John C. Calhoun, "On Nullification and the Force Bill."
U.S. Senate, 15 February 1833



Mr. President:

At the last session of Congress, it was avowed on all sides that
the public debt, as to all practical purposes, was in fact paid,
the small surplus remaining being nearly covered by the money in
the Treasury and the bonds for duties which had already accrued;
but with the arrival of this event our last hope was doomed to be
disappointed. After a long session of many months, and the most
earnest effort on the part of South Carolina and the other
Southern States to obtain relief, all that could be effected was
a small reduction of such a character that, while it diminished
the amount of burden, it distributed that burden more unequally
than even the obnoxious Act of 1828; reversing the principle
adopted by the Bill of 1816, of laying higher duties on the
unprotected than the protected articles, by repealing almost
entirely the duties laid upon the former, and imposing the burden
almost entirely on the latter. It was thus that, instead of
relief-- instead of an equal distribution of burdens and benefits
of the government, on the payment of the debt, as had been fondly
anticipated--the duties were so arranged as to be, in fact,
bounties on one side and taxation on the other; thus placing the
two great sections of the country in direct conflict in reference
to its fiscal action, and thereby letting in that flood of
political corruption which threatens to sweep away our
Constitution and our liberty.