(1) For what thought especially does Webster stand in American politics? (2) Bring together all the expressions that prove your conclusion. (3) What doctrine did he combat in regard to the public lands? (4) Why? Can you expand upon his argument? (5) What position did he take in regard to the press? (6) In what ways may it be corrupted? (7) What do you think in regard to the duty of newspapers? (8) What remedy would Webster suggest?

(1) What arguments did Webster use in regard to the doctrine of nullification? (2) Trace his arguments in regard to the nature of the Constitution. (3) Whom did he mean by "the people"? (4) Compare his arguments for the Constitution with Clay's.

(1) Analyze Webster's speech on Greece. (2) Compare it with Clay's. (3) Which was the more eloquent? (4) Which one the more argumentative? (5) What leading thought had each in mind?

(1) Discuss Webster's views about the appointing power. (2) About the right to remove offices. (3) What evils did he find in the method then practiced? (4) What was his remedy? (5) Would the remedy hav led to other evils, in your opinion? (6) What did Wsk ster believe in regard to a national bank? (7) State ais opinion in regard to the causes of the crisis of 1854. (8) Can you find an expression in his private lettera that seems to contradict his public speech on this question? (9) What was to be the result of the destruction of the Bank? (10) Was his prediction verified?

(1) What did Webster believe in regard to slavery? (2) In regard to the rights of the slave master? (3) In regard to the rights of the states over slavery? (4) În regard to the rights of the United States over slavery? (5) How would he settle the issue? (6) Was his idea practical? (7) Did his “Seventh of March" speech have a different tone from earlier speeches?

(1) What did he think about annexing new territory? (2) State his arguments. (3) Would they be applicable now? (4) Were he living would he probably support or oppose the annexation of the Philippines? Choose the passages you believe justify your conclusion.

(5)

(1) What passage do you believe to be his most eloquent one? Why? (2) Make out a series of “outlines,” one for each topic treated,

JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN

Born in South Carolina, 1782. Member of state legislature, 1807-1811. Member of House of Representatives, 1811-1817. Secretary of war, 1817-1825. Vice-President, 1825-1830. Senator, 1830-1844. Secretary of state, 1844-1845. Senator, 1845-1850. Famous articles on nullification, 1828-1832. Great speech, March 4, 1850. Died, 1850.

CHAPTER V

JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN

N the two preceding numbers, we have

IN

studied the lives and works of two of our

great national statesmen. In this number we have brought before us the greatest of all the States Rights' men. Calhoun began life as a supporter of the national idea. He never eased to love the Union, and died, I believe, oping that the impossible might yet be achieved the continued association of two opposing principles in the same nation. In one sense Calhoun was never a secessionist. He argued that simple justice should be done the South; and this could be done, he asserted, by allowing to that section the right to settle its own local questions. Perhaps he did not sce that he was asking the North to cease thinking and willing; it was to have no opinion in regard to the character of slavery. To him the Constitution meant that the North had no right to have or at least to express an opinion on the subject. The whole question had been, by the Constitution, left with the states. Each state was free to act for itself as it pleased. As far as action was concerned, Webster, Clay, and even Lincoln agreed with him. Calhoun, however, held that expressing opinions, calling slavery a wrong or a sin, was also within the prohibition. Here we come upon the insoluble

phase of the question. Yet when all has been said for Calhoun, it is doubtless true that he was a powerful factor in developing the events which led to secession. Slavery was a necessity; the Union was not. If slavery could not continue in the Union, then the Union must fall.

The speech, of March 4, 1850, the last words. almost of Calhoun, show that he yet believed that both could continue; and, when less than a month later he passed away, it was with the hope that the result which he saw so plainly under certain conditions might not come to pass. Certainly he thought "the two sections will do justice to each other, and the Union can thus continue."

So large a part of the public life of Caihoun was intimately connected with slavery and the nature of the Union that I have let these two ideas dominate in the selections chosen.

There were no quotable letters accessible for Calhoun's earlier years, nor for his private life.

A few words, therefore, about him may be necessary here.

His father was born in Ireland of ScotchIrish stock, but came to this country when a lad. In 1770 he married Miss Caldwell of a Virginia family. When Calhoun was thirteen years old his father died, leaving him to the care of his mother. He was raised on a small plantation, and as his health was rather delicate and means not abundant, he did not start to college until he was nineteen. He graduated at Yale, however, four years later, and after three years study of law, began its prac.. tice at twenty-six. Before he was thirty he was prominent in the politics of his state, and