Putting President Obama's Healthcare Fight Into Context: A Look Back at President Jackson's Nullificatory Crisis

President Obama signed The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) into law in 2010. The Act seeks to overhaul key aspects of the American healthcare system, insure an additional 30 million Americans and provide new safeguards for patients.

The most controversial part of the legislation is what been termed the individual mandate. This provision requires that, absent a valid exemption, every person be covered under an insurance policy. Nearly 30 states have brought suit against the PPACA. Legislators from across the nation have introduced bills to repeal the Act or ban the implementation of certain provisions, particularly the individual mandate. Other states have or will vote on ballot initiatives regarding the Act, like my state of Ohio will this November. The Supreme Court of the United States will consider the PPACA, and the constitutionality of the individual mandate, in its upcoming term.

In light of President Obama's fight with the states over the PPACA, it may be helpful to look to history for a bit of context. President Andrew Jackson had a similar battle, indeed a Nullification Crisis, with the states over tariffs. President Obama's fight is also over nullification, with the individual mandate being just a part of the greater push by states to undermine federal authority. Let's explore, shall we?

Andrew Jackson assumed the presidency during a time of instability and change. The industrial revolution, market revolution, and transportation revolution all came to a head during his time in office. The transformation of the US economy divided the nation. Many Americans were finding it more and more difficult to manage within the market economy and were falling into poverty. Those in favor of the agrarian way of life wanted little government intervention in their daily lives. Merchants involved in international trade, on the other hand, were in favor of protective tariffs and more government intervention into economic matters. Jackson's response to these economic concerns would lead to a bitter feud over states' rights and slavery. A nullification crisis would ensue, and ultimately polarize the country even further between north and south.

Congress passed The Tariff of 1828. It proved highly divisive, and was labeled by southerners as the Tariff of Abominations. It was a high protective tariff aimed to help New England merchants. It was also an attempt by Jackson to win the political support of these merchants from former President John Quincy Adams and nationalists. Many southerners objected to the inequalities created by the bill. Critics argued that while the tariffs benefited northern industries, they hurt those in the south. George McDuffie’s “40-bale theory” claimed that southern planters were robbed of 40 bales of cotton per every 100 that were sold.

In response to such concerns, South Carolina issued the Ordinance of Nullification. The doctrine declared the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 null and void. Jackson responded with the Force Bill, in which Congress authorized 50,000 troops to use in order to collect the tariff in South Carolina. In 1833, the issue was addressed but not fixed. Tariffs were to be gradually reduced over the next two years, in 1833 and 1834. Jackson’s attempts at compromise would be to no avail. Tensions over states' rights would continue to grow. The loudest voice against the tariff would end up being Jackson’s former vice president, John C. Calhoun.

As tempers flared in the south over the tariff, John C. Calhoun issued a doctrine of nullification called the “Exposition and Protest.” This document essentially stated that protective tariffs were unconstitutional because they benefited one industry at the expense of another. Many people would be taxed, yet few would benefit. Calhoun’s doctrine laid out a four-point system that began with nullification and ended in secession.

This became a battle of ideologies between Jackson and Calhoun. At a dinner in 1830 celebrating Thomas Jefferson’s birthday, the two men articulated their views of the nation and where power should ultimately rest. Jackson declared “our federal union: it must be preserved.” Calhoun immediately shot back, stating “the union, next to our liberty, most dear.” Jackson believed that the people created the nation and therefore the states. Calhoun, on the other hand, saw the United States as a union of the states, not its citizens. The unification of the states created the nation. If the union was not in the best interest of a state, then that state had the right to secede from the union.

The tariff crisis was but a symptom of a larger issue: states' rights and slavery. Slaveholders believed that federal power was a direct threat to the institution of slavery. A strong central government in the hands of northerners would ultimately lead to the abolishment of slavery. This was the divisive issue of that era, and split the country along the Mason-Dixon line. The nullification crisis during the Jackson Presidency may not have caused the Civil War, but it certainly encapsulated the fundamental differences between the North and South that did.

President Obama's battle over the PPACA bears some striking similarities to resembles Jackson's: a deeply polarized country and government; state governments attempting to undermine federal governmental power; and, ultimately, a fight over the direction of the nation. Just as during the Nullification Crisis during the 17th century, both sides of the PPACA debate are articulating different views of where governmental power should reside and how our nation should be governed. This is another nullificatory crisis, with the PPACA being part of a larger push by legislators to assert the power of states to override federal law. While history may not foreshadow the ultimate result of the battle over the individual mandate, it can certainly help us put it into a broader context.

Feller, Daniel. The Jacksonian Promise: America, 1815-1840. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.

Takaki, Ronald. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. US: Little Brown and Company, 1993.

Watson L., Harry. Liberty and Power: The Politics of Jacksonian America. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 1990.

Wilentz, Sean. The Rise of American Democracy. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2005.