Page:Works of John C. Calhoun, v1.djvu/419

 same proportion, the weight of the section which might exempt itself from an equal share of the burden of taxation.

The results which followed the introduction of these elements into the constitution, in the manner stated, were most happy. The government — instead of being, as it was under the constitution of 1790, the government of the lower section — or becoming, subsequently, as it must have become, the government of the upper section, had numbers constituted the only element — was converted into that of the concurrent majority, and made, emphatically, the government of the entire population — of the whole people of South Carolina — and not of one portion of its people over another portion. The consequence was, the almost instantaneous restoration of harmony and concord between the two sections. Party division and party violence, with the distraction and disorder attendant upon them, soon disappeared. Kind feelings, and mutual attachment between the two sections, took their place — and have continued uninterrupted for more than forty years. The State, as far as its internal affairs are concerned, may be literally said to have been, during the whole period, without a party. Party organization, party discipline, party proscription — and their offspring, the spoils principle, have been unknown to the State. Nothing of the kind is necessary to produce concentration; as our happy constitution makes an united people — with the exception of occasional, but short local dissensions, in reference to the action of the federal government — and even