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,
