ANDREW JACKSON PROCLAMATION DENOUNCING SOUTH CAROLINA’S NULLIFICATION ATTEMPT
JACKSON, Andrew. President Jackson’s Proclamation. Philadelphia: Thomas Morrison (C.A. Elliott, printer), [1832]. Broadside on wove stock (20-1/2 by 27-1/2 inches), typeset in three columns within border of type ornaments, handsomely matted and framed, entire piece measures 26 by 33 inches.
Scarce broadside printing of Jackson’s anti-nullification address, delivered on December 10, 1832, with intricate wood-engraved portrait of Jackson.
The 1832 Nullification Crisis began as a dispute over tariffs, but the form it took prefigured the Civil War’s political conflict between Southern States and the Union. South Carolina, represented by Jackson’s Vice President John Calhoun, claimed that protective manufacturing harmed the state’s cotton growers. In November, a South Carolina state convention nullified the recent tariff acts and declared that any attempt at federal enforcement would justify succession. Jackson managed to diffuse the crisis with this proclamation to the people of South Carolina, in which he raised the Union to a supreme value, while subtly threatening the use of force. After reinforcing the Federal forts around Charleston, Jackson warned that no state can secede from the Union “because secession… destroys the unity of a nation… the only means of attaining the high destinies to which we may reasonably aspire.” Upon negotiating a compromise tariff bill, South Carolina rescinded its ordinance of nullification in March of 1833. This scarce broadside printing Jackson’s Proclamation features a fine wood-engraved portrait of Jackson. See Sabin 35352; Streeter 1738.
Linen-backed and evenly embrowned. A splendid piece of historical significance, in near-fine condition.