The governing philosophy of the Democratic Party in the Antebellum Era was Calhounism, the protection and expansion of slavery. One of the chief tenets of this argument was the Positive Good, insisting that slavery was the best possible means for slaves to live. A component of this was the influx of German philosophy and Babeufism through so-called "wage slavery" in free states. Democrats insisted that slavery was a superior system to free labor; did Engels, Babeuf, and others agree?