TheState Rights and Free Trade Party, commonly known as theNullifier Party, was apolitical party inAntebellum South Carolina. It was one oftwo main political parties inSouth Carolina during the 1830s, alongside the Union Party.^[4] The party defended the legal theory ofnullification, which held thatstates could unilaterally declarefederallawsunconstitutional.^[5]

John C. Calhoun anonymously published theSouth Carolina Exposition and Protest in response to theTariff of Abominations, which dramatically increased the rate of tax on imported raw materials.^[6] The Exposition went beyond the earlierKentucky and Virginia Resolutions in asserting the right of the states to nullify unconstitutional laws. Calhoun claimed that the severe harm done by the tariff to South Carolina'splantation economy justified the step of nullification. Calhoun's ideas were notable for theirproslavery emphasis; likeminded contemporaries portrayed the tariff as anabolitionistconspiracy and a vital threat to theplanter class. While Calhoun made a formal distinction between nullification andsecession, opponents accused him of advocating disunion.^[7]

Nullifiers outperformed expectations in the 1830 legislative elections, holding the Unionists to narrow majorities in six contestedCharleston districts.^[8] Local associations were established in every district andparish the following year, largely through the efforts of Calhoun's associateJames Hamilton Jr., themanager of the state party.^[3] Nullifiers held a more than two-thirdssupermajority in theSouth Carolina General Assembly after the 1832 elections, which were marked by significantpolitical violence.^[9] The party was strongest in theSouth Carolina Lowcountry.^[10] In Charleston, Nullifiers drew support from planters outside the economic and politicalestablishment, as well asmerchants,brokers, andlaborers employed ineconomic sectors tied to the export trade. New voters after 1830 overwhelmingly favored the Nullifiers, reflecting the party's appeal withyoung voters.^[11]

Nullifier control of the legislature was important during thenullification crisis, enabling Hamilton to call the state convention that nullified the tariffs of 1828 and1832.^[12] The party subsequently sought legislation to require that state officialsswear "primary and paramount allegiance" to South Carolina.^[13] Nullifiers articulated a "proslavery,antidemocratic discourse" that was foundational toSouthernnationalism in subsequent decades.^[10]Congressional Nullifiers were instrumental in securing adoption of thegag rule by theUnited States House of Representatives; Calhoun rejected the measure as insufficiently extreme and helped to drive its author,Henry L. Pinckney, out of the Nullifier Party.^[14] Fear ofslave rebellions propelled by the growth of the abolitionist movement in theNorthern United States led Nullifiers to demand further suppression of antislavery literature in the later part of the 1830s.^[15]

Nullifiers first aligned with theWhig Party in the formation of theSecond Party System.^[16] South Carolina was the only state to appoint itselectors by a vote of thelegislature during the 1830s; the Nullifier-controlled General Assembly declined to endorse eithermajor party presidential candidate in1832 and1836, instead castingprotest votes forJohn Floyd ofVirginia andWillie P. Mangum ofNorth Carolina.^[17] After 1837, Calhoun and other leading Nullifiers switched their allegiance to theDemocrats.^[18] The Nullifier and Union parties merged in 1840 amidst the decline of Unionism in South Carolina preceding theAmerican Civil War.^[19]

Election	Ticket		Electoral results[20]
	Presidential nominee	Running mate	Popular vote	Electoral votes	Change	Result
1832	John Floyd	Henry Lee	0.00%	11 / 286	11	Lost
1836	No candidate[a]	John Tyler	0.00%	11 / 294		Lost

Congress	House of Representatives[22]				Senate[23]
	Election	Seats	Change	Percent	Election	Seats	Change	Percent
22nd	1830–31	4 / 213	4	1.88	1830–31	2 / 48	2	4.17
23rd	1832–33	7 / 240	3	2.92	1832–33	2 / 48		4.17
24th	1834–35	7 / 241		2.90	1834–35	2 / 52		3.85
25th	1836–37	2 / 242	5	0.82	1836–37	0 / 52	2	0.00

• Carpenter, Daniel (2021).Democracy by Petition: Popular Politics in Transformation, 1790–1870. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. p. 312.ISBN 978-0-674-24749-9.
• Dubin, Michael J. (March 1, 1998).United States Congressional Elections, 1788–1997: The Official Results of the Elections of the 1st through 105th Congresses. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland and Company.ISBN 978-0-7864-0283-0.
• Dubin, Michael J. (2002).United States Presidential Elections, 1788–1860: The Official Results by State and County. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co.
• Freehling, William W. (1968).Prelude to Civil War: The Nullification Controversy in South Carolina, 1816–1836. New York: Harper Torchbooks.
• Holt, Michael F. (1992).Political Parties and American Political Development from the Age of Jackson to the Age of Lincoln. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.ISBN 978-0-8071-1728-6.
• Holt, Michael F. (1999).The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Coming of the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN 978-0-19-505544-3.
• Howe, Daniel Walker (2007).What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848. New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN 978-0-19-507894-7.
• Paulus, Carl Lawrence (2017).The Slaveholding Crisis: Fear of Insurrection and the Coming of the Civil War. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. p. 125.ISBN 978-0-8071-6436-5.
• Pease, Jan H.; Pease, William H. (August 1981)."The Economics and Politics of Charleston's Nullification Crisis".Journal of Southern History.47 (3):335–62.doi:10.2307/2207798.JSTOR 2207798.
• Sinha, Manisha (2000).The Counterrevolution of Slavery: Politics and Ideology in Antebellum South Carolina. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
• Tinkler, Robert (2004).James Hamilton of South Carolina. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.ISBN 978-0-8071-2936-4.

• Defunct political parties in the United States
• Political parties established in 1830
• Political parties in South Carolina
• History of South Carolina
• John C. Calhoun
• Nullification (U.S. Constitution)
• Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions
• 1830 establishments in South Carolina
• Factions in the Democratic Party (United States)
• Defunct conservative parties in the United States
• Conservatism in the United States

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