e point of the sword, that they believed
Mrs. Eaton to be "as chaste as a virgin." But the Ministers, even when
overborne by their chivalrous chief, could not control the social
behaviour of their wives, who continued to cold-shoulder the Eatons, to
the President's great indignation and disgust. Van Buren, who regarded
Calhoun as his rival, and who, as a bachelor, was free to pay his
respects to Mrs. Eaton without prejudice or hindrance, seems to have
suggested to Jackson that Calhoun had planned the whole campaign to ruin
Eaton. Jackson hesitated to believe this, but close on the heels of the
affair came another cause of quarrel, arising from the disclosure of the
fact that Calhoun, when Secretary for War in Monroe's Cabinet, had been
one of those who wished to censure Jackson for his proceedings in
Florida--a circumstance which he had certainly withheld, and, according
to Jackson, deliberately lied about in his personal dealings with the
general. Private relations between the two men were completely broken
off, and they were soon to be ranged on opposite sides in the public
quarrel of the utmost import to the future of the Republic.

We have seen how the strong Nationalist movement which had sprung from
the war of 1812 had produced, among other effects, a demand for the
protection of American industries. The movement culminated in the Tariff
of 1828, which the South called the "Tariff of Abominations." This
policy, popular in the North and West, was naturally unpopular in the
Cotton States, which lived by their vast export trade and had nothing to
gain by a tariff. South Carolina, Calhoun's State, took the lead in
opposition, and her representatives, advancing a step beyond the
condemnation of the taxes themselves, challenged the constitutional
right of Congress to impose them. The argument was not altogether
without plausibility. Congress was undoubtedly empowered by the
Constitution to raise a revenue, nor was there any stipulation as to how
this revenue was to be raised. But it was urged that no power was given
to levy taxes for any other purpose than the raising of such revenue.
The new import duties were, by the admission of their advocates,
intended to serve a wholly different purpose not mentioned in the
Constitution--the protection of native industries. Therefore, urged the
Carolinian Free Traders, they were unconstitutional and could not be
lawfully imposed.

This argument, though ingenious, was not likely t