the national vexed questions. All three died in the early fifties, and
remembering the results of their mighty genius, there were many to say,
ten years after that if they had lived there would have been no war,
save perhaps another war of words in Congress. But their patriotic heads
were laid low, and there were none to take their places. The two sources
of dissension, slavery and the tariff, were always on hand to make a
stormy session, so that a detailed history of the wrangling among the
North, South and West would be a tedious transcription. What suited
one section was adverse to the best interests of the others. The South
abided strictly by the wording of the Constitution. The North was ever
ready to put a liberal construction on its meaning, and naturally they
took issue.

In 1824 the Tariff question became so untenable that some of the
Southern States rebelled outright, and protested through their
legislatures against the measure as unconstitutional. Some favored
secession; others advocated nullification, and this was what was done.
They nullified the law and refused to stand by it. Clamor for State
rights was heard on every side. But they did not take this step till
they had waited two or three years for Congress to give relief by
reducing the tariff. In 1832 the crisis came; nullification was
pronounced by South Carolina, and she forbade the collection of tariff
duties in her own State. She also declared that if the United States
used force, she would withdraw from the Union and organize a separate
government. Andrew Jackson, who was President, determined to enforce the
tariff law in the State, and asked Congress for the power to use the
army to sustain the law. Volunteers had offered in South Carolina, and
the country stood aghast at the prospect of civil war. Here again Henry
Clay's eloquence saved the day. He proposed the measure of gradually
reducing the tariff through a period of ten years till it would provide