Senator John C. Calhoun to Andrew Pickens Calhoun, December 11, 1847

Washington 11th Dec 1847

MY DEAR ANDREW, You of course have seen the Message and the course it indicates to be pursued towards Mexico. The impression here is, that it is intended to conquor and subject the whole country. That at least will be the result if the course should be pursued; and if it should be, the end will be to hold it as a conquered Province or incorporate it in the Union.¹ Either will overthrow our system of Government. It may, indeed, have a different termination, which few yet dream of; and that is, to be held by the Army and Volunteers as an independent country. Keep this to your self. I have never whispered it before to any one; but it is not an improbable result. The country is in a most critical condition. It will be hard to save it. . . .

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¹ See Prof. Edward G. Bourne's article, "The United States and Mexico, 1847-1848, in the American Historical Review, April, 1900,

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. 741