Read John C. Calhoun: Nullifier, 1829-1839

John C. Calhoun: Nullifier, 1829-1839

Charles M. Wiltse

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Description:No prominent figure in American political history has been so bitterly reviled as John C. Calhoun. In his lifetime he was branded a traitor by the President of the United States; fifteen years after his death he was blamed for the carnage of the Civil War; and even today he is held responsible for the tragedy of Southern secession and for many of the contemporary ills of the South.Calhoun was a rarity in the political life of any country. He gave his allegiance to principle, not to party; he was a follower of inexorable logic, not of any man or shibboleth; he was fierce and unswerving in his devotion to duty.Out of the welter of vilification and adulation which have been heaped on Calhoun, Mr. Wiltse has undertaken to present the true man. He has done it magnificently. He has unearthed much that previous writers did not know, or deliberately ignored. He has given new meaning to the controversies of a most bitterly controversial period. Everywhere he had thrown new light.His book is distinguished for its readability, for its beautifully lucid and balanced style, above all for the way it brings to life great characters in conflict over issues that have not been finally settled to this day. Have we no sectional problem today? No racial problem? No minorities that suffer from the democratic tyranny of the majority? No conflict between the interests of industry and agriculture?There is always a tendency to read into the past the social conflicts of the present. The age of Jackson has been a particularly fertile field for such partisan analysis, and it is not the least of Mr. Wiltse's contributions that he had rescued Jackson as well as Calhoun from much of the mythology built up in recent times. The Andrew Jackson with whom Calhoun fought in the 1830's was no social reformer or political idealist. He was a tough, iron-willed old soldier who understood military command better than democracy.This second volume of the three-volume definitive biography of Calhoun opens up on March 4, 1829, Jackson's inaugural day and the start of Calhoun's second term as Vice President of the United States. Swiftly the reader is drawn into the tempest over Peggy Eaton, a quarrel which rocked the Cabinet, wrecked careers.The narrative moves on from crisis to crisis though a stormy decade: the tariff, which brought wealth and power to the North but slow strangulation to the Southern States; the endless constitutional argument, which Jackson set aside with his blunt assertion of national power; public works for the benefit of the growing West but paid for by taxes that fell with unequal weight on the South; the destruction of the Bank of the United States and its aftermath of wild inflation and economic chaos; the rise of abolition sentiment and the stubborn defense of slavery by men who could conceive of no alternate solution.Behind each of these disrupting problems lay the question of governmental power. Could the National Government in Washington do as it pleased? Or were the limitations imposed on it by the Constitution enforceable? Calhoun held that since the states had written and ratified the Constitution, it was up to them in the last resort to see that it was obeyed. Jefferson had invoked this doctrine in his battle against the Alien and Sedition laws to protect the civil rights of the individual. Calhoun turned the same doctrine to the defense of an economic minority. Under his guidance South Carolina declared the tariff unconstitutional and passed laws to nullify its enforcement within the state.Calhoun enunciated his convictions with stern Calvinistic logic and all the intensity of his being. Whether he led a party or stood alone, always he sought the test of battle. Jackson, Van Buren, Webster, Clay—each of these giants was friend and each was foe upon occasion, as their paths coincided with or departed from the clear, straight line Calhoun had marked out for himself.Mr. Wiltse argues that it was the State Rights doctrine, regarded not as a political but as a functional federalism, that gave unity and direction to Calhoun's career.The story of these crucial years in the life of the Great Nullifier, with its intimate glimpses of his home and family, is a great biographical achievement.We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with John C. Calhoun: Nullifier, 1829-1839. To get started finding John C. Calhoun: Nullifier, 1829-1839, you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

Pages: 511

Format: PDF, EPUB & Kindle Edition

Publisher: Bobbs-Merrill

Release: 1949

ISBN

Description: No prominent figure in American political history has been so bitterly reviled as John C. Calhoun. In his lifetime he was branded a traitor by the President of the United States; fifteen years after his death he was blamed for the carnage of the Civil War; and even today he is held responsible for the tragedy of Southern secession and for many of the contemporary ills of the South.Calhoun was a rarity in the political life of any country. He gave his allegiance to principle, not to party; he was a follower of inexorable logic, not of any man or shibboleth; he was fierce and unswerving in his devotion to duty.Out of the welter of vilification and adulation which have been heaped on Calhoun, Mr. Wiltse has undertaken to present the true man. He has done it magnificently. He has unearthed much that previous writers did not know, or deliberately ignored. He has given new meaning to the controversies of a most bitterly controversial period. Everywhere he had thrown new light.His book is distinguished for its readability, for its beautifully lucid and balanced style, above all for the way it brings to life great characters in conflict over issues that have not been finally settled to this day. Have we no sectional problem today? No racial problem? No minorities that suffer from the democratic tyranny of the majority? No conflict between the interests of industry and agriculture?There is always a tendency to read into the past the social conflicts of the present. The age of Jackson has been a particularly fertile field for such partisan analysis, and it is not the least of Mr. Wiltse's contributions that he had rescued Jackson as well as Calhoun from much of the mythology built up in recent times. The Andrew Jackson with whom Calhoun fought in the 1830's was no social reformer or political idealist. He was a tough, iron-willed old soldier who understood military command better than democracy.This second volume of the three-volume definitive biography of Calhoun opens up on March 4, 1829, Jackson's inaugural day and the start of Calhoun's second term as Vice President of the United States. Swiftly the reader is drawn into the tempest over Peggy Eaton, a quarrel which rocked the Cabinet, wrecked careers.The narrative moves on from crisis to crisis though a stormy decade: the tariff, which brought wealth and power to the North but slow strangulation to the Southern States; the endless constitutional argument, which Jackson set aside with his blunt assertion of national power; public works for the benefit of the growing West but paid for by taxes that fell with unequal weight on the South; the destruction of the Bank of the United States and its aftermath of wild inflation and economic chaos; the rise of abolition sentiment and the stubborn defense of slavery by men who could conceive of no alternate solution.Behind each of these disrupting problems lay the question of governmental power. Could the National Government in Washington do as it pleased? Or were the limitations imposed on it by the Constitution enforceable? Calhoun held that since the states had written and ratified the Constitution, it was up to them in the last resort to see that it was obeyed. Jefferson had invoked this doctrine in his battle against the Alien and Sedition laws to protect the civil rights of the individual. Calhoun turned the same doctrine to the defense of an economic minority. Under his guidance South Carolina declared the tariff unconstitutional and passed laws to nullify its enforcement within the state.Calhoun enunciated his convictions with stern Calvinistic logic and all the intensity of his being. Whether he led a party or stood alone, always he sought the test of battle. Jackson, Van Buren, Webster, Clay—each of these giants was friend and each was foe upon occasion, as their paths coincided with or departed from the clear, straight line Calhoun had marked out for himself.Mr. Wiltse argues that it was the State Rights doctrine, regarded not as a political but as a functional federalism, that gave unity and direction to Calhoun's career.The story of these crucial years in the life of the Great Nullifier, with its intimate glimpses of his home and family, is a great biographical achievement.We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with John C. Calhoun: Nullifier, 1829-1839. To get started finding John C. Calhoun: Nullifier, 1829-1839, you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

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John C. Calhoun: Nullifier, 1829-1839

John C. Calhoun: Nullifier, 1829-1839

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