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.

ANDRÁS TARNÓC THE POLITICS OF A CAST-IRON MAN JOHN C. CALHOUN AND HIS VIEWS ON GOVERNMENT I. In 1763 Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon began working on the geographic description of the Eastern Seaboard of the North American Continent. One result of their five year project outlined the PennsylvaniaMaryland border.

1 The line bearing their name turned out to be more than an innocuous boundary. It divided the Atlantic Seaboard in two distinct sections setting the course for centuries of separate social, economic, political and cultural development. While commerce and industry flourished in the North, the South was more suitable for agriculture. Dixie's semi-tropical climate favored cultivation of such exotic harvest items as tobacco, sugar, cotton and rice. Tobacco production tended to exhaust the soil and left no room to grow wheat, corn and other staples. Since European countries, especially England provided the best markets for American tobacco, prospective planters sought out vast territories near rivers with oceanic access. The need for large scale production and proximity of transatlantic shipping gave rise to a unique economic entity, the Southern plantation.

2 1 Daniel J. Boorstin, The Americans: The National Experience (New York: Vintage Books, 1965), p. 161. 2 Ibid., p. 170. 89