As part of our celebration of America at 250, we’ve started a weekly newsletter by historian Jonathan Horn. Learn what happened this week in American history, why it matters, and what else you should see and read in The Free Press and beyond. This week Jonathan looks at how the nullification crisis brought former president James Madison back into the fray. To get this newsletter in your inbox every week, sign up here. —The Editors
Judging by the recent Supreme Court decision on tariffs, James Madison, whose 275th birthday is March 16, remains as relevant as ever. His name appears in the decision almost two dozen times—in the opinions of both the justices who struck down President Donald Trump’s preferred method of imposing tariffs and those who would have upheld it.
During the winter of 1832–33, Americans had the good fortune of not having to guess which side the “Father of the Constitution” would take amid the so-called nullification crisis when South Carolina raised a very different challenge to the constitutionality of protective tariffs. Of all the Constitution’s signers, Madison was the only one still alive to give his opinion.
