ties to a revenue basis,
and South Carolina repealed her nullification measures. As the result of
the conflict, Calhoun was greatly strengthened in his position as the
leader of his party in the South. Southern leaders generally were now
beginning to perceive, as Calhoun had already seen, that there was a
permanent conflict between the North and the South, not only a
divergence of interests between manufacturing and agricultural sections,
but an inevitable struggle between free and slave labour. Should enough
free states be admitted into the Union to destroy the balance of power,
the North would naturally gain a preponderance in the Senate, as it had
in the House, and might, within constitutional limits, legislate as it
pleased. The Southern minority recognized, therefore, that they must
henceforth direct the policy of the government in all questions
affecting their peculiar interests, or their section would undergo a
social and economic revolution. The Constitution, if strictly
interpreted according to Calhoun's views, would secure this control to
the minority, and prevent an industrial upheaval.

An element of bitterness was now injected into the struggle. The
Northern Abolitionists, to whom no contract or agreement was sacred that
involved the continuance of slavery, regarded the clauses in the Federal
Constitution which maintained the property rights of the slave-owners as
treaties with evil, binding on no one, and bitterly attacked the
slave-holders and the South generally. Their attacks may be said to have
destroyed the moderate party in that section. Any criticism of their
peculiar institution now came to be highly offensive to Southern
leaders, and Calhoun, who always took the most advanced stand in behalf
of Southern rights, urged (but in vain) that the Senate refuse to
receive abolitionist petitions. He also advocated the exclusion of
abolitionist literature from the mails.

Indeed from 1832 until his death Calhoun may be said to have devoted his
life to the protection of Southern interests. He became the exponent,
the very embodiment, of an idea. It is a mistake, however, to
characterize him as an enemy to the Union. His contention was that its
preservation depended on the recognition of the rights guaranteed to the
states by the Constitution, and that aggression by one section could
only end in disruption. Secession, he contended, was the only final
remedy left to the weaker. Calhoun was re-elected to the S