born Nov. 10, 1791, Colleton District, S.C., U.S.
died Sept. 24, 1839, Asheville, N.C.
U.S. politician.
In 1823 he entered the U.S. Senate, where he became a spokesman for the South and the doctrine of states' rights . In his famous 1830 debate with Daniel Webster on the Constitution, he argued that the federal Constitution was a compact among the states and that any state might nullify a federal law that it considered in violation of the constitutional compact (see nullification ). At the South Carolina nullification convention in 1832, he developed an ordinance that declared federal tariff laws null and void in the state. Resigning from the Senate in 1832, he served as governor of South Carolina (183234) and as mayor of Charleston (183437).