CHAPTER V
THE NULLIFIERS CAPTURE THE LEGISLATURE (1832)
In the early weeks of the new year the partisans awaited developments. A protectionist convention at New York offset the low-tariff demonstration at Philadelphia, and Congress appeared to lend a willing ear to Clay's plan for revising the tariff on a basis of but trifling reductions and for spending a large part of the revenue for internal improvements to benefit the West.
This program promised an indefinite prolongation of the government's previous policy.[1] The convention of the State Rights associations which met at Charleston in February denounced Clay's project as involving a systematic exploitation of the South by the seizure of half its earnings and the distribution of the proceeds in such a way as to double northern profits. Nullification was easily preached from that text.[2]
The memorial of the Philadelphia convention, with an additional one by Judge William Harper
