John Quincy Adams and John Calhoun - Ari Sclar

I walked home with Calhoun who said that the principles which I had avowed were just and noble but that in the Southern country, whenever they were mentioned, they were always understood as applying only to white men. Domestic labor was confined to the blacks, and such was the prejudice that if he, who was the most popular man in his district, were to keep a white servant in his house, his character and reputation would be irretrievably ruined. I said that his confounding of the ideas of servitude and labor was one of the bad effects of slavery but he thought…it did not apply to all kinds of labor – not for example farming…Manufacturing and mechanical labor was not degrading. It was only manual labor – the proper work of slaves. No white person could descend to that. And it was the best guarantee to equality among the whites…

• John Quincy Adams, 1820

1. Why were Adams and Calhoun discussing the issue of slavery?

2. What does the point of view of Adams – and Calhoun – indicate about the future of slavery in American society? Be specific to the above passage.

3.

What would Calhoun think about the future of manufacturing in the United States? What implication does this have toward the relationship between the North and South over the next twenty years