States' Rights and Nullification in the Antebellum Period

In the years before the Civil War, many problems were occurring. A major issue that almost caused an early war to break out was the issue of States' Rights. Many southern states had the belief that the needs of the states should come before the governments' needs. South Carolina was a major supporter of this belief, and it show when they refused to enforce, or nullified, a tariff on imported goods that the government had set on the states to pay back some of the money used in the Revolutionary War. As South Carolina pleasantly went about with their business, Andrew Jackson became angry that a state was nullifying the tariff, and thus he sent troops into South Carolina to enforce the tariff. War almost began due to this action, but South Carolina backed down from the troops due to the fact that no other states supported them. In the end, the tariff was lowered, and South Carolina was cooperative again.

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