Chauncey Samuel Boucher

“ The ordinance, drawn up by Chancellor William Harper, declared the tariff acts of 1828 and 1832 to be null and void. It then called upon the legislature to pass such acts as were needed to carry the ordinance into effect, and to prevent the enforcement of the tariff acts within South Carolina. It asserted that in no case of law or equity in the courts of the state could the authority of the ordinance or the acts of the legislature to give it effect be questioned, and that no appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States was to be allowed. ”

“ It also recommended that the leading men of the Union party be sent to the convention from the districts irrespective of their residence, so that the party would be represented by as much talent and weight of character as possible. Many now seemed to think that nothing would be done by the convention until after another session of Congress and that in the meantime a few strong men could do much to undeceive the people. ”

“ In the first place, they wanted it clearly understood that they would not directly or indirectly sanction any act of nullification passed by the legislature or the convention. Suppose the federal and state governments should come into forcible and violent collision, which must the citizen obey? The Union men announced that when South Carolina should think proper to reclaim their allegiance by an act of secession, they must either obey the behest of her sovereign will or expatriate themselves ”

“ The Union members of the legislature, the Union State Rights and Jackson party, as they sometimes called themselves, held a caucus in Columbia and asked the party men in each district to endeavor still to save the country by supporting a Union ticket for delegates to the convention. The Mountaineer urged the Union men in those districts where they had a majority to elect delegates, and in the doubtful ones not to give up the contest too soon. ”

“ The men of the western part of Virginia had early shown that they had no sympathy with thfe Nullifiers. In the lower Piedmont and Tidewater counties there was much sympathy with the South Carolina protest against the tariff, and even some sympathy with the nullification doctrine, but a majority even here agreed with Thomas Ritchie and the Richmond Enquirer, that nullification was unlike the Virginia doctrines of 1798 and without sanction or precedent, even though they disagreed with Ritchie on political questions related to the presidency. ”

“ The convention was composed generally of men who had advanced to middle life or beyond it. There were but few young men, probably not one under twenty-five, and very few under thirty; there were several who had served in the Revolutionary War. ”

“ An address to the people of South Carolina, written by Robert J. Turnbull, was intended for the benefit of the Union men. It first stated that nullification was a natural, sovereign, reserved right, and then attempted to answer the various objections raised against nullification; it professed a belief that nullification would preserve and not desti:oy the Union, but admitted that Congress or the central government could give the controversy what issue it pleased. ”

“ He might "make faces and shake his fist and snap his fingers" at them as much as he pleased; they would "walk into the courthouse and leave him bullying on the green." They had told him that if he attempted force by blockading their harbors or otherwise cutting off their trade, they would secede ”