John C. Calhoun

John C. Calhoun
George Peter Alexander Healy · Public domain · source
Name	John C. Calhoun
Caption	Calhoun c. 1849
Office	7th Vice President of the United States
President	John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson
Term start	March 4, 1825
Term end	March 4, 1832
Predecessor	Daniel D. Tompkins
Successor	Martin Van Buren
Office1	16th United States Secretary of State
President1	John Tyler
Term start1	April 1, 1844
Term end1	March 10, 1845
Predecessor1	Abel P. Upshur
Successor1	James Buchanan
Office2	10th United States Secretary of War
President2	James Monroe
Term start2	October 8, 1817
Term end2	March 4, 1825
Predecessor2	George Graham
Successor2	James Barbour
State3	South Carolina
Term start3	November 26, 1845
Term end3	March 31, 1850
Predecessor3	Daniel Elliott Huger
Successor3	Franklin H. Elmore
Term start4	March 4, 1833
Term end4	March 3, 1843
Predecessor4	Stephen Decatur Miller
Successor4	Daniel Elliott Huger
Term start5	March 4, 1811
Term end5	November 3, 1817
Predecessor5	Joseph Calhoun
Successor5	Eldred Simkins
Office6	Member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from Abbeville District
Term start6	1808
Term end6	1809
Birth date	March 18, 1782
Birth place	Abbeville, South Carolina
Death date	March 31, 1850 (aged 68)
Death place	Washington, D.C.
Restingplace	St. Philip's Church Cemetery, Charleston, South Carolina
Party	Democratic-Republican (before 1828), Nullifier (1828–1839), Democratic (1839–1850)
Spouse	Floride Bonneau Colhoun
Children	10, including Anna Clemson
Alma mater	Yale College, Litchfield Law School

John C. Calhoun was a prominent American statesman and political theorist from South Carolina who served as the seventh Vice President of the United States under two presidents. A formidable defender of slavery and the Southern agrarian economy, he became the leading proponent of states' rights, nullification, and a concurrent majority as protections for minority interests. His intellectual defenses of these positions made him a seminal, though deeply controversial, figure in the political conflicts that led to the American Civil War.

Early life and education

Born in the Abbeville District of the South Carolina Upcountry, he was the son of Patrick Calhoun, a prosperous Scotch-Irish farmer and surveyor. After studying at local academies, he entered the junior class of Yale College in 1802, graduating in 1804. He then studied law at the prestigious Litchfield Law School in Connecticut under Tapping Reeve before being admitted to the South Carolina Bar in 1807. His early political career began in the South Carolina House of Representatives, where he quickly aligned with the War Hawk faction.

Political career

Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1810, he was a fervent nationalist, advocating for the War of 1812 and supporting measures like the Second Bank of the United States. President James Monroe appointed him United States Secretary of War in 1817, where he reorganized and modernized the United States Army. Elected Vice President in 1824 under John Quincy Adams, he continued in that office under Andrew Jackson but broke with the president over the Tariff of Abominations and Nullification Crisis. He resigned the vice presidency in 1832 to serve as a U.S. Senator for South Carolina, where he became the intellectual leader of the Southern bloc. He later served briefly as United States Secretary of State under President John Tyler, where he orchestrated the Texas annexation.

Political philosophy and legacy

Calhoun developed a complex political theory articulated in works like A Disquisition on Government and A Discourse on the Constitution and Government of the United States. He argued that the U.S. Constitution established a compact among sovereign states, not the American people as a whole, giving each state the right to nullify federal laws. His concept of a concurrent majority sought to protect minority interests, specifically the slaveholding South, from the tyranny of a numerical majority. This theory profoundly influenced later secessionist thought and the formation of the Confederate States of America.

Slavery and states' rights

Calhoun famously defended slavery as a "positive good" in speeches on the Senate floor, arguing it benefited both enslaved people and Southern society, a stark departure from earlier defenses of it as a "necessary evil." He used the states' rights doctrine, particularly during the Nullification Crisis of 1832-33, to resist federal protective tariffs he believed exploited the agrarian South for the benefit of Northern industry. His fierce opposition to the Wilmot Proviso and advocacy for the expansion of slavery into the western territories were central to the escalating sectional conflict.

Later life and death

In his final years, Calhoun remained a powerful and vocal senator, vehemently opposing the Compromise of 1850, which he believed conceded too much to Northern abolitionists. He delivered his final major speech, read by James Murray Mason due to his frail health, condemning the proposed admission of California as a free state. He died of tuberculosis in Washington, D.C., at the Old Brick Capitol boarding house. He was initially interred at the Congressional Cemetery before being reinterred at St. Philip's Church in Charleston,