There is a tendency in all parties, when they have been for a long time in possession of power, to augment it. John C. Calhoun Read Quote
War may make us great, but let it never be forgotten that peace only can make us both great and free. John C. Calhoun Read Quote
I am aware how difficult is the task to preserve free institutions over so wide a space and so immense a population, but we are blessed with a Constitution admirably calculated to accomplish it. Its elastic power is unequaled, which is to be attributed to its federal character. John C. Calhoun Read Quote
It is a remarkable fact in the political history of man that there is scarcely an instance of a free constitutional government which has been the work exclusively of foresight and wisdom. They have all been the result of a fortunate combination of circumstances. John C. Calhoun Read Quote
I am, on principle, opposed to war and in favor of peace because I regard peace as a positive good and war as a positive evil. John C. Calhoun Read Quote
A compromise is but an act of Congress. It may be overruled at any time. It gives us no security. But the Constitution is stable. It is a rock. John C. Calhoun Read Quote
Every dollar of tax imposed on our exchanges in the shape of duties impairs, to that extent, our capacity to meet the severe competition to which we are exposed; and nothing but a system of high protective duties, long continued, can prevent us from meeting it successfully. It is that which we have to fear. John C. Calhoun Read Quote
Measures of policy are necessarily controlled by circumstances; and, consequently, what may be wise and expedient under certain circumstances might be eminently unwise and impolitic under different circumstances. To persist in acting in the same way under circumstances essentially different would be folly and obstinacy, and not consistency. John C. Calhoun Read Quote
We are as good judges of our interest and safety, and the means of preserving them, as the non-slaveholding States are of theirs, and rather better than they can be of ours. John C. Calhoun Read Quote
It has been lately urged in a very respectable quarter that it is the mission of this country to spread civil and religious liberty all over the globe, and especially over this continent – even by force, if necessary. It is a sad delusion. John C. Calhoun Read Quote
