LAD #13 John Calhoun’s Speech

In 1850, John Calhoun addressed the Senate about slavery and the issue it created. He believed slavery was causing the nation to not be united and he wanted that to change. He wanted the North and the South to unite, as well as political parties, to bring people together and create the desired unity. At the time, the North had a larger population and seemed to have more power than the South. The North also had a greater number of representatives and more power in the federal government, while the South had a smaller population, resulting in less influence in the government. The North did not promote slavery and wanted to abolish it, which caused problems because the South still had slaves. Calhoun’s solution was to reestablish equal justice in both the North and South by persuading the North to give up some of its power. Calhoun believed that this needed to happen to create unity and would therefore preserve the nation.

Pictures: I chose a picture of John Calhoun and a picture of Abraham Lincoln because he was against slavery too. Lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation which freed many slaves. He issued this because it was not fair to treat a group of people worse than others and he wanted to try to create more unity among the nation, as well.