General Notes

Alias: Vice-President of the United /States/
March 18, 1782 in South Carolina, Calhoun was born, and edu
cated at Yale
College. From 1808 to 1810 an economic recession hit the Un
ited States
and Calhoun realized that British policies were ruining th
e economy.
He served in South Carolina's legislature andwas elected t
o the United
States House of Representatives serving three terms. In 181
2, Calhoun and
Henry Clay, two famous "warhawks", who preferred warto th
e "putrescent
pool of ignominous peace", convinced the House to declarewa
r on Great
Britian.
Calhoun was secretary of war under President James Monroe f
rom 1817 to
1825 and ran for president in the 1824 election along withf
our others,
John Q. Adams, Henry Clay, Crawford, and Andrew Jackson. Ho
wever, Calhoun
withdrew from the race, due to Jackson's support, and ran f
or vice
president unopposed. Calhoun was vice president of the Unit
ed States in
1824 under John Quincy Adams and was re-elected in 1828 und
er Andrew
Jackson.
Jackson was for the Tariff of 1828 and caused Calhoun to b
e opposed to
Jackson, which led to Calhoun's resignation in 1832. Becaus
e he could not
do anything about Jackson's views toward tariffs, which ben
ifitted only
industrial North and hurt slaveholding South, John C. Calho
un became the
only vice president to resign.
Calhoun wrote an essay about this conflict, "The South Caro
lina
Exposition and Protest", in which he asserted nullificatio
n of federal
laws, and in 1832 the South Carolina legislature did just t
hat. The next
year inthe Senate Calhoun and Daniel Webster opposed each o
ther over
slavery and states' rights in a famous debate. In 1844 Pres
ident John
Tyler appointed Calhoun secretary of state. In later year
s he was
reelected to the Senate, where hesupported the Texas Annexa
tion and
defeated the Wilmot Proviso.
John Caldwell Calhoun died in Washington, D.C. on March 31
, 1850 and was
buried in St.Phillips Churchyard in Charleston. In 1957, Un
ited States
Senators honored Calhoun as one of the five greatest senato
rs of all
time.
John Caldwell Calhoun, (1782-1850), kal-hoon', American sta
tesman and
political philosopher. From 1811 until his death he serve
d in the federal
government, successively as congressman, secretary of war
, VICE
PRESIDENT, senator, secretary of state, and again as senato
r. Always he
was at the heart of the issues of his time, notably the nul
lification
crisis and the conflict over slavery. Loyal to his nation
, to his state
of South Carolina, and, above all, to his principles, he so
ught to
preserve the union while advancing Southern interests.
Early Career
Born in Abbeville district, S.C., on March 18, 1782, Calhou
n grew up in
an atmosphere of controversy and social change. The extensi
on of cotton
culture was bringing slavery into the up-country, where sma
ll farmers
like his fatherwere challenging the political dominance o
f the
low-country planters. Calhounwas largely self-educated befo
re he entered
Yale as a junior in 1801. He graduated with honors in 1804
; went on to
law school, in Litchfield, Conn.; andwas admitted to the So
uth Carolina
bar in 1807.
Practicing in his native district, he quickly gained the re
putation that
took him to the state legislature. There, from 1809 to 1811
, he helped
establish an enduring balance of powerbetween South Carolin
a's tidewater
planters and piedmont farmers.
Calhoun'sown future, both socially and economically, was as
sured by his
marriage in 1811 to a wealthy cousin, Floride Bonneau Calho
un. The couple
settled at Abbeville, moving in 1825 to the Fort Hill plant
ation near
Pendleton, the future site of Clemson University.
National Politics
Calhoun entered CONGRESS in 1811. He was one of the group o
f young
nationalists urging war with Britain to redeem America's ho
nor. Calhoun
introduced the war report of 1812, and throughout the conte
st he urg