Page:Nullification Controversy in South Carolina.djvu/112

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The First Test of Strength
93

program of co-operation with the rest of the South—a program which twenty years later became the platform of the controlling party in the state. Judge J. P. Richardson also spoke strongly against nullification, but Robert Barnwell Smithy who changed his name later to Robert Barnwell Rhett, declared for resistance regardless of any stigma which might be put upon its advocacy. Chancellor William Harper offered a resolution, adopted by a large majority of the two or three thousand present, calling for a state convention. But the reports of the speeches and letters indicate strongly that many who were willing that a convention be called were opposed to nullification.[1]

This Colimibia meeting was taken as a strong expression from the interior that a convention would be demanded and carried through, even though Charleston were against it, as it then seemed to be.[2] But it was evident at this time, and became more so as the campaign progressed, that there was no agreement among the Conventionists as to when the convention should meet or what it should do. Some favored its prompt

  1. Mercury, September 24, 1830; Times, September 23, October 10.
  2. Mercury, September 24, 1830; Times, September 2.