Main currents in American thought

II. John C. Calhoun—Realist. His influence—destroyed Jeffersonianism for the new South. A southern Puritan. His early career—a nationalist. The year 1828 a turning-point—recognition of the danger of democracy to slavery. Two lines of defense: states rights, constitutional checks. Amplification of the second by extension of the principle of the veto. Failure of existing checks to protect minorities. Fallacy in the conception of democratic majorities—an obscuring of the economic basis of politics. Doctrine of the concurrent majority. Conception of democracy—an attack on theory of natural rights. His objective a Greek democracy. Likeness to John Adams

III. Alexander H. Stephens—Constitutionalist: The man—passion for freedom under law. His localism expressed in states rights. A confirmed liberal—fear of extra-legal powers. His Constitutional View of the War between the States. Theory of the terminable nature of compact—doctrine of good will. A political thinker, rather than economic. Position on slavery

IV. Francis Lieber—A New-Modeled Federalism: A German liberal influenced by English constitutional practice and the common law. His doctrine of historical evolution. Liberty founded in institutional self-government. A laissez-faire conception of the political state

III. Hugh Swinton Legaré—Intellectual: A southern Puritan. His career. A legal scholar, interpreting politics in terms of the common law. A lexolater, contemptuous of political philosophers. A juridical romantic. Accepted the economics of laissez faire and capitalism. Pessimistic in regard to the South. Hostile to Nullification and Calhoun. The weakness of slavery

IV. William Gilmore Simms: A plebeian snubbed by Charleston, yet loyal to the Charleston parochialisms. A realist hampered by the current romanticisms. The most virile figure of the old South. A rich and generous nature—likeness to Fielding. The picaresque note in his work. Reasons for his exploitation of “blood-pudding.” Lieutenant Porgy. His two major themes: his special frontier compared with Cooper’s; his revolutionary tales. His treatment of the Indian. The Yemassee, compared with Cooper. Later life

I. Andrew Jackson—Agrarian Liberal: The rise of western equalitarianism. Federalist contempt for a Democrat. Jackson our first great popular leader. Characteristics. Early drift towards middle-class position; reaction to agrarianism. Repudiation of Whiggery. Hatred of aristocracy. His attitude toward the Bank a return to the economics of John Taylor. His attitude towards the state a modified Jeffersonianism. His influence on American democracy. Effect on later Whig strategy

II. Lincoln—Free-Soil Liberal: Liberalism and the Declaration of Independence. A Jeffersonian who came to the defense of natural rights. Equalitarianism and laissez faire. The problem of free soil—a realist seeking to reconcile them. His “divided house” position an appeal to political realism. Good will versus coercive sovereignty. The prose of his speeches. Lincoln and the myth-makers

(1) Augustus Longstreet and the Georgia Frontier: The native realism of Georgia life. A frontier plebeian who developed middle-class qualities. A follower of Calhoun, but at bottom a Jeffersonian agrarian. With the rise of Abolitionism abandoned natural-rights philosophy. Georgia Scenes—the note of realism

(2) The Davy Crockett Myth: The popular appeal of the Narrative and the rise of the Crockett myth. Origin at Washington. Three stages: frontier waggery; anti-Jackson spleen; the Alamo adventure. A Whig attempt to catch the coonskin vote—a by-product of Jacksonian methods. The beginnings in Sketches and Eccentricities. Effect on Davy. The Tour and the Life of Martin Van Buren. Conjectural authorship. How Davy was made a Whig. The Exploits and Adventures. The Narrative—the real Davy a wastrel