Page:Nullification Controversy in South Carolina.djvu/233

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Nullification Controversy in South Carolina

compact of Union with other sovereign states," but she claimed and would exercise the right to determine the extent of her obligations under that compact, and would not allow any other power to exercise the right for her. A great deal was said about "liberty" and "slavery," and the doctrines promulgated by Viiginia and Kentucky in 1798 were cited as authority sufficient to justify the position that South Carolina was now assuming.

The ordinance, drawn up by Chancellor William Harper, declared the tariff acts of 1828 and 1832 to be null and void. It then called upon the legislature to pass such acts as were needed to carry the ordinance into effect, and to prevent the enforcement of the tariff acts within South Carolina. It asserted that in no case of law or equity in the courts of the state could the authority of the ordinance or the acts of the legislature to give it effect be questioned, and that no appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States was to be allowed. All state officers were to be required to take an oath prescribed by the legislature, to "obey, execute, and enforce" the ordinance and the acts of the legislature made in pursuance thereof, and no juror was to be im-