Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1993. [Vol. 1.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 21)
STUDIES - András Tamóc: The Politics of a Cast-Iron Man. John C. Calhoun and His Views on Government.
A Southern planter-Northern capitalist alliance could have forestalled the oncoming revolution. Since abolition struck at the heart of Southern stability —a guarantor of the Union's precarious existence —slavery assumed a familiar role: a savior of the nation. Although Calhoun recognized the importance of class struggle and the notion of permanent exploitation, his thought process was not based on personal identification with the oppressed. His chief motivation was protection of the survival of Southern slavery. Hofstadter called him "the Marx of the master class", 4 5 a historical oxymoron, a sort of "elitist Marxist" starting from the opposite direction but producing the same result. Calhoun spared no effort to prove that slavery was the best of all possible worlds. He cited census figures showing a higher ratio of mental and physical deficiency among people of the North. In 1837 he declared in the Senate that slavery "was, instead of and evil, a good —a positive good". 4 6 When the country's territorial growth exacerbated sectional tensions and the admission of new states threatened the fragile balance between slavery and freedom, Calhoun's reaction was archetypal of Southern intransigence. After Mexico recognized the independent state of Texas, a new dilemma arose concerning the latter's admission in the Union. Calhoun lobbied for Congress' authority to establish slavery in Texas. He put his argument in a geopolitical context. In 1843, as Secretary of State in the Tyler administration, Calhoun completed a treaty outlining Texas' annexation. Wary of British abolitionist influence in the territory Calhoun wrote a letter to the English minister, Sir Richard Pakenham. Calhoun warned that abolition in Texas would jeopardize slavery in the South, destroy the United States and destabilize the Western Hemisphere. After the Pakenham letter was revealed in the Senate Calhoun's treaty went down in defeat 4 7 4 5 Ibid., p. 87. 4 6 Ibid., p. 103. 4 7 Merill D. Peterson, The Great Triumvirate (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), pp. 436—447. 110
