Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/352

294 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS he was in earnest by forthwith sending Lieut. Far- ragut with a naval force to Charleston harbor, and ordering Gen. Scott to have troops ready to enter South Carolina if necessary. In the proclamation, which was written by Livingston, the president thus defined his position: "I consider the power to annul a law of the United States, assumed by one state, incompatible with the existence of the Union, con tradicted expressly by the letter of the constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed." Gov. Hayne, of South Carolina, issued a counter- proclamation, and a few days afterward Calhoun resigned the vice-presidency, and was chosen to succeed Hayne in the senate. Jackson s determined attitude was approved by public opinion through out the country. By the southern people generally the action of South Carolina was regarded as pre cipitate and unconstitutional. Even in that state a Union convention met at Columbia, and an nounced its intention of supporting the president. In January, Calhoun declared in the senate that his state was not hostile to the Union, and had not meditated an armed resistance; a "peaceable seces sion," to be accomplished by threats, was probably the ultimatum really contemplated. In spite of Jackson s warning, the nullifiers were surprised by his unflinching attitude, and quite naturally re-