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69 A.B.A. J. 482 (1983)
John C. Calhoun's Theory of the Concurrent Majority

handle is hein.journals/abaj69 and id is 482 raw text is: 3- By Vukan Kuic IN MARCH of 1982 a modest reception in Washington hosted by senators from his native state, a small-scale celebration at the university built on what used to be his land, and a few articles in the regional press marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of one of America's greatest, albeit most controversial, philosopher- statesmen, John Caldwell Calhoun. In 1865, standing by his tombstone in Charleston, South Carolina, a Yankee soldier bitterly remarked: The whole South is the grave of Calhoun. More recently, however, this great Nullifier and Secessionist, who once returned Andrew Jackson's glare and toast of Our Union-it must be preserved with a calm, The Union. Next to our liberties, most dear, has once again been given credit for more than just his passionate defense of a lost cause. While Ralph Lerner has suggested that Cal- houn's posthumously published Dis- quisition on Government is an original contribution to political science, Peter Drucker, as well as Time, have found the main doctrine of this short treatise, Calhoun is remembered as an apologist for slavery. But the Supreme Court has drawn on his political theory to promote fairness in voting in two recent cases. 482 American Bar Association Journal John C. Calhoun's Theory of the Concurrent Majority called the concurrent majority, to be the key to American politics. Indeed Calhoun's theory also has been claimed as relevant to the Black Revolution and has been upheld in principle by the Supreme Court in two recent voting cases. All these interpreta- tions point to the intimate link between political liberty and political union in Calhoun's theory. But many people have difficulty seeing this simply because of who and what they think Calhoun was.

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