Proclamation Regarding Nullification: The Great Ruler of Nations
Proclamation Regarding Nullification: The Great Ruler of Nations
If you're going to start a fight, why not have God on your side? God is evoked in Jackson's proclamation as "the Great Ruler of nations" (40), connecting both almighty supremacy with the unity of America. This is neither an accident nor is it an indisputable truth.
Jackson ends the entire document with this declaration:
May the Great Ruler of nations grant that the signal blessings with which he has favored ours may not, by the madness of party or personal ambition, be disregarded and lost, and may His wise providence bring those who have produced this crisis to see the folly, before they feel the misery, of civil strife, and inspire a returning veneration for that Union which, if we may dare to penetrate his designs, he has chosen, as the only means of attaining the high destinies to which we may reasonably aspire. (40)
It may seem a little underhanded to use faith in such a way. Well, it was a little underhanded. But Jackson actually turned God into a rhetorical and persuasive tool by connecting religious morals with the principles of the Jacksonian government. Sneaky, sneaky.
Jackson might as well be saying, "God loves America, so why can't you? Is it because you hate God?" Now those are some really high stakes right there. Jackson has no problem putting theology in his corner of the boxing ring just to add a little extra religious zing to his right jab.