y reached an acute
stage Adams had surrendered the Presidency to General Andrew Jackson,
who had only contempt for Indian rights when they fell athwart the
purposes of honest white settlers.

In the midst of these protestations against federal intervention, the
legislature of Georgia sounded a note of defiance also in the matter of
the tariff. It was "their decided opinion an increase of Tariff duties
will and ought to be RESISTED by all legal and constitutional means."
Just what should be "the mode of opposition" they would not pretend to
say, but for the present they would content themselves with "the
peaceable course of remonstrating with Congress." This rather ominous
protest was inspired by the demands of certain manufacturers and
politicians who had assembled in convention at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
in the summer of 1827.

The woolen industry had profited least of all those which had been
protected by the Tariff of 1824. Not only had the slight advance in
rates been offset by the increase of the duty on raw wool, but the
effect of English competition in 1825 had been most depressing to the
woolen trade. A tariff bill to meet the wishes of the wool-growers and
woolen manufacturers had passed the House early in 1827, but had been
defeated in the Senate by the casting vote of the Vice-President. The
convention at Harrisburg was designed to create a public sentiment in
favor of the protected interests and to bring pressure from various
sources to bear upon Congress. The failure of the tariff bill in the
spring session had impressed upon woolen manufacturers the necessity of
securing allies.

The recommendations of the convention at Harrisburg were comprehensive.
Higher duties all along the line, from wool to glass, were urged. But
that which the promoters of the convention had most at heart was the
extension to woolens of the minimum principle already applied to cotton
fabrics. According to their demands, the _ad valorem_ duty on woolens
should range from forty to fifty per cent, assessed on minimum
valuations of fifty cents, two dollars and a half, four dollars, and six
dollars a yard. That is to say, goods valued at less than fifty cents a
yard were to be treated as though they had a value of fifty cents; and
all between fifty cents and two dollars and a half, as though they were
worth two dollars and a half; and so on--a system which offered a high
degree of protection to the cheaper fabrics in each group.