Perhaps no American thinker has suffered more in recent days than
John C. Calhoun, whose work and personage are often dismissed by his
critics for a single phrase attributed to him, diminishing the careful
and complicated analysis he deserves. Critics of Calhoun simplistically
suggest his statecraft and thought, as well as his critique of America,
serve a single purpose: the protection of his native South, especially
the institution of slavery.
In our current climate, when all things Southern can be attacked and
dismissed regardless of the accuracy of the criticisms, comes Professor
Christian Anderson, a professor of education (not an historian or social
scientist) at the University of South Carolina, who offers a strangely
misguided and inaccurate diatribe against the Great Carolinian. In his
manifesto against all things Calhounian entitled “Dismantling John C.
Calhoun’s Racist Legacy,” Anderson essentially credits Calhoun as the
source of all the ills of modern America.
[1]
He is very proud of his article, having submitted and published the
article in three different leftist (and “in house”) publications.
