Preview: Federal Government's Authority vs. State's Rights

     Preceding the Civil War, the people in the states were already becoming divided in their opinions of whether or not the federal government should have more power than the state governments. In the nullification crisis in South Carolina, John C. Calhoun allowed the power of the state government to overrule the federal government when the South Carolinians complained about the protective tariff and sought to have their state government veto it. Calhoun granted them the ability of nullification (the allowance of a state to set aside federal law) and helped strengthen the state governments. However, on the other hand, Supreme Court Justice, John Marshall, advocated and strengthened the power of the federal government over state in his multiple court ruling in the early 1800s. In his ruling during the McCulloch v. Maryland, he stated that only the federal government has authority to tax state banks.