Union and Liberty: The Political Philosophy of John C. Calhoun

These writings address such issues as states’ rights and nullification, slavery, the growth of the Federal judicial power, and Calhoun’s doctrine of the “concurrent majority.” This selection presents twelve notable speeches, letters, and essays by Calhoun; among them are his famous Fort Hill Address and his two great treatises on government - “A Disquisition on Government” and the “Discourse on the Constitution and Government of the United States.”

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Citation

Union and Liberty: The Political Philosophy of John C. Calhoun, ed. Ross M. Lence (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1992).

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John Taylor (Author)

Taylor was a Virginia Senator and prominent Jeffersonian pamphleteer who supported Calhoun’s abortive presidential run in 1824. His understanding of the Constitution as a compact between states, developed in several books, was influential in Calhoun’s early career.

St. George Tucker (Author)

Tucker wrote one of the most comprehensive assessments of American Constitution from a Jeffersonian perspective.

John Randolph (Author)

Randolph, an ardent defender of states’ rights and checks on “King Numbers,” sparred with Calhoun early in the latter’s career. Calhoun later warmed to Randolph, though the elder statesman did not entirely return the feelings. Russell Kirk would pair Randolph and Calhoun in his chapter on Southern conservatism in The Conservative Mind.
Daniel Webster (Author)

Webster was Calhoun’s long-time sparring partner in the Senate and articulated a theory of the Constitution diametrically opposite of Calhoun’s. He nevertheless eulogized the South Carolinian in the Senate as a “man of undoubted genius.”

Key Quotes

Class

… it must necessarily follow, that some one portion of the community must pay in taxes more than it receives back in disbursements; while another receives in disbursements more than it pays in taxes… The necessary result, then, of the unequal fiscal action of the government is, to divide the…

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Politics & Liberty

The powers vested in [government officials] to prevent injustice and oppression on the part of others, will, if left unguarded, be by them converted into instruments to oppress the rest of the community. That by which this is prevented, by whatever name called, is what is meant by constitution, in…

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Politics & Liberty

There is but one way by which it can possibly be accomplished; and that is by a judicious and wise division and organization of the Government and community, with reference to its different and conflicting interests, and by taking the sense of each part separately, and the concurrence of all as the…

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Critical Responses

Essay

Speech of Daniel Webster Upon the Tariff, in the House of Representatives, April 1 and 2, 1824

Daniel Webster

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, APRIL 1 AND 2, 1824.

Webster’s speeches on the tariff are a direct response to South Carolina’s criticism of trade barriers as a means of industrial support and the state’s claim to possess the authority to interpret and enforce its understanding of the Constitution by way of state nullification.

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Connected Readings

Liberty Matters

Keith E. Whittington, “John C. Calhoun, Constitutionalism, and Slavery” (March 2021)

Keith E. Whittington, James H. Read, John G. Grove, and Jay Cost

A “Liberty Matters” forum that includes several scholars on the legacy of Calhoun’s political ideas and their relationship to Calhoun’s support of slavery.

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Law & Liberty Book Review

The Enduring Value of Calhoun

John O. McGinnis

A review of Calhoun: American Heritic by Robert Elder. McGinnis focuses on the theory of the concurrent majority as a consensus model of governance.

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Liberty Classic

Calhoun and Constitutionalism

John G. Grove

A “Liberty Classic” Essay on Union and Liberty covering the concurrent majority theory, the compact theory of the American Constitution, and slavery.

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Book

The Webster-Hayne Debate on the Nature of the Constitution: Selected Documents

Herman Belz

Daniel Webster and Robert Hayne debated South Carolina’s act of nullification in the Senate, with Hayne relying on arguments honed by Calhoun.

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Book

The Federalist (Gideon ed.)

Alexander Hamilton

Calhoun’s Disquisition on Government has often been listed as among the few works of early American political theory on the level of The Federalist. Calhoun developed certain themes in The Federalist while challenging others.

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Book

Construction Construed and Constitutions Vindicated

John Taylor

One of the most thorough Jeffersonian treatments of the Constitution, focused on the need for strict construction of the Constitution, themes Calhoun would later echo.

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