Duffie's honor at Charleston, at which, in a three hours' speech, he spoke strongly for nullification, and rehearsed his argument that the producer and not the consumer paid the duty on importations and that the southern planter annually gave to the government or to the northern manufacturers forty out of every one hundred bales of cotton he raised.[1] McDuffie's speech attracted much attention and was attacked generally by the Union press of the state as well as by that of the North. The editor of the Camden Journal averred that McDuffie's tariff theories could be proved unsound by a schoolboy of ordinary intelligence. He praised McDuffie, however, for admitting that nullification was not a constitutional or pacific measure, while he denounced him for trying to persuade the people to hazard their all in resisting the tariff.[2]
- ↑ The dinner was given on May 19. See Mercury, June, 1831; Journal, June 4; Mountaineer, June 4; Courier, May 30, June 9, 10.
- ↑ Other Union editors eagerly seized upon that part of his speech in which he admitted that the doctrine of nullification could not be derived from anything in the Constitution; this, they said, placed the question in its true light (Mountaineer, June 4, 1831; Patriot, June; Journal, June 4). Many other writers picked his arguments to pieces, and one of them took occasion to point out the absurdities connected with the practice of giving such political dinners (Courier, June 9, "Cato"; June 10, "One of the People"). "The practice
