Page:Nullification Controversy in South Carolina.djvu/289

270 necessity of prompt and effective measures. "The modern doctrine of nullification and secession [must be] put down forever, for we have yet to learn whether some of the eastern states may not secede or nullify if the tariff is reduced. I have to look at both ends of the Union to preserve it." He must, he declared, at once ask Congress to give the United States officers power sufficient to thwart the Nullifiers. Their leaders were to be prosecuted for treason, and if they were "surrounded by 12,000 bayonets, our marshall" should "be aided by 24,000 and arrest them in the midst thereof. Nothing must be permitted to weaken our government at home or abroad." He was said to believe that no tariff bill could prevent an open rupture, but to hope that one might be passed which would keep the other southern states quiet while he disciplined "Messrs. Calhoun, Hamilton, and Hayne"; without any bill, much was to be feared from the whole South, including even Tennessee. The Secretary of War was said to agree with this view.

Jackson's plan did not thoroughly satisfy the Unionists of Charleston, for they were disincliiied