The Papers of John C. Calhoun, Vol. XXVIII [Hardcover]

Clyde N. Wilson (Editor), Shirley B. Cook (Editor)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: University of South Carolina Press (September 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570035024
• ISBN-13: 978-1570035029
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,341,067 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5.0 out of 5 stars The "Greater" of the Great Triumvirate, December 23, 2011

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Poor Richard II "ITM" (Virginia) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Papers of John C. Calhoun, Vol. XXVIII (Hardcover)

Having recently completed a multi-year study of the writings and papers of each member of the Great Triumvirate, (John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay, and Daniel Webster) I have come to the conclusion that Calhoun's sheer weight of mind made him the greater intellect of the three men, although not the greater in oratory. But when viewed against any of their senatorial successors of more recent history, each member of the Triumvirate stands head and shoulders above any in most probably every respect. While history, however, has somewhat marginalized Calhoun comparable to Webster, this is largely due to his positions that were wildly charged w/ emotion versus the accuracy of his positions: Slavery and his authorship for the Policy of Nullification, the latter position being quite foundationally formidable in its historical application and its presentation when objectively measured. Moreover, the elevation of Webster over Calhoun may be in large part due to the victory of the Northern section over the Southern section at the end of the American "Civil War." At any rate, when looking through the prism of history and measuring against the size and scope of today's central governemnt, there lay a rather prophetic result in Calhoun's writings. It cannot be denied that Calhoun's No. XXVIII is nothing short of a brilliant work, and, if by chance we were the wiser, we would take great care to consider his lead in many respects, especially given our governments' continued transition to a more-total state to that of a leviathan.

In "Disquisition," Calhoun expounds on the subject of what government is; the social needs that we have as humans that ultimately govern our actions as human beings; our social interactions w/ one-another and how those actions are applied under a operating system(s) government(s); governemnts' relationship to human beings, understanding our inherent and unalienble rights as outlined in our founding document, the Declaration; and the inherent aspects and elements of our negative behaviors as humans, to include our natural propensity to gravitate toward our human vices e.g. self-aggrandization, controlling others through policies such as taxation, property confiscation, etc.., when our leaders are agents and actors in governement. "Disquisition" is written in an exemplary fashion: practical, logical, rational, and extremely valuable to the simple, complex or more-learned among us. Indeed, regardless of party affiliation, representatives and leaders within government today who have a genuine concern and loyalty of country should strongly consider a review of "Disquisition." In order for a reader of Calhoun's "Disquisition" to obtain the maximum benefit, I would strongly urge a deliberate pace of reading since the writing, at least for me, was rather complex.

Calhoun's "Discourse," presents a thoroughly investigated, systematic and extremely compelling argument on original Constitutional structure as agreed upon by the Founders. He catalogues his arguments with great clarity and clearly has a mastery of the subject. In brevity, he outlines how the original States, acting as in a capacity of "Creator," came into an arrangment w/ one-another, in the form of a "Compact," to form a central government, identified as the "Created." Calhoun shows that the "Created" had over time maneuvered itself into such a position to be stronger than the "Creator", and having done such, had slowly and methodicially removed our inherent rights and liberties, and, therefore, moved into a state of tyranny. The vehicle that the central government had used to usurp the powers of the "Creator" were based upon a power of a simple majority, or what he identifies as the "numerical majority," and, therefore, its destructive impact on our inherent rights and liberties as individuals. "Discourse" also espouses the character and style of our governing system (federalism and republicanism) and the adverse effects placed upon the compact should the central government continue to cast aside the Tenth Amendment. Like "Disquisition," his writing of "Discourse" is equally exemplary and should be read w/ a critical eye and objective frame of mind in order to gain the maximum benefit. Finally, and as a side, there are strong threads of "Discourse" throughout Calhoun's long political career, to include South Carolina's "Exposition and Protest" of 1828, the "Great Debate" between Senators Robert Y. Hayne and Daniel Webster of 1830, w/ Calhoun as the country's Vice-President, and the debates of 1833 and 1850 between Calhoun and Webster directly, thus showing a great level of maturity in the writing.

To be sure, whether or not the reader agrees w/ the political and philisophical belief system of Calhoun's No. XXVIII, no library or Kindle belonging to a student of history, law, or political science is complete w/o this writing.