which at the time of the
break-up of the Cabinet in 1831 seemed more powerful in the South than
any other. Jackson and Van Buren had proved to be master politicians,
and when Congress met for the short session in December, 1832, it was
plain that Calhoun was practically alone and that the President would
have to deal with only one recalcitrant State.

From this vantage-ground, Jackson issued his proclamation of December
10, in which he plainly told South Carolina that the federal laws would
be enforced at the point of the bayonet, and that, furthermore, the
Union was an indissoluble nation, as Webster and himself had declared;
and he at the same time urged upon Congress the so-called "Force Bill,"
granting him full power to punish all infractions of the national
revenue laws. And now for the first time he expressed his real view that
the tariff was unjust. The Verplanck Bill to reduce the tariff to a
twenty-five per cent basis was the President's confession that Calhoun
had been right. The two measures were pressed by the Administration, the
one strongly national and supported by a strong majority, the other
strongly Jacksonian and opposed by most of the leaders who desired to
see Calhoun humiliated. It seemed almost certain, early in 1833, that
this program would be carried out to the letter.

Such a victory for the Union forces and especially for Jackson was too
much for the opposition. Henry Clay stopped in Philadelphia on his way
to Washington and held a conference there with the industrial leaders of
the Middle States. He went on to the capital with a plan of his own. Its
purpose was to keep the control of things in the hands of the friends of
the American System and to deprive the President of the prestige of
settling the tariff and the nullification problems at the same time. He
held a _carte blanche_ from the leading protected interests to do what
he thought best. Webster and John Quincy Adams hesitated. They urged the
passage of the "Force Bill" at once; but hoped to defeat the Verplanck
measure, its counterpart. Clay made overtures to Calhoun, and Washington
was surprised to see the two great antagonists associating and planning
together, apparently in concert as of old when they forced the War of
1812 upon an unwilling President.

The "Force Bill" was to be accepted by the Calhoun men; but a new and
final tariff measure was to take the place of the one upon which Jackson
had set his heart. The famous compro