The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Foreword
• Editor’s Note
• A Disquisition On Government
• A Discourse On the Constitution and Government of the United States
• Speech On the Resolution of the Committee On Foreign Relations
• Speech On the Tariff Bill
• Exposition and Protest
• Rough Draft of What Is Called the South Carolina Exposition
• Protest
• The Fort Hill Address: On the Relations of the States and Federal Government
• Speech On the Revenue Collection [force] Bill
• Speech On the Reception of Abolition Petitions
• First Report
• Revised Report
• Public Letter to J[ohn] Bauskett and Others, Edgefield District, S.c.
• Speech On the Veto Power
• Speech On the Introduction of His Resolutions On the Slave Question
• Speech At the Meeting of the Citizens of Charleston
• Speech On the Oregon Bill
• Speech On the Admission of California—and the General State of the Union

SPEECH ON THE RECEPTION OF ABOLITION PETITIONS

[February 6, 1837]

By the mid-1830s, the controversy concerning the tariff had shifted in large measure to the broader question of slavery and the general nature of federal-state relations. Congress was inundated with petitions calling for, in one form or another, the restriction or abolition of slavery, especially in the District of Columbia. Calhoun argued that Congress was not obligated to receive these petitions and should not do so, for their receipt implied congressional jurisdiction over this matter. Questions of slavery, argued Calhoun, had been left by the Constitution for the states to decide. Furthermore, Calhoun objected to the fact that these petitions were becoming increasingly hostile, not only to the institution of slavery, but to the whole way of Southern life and culture.

It was during this debate that Calhoun first articulated the idea that slavery, that “peculiar institution” of the South, was a positive good. He came under immediate criticism for both the content and intent of his speech. He, in turn, complained bitterly that his remarks had been taken out of context and that his views were being intentionally misrepresented.

This document is also important to consider because Calhoun formulated his defense of slavery within the broader context of his views of history, economics, and philosophy. Because of the sensitive nature of this issue, both the first report and the revised report have been reprinted here. While the general substance of the two versions does not differ, there is considerable variance in the language and tone used in the two reports.