NORTH:
Industrial economy based on manufacturing; support for tariffs—American goods could be sold at lower prices than could British goods
SOUTH
Agrarian economy based on agriculture; opposition to tariffs, which increased the cost of imported goods
WEST
Emerging economy; support for internal improvements and the sale of public lands
Regional differences had a major effect on Andrew Jackson’s presidency in the early 1800s.
One example is when the Congress passed the Tariff of Abominations. Vice President John C. Calhoun joined his fellow southerners in protest. Economic depression and previous tariffs had severely damaged the economy of his home state, South Carolina.
Calhoun used the Protest to advance the states’ rights doctrine. He argued that, because the states had formed the national government, state power should be greater than federal power. He believed states had the right to nullify, or reject, any federal law they judged to be unconstitutional.
Calhoun’s theory was controversial, and it drew some fierce challengers. Many of them were from the northern states that had benefited from increased tariffs.
These opponents believed that the American people, not the individual states, made up the Union. Conflict between the supporters and the opponents of nullification deepened. The dispute became known as the nullification crisis.
