to do it justice. He believed in the rights of the individual man, for whose benefit society and government exist — “society being primary, to preserve and perfect our race; and government secondary and subordinate, to preserve and perfect society. Both are, however, necessary to the existence and well-being of our race and equally of divine ordination.” But government ordained to protect may, if not guarded, be made a means of oppression. “That by which this is prevented, by whatever name called, is what is meant by constitution. . . . Constitution stands to government as government stands to society. . . . Constitution is the contrivance of man, while government is of divine ordination. Man is left to perfect what the wisdom of the Infinite ordained as necessary to preserve the race.” He then takes up the question, How shall government be constituted so as by its own organism to resist the tendency to abuse of power? The first device is the responsibility of rulers through suffrage to the ruled under proper guards and with sufficient enlightenment of the voters to understand their rights and their duty. This secures those who elect against abuse by those who are elected. But this is far from all that is needed. When society is homogeneous in interests this may suffice, for it insures a control of no man's right by any other than himself and those who have common interest with him. But where, as is generally the case, society has diverse and inimical interests, then suffrage is no security, for each representative speaks the will of each constituency, and constituencies, through representation, may war on each other, and the majority interests may devour those of the minority through their representatives. Suffrage thus only transfers the propensity to abuse power from constituencies to representatives, and despotism is secured through that suffrage which was devised to prevent it. The remedy for this evil is to be found in such an organism as will give to each of the diverse interests a separate voice and permit the majority of each to speak in a separate branch of the organism, and not take the voice of the majority of the whole community as the only expression of the people's will. To do the last bases government on the numerical or absolute majority; to do the first is to base it on the “concurrent constitutional majority.” The latter is a government of the whole people; the former only of a majority of them. This principle is illustrated by all the so-called checks and balances in all constitutional governments, and by the concurrent majority of numbers in the house of representatives and of states in the senate in our own federal system. This principle, established with scientific precision, is the fruitful source of all of Mr. Calhoun's doctrines. His vindication of the veto power was against the claim for the numerical majority. His nullification was the requirement of the concurrent majority of the several states to a law of doubtful constitutionality. His proposed amendment of the constitution by a dual executive, through which each section would have a distinct representation, was an application of the same principle; and his intense opposition to the admission of California, by which the senate was to be controlled by a northern majority, was his protest against the overthrow of the concurrent consent of the south, through an equipoised senate, to the legislative action of congress. Mr. Calhoun saw the south in a minority in all branches of the government, and he desired, by giving to the south a concurrent and distinct voice in the organism of our system, to secure her against invasion of her rights by a hostile majority, and thus to make her safe in the union. When the abolition party was small in numbers and weak in organization, and public men treated its menaces with contempt, Mr. Calhoun saw the cloud like a man's hand which was to overspread our political heavens. His prophetic eye saw the danger and his voice proclaimed it. In looking at the growth of the abolition feeling in 1836, he predicted that Mr. Webster “would, however reluctant, be compelled to yield to that doctrine or be driven into obscurity.” He said, further: “Be assured that emancipation itself would not satisfy these fanatics. That gained, the next step would be to raise the negroes to a social and political equality with the whites.” In 1849 he wrote the “Address to the People of the South,” and, with a precision that is startling, drew the following picture of the results of abolition: “If it [emancipation] ever should be effected, it will be through the agency of the federal government, controlled by the dominant power of the northern states of the confederacy against the resistance and struggle of the southern. It can then only be effected by the prostration of the white race, and that would necessarily engender the bitterest feelings of hostility between them and the north; but the reverse would be the case between the blacks of the south and the people of the north. Owing their emancipation to them, they would regard them as friends, guardians, and patrons, and centre accordingly all their sympathy in them. The people of the north would not fail to reciprocate, and to favor them instead of the whites. Under the influence of such feelings, and impelled by fanaticism and love of power, they would not stop at emancipation. Another step would be taken, to raise them to a political and social equality with their former owners by giving them the right of voting and holding public offices under the federal government. . . . But when once raised to an equality they would become the fast political associates of the north, acting and voting with them on all questions, and by this political union between them holding the south in complete subjection. The blacks and the profligate whites that might unite with them would become the principal recipients of federal offices and patronage, and would in consequence be raised above the whites in the south in the political and social scale. We would, in a word, change conditions with them a degradation greater than has ever yet fallen to the lot of a free and enlightened people, and one from which we could not escape but by fleeing the homes of ourselves and ancestors, and by abandoning our country to our former slaves, to become the permanent abode of disorder, anarchy, poverty, misery, and wretchedness.”
The estimate we have placed upon the genius of this remarkable man is confirmed by the touching tributes of his great rivals at the time of his death. Henry Clay, after paying a tribute to his private character and to his patriotism and public honor, said: “He possessed an elevated genius of the highest order. In felicity of generalization of the subjects of which his mind treated I have seen him surpassed by no one, and the charm and captivating influence of his colloquial powers have been felt by all who have conversed with him.” Daniel Webster, his chief competitor in constitutional debate, said: “He was a man of undoubted genius and of commanding talent. All the country and all the world admit that. . . . I think there is not one of us but felt, when he last addressed us from his seat in the senate, his form still erect, with clear tones, and an impressive and, I may say, an imposing manner, who did not feel that he might
