acts of the
others. In a government so organized no measure could be enacted into
law and no policy enforced, unless it had received the assent of each
element recognized in the Constitution. This method of taking the sense
of the community, which required the concurrence of its several parts,
he termed that of the concurrent majority.

This principle of class representation, he maintained, was fundamental
in the American Constitution, which recognized for certain purposes the
numerical majority as one of its elements, but only for certain
purposes. For he tells us, and correctly, that "the numerical majority
is, strictly speaking, excluded, even as one of its elements."[139] In
support of this statement he undertakes to show that the numerical
majority could not even prevent the amendment of the Constitution, since
through a combination of the smaller states an amendment desired by the
minority could be forced through in opposition to the wishes of the
majority. He might have added that it was the intention of those who
framed our government to allow the minority a free hand in amending by
the method of constitutional interpretation; and also that they intended
to deny to the numerical majority a veto on treaties and appointments.
This refusal to recognize the numerical majority even as one of the
coordinate elements in the government was as hereinbefore shown
inconsistent with the doctrine of checks, and is to be explained on the
theory that they wished to subordinate the democratic element in the
Constitution.

Calhoun argued that the growth of political parties had broken down our
system of constitutional checks. The Constitution as originally adopted
made no mention of, and allowed no place for these voluntary political
organizations. In fact, the purpose of the political party was
diametrically opposed to and subversive of all that was fundamental in
the Constitution itself, since it aimed at nothing less than the
complete destruction of the system of checks by bringing every branch of
the government under its control. To the extent that it had achieved its
purpose, it had consolidated the powers of the general government and
brought them, he contended, under the direct control of the numerical
majority, which was the very thing that the framers of the Constitution
wished to guard against.

The complete control which the numerical majority had thus obtained over
the Federal government made it supremely importan