“Free trade, low duties, no debt, separation from banks, economy, retrenchment, strict adherence to the Constitution.” John C. Calhoun, 1842

“They, who say they cannot compete with foreigners at their own door without an advantage of 45%, expect us to meet them abroad under disadvantages equal to their encouragement, a perversion which by its advocates is called the ‘American System.’ The tariff’s tendency is to make the poor poorer and the rich richer. Posterity will scarcely believe that in a country with free institutions, the government has pushed the principle of monopoly so far as to impose a tax on the foreign exchanges of the country equal to nearly one half the value of our entire exports.” John C. Calhoun

“Every dollar we can prevent from coming into the public treasury or every dollar thrown back into the hands of the people will tend to strengthen the cause of liberty and unnerve the arm of power.  Every cent removed from the hands of the government is so much added to the wealth of the people.” John C. Calhoun

“The surplus money in the Treasury is not ours.  It properly belongs to those who made it, and from whom it has been unjustly taken.  I hold it an unquestionable principle that the government has no right to take a cent from the people beyond what is necessary to meet its legitimate constitutional wants.” John C. Calhoun

“Why should the government pay the expenses of one class of men rather than another?  We all know that when a public building was once commenced, it was never finished under five times the original estimate.  In the midst of the vast profusion of means which the protective tariff afforded to the Treasury, the government has lost all conception of economy and accountability. A habit of profusion and extravagance has grown up utterly inconsistent with republican simplicity and virtue. It was impossible to force the minds of the public officers to the importance of the attendance to the public money, because we had too much of it.” John C. Calhoun

“If the money is saved from one objectionable object, it is sure to be applied to some other, and perhaps even more objectionable.  If the sluice of expenditures is stopped in one place, it is certain to burst through in another.  All administrations are nearly alike in extravagance.” John C. Calhoun