Nullification
in American politics, the doctrine formerly held by the extreme States' Rights party, of the right of a State to declare a law of Con- NUMBERS gress unconstitutional and void, and if the Federal government attempted to enforce it, to withdraw from the Union. As an instance, in 1832, during the presidency of Andrew Jackson, the free trade and States' Rights party in South Carolina, under the leadership of John C. Calhoun, her senator in Congress, asserted the doctrine of nullification in a State convention which declared the tariff acts of that year unconstitutional, and therefore null and void; that the duties should not be paid; and that any attempt on the part of the general government to enforce their payment would cause the withdrawal of South Carolina from the Union and the establishment of an independent government. President Jackson met this declaration with a vigorous proclamation, in which he declared that the laws must be executed, and that "the Union must and shall be preserved."
South Carolina, standing alone, receded from her position under protest, and a "Compromise Bill," introduced by Henry Clay in 1833, providing for a gradual reduction of duties, for the time settled the controversy.