Force Bill

The United States Force Bill (enacted March 21833) authorized U.S. President Andrew Jackson's use of whatever force necessary to enforce tariffs. It was intended to suppress South Carolina's nullification of tariffs. Opponents of the bill referred to it as Jackson's Bloody Bill or War Bill. The bill was a work of political mastery on Jackson's part as it gave the President the authority to close ports or harbors at his will. This in turn would require opponents to the tariff to travel a distance to carry out any threats or insurrection against federal facilities. Hostile acts against government facilities or personnel would then be considered pre-meditated and blatant.

The importance of the Force Bill is that it is the first piece of legislation to publicly deny the right of secession to individual states. Its approval meant that the principle of secession was no longer in keeping with the idea of a national union. In a presidential proclamation to the people of South Carolina, Jackson stated:

Seduced as you have been, my fellow countrymen by the delusion theories and misrepresentation of ambitious, "deluded" & designing men, I call upon you in the language of truth, and with the feelings of a Father to retrace your steps. As you value liberty and the blessings of peace blot out from the page of your history a record so fatal to their security as this ordinance will become if it be obeyed. Rally again under the banners of the union whose obligations you in common with all your countrymen have, with an appeal to heaven, sworn to support, and which must be indissoluble as long as we are capable of enjoying freedom. Recollect that the first act of resistance to the laws which have been denounced as void but those who abuse your confidence and falsify your hopes is Treason, and subjects you to all the pains and penalties that are provided for the highest offence against your country. Can (you)...consent to become Traitors? Forbid it Heaven! [Remini, Robert V.: "The Life of Andrew Jackson", page 241. Perennial, an imprint of HarperColling Publishers, 2001.]

South Carolina, in turn, nullified this Bill. Henry Clay's Compromise Tariff passed the same day, satisfying John Calhoun and South Carolina, making nullification unnecessary in any event.

The issue of nullification was a precursor to the American Civil War. Nullification is not specifically shown in the constitution; however neither is it specifically precluded and hence might be penumbrally retained and/or reserved under the Ninth and Tenth Amendments.

The Force Bill was later used by President Eisenhower when schools in Little Rock, Arkansas refused to integrate their schools. The 101st Airborne Division was sent in to Little Rock to protect the African-Americans who were going to white schools at that time.

References