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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.

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
Become
Government
Protector
Nothing
Gratifying
Timid
Seeks
Protection
Property
Nature

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Protection and patriotism are reciprocal.
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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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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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It is harder to preserve than to obtain liberty.
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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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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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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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A revolution in itself is not a blessing.
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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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We are not a nation, but a union, a confederacy of equal and sovereign states.
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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 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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The will of a majority is the will of a rabble. Progressive democracy is incompatable with liberty.
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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 surrender of life is nothing to sinking down into acknowledgment of inferiority.
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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.
John C. Calhoun