Page:Nullification Controversy in South Carolina.djvu/332

Rh The protean character of nullification was shown, and the misuse by the State Rights party of the phrase "sovereignty is indivisible" was pointed out.

When the Edgefield Carolinian a Columbia paper, and the Mercury all claimed that the advance in cotton, noticed in August, was attributable to nullification, the Patriot replied that such a statement might be expected from "an ignorant up-country editor," unacquainted with the matters of trade, but was inexcusable in the Mercury. "Nullification," it was remarked, "must indeed have performed wonders, if it has given increased activity to the cotton mills of Europe and interfered with certain physical laws of our globe so as to have checked the growth of cotton." The Nullifiers were asked what they would have said had the high price of cotton in 1825 been attributed to the passage of the tariff