Page 59 - 1619 Project Curriculum

August 18, 2019

in Congress, but that wasn’t enough The government Calhoun envi-
for Calhoun, who wanted absolute sioned would protect ‘‘liberty’’:

security for the region and its eco- not the liberty of the citizen but
nomic interests. Demographic and the liberty of the master, the liber-

political change doomed it to be a ty of those who claimed a right to

‘‘permanent minority’’: ‘‘Our geo- property and a position at the top

graphical position, our industry, of a racial and economic hierarchy.

pursuits and institutions are all This liberty, Calhoun stated, was ‘‘a
peculiar.’’ Against a domineering reward to be earned, not a bless-
North, he argued, ‘‘representation ing to be gratuitously lavished on

affords not the slightest protection.’’ all alike — a reward reserved for

‘‘It is, indeed, high time for the the intelligent, the patriotic, the

people of the South to be roused to virtuous and deserving — and not

a sense of impending calamities — a boon to be bestowed on a people

on an early and full knowledge of too ignorant, degraded and vicious,
which their safety depends,’’ Cal- to be capable either of appreciating

houn wrote in an 1831 report to the or of enjoying it.’’ It is striking how

South Carolina Legislature. ‘‘It is much this echoes contemporary

time that they should see and feel arguments against the expansion
.

that . . they are in a permanent and of democracy. In 2012, for exam-
hopeless minority on the great and ple, a Tea Party congressional

vital connected questions.’’ candidate from Florida said that
His solution lay in the states. To voting is a ‘‘privilege’’ and seemed

Calhoun, there was no ‘‘union’’ per to endorse property requirements

se. Instead, the United States was for participation.
simply a compact among sover-
eigns with distinct, and often com- Calhoun died in 1850. Ten years
peting, sectional interests. This later, following the idea of nullifi -

compact could only survive if all cation to its conclusion, the South
sides had equal say on the meaning seceded from the Union after Abra-
of the Constitution and the shape ham Lincoln won the White House

and structure of the law. Individu- without a single Southern state.
al states, Calhoun thought, should War came a few months later, and

be able to veto federal laws if they four years of fighting destroyed the

thought the federal government system of slavery Calhoun fought to
Southern college students at the Southern Democratic Convention in

1948, the year that segregationists began to break with the national was favoring one state or section protect. But parts of his legacy sur-

Democratic Party over civil rights. over another. The union could only vived. His deep suspicion of majori-

act with the assent of the entire tarian democracy — his view that

slaveholding planter class would wit- on which to rear free and stable whole — what Calhoun called ‘‘the government must protect interests,

ness the rise of an organized move- institutions’’— and a committed concurrent majority’’ — as opposed defined by their unique geograph-

ment to stop the expansion of slavery advocate for the slave-owning to the Madisonian idea of rule by ic and economic characteristics,

would inform

and curb the power enslavers held planter class. He was an astute numerical majority, albeit mediated more than people —

over key institutions like the Senate politician, but he made his most by compromise and consensus. the sectional politics of the South in

and the Supreme Court. important mark as a theoretician Calhoun initially lost the tariff the 20th century, where solid blocs

Out of this atmosphere of fear of reaction: a man who, realizing fight, which pitted him against an of Southern lawmakers worked
and insecurity came a number of that democracy could not protect obstinate Andrew Jackson, but he collectively to stifle any attempt to

thinkers and politicians who set slavery in perpetuity, set out to did not give up on nullification. He regulate the region.

their minds to protecting South limit democracy. expanded on the theory at the end Despite insurgencies at home

Carolina and the rest of the slave- Calhoun popularized the con- of his life, proposing an alternative — the Populist Party, for example,

holding South from a hostile cept of ‘‘nullification’’: the theory system of government that gave swept through Georgia and North

North. Arguably the most promi- that any state subject to federal political minorities a final say over Carolina in the 1890s — reaction-

nent and accomplished of these law was entitled to invalidate it. He majority action. In this ‘‘concurrent ary white leaders were able to

planter-politicians was John C. Cal- first advanced the idea in an anon- government,’’ each ‘‘interest or por- maintain an iron grip on federal

houn. Vice president under John ymous letter, written when he was tion of the community’’ has an equal offi ces until the Voting Rights Act

Quincy Adams and Andrew Jack- vice president, protesting the Tar- say in approving the actions of the of 1965. And even then, the last

son, secretary of state under John iff of 1828, which sought to protect state. Full agreement would be nec- generation of segregationist sena-

Tyler and eventually a United States Northern industry and agriculture essary to ‘‘put the government in tors held on through the 1960s into

senator representing the state, Cal- from foreign competitors. Calhoun motion.’’ Only through this, Calhoun the early 2000s. United, like their

houn was a deep believer in the sys- condemned it as an unconstitution- argued, would the ‘‘diff erent inter- predecessors, by geography and

tem of slavery — which he called al piece of regional favoritism. ests, orders, classes, or portions, their stake in Jim Crow segrega-

a ‘‘positive good’’ that ‘‘forms the The South may have been part of into which the community may be tion, they were a powerful force in

most solid and durable foundation the pro-Andrew Jackson majorities divided, can be protected.’’ national politics, a bloc that vetoed
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