Politically he may have been wrong, but morally he was wholly right, and his rebuke stands in our history as a reproach which Mr.Van Buren's subsequent success can neither mitigate nor impair.
There was another measure, however, which had a far different effect from those which tended to build up the opposition to Jackson and his followers.
A movement was begun by Mr.Clay looking to a revision and reduction of the tariff, which finally resulted in a bill reducing duties on many articles to a revenue standard, and leaving those on cotton and woollen goods and iron unchanged.

In the debates which occurred during the passage of this bill Mr.Webster took but little part, but they caused a furious outbreak on the part of the South Carolinians led by Hayne, and ended in the confirmation of the protective policy.

When Mr.Webster spoke at the New York dinner in 1831, he gave his hearers to understand very clearly that the nullification agitation was not at an end, and after the passage of the new tariff bill he saw close at hand the danger which he had predicted.
In November, 1832, South Carolina in convention passed her famous ordinance nullifying the revenue laws of the United States, and her Legislature, which assembled soon after, enacted laws to carry out the ordinance, and gave an open defiance to the Federal government.

The country was filled with excitement.

It was known that Mr.Calhoun, having published a letter in defence of nullification, had resigned the vice-presidency, accepted the senatorship of South Carolina, and was coming to the capital to advocate his favorite doctrine.