South Support Research Articles

The Papers of John C. Calhoun. Volume XXVI: 1848-1849

The Papers of John C. Calhoun: Volume XXVI, 1848-1849. Edited by Clyde N. Wilson et al. (University of South Carolina Press, 2001. Pp. xvi, 578. $59.95.) A half-century ago, the publication of the first volume of The Papers of Thomas Jefferson (1950) launched a revolution in historical editing. In little over a decade, the initial volumes of The Papers of Henry Clay (1959), The Papers of Benjamin Franklin (1959), The Works of James Buchanan (1960), The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (1961), and The Papers of James Madison (1962) had begun to appear, more or less modeled after the Jefferson Papers. These projects continue to this day, serving as monuments to the scholarly concerns of a by-gone era while providing very useful collections for studying the founders and a subsequent generation of American political leaders. The Papers of John C. Calhoun are among these, having begun publication in 1959. The most recent volume covers the period from August 1848 to the following July, bringing the project to within eight months of Calhoun's death. Long-time editors Clyde N. Wilson and Shirley Bright Cook, for whom the project is obviously a labor of love, provide a brief introduction to the volume. They assert that Calhoun's demand for a concurrent majority capable of blocking northern threats to slavery was driven by his intellectual opposition to the doctrine that men are created free and equal. The editors deny that Calhoun had any interest in proslavery theory narrowly defined, but instead offered a defense of a real and self governing society (xi-xii). This volume is divided into four major chronological sections. Each begins with an introduction that provides brief historical context and some personal background on Calhoun. The letters in this volume are overwhelmingly political. Much of Calhoun's correspondence in the summer and fall of 1848 focused on the upcoming presidential contest. The election posed a difficult dilemma for many in the South. The Whigs were riddled with opponents of slavery, and although Zachary Taylor was a southerner and a slave owner, little was known of his political beliefs. Democratic nominee Lewis Cass of Michigan was silent on the Wilmot Proviso, and Martin Van Buren, a foil to Calhoun's ideas and ambitions for a generation, lurked as the Free Soil choice. Many southerners sought Calhoun's views on the election, but the South Carolinian believed that none of the candidates deserved the South's support. He repeatedly reminded southerners to remain united, and, in October 1848, warned that we must give up our slaves, or give up our political connection with all parties at the North, unless one shall rise up ... and join us to put down abolitionism(93). The South Carolinian's pessimism about the future of the union pervades many of these letters. The volume opens with Calhoun blasting the Wilmot Proviso as an aggressive assertion of northern power that directly threatened southern interests. Near the end of the volume, his July 5, 1849 letter To the People of the Southern States (454-95) offers a detailed elaboration of his views on northern aggression and southern constitutional remedies. …