My ancestor, John C. Calhoun, was ahead of his time in many areas. I’m always amazed that so many of his writings are still relevant today. His support of slavery was unfortunate, but I believe that if he had lived, he would have been horrified at the thought of civil war and would have done his utmost to preserve the union.

Another area where he was ahead of his time was tax policy. I always chuckle a little when I see reference to the “Laffer Curve”. Old John C., in one of his periodic battles against raising tariffs, once took to the floor of the Senate with charts and graphs to explain to the chamber why raising tariffs would result in less revenue. He lost the battle, but subsequent tax revenue proved his analysis correct. Art Laffer was only about 130 years too late to claim credit.

Joe Calhoun

Well, in all fairness Lew Rockwell said Hoppean, not libertarian. Quoth Hoppe:

“What should one hope for and advocate as the relatively correct immigration policy, however, as long as the democratic central state is still in place and successfully arrogates the power to determine a uniform national immigration policy? The best one may hope for, even if it goes against the “nature” of a democracy and thus is not very likely to happen, is that the democratic rulers act as if they were the personal owners of the country and as if they had to decide who to include and who to exclude from their own personal property (into their very own houses). This means following a policy of utmost discrimination: of strict discrimination in favor of the human qualities of skill, character, and cultural compatibility.

More specifically, it means distinguishing strictly between “citizens” (naturalized immigrants) and “resident aliens” and excluding the latter from all welfare entitlements. It means requiring as necessary, for resident alien status as well as for citizenship, the personal sponsorship by a resident citizen and his assumption of liability for all property damage caused by the immigrant. It implies requiring an existing employment contract with a resident citizen; moreover, for both categories but especially that of citizenship, it implies that all immigrants must demonstrate through tests not only (English) language proficiency, but all-around superior (above-average) intellectual performance and character structure as well as a compatible system of values – with the predictable result of a systematic pro-European immigration bias.”

Hoppe advocates an invasive state, with people-tracking and registration. He also wants the government to deeply intrude into commerce and trade. Someone who hopes for an all-controlling government bureaucracy that “act[s] as if [it was] the personal owner” of *every square inch of the country* isn’t “libertarian”.

As to whether Calhoun was a Hoppean, I’ll leave that to the Hoppeans to decide.