LAD # 13 John C. Calhoun

Calhoun address the issue of slavery that divided the nation to the point were it was no longer an issue that could be ignored, or solved with several compromises. He believed “that the agitation of the subject of slavery would”, could potentially, “end in disunion.” Whether a state would be free or slave when entered into the union was also an issue of conflict between the North and the South. Neither wanted the other to have the majority in the Senate, the House of Representatives and the Electoral College. Calhoun argued that as a result of the unequal balance of government “the South has been excluded from the common territory belonging to all the States as members of the federal Union” and they have been burdened by “a system of revenue and disbursements by which an undue proportion of the burden of taxation has been imposed upon the South, and an undue proportion of its proceeds appropriated to the North”. He also talks about the “unequal system of revenue and disbursements” only contributes to the economic prosperity of manufacturers in the North. Because so much wealth was concentrated in the North, the population of the region increased by attracting citizens and immigrants; this gives the North an unfair advantages and benefits that the South in unable to acquire.