Calhoun, John C. Autograph letter signed, 29 June 1836...

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Calhoun, John C. Autograph letter signed, 29 June 1836 Autograph letter signed ("JC Calhoun"), 6 pages (8 x 9.75 in.; 203 x 248 mm.), "Senate Chamber" [Washington], 29 June 1836, written to Supreme Court Justice John McLean concerning a bill to prohibit the mailing of "incendiary publications" (advocating the abolition of slavery) as well as the prospects for Martin Van Buren to hold the Democratic Party together in the upcoming presidential election. Left margin reinforced with cloth tape which binds the pages together; expected folds with light soiling. Offered together with a John C. Calhoun signature, removed from a letter, "I am &c J C Calhoun" on a mounted (3 x 1.75 in.; 76 x 44 mm.) slip of paper. Minor creasing, some show through from blue beneath. Written only a month after the House of Representatives passed the first "gag rule" prohibiting the introduction of anti-slavery petitions before Congress, Senator John C. Calhoun writes to Supreme Court Justice John McLean on his efforts to suppress anti-slavery publications circulating in the mail. Calhoun writes in full: I enclose my report and two speeches on the abolition subject that will give you my views in relation to the general points that have been agitated in relation to it during the session, and in particular, in relation to the bill accompanying the report. I have no doubt it would be competent for the States to adopt the measures that you suggest and that they would be effectual to prevent within the States the circulation of incendiary publications, but the result would, or rather might be, a conflict between the acts of the central government regulating the mail and that of the States prohibiting the delivery of such publications from the Post Office. The object of the bill was to remove the cause of such conflict, by making it the duty of the deputy postmasters to abstain from the delivery of such publications, as might be prohibited by the laws of the State; and that on the principle that in case of such conflict, the laws of the Union ought to yield to those of the States. I had argued the principle pretty fully in my speech on the bill, and will not repeat the reasons here. You will see, that I take a different view from what you do (at least as I infer) of the powers of Congress to prevent the circulation of incendiary publications through the mail. I think you have taken up your impression without fully examining the question. I have stated my reasons pretty much at large and I hope when you come to examine them, you will see reasons to concur with me. There are great changes here since you left us. The cohesive powers of the administration party has from a variety of causes been greatly weakened, of which the passage of the deposit bill and several other measures strongly indicate. Whether it will continue to grow weaker, and if so, whether it will stop short of dis[s]olution remains to be seen. I am of the opinion, that Van Buren will find it difficult to keep the party together, particularly under the operation of the deposit law. I would be glad to know what is the true state of publick [sic] sentiment in your quarter. Address to Pendleton, South Carolina. Make my best respects to Mrs. McLean and believe me to be with great respect ... It was likely due to Justice McLean's tenure as Postmaster General from 1823 to 1829, during which he presided over a significant expansion of that department, that Calhoun sought the Judge's counsel. By this point in time, McLean, a former Jacksonian, was beginning to lean toward the Whigs and the Free Soilers. McLean was also one of two dissents in Dred Scott v. Sandford. It is widely believed that McLean's strong dissent compelled Chief Justice Taney to issue a stronger and more polarizing opinion than he had originally intended. McLean's opposition to the expansion of slavery won him votes for the presidential nomination from both the 1856 and the 1860 Republican National Conventions.