Thursday, March 7, 2024

Senator John C. Calhoun to James H. Hammond,* February 14, 1849

Washington 14th Feb. 1849

MY DEAR SIR, I have no copy with me of your letter, refered to in the enclosed, and know not where one can be got except from yourself. If you have a spare copy, I would be obliged to you for enclosing it to me, and to return the letter of Mr Jackson with it.

I enclosed you a copy of our Address, which I hope you have received, and that it meets your approbation. I trust it will do something to Unite the South, and to prepare our people to meet and repel effectually and forever the aggressions of the North. Already the stand taken here and in Virginia, N. C. our State and Florida has made a deep impression on the North. Missouri is about to take a firm and decided stand and Kentucky will, I learn, put down effectually the attempt in favor of emancipation proposed to be made in the Convention to be held this year in that State. It is said, there will not be three members of the body in favour of it. But this and all other favourable symptoms, so far from relaxing, ought to add new energy to our efforts. Now is the time to vindicate our rights. We ought rather than to yield an inch, take any alternative, even if it should be disunion, and I trust that such will be the determination of the South.
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* Original lent by Mr. E. S. Hammond.

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. 762-3

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