A Disquisition on Government
E249279
A Disquisition on Government is a mid-19th-century political treatise by John C. Calhoun that systematically defends states’ rights, slavery, and the doctrine of the concurrent majority within the American constitutional system.
All labels observed (3)
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2261079 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: A Disquisition on Government Context triple: [John C. Calhoun, notableWork, A Disquisition on Government]
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A.
An Essay on the First Principles of Government
An Essay on the First Principles of Government is an influential 18th-century political treatise by Joseph Priestley that argues for civil liberties, religious freedom, and the sovereignty of the people over government.
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B.
Two Treatises of Government
Two Treatises of Government is a seminal 17th-century political philosophy work that argues for natural rights, government by consent, and the right of revolution against tyranny.
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C.
A Fragment on Government
A Fragment on Government is an influential 1776 political treatise by Jeremy Bentham that critiques William Blackstone’s Commentaries and lays early foundations for utilitarian legal and political theory.
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D.
A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America
A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America is a three-volume political treatise by John Adams that analyzes historical republics to justify and defend the proposed American system of separated powers and mixed government.
-
E.
Considerations on Representative Government
Considerations on Representative Government is a political philosophy treatise by John Stuart Mill that analyzes and defends representative democracy as the most effective and just form of government.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: A Disquisition on Government Target entity description: A Disquisition on Government is a mid-19th-century political treatise by John C. Calhoun that systematically defends states’ rights, slavery, and the doctrine of the concurrent majority within the American constitutional system.
-
A.
An Essay on the First Principles of Government
An Essay on the First Principles of Government is an influential 18th-century political treatise by Joseph Priestley that argues for civil liberties, religious freedom, and the sovereignty of the people over government.
-
B.
Two Treatises of Government
Two Treatises of Government is a seminal 17th-century political philosophy work that argues for natural rights, government by consent, and the right of revolution against tyranny.
-
C.
A Fragment on Government
A Fragment on Government is an influential 1776 political treatise by Jeremy Bentham that critiques William Blackstone’s Commentaries and lays early foundations for utilitarian legal and political theory.
-
D.
A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America
A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America is a three-volume political treatise by John Adams that analyzes historical republics to justify and defend the proposed American system of separated powers and mixed government.
-
E.
Considerations on Representative Government
Considerations on Representative Government is a political philosophy treatise by John Stuart Mill that analyzes and defends representative democracy as the most effective and just form of government.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
political treatise ⓘ |
| advocates | concurrent majority ⓘ |
| arguesThat |
constitutional mechanisms are needed to prevent majority tyranny
ⓘ
government must protect minority interests against majority power ⓘ society is naturally divided into conflicting interests ⓘ |
| associatedWithIdeology |
Southern sectionalism
ⓘ
pro-slavery thought ⓘ |
| author | John C. Calhoun ⓘ |
| centralConcept |
concurrent majority
ⓘ
minority rights in constitutional government ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| critiques | simple numerical majority rule ⓘ |
| genre |
political philosophy
ⓘ
political theory ⓘ |
| hasPart |
analysis of constitutional government
ⓘ
defense of slavery ⓘ theory of concurrent majority ⓘ |
| hasReception | controversial due to defense of slavery ⓘ |
| historicalContext | pre–American Civil War political debates ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
United States federal system
ⓘ
surface form:
American federalism
republicanism ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
American constitutional system
ⓘ
concurrent majority ⓘ slavery in the United States ⓘ states' rights ⓘ |
| notableFor |
articulation of minority veto in constitutional systems
ⓘ
explicit defense of slavery within a constitutional framework ⓘ systematic defense of concurrent majority doctrine ⓘ |
| originalLanguage | English ⓘ |
| philosophicalTradition |
American conservative thought
ⓘ
pro-slavery constitutionalism ⓘ |
| proposes | veto power for concurrent minorities ⓘ |
| publicationCentury | 19th century ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
A Disquisition on Government
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Discourse on the Constitution and Government of the United States
|
| setting | American federal system ⓘ |
| studiedInDiscipline |
history
ⓘ
legal studies ⓘ political science ⓘ |
| supports |
slavery
ⓘ
states' rights doctrine ⓘ |
| theoreticalFramework | constitutionalism ⓘ |
| timePeriodDescribed | early United States republic ⓘ |
| usedIn |
studies of American political thought
ⓘ
studies of constitutional theory ⓘ studies of slavery ideology ⓘ |
| viewsSlaveryAs | positive good ⓘ |
| writtenInPeriod | antebellum United States ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: A Disquisition on Government Description of subject: A Disquisition on Government is a mid-19th-century political treatise by John C. Calhoun that systematically defends states’ rights, slavery, and the doctrine of the concurrent majority within the American constitutional system.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
A Discourse on the Constitution and Government of the United States
A Disquisition on Government
→
relatedWork
→
A Disquisition on Government
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
this entity surface form:
Discourse on the Constitution and Government of the United States