Page:Nullification Controversy in South Carolina.djvu/183

 CHAPTER V

THE NULLIFIERS CAPTURE THE LEGISLATURE (1832)

In the early weeks of the new year the partisans awaited developments. A protectionist convention at New York offset the low-tariff demonstration at Philadelphia, and Congress appeared to lend a willing ear to Clay's plan for revising the tariff on a basis of but trifling reductions and for spending a large part of the revenue for internal improvements to benefit the West.

This program promised an indefinite prolongation of the government's previous policy. The convention of the State Rights associations which met at Charleston in February denounced Clay's project as involving a systematic exploitation of the South by the seizure of half its earnings and the distribution of the proceeds in such a way as to double northern profits. Nullification was easily preached from that text.

The memorial of the Philadelphia convention, with an additional one by Judge William Harper