Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/114

 CALHOUN.

CALHOUN.

vacated by Mr. Hayne, on his becoming governor of South Carolina. The nulUfication measures were adopted by South Carolina in 183'3, and only the passage of the Clay compromise, to which Mr. Calhoun was induced to lend his countenance, and the strong position assumed by President Jackson and Lewis Cass, secretary of war, prevented the tlixeatened collision between South Carolina and the general government. He opposed vigorously the withdrawal of the deposits from the United States bank, declaring that " The whole power of the government has been perverted into a great political machine, wnth a view of corrupting and controlling the country." He accused the President of attempt- ing to wrest the power from Congress and to hold in his own hand both the sword and the purse. In 1835 he was re-elected to the senate for the full term. Since 1831 a full band of abo- litionists in the north had declared uncompromis- ing war against the domestic institution of the south, and no one understood more fully than he that the handful of earnest fanatics and mad- men were laying the axe to the very roots of the well-being and prosperity of the south. Senator Calhoun's motion, Jan. 7, 1836, against the recep- tion of two petitions, asking for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, opened a general debate in the senate. His action was vigorously condemned, and was characterized by the north as a wanton attack upon the right of petition. He saw with a clearness that was prophetic that unless his views of the constitu- tional status of slavery were accepted, the south would be compelled to sever the ties which bound them to the north, or abolish slavery. He regarded slavery as a natural condition, and prophesied that to change the relations of master and slave would destroy the prosperity of the southern states and place tAvo races in a state of conflict that would end only in the extirpation or expulsion of one or the other. Mr. Calhoun did not take part in the presidential election of 1836. He advocated the depositing of the surplus revenues in the treasuries of the different states, to be used by them for internal improvements. For the south he projiosed a system of roads which should connect it with the west, and bring it, as he hoped, to an equal measure of com- mercial prosperity with the north. In the financial panic of the same year he was in favor of a total separation of the government from the banking interests, and favored the treasury plan. His attitude on the slavery question was actuated by a spirit of unswerving loyalty to the south and to the Union, of which he foresaw the disruption should the north persist in a determination to limit slaverj^ to the states in which it already existed, and deny to the south

equal privileges in the territories. He de nounced the efforts of the abolitionists as "a war of religious and political fanaticism, min- gled, on the part of the leaders, with ambition and the love of notoriety, " and in defence of slavery which he so consistently defended, said, "The relation now existing between the two (races) is, instead of an evil, a good — a positive good." On March 4, 1840, he introduced in the senate a set of resolutions condemning the action of the English government in refusing to recognize as property and deliver to their owners certain negroes from vessels driven by stress of weather into English ports. In a speech delivered Aug. 5, 1842, Senator Calhoun discussed the tariff question and advanced with force the theory of duty for revenue as opposed to a duty for pro- tection of manufacturers, and claimed that the popular party of the future would be for free trade, low duties, no national debt, a banking system separated from the control of the gen- eral government, economy in administering the affairs of state, retrenchment in all departments and a strict adherence to the constitution. At the end of 1843 he resigned his seat in the senate, the resignation to take effect from the close of the 2Tth Congress, March 3, 1843. The legisla- ture of South Carolina immediately named him as candidate for President of the United States. On March 6, 1844, President Tyler appointed Mr. Calhoun as secretary of state, to succeed Secre- tary Upshur, who had met his death by the bursting of a gun on the steamer Princeton. On Oct. 16, 1843, Upshur had proposed to the repub- lic of Texas a treaty of annexation, and before the people of Texas, composed of emigrants from all parts of the Union, but largely of slave- holders from the south, who had brought with them their slaves, would consent to accept the treaty, they insisted on being assured of military and naval protection, not only against Mexico, but as well against England, who had threat- ened to prevent the consummation of the treaty unless the people would agree to frame a state constitution abolishing slavery. Mr. Calhoun reluctantly agreed to the conditions imposed, but, before signing the treaty, exposed the scheme of England in a series of papers which so changed the ojnnion of the senate, that when the treaty came before that body it was rejected. The presidential campaign of 1844 was pivotal on the question, and after Polk was elected it was accepted by the people that Texas was to be treated as any other territory ; that is, the question of the admission of slavery was to be dependent on the popular will of the sovereign people of the state under the Missouri compromise act. His judicious diplomatic correspondence with Great Britain, in regard to the possession of Oregon,