Calhoun, John C.

Biographical Sketch

under construction/revision John Calhoun (March 18, 1782 — March 31, 1850) rose to become a prominent South Carolina statesmen who served as Congressman in the U.S. House of Representatives and a U.S. Senator and a Vice President of the United States under the administration of J.Q. Adams. Calhoun was born near Calhoun Mills, Abbeville District (which is now Mount Carmel, McCormick County), S.C. Calhoun scholar H. Lee Cheek, Jr. perceptively notes:

In the shadow of Jefferson, Calhoun rearticulated this understanding of popular rule and American republicanism for a new generation who found the term nullification distasteful but accepted the concept's fundamental assumptions. For Calhoun, nullification was a much-abused term in American politics, making the use of it problematic unless properly defined in light of Jefferson, the Kentucky Resolutions, the Virginia Resolutions, and the Report [of 1800]. Calhoun also knew that nullification was frequently misunderstood. He remarked to David Caldwell, Speaker of the North Carolina Senate: "If [supporting nullification] means [I am] a disunionist, a disorganizer or I am an anarchist, then so far from being in favor of nullification, I am utterly opposed to it." ¹

In Calhoun's prophetic mind, a steady concentration of political power in the United States government coupled with ever-growing social and regional hostilities, and the corresponding debasement of popular rule — were all omninous signs of worse things to come. These foreboding signs were in Calhoun's estimation, an ominous picture of the troubled future awaiting the Union:

As the Government approaches nearer and nearer to the one absolute and single power, the will of the greater number, its actions will become more and more disturbed and irregular; faction, corruption, and anarchy, will more and more abound; patriotism will daily decay, and affection and reverence for the Government grow weaker and weaker, until the final shock occurs, when the system will rush to ruin, and the sword take the place of the law and constitution.

1. Calhoun and Popular Rule: The Political Theory of Disquisition and Discourse, (Columbia, MO: Univ. of Missouri Press, 2001)