Calhoun and Constitutionalism
Union and liberty are not two terms most people associate with John C. Calhoun, a figure often linked exclusively with secession and slavery. But a reading of Liberty Fund’s 1992 Union and Liberty, a single-volume collection of Calhoun’s writings and speeches edited by the late Ross M. Lence, reveals a mind most intently focused on investigating and assessing the origins and tendencies of constitutional government. The only major American statesman to write a theoretical treatise on government and constitutionalism, Calhoun offered a unique and persuasive explanation of consensus-based constitutions as the only way in which liberty could be combined with the governmental power necessary to protect society, allowing for both strong union and liberty.
As Lence notes in the Foreword, Calhoun’s support of slavery, the legacy of the Civil War, and the 20th century’s malignant uses of “states’ rights†have “distracted historians and political scientists from serious consideration of his ideas.†This is all the more true today. Reading Union and Liberty, however, should show that this avoidance of Calhoun’s theory is a mistake.
https://lawliberty.org/classic/calhoun-and-constitutionalism/
