The Meaning of Sectionalism 219son of John Adams to do so was disastrous; every
doubter remembered his Federalist background and
decided that he was trying to overturn the glorious
“Revolution of 1800.” Adams, though nominally a
Democrat, was acting like a Federalist!
Adams proved to be his own worst enemy, for he
was an inept politician. Although capable on occasion
of turning a phrase—in his first annual message to
Congress he described astronomical observatories as
“light-houses of the skies”—his general style of public
utterance was bumbling and cumbersome. Knowing
that many citizens considered things like observatories
impractical extravagances, he urged Congress not to be
“palsied by the will of our constituents.” To persuade
Americans, who were almost pathological on the sub-
ject of monarchy, to support his road building pro-
gram, he cited with approval the work being done
abroad by “the nations of Europe and... their rulers,”
which revived fears that all Adamses were royalists at
heart. He was insensitive to the ebb and flow of public
feeling; even when he wanted to move with the tide, he
seldom managed to dramatize and publicize his stand
effectively. Many Americans, for example, endorsed a
federal bankruptcy law to protect poor debtors; Adams
agreed, but instead of describing himself as a friend of
debtors, he called for the “amelioration” of the “often
oppressive codes relating to insolvency” and buried the
recommendation at the tail end of a dull state paper.
John Quincy Adams, Inaugural Addressat
myhistorylab.com
Calhoun’sExposition and Protest
The tariff question added to the president’s troubles. An
increasingly powerful federal government required
higher revenues—and higher duties—culminating in
what became known as the record-high 1828 “Tariff of
Abominations.” This exacerbated sectional divisions.
(See Mapping the Past, “North–South Sectionalism
Intensifies,” pp. 216–217.)
Vice President Calhoun was especially upset; he
believed that the new tariff would impoverish the
South. His essay, The South Carolina Exposition and
Protest, repudiated the nationalist philosophy he had
previously championed.
The South Carolina legislature released this docu-
ment to the country in December 1828, along with
eight resolutions denouncing the protective tariff as
unfair and unconstitutional. The theorist Calhoun,
however, was not content with outlining the case against
the tariff. HisExpositionprovided an ingenious defense
of the right of the people of a state to reject a law of
Congress. Starting with John Locke’s revered concept
of government as a contractual relationship, he argued
that since the states had created the Union, logic dic-
tated that they be the final arbiters of the meaning of the
ReadtheDocumentConstitution. If a special state convention, representing
the sovereignty of the people, decided that an act of
Congress violated the Constitution, it could interpose
its authority and “nullify” the law within its boundaries.
Calhoun did not seek to implement this theory in 1828,
for he hoped that the next administration would lower
the tariff and make nullification unnecessary.The Meaning of Sectionalism
The sectional issues that occupied the energies of
politicians and strained the ties between the people of
the different regions were produced by powerful
forces that actually bound the sections together.
Growth caused differences that sometimes led to con-
flict, but growth itself was the product of prosperity.
People were drawn to the West by the expectation
that life would be better there, as more often than not
it was, at least in the long run. Henry Clay based his
American System on the idea that sectional economic
differences could be mutually beneficial. He argued
plausibly that western farmers would profit by selling
their crops to eastern city dwellers and that spending
public money on building roads and other internal
improvements would make transportation and com-
munication less expensive and thus benefit everyone.
Another force unifying the nation was patriotism;
the increasing size and prosperity of the nation made
people proud to be part of a growing, dynamic soci-
ety. Still another was the uniqueness of the American
system of government and the people’s knowledge
that their immediate ancestors had created it. JohnJohn Lewis Krimmel’s painting of the Fourth of July in Centre Square
Philadelphia(1812). Note the diversity of those who’ve assembled to
observe the festivities.
Source: Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia.
Pennsylvania Academy purchase (from the estate of Paul Beck, Jr.).