John Caldwell Calhoun (18 March 1782 – 31 March 1850) was Vice President of the United States from 4 March 1825 to 28 December 1832, succeeding Daniel D. Tompkins and preceding Martin Van Buren. He previously served as a member of the US House of Representatives (DR-SC 6) from 4 March 1811 to 3 November 1817 (succeeding Joseph Calhoun and preceding Eldred Simkins), Secretary of War from 8 December 1817 to 4 March 1825 (succeeding William H. Crawford and preceding James Barbour), and a US Senator from 29 December 1832 to 3 March 1843 (succeeding Robert Y. Hayne and preceding Daniel Elliott Huger. After leaving office as Vice President, he served as Secretary of State from 1 April 1844 to 10 March 1845 (succeeding Abel P. Upshur and preceding James Buchanan) and Senator from 26 November 1845 to 31 March 1850 (succeeding Huger and preceding Franklin H. Elmore). Calhoun is remembered for strongly defending slavery and states' rights, and he also supported limited government, nullification, and lowered tariffs.
Biography[]
Early career[]
John Caldwell Calhoun was born in Abbeville, South Carolina in 1782 to a family of Scots-Irish immigrants from County Donegal, and he was admitted to the bar in 1807. He was first elected to the US House of Representatives in 1811 as a Democratic-Republican, and he was initially a nationalist, modernizer, and a proponent of a strong national government and high tariffs. He strongly supported the War of 1812 to defend against British infractions of American independence and neutrality during the Napoleonic Wars, and he served as James Monroe's Secretary of War from 1817 to 1825, reorganizing and modernizing his department. In 1824, the Electoral College elected him as Vice President by an overwhelming majority, and he served under Presidents John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson.
Nullification[]
Calhoun in 1840
Calhoun had a difficult relationship with President Jackson due to the Nullification Crisis and the Petticoat affair. In the late 1820s, his views changed radically and he became a leading proponent of states' rights, limited government, nullification, and opposition to high tariffs, seeing Northern acceptance of these policies as the only way to keep the American South in the union. He vigorously supported South Carolina's right to nullify federal tariff legislation he believed unfairly favored the north, putting him into conflict with nationalists such as Jackson. In 1832, with only a few months remaining in his term, he resigned as Vice President and returned to the Senate. In 1844, he lost the Democratic nomination for President to surprise nominee James K. Polk, who went on to become president. From 1844 to 1845, he served as Secretary of State under John Tyler, and he supported the annexation of Texas as a means to extend the slave power, and helped settle the Oregon boundary dispute with Britain. He then returned to the Senate, where he opposed the Mexican-American War, the Wilmot Proviso, and the Compromise of 1850 before his death in 1850. He is now regarded as one of the greatest US Senators of all time due to his status as a "cast-iron man".