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We are not a nation, but a union, a confederacy of equal and sovereign states.

John C. Calhoun

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John C. Calhoun
Age: 68 †
Born: 1782
Born: March 18
Died: 1850
Died: March 31
Diplomat
Former United States Representative
Lawyer
Politician
Slaveholder
Abbeville
South Carolina
John Caldwell Calhoun
Nation
Nations
States
Confederacy
Sovereign
Union
Unions
Equal

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In looking back, I see nothing to regret, and little to correct.
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The defence of human liberty against the aggressions of despotic power have been always the most efficient in States where domestic slavery was to prevail.
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I never know what South Carolina thinks of a measure. I never consult her. I act to the best of my judgment, and according to my conscience. If she approves, well and good. If she does not, or wishes any one to take my place, I am ready to vacate. We are even.
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I never use the word nation in speaking of the United States. I always use the word Union or Confederacy. We are not a nation but a union, a confederacy of equal and sovereign States.
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Protection and patriotism are reciprocal.
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The interval between the decay of the old and the formation and establishment of the new constitutes a period of transition which must always necessarily be one of uncertainty, confusion, error, and wild and fierce fanaticism.
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The will of a majority is the will of a rabble. Progressive democracy is incompatable with liberty.
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The Government of the absolute majority instead of the Government of the people is but the Government of the strongest interests and when not efficiently checked, it is the most tyrannical and oppressive that can be devised.
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A power has risen up in the government greater than the people themselves, consisting of many and various powerful interests, combined in one mass, and held together by the cohesive power of the vast surplus in banks.
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Government has no right to control individual liberty beyond what is necessary to the safety and well-being of society. Such is the boundary which separates the power of the government and the liberty of the citizen or subject in the political state.
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The surrender of life is nothing to sinking down into acknowledgment of inferiority.
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Property is in its nature timid and seeks protection, and nothing is more gratifying to government than to become a protector.
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The error is in the assumption that the General Government is a party to the constitutional compact. The States ... formed the compact, acting as sovereign and independent communities.
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There never has yet existed a wealthy and civilized society in which one portion of the community did not, in point of fact, live on the labor of the other.
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A revolution in itself is not a blessing.
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The very essence of a free government consists in considering offices as public trusts, bestowed for the good of the country, and not for the benefit of an individual or a party.
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It is harder to preserve than to obtain liberty.
John C. Calhoun