Page:Nullification Controversy in South Carolina.djvu/330

Rh In their efforts to keep the Nullifiers organized and zealous, Robert Y. Hayne, George McDuffie, William Harper, and other leaders had used such expressions as these: "We must regard ourselves as at the beginning, not the end, of a contest. In less than another year we may be called to arms. Such is the present aspect of things that we cannot safely intermit our military preparations"; "The battle is but begun"; "If, then, I am disposed to accept this compromise, it is with a distinct annunciation to our people that their zeal, their courage, their vigilance must not be abated; nor must they, for a single instant, intermit their military preparations!" The Union editors pointed out that such statements meant either that the leading Nullifiers were to keep up the excitement and "the fudge and flummery" of military display for petty party reasons and to keep themselves prominent, or that they contemplated secession at a later date. The entire program of the Nullification party seemed to the Union men to be one displaying the most insolent tyranny—"outrageous, bare-faced, premeditated and insupportable tyranny" of a "gang of