John C. Calhoun

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• 3/26/2023
  

  The History of State Interposition Shows Federalism is a Deliberative Process, not a Set of Rules

  by Christian G. Fritz

  The efforts of state legislatures to oppose federal law have been varied. In sum, they show that the Supreme Court cannot dictate the distribution of power under federalism; Americans will have to keep figuring it out as we go, through political deliberation.

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• SOURCE: Liberties
  10/3/2021
  

  The Tyranny of the Minority, from Calhoun to Trump

  by Sean Wilentz

  "The Trump Republican sedition has far from ended, and the worst may be yet to come."

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• SOURCE: Slate
  9/22/2021
  

  First, the Canals: John C. Calhoun, Slavery and Infrastructure

  by Ariel Ron

  The career of John C. Calhoun sheds light on conservative opposition to infrastructure spending today; his opposition to the improvements of the day was rooted in his commitment to a politics of hierarchy. 

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• SOURCE: The Bulwark
  9/20/2021
  

  No, John Calhoun Didn't Invent the Filibuster

  by Robert Elder

  A new book castigating the filibuster traces it back to the parliamentary maneuvers of pro-slavery ideologue John C. Calhoun. One needn't embrace either Calhoun or the filibuster to recognize this is historically incorrect. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  2/16/2021
  

  John C. Calhoun: Protector of Minorities?

  by Andrew Delbanco

  Robert Elder's biography of Calhoun examines the racist and pro-slavery thought of the legislator and his political afterlife. 

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  10/9/2020
  

  Republicans Are Suddenly Afraid of Democracy

  Senator Mike Lee's recent insistence that the US is "a republic, not a democracy" recall the antidemocratic vision of John C. Calhoun, says columnist George Packer. 

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• SOURCE: Greenville (SC) Post and Courier
  8/17/2020
  

  Clemson Discovers Graves of Dozens of People Enslaved by John C. Calhoun

  “My research shows that Black lives hardly mattered at all at Clemson until after desegregation, and the discovery we made in this burial ground tells me that Black deaths mattered even less,” Dr. Rhondda Thomas said Monday. “The thing that I found was that Black labor mattered the most on this land where Clemson was built.”

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• 7/3/2020
  

  Abolition Movement Historian Ethan Kytle Discusses Confederate Monuments and Teaching Younger Students about Slavery

  by James Thornton Harris

  "I don’t think it is fair for a scholar like me to tell a community what sort of monuments it should put up. This should be a local decision—and one that takes into account the perspectives of the entire community, which was not the case with Confederate monuments."

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• SOURCE: Harvard Magazine
  6/29/2020
  

  Calhoun-Fall

  by Peter H. Wood

  "When word spread that the Charleston City Council had voted unanimously to remove the domineering figure from his skyscraping column, I thought of a comment Walt Whitman recorded at the end of the Civil War. After Confederate forces had surrendered at Appomattox Court House, the poet overheard a Union soldier observe that the true monuments to Calhoun were the wasted farms and gaunt chimneys scattered over the South."

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• SOURCE: Charleston Post and Courier (SC)
  6/20/2020
  

  Why one Historian Changed his Mind about the Calhoun Monument

  by Robert MacDonald

  It's difficult for statues to serve as sources of public knowledge about history. 

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• SOURCE: Minneapolis Star Tribune
  3-1-17
  

  Yale's split with Calhoun prompts more discussion of Minneapolis lake name

  Some Minneapolis Park Board members think it’s worth revisiting discussion of the name of Lake Calhoun, also known by the Dakota name Bde Maka Ska, in light of Yale University’s decision to remove John C. Calhoun’s name from a residential college.

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• In Defense of Our Do-Nothing Congress

  by Kyle Scott

  John C. Calhoun in 1849. Daguerreotype by Mathew Brady.