[Fanfic] These United States
Summary: Little snippets, one shots captured from Alfred F. Jones, more commonly known as America's biography.
South Carolina and the Nullification Crisis
---o---
Alfred gazed at the woman before him. Her jaded-green eyes bearing heated fury. Curled-locks of gold framing reddened cheeks. Her looks betraying her age.
She was, after all, nearly a century and a half years old.
But her bearing, the way she held herself. With all the quiet dignity of a queen. Proved her maturity, beyond anything else.
Alfred knew he was at a disadvantage.
Mary Jones was in a class all on her own.
"You scared another tax collector... Didn't you?" It was a rhetorical question. They both knew the answer.
Alfred's throat felt hellishly dry. He swallowed.
"Y-You can't do that. It's a tariff. Issued by the government..." By me. "You have to pay."
There was no answer. Only piercing stares and suffocating silences.
He tries again.
"Hey... Have you been listening to what I just said?"
"No, as a matter of fact." She replies curtly.
Alfred feels relief flood him. It felt like ages since he last he heard her voice. And yet, at the same time, he flinches. Her tone a sharpened point.
"Why?" He asks. Why are you angry? What have I done?
You know exactly why. "Because I existed before you have!" And the filter was broken. The restraints of common courtesy shattering into millions of irreparable parts.
"Never forget!" She cried, hands balling into fists. "I gave you life! And by God! I can take it away!"
Alfred flinches. He's seen her eyes once. It seemed so long ago... A distant memory... Guns clicking, locking, rain pouring indiscriminately... A man staring at him from across the battlefield...
"The Union, next to our liberty most dear."
And then... there was nothing else to say...
--o--
1.) Nullification Crisis- Back in the very early 1800a, there was a "tariff of abominations". South Carolinians blamed it for the stagnancy of their economy and sought to nullify it. John C. Calhoun, vice-president to Andrew Jackson, argued that states had the final say in the constitionality. Jackson was fully against this and called nullification an "act of treason". He was prepared to use force until Henry Clay stepped in and cooled things down.
2. "The Union, next to our liberty most dear."-John C. Calhoun, with this statement, lines were drawn in the sand between Calhoun and Jackson (or so my history textbook implies)