President Calhoun : My Dream For America

Alexander H. Stephen, in the ‘Cornerstone Speech’, firmly stated that, the Confederacy was basically on racial inequality and slavery. He clearly outlined the existing differences between the new nation and the American United States. Stephen made it clear that, the Confederacy of the cornerstone was not primarily of chattel slavery, but the black people subordination benefited the white people. Thus, he tied slavery to race. Confederacy was the origin of the era of apartheid in South Africa. Stephen made declarations that the new government was founded on the great truth , that the negro was not equal on the side of the white people and that, slavery which was to be a subordination to the white race which was superior, was a normal and a natural condition. Stephen criticized the claims of the northern that, African enslavement was a law violation nature and that it was a wrong principle, morally, politically and socially. He clearly put across that his new government had an idea which was exactly different from the northern claims. He argued that, it was a kind of insanity to believe that the Negro will be equal between the white and black people and also that, enslaving the blacks was wrong. He made predictions that, the Confederate constitution has settled all the questions relating to the African slavery which existed among the white people. Stephen’s arguments led to the outbreak of the civil war in 1865 (The Teaching AmericanHistory.org, 2017).

Today I have chosen two speeches which are critical to the growth and development that our nation has gone through. Two men from different backgrounds and different times with one common goal, equality for all. The Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” and Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” both address the oppression of the African-Americans in their cultures. Though one hundred years and three wars divide the two documents, they draw astonishing parallels in they purposes and their techniques.

With the eruption of the Civil War came one of the biggest tribulations and trials that this country has ever faced, but as we understand the motives of one of the greatest Presidents in American History we can see that the Civil War was inevitable. From his original intentions of merely preserving the Union and holding the country together, to permanently abolishing slavery we can observe why prevailing in the struggle of the Civil War is one of Lincoln’s defining legacies. Thus, as the civil war draws to a close, an old tumultuous era has ended, and a new more prosperous era has

Throughout American history, the south and the north have consistently held different beliefs on how to handle some subjects. Whether it ranged from slavery, to taxing, or to business, southerners and northerners often seemed to be on opposite sides of the spectrum. It was not any different back in the 1800’s. Though intensely different, they were still part of the same country. One of the biggest issues that made the north and the south so distinct from one another was their view and perspective on slavery. The north, who was considered mostly republican, saw slavery as something that needed to be abolished for it was a great sin committed by mankind; while the south, who were mostly considered democrats, viewed it as a necessity for they considered African-Americans a race that needed to be controlled because they were less intelligent than the white man but very violent and because they were “built” for the hard labor. Over the 1800’s they had been a tension built between the two sides of the country. The tension rose to a boiling point when the 1860 election rolled around. After the elections occurred, a chain of events followed which would leave a lasting impact on the current United States. In the heart of these events was the civil war. To this day, it is very debatable that the war started because of the unsure future of slavery under new leadership.

Calhoun bluntly states in his opening sentence he knew that if something was not done about the abolition of slavery it would end in disunion. He claims to have tried to agitate both parties toward some kind of resolve but to no avail. He then asks Congress the pressing question: “How can the Union be preserved?”

The people of South Carolina felt that the Tariff of Abominations placed upon them favored northern manufacturers, and wanted to invalidate, or nullify it. This movement was led by Jackson’s Vice President, John C. Calhoun, who was known to be the “Voice of the South.” However, Jackson claimed that nullification is “unauthorized by the constitution of the United States, and violate the true meaning and intent thereof and are null, void, and no law, nor binding upon this State” (Primary). In other words, Jackson decided to stand against nullification of laws because they were a violation of the constitution and a sectionalism action by the South Carolinians. Jackson’s effort to fight for the rights of the union imprinted an idea that future presidents would follow. Sixteenth president Abraham Lincoln fought for the nationalist mentality his forefathers had worked to build. He attempted to abolish slavery in the South, because he believed that “A house divided against itself cannot stand” (Jackson 2001). Because Jackson fearlessly stood up for the rights of the union, he set a precedent of nationalist notions and actions that has carried throughout

Despite the differences in the primary reasons for Northerners in the war, Gallagher and Manning’s arguments align on certain aspects of slavery: both argue that in order for the Union to successfully win the war, slavery needed to be abolished. Gallagher argues that many northerners realized that in order to end the war and to rid nation of conflict and threat to the Union, slavery would need to be abolished. He argues, “Without slavery and the various issues related to its expansion, most white northerners could envision no serious internal threat to their beloved union.” Similarly, Manning also argues that there was a threat to the union because of slavery, whether Northerners liked it or not: “In 1861, a large and growing number of ordinary soldiers believed that a war endangering the Union had come about because of slavery. White Southerners’ willingness to destroy the Union over slavery made the war about slavery whether an individual Union soldier wanted it that way or not.” Therefore, Manning’s argument states that there is a need for the end of slavery in order to preserve the Union.

He defends the South’s position on slavery which is a deeply grounded belief. Abraham Lincoln describes this situation as a disagreement on the definition of liberty in his “Address at Sanitary Fair, Baltimore” (1864). He explains that liberty may mean “for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men” (Forner 287). It is easy to see how this disagreement was heading in a catastrophic direction as the South continued to fight for the whole reason they came to America in the first place. The Confederates were willing to fight to death to defend their definition of freedom because the North winning the war equated to the very same thing in their minds; the end of their lives.

Four and a half months after the Union defeated the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863. He gave the Union soldiers a new perspective on the war and something to fight for. Before the address, the Civil War was based solely on states’ rights. Lincoln’s speech has the essence of America and the ideals that were put into the Declaration of Independence by the founders. The sixteenth president of the United States was capable of using his speech to turn a war on states rights to a war on slavery and upholding the principles that America was founded upon. By turning the Civil War into a war that was about slavery he was able to ensure that no foreign

This quote made a clear point of how Lincoln views slavery and how he wants to end slavery in the United Sates. Also he says that “we must not interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists, because the constitution forbids it, and the general welfare does not require us to do” (Various Lincoln Statements). Lincoln did not want any change that he would make to challenge slavery in the confederate states because it was forbidden by the constitution.

“It will become all one thing or all the other.” Lincoln says that he expects the Union to decide on having slaves, or not having slaves. He wants the Union to decide on one thing. But the Southern states wanting slaves, and the Northern states wanting slaves freed, is mostly what caused them arguing. The North and South benefit from each other and it would have not been smart to secede because they both need supplies and food from each

Imagine if you couldn’t control your own fate? Ever since you were little, your fate has already been decided for you. Any dream that you had, consider it gone. Going to school, finding a job, creating a family, take those lifetime goals and throw them out the window. You are forced to work for the rest of your life as a slave. That’s what life was like as an African American prior to Civil War. If you were African American, or even “one-drop” black, you were qualified to be part of the slave trade. Slaves didn’t know when their next meal was going to be or if they were even going to get one. Slaves, especially those in the field, worked from the time the sun would rise until sunset. Hours were long; men, woman, and children were worked to the bone and were expected to perform hard but not be given the proper food or sleep needed to refuel themselves. That’s what made the slave trade so horrible, African Americans weren’t looked at as human beings in society, and they were looked at as property. Even small children and the elderly were not exempt from these long work hours; there were no excuses for anyone who was African American. In class we talked about the United States Constitution and it’s significant to our nations history. It talks about the proper rights given to the people and the rules set forth for everyone to

John Caldwell Calhoun was born March 18th, 1782 in Abbeville, South Carolina. In the year 1807, John Calhoun received admission to the South Carolina bar and practiced law. The year after, he was elected into the state legislature of South Carolina, where he served for two years leading to his election to the U.S House of Representatives in the year 1810. In 1817, John Calhoun was appointed as Secretary of War by President Monroe, in which during his term, he made substantial changes to the War Department. Calhoun served two terms as Vice President: in 1825 with John Quincy and in 1829 with Andrew Jackson. In 1832 he quit his Vice President position and returned to South Carolina as a Senator, a position which he held for eleven years. In

Calhoun believed the liberty Southerners enjoyed depended on slavery. Contrary to the writings of those who unabashedly celebrated the North's free labor system, antebellum Southern society, though definitely stratified, was highly fluid. Fortunes could be and were made in a single generation. Agriculture, specifically cotton, was what made that society so mobile. Cotton was a labor-intensive crop, and as a farmer acquired greater cotton wealth, he required a greater number of field hands to work his expanding fields. So the ownership of slaves became a measure of status and upward mobility. To destroy slavery, according to Calhoun, would be to destroy a powerful symbol of what motivated the Southern man to improve himself, but in turn, slavery had to continue.

When referring to the days of slavery, it is often assumed that the south was the sole force behind its continuance. However there were many factors which lead southerners as well as some in the north to quietly accept slavery as a good thing. John Calhoun declared in 1837 “Many in the South once believed that [slavery] was a moral and political evil…That folly and delusion are gone; we see it now in its true light, and regard it as the most safe and stable basis for free institutions in the world” (p. 345). This statement was justified by various reasons. There was the fundamental belief that Africans were inferior to their white counterparts. Many saw the slave population as a labor force that