Virginia and North Carolina voted heavily for the
bill, but South Carolina and Georgia as vigorously opposed it; and the
nullifiers refused to see in it any concession to the tariff
principles for which they stood. "I no longer consider the question
one of free trade," wrote Calhoun when the passage of the bill was
assured, "but of consolidation." In an address to their constituents
the South Carolina delegation in Congress declared that "protection
must now be regarded as the settled policy of the country," that "all
hope from Congress is irrevocably gone," and that it was for the
people to decide "whether the rights and liberties which you received
as a precious inheritance from an illustrious ancestry shall be tamely
surrendered without a struggle, or transmitted undiminished to your
posterity."
In the disaffected State events now moved rapidly. The elections of
the early autumn were carried by the nullifiers, and the new
Legislature, acting on the recommendation of Governor Hamilton,
promptly called a state convention to consider whether the "federal
compact" had been violated and what remedy should be adopted.
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