Force Bill

It's going around in committee, uh, but it's called the Enforcement Act.

It's more popularly known as the Force Bill or the Bloody Bill, as the Southerners termed it.

Webster claimed authorship of this bill.

He was, however, ill and bedridden when it was proposed to Congress, but he insisted that it was his work.

It was proposed by another Massachusetts congressman.

The Force Bill provided for the military protection of customs houses, obviously aimed at Charleston, the impoundment of goods that are received into port without paying the tax, even the seizure of goods at military forts.

Obviously, here it would have been Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor that would make sure that the taxes were collected on their way into the harbor.

Um, Clay stays absent from Congress while this is being debated.