Page:Nullification Controversy in South Carolina.djvu/367

348 Union party to the people of the United States, published in the National Intelligencer and copied by the Union papers in South Carolina. They asserted that the appeal was no less than an advance to a close union between the consolidationists of the North and of the South. It was a proffer from the latter of an offensive and defensive alliance to secure in advance the sympathy and support of its "national" allies, when the Unionists should be "driven to the field" to uphold the creed of Daniel Webster. They had thus registered their adherence to the champion of the tariff and the sworn enemy of southern and state rights. In his cause and for his creed they were willing to take up arms. This appeal, said the Nullifiers, displayed the Unionists in their true light, as betrayers of the South.

The Union men worked strenuously to prevent their opponents from gaining complete control of another legislature. They pointed out that the Nullifiers would require not only all officers to take this "revolting oath," but that the voters might be called upon next to do so. Then would