uence of cotton-growing, he and some of his
fellows yielded to the old order of the Pinckneys and the Butlers, and
the older order yielded a little to the democratic group in the State.
This produced the united South Carolina which gave to the country
Calhoun, Lowndes, and Hayne, nationalists of the most ardent type in
1816; and for a few years it seemed that these astute leaders would play
the role of the old Virginia dynasty.

But when Calhoun, with the aid of high protectionist Pennsylvania, was
bending all his energies, in 1824, to winning the Presidency, there
broke out an insurgency in the former Federalist section of his State
which boded ill for the future. The burden of its complaint was the
national tariff, which bore heavily on the cotton and rice planters.
Between 1824 and 1828 the lower Carolinians developed a vindictive
hostility toward the leaders of nationalism in the State and especially
toward Calhoun, who was considered responsible for the oppressions of
the tariff. Robert Barnwell Rhett and William Smith, two perfect
representatives of aristocratic South Carolina, led the fight. Senator
Hayne was among the first to yield; George McDuffie, an up-country
leader, next surrendered; finally most Southern members of the National
House of Representatives took up the cry against the tariff and extreme
nationalism. Nothing was more certain in 1826 than that Calhoun and his
nationalist party would be driven to the wall.

Vice-President Calhoun had taken note of the coming storm, and in 1827,
when the woolens bill, a highly protectionist measure, was before
Congress, a measure in which all the Middle States' interests were
greatly concerned, he took pains to have his vote recorded against the
bill. Thus he publicly announced his change of heart. A year later he
was even more outspoken in his opposition to the famous "Tariff of
Abominations." However, he had already made an alliance with Jackson,
whose attitude on the tariff no one knew, and who was very popular with
the protectionists of Pennsylvania. It was clearly understood that
Jackson would serve only one term as President and that Calhoun should
succeed him. The leaders of the older section of South Carolina, urging
secession, were now confronted with a peculiar dilemma. A conference
with Calhoun led in 1828 to a reversal of the secession movement, and
culminated in the proposition that South Carolina should suspend the
tariff law of the country and ask