Southern Nationalism from 1830-1861

Growth of Southern nationalism 1830-1860 has to be placed in the context of the transformation of American society and political economy as a whole and in the South in particular. Southern nationalism from the 1830s to 1860 really began in 1820, with the Missouri Compromise, the first major controversy over the American West and slavery. The question was whether slavery would be allowed in new states admitted from the area of the Louisiana Purchase. It was a controversy for the reason that whether a state was slave or free affected the manner in which the state was represented in Congress. Because of emerging sentiments, mainly in the North, against slavery in society as a whole, and because the North's population was growing far faster than that of the South, the South was losing congressional representation in the House (McCardell 23). It logically followed that a free-state Congressional majority in both House and Senate could vote to abolish slavery in the South. Thus the South's social and economic structure had a stake in the structure of new states. As resolved by Henry Clay,

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of nullification, and third by decisive action on the part of President Andrew Jackson through the Nullification Proclamation. As McCardell describes the consequences of these efforts, the program failed. First, outright secession was opposed by Calhoun, though Calhoun himself had been the principal architect of early nullification ideology; this weakened the philosophical basis for nullification. The loyalty oath as a test of unity on the issue of nullification was so unsubtle opposed by those in the South who still favored a more general American nationalism; this divided prospective nullifiers from within. Further to this point, McCardell distinguishes the "little men" of humble family origins who had scrambled to succeed as slave-holding planters and wanted to protect their property, from the "calm and conservative" aristocrats of Charleston merchant and upcountry plantation society who were "appalled at what they considered the demagogic excesses of the Nullifiers" (36; 40). Jackson's decisive nullification message declared that nullification expressly and implicitly violated the national constitution and amounted to treason; this enhanced the prestige of federal nationalism and Jacksonian Democracy. The compromise tariff in
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Some common words found in the essay are:
George Fitzhugh, Tariff Abominations, Calhoun Calhoun, Southern McCardell, Jefferson Davis, Missouri Compromise, Nullification Crisis, John Calhoun's, McCardell Ultimately, , tariff abominations, fugitive slave, southern nationalism, south carolina, missouri compromise, nullification crisis, compromise 1850, slave laws, fugitive slave laws, southern nationalists, southern sectionalism nationalism, favored american, kansas-nebraska act 1854, scott decision 1857, dred scott decision,
Approximate Word count = 1817
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)