ally stood in the
way of his recognition as a writer, and in like manner his reputation as
an orator has overshadowed his just claims to be considered our most
original political thinker. The six volumes of his collected works,
which unfortunately do not embrace his still inaccessible private
correspondence, are certainly not exhilarating or attractive reading;
but they are unique in the literature of America, if not of the world,
as models of passionless logical analysis. Whether passionless logical
analysis is ever an essential quality of true literature, is a matter on
which opinions will differ; but until the question is settled in the
negative, Calhoun's claims to be considered a writer of marked force and
originality cannot be ignored. It is true that circumstances have
invalidated much of his political teaching, and that it was always
negative and destructive rather than positive and constructive; it is
true also that much of the interest attaching to his works is historical
rather than literary in character: but when all allowances are made, it
will be found that the 'Disquisition on Government' must still be
regarded as the most remarkable political treatise our country has
produced, and that the position of its author as the head of a school of
political thought is commanding, and in a way unassailable.

The precise character of Calhoun's political philosophy, the keynote of
which was the necessity and means of defending the rights of minorities,
cannot be understood without a brief glance at his political career. His
birth in 1782 just after the Revolution, and in South Carolina, gave
him the opportunity to share in the victory that the West and the far
South won over the Virginians, headed by Madison. His training at Yale
gave a nationalistic bias to his early career, and determined that
search for the _via media_ between consolidation and anarchy which
resulted in the doctrine of nullification. His service in Congress and
as Secretary of War under Monroe gave him a practical training in
affairs that was not without influence in qualifying his tendency to
indulge in doctrinaire speculation. His service as Vice-President
afforded the leisure and his break with Jackson the occasion, for his
close study of the Constitution, to discover how the South might
preserve slavery and yet continue in the Union. Finally, his position
as a non-aristocratic leader of a body of aristocrats, and his
Scotch-Irish birth and tr