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Once such thinking became current in the South, secession became a clear possibility in the region's political thought. An unpopular war, a disputed presidential election, tariffs, slavery, or some other cause could then provide the pretext, to use Jackson's term.

So you are reiterating that the South wanted out of the Union, and were willing to use any "pretext" to make that happen.

How is this different from how I have characterized their secession? I've said all along that "slavery" wasn't the primary issue driving them out. You and others insist it was.

"Slavery", was a pretext. They wanted out for economic and probably cultural reasons, but you and others insist they only wanted out to "preserve slavery."

So clarify your position for me.

Andrew Jackson being unavailable, I will answer your question as best that I can.

At America's founding under the Declaration and continuing after the ratification of the Constitution, the states were jealous of their distinct identities and separate authority. How then could they form a United States of America?

The Constitution created a federal government of limited delegated powers, with the states retaining much of their sovereignty. This created not just a legal and political tension between state and federal power but between loyalty to one's state and region and to the federal government.

Jackson's point as I understand it was that the nullification crisis and the theories and doctrines fashioned by nullification advocates did not expire with the compromise that ended the crisis. Instead, they established the basis for a later crisis that would put the Union in jeopardy when those nullification doctrines and ideology would be used as arguments for secession.

In that context, Jackson identified slavery as the likely pretext for secession. In a larger sense though, after the nullification crisis, the South already had its bags packed and a divorce lawyer hired. Slavery, tariffs, an unpopular war, or other issue could trigger secession. Jackson's point was that in the nullification crisis, the South had already begun to repudiate the Union.