John Calhoun
John Caldwell Calhoun was born in 1782 in South Carolina. Calhoun was born near Abbeville District, South Carolina, and was an honors graduate at Yale College in 1804. He practiced law in Abbeville District until his election to the South Carolina legislature in 1808. He was a major American political figure before the Civil War. Calhoun played an important part in national affairs for 40 years. He was Vice President of the United States from 1825 to 1832, and he ran for President several times but never won. He also served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and of the Senate, and as secretary of war and secretary of state. Calhoun is best known for his doctrine of states' rights, in which he claimed that each U.S. state had a right to reject national laws. He wanted to use the doctrine to protect slavery and other Southern interests without requiring the Southern States to withdraw from the Union. Later, however, the doctri
Calhoun served in the Senate until 1843. Calhoun argued that because state conventions had originally approved the Constitution of the United States, such conventions could also stop any national law by declaring it unconstitutional. Calhoun resigned as Vice President in December 1832 and entered the Senate as the elected spokesman of South Carolina. Calhoun felt that South Carolina, and the south in general, were being used by the nation's protective tariff, a high tax on imported goods. He had no wish to destroy the Union and worked hard for Henry Clay's compromise of 1833. The tax allowed northern manufacturers to compete with more efficient European producers, but it forced southerners to pay higher prices for manufactured goods. He was a firm believer in the preservation of slavery, yet did not disagree with the Union in many aspects. He actively supported the government's postwar program, which included a protective tariff, a national bank, and an enlarged army and navy. Calhoun had a feisty character from a southern background. The House of Representatives picked Adams. A statue of Calhoun represents South Carolina in the U. This action caused a constitutional crisis. He improved the army's organization while secretary of war from 1817 to 1825.
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