[Map: House Vote on Tariff Bill April 22, 1828]

The high hopes of the protectionists were only partially realized. In
the following session of Congress, economic interests became badly
tangled with political. The President and the greater part of his
supporters were protectionists. Indeed, it was openly charged by the
opposition that the Harrisburg Convention was a device of the Adams men
to promote his reelection. The opposition, on the other hand, was far
from united on the tariff question. The only affinity between Southern
planters and their Northern allies in the Middle and Western States was
hostility to the Administration. According to Calhoun, who in after
years made a frank avowal of his part in the intrigue, the opposition
determined to frame a tariff bill with a general high level of
duties to satisfy the Middle and Western States, but to increase
the duties on raw material which New England manufacturers needed. All
the stanch Jackson men were to unite in forcing this bill to a passage
without amendment. At the last moment, however, the Southern group were
to part company with their allies and to vote against the bill. The
Representatives from New England, and the supporters of the
Administration generally, would of course vote against the bill also,
and so compass its defeat. The odium would then fall upon the Adams men,
while the Jackson men could pose as the only whole-hearted advocates of
protection; and, finally, not the least factor in Calhoun's
calculations, the South would escape the toils of high protection. There
was only one hitch in this cleverly planned game. To the consternation
of the plotters, enough New England Representatives swallowed the bitter
dose to enact the bill.

The "tariff of abominations" deserves all the abuse which has been
heaped upon it. Shapen in political iniquity, it bore upon its face the
marks of its origin. High duties for which no one had asked were imposed
on certain raw material like pig and bar iron, and hemp, the better
quality of which was always in demand and never produced in the United
States. Items like the increased duty on molasses and the heavy duty on
sail-duck were added to make the bill distasteful to New England. But
the woolen industry suffered the most grievous disappointment. Instead
of the minimum principle advocated by the Harrisburg Convention, the Act
of 1828 established a minimum of one dollar between the minimal points
of fifty cents and two