American - Statesman | March 18, 1782 - March 31, 1850
The country is filled with energetic and enterprising men, rendered desperate by being reduced from affluence to poverty through the vicissitudes of the times. They will give an impulse to smuggling unknown to the country heretofore.
John C. Calhoun
MenPovertyCountryUnknownWill
Where wages command labor, as in the non-slaveholding States, there necessarily takes place between labor and capital a conflict, which leads, in process of time, to disorder, anarchy, and revolution if not counteracted by some appropriate and strong constitutional provision. Such is not the case in the slaveholding States.
TimeConflictRevolutionStrong
If not met promptly and decidedly, the two portions of the Union will gradually become thoroughly alienated, when no alternative will be left to us, as the weaker of the two, but to sever all political ties or sink down into abject submission.
PoliticalDownWillBecomeTwoLeft
Without thinking or reflecting, we plunge into war, contract heavy debts, increase vastly the patronage of the Executive, and indulge in every species of extravagance, without thinking that we expose our liberty to hazard. It is a great and fatal mistake.
GreatMistakeWarThinkingLiberty
We make a great mistake in supposing all people are capable of self-government.
GreatMistakePeopleCapableMake
The interval between the decay of the old and the formation and establishment of the new constitutes a period of transition which must always necessarily be one of uncertainty, confusion, error, and wild and fierce fanaticism.
UncertaintyFierceTransitionNew
It is no less the duty of the minority than a majority to endeavour to defend the country.
CountryDutyDefendMinorityThan
The danger in our system is that the general government, which represents the interests of the whole, may encroach on the states, which represent the peculiar and local interests, or that the latter may encroach on the former.
GovernmentSystemPeculiarMayWhole
It is harder to preserve than to obtain liberty.
FreedomLibertyHarderThanPreserve
War, in our country, ought never to be resorted to but when it is clearly justifiable and necessary; so much so as not to require the aid of logic to convince our understanding nor the ardour of eloquence to inflame our passions. There are many reasons why this country should never resort to it but for causes the most urgent and necessary.
WarUnderstandingLogicCountryWhy
How can this full, perfect, just and supreme voice of the people, embodied in the Constitution, be brought to bear, habitually and steadily, in counteracting the fatal tendency of the government to the absolute and despotic control of the numerical majority?
GovernmentPeopleControlVoiceBear
True consistency, that of the prudent and the wise, is to act in conformity with circumstances and not to act always the same way under a change of circumstances.
ChangeWiseConsistencyCircumstances
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict John C. Calhoun quotes