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The Tariff of Abominations was a protective tariff passed by the United States Congress in 1828.
The goal of the tariff was to drive up the prices of European goods to prevent them from competing with northern industry. The system of tariffs was triggered after the War of 1812, when the British attempted to destroy America's manufacturers by literally flooding America with goods at prices it couldn't match. The first protective tariff was passed by Congress in 1816, and was increased in 1824, and again in 1828 by the Tariff of Abominations. John C. Calhoun was Andrew Jackson's vice president at the time. He was a South Carolinian, and thus strongly against the tariff. When the British couldn't import, they stopped buying cotton, which hurt the south. Thus, not only did the tariff force the North to buy at a higher price, they couldn't profit from sales either. From this Calhoun was able to devise the concept of nullification, which was subsequently deemed unconstitutional.
