John C. Calhoun's Speech

The National Era, thus ably disposes of John C. Calhoun's nonsense, about the dignity and standing of the white laborer in tha slave states. Read these fucts, Northern supporter of Slavery - read it ye Tamrnany Hal! supporters of Ouss - read it yo whirn northern working men, and seal your own degradation by coBtmuingto support by your voice and : votos, the men who go for extending the curse of slavery over territóry now free. [N. Era.] But why argue llie queslion ] Let the Conftitution of Mr. Calhoan's own State witness against him. That Constitution virtually exeludes all butproperty holders and slave owners from anj share in tlie government of the State. N persou is eligible to a seat in its i House of Reprejentatives unless, if a resident in the election district, he owns a settled freehold estáte of five hundred acres of' land arld ten neo-roes, or a rual estáte of the value of one hundred and fifty pounds sterling, clear of debt, (nearly $700,) or, if non resident of the district, a settled frpe-hold eslate therein of the value of five hundred pounds sterling, clear j of debt - (about $2.250.) A memlier of the Senate must own a settled Freè-liöM estáte of the value of nearly 81,400, or, if a non ; dent of the election district, real est'ite to the value of about S4.500, clear of debt'. The Governor must own in the State a settled freehold estáte of the value of about 8G.S0O ; so must the Lieutenant Governor. Havihg thus excluded white or free labor from all control ot" the government, and secured a monopoly of pulilical power and disfinction to the ; talists, owiiers of elaves and land, the next j step was, to raake the monopoly perpetual, and this has been effected by thé following provisión in the Constitution : " No part df this Constitution shall bs altered, unloii a biü to lier the sm.' sltall have been read threo times in ihe Houuooi ilepresenlatives, anci three times in the .Senate, and agrecd to by t.vo thirds of boih branclies of thn whole repiesentation ; neither shall any alteratioii taka place until the bil', so agreed to, bo pulished three months previous to a new electinn for members to the House of Representatives ; and if the aileraliiui pnposed by the Legislature shall be agreed to in iheir first seseion, by twp tíiipdí of th ■ whole r ■; rseotBB in both branches of the Legislatura, after the same shall have been read three times, on three several days in each House, then, and nót otherwise, the samo shall becomü a part of' the Constitution." When we remember thatthe apportionment ' of representador was so tixeti at the útoe oí the formaron of the Constitution, as to thrn tlio weightof the wer iiito iho hands of the glvelmlcJi:-ig district ; tliat tionê lnt s'aveowners or lantleJ men can be rnembers of the Legislature, or pcoupants of the offices ofGoveruor and Lieutenftni Gov.-nior j th;it theso offiop; art filted noc by the People, but by the Legislature, whirfi ilso, excluding the Peo;!e frc.m ':c Prefidi'ntial election, itseli chco.-es the Presidential olectors ; and, finally, that nu alti ration can be made in tho Constifution exeept by thrce readings of a bilí, and a t.wo thirds majoi-ity in ts fiivor, in. twd successivo Leglsiatures - we need no furthci' enliglitenment respocting the cundition of'poor ! white men, or free mechanics and agricultural laborers, iri South Carolina. Did Mr. Calhoun imagine that the People of the United States had never heard of the ]eculiar Democracy of' bis State, and its blessed influences on white labor 1