Page:Nullification Controversy in South Carolina.djvu/242

Rh take effect on the first day of the following February.

The State Rights men professed to believe that the whole project would work smoothly. A few consolidationists, they held, who said that they would pay the duties, might do so for a short time, but they could not meet competition long and would soon give in. No federal officer would dare to attempt to put himself in opposition to the South Carolina laws. The remedy would be applied peaceably through state courts, and since the people of South Carolina would commit no act of violence themselves, Jackson would be unable to find a pretext for commencing a conflict. He might "make faces and shake his fist and snap his fingers" at them as much as he pleased; they would "walk into the courthouse and leave him bullying on the green." They had told him that if he attempted force by blockading their harbors or otherwise cutting off their trade, they would secede; and if he resolved to fight them upon the right of secession, he would find more states opposing him than he expected to meet.