The strong feeling of states' rights in Virginia became apparent once more. When President Andrew Jackson threatened to use armed force upon South Carolina in his attempt to coerce South Carolina into paying Federal taxes, according to the Tariff of 1828 ("The Tariff of Abominations"), Virginians became very alarmed. John Randolph, a sick man at the time, traveled throughout the country denouncing Jackson's coercive attitude. Virginia then sent Benjamin Watkins Leigh to South Carolina to try to bring peace within the Union again and to prevent South Carolina from seceding from the Union. Governor John Floyd of Virginia stated that federal troops would meet armed opposition if President Jackson ordered them to march through Virginia to South Carolina and to force South Carolina to pay the exorbitant tariff rates. Henry Clay's compromise tariff law providing for gradually reduced tariff rates prevented possible secession from occurring at this time. In August 1831, a Negro preacher of Southampton County, Nat Turner, started a local slave insurrection by persuading the Negro slaves that it was time to kill the white people. Sixty whites, mostly women and children, were killed before the rebellion could be suppressed. Nat Turner and twelve of his accomplices were hung. Many Virginians believed that Nat Turner's Rebellion took place as a direct result of the writings of William Lloyd Garrison of Massachusetts who published the "Liberator," a newspaper which demanded the immediate abolition of slavery. The southerners, in general, were so aroused by this rebellion that southern legislatures passed laws prohibiting slaves from being taught to read. In fact, a reward was offered for Garrison himself. Many southern states passed resolutions requesting the northern states to forbid the publication of abolitionist papers. In 1832 at a regular session of the Virginia General Assembly, an act was proposed whereby all slaves born after July 4, 1840 were to be free and to be removed from the State of Virginia. The act was defeated in the House of Delegates by a close vote of 67 to 60.