which the Constitution of the United States authorises it to effect and accomplish, hath raised and collected unnecessary revenue, for objects unauthorized by the Constitution;

We, therefore, the people of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that the several acts and parts of acts of the Congress of the United States, purporting to be laws for the imposing of duties and imposts on the importation of foreign commodities, and now having actual operation and effect within the United States, and more especially an act entitled "An act in alteration of the several acts imposing duties on imports," approved on the nineteenth day of May, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight; and also an act entitled "An act to alter and amend the several acts imposing duties on imports," approved on the fourteenth day of July, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, are unauthorized by the Constitution of the United States, and violate the true meaning and intent thereof, and are null, void, and no law, nor binding upon this State, its officers or citizens; and all promises, contracts and obligations made or entered into, or to be made or entered into with purpose to secure the duties imposed by the said acts, and all judicial proceedings which shall be hereafter had in affirmance thereof, are and shall be held utterly null and void:

And it is further ordained, that it shall not be lawful for any of the constituted authorities, whether of this State or of the United States, to enforce the payment of duties imposed by the said acts within the limits of this State; but it shall be the duty of the Legislature to adopt such measures and pass such acts as may be necessary to give full effect to this ordinance, and to prevent the enforcement and arrest the operation of the said acts and parts of acts of the Congress of the United States, within the limits of this State, from and after the first day of February next, and the duty of all other constituted authorities, and of all persons residing or being within the limits of this State, and they are hereby required and enjoined to obey and give effect to this ordinance and such acts and measures of the Legislature as may be passed or adopted in obedience thereto:

And it is further ordained that in no case of law or equity, decided in the courts of this State, wherein shall be drawn in question the authority of this Ordinance, or the validity of such act or acts of the Legislature as may be passed for the purpose of giving effect thereto, or the validity of the aforesaid acts of Congress, imposing duties, shall any appeal be taken or allowed to the Supreme Court of the United States, nor shall any copy of the record be permitted or allowed for that purpose, and if any such appeal shall be attempted to be taken, the courts of this State shall proceed to execute and enforce their judgments, according to the laws and usages of the State, without reference to such attempted appeal, and the person or persons attempting to take such appeal may be dealt with as for a contempt of court.

And it is further ordained, That all persons now holding any office of honor, profit, or trust, civil or military, under this State, (members of the Legislature excepted,) shall, within such time, and in such manner as the Legislature shall prescribe, take an oath, well and truly to obey, execute and enforce this Ordinance, and such act or acts of the Legislature, as may be passed in pursuance thereof, according to the true intent and meaning of the same, and on the neglect or omission of any such person or persons so to do, his or their office or offices shall be forthwith vacated, and shall be filled up as if such person or persons were dead, or had resigned; and no person hereafter elected to any office of honor, profit or trust, civil or military, (members of the Legislature excepted,) shall, until the Legislature shall otherwise provide and direct, enter on the execution of his office, or be in any respect competent to discharge the duties thereof, until he shall, in like manner, have taken a similar oath; and no juror shall be impannelled in any of the courts of this State, in any cause in which shall be in question this Ordinance or any act of the Legislature, passed in pursuance thereof, unless he shall first, in addition to the usual oath, have taken an oath, that he will well and truly obey, execute and enforce this Ordinance, and such act or acts of the Legislature as may be passed to carry the same into operation and effect, according to the true intent and meaning thereof:

And we, the people of South Carolina, to the end that it may be fully understood by the Government of the United States, and the people of the co-States, that we are determined to maintain this, our ordinance and declaration, at every hazard, do further declare, that we will not submit to the application of force on the part of the Federal Government, to reduce this State to obedience; but that we will consider the passage, by Congress, of any act authorizing the employment of a military or naval force against the State of South Carolina, her constituted authorities or citizens; or any act, abolishing or closing the ports of this State, or any of them, or otherwise obstructing the free ingress and egress of vessels, to and from the said ports; or any other act on the part of the Federal Government to coerce the State, shut up her ports, destroy or harrass her commerce, or to enforce the acts hereby declared to be null and void, otherwise than through the civil tribunals of the country, as inconsistent with the longer continuance of South Carolina in the Union: and that the people of this State will thenceforth hold themselves absolved from all further obligation to maintain or preserve their political connexion with the people of the other States, and will forthwith proceed to organise a separate Government, and do all other acts and things which sovereign and independent States may of right do.

Done in Convention, at Columbia, the twenty-fourth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, and in the fifty-seventh year of the Declaration of the Independence of the United States of America.

JAMES HAMILTON, JUN. President of the
Convention, and Delegate from St. Peters.

James Hamilton, sen.

Richard Bohun Baker, sen.

Samuel Warren,

Nathaniel Heyward,

Robert Long,

J. B. Earle,

L. M. Ayer,
Benjamin Adams,
James Adams,
James Anderson,

Robert Anderson,

William Arnold,
John Ball,
Barnard E. Bee,
Thomas W. Boone,
R. W. Barnwell,
Isaac Bradwell, jr.
Thomas G. Blewett,
P. M. Butler,
John G. Brown,
J. G. Brown,

John Bauskett,
A. Burt,

[A. No. 3.]

James Lynah,

Francis Y. Legare,
Alex. J. Lawton,
John Lipscomb,
John Logan,
J. Littlejohn,
A. Lancaster,
John Magrath,
Benj. A. Markley,
John S. Maner,
Wm. M. Murray,
R. G. Mills,
John B. McCall,
D. H. Means,
R. G. Mays,
George McDuffie,
James Moore,
John L. Miller,
Stephen D. Miller,
John B. Miller,
R. P. McCord,
John L. Nowell,
Jennings O'Bannon,

ADDRESS

To the People of South Carolina, by their Delegates in Convention.

FELLOW CITIZENS,

The situation in which you have been placed by the usurpations of the Federal Government, is one which you so peculiarly feel, as to render all reference to it at this moment unnecessary. For the last ten years the subject of your grievances has been presented to you. This subject you have well considered. You have viewed it in all its aspects, bearings and tendencies, and you seem more and more confirmed in the opinion, expressed by both branches of the Legislature, that the Tariff, in its operation, is not only "grossly unequal and unjust, but is such an abuse of power as is incompatible with the principles of a Free Government, and the great ends of civil society;" and that if persisted in, "the fate of this State would be poverty and utter desolation." Correspondent with this conviction, a disposition is manifested in every section of the country, to arrest, by some means or other, the progress of this intolerable evil. This disposition having arisen from no sudden excitement, but having been gradually formed by the free and temperate discussions of the Press, there is no reason to believe that it can ever subside by any means short of the removal of the urgent abuse; and it is under this general conviction, that we have been convened to take into consideration, not only the character and extent of your grievances, but also the mode and measure of redress.

This duty, fellow citizens, we have discharged to the best of our judgments, and the result of our deliberations will be found in the DECLARATION and ORDINANCE just passed by us, founded on the great and undeniable truth, that in all cases of a palpable, oppres sive and dangerous infraction of the Federal compact, each State has a right to annul, and to render inoperative within its limits, all such unauthorized acts. After the luminous expositions which have been already furnished by so many great minds, that the exercise of this right is compatible with the first principles of our anomalous scheme of government, it would be superfluous here to state at length the reasons by which this mode of redress is to be sustained. A deference, however, for the opinions of those of our fellow citizens, who have hitherto dissented from us, demands that we should briefly state the principal ground upon which we place the right and the expediency of Nullification

The Constitution of the United States, as is admitted by cotempóraneous writers, is a compact between Sovereign States,