The Sense of South Carolina

[Calhoun] believed, in short, that life was a competitive struggle in which weakness was more to be feared than strength: a struggle in which eminence would naturally be sought by all but would be achieved, through a process of natural selection, only by those whose talents and will were greatest. Upon these successful competitors in the struggle for place must rest the responsibility for leadership in the society.

-from ”John C. Calhoun, Nationalist 1782-1828” by Charles M. Wiltse