Democratic (constitutionalist) Senator John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina—from his deathbed—“delivers” his farewell address to the Senate.  The speech is actually read aloud by Democratic Senator James M. Mason, of the Commonwealth of Virginia, as Calhoun is too weak to do it himself:

       It is well known that the Government has derived its revenue mainly from duties on imports.  I shall not undertake to show that such duties must necessarily fall mainly on the exporting States, and that the South, as the great exporting portion of the Union, has in reality paid vastly more than her due portion of the revenue; because I deem it unnecessary, as the subject has on so many occasions been fully discussed.  Nor shall I, for the same reason, undertake to show that a far greater portion of the revenue has been disbursed at the North, than its due share; and that the joint effect of these causes has been, to transfer a vast amount from South to North, which, under an equal system of revenue and disbursements, would not have been lost to her.  If to this be added, that many of the duties were imposed not for revenue but for protection, — that is, intended to put money, not in the treasury, but directly into the pocket of the manufacturers, — some conception may be formed of the immense amount which, in the long course of sixty years, has been transferred from South to North.  There are no data by which it can be estimated with any certainty; but it is safe to say, that it amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars.  Under the most moderate estimate, it would be sufficient to add greatly to the wealth of the North, and thus greatly increase her population by attracting emigration from all quarters to that section.

       Postscript: Calhoun died four weeks later.

       [restored 2/5/2022]

Subsequent Events:

3/3/1857                   3/2/1861

Authority:

References:

Calvin D. Linton, ed. The Bicentennial Almanac: 200 Years of America, 1776-1976, (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, 1975), 137.

Calhoun’s Southern Address
www.civilwarcauses.org/saddress.htm

Current U.s. National Debt:

$36,167,124,467,492

Source