<P> Historian Lee H. Cheek, Jr., distinguishes between two strands of American republicanism: the puritan tradition, based in New England, and the agrarian or South Atlantic tradition, which Cheek argues was espoused by Calhoun . While the New England tradition stressed a politically centralized enforcement of moral and religious norms to secure civic virtue, the South Atlantic tradition relied on a decentralized moral and religious order based on the idea of subsidiarity (or localism). Cheek maintains that the "Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions" (1798), written by Jefferson and Madison, were the cornerstone of Calhoun's republicanism . Calhoun emphasized the primacy of subsidiarity---- holding that popular rule is best expressed in local communities that are nearly autonomous while serving as units of a larger society . </P> <P> Calhoun led the pro-slavery faction in the Senate, opposing both total abolitionism and attempts such as the Wilmot Proviso to limit the expansion of slavery into the western territories . </P> <P> Calhoun's father, Patrick Calhoun, helped shape his son's political views . He was a staunch supporter of slavery who taught his son that social standing depended not merely on a commitment to the ideal of popular self - government but also on the ownership of a substantial number of slaves . Flourishing in a world in which slaveholding was a hallmark of civilization, Calhoun saw little reason to question its morality as an adult . He further believed that slavery instilled in the remaining whites a code of honor that blunted the disruptive potential of private gain and fostered the civic - mindedness that lay near the core of the republican creed . From such a standpoint, the expansion of slavery decreased the likelihood for social conflict and postponed the declension when money would become the only measure of self - worth, as had happened in New England . Calhoun was thus firmly convinced that slavery was the key to the success of the American dream . </P> <P> Whereas other Southern politicians had excused slavery as a "necessary evil," in a famous speech on the Senate floor on February 6, 1837, Calhoun asserted that slavery was a "positive good ." He rooted this claim on two grounds: white supremacy and paternalism . All societies, Calhoun claimed, are ruled by an elite group that enjoys the fruits of the labor of a less - exceptional group . Senator William Cabell Rives of Virginia earlier had referred to slavery as an evil that might become a "lesser evil" in some circumstances . Calhoun believed that conceded too much to the abolitionists: </P>

Which south carolina politician became known as the father of nullification