Calhoun redefined liberty as a privilege earned by the propertied and intelligent

Evidence

The government Calhoun envisioned would protect this system by defending “liberty”: not of the citizen but of the master, the liberty of those who claimed a right to property and a position at the top of a racial and economic hierarchy. This liberty, Calhoun stated, was “a reward to be earned, not a blessing to be gratuitously lavished on all alike—a reward reserved for the intelligent, the patriotic, the virtuous and deserving—and not a boon to be bestowed on a people too ignorant, degraded and vicious, to be capable either of appreciating or of enjoying it.” — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 641

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: For ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’ article: Calhoun here inverts the word ‘liberty’ itself — defensive redefinition of a sacred word to justify hierarchy, parallel to how sumptuary defenders redefined ‘modesty.’
• XREF: The reframing trick at its purest: ‘liberty’ is the founding value, but Calhoun redefines who the founding extended liberty to — recasting the master as the liberty-bearer.