bruary 1, 1833, nullifying the tariff law, and took
measures to defend its action by force. Jackson promptly sent Winfield
Scott to South Carolina to make ready for fighting, employed a
confidential agent to organize the Union men in the State, and called on
Edward Livingston to help him with an address to his misguided
countrymen. The pen of Livingston and the spirit of Jackson, working
together, made the Nullification Proclamation a great state paper. It
was a high-minded appeal to the second thought and the better nature of
the Carolinians; an able statement of the national character of the
government; a firm defiance to all enemies of the Union. It was the most
popular act of the administration, and brought to its support men who
had never supported it before. Benton and Webster joined hands; even
Clay, who, like Jackson, loved his country with his whole heart,
supported the President. Calhoun, alone of all his famous
contemporaries, stood out against him. He left the Vice-President's
seat, came down upon the floor as a Senator, and defended nullification
against all the famous orators who crowded to assail it.

The President called on Congress to provide the means to enforce the
law, and a so-called force bill was introduced. The Carolinians were
defiant, and the country seemed on the verge of civil war; but Clay, by
the second of his famous compromises, avoided the struggle. A new tariff
law, providing for a gradual reduction of duties, was passed along with
the force bill. The Carolinians chose the olive branch instead of the
sword. The nullifiers first postponed and then repealed their ordinance.

Jackson was a national hero as he had never been before. In the summer
of 1833, he made a journey to the Northeast, and even New England made
him welcome. Harvard College made him a Doctor of Laws. As he rode
through the streets of Boston, a merchant of Federalist traditions, who
had closed his windows to show his principles, peeped through, and
Jackson's bearing so touched him that he sent a child to wave the old
gentleman a handkerchief. Andy of the Waxhaws was at the summit of his
career. No other American could rival him in popularity; no other
American had ever had such power over his countrymen since Washington
frowned at the whisper that he might be a king.

But the great man was only a man, after all. He was in wretched health
throughout his first term, and at times it did not seem that he could
possibly live