If such a man as Buchanan had then been in the presidential chair there probably would have been a Southern Confederacy; and in 1832 it might have been successful.  But Jackson was a man of different mould.  Democrat and Southern sympathizer as he was, he instantly took the most vigorous measures to suppress such a thing in the bud, before there was time to concert measures of disunion among the other Southern States.  He sent General Scott to Charleston, with a body of troops stationed not far away.  He ordered two war-vessels to the harbor of the misguided and rebellious city.  On December 4 in his annual message he called the attention of Congress to the opposition to the revenue laws and intimated that he should enforce them.  On December 11 he issued a proclamation to the inhabitants of South Carolina, written by Livingston, moderate in tone, in which it was set forth that the power of one State to annul a law of the United States was incompatible with the existence of the Union, and inconsistent with the spirit of the constitution.  Governor Hayne issued a counter-proclamation, while Calhoun resigned the vice-presidency in order to represent South Carolina on the floor of the Senate.  In January the President sent another message to Congress asking for authority to suppress rebellion.

Congress rallied around the Executive and a bill was passed providing for the enforcement of the collection of the customs at Charleston, and arming the President with extraordinary powers to see that the dangers were averted.  Most of the States passed resolutions against Nullification, and there was general approval of the vigorous measures to be enforced if necessary.  The Nullifiers, unprepared to resist the whole military power of the country, yielded, but with ill grace, to the threatened force.  Henry Clay in February introduced a compromise tariff, and on the 27th of that month it was completed, together with an Enforcement Act.  On March 3 it became a law, and on March 11 the South Carolina Nullifiers held an adjourned meeting of their convention and nullified their previous nullification.  The triumph of Jackson was complete, and his popularity reached its apex.

It is not to be supposed that the collection of duties in Southern parts was the only cause of Nullification.  The deeper cause was not at first avowed.  It was the question of slavery, which is too large a topic to be discussed in this connection.  It will be treated more fully in a subsequent lecture.

An important event took place during the administration of Jackson, which demands our notice, although it can in no way be traced to his influence; and this was the Anti-Masonic movement, ending in the formation of a new political party.