f which we have all heard. Senator Jesse B.
Thomas, of Illinois, proposed this compromise. The terms of it admitted
Missouri with slaves, but prohibited slavery in any other portion of the
Louisiana Purchase north of a certain specified latitude, which was the
Southern boundary of Missouri. This quelled the matter for many years,
but most of us have seen the celebrated steel engraving, where Henry
Clay stands speaking on this question, and pouring oil on the troubled
waters. His powerful oratory so often saved the country from dissension
that he was termed the Great Pacificator. The gifted triumver, Henry
Clay from Kentucky, Daniel Webster from Massachusetts, and John C.
Calhoun from South Carolina, had labored through years to reconcile
the national vexed questions. All three died in the early fifties, and
remembering the results of their mighty genius, there were many to say,
ten years after that if they had lived there would have been no war,
save perhaps another war of words in Congress. But their patriotic heads
were laid low, and there were none to take their places. The two sources
of dissension, slavery and the tariff, were always on hand to make a
stormy session, so that a detailed history of the wrangling among the
North, South and West would be a tedious transcription. What suited
one section was adverse to the best interests of the others. The South
abided strictly by the wording of the Constitution. The North was ever
ready to put a liberal construction on its meaning, and naturally they
took issue.

In 1824 the Tariff question became so untenable that some of the
Southern States rebelled outright, and protested through their
legislatures against the measure as unconstitutional. Some favored
secession; others advocated nullification, and this was what was done.
They nullified the law and refused to stand by it. Clamor for State
rights was heard on every side. But they did not take this step till
they had waited two or three years for Congress to give relief by
reducing the tariff. In 1832 the crisis came; nullification was
pronounced by South Carolina, and she forbade the collection of tariff
duties in her own State. She also declared that if the United States
used force, she would withdraw from the Union and organize a separate
government. Andrew Jackson, who was President, determined to enforce the
tariff law in the State, and asked Congress for the power to use the
army to sustain the law. Volunteers had