Page:Nullification Controversy in South Carolina.djvu/20

 CHAPTER I

THE ORIGIN OF THE CONFLICT (1824–29)

At the session of the South Carolina legislature which convened in November of 1825, Judge William Smith introduced a set of anti-bank, anti-internal improvement, and anti-tariff resolutions. They were adopted. Before this session there had appeared in South Carolina scattered evidences of opposition to nationalism, but this episode may be said to mark the beginning of the formidable anti-nationalist movement in the state. South Carolina was not unique in this respect; other southern states were showing signs of a similar movement. In Virginia, Thomas Ritchie had been preaching strict construction and had thereby forfeited some of his popularity in the western counties, while William B. Giles, more to the satisfaction of the eastern counties, was even more outspoken in his anti-nationalistic doctrine. 1