Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/341

 CALHOUN AS SECRETARY OF WAR 333 or less rigid, as may be necessary to effect the intention, and I think it may be said with confidence that I have never uttered a sentence in any speech, report, or word in conver- sation that could give offence to the most ardent defender of States rights. I have never done any act which, if con- demned in me, Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Madison and Mr. Monroe must not be equally condemned. I have nowhere in my public capacity asserted the right of applying money (for internal improvements) so appropriated without the consent of the States, or individuals affected." 140 Calhoun expressed his views concerning the slavery ques- tion, and the Missouri Compromise in the ATTITUDE following letter to Mr. Tait of South ON SLAVERY Carolina, written on October 26, 1820, just after Calhoun had returned from a trip to the north : 141 "Judging from such facts as come to my knowledge, I cannot but think that the impression, which exists in the minds of many of your virtuous and well-informed citizens to the South, and among others who are your own, that there has commenced between the North and the South a premeditated struggle for superiority, is not correct. That there are some individuals to the North, who for private ob- jects, wish to create such a struggle, I do not doubt. It suits their ambition, and gives them hopes of success, as the majority of votes both in Congress and the electoral college is from the north ; or rather from non-slave-holding states. But their number is small and the few there are, are to be found almost wholly in New York, and the middle states. I by no means identify the advocates for restriction and Mis- souri with them. The advocates of restriction are acuated by a variety of motives. The great body of them are actuated by motives perfectly honest. Very few look to emancipation. I state the case, as I am well assured that it exists. We to the South ought not to assent easily to the belief, that there is a conspiracy either against our property, or just weight in the Union. A belief of the former might and probably would lead more directly to disunion, with all of its horrors. That of the latter would co-operate, as it appears to me, directly 140 Letters of Calhoun, House Documents, V 115 Am. Hist. Ass., V. II, 219-23; 1899-1900. 141 Gulf States Historical Magazine, I, 99- Letters of Calhoun to Tait.