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Calhoun, John C. (John Caldwell) (1782-1850) [Two senate motions] [Decimalized .01-.02]

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC00267.021 Author/Creator: Calhoun, John C. (John Caldwell) (1782-1850) Place Written: Washington, D.C. Type: Header Record Date: 1837 Pagination: 2 items Order a Copy

Two motions, one submitted by John C. Calhoun and one by John Norvell. Calhoun's resolution is well-known for establishing the orthodox state rights position. In his resolution, Norvell, the Democratic-Republican Senator from Michigan, agrees with Calhoun.

In his book "The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics," historian Don E.
Fehrenbacher observes that with these resolutions "Calhoun laid the basis for that convenient contradiction whereby southerners, especially in the 1850s, were able to maintain that slavery was a local institution beyond the power of Congress to restrain in any way, and yet at the same time deserving of full protection in the territories...." (123). See Fehrenbacher, Don E., "The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics," New York: Oxford University Press, 1978.

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