LAD #11 John Calhoun's Speech

John Calhoun begins his speech by stating that slavery is a cause of disunion between the two sides of the nation, the south and the north. He then asks the question, “How can the Union be preserved?” To answer this he goes to the problem of what is endangering the Union. The answer to this question is the sectionalism between the North and the South. The balance between the North and the South is being threatened, unlike when the nation was first created. A huge issue between the two sides was expansion. The south wants to expand because the north already has more power, and the north does not want to expand. The north controls the senate and has a greater population than the South. An additional issue between the divided nation was the tariff. The south greatly opposed it as it raised the price of goods and forced them to pay more. However, the north favored it because it helped their economy by making the British goods more expensive then American goods. These many things are dividing the nation and destroying national unity and promoting sectionalism. Calhoun believes that the only way to prevent separation was to satisfy the South; yet, to do this, the north had to be willing to make changes and without the north giving into some of the Southern demands the Union was doomed.