The Nullification Crisis unfolded in the early 1830s when South Carolina challenged the federal authority of the United States, asserting that a state has the right to nullify national laws. It marked the first time a state formally confronted the federal government to the point of threatening secession and nearly provoking armed conflict. As tensions mounted, President Andrew Jackson denounced the doctrine and prepared military defenses around Charleston Harbor while Congress debated its response, ultimately producing both the Force Bill and Henry Clay's Compromise Tariff of 1833. The confrontation ended without open warfare, but the episode revealed deep sectional divisions and foreshadowed the constitutional struggles that would later shape the United States. - AsNotedIn
| Y/M/D | Description | Place |
|---|---|---|
| 1828/00/00 | Congress enacts a highly protective tariff that provokes fierce Southern opposition, especially in South Carolina. | |
| 1829/00/00 | Vice President John C Calhoun secretly drafts the South Carolina Exposition and Protest, asserting that states may nullify unconstitutional federal laws. | |
| 1832/00/00 | Alexander J Lawton works as a member of the Nullification Convention, 1832-1833. | |
| 1832/00/00 | South Carolina begins military preparations to resist federal enforcement of tariff laws. | |
| 1832/00/00 | A revised tariff becomes law, but South Carolina continues to view federal duties as economically punitive. | |
| 1832/00/00 | President Andrew Jackson makes clear his rejection of nullification as a constitutional doctrine. | |
| 1832/10/00 | During the first two nights of polling, James Hamilton and Gov. Robert Hayne calm a volatile Nullificationist crowd gathered outside the Bull House on Meeting Street, preventing an assault on the fortified Unionist leaders inside. | William Bull House, Charleston, SC |
| 1832/11/00 | President Jackson orders Battery B, 1st US Artillery, to repair Castle Pinckney and to standby to fire on Charleston. The island is strategically vital because its guns directly commanded the city and its wharves. | Castle Pinckney, Charleston, SC |
| 1832/11/00 | During the height of the Nullification Crisis, President Andrew Jackson takes decisive military action by ordering federal reinforcements to Fort Moultrie and other positions in Charleston Harbor. | Fort Moultrie, Sullivan's Island, SC |
| 1832/11/24 | By a vote of 136 to 26, the South Carolina convention adopts the Ordinance of Nullification, declaring the Tariffs of 1828 and 1832 null and void after 1 February 1833. The acts "violate the true meaning and intent thereof and are null, void, and no law," | |
| 1832/12/10 | Jackson issues a Proclamation to the People of South Carolina asserting federal supremacy and condemning nullification as incompatible with the Union. | |
| 1833/00/00 | Henry Clay engineers a compromise tariff that phases in gradual reductions and eases sectional tensions. | |
| 1833/00/00 | South Carolina nullifies the Force Bill as a symbolic assertion of its constitutional theory. | |
| 1833/00/00 | Congress authorizes the president to use military force to enforce federal tariff laws. | |
| 1833/00/00 | South Carolina rescinds its Ordinance of Nullification following passage of the compromise tariff. |
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