Whereas a convention, assembled in the State of South Carolina, have passed an ordinance, by which they declare that the several acts and parts of acts of the Congress of the United States, purporting to be laws for the imposing of duties and imposts on the importation of foreign commodities, and now having actual operation and effect within the United States, and more especially "two acts for the same purposes, passed on the 29th of May, 1828, and on the 14th of July, 1832, are unauthorized by the Constitution of the United States, and violate the true meaning and intent thereof, and are null and void, and no law," nor binding on the citizens of that State or its officers, and by the said ordinance it is further declared to be unlawful for any of the constituted authorities of the State, or of the United States, to enforce the payment of the duties imposed by the said acts within the same State, and that it is the duty of the legislature to pass such laws as may be necessary to give full effect to the said ordinances. (1)

At the outset, Jackson recites the terms of South Carolina's complaints—what they're angry about and what they plan to do about it. The Tariffs of 1828 are unconstitutional; they're not going to pay them in South Carolina; it's illegal for the feds make to make them do it; and they'll pass any laws necessary to make the Ordinance stick. He needs to let them know that he understands what they're saying so he's prepared to address their specific complaints.