Whenever the mainstream media finally decides it can’t ignore the efforts of today’s “Tenthers” to use the tools of state level nullification and interposition, their attempts to associate them with slavery, Jim Crow and segregation are as predictable as the sun rising in the East.
The fact is that nullification and interposition were never used by the southern states to protect the institution of slavery and later unsuccessful attempts by some of them to defy federally mandated desegregation of schools are only a tiny, yet overemphasized paragraph in the otherwise noble history of nullification.
Nullification and interposition were used successfully however, by several northern states in the 1850’s to resist federal enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act. Walter Coffey summarizes these little known episodes in American history in his recent article, which every American should read!
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