Page:Nullification Controversy in South Carolina.djvu/170

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A Year of Campaigning
151

were not in favor at Washington and that the Nullifiers were supported by the President and the Secretary of State, paralyzed the strength of the Union well-wishers for a time. A letter from Jackson under date of October 26, 1830,[1] shows that at that very time he supposed that everyone acquainted with him knew that he was opposed to the nullification doctrine, as he had repeatedly declared himself so. Other assurances soon came to the Union party that the President was in sympathy with it, and by the end of February the press began to reflect the true position of the President.[2]

There were slight beginnings of the presidential campaign early in 1830,[3] but the campaign began more in earnest in the next year, after the publication of the Jackson-Calhoun correspondence over the Seminole affair. It was then not long before some State Rights papers showed coldness toward the General, and after his letter of June 14 nearly all were his openly avowed opponents.

  1. Poinsett Papers: Jackson to Robert Oliver, October 26, sent to Poinsett on October 28 by R. M. Gibbes, of Baltimore.
  2. Poinsett Papers: Drayton to Poinsett, January 29, February 12, 1831. Courier, January 22, February 23.
  3. Mountaineer, April 10, 1830; Mercury, April 22.