Page:Nullification Controversy in South Carolina.djvu/291

272 together with the fact that the State Rights military force had few arms as yet and was in a state of organization by no means efficient, caused the State Rights men to think that it would be best to postpone the date for putting the ordinance into action. A meeting of the party was held in Charleston on January 21. At this meeting were many men who were looked upon as the leaders of the party and whose word was in fact the party law. A set of resolutions was introduced, supported by these men, and adopted by the meeting, recommending that a collision with the federal government should be avoided until Congress had had an opportunity to modify the tariff, and declaring that in case a satisfactory modification did not follow, state action was to proceed. The President and his measures received their customary share of denunciation. General James Hamilton, Jr., spoke earnestly for the resolutions, and said that he had a cargo of sugar coming from Havana, which he would allow to go into the custom-house stores and await events; he would cause no unnecessary collision, but he felt sure that, if their hopes of a satisfactory adjustment of the question were disappointed, his fellow-citizens would go even to death with him for his