Editing John C. Calhoun (section)

===Opposition to the War with Mexico===
[[File:Fort Hill.jpg|thumb|Calhoun's home, [[Fort Hill (Clemson)|Fort Hill]], on the grounds that became part of [[Clemson University]], in [[Clemson, South Carolina]]|alt=Large, classic style white house surrounded by lots of greenery.]]
Calhoun was consistently opposed to the War with Mexico, arguing that an enlarged military effort would only feed the alarming and growing lust of the public for empire regardless of its constitutional dangers, bloat executive powers and patronage, and saddle the republic with a soaring debt that would disrupt finances and encourage speculation. Calhoun feared, moreover, that Southern slave owners would be shut out of any conquered Mexican territories, as nearly happened with the Wilmot Proviso. He argued that the war would detrimentally lead to the annexation of all of Mexico, which would bring Mexicans into the country, whom he considered deficient in moral and intellectual terms. He said, in a speech on January 4, 1848:

{{blockquote|style=overflow:inherit;=|quote=We make a great mistake, sir, when we suppose that all people are capable of self-government. We are anxious to force free government on all; and I see that it has been urged in a very respectable quarter, that it is the mission of this country to spread civil and religious liberty over all the world, and especially over this continent. It is a great mistake. None but people advanced to a very high state of moral and intellectual improvement are capable, in a civilized state, of maintaining free government; and amongst those who are so purified, very few, indeed, have had the good fortune of forming a constitution capable of endurance.{{sfn|Calhoun|1999|p=68}}}}

Calhoun argued that a war for territory was morally wrong and felt that the Polk administration had been too aggressive in trying to force a war.{{sfn|Coit|1950|pp=339–441}} Anti-slavery Northerners denounced the war as a Southern conspiracy to expand slavery; Calhoun in turn perceived a connivance of Yankees to destroy the South. By 1847 he decided the Union was threatened by a totally corrupt [[Second Party System|party system]]. He believed that in their lust for office, patronage and [[spoils system|spoils]], politicians in the North pandered to the anti-slavery vote, especially during presidential campaigns, and politicians in the slave states sacrificed Southern rights in an effort to placate the Northern wings of their parties. Thus, the essential first step in any successful assertion of Southern rights had to be the jettisoning of all party ties. In 1848–49, Calhoun tried to give substance to his call for Southern unity. He was the driving force behind the drafting and publication of the "Address of the Southern Delegates in Congress, to Their Constituents".{{sfn|Durham|2008|p=104}} It alleged Northern violations of the constitutional rights of the South, then warned Southern voters to expect forced emancipation of slaves in the near future, followed by their complete subjugation by an unholy alliance of unprincipled Northerners and blacks. Whites would flee and the South would "become the permanent abode of disorder, anarchy, poverty, misery, and wretchedness".{{sfn|Calhoun|1870|p=311}} Only the immediate and unflinching unity of Southern whites could prevent such a disaster. Such unity would either bring the North to its senses or lay the foundation for an independent South. But the spirit of union was still strong in the region and fewer than 40% of the Southern congressmen signed the address, and only one Whig.{{sfn|Bartlett|1994}}

Many Southerners believed his warnings and read every political news story from the North as further evidence of the planned destruction of the white southern way of life. The climax came a decade after Calhoun's death with the election of Republican [[Abraham Lincoln]] in [[1860 United States presidential election|1860]], which led to the secession of South Carolina, followed by six other Southern states. They formed the new [[Confederate States of America|Confederate States]], which, in accordance with Calhoun's theory, did not have any organized political parties.{{sfn|Perman|2012|p=11}}