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“Presidential Greatness: Pierce v. Lincoln” by Marshall DeRosa

It is said that the right of secession, if conceded, makes our Government a mere rope of sand.  .  . .  better, far better, a rope of sand than the chains of iron, and shackles of steel. [US Senator Judah P. Benjamin, Louisiana, February 4, 1861]

The 2012 presidential election is an opportune time to reconsider so-called presidential leadership. This reconsideration sheds light on the predicament in which these united States find themselves.

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“John C. Calhoun: Nullification, Secession, and the Constitution” by Marco Bassani

William Freehling stands fairly alone in calling Calhoun “one of the more confused political philosophers in the American tradition.”1 Indeed the opposite is true – the Carolinian is often considered brilliant but somewhat at odds with the American mainstream.

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“Calhoun as Political Philosopher" by Donald W. Livingston

A century after his death in the 1950s Calhoun was selected by a Senate Committee, chaired by John Kennedy, at the top of a list of the five greatest Senators in American history. Throughout his career Calhoun exhibited the rare qualities of a statesman. More than once he abandoned his party and his own ambitions for principles and what he thought best for the Union. Professor Clyde Wilson, the foremost authority on Calhoun, has written: “John C. Calhoun was the last great American statesman.

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“Jeff Davis’s Crown of Thorns” by Felicity Allen

This ironic crown, combining highest honor and degrading torture, became a premier symbol for the Passion of Christ – all that he suffered before and during his crucifixion. Like the Cross itself, however, it was made glorious by his resurrection.

At the end of the War for Southern Independence, which the South lost, the only president of the short‐lived Confederate States of America was treated like a criminal. He was clapped into solitary confinement in a military prison, at Fortress Monroe, Virginia. The discipline was so strict that Jefferson Davis and his guards (and at first two were right in the cell with him) were forbidden to speak to each other. Davis could never for a moment, even for the needs of nature, leave their presence or the small stone room.

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“Republicanism and Liberty: The "Patrick Henry"/"Onslow" Debate” by H. Lee Cheek, Sean Busick, and Carey Roberts

The fiercely contested, yet inconclusive election of 1824 set the stage for one of the great debates of American political history. According to Irving Bartlett, “the key to understanding Calhoun’s political behavior and thinking from 1825 through 1828 may be found in the peculiar conditions under which the election of 1824 occurred.”1 The same can be said of John Quincy Adams. Fellow cabinet members John Quincy Adams, who served as President Monroe’s Secretary of State, and John C. Calhoun, who served as Secretary of War, entered the fray along with Secretary of the Treasury William H. Crawford, Speaker of the House Henry Clay, and the hero of the Battle of New Orleans and newly elected senator, Andrew Jackson. Calhoun soon realized he lacked adequate support to be elected president and withdrew from the race after Pennsylvania nominated Andrew Jackson. Accepting the vice‐presidential nomination, and aligning himself with Jackson, Calhoun was elected by a large majority.

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