Slavery’s
Theoretician
John C. Calhoun was brilliant and was one of America’s
most dominant politicians for nearly four decades serving as congressman,
senator, vice-president under two presidents, Secretary of War, Secretary of
State and sought the presidency on several occasions. Unfortunately, he used
much of his brilliance in cause of slavery. Baylor University history professor
Robert Elder tells the story of his life with nuance and great detail.
Unfortunately for the lay reader it 656-page length is a bit much.
Calhoun was born in 1782 in South Carolina’s
up-country and was inculcated in his slave-oriented society. Unlike most of his
brethren he goes north to Yale for his education and after returning to South
Carolina he becomes one of the state’s leading politicians. After his election
to Congress in 1810 be joins forces with Henry Clay to become a leader in the
war hawk faction that leads the U.S. into the War of 1812.
His alliance with Clay continues after the war and he
becomes an initial supporter of Clay’s American System. He supports the
establishment of a national bank, the tariff, and a program of internal
improvements. However, the coming of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 he breaks
with Clay as the fight over tariffs becomes a proxy war over slavery. By 1832
he triggers the Nullification Crisis where South Carolina sought to overturn
the Tariff of 1828. It almost came to war, but Clay came up with a compromise.
Calhoun believed the United States to be a compact of
sovereign states with each or with a substantial minority having the right to
nullify federal legislation. He called his theory “concurrent majority”. He
basically sought a minority veto over policy. To be sure part of it was based
in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 authored by Madison and
Jefferson in opposition to federal power. That theory was expounded 160 years
later by civil rights activist Lani Guinier was nominated to be an assistant
attorney general under Bill Clinton. She supported a minority veto over
majoritarian rule. Calhoun was pro-union, but only on southern terms.
Calhoun viewed slavery as a positive good. To him it
guaranteed equality among whites thereby dampening the class struggle between
white factory workers and their employers. After all South Carolina was way
ahead of the rest of the country in promoting universal suffrage for white
males. In a way he was a Jacksonian ahead of his times.
To Calhoun America’s original sin was not slavery, but
rather the “all men are created equal” line in the Declaration of Independence.
This completely undercut his support of slavery and further although Elder does
not mention it the preamble to the Constitution begins with “We the people...”
not “We the states…”
As an international statesman Calhoun had a hand in
drafting the Monroe Doctrine in 1820 and avoided war with Great Britain over
the Oregon Territory in 1845. He actually opposed the Mexican War because he
believed President Polk usurped the power of Congress in declaring a state of
war existed between the U.S. and Mexico. Further his free trade ideas became
conventional wisdom in the second half of the 20th century.
Elder goes into great deal about Calhoun’s family
life. His wife Floride and her dozen pregnancies and his relationship with his
daughter Anna who became his intellectual confidante. The last a rarity in that
era. The reader will learn much about America and Calhoun in this book, but I caution
it is long.
For the full Amazon URL see: Slavery's Theoretician (amazon.com)
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