John C. Calhoun quotes

John C. Calhoun was an American statesman and political theorist from South Carolina. A leading voice for states’ rights and limited government, he played a central role in the politics of the early 19th century. He served as Vice President of the United States and became a prominent defender of slavery in the years leading up to the Civil War. Here are 21 of his quotes:

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.

John C. Calhoun

A power has risen up in the government greater than the people themselves, consisting of many and various powerful interests, combined in one mass, and held together by the cohesive power of the vast surplus in banks.

John C. Calhoun

In looking back, I see nothing to regret, and little to correct.

John C. Calhoun

It is harder to preserve than to obtain liberty.

John C. Calhoun

Beware the wrath of a patient adversary.

John C. Calhoun

The very essence of a free government consists in considering offices as public trusts, bestowed for the good of the country, and not for the benefit of an individual or a party.

John C. Calhoun

Protection and patriotism are reciprocal.

John C. Calhoun

I never know what South Carolina thinks of a measure. I never consult her. I act to the best of my judgment, and according to my conscience. If she approves, well and good. If she does not, or wishes any one to take my place, I am ready to vacate. We are even.

John C. Calhoun

The Union next to our liberties the most dear. May we all remember that it can only be preserved by respecting the rights of the States, and distributing equally the benefits and burdens of the Union.

John C. Calhoun

I am a Southern man and a slaveholder. A kind and merciful one, I trust, and none the worse for being a slaveholder. I say, for one, I would rather meet any extremity upon earth than give up one inch of our equality, one inch of what belongs to us as members of this republic! What! Acknowledged inferiority! The surrender of life is nothing to sinking down into acknowledged inferiority!

John C. Calhoun

The neighboring tribes are becoming daily less warlike, and more helpless and dependent on us ... [T]hey have, in a great measure, ceased to be an object of terror, and have become that of commiseration.

John C. Calhoun

I hold that 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.

John C. Calhoun

Many in the South once believed that slavery was a moral and political evil. That folly and delusion are gone. We see it now in its true light, and regard it as the most safe and stable basis for free institutions in the world.

John C. Calhoun

With us the two great divisions of society are not the rich and the poor, but white and black, and all the former, the poor as well as the rich, belong to the upper class, and are respected and treated as equals, if honest and industrious, and hence have a position and pride of character of which neither poverty nor misfortune can deprive them.

John C. Calhoun

Our well-founded claim, grounded on continuity, has greatly strengthened, during the same period, by the rapid advance of our population toward the territory - its great increase, especially in the valley of the Mississippi - as well as the greatly increased facility of passing to the territory by more accessible routes, and the far stronger and rapidly-swelling tide of population that has recently commenced flowing into it.

John C. Calhoun

Learn from your mistakes and build on your successes.

John C. Calhoun

Irresponsible power is inconsistent with liberty, and must corrupt those who exercise it.

John C. Calhoun

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.

John C. Calhoun