Mr. Clay’s Speech upon the Tariff;: or the “American System,” so called; on the Anglican System, in Fact, . . . Mr. Gile’s Speech upon the Resolutions of Inquiry in the House of Delegates of Virginia, in Reply to Mr. Clay’s Speech; Also, His Speech in Reply to Gen. Taylor’s . . .

The Tariffs that led to the Nullification Crisis!

Mr. Clay's Speech upon the Tariff; or the "American System," so called; on the Anglican System, in Fact, . . . Mr. Gile's Speech upon the Resolutions of Inquiry in the House of Delegates of Virginia, in Reply to Mr. Clay's Speech; Also, His Speech in Reply to Gen. Taylor's . . .

8vo. Modern gray wrappers, paper label on cover. Richmond, Thomas W. White . . . 1827. First Edition.


William B. Giles, a prominent State Rights Jeffersonian, opposed the Clay-Whig program of protective tariffs and federal funding of internal improvements as an unconstitutional usurpation of power. He states:

"Disguise it as you may – conceal it if you can – the essence of the tariff is disunion – disunion in sectional interests – in individual occupations – A war of all the discordant elements, of the different occupations in society, urged on, by individual cupidity, and grounded upon incessant efforts of reciprocal plunder – cunning, being substituted for principle."

This metaphorical "disunion" was the economic "sectional interests" of, roughly, the Northern and Southern sections of the United States. These tariffs once enacted stoked tensions that exploded after the Tariffs of 1832 into the Nullification Crisis with South Carolina.

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