Comparative analysis and contrasting perspectives

¶ … Perception of Slavery in the Mid-1800s

Offering their responses to the issue of state's rights and slavery in 1850, William Seward, John C. Calhoun, and Daniel Webster's speeches allow students of history to draw important conclusions about the political issues of the period, in addition to the forces behind the states' struggles. While the speeches were made in order to persuade members of congress and other politicians to support the speakers' particular views in order to avoid secession and war, an understanding to the speeches, today, can give students of history a glimpse at how the aspects of slavery and states' rights were perceived during the pre-civil war era. A comparison and contrast of the three speeches will allow readers to understand both how slavery, which is now universally seen as an abomination, could have been accepted.

Today, it would be difficult to find an American who did not see slavery for the abomination that it was. In the 1850s, however, slavery was viewed much differently. Although William Seward, John C. Calhoun, and Daniel Webster have different views on the subject of slavery, the collage of viewpoints allow today's student of history to understand the cosmopolitan viewpoints of the issue during the 1800s, giving that student a better appreciation of the political and humanitarian struggle regarding slavery. In Seward's speech, the issue of slavery is treated like an evil that has not been expressly condoned by the United States' Constitution, an outdated concept that serves no purpose in the modern United States. Seward accomplishes this by explaining how the constitution only refers to slavery twice, both times showing that they are men, or human, in addition to using theological argument, suggesting that God did not design the earth to allow one human to be the slave of another. Other arguments that Seward makes in order to express his view against slavery have to do with the fact that slavery is outdated, something that no modern nation would implement. While Seward continues to use a variety of other arguments to support his claim that slavery is wrong, it is the previously mentioned arguments that allow readers to see how the issue was understood in the 1800s. Seward had to make a strong case for the fact that a slave, or African-American was a person, something that is just logical by today's standards. The fact that he had to make this case legally, however, suggests that the thinking in the mid-1800s, slaves were not quickly classified as humans. By appealing to the constitution and God to suggest they are, Seward draws on the two most authoritative references of his time.

John C. Calhoun, however, takes a very different tone towards the matter. Calhoun discusses slavery to be primarily a political issue, suggesting that a cause of the strife between the Northern and Southern states can be "traced to the long-continued agitation of the slave question on the part of the north, and the many aggressions which they have made on the rights of the South during the time." Although the use of the word "aggressions" in this manner certainly suggests that Calhoun is of the opposite opinion of Seward, his treatment of the issue of slavery offers further insight into how the issue was treated in the mid-1800s. Instead of considering slavery a clear issue of right and wrong, Calhoun treats it like any other political issue, arguing that the real cause between the states' inability to coexist peacefully has more to do with the unbalanced equilibrium than slavery. However, Calhoun does address the moral component of slavery, saying that some in the North not only consider slavery to be a "sin" committed on the part of the Southerners, but they also see themselves as "implicated in the sin, and responsible for not suppressing it by the use of all and every means." The South, on the other hand, sees slavery as a necessary institution that would destroy society if abolished. Thus, Calhoun points out that, in addition to the moral problems that Seward addresses, slavery in the mid-1800s was also a powerful political and social issue. Some viewed the issue, not in terms of right and wrong, but in terms of the political and social benefits and losses. In addition, Calhoun brings up the important fact that both sides of the issue -- the North and the South -- saw their position on slavery to be morally right.