John Caldwell Calhoun

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John Calhoun, detail of a daguerreotype by Mathew Brady, 1849. (credit: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)

(born March 18, 1782, Abbeville district, S.C., U.S. — died March 31, 1850, Washington, D.C.) U.S. politician. A graduate of Yale University, he became an ardent Jeffersonian Republican and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (1811 – 17). As a leader of the War Hawks, he introduced the declaration of war against Britain in June 1812 (see War of 1812). From 1817 to 1825 he served as U.S. secretary of war. He was elected vice president in 1824 (under John Quincy Adams) and again in 1828 (under Andrew Jackson). In the 1830s he became an extreme advocate of strict construction of the U.S. Constitution, a champion of states' rights, a defender of slavery, and a supporter of nullification. In 1832 he resigned the vice presidency and was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served until 1850; he was briefly secretary of state in 1844 – 45. His exuberant defense of slavery as a "positive good" aroused strong anti-Southern feeling in the free states.

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Calhoun, John Caldwell (1782-1850) U.S. legislator, Secretary of War, Vice President, and Secretary of State, born near Abbeville, South Carolina, on March 18, 1782, John C. Calhoun graduated from Yale University in 1804, became a lawyer in South Carolina. As Secretary of War (1817-25) under President James Monroe, Calhoun was instrumental in improving the administration and professionalism of the U.S. Army. He oversaw improvement of the army ration, reorganized the army's pay and pension system, supported the reform of the West Point curriculum, and backed the construction of a system of coastal and frontier fortifications. In 1822, Calhoun also proposed the so-called “expansible Army” plan whereby a small peacetime army could be rapidly expanded in time of crisis. He served as Vice President from 1825 to 1832 under Presidents John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. He resigned in 1832 to take a seat in the Senate where he served until 1843. He was a leading advocate of “states rights, ” and developed the so-called “nullification” theory by which the states could “nullify” national laws they considered inimical to state interests. Calhoun subsequently served as U.S. Secretary of State (1844-45) and signed the treaty annexing Texas, but upon his return to the Senate in 1846, he opposed the Mexican War (1846-48).

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• Born: Mar. 18, 1782, Mount Carmel, S.C.
• Political party: Democratic-Republican, Democrat
• Education: Yale College, B.A., 1804; Tapping Reeve Law School, 1805
• Military service: none
• Previous government service: South Carolina House of Representatives, 1809–10; U.S. House of Representatives, 1811–17; U.S. secretary of war, 1817–24
• Vice President under John Quincy Adams, 1825–29, and Andrew Jackson, 1829–33
• Subsequent government service: U.S. Senate, 1833–44, 1845–50; U.S. secretary of state, 1844–45
• Died: Mar. 31, 1850, Washington, D.C.

He seemed a man with rock-solid, immovable beliefs, but John C. Calhoun changed his position completely during his many years in Congress. Calhoun entered the House of Representatives as a nationalist, supporting a national bank, protective tariffs, and internal improvements to build the nation as a whole. Forty years later, Calhoun died as a defender of states' rights, a man who had sacrificed his Presidential ambitions in his devotion to the slave-owning South.

Calhoun was the choice of various factions of his party for the Vice Presidency in 1824. His Southern background provided a balance to the newly elected President from Massachusetts, John Quincy Adams. Calhoun played virtually no role in the Adams administration, however. In 1828, even though the Presidency went to Adams's bitter rival Andrew Jackson, Calhoun was elected Vice President a second time.

Calhoun and Jackson soon differed on a variety of issues, but the most important rift between them involved the marriage of the secretary of war, John Eaton, to Peggy O'Neale. Because the new Mrs. Eaton was considered too scandalous for Washington society, Calhoun's wife led a campaign among cabinet wives to freeze her out. Jackson was furious. He began to favor Martin Van Buren as his successor instead of Calhoun. The Vice President retaliated by opposing Jackson's plan to destroy the Bank of the United States—an organization that Calhoun had played a key role in chartering while a member of the House in 1816. Another rift between the two men occurred when it was revealed that Calhoun, as secretary of war, had sought the censure of Jackson for his controversial invasion of Florida in 1818.

In 1832, Calhoun resigned in protest over the “Tariff of Abominations” enacted by Congress in 1828. The law levied high duties on imported goods, and many Southerners believed it discriminated against their region (because higher tariffs would force them to pay more for imported goods and because Northern industries could also raise prices of goods to the South). Outraged people in South Carolina talked about withdrawing from the Union. In danger of losing his political base, Calhoun secretly drafted a “nullification” plan by which a state could nullify a federal law. When President Jackson denounced nullification as treason, Calhoun became the first Vice President to resign.

Calhoun returned home and South Carolina promptly elected him U.S. senator. With increasing passion he spoke for his state and his section. “If we do not defend ourselves none will defend,” he declared; “if we yield we will be more and more pressed as we recede; and if we submit we will be trampled under foot.” Calhoun induced the South Carolina legislature to pass an ordinance of nullification, which declared that the new tariff law would not be enforced in that state. President Jackson made it clear that he would use military force, if necessary, to collect the tariffs in Southern ports, and the state backed down.

In his 1850 book Disquisition on Government, Calhoun argued that states should be allowed to nullify, or ignore, laws passed by Congress and that no national laws should go into effect unless a majority of the members of Congress from each region of the country approved. If a majority from any region dissented, that would be enough to kill the measure. Calhoun's ideas for amending the Constitution went nowhere. By 1850 he predicted that there would be a civil war within 12 years.

Calhoun served as John Tyler's secretary of state in 1844, then returned to the Senate in 1845. He died fighting against the Compromise of 1850, which was intended to defuse the slavery issue in new western territories but which Calhoun feared would restrict the spread of slavery and weaken the South. On his deathbed Calhoun's only wish was for one more hour to speak in the Senate for his cause.

See also Adams, John Quincy; Compromise of 1850; Jackson, Andrew; Monroe, James; Tariff of Abominations (1828); Tyler, John

Sources

• Teresa Celsi, John C. Calhoun and the Roots of War (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Silver Burdett, 1991).
• John Niven, John C. Calhoun and the Price of Union (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1988).
• Clyde N. Wilson, ed., The Essential Calhoun (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 1992)