Page:Nullification Controversy in South Carolina.djvu/132

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The First Test of Strength
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desired to promote every measure which promised to "bring their tariff brethren to a sense of justice, and only in the last resort to interpose the sovereignty of the state" in protection of her citizens.[1]

The Philadelphia convention held sessions from September 30 to October 6 and was attended by about two hundred delegates from fifteen states. Virginia was first and South Carolina second in number of delegates in attendance, and a South Carolinian, Warren R. Davis, was given credit for having promoted the convention. A memorial against the tariff was sent to Congress, but, as the time drew near for another session of Congress in December of 1831, little confidence was placed in the memorial; the northern supporters of the American system might, it was said, make a few concessions in the tariff, but on such articles and in such amounts as not materially to affect the system.[2]

Although South Carolina was so prominent in this anti-tariff convention, and her citizens were now regarded as practically unanimous against the tariff, there were some who boldly argued the fallacy of the two stock arguments, that the

  1. Mountaineer, July 30, 1831; Messenger October 5.
  2. Messenger, October 19, 25, November 2, December 14, 21, 1831.