Senator John C. Calhoun to Anna Maria Calhoun Clemson, October 14, 1849

Fort Hill 14th Oct 1849

MY DEAR ANNA, You and M^r Clemson must regard me as a very negligent correspondent this season, but you must attribute it, not to indifference, nor indolence, but to being overtaxed in the way of writing. My correspondence is necessarily heavy. It occupies one day and sometimes two a week; but what mainly occupies me, is the work I have on hand. I have written between three and four hundred pages of fools cap in the execution of that, since my return from Washington; and have, I think, to write about 40 or 50 more before I conclude the work. I will then have to review, to correct and finish off, which will require some time; but I hope to be able to have it all ready for the press by midsummer.

It will consist of three parts; a discourse on the elementary principles of government; a discourse on the Constitution and Government of the United States, and a collection of my speeches and other productions on constitutional subjects. It will make two moderate size Octavo volumes. I think the work is called for by the times, and that it will make an impression. I have stated my opinions on all points, just as I entertain them, without enquiring, or regarding, whether they will be popular, or not. Truth is my object, and to that I closely adhere. . . .

SOURCE: J. Franklin Jameson, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1899, Volume II, Calhoun’s Correspondence: Fourth Annual Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, Correspondence of John C. Calhoun, p. 772