No More Learning

3075


## p. 3076 (#34) ############################################

3076
PEDRO CALDERON
Fabio-
Fabio-
Why, thus:
Near the town of Ratisbon
Two conspicuous hamlets lay,-
One of them called Ageré,
The other called Mascárandón.
These two villages one priest,
An humble man of God, 'tis stated,
Served; and therefore celebrated
Mass in each on every feast.
And so one day it came to pass,
A native of Mascárandón
Who to Ageré had gone
About the middle of the mass,
Heard the priest in solemn tone
Say, as he the Preface read,
"Gratias ageré," but said
Nothing of Mascárandón.
To the priest this worthy made
His angry plaint without delay:
"You give best thanks for Ageré,
As if your tithes we had not paid! "
When this sapient reason reached
The noble Mascárandónese,
They stopped their hopeless pastor's fees,
Nor paid for what he prayed or preached;
He asked his sacristan the cause,
Who told him wherefore and because.
From that day forth when he would sing
The Preface, he took care t'intone,
Not in a smothered or weak way,
"Tibi semper et ubique
Gratias-Mascárandón! »
If from love, that god so blind,-
Two parishes thou holdest, you
Are bound to gratify the two;
And after a few days you'll find,
If you do so, soon upon
You and me will fall good things,
When your Lordship sweetly sings
Flerída et Mascárandón.
Frederick-Think you I have heard your folly?
If you listened, why not so?
Frederick-No: my mind can only know
Its one call of melancholy.


## p. 3077 (#35) ############################################

PEDRO CALDERON
3077
Fabio
--
Since you stick to Ageré
And reject Mascárandón,
Every hope, I fear, is gone,
That love his generous dues will pay.
S
Translation of Denis Florence MacCarthy.
CYPRIAN'S BARGAIN
From The Wonderful Magician ›
[The Demon, angered by Cyprian's victory in defending the existence of
God, swears vengeance. He resolves that Cyprian shall lose his soul for
Justina, who rejects his love. Cyprian says: -]
O BITTER is the life I live,
That, hear me hell, I now would give
To thy most detested spirit
My soul forever to inherit,
To suffer punishment and pine,
So this woman may be mine.
[The Demon accepts his soul and hastens to Justina.
Justina-'Tis that enamored nightingale
Who gives me the reply:
He ever tells the same soft tale
Of passion and of constancy
To his mate, who, rapt and fond,
Listening sits, a bough beyond.
Be silent, Nightingale! - No more
Make me think, in hearing thee
Thus tenderly thy love deplore,
If a bird can feel his so,
What a man would feel for me.
And, voluptuous vine, O thou
Who seekest most when least pursuing,-
To the trunk thou interlacest
Art the verdure which embracest
And the weight which is its ruin,-
No more, with green embraces, vine,
Make me think on what thou lovest;
For while thou thus thy boughs entwine,
I fear lest thou shouldst teach me, sophist,
How arms might be entangled too.
Light-enchanted sunflower, thou


## p. 3078 (#36) ############################################

3078
PEDRO CALDERON
All-
Who gazest ever true and tender
On the sun's revolving splendor,
Follow not his faithless glance
With thy faded countenance,
Nor teach my beating heart to fear
If leaves can mourn without a tear,
How eyes must weep! O Nightingale.
Cease from thy enamored tale,-
Leafy vine, unwreath thy bower,
Restless sunflower, cease to move-
Or tell me all, what poisonous power
Ye use against me-
Love! love! love!
Justina-It cannot be! Whom have I ever loved?
Trophies of my oblivion and disdain,
Floro and Lelio did I not reject?
And Cyprian? -
-
[She becomes troubled at the name of Cyprian.
Did I not requite him
With such severity that he has fled
Where none has ever heard of him again? —
Alas! I now begin to fear that this
May be the occasion whence desire grows bold,
As if there were no danger. From the moment
That I pronounced to my own listening heart,
"Cyprian is absent, O miserable me! »
I know not what I feel!
[More calmly.
It must be pity,
To think that such a man, whom all the world
Admired, should be forgot by all the world,
And I the cause.
[She again becomes troubled.
And yet if it were pity,
Floro and Lelio might have equal share,
For they are both imprisoned for my sake.
Alas! what reasonings are these? It is
Enough I pity him, and that in vain,
Without this ceremonious subtlety,
And woe is me! I know not where to find him now,
Even should I seek him through this wide world!
Enter Demon.
Demon-Follow, and I will lead thee where he is.
[Calmly.


## p. 3079 (#37) ############################################

PEDRO CALDERON
3079
Justina And who art thou, who hast found entrance hither
Into my chamber through the doors and locks?
Art thou a monstrous shadow which my madness
Has formed in the idle air?
Demon
No. I am one
Called by the thought which tyrannizes thee
From his eternal dwelling-who this day
Is pledged to bear thee unto Cyprian.
Justina - So shall thy promise fail. This agony
Of passion which afflicts my heart and soul
May sweep imagination in its storm,-
The will is firm.
Demon-
Already half is done.
In the imagination of an act.
The sin incurred, the pleasure then remains:
Let not the will stop half-way on the road.
Justina - I will not be discouraged, nor despair,
Although I thought it, and although 'tis true
That thought is but a prelude to the deed:
Thought is not in my power, but action is:
I will not move my foot to follow thee!
But a far mightier wisdom than thine own
Exerts itself within thee, with such power
Compelling thee to that which it inclines
That it shall force thy step; how wilt thou then
Resist, Justina?
By my free will.
Demon-
-
Justina-
Demon
Justina-
Must force thy will.
It is invincible;
It were not free if thou hadst power upon it.
I
Demon Come, where a pleasure waits thee.
Justina-
Too dear.
[He draws, but cannot move her.
It were bought
Demon
'Twill soothe thy heart to softest peace.
Justina 'Tis dread captivity.
Demon-
'Tis joy, 'tis glory.
Justina - 'Tis shame, 'tis torment, 'tis despair.
Demon-
But how
Canst thou defend thyself from that or me,
If my power drags thee onward?


## p. 3080 (#38) ############################################

3080
PEDRO CALDERON
Justina-
Demon
Justina-
Consists in God.
[He vainly endeavors to force her, and at last releases her.
Woman, thou hast subdued me
Only by not owning thyself subdued.
But since thou thus findest defense in God,
I will assume a feignèd form, and thus
Make thee a victim of my baffled rage.
For I will mask a spirit in thy form
Who will betray thy name to infamy,
And doubly shall I triumph in thy loss,
First by dishonoring thee, and then by turning
False pleasure to true ignominy.
My defense
I
Appeal to Heaven against thee; so that Heaven
May scatter thy delusions, and the blot
Upon my fame vanish in idle thought,
Even as flame dies in the envious air,
And as the flow'ret wanes at morning frost,
And thou shouldst never— - But alas! to whom
Do I still speak? — Did not a man but now
Stand here before me? —No, I am alone,
And yet I saw him. Is he gone so quickly?
Or can the heated mind engender shapes
From its own fear? Some terrible and strange
Peril is near. Lisander! father! lord!
Livia!
Enter Lisander and Livia.
Lisander-O my daughter! what?
Livia-
Justina-
Lisander-
Justina Have you not seen him?
Livia-
Justina I saw him.
Lisander-
What?
Saw you
A man go forth from my apartment now?
I scarce sustain myself!
A man here!
No, lady.
'Tis impossible; the doors
Which led to this apartment were all locked.
Livia [aside]—I dare say it was Moscon whom she saw,
For he was locked up in my room.
[Exit.


## p. 3081 (#39) ############################################

PEDRO CALDERON
3081
Lisander-
――
Livia
Justina-
-
Lisander-
Justina
It must
ave been some image of thy phantasy.
Such melancholy as thou feedest is
Skillful in forming such in the vain air
Out of the motes and atoms of the day.
My master's in the right.
Oh, would it were
Delusion; but I fear some greater ill.
I feel as if out of my bleeding bosom
My heart was torn in fragments; ay,
Some mortal spell is wrought against my frame.
So potent was the charm, that had not God
Shielded my humble innocence from wrong,
I should have sought my sorrow and my shame
With willing steps. Livia, quick, bring my cloak,
For I must seek refuge from these extremes
Even in the temple of the highest God
Which secretly the faithful worship.
Livia-
Here.
Justina [putting on her cloak]-In this, as in a shroud of snow, may I
Quench the consuming fire in which I burn,
Wasting away!
Lisander-
And I will go with thee!
Livia [aside]-When I once see them safe out of the house,
I shall breathe freely.
Justina-
So do I confide
In thy just favor, Heaven!
Let us go.
Thine is the cause, great God! Turn, for my sake
And for thine own, mercifully to me!
Translation of Shelley.


## p. 3082 (#40) ############################################

3082
PEDRO CALDERON
DREAMS AND REALITIES
From Such Stuff as Dreams are Made Of,' Edward Fitzgerald's version of
'La Vida Es Sueno
[The scene is a tower. Clotaldo is persuading Segismund that his expe-
riences have not been real, but dreams, and discusses the possible relation of
existence to a state of dreaming. The play itself is based on the familiar
motif of which Christopher Sly furnishes a ready example. ]
Clotaldo
Segismund-
Clotaldo-
Segismund-
Clotaldo
RINCES and princesses and counselors,
P
----
Fluster'd to right and left-my life made at -
But that was nothing-
Even the white-hair'd, venerable King
Seized on- Indeed, you made wild work of it;
And so discover'd in your outward action,
Flinging your arms about you in your sleep,
Grinding your teeth and, as I now remember,
Woke mouthing out judgment and execution,
On those about you.
Ay, I did indeed.
Ev'n your eyes stare wild; your hair stands up—
Your pulses throb and flutter, reeling still
Under the storm of such a dream-
That seem'd as swearable reality
As what I wake in now.
A dream!
Ay wondrous how
Imagination in a sleeping brain
Out of the uncontingent senses draws
Sensations strong as from the real touch;
That we not only laugh aloud, and drench
With tears our pillow; but in the agony
Of some imaginary conflict, fight
And struggle-ev'n as you did; some, 'tis thought
Under the dreamt-of stroke of death have died.
―――
Segismund― And what so very strange, too—in that world
Where place as well as people all was strange,
Ev'n I almost as strange unto myself,
You only, you, Clotaldo-you, as much
And palpably yourself as now you are,
Came in this very garb you ever wore;
By such a token of the past, you said,
To assure me of that seeming present.


## p. 3083 (#41) ############################################

PEDRO CALDERON
3083
Clotaldo
Ay?
Segismund — Ay; and even told me of the very stars
You tell me hereof - how in spite of them,
I was enlarged to all that glory.
Clotaldo-
Ay,
By the false spirits' nice contrivance, thus
A little truth oft leavens all the false,
The better to delude us.
For you know
'Tis nothing but a dream?
Nay, you yourself
Know best how lately you awoke from that
You know you went to sleep on. —
Why, have you never dreamt the like before?
Segismund-Never, to such reality.
Segismund-
Clotaldo-
Clotaldo-
Such dreams
Are oftentimes the sleeping exhalations
Of that ambition that lies smoldering
Under the ashes of the lowest fortune:
By which, when reason slumbers, or has lost
The reins of sensible comparison,
We fly at something higher than we are—
Scarce ever dive to lower- to be kings
Or conquerors, crown'd with laurel or with gold;
Nay, mounting heav'n itself on eagle wings,-
Which, by the way, now that I think of it,
May furnish us the key to this high flight —
That royal Eagle we were watching, and
Talking of as you went to sleep last night.
Segismund - Last night? Last night?
Clotaldo
Clotaldo-
Ay; do you not remember
Envying his immunity of flight,
As, rising from his throne of rock, he sail'd
Above the mountains far into the west,
That burned about him, while with poising wings
He darkled in it as a burning brand
Is seen to smolder in the fire it feeds?
Segismund - Last night-last night -Oh, what a day was that
Between that last night and this sad to-day !
And yet perhaps
Only some few dark moments, into which
Imagination, once lit up within
And unconditional of time and space,
Can pour infinities.


## p. 3084 (#42) ############################################

3084
PEDRO CALDERON
Segismund-
Clotaldo
Clotaldo
Segismund-Would that it had been on the verge of death
That knows no waking-
Clotaldo
Segismund-
And I remember
How the old man they call'd the King, who wore
The crown of gold about his silver hair,
And a mysterious girdle round his waist,
Just when my rage was roaring at its height,
And after which it all was dark again,
Bade me beware lest all should be a dream.
Ay-there another specialty of dreams,
That once the dreamer 'gins to dream he dreams,
His foot is on the very verge of waking.
Segismund-Who meant me! -me! their Prince,
Chain'd like a felon -
Clotaldo-
Lifting me up to glory, to fall back,
Stunned, crippled - wretcheder than ev'n before.
Yet not so glorious, Segismund, if you
Your visionary honor wore so ill
As to work murder and revenge on those
Who meant you well.
Stay, stay- Not so fast.
You dream'd the Prince, remember.
Revenged it only.
True. But as they say
Dreams are rough copies of the waking soul
Yet uncorrected of the higher Will,
So that men sometimes in their dream confess
Then in dream
An unsuspected or forgotten self;
One must beware to check-ay, if one may,
Stifle ere born, such passion in ourselves
As makes, we see, such havoc with our sleep,
And ill reacts upon the waking day.
And, by the by, for one test, Segismund,
Between such swearable realities-
Since dreaming, madness, passion, are akin
In missing each that salutary rein
Of reason, and the guiding will of man:
One test, I think, of waking sanity
Shall be that conscious power of self-control
To curb all passion, but much, most of all,
That evil and vindictive, that ill squares
With human, and with holy canon less,
Which bids us pardon ev'n our enemies,


## p. 3085 (#43) ############################################

PEDRO CALDERON
3085
And much more those who, out of no ill-will,
Mistakenly have taken up the rod.
Which Heaven, they think, has put into their hands.
Segismund- I think I soon shall have to try again-
Sleep has not yet done with me.
Clotaldo
Such a sleep!
Take my advice-'tis early yet-the sun
Scarce up above the mountain; go within,
And if the night deceived you, try anew
With morning; morning dreams they say come true.
Segismund - Oh, rather pray for me a sleep so fast
As shall obliterate dream and waking too.
Clotaldo-
[Exit into the tower.
So sleep; sleep fast: and sleep away those two
Night-potions, and the waking dream between,
Which dream thou must believe; and if to see
Again, poor Segismund! that dream must be. -
And yet - and yet-in these our ghostly lives,
Half night, half day, half sleeping, half awake,
How if our waking life, like that of sleep,
Be all a dream in that eternal life
To which we wake not till we sleep in death?
How if, I say, the senses we now trust
For date of sensible comparison,—
Ay, ev'n the Reason's self that dates with them,
Should be in essence of intensity
Hereafter so transcended, and awoke
To a perceptive subtlety so keen
As to confess themselves befool'd before,
In all that now they will avouch for most?
One man like this-but only so much longer
As life is longer than a summer's day,
Believed himself a king upon his throne,
And play'd at hazard with his fellows' lives,
Who cheaply dream'd away their lives to him.
The sailor dream'd of tossing on the flood:
The soldier of his laurels grown in blood:
The lover of the beauty that he knew
Must yet dissolve to dusty residue:
The merchant and the miser of his bags
Of finger'd gold; the beggar of his rags:
And all this stage of earth on which we seem
Such busy actors, and the parts we play'd
Substantial as the shadow of a shade,
And Dreaming but a dream within a dream!


## p. 3086 (#44) ############################################

3086
PEDRO CALDERON
THE DREAM CALLED LIFE
Segismund's Speech Closing the Vida Es Sueno': Fitzgerald's Version.
DREAM it was in which I thought myself,
A
And you that hailed me now, then hailed me king,
In a brave palace that was all my own,
Within, and all without it, mine; until,
Drunk with excess of majesty and pride,
Methought I towered so high and swelled so wide
That of myself I burst the glittering bubble
That my ambition had about me blown,
And all again was darkness. Such a dream
As this, in which I may be walking now;
Dispensing solemn justice to you shadows,
Who make believe to listen; but anon,
With all your glittering arms and equipage,
Kings, princes, captains, warriors, plume and steel,
Ay, even with all your airy theatre,
May fit into the air you seem to rend
With acclamations, leaving me to wake
In the dark tower; or dreaming that I wake
From this, that waking is; or this and that
Both waking or both dreaming;—such a doubt
Confounds and clouds our mortal life about.
And whether wake or dreaming, this I know,-
How dreamwise human glories come and go;
Whose momentary tenure not to break,
Walking as one who knows he soon may wake,
So fairly carry the full cup, so well
Disordered insolence and passion quell,
That there be nothing after to upbraid
Dreamer or doer in the part he played,-
Whether to-morrow's dawn shall break the spell,
Or the last trumpet of the eternal Day,
When dreaming with the night shall pass away.


## p. 3086 (#45) ############################################



## p. 3086 (#46) ############################################


Olalla
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J. C. CALHOUN.
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## p. 3086 (#47) ############################################



## p. 3086 (#48) ############################################



## p. 3087 (#49) ############################################

3087
JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN
(1782-1850)
BY W. P. TRENT
OHN C. CALHOUN's importance as a statesman has naturally
stood in the way of his recognition as a writer, and in like
manner his reputation as an orator has overshadowed his
just claims to be considered our most original political thinker. The
six volumes of his collected works, which unfortunately do not em-
brace his still inaccessible private correspondence, are certainly not
exhilarating or attractive reading; but they are unique in the litera-
ture of America, if not of the world, as models of passionless logical
analysis. Whether passionless logical analysis is ever an essential
quality of true literature, is a matter on which opinions will differ;
but until the question is settled in the negative, Calhoun's claims to
be considered a writer of marked force and originality cannot be
ignored. It is true that circumstances have invalidated much of his
political teaching, and that it was always negative and destructive
rather than positive and constructive; it is true also that much of
the interest attaching to his works is historical rather than literary
in character: but when all allowances are made, it will be found that
the Disquisition on Government' must still be regarded as the most
remarkable political treatise our country has produced, and that the
position of its author as the head of a school of political thought is
commanding, and in a way unassailable.
The precise character of Calhoun's political philosophy, the key-
note of which was the necessity and means of defending the rights
of minorities, cannot be understood without a brief glance at his
political career. His birth in 1782 just after the Revolution, and in
South Carolina, gave him the opportunity to share in the victory
that the West and the far South won over the Virginians, headed by
Madison. His training at Yale gave a nationalistic bias to his early
career, and determined that search for the via media between con-
solidation and anarchy which resulted in the doctrine of nullification.
His service in Congress and as Secretary of War under Monroe gave
him a practical training in affairs that was not without influence in
qualifying his tendency to indulge in doctrinaire speculation. His
service as Vice-President afforded the leisure and his break with
Jackson the occasion, for his close study of the Constitution, to dis-
cover how the South might preserve slavery and yet continue in the


## p. 3088 (#50) ############################################

3088
JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN
Union. Finally, his position as a non-aristocratic leader of a body
of aristocrats, and his Scotch-Irish birth and training, gave a pecu-
liar strenuousness to his support of slavery, which is of course the
corner-stone of his political philosophy; and determined his reliance
upon logic rather than upon an appeal to the passions as the best
means of inculcating his teaching and of establishing his policy. His
political treatises, A Discourse on Government' and 'On the Consti-
tution and Government of the United States,' written just before his
death in 1850; his pamphlets like the South Carolina Exposition'
and the Address to the People of South Carolina'; and the great
speeches delivered in the Senate from 1832 to the end of his term,
especially those in which he defended against Webster the doctrine
of nullification, could have emanated only from an up-country South-
Carolinian who had inherited the mantle of Jefferson, and had sat at
the feet of John Taylor of Carolina and of John Randolph of Roa-
noke. Calhoun was, then, the logical outcome of his environment and
his training; he was the fearless and honest representative of his
people and section; and he was the master from whom rash disciples
like Jefferson Davis broke away, when they found that logical analy-
sis of the Constitution was a poor prop for slavery against the rising
tide of civilization.
As a thinker Calhoun is remarkable for great powers of analysis
and exposition. As a writer he is chiefly noted for the even dignity
and general serviceableness of his style.
He writes well, but rather
like a logician than like an inspired orator. He has not the stateli-
ness of Webster, and is devoid of the power of arousing enthusiasm.
The splendor of Burke's imagination is utterly beyond him, as is
also the epigrammatic brilliance of John Randolph, from whom,
however, he took not a few lessons in constitutional interpretation.
Indeed, it must be confessed that for all his clearness and subtlety
of intellect as a thinker, Calhoun is as a writer distinctly heavy.
In this as in many other respects he reminds us of the Romans, to
whom he was continually referring. Like them he is conspicuous
for strength of practical intellect; like them he is lacking in sub-
limity, charm, and nobility. It follows then that Calhoun will rarely
be resorted to as a model of eloquence, but that he will continue to
be read both on account of the substantial additions he made to
political philosophy, and of the interesting exposition he gave of
theories and ideas once potent in the nation's history.
Notwithstanding the bitterness of accusation brought against him,
he was not a traitor nor a man given over to selfish ambition, as
Dr. von Holst, his most competent biographer and critic, has clearly
shown. Calhoun believed both in slavery and in the Union, and
tried to maintain a balance between the two, because he thought
-- -


## p. 3089 (#51) ############################################

JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN
3089
that only in this way could his section maintain its prestige or even
its existence. He failed, as any other man would have done; and
we find him, like Cassandra, a prophet whom we cannot love. But
he did prophesy truly as to the fate of the South; and in the course
of his strenuous labors to divert the ruin he saw impending, he gave
to the world the most masterly analysis of the rights of the minority
and of the best methods of securing them that has yet come from
the pen of a publicist.
W. P. Hand. -
MR
REMARKS ON THE RIGHT OF PETITION
DELIVERED IN THE SENATE, FEBRUARY 13TH, 1840
R. CALHOUN said he rose to
express the pleasure he felt at
the evidence which the remarks of the Senator from
Kentucky furnished, of the progress of truth on the sub-
ject of abolition. He had spoken with strong approbation of the
principle laid down in a recent pamphlet, that two races of dif-
ferent character and origin could not coexist in the same coun-
try without the subordination of the one to the other.
He was
gratified to hear the Senator give assent to so important a prin-
ciple in application to the condition of the South. He had
himself, several years since, stated the same in more specific
terms: that it was impossible for two races, so dissimilar in
every respect as the European and African that inhabit the
southern portion of this Union, to exist together in nearly equal
numbers in any other relation than that which existed there.
He also added that experience had shown that they could so
exist in peace and happiness there, certainly to the great bene-
fit of the inferior race; and that to destroy it was to doom the
latter to destruction. But he uttered these important truths
then in vain, as far as the side to which the Senator belongs is
concerned.
He trusted the progress of truth would not, however, stop at
the point to which it has arrived with the Senator, and that it
will make some progress in regard to what is called the right of
petition. Never was a right so much mystified and magnified.
To listen to the discussion, here and elsewhere, you would sup-
pose it to be the most essential and important right: so far
VI-194


## p. 3090 (#52) ############################################

3090
JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN
from it, he undertook to aver that under our free and popular
system it was among the least of all our political rights. It
had been superseded in a great degree by the far higher right
of general suffrage, and by the practice, now so common, of
instruction. There could be no local grievance but what could
be reached by these, except it might be the grievance affecting
a minority, which could be no more redressed by petition than
by them. The truth is, that the right of petition could scarcely
be said to be the right of a freeman. It belongs to despotic
governments more properly, and might be said to be the last
right of slaves. Who ever heard of petition in the free States
of antiquity? We had borrowed our notions in regard to it from
our British ancestors, with whom it had a value for their imper-
fect representation far greater than it has with us; and it is
owing to that that it has a place at all in our Constitution. The
truth is, that the right has been so far superseded in a political
point of view, that it has ceased to be what the Constitution
contemplated it to be,-a shield to protect against wrongs; and
has been perverted into a sword to attack the rights of others-
to cause a grievance instead of the means of redressing griev
ances, as in the case of abolition petitions. The Senator from
Ohio [Mr. Tappan] has viewed this subject in its proper light,
and has taken a truly patriotic and constitutional stand in refus-
ing to present these firebrands, for which I heartily thank him
in the name of my State. Had the Senator from Kentucky fol-
lowed the example, he would have rendered inestimable service
to the country.
It is useless to attempt concealment. The presentation of
these incendiary petitions is itself an infraction of the Consti-
tution. All acknowledge- the Senator himself - that the prop-
erty which they are presented to destroy is guaranteed by the
Constitution. Now I ask: If we have the right under the Con-
stitution to hold the property (which none question), have we
not also the right to hold it under the same sacred instrument
in peace and quiet? Is it not a direct infraction then of the
Constitution, to present petitions here in the common council of
the Union, and to us, the agents appointed to carry its pro-
visions into effect and to guard the rights it secures, the
professed aim of which is to destroy the property guaranteed by
the instrument? There can be but one answer to these questions
on the part of those who present such petitions: that the right


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JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN
3091
of such petition is higher and more sacred than the Constitution.
and our oaths to preserve and to defend it. To such monstrous
results does the doctrine lead.
Sir, I understand this whole question. The great mass of
both parties to the North are opposed to abolition: the Demo-
crats almost exclusively; the Whigs less so. Very few are to
be found in the ranks of the former; but many in those of the
latter. The only importance that the abolitionists have is to be
found in the fact that their weight may be felt in elections; and
this is no small advantage. The one party is unwilling to lose
their weight, but at the same time unwilling to be blended with
them on the main question; and hence is made this false,
absurd, unconstitutional, and dangerous collateral issue on the
right of petition. Here is the whole secret. They are willing
to play the political game at our hazard, and that of the Consti-
tution and the Union, for the sake of victory at the elections.
But to show still more clearly how little foundation there is in
the character of our government for the extravagant impor-
tance attached to this right, I ask the Senator what is the true
relation between the government and the people, according to
our American conception? Which is principal and which agent?
which the master and which the servant? which the sovereign
and which the subject? There can be no answer. We are but
the agents- the servants. We are not the sovereign. The
sovereignty resides in the people of the States. How little
applicable, then, is this boasted right of petition, under our
system, to political questions? Who ever heard of the principal
petitioning his agent-of the master, his servant-or of the
sovereign, his subject? The very essence of a petition implies a
request from an inferior to a superior. It is not in fact a natural
growth of our system. It was copied from the British Bill of
Rights, and grew up among a people whose representation was
very imperfect, and where the sovereignty of the people was not
recognized at all. And yet even there, this right so much
insisted on here as being boundless as space, was restricted
from the beginning by the very men who adopted it in the
British system, in the very manner which has been done in the
other branch, this session; and to an extent far beyond. The
two Houses of Parliament have again and again passed resolu-
tions against receiving petitions even to repeal taxes; and this,
those who formed our Constitution well knew, and yet adopted


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3092
JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN
the provision almost identically contained in the British Bill of
Rights, without guarding against the practice under it. Is not
the conclusion irresistible, that they did not deem it inconsistent
with the right of "the citizens peaceably to assemble and peti-
tion for a redress of grievance," as secured in the Constitution?
The thing is clear. It is time that the truth should be known,
and this cant about petition, not to redress the grievances of
the petitioners, but to create a grievance elsewhere, be put
down.
I know this question to the bottom. I have viewed it under
every possible aspect. There is no safety but in prompt, deter-
mined, and uncompromising defense of our rights-to meet the
danger on the frontier. There all rights are strongest, and
more especially this. The moral is like the physical world.
Nature has incrusted the exterior of all organic life, for its
safety. Let that be broken through, and it is all weakness
within. So in the moral and political world. It is on the
extreme limits of right that all wrong and encroachments are
the most sensibly felt and easily resisted. I have acted on this
principle throughout in this great contest. I took my lessons
from the patriots of the Revolution. They met wrong promptly,
and defended right against the first encroachment. To sit here
and hear ourselves and constituents, and their rights and insti-
tutions (essential to their safety), assailed from day to day-
denounced by every epithet calculated to degrade and render us
odious; and to meet all this in silence, or still worse, to reason
with the foul slanderers,- would eventually destroy every feeling.
of pride and dignity, and sink us in feelings to the condition of
the slaves they would emancipate. And this the Senator advises
us to do. Adopt it, and the two houses would be converted
into halls to debate our rights to our property, and whether, in
holding it, we were not thieves, robbers, and kidnappers; and
we are to submit to this in order to quiet the North! I tell the
Senator that our Union, and our high moral tone of feeling on
this subject at the South, are infinitely more important to us
than any possible effect that his course could have at the North;
and that if we could have the weakness to adopt his advice, it
would even fail to effect the object intended.
It is proper to speak out. If this question is left to itself,
unresisted by us, it cannot but terminate fatally to us. Our
safety and honor are in the opposite direction to take the


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JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN
3093
highest ground, and maintain it resolutely. The North will
always take position below us, be ours high or low. They
will yield all that we will and something more. If we go for
rejection, they will at first insist on receiving, on the ground of
respect for petition. If we yield that point and receive peti-
tions, they will go for reference, on the ground that it is absurd
to receive and not to act—as it truly is. If we go for that,
they will insist on reporting and discussing; and if that, the
next step will be to make concession-to yield the point of
abolition in this District; and so on till the whole process is
consummated, each succeeding step proving more easy than its
predecessor. The reason is obvious. The abolitionists under-
stand their game. They throw their votes to the party most
disposed to favor them. Now, sir, in the hot contest of party
in the Northern section, on which the ascendency in their
several States and the general government may depend, all the
passions are roused to the greatest height in the violent strug-
gle, and aid sought in every quarter. They would forget us in
the heat of battle; yes, the success of the election, for the time,
would be more important than our safety; unless we by our
determined stand on our rights cause our weight to be felt, and
satisfy both parties that they have nothing to gain by courting
those who aim at our destruction. As far as this government is
concerned, that is our only remedy. If we yield that, if we lower
our stand to permit partisans to woo the aid of those who are
striking at our interests, we shall commence a descent in which
there is no stopping-place short of total abolition, and with it
our destruction.
A word in answer to the Senator from Massachusetts [Mr.
Webster]. He attempted to show that the right of petition was
peculiar to free governments. So far is the assertion from being
true, that it is more appropriately the right of despotic govern-
ments; and the more so, the more absolute and austere. So far
from being peculiar or congenial to free popular States, it
degenerates under them, necessarily, into an instrument, not of
redress for the grievances of the petitioners, but as has been
remarked, of assault on the rights of others, as in this case.
That I am right in making the assertion, I put it to the Senator
Have we not a right under the Constitution to our property in
our slaves? Would it not be a violation of the Constitution to
divest us of that right? Have we not a right to enjoy, under


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3094
JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN
the Constitution, peaceably and quietly, our acknowledged rights
guaranteed by it, without annoyance? The Senator assents. He
does but justice to his candor and intelligence. Now I ask him,
how can he assent to receive petitions whose object is to annoy
and disturb our right, and of course in direct infraction of the
Constitution?
The Senator from Ohio [Mr. Tappan], in refusing to present
these incendiary and unconstitutional petitions, has adopted a
course truly constitutional and patriotic, and in my opinion, the
only one that is so. I deeply regret that it has not been fol-
lowed by the Senator from Kentucky in the present instance.
Nothing short of it can put a stop to the mischief, and do jus-
tice to one-half of the States of the Union. If adopted by
others, we shall soon hear no more of abolition. The responsi-
bility of keeping alive this agitation must rest on those who may
refuse to follow so noble an example.
STATE RIGHTS
From the Speech on the Admission of Michigan,' 1837
IT
T HAS perhaps been too much my habit to look more to the
future and less to the present than is wise; but such is the
constitution of my mind that when I see before me the indi-
cations of causes calculated to effect important changes in our
political condition, I am led irresistibly to trace them to their
sources and follow them out in their consequences. Language
has been held in this discussion which is clearly revolutionary in
its character and tendency, and which warns us of the approach of
the period when the struggle will be between the conservatives and
the destructives. I understood the Senator from Pennsylvania
[Mr. Buchanan] as holding language countenancing the principle
that the will of a mere numerical majority is paramount to the
authority of law and constitution. He did not indeed announce
distinctly this principle, but it might fairly be inferred from
what he said; for he told us the people of a State where the
constitution gives the same weight to a smaller as to a greater
number, might take the remedy into their own hands; meaning,
as I understood him, that a mere majority might at their pleasure
subvert the constitution and government of a State,-which he
seemed to think was the essence of democracy. Our little State


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JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN
3095
has a constitution that could not stand a day against such doc-
trines, and yet we glory in it as the best in the Union. It is a
constitution which respects all the great interests of the State,
giving to each a separate and distinct voice in the management
of its political affairs, by means of which the feebler interests are
protected against the preponderance of the stronger. We call our
State a Republic-a Commonwealth, not a Democracy; and let
me tell the Senator, it is a far more popular government than if
it had been based on the simple principle of the numerical
majority. It takes more voices to put the machine of govern-
ment in motion than in those that the Senator would consider
more popular. It represents all the interests of the State,- and
is in fact the government of the people in the true sense of the
term, and not that of the mere majority, or the dominant
interests.
I am not familiar with the constitution of Maryland, to which
the Senator alluded, and cannot therefore speak of its structure
with confidence; but I believe it to be somewhat similar in its
character to our own. That it is a government not without its
excellence, we need no better proof than the fact that though
within the shadow of Executive influence, it has nobly and suc-
cessfully resisted all the seductions by which a corrupt and artful
Administration, with almost boundless patronage, has attempted.
to seduce her into its ranks.
Looking then to the approaching struggle, I take my stand
immovably. I am a conservative in its broadest and fullest sense,
and such I shall ever remain, unless indeed the government shall
become so corrupt and disordered that nothing short of revolution
can reform it. I solemnly believe that our political system is, in
its purity, not only the best that ever was formed, but the best
possible that can be devised for us. It is the only one by
which free States, so populous and wealthy, and occupying so
vast an extent of territory, can preserve their liberty. Thus
thinking, I cannot hope for a better. Having no hope of a bet-
ter, I am a conservative; and because I am a conservative, I am a
State Rights man. I believe that in the rights of the States are
to be found the only effectual means of checking the overaction.
of this government; to resist its tendency to concentrate all
power here, and to prevent a departure from the Constitution;
or in case of one, to restore the government to its original sim-
plicity and purity. State interposition, or to express it more


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3096
JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN
fully, the right of a State to interpose her sovereign voice, as
one of the parties to our constitutional compact, against the en-
croachments of this government, is the only means of sufficient
potency to effect all this; and I am therefore its advocate. I
rejoiced to hear the Senators from North Carolina [Mr. Brown],
and from Pennsylvania [Mr. Buchanan], do us the justice to dis-
tinguish between nullification and the anarchical and revolution-
ary movements in Maryland and Pennsylvania. I know they did.
not intend it as a compliment; but I regard it as the highest.
They are right. Day and night are not more different — more
unlike in everything. They are unlike in their principles, their
objects, and their consequences.
I shall not stop to make good this assertion, as I might
easily do. The occasion does not call for it. As a conservative
and a State Rights man, or if you will have it, a nullifier, I
have resisted and shall resist all encroachments on the Constitu-
tion whether of this Government on the rights of the States,
or the opposite: -whether of the Executive on Congress, or
Congress on the Executive. My creed is to hold both govern-
ments, and all the departments of each, to their proper sphere,
and to maintain the authority of the laws and the Constitution
against all revolutionary movements. I believe the means which
our system furnishes to preserve itself are ample, if fairly
understood and applied; and I shall resort to them, however
corrupt and disordered the times, so long as there is hope of
reforming the government. The result is in the hands of the
Disposer of events. It is my part to do my duty. Yet while I
thus openly avow myself a conservative, God forbid I should
ever deny the glorious right of rebellion and revolution. Should
corruption and oppression become intolerable, and not otherwise
be thrown off-if liberty must perish or the government be
overthrown, I would not hesitate, at the hazard of life, to resort
to revolution, and to tear down a corrupt government that could
neither be reformed nor borne by freemen. But I trust in God
things will never come to that pass. I trust never to see such
fearful times; for fearful indeed they would be, if they should
ever befall us. It is the last remedy, and not to be thought of
till common-sense and the voice of mankind would justify the
resort.
Before I resume my seat, I feel called on to make a few brief
remarks on a doctrine of fearful import which has been broached


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JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN
3097
in the course of this debate: the right to repeal laws granting
bank charters, and of course of railroads, turnpikes, and joint-
rick companies. It is a doctrine of fearful import, and calcu-
lated to do infinite mischief. There are countless millions vested
in such stocks, and it is a description of property of the most
delicate character. To touch it is almost to destroy it. But
while I enter my protest against all such doctrines, I have been
greatly alarmed with the thoughtless precipitancy (not to use a
stronger phrase) with which the most extensive and dangerous
privileges have been granted of late. It can end in no good, and
I fear may be the cause of convulsions hereafter.
We already
feel the effects on the currency, which no one competent of judg-
ing can fail to see is in an unsound condition. I must say (for
truth compels me) I have ever distrusted the banking system, at
least in its present form, both in this country and Great Britain.
It will not stand the test of time; but I trust that all shocks or
sudden revolutions may be avoided, and that it may gradually
give way before some sounder and better regulated system of
credit which the growing intelligence of the age may devise.
That a better may be substituted I cannot doubt; but of what it
shall consist, and how it shall finally supersede the present uncer-
tain and fluctuating currency, time alone can determine. All
that I can
see is, that the present must, one day or another,
come to an end or be greatly modified if that indeed can save
it from an entire overthrow. It has within itself the seeds of its
own destruction.
-
OF THE GOVERNMENT OF POLAND
From A Disquisition on Government >
IT
T is then a great error to suppose that the government of the
concurrent majority is impracticable; or that it rests on a
feeble foundation. History furnishes many examples of such
governments; and among them one in which the principle was
carried to an extreme that would be thought impracticable, had
it never existed. I refer to that of Poland. In this it was
carried to such an extreme that in the election of her kings, the
concurrence or acquiescence of every individual of the nobles
and gentry present, in an assembly numbering usually from one
hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand, was required to


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3098
JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN
make a choice; thus giving to each individual a veto on his
election. So likewise every member of her Diet (the supreme
legislative body), consisting of the King, the Senate, bishops
and deputies of the nobility and gentry of the palatinates, pos-
sessed a veto on all its proceedings; thus making a unanimous
vote necessary to enact a law or to adopt any measure what-
ever. And as if to carry the principle to the utmost extent,
the veto of a single member not only defeated the particular
bill or measure in question, but prevented all others passed
during the session from taking effect. Further the principle
could not be carried. It in fact made every individual of the
nobility and gentry a distinct element in the organism; or to
vary the expression, made him an estate of the kingdom.
And yet this government lasted in this form more than two
centuries, embracing the period of Poland's greatest power and
renown. Twice during its existence she protected Christendom,
when in great danger, by defeating the Turks under the walls
of Vienna, and permanently arresting thereby the tide of their
conquests westward.
It is true her government was finally subverted, and the
people subjugated, in consequence of the extreme to which the
principle was carried; not however because of its tendency to
dissolution from weakness, but from the facility it afforded to
powerful and unscrupulous neighbors to control by their in-
trigues the election of her kings. But the fact that a govern-
ment in which the principle was carried to the utmost extreme
not only existed, but existed for so long a period in great power
and splendor, is proof conclusive both of its practicability and
its compatibility with the power and permanency of government.
URGING REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE
From Speech in the Senate, March 4th, 1850
H
AVING now shown what cannot save the Union, I return to
the question with which I commenced, How can the Union
be saved? There is but one way by which it can with
any certainty; and that is by a full and final settlement, on the
principle of justice, of all the questions at issue between the two
sections. The South asks for justice, simple justice, and less
she ought not to take. She has no compromise to offer but the


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JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN
3099
Constitution; and no concession or surrender to make. She has
already surrendered so much that she has little left to surren-
der. Such a settlement would go to the root of the evil and
remove all cause of discontent; by satisfying the South, she
could remain honorably and safely in the Union, and thereby
restore the harmony and fraternal feelings between the sections.
which existed anterior to the Missouri agitation.