Calvin Caldwell IV (4 July 1791-29 September 1843) was an American Whig politician from South Carolina.
Biography[]
Calvin Caldwell IV was born in Ware Shoals, South Carolina in 1791, and he came from a family of Upcountry planters. Caldwell inherited his family's "Balmoral" plantation along the Saluda River in 1814, growing corn and cotton. Caldwell became active in Federalist politics and served in the State House in 1820, before switching to the Democratic-Republican Party as his political career faltered. He expanded his business interests during the 1820s, coming to own the "Victoriana" plantation near Gray Court. Caldwell re-entered politics as a Democrat in 1828, serving as a tax collector in Greenwood. He opposed the Nullifier Party's rise to power during the Nullification Crisis, but he left the Democrats for the Whigs in 1833, believing that a stronger federal government would be needed to rein in not just South Carolinian secessionists, but potential secessionists across the American South. Caldwell failed in his 1835 US House of Representatives bid and his 1837 State Senate bid, and he died in 1843.