115 Quotes by John C. Calhoun

Without thinking or reflecting, we plunge into war, contract heavy debts, increase vastly the patronage of the Executive, and indulge in every species of extravagance, without thinking that we expose our liberty to hazard. It is a great and fatal mistake.

Beware the wrath of a patient adversary.

We are not a nation, but a union, a confederacy of equal and sovereign states.

Protection and patriotism are reciprocal.

The will of a majority is the will of a rabble. Progressive democracy is incompatable with liberty.

The very essence of a free government consists in considering offices as public trusts, bestowed for the good of the country, and not for the benefit of an individual or a party.

Democracy, as I understand it, requires me to sacrifice myself for the masses, not to them. Who knows not that if you would save the people, you must often oppose them?

The error is in the assumption that the General Government is a party to the constitutional compact. The States ... formed the compact, acting as sovereign and independent communities.

The object of a Constitution is to restrain the Government, as that of laws is to restrain individuals.