honest patriot in South Carolina who really loves his country and the prosperity and happiness we enjoy under our happy and peaceful republican government."[1]
The President thereafter kept in close touch with the leader of the Union party, Joel R. Poinsett, who, in the middle of November, wrote of his belief that a majority of the leaders of the Nullifiers^ "political club" would favor secession in case of an attempt by the government to coerce the state, and that even though many of the party would be opposed to such a course, the leaders could secure its adoption. "It is believed," he said, "that Mr. Calhoun is against this measure and insists that the state may be in and out of the Union at the same time and that the government has no right to cause the laws to be executed in South Carolina. Both parties are anxious and indulge the hope that the government will commit some act of violence which will enlist the sympathies of the bordering states." Poinsett recommended caution, and urged especially that the Nullifiers be allowed to commit the first act of violence.[2]
