Quotessence
Home / Authors / John C. Calhoun
John C. Calhoun

John C. Calhoun Quotes

Former United States Representative

Filter quotes by topic

AllGovernmentLibertyStatesCommunityIndividualMajorityPeoplePoliticalUnionsWellsCivilizedConstitutionFactsIfsLaborNationsPortionsPreservesSovereignWealthy

Famous John C. Calhoun Quotes

“It is federal, because it is the government of States united in a political union, in contradistinction to a government of individuals, that is, by what is usually called, a social compact. To express it more concisely, it is federal and not national because it is the government of a community of States, and not the government of a single State or Nation.”

StatesGovernmentPoliticalIndividualNationsSocialCommunityUnitedUnionsCompact
Book:A DISQUISITION ON GOVERNMENT AND A DISCOURSE ON THE CONSTITUTIONA ND GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Create image

“[The taxing power of the state] divides the community into two great classes: one consisting of those who, in reality, pay the taxes and, of course, bear exclusively the burden of supporting the government; and the other, of those who are the recipients of their proceeds through disbursements,and who are, in fact, supported by the government; or, in fewer words, to divide it into tax-payers and tax-consumers. But the effect of this is to place them in antagonistic relations in reference to the fiscal action of the government and the entire course of policy therewith connected.”

TwoStatesPhilosophyFactsRealityGovernmentActionPoliticalCoursesCommunityPayClassEffectsPolicyBearsTaxesEconomicsRelationBurdenConnectedConsumersDividesFewer
Author:John C. Calhoun
Create image

“I take higher ground. I hold that in the present state of civilization, where two races of different origin, and distinguished by color, and other physical differences, as well as intellectual, are brought together, the relation now existing in the slaveholding States between the two, is, instead of an evil, a good—a positive good. . . . I hold then, that there never has yet existed a wealthy and civilized society in which one portion of the community did not, in point of fact, live on the labor of the other.”

WellsTwoDifferentStatesFactsTogetherEvilCommunityDifferencesRaceColorHigherCivilizationIntellectualLaborRelationWealthyCivilizedPortionsDistinguishedCivilized SocietyHigher Ground
Author:John C. Calhoun
Create image

“Stripped of all its covering, the naked question is, whether ours is a federal or consolidated government; a constitutional or absolute one; a government resting solidly on the basis of the sovereignty of the States, or on the unrestrained will of a majority; a form of government, as in all other unlimited ones, in which injustice, violence, and force must ultimately prevail.”

StatesGovernmentAmericaFormForceViolenceBasesAbsolutesMajorityInjusticeNakedUnlimitedSovereigntyCoveringForms Of Government
Book:The Works of John C. Calhoun Volume 6
Create image