¹ References are to Crallé, Richard K.; (ed.), The Works of John C. Calhoun (6 vols.; Columbia, S. C., and New York, 1851–1855)Google Scholar, hereafter cited as Works. Volume I consists of A Disquisition on Government and A Discourse on the Constitution and Government of the United States, two post humously published writings on which Calhoun worked intermittently during the last few years of his life. Where the reference is to the other five volumes of this edition, I have added the year of publication or delivery, since Crallé's order is not strictly chronological. Unless otherwise noted, all italics in quotations are in the original. Works, I, 1, 3; II, 182 (1817), 648 (1837).

² Ibid., I, 70; II, 232 f. (1833). Jameson, J. Franklin (ed.), “Correspondence of John C. Calhoun,” Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1899, Vol. II (Washington, 1900), p. 768 (1849)Google Scholar. (Hereafter cited as Correspondence.)

³ Works, I, 2, 5, 8; IV, 509 f. (1848).

⁴ Ibid., I, 2–4; II, 63 (1814); VI, 53 (1828).

⁵ Ibid., I, 4 f. 10, 47; VI, 202 (1832). However, there appear to be such things as “too concentrated” affections and too predominant a regard for self-interest. See Calhoun's condemnation of Webster and of the Northern states. Ibid., III, 287 (1838); IV, 386 (1847).

⁶ Ibid., I, 58. See also ibid., IV, 509 f. (1848); VI, 221 f. (1843); Correspondence, p. 758 (1848).

⁷ Works, I, 2 f., 4. Such is Calhoun's careful circumlocution for sympathetic or social feeling. Our regard for others is ultimately a regard for self.

⁸ The emphatic distinction of social and political states replaces the “state of nature—civil society” dichotomy of the modern natural rights teachers. At this stage of the argument one can only suspect that Calhoun wrought this change less with a view to building a doctrine that vested associations of men with a right of revolution than to avoiding the premise of natural egalitarianism.

⁹ Calhoun used such terms as “the Creator” or “the Infinite” or “Providence” in the Disquisition. The sole mention of “God” there occurs when the concurrent voice of a people is called “the voice of God.” Works, I, 39. On Calhoun's avoidance of this name, see Capers, Gerald M., John C. Calhoun·—Opportunist: A Reappraisal (Gainesville, Fla., 1960), p. 17 nGoogle Scholar.

¹⁰ In this connection Calhoun mentioned “language, customs, pursuits, situation, and complexion.” This is the only direct reference to color in the Disquisition. Works, I, 9.

¹¹ The Federalist, No. 6 (Modern Library ed.), p. 33.

¹² Works, I, 2, 4–10, 42 f., 52.

¹³ Ibid., I, 13, 31, 77–79; III, 591 (1841). For similar judgments of the American Constitution, see ibid., I, 199; IV, 99 (1842), 417 (1848). The establishment of the Roman tribunate is called both “wise” and “fortunate.” In neither Rome nor Britain did the warring interests have “any conception of the principles involved, or the consequences to follow, beyond the immediate objects in contemplation.” Ibid., I, 96, 104.

¹⁴ Compare Tocqueville, Alexis de, Democracy in America, Vol. II, bk. ii, chap. 8 (Vintage Books ed.), p. 129Google Scholar.

¹⁵ Works, I, 3, 50 f., 74 f.; III, 116 f. (1837). In the context of the last citation, the banking system is attacked for “concentrating in itself most of the prizes of life-wealth, honor, and influence-to the great disparagement and degradation of all the liberal, and useful, and generous pursuits of society. The rising generation cannot but feel its deadening influence.”

¹⁶ Ibid., I, 10 f.

¹⁷ Calhoun went to some lengths to avoid using any individual's proper name in the Disquisition. Consider, e.g., the highly abstract account of English history. Ibid., I, 99 f.

¹⁸ The Federalist reached back to Minos (see No. 38); Calhoun cast his net wider, but never mentioned the Greeks in the Disquisition. The Romans, from whose institutions lessons are drawn, apparently belong to a later stage.

¹⁹ Now, as always, a disproportionately large share of wealth is given to the nonproducing classes. But the “brute force and gross superstition of ancient times” have been supplanted by the “subtle and artful fiscal contrivances of modern.” Works, II, 631 (1837)Google Scholar. A reversion to barbarism is out of the question for Calhoun. While commerce diffuses the blessings of civilization and printing preserves and diffuses knowledge, the military applications of steam and gunpowder have “for ever” assured the ascendancy of civilized communities. Ibid., I, 62, 87 f. On the relation of manufacturing to the moral and political progress of civilization, see ibid., IV, 103 (1842), 184 (1842), 283 f. (1846); VI, 92 (1831). One of the two examples of impiety mentioned in the Disquisition is doubting that the discoveries and inventions of technology will “greatly improve the condition of man ultimately.” Ibid., I, 89.

²⁰ The Federalist, No. 9, p. 48; No. 49, pp. 328 f.

²¹ Works, I, 10 f., 42; VI, 85 (1831).

²² Calhoun's firm adherence to the language of rights deserves at least passing notice. While he denied that a numerical majority could conclude for an entire people, he was far from denying the “rights, powers, and immunities of the whole people” or that “the people are the source of all power; and that their authority is paramount over all.” Ibid., I, 30; VI, 226 (1843). If one regards man in “what is called the state of nature,” he will be found to have rights and duties deduced from the faculties and endowments common to the human race as a whole. “All natural rights are individual rights, and belong to them as such. They appertain neither to majorities nor minorities. On the contrary, all political rights are conventional.” This is the teaching of “Locke, Sydney, and other writers on the side of liberty,” whose doctrines “fortunately for us … became the creed of our ancestors.” When “the right of revolution” is properly invoked, it is a case of individuals resuming their natural rights, “which, however restricted or modified they may be, in the political state, are never extinguished.” Ibid., VI, 138 (1831), 221 f. (1843), 226 (1843), 230 (1843), 269 (1846).

²³ “The numerical majority, perhaps, should usually be one of the elements of a constitutional democracy.…” Ibid., I, 45. (Italics supplied.) In the Senate, Calhoun said that he did not object to the preponderance of the numerical majority in the American government, but to its “subjecting the whole, in time, to its unlimited sway.” Ibid., IV, 92 (1842). The Disquisition's argument, though cautiously stated, spells out the implications of these earlier remarks.

²⁴ Ibid., I, 12 f., 26, 42 f., 78 f.

²⁵ The Federalist, No. 63, p. 413.

²⁶ Ibid., No. 10, p. 58.

²⁷ Works, I, 13–15, 19–25, 37, 43, 61, 80.

²⁸ Even here Calhoun successfully resisted using the word “nation.”

²⁹ Works, I, 16–18, 28, 33 f., 47; II, 245 f. (1833); VI, 202 (1832). Calhoun believed that the Americans are “greatly distinguished by the love of acquisition—I will not call it avarice—and the love of honorable distinction.” The causes of these propensities are traced in an interesting speech in favor of increased compensation for members of Congress. Ibid., II, 182 (1817).

³⁰ Ibid., I, 23 f. This important proposition is asserted, but not defended or elaborated.

³¹ Ibid., I, 40–42, 47–50, 73–76; VI, 200 (1832).

³² Ibid., I, 26, 69. (Italics supplied)

³³ However, in his Discourse on the Constitution and Government of the United Stales, Calhoun did suggest a way of taking the concurrent consent of “the more strongly marked interests” of each of the several states. Ibid., I, 397.

³⁴ The principal safeguard of these lesser interests appears to be their pettiness, because of which they can never be desirable objects of plunder.

³⁵ Works, I, 10, 26–28, 36 f., 60.

³⁶ Ibid., I, 37–39.

³⁷ Ibid., I, 36 f., 59–61; II, 648 (1837).

³⁸ “Nationality” is mentioned twice again in the Disquisition, when praising the Roman and British constitutions. Ibid., I, 104 f.

³⁹ It hardly requires noting that opposing counsel try to enhance the likelihood of a fair hearing by rejecting potential jurors who have an interest in the trial's outcome, to say nothing of the fact that a jury's failure to find a verdict rarely entails dire consequences for the jurymen. Calhoun also referred to the Polish liberum veto to show that even in its most extreme form the principle of concurrent majority rule was both practicable and compatible with “great power and splendor.” Ibid., I, 71 f. Has any other political thinker held that constitution to be a model of good government?

⁴⁰ Ibid., I, 47–49, 64–68. This necessity was precisely what stamped the work of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 with “so much fairness, equity, and justice.” Ibid., I, 195 f.

⁴¹ Ibid., I, 68–70.

⁴² Ibid., I, 104.

⁴³ “For the very nature of the group process (which our government shows in a fairly well-developed form) is this, that groups are freely combining, dissolving, and recombining in accordance with their interest lines. And the lion when he has satisfied his physical need will lie down quite lamb-like, however much louder his roars were than his appetite justified.” Bentley, Arthur F., The Process of Government (Chicago, 1908), p. 359Google Scholar.

⁴⁴ Works, I, 5, 68. The manner in which the President is elected makes him “look more to the interest of the whole [and] soften sectional feelings and asperity.” Even aspirants to that office find it easier “to be more of a patriot than the partisan of any particular interest.” Ibid., IV, 87 f. (1842).

⁴⁵ Ibid., VI, 25 f. (1828).

⁴⁶ Ibid., II, 152 (1816), 631 f. (1837); III, 180 (1838), 643 f. (1841); IV, 360 f. (1847), 533 (1849); V, 207 f. (1836); VI, 64 (1831); Correspondence, p. 305 (1831).

⁴⁷ Consider Correspondence, pp. 655 f. (1845).

⁴⁸ Works, III, 180 (1838), 287 (1838), 392 f. (1839); IV, 183 f. (1842), 196 (1842), 385 f. (1847), 505 (1848).

⁴⁹ Ibid., I, 45 f.

⁵⁰ Ibid., II, 42 (1812).

⁵¹ Ibid., I, 105.

⁵² Adams, Charles Francis (ed.), Memoirs of John Quincy Adams (Philadelphia, 1874–1877), V, 361 (10 15, 1821)Google Scholar.