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Summary Of John C. Calhoun's Clay Compromise Measures

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The act of Southern rhetoric I have chosen to research and analyze is John C. Calhoun’s Clay Compromise Measures. John C. Calhoun, being from Charleston, South Carolina, was one of the South’s most famous senators during the time period from 1832 to 1850. He was then, and still is, known for ceaselessly defending the institution of slavery, promoting states’ rights, and being a radical nationalist. In fact, he often used the platform of states’ rights to argue his side for slavery. In The Clay Compromise Measures, Calhoun—although too sick to deliver the speech himself—challenges the Senate to honor the desires of the South and respect the region’s efforts to thwart the North’s impending influence over the South’s economic state. Calhoun …show more content…

Furthermore, this speech, being one of the most famous works by Calhoun, is important in the context of Southern culture because it helps to outline the differences between the North and the South that eventually led to the Civil War. His reference of slavery is one of the most important fragments of American history and the division between the Union and the Confederacy. For these reasons, I believe that this act of rhetoric is both appropriate and important to analyze in relation to Southern Rhetoric. The Clay Compromise Measures not only help to define what it meant to be Southern during the eighteen hundreds, but it also highlights the issues that ultimately shaped the South into what it is today. By drawing upon the differences between the North and the South, Calhoun provides insight to Southern Culture and how, to this day, the two regions differ. I firmly believe this small piece of Southern rhetoric can be analyzed in a broader context to help highlight the aspects of Southern culture that are contemporarily prominent. This speech clearly defines the issues that existed between the North and the South at this time and provides an agreeable perspective for most Southerners on those

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