Battle of the press: The Nullification Crisis in South Carolina, 1828-1833

This study focuses on the role of the press during the Nullification Crisis in South Carolina. It examines how the Charleston Mercury and the Charleston Courier used ideas centered around economics, states' rights and honor to convince South Carolinians to support their side in the conflict over tariffs. South Carolina was divided between Nullifiers who favored declaring the Tariff of 1828 null and void within the borders of South Carolina and Unionists who opposed nullification and feared the potential for disunion that the radical doctrine possessed. The Unionists represented an older political tradition that sought the greater good of the nation as the best way to ensure a prosperous future, while the Nullifiers advanced strong states' rights doctrines that advocated for South Carolinian interests above all. The strict states' rights beliefs held by the Nullifiers came to be the dominant political view in South Carolina for the rest of the antebellum period. The editors of the Mercury and Courier played a major role in shaping the internal debate in South Carolina over the tariff and the Mercury's victory firmly established states' rights as the primary political doctrine of antebellum South Carolinians.