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What arguments did John C. Calhoun make in the South Carolina Exposition and Protest?

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Jackson's “Proclamation to the People of South Carolina” — Nullification Crisis U.S. Pres. Andrew Jackson issued his “Proclamation to the People of South Carolina” on December 10, 1832, in response to South Carolina's refusal to be bound by federal tariffs. In it Jackson asserted the supremacy of the federal government and rejected South Carolina's argument that it, as a state, had the right to reject laws made by the federal government that it deemed unconstitutional. Jackson's proclamation was an escalation of the Nullification Crisis, and some argue that it helped lay the foundation for the American Civil War.

In the South Carolina Exposition and Protest (1828), which he authored anonymously, John C. Calhoun articulated a constitutional theory based on the following arguments:

Compact Theory: Calhoun contended that the United States Constitution was a compact among sovereign states, rather than a government created by the people of the nation as a whole.12
State Sovereignty: He argued that because the states were sovereign, the federal government acted merely as their joint agent with limited, delegated powers.12
Right of Nullification: Calhoun maintained that when the federal government exceeded its constitutional authority, individual states retained the right to judge those infractions and declare such acts "null and void" within their own jurisdictions.32
Concurrent Majority: He proposed that this power of "interposition" or nullification served as a check on the federal government, protecting the rights of a minority—such as the Southern states—against the potential tyranny of a numerical majority.2

Under this doctrine, a nullified federal law could only be enforced if it were ratified as a constitutional amendment by three-fourths of the states.12