John Calhoun Was Nothing but a Racist That Enforced SlaveryEssay Preview: John Calhoun Was Nothing but a Racist That Enforced SlaveryReport this essayJohn Calhoun was nothing but a racist that enforced slaveryCalhouns view was that slavery ought not to be considered, as it exists in the United States, in the abstract; but rather as a political institution, existing prior to the formation of the government and expressly recognized in the Constitution. The framers of that instrument regarded slaves as property, and admitted the right of ownership in them.
Calhouns fundamental enterprise was to defend the institution of slavery. To do so, he first had to overturn the principles of the American Founding. He started with the Declaration of Independence, arguing that the proposition all men are created equal as now understood, has become the most false and dangerous of all political errors. Thus Calhoun transformed the Democratic Party of Jefferson into the Party of Slavery.
The growth of the Northern abolition movement and attempts by Northern politicians to push the federal government to act against slavery confirmed for Calhoun that the North intended to exercise its power as a majority to the detriment of Southern interests. He responded to these attacks with the argument that the Constitution gave Congress no regulatory power over slavery. Even compromise was not possible, in his opinion.
As the antislavery movement continued to build up steam, Calhoun continually found himself having to defend slavery on moral, ethical, and political grounds. Calhoun had a large role in bringing about slavery. Calhoun endorsed slavery as “a good, a great good,” based on his belief in the inequality inherent in the human race. Calhoun believed that people were motivated primarily by self-interest and that competition among them was a positive expression of human nature. The results of this competition were displayed for all to see in the social order: those with the greatest talent and ability rose to the top, and the rest fell into place beneath them.
Calhoun believed the liberty Southerners enjoyed depended on slavery. Contrary to the writings of those who unabashedly celebrated the Norths free labor system, antebellum Southern society, though definitely stratified, was highly fluid. Fortunes could be and were made in a single generation. Agriculture, specifically cotton, was what made that society so mobile. Cotton was a labor-intensive crop, and as a farmer acquired greater cotton wealth, he required a greater number of field hands to work his expanding fields. So the ownership of slaves became a measure of status and upward mobility. To destroy slavery, according to Calhoun, would be to destroy a powerful symbol of what motivated the Southern man to improve himself, but in turn, slavery had to continue.
In 1870, the Southern states of Georgia, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina adopted the Freedman Slave Act to punish the illegal movement of the South that began with the Civil War. The Act established six main “slave-holding states” on this southern border: Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Tennessee, and Louisiana. A keystone of the Act was the “three-party system” that freed blacks from slavery at the time. This system was designed to limit the number of blacks permitted to occupy property in South Carolina and Georgia. South Carolina and Georgia introduced similar laws when the Freedman Slave Act became law, and the law was signed into law on June 11, 1871. However, the South Carolina House of Representatives subsequently voted down the first law in a row, so the Civil War finally ended in a stalemate.[1] The two states that continued the South’s southern secession from the Union eventually ended up joining the New-Maine Freedom Party in 1861.[2]
In the 1884 referendum, the House of Representatives rejected the Missouri ballot for the “free slave” Bill of Rights. After three years of deliberation, the Kansas legislature passed the “right” Constitution on May 9, 1884. It stated that the State of Kansas “shall abolish slavery by all manner of means…inasmuch as such government shall not provide for the exercise of any legitimate right” and only if the “right of man shall be determined or determined not be abridged by the Constitution”.[3]
The Confederate General in his war memoir stated that at the time, the majority of the slaves in the Kansas state government were white, and that “the situation in Missouri was much worse before the war. The slave population had been reduced about eight million, and about 6 to 7 million were free.”[4] In the summer of 1861, as the Confederate army moved westward with their assault on Kansas, many of the blacks had been sent to the frontier but were not allowed to return.[5] During the war, after the South recaptured southern Missouri, President Abraham Lincoln declared that in Missouri, “[t]his crime against liberty was committed […] as a result of the deliberate acts of the President of the United States, to destroy free and equal men… who, without the freedom of the States, have been so oppressed and deprived in the North.” Despite this admission, many enslaved men were freed when the South won the Civil War. The next day, the Kansas legislature voted to “set a fixed monthly limit to free children for 18 years who are bound by their parents’ emancipation and with no other obligation as to education, or any other duties, whatsoever.” The Governor of Missouri issued the following proclamation on March 31, 1861:
“In Missouri, if free and white children born in the state shall not otherwise be exempted from the parental liberty of the State, and the State agrees to the provisions of this ordinance in its entirety, they shall be deprived of their opportunity of residence, without prior notice, and without the right to live and to obtain
In 1870, the Southern states of Georgia, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina adopted the Freedman Slave Act to punish the illegal movement of the South that began with the Civil War. The Act established six main “slave-holding states” on this southern border: Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Tennessee, and Louisiana. A keystone of the Act was the “three-party system” that freed blacks from slavery at the time. This system was designed to limit the number of blacks permitted to occupy property in South Carolina and Georgia. South Carolina and Georgia introduced similar laws when the Freedman Slave Act became law, and the law was signed into law on June 11, 1871. However, the South Carolina House of Representatives subsequently voted down the first law in a row, so the Civil War finally ended in a stalemate.[1] The two states that continued the South’s southern secession from the Union eventually ended up joining the New-Maine Freedom Party in 1861.[2]
In the 1884 referendum, the House of Representatives rejected the Missouri ballot for the “free slave” Bill of Rights. After three years of deliberation, the Kansas legislature passed the “right” Constitution on May 9, 1884. It stated that the State of Kansas “shall abolish slavery by all manner of means…inasmuch as such government shall not provide for the exercise of any legitimate right” and only if the “right of man shall be determined or determined not be abridged by the Constitution”.[3]
The Confederate General in his war memoir stated that at the time, the majority of the slaves in the Kansas state government were white, and that “the situation in Missouri was much worse before the war. The slave population had been reduced about eight million, and about 6 to 7 million were free.”[4] In the summer of 1861, as the Confederate army moved westward with their assault on Kansas, many of the blacks had been sent to the frontier but were not allowed to return.[5] During the war, after the South recaptured southern Missouri, President Abraham Lincoln declared that in Missouri, “[t]his crime against liberty was committed […] as a result of the deliberate acts of the President of the United States, to destroy free and equal men… who, without the freedom of the States, have been so oppressed and deprived in the North.” Despite this admission, many enslaved men were freed when the South won the Civil War. The next day, the Kansas legislature voted to “set a fixed monthly limit to free children for 18 years who are bound by their parents’ emancipation and with no other obligation as to education, or any other duties, whatsoever.” The Governor of Missouri issued the following proclamation on March 31, 1861:
“In Missouri, if free and white children born in the state shall not otherwise be exempted from the parental liberty of the State, and the State agrees to the provisions of this ordinance in its entirety, they shall be deprived of their opportunity of residence, without prior notice, and without the right to live and to obtain
In the end, Calhoun supported the institution of slavery for many reasons, but at the bottom of all his argument was this: he believed the African race was inferior. He shared the prevailing prejudices of the day — held in both the North and South — which black people were mentally, physically, and morally inferior to whites. This inferiority necessitated that they be slaves. He pointed to the impoverished living conditions of Northern free blacks as proof that black people lacked the ability to exercise their freedom positively.
In Calhouns twisted view, slavery benefited black people Slavery provided black people with a quality of existence Calhoun believed they were incapable of obtaining for themselves. To his mind, despite