Page:Nullification Controversy in South Carolina.djvu/258

Rh of war against the general government would be met by such a counter-manifesto. It put to flight all their solemn asseverations of the peaceableness of their remedy, for it told them that resistance to the laws would be put down by the power with which Congress had armed the federal executive to punish treason. The Nullifiers were not at a loss for a reply, such as it was, to the taunt of the failure of their remedy as a peaceable one. They felt satisfied to say that the blame for such failure lay entirely with the President and the Union party, because they would not permit the Nullifiers to carry out all their plans as had been intended.

In Virginia the proclamation had a marked effect. When the assembly met, shortly before the proclamation was issued, the factions within the Democratic party seemed to have united permanently, for W. C. Rives, an ardent administration man, was elected almost unanimously to the United States Senate to succeed John Tyler. After the proclamation, however, there appeared a Union party and a State Rights party, composed chiefly of representatives of the western