WRITINGS OF SA:M HOUSTON, 184,9
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North, became too onerous for the toleration of the South, from which the tribute was mainly wrung that made up the accumula- tion of the manufacturing sections. Judge Smith, a Senator from South Carolina, was among the first to comprehend fully, and to expose fearlessly, the crying injustice of this system. He saw that his State, and the whole South, was made the sacrifice of the political game in which Mr. Calhoun's ambition had engaged him. But even Judge Smith's bold exposition did not at first deter him. He still relied on state pride and the hopes depending on his elevation to the Chief Magistracy, to induce the section of the Union which he undertook to represent to bear the unequal burden imposed upon it as a sort of bonus for his advancement. When the demonstration of Judge Smith began to open the eyes of the people to their wrongs, calculating on the influence which the aspirations of a favored leader would have upon them, the occa- sion was seized to take a new hold upon the monied interest of the N., and make sure of its weight in the political scale. The unequal pressure of the tariff upon the planting and producing region was acknowledged by Mr. Calhoun and his friends; but nevertheless, they took ground against Judge Smith's movement to reduce and equalize the imposts. Mr. McDuffie in concert with Mr. Calhoun, offered a substitute for Judge Smith's condemnatory resolutions in the South Carolina Legislature. This substitute, while admitting the oppressive inequality of the protective sys- tem upon the south, declared that as it was generally beneficial, the south would in its magnanimity submit to suffer its partial injury for the good of the country at large. But Mr. Calhoun soon found that the south was not so magnanimous as to allow him to barter its rights and interests to promote his ambition. And he thou't also that New England was inclined rather to entrust its concerns to its son than to one who had given evi- dence that he could sacrifice any public policy of those nearest and dearest to him to a selfish consideration.-Upon this discovery, Mr. Calhoun leaped over the head of Judge Smith, and took the lead in opposition to the protective policy, which he contributed so much to establish. Instead of looking to the councils of the Union, where Judge Smith carried his appeal for redress; Mr. Calhoun, to get the start, broached the doctrines of secession and nullifica- tion, and urged the south to redress itself through revolutionary
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