While he waxed eloquent on the threat of a strong federal state, do not imagine that he preferred local government to state government as a more authentic expression of the people’s will. On the contrary, Calhoun led a campaign in the early republic that, in the name of property and individual rights, took powers away from local authorities, on whom ordinary people had more influence, and shifted them to central state governments. Why? State government was the level that men like him could most easily control.
