Comments Elsewhere

Kinsella: “it seems simply to express the view that political units have a right to secede; which of course was also Calhoun’s view.” Except for the “political units” that happen to be made up of Black people, of course. Oops!

Fulwiler: ‘Re: Calhoun’s views. Well, he obviously did not consider the master /slave relationship to be a “political” association.’ False. Here’s Calhoun, defending the freedom to beat, whip, or kill Negroes if they don’t do what you tell them to in “Slavery a Positive Good”: “But I will not dwell on this aspect of the question; I turn to the political; and here I fearlessly assert that the existing relation between the two races in the South, against which these blind fanatics are waging war, forms the most solid and durable foundation on which to rear free and stable political institutions. It is useless to disguise the fact. There is and always has been in an advanced stage of wealth and civilization, a conflict between labor and capital. The condition of society in the South exempts us from the disorders and dangers resulting from this conflict; and which explains why it is that the political condition of the slaveholding States has been so much more stable and quiet than that of the North.” (Bonus points for endorsing the Marxist theory of class when it comes to the Yankees!)

Fulwiler: ‘Do you? I don’t see that it is.’ Of course it was; slavery was a creature of the law—defended and enforced by agents of the government. Slavery as a political institution in the South was based on the claim that Black slaves were not citizens of the several states, and so not entitled to self-defense or help from the government in defending against abduction, assault, robbery, rape, murder, etc. The subordinate political status was the essential part of Southern slavery; without it, there could be no legal basis whatever for holding others in bondage.

(In fact there was no legal basis whatever, since there is no such thing as legitimate authority to make a law that enslaves other human beings. But it should be quite clear that Southern slavers claimed a political basis for their ability to keep black Southerners enslaved.)