Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. In our last few programs, we described the presidential election campaign of 1828. It split the old Republican Party of Thomas Jefferson into two hostile groups: the National Republicans of John Quincy Adams and the Democrats of Andrew Jackson. The election of Jackson deepened the split. It became more serious as a new dispute arose over import taxes. At one time, the vice president of the United States -- John C. Calhoun of South Carolina -- had believed in a strong central government. But he had become a strong supporter of states' rights. Calhoun wrote a long statement against the import tax for the South Carolina legislature. In it, he developed the idea of nullification -- cancelling federal powers. He said the states had created the federal government and, therefore, the states had the greater power. He argued that the states could reject, or nullify, any act of the central government which was not constitutional. And, Calhoun said, the states should be the judge of whether an act was constitutional or not. No one really knew how President Andrew Jackson felt about nullification. He made no public statement during the debate. Leaders in South Carolina developed a plan to get the president's support. They decided to hold a big dinner honoring the memory of Thomas Jefferson. Jackson agreed to be at the dinner. The speeches were carefully planned. They began by praising the democratic ideas of Jefferson. Then speakers discussed Virginia's opposition to the alien and sedition laws passed by the federal government in seventeen-ninety-eight. Next they discussed South Carolina's opposition to the import tax. Finally, the speeches were finished. It was time for toasts. President Jackson made the first one. He stood up, raised his glass, and looked straight at John C. Calhoun. He waited for the cheering to stop. "Our union," he said, "it must be preserved." The nation now knew how the president felt. And the people were with him -- opposed to nullification. But the idea was not dead among the extremists of South Carolina. They were to start more trouble two years later. Calhoun's nullification doctrine was not the only thing that divided Jackson and the vice president. Calhoun had led a campaign against the wife of Jackson's friend and secretary of war, John Eaton. Three members of Jackson's cabinet supported Calhoun. Mr. Calhoun and the three cabinet wives would have nothing to do with Mr. Eaton. Jackson saw this as a political trick to try to force Eaton from the cabinet, and make Jackson look foolish at the same time. Several attempts were made to soften relations between Calhoun and Jackson. One of them seemed to succeed. Jackson told Secretary of State Martin Van Buren that the dispute had been settled. He said the unfriendly letters that he and Calhoun sent each other would be destroyed. And he said he would invite the vice president to have dinner with him at the White House. With the dispute ended, Calhoun thought he saw a way to destroy his rival for the presidency -- Secretary of State Martin Van Buren. He decided not to destroy the letters he and Jackson sent to each other. Instead, he had a pamphlet written, using the letters. The pamphlet also contained the statement of several persons denying the Crawford charges. And, it accused Mr. Van Buren of using Crawford to try to split Jackson and Calhoun. One of Calhoun's men took a copy of the pamphlet to Secretary Eaton and asked him to show it to President Jackson. He told Eaton that the pamphlet would not be published without Jackson's approval. Eaton did not show the pamphlet to Jackson and said nothing to Calhoun's men. Calhoun understood this silence to mean that Jackson did not object to the pamphlet. So he had it published and given to the public. Jackson exploded when he read it. Not only had Calhoun failed to destroy the letters, he had published them. Jackson's newspaper, the Washington Globe, accused Calhoun of throwing a firebomb into the party. Jackson continued to defend Margaret Eaton's honor. But the problem got no better. Many people just would not accept Margaret Eaton as their social equal. Mr. Van Buren saw that the problem was hurting Jackson deeply. But he knew better than to propose to Jackson that he ask for Secretary Eaton's resignation. He already had heard Jackson say that he would resign as president before he would desert his friend Eaton. thanks to manythings.org for audio and text This is a VOA product and is in the public domain

• published: 25 Apr 2013
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