John C. Calhoun - the Other Side of the American Dream
John C. Calhoun:
The Other side of the American Dream
Slavery was the foundation of the antebellum South. More than any other characteristic, it defined Southern political, cultural, and social life. It also united the South as a section different from the rest of the country. John Caldwell Calhoun of South Carolina was committed to both state’s rights and slavery as seen as the South’s only protection from destruction by the industrious North. John C. Calhoun, the South 's recognized intellectual and political leader from the 1820s until his death in 1850, devoted much of his remarkable intellectual energy to defending his two-part political philosophy. One side of his theory was devoted to the rights of the minority sections, more importantly the South needed particular defense in the federal union. The second part was an incongruity that offered slavery as an institution that promoted everyone involved.
Calhoun 's commitment to his two-part defense and his efforts to expand them to the fullest would give him an exceptional role in American history as the political, spiritual, and moral voice for Southern autonomy. The fact was, he never wished the Southern states to sever themselves from the Union as they would eleven years after his death. Calhoun’s experience and life’s career as a public servant gave him the understanding he needed to redefine the theory of secession. Due to his impassioned writings on the interpretation of the constitution and state’s rights, his speeches identified the federal government as encroaching in the very livelihood of the South; Calhoun, with great commitment augmented and molded the catalyst to the American Civil War.
To understand the man, it is important to begin with a brief history of the era in which he lived and how the resulting constitutional issues divided a nation. The judgment for slavery had been constructed into the colony of South Carolina with the first settlements. The British mandated the colonists to
The Other side of the American Dream
Slavery was the foundation of the antebellum South. More than any other characteristic, it defined Southern political, cultural, and social life. It also united the South as a section different from the rest of the country. John Caldwell Calhoun of South Carolina was committed to both state’s rights and slavery as seen as the South’s only protection from destruction by the industrious North. John C. Calhoun, the South 's recognized intellectual and political leader from the 1820s until his death in 1850, devoted much of his remarkable intellectual energy to defending his two-part political philosophy. One side of his theory was devoted to the rights of the minority sections, more importantly the South needed particular defense in the federal union. The second part was an incongruity that offered slavery as an institution that promoted everyone involved.
Calhoun 's commitment to his two-part defense and his efforts to expand them to the fullest would give him an exceptional role in American history as the political, spiritual, and moral voice for Southern autonomy. The fact was, he never wished the Southern states to sever themselves from the Union as they would eleven years after his death. Calhoun’s experience and life’s career as a public servant gave him the understanding he needed to redefine the theory of secession. Due to his impassioned writings on the interpretation of the constitution and state’s rights, his speeches identified the federal government as encroaching in the very livelihood of the South; Calhoun, with great commitment augmented and molded the catalyst to the American Civil War.
To understand the man, it is important to begin with a brief history of the era in which he lived and how the resulting constitutional issues divided a nation. The judgment for slavery had been constructed into the colony of South Carolina with the first settlements. The British mandated the colonists to
Cited: Bartlett, Irving H. John C. Calhoun, A Biography. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1993. Davis, David Brion. Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. John C. Calhoun, Edited by Ross M. Lence. Union and Liberty, The Political Philosophy of John C. Calhoun. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, Inc., 1992. [ 8 ]. Coit, Margaret L., John C. Calhoun, American Portrait. Houghton-Mifflin Company, South Carolina, 1950, p28 [ 9 ]