Page:Nullification Controversy in South Carolina.djvu/113

 assemblage. Others, with Chancellor Harper, thought that since such a course would seem too much like a threat, the convention should meet after the next session of Congress, that is to say, in April or May. He thought the postponement would have a good effect on Congress. As to its purpose, while some thought that the calling of a convention for any other object than that of nullification was idle, others believed that it should initiate measures for co-operation of some sort with the sister states, and should by no means resort to nullification. Among the convention supporters there came to be quite a number of Union men who thought that a convention might be beneficial in showing the North that the opposition was not a mere factious one, and that it could protest against the tariff more effectively than could the legislature, even though its only weapon should be the same — resolutions.

The Anti-Conventionists were not idle. One of their leading spokesmen maintained that if a convention were called, it would be for the purpose of nullifying an act of Congress, which must either result in disunion or render the federal