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Nullification Controversy in South Carolina

a convention.[1] When the ballots were taken the results were: in the Senate, 23 for and 18 against a convention; in the House, 60 for and 56 against.[2] The Convention party thus had a majority but not the constitutional two-thirds. Its cause was for this time defeated. The Conventionists solaced themselves, however, by carrying through a set of resolutions.

The first three proclaimed the state's intention to defend the Constitution of the United States, and her attachment to the Union; they asserted that the power of the federal government was limited by the "plain sense and intention" of the Constitution, and that in case of "deliberate and palpable and dangerous exercise of powers not granted in the Constitution" the states were "in duty bound to interpose, to arrest the evil"; these resolutions were approved unanimously.[3] Thereupon Daniel E. Huger moved a resolution

  1. Courier, December 15, 1830. Chief among those who spoke for a convention were W. R. Hill, William C. Preston, Thomas English, A. P. Butler, Henry L. Pinckney, T. T. Player, B. F. Dunkin, F. W. Pickens, and Alfred Huger. Those who opposed it were D. E. Huger, J. P. Richardson, J. J. Presley, William McWillie, and Thomas Williams.
  2. Mountaineer, December 24, 1830; Courier, December 20; Mercury, December 22.
  3. Messenger, December 29, 1830.