Page:Nullification Controversy in South Carolina.djvu/46

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The Origin of the Conflict
27

articles in the Courier, signed by "A Native,"[1] denounced the talk of disunion and expressed alarm at the meetings which asked that the legislature or a convention do something, for the author believed that revolutionary purposes were in contemplation. He held that a certain set of men was bent upon separation from the Union and was using the tariff controversy as a cloak. Though he claimed not to be a tariff man, he showed himself a thoroughgoing one. He tried to show that the South and South Carolina were not subjected to all the intolerable load of injury and injustice which had been urged as the motive for separation. The subject of the tariff had unfortunately become very much involved; what with pamphlets, speeches, memorials, reports, and resolutions, the mass of argument had become so enormous that men were taking their opinions at second hand; they would rather expose themselves to error and imposition than undertake the intolerable work of wading through such oceans of ink. He attempted a simple statement of the case.

"A Native" did not deny the right of revolution, but presented its dangers and seriousness,

  1. Seventeen in all, beginning on June 5 and ending on July 18, 1828.