Economic and Political Connections between
Lowell and Southern States
Document 5

Document 5: Letter from Senator John C. Calhoun to Abbott Lawrence on Tariffs, May 13, 1845

Although the North’s textile mill investors and the South’s cotton plantation owners had mutual economic interests, tensions over such issues as the tariff on imported manufactures persisted throughout the antebellum era. The tariff was an attempt to reduce foreign competition with American manufacturers, . Many Southerners opposed a high tariff on imported manufactured goods not only because they believed it increased the economic power of the North over the South, but also because Southerners found themselves paying more for finished goods like cloth. 

Leading the tariff opposition in the early 1830s was U. S. Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, an ardent supporter of the slave-plantation system and a persistent spokesperson for state’s rights. When he was vice president, Calhoun wrote a pamphlet titled, “South Carolina Exposition and Protest,” that said that the US Constitution gave states the right to nullify any law they considered unconstitutional because, he argued, the authority of the federal government derived from the consent of the states.

The pamphlet sparked a national debate. President Jackson, even though he supported states’ rights, saw that giving states the ability to nullify federal laws might lead to secession and the break-up of the United States. To settle the matter, Calhoun collaborated with fellow senator Henry Clay of Kentucky to produce the “Compromise Tariff of 1833,” the passage of which helped reduce cries of secession by angry South Carolinians.

In this excerpt from a letter from Calhoun to Abbott Lawrence, one of the founders of the textile factory cities of Lowell and Lawrence, Massachusetts, the Southern senator expresses his objections to “high duties” (tariffs) and argues that a lower trade barrier with Europe would benefit both planters and manufacturers.

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