Calhoun, John C. (John Caldwell) (1782-1850) to Gilbert C. Rice
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC03193 Author/Creator: Calhoun, John C. (John Caldwell) (1782-1850) Place Written: Fort Hill, South Carolina Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 16 October 1848 Pagination: 3 p. : envelope : free frank ; 18 x 11.2 cm. Order a Copy
Calhoun, a U.S. Senator from South Carolina, writes to Rice at Elizabethtown, New Jersey. Cannot furnish Rice with requested documents (a speech he delivered in Senate and a letter by "Hammond"). Argues that neither the Whigs nor the Democrats have dealt with the question of abolition appropriately: "I fear the abolition question has been permitted by the North to progress too far to be arrested. Neither party has met it as it ought to have been... The South begins to lose all confidence & must look to itself for protection..." Accompanied by two envelopes, both addressed to Rice, one bearing Calhoun's free frank.
[draft] [excerpt]
…I fear the abolition [2] question has been permitted by the North to progress too far to be arrested. Neither party has met it as it ought to have been. A vast majority of of [sic] the democratick party, although sounder than the Whigs, have instantly dodged & given away as they did the last [session], whenever it came to the pinch. The South begins to lose all [3] confidence & must look to itself for protection, unless they should act much better hereafter.
… J C Calhoun
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