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Concurrent MajorityConcurrent Majority refers to the equalizing of majority and minority interests in government. Majority often refers to poorer masses (the Marxist Have-nots)while the Minority assumes Aristocracy (Haves). The term was coined for the American Republican System. With a few exceptions, the small noble or propertied classes had ruled their less fortunate counterparts before 1776. The idea appears first in practice within the Constitution. The two houses of the Legislature represented both the Minority and Majority because the Senate was elected indirectly and the House of Representatives directly by any eligible voter. Alexander Hamilton promoted the idea by remembering Hobbes's Leviathan. He feared the Tyranny of the Majority, which had just seemed to rear its ugly head with Captain Shays and his rebellion. Hopefully, the terrible strength of the majority would be checked by the Senate (and the executive (and the courts)). In general, the framers of the Constitution were Aristocrats, believing in Republicanism, but also that Democracy was an evil vice. An example is that Martha Washington once held a great party and refused to admit any "Damned Democrats". Later, John C. Calhoun of South Carolina created his own doctrine for Concurrent Majority. Calhoun was a child of the true Antebellum South. He was the first to say that slavery was a "positive good" and worked to strengthen the South's position in the Union, never advocating Secession. By the time Calhoun had stepped onto the political stage in Washington, the North had become more populous and industrial than the agrarian South. With more people, the North could hold more votes in the House of Representatives. The North could also do many other things, like get the Tariff of Abominations passed. The Nullification crisis in the late 1820's proved to Calhoun that something had to be done to promote the now minority South. A true intellectual, Calhoun had a profound knowledge of social systems and conflict. However, he mistakenly thought that Northern workers would rebel against the "wage slavery" going on in the factories. He first proposed an alliance of special interests. The wealthy planters of the South and the factory owners of the North working together. They never accepted this of course. In time, Calhoun came to believe that the only way to realize the South's Current Majority was through the dual presidency. One executive from the North and another from the South. This too never happened, so in one of Calhoun's last speeches he stated that the South had already lost its power in the Union; it was too late. Calhoun died before the war began.
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