30 Best John C. Calhoun Quotes

John C. Calhoun was a popular American political theorist and statesman. Out of the many important positions that he held, the most prominent was his tenure as the seventh vice-president of America from 1925 to 1832.

Calhoun was a staunch defender of slavery and was adamant that individual states had a right to reject federal policies that they deemed unconstitutional.

During his political career, he vocalized several quotes that were able to move the masses. In this article, we will share with you the 30 most notable quotes by John C. Calhoun.

1. “Irresponsible power is inconsistent with liberty, and must corrupt those who exercise it.” -John C. Calhoun

2. “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

“A revolution in itself is not a blessing.” -John C. Calhoun

3. “A revolution in itself is not a blessing.” -John C. Calhoun

4. “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.” -John C. Calhoun

5. “There is often, in the affairs of government, more efficiency and wisdom in non-action than in action.” -John C. Calhoun

“Beware the wrath of a patient adversary.” -John C. Calhoun

6. “Beware the wrath of a patient adversary.” -John C. Calhoun

7. “Stripped of all its covering, the naked question is, whether ours is a federal or consolidated government; a constitutional or absolute one; a government resting solidly on the basis of the sovereignty of the States, or on the unrestrained will of a majority; a form of government, as in all other unlimited ones, in which injustice, violence, and force must ultimately prevail.” -John C. Calhoun

8. “The surrender of life is nothing to sinking down into acknowledgment of inferiority.” -John C. Calhoun

9. “True consistency, that of the prudent and the wise, is to act in conformity with circumstances, and not to act always the same way under a change of circumstances.” -John C. Calhoun

“It is harder to preserve than to obtain liberty.” -John C. Calhoun

10. “It is harder to preserve than to obtain liberty.” -John C. Calhoun

11. “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.” -John C. Calhoun

12. “Property is in its nature timid and seeks protection, and nothing is more gratifying to government than to become a protector.” -John C. Calhoun

“Learn from your mistakes and build on your successes.” -John C. Calhoun

13. “Learn from your mistakes and build on your successes.” -John C. Calhoun

14. “The object of a Constitution is to restrain the Government, as that of laws is to restrain individuals.” -John C. Calhoun

15. “The taxing power of the state] divides the community into two great classes: one consisting of those who, in reality, pay the taxes and, of course, bear exclusively the burden of supporting the government; and the other, of those who are the recipients of their proceeds through disbursements and who are, in fact, supported by the government; or, in fewer words, to divide it into tax-payers and tax-consumers. But the effect of this is to place them in antagonistic relations in reference to the fiscal action of the government and the entire course of policy therewith connected.” -John C. Calhoun

“Protection and patriotism are reciprocal.” -John C. Calhoun

16. “Protection and patriotism are reciprocal.” -John C. Calhoun

17. “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.” -John C. Calhoun

18. “I take higher ground. I hold that in the present state of civilization, where two races of different origin, and distinguished by color, and other physical differences, as well as intellectual, are brought together, the relation now existing in the slaveholding States between the two, is, instead of an evil, a good—a positive good. . . . I hold then, that 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.” -John C. Calhoun

19. “We have had so many years of prosperity, we have passed through so many difficulties and dangers without the loss of liberty – that we begin to think that we hold it by divine right from heaven itself … It is harder to preserve than to obtain liberty.” -John C. Calhoun

“Government has within it a tendency to abuse its powers.” -John C. Calhoun

20. “Government has within it a tendency to abuse its powers.” -John C. Calhoun

21. “Where wages command labor, as in the non-slaveholding States, there necessarily takes place between labor and capital a conflict, which leads, in process of time, to disorder, anarchy, and revolution if not counteracted by some appropriate and strong constitutional provision. Such is not the case in the slaveholding States.” -John C. Calhoun

22. “I am a planter – a cotton planter. I am a Southern man and a slaveholder – a kind and a merciful one, I trust – and none the worse for being a slaveholder.” -John C. Calhoun

“We are not a nation, but a union, a confederacy of equal and sovereign states.” -John C. Calhoun

23. “We are not a nation, but a union, a confederacy of equal and sovereign states.” -John C. Calhoun

24. “How can those who are invested with the power of government be prevented from the abuse of those powers as the means of aggrandizing themselves? … Without a strong constitution to counteract the strong tendency of government to disorder and abuse there can be little progress or improvement.” -John C. Calhoun

25. “In looking back, I see nothing to regret and little to correct.” -John C. Calhoun

“I have now made good the assertion I ventured to make.” -John C. Calhoun

26. “I have now made good the assertion I ventured to make.” -John C. Calhoun

27. “Slavery existed in the South when the constitution was framed, fully to the extent, in proportion to the population, that it does at this time.” -John C. Calhoun

28. “Let us be done with compromises.” -John C. Calhoun

29. “Let us go back and stand upon the constitution!” -John C. Calhoun

“I see my way in the constitution.” -John C. Calhoun

30. “I see my way in the constitution.” -John C. Calhoun