As for the "Nullification crisis" none other than Jefferson Davis in his farewell address to the Senate in 1861 did a masterful job of differentiating between nullification and secession.
Basically what he said is the obvious argument; that foreign states like the new Confederacy weren't subject to the laws of the United States ergo nullification or lack thereof did not apply.
It is by this confounding of nullification and secession that the name of a great man, whose ashes now mingle with his mother earth, has been invoked to justify coercion against a seceded State. The phrase "to execute the laws," was an expression which General Jackson applied to the case of a State refusing to obey the laws while yet a member of the Union.
That is not the case which is now presented. The laws are to be executed over the United States, and upon the people of the United States. They have no relation to any foreign country. It is a perversion of terms, at least it is a great misapprehension of the case, which cites that expression for application to a State which has withdrawn from the Union.
I think that Jackson would have strenuously disagreed.
I'm also pretty sure that had Jackson been President when the War of Southern Independence occurred, there's a good chance he would have been our first and only President to lead troops in the field while yet in office
Birdwatcher
"...if the gentlemen of Virginia shall send us a dozen of their sons, we would take great care in their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them." Canasatego 1744
