<P> The U.S. suffered an economic downturn throughout the 1820s , and South Carolina was particularly affected . Many South Carolina politicians blamed the change in fortunes on the national tariff policy that developed after the War of 1812 to promote American manufacturing over its European production competition . The controversial and highly protective Tariff of 1828 ( known to its detractors as the `` Tariff of Abominations '' ) was enacted into law during the presidency of John Quincy Adams . The tariff was opposed in the South and parts of New England . By 1828 , South Carolina state politics increasingly organized around the tariff issue . Its opponents expected that the election of Jackson as President would result in the tariff being significantly reduced . When the Jackson administration failed to take any actions to address their concerns , the most radical faction in the state began to advocate that the state itself declare the tariff null and void within South Carolina . In Washington , an open split on the issue occurred between Jackson and Vice President John C. Calhoun , a native South Carolinian and the most effective proponent of the constitutional theory of state nullification . </P>
the tariff of 1828 was known throughout the south as the tariff of
Tariff of Abominations