[255][256] In response, Jackson sent warships to Charleston harbor, and threatened to hang any man who worked to support nullification or secession.[257]
On December 10, Jackson issued a proclamation against the "nullifiers",[258] stating that he considered "the power to annul a law of the United States, assumed by one State, incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed". South Carolina, the president declared, stood on "the brink of insurrection and treason", and he appealed to the people of the state to reassert their allegiance to that Union. Jackson also denied the right of secession: "The Constitution ... forms a government not a league ... To say that any State may at pleasure secede from the Union is to say that the United States are not a nation."[259] On December 28, Calhoun, who had been elected to the U.S. Senate, resigned as vice president.[260]
Jackson asked Congress to pass a "Force Bill" authorizing the military to enforce the tariff. It was attacked by Calhoun as despotism.