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A Ohio Archives Month Lecture 

Federal Force, States’ Rights, and the National Good; The 1832-1833 Nullification Crisis and Today

Presented by Lindsay Schakenbach Regele, Assistant Professor of History, Miami University

Focus on the Nullification Crisis of 1832-33, a conflict between the U.S. government and the state of South Carolina over tax collection.  The event intersects with several themes today, including debates about the legitimacy of federal force, the common good, and economic crises. This conflict also coincidentally occurred during a cholera epidemic.

President Trump's recent deployment of federal troops to quell protests has a history. It echoes President Andrew Jackson's secret stockpiling of federal arms to use against tax protestors in South Carolina in 1832, and the subsequent 1833 Force Bill, which authorized the federal government to deploy military force to compel South Carolina to comply with tariff collection. My talk will briefly describe the 1832-1833 historical context of this states’ rights versus federal force issue, and discuss its possible relevance for debates over COVID and racial violence.