John C. Calhoun

Personal Background:

• Born: 18 March 1782
• Birthplace: McCormick County, South Carolina
• Died: 31 March 1850
• Quit school at seventeen
• Returned to school and earned a degree from Yale in 1804
• Seventh Vice President of the United States
• United States vice president to Adams and Jackson
• Leading Southern politician from South Carolina during the first half of the 19th century.
• Talented orator and writer
• protective tariffs
• free trade
• states’ rights
• limited government
• nullification
• In January 1811, I married Floride Bonneau Calhoun, a first cousin once removed
• We had 10 children, but 3 died in infancy.
• Floride Calhoun was a central figure in the Petticoat affair.
• She was an active Episcopalian and I often accompanied her to church. However I never joined a church and rarely mentioned religion.

Issues:

• I led the pro- slavery faction in the Senate in the 1830s and 1840s.
• Opposed abolitionism
• Attempt to limit the expansion of slavery into the western territories
• Advocate of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, required cooperation of local law enforcement officials in free states to return escaped slaves.
• I participated in the epic political struggle over the expansion of slavery in the Western states.

Solutions:

• Slavery= “positive good.”
• I rooted this claim on 2 grounds- white supremacy and paternalism.
• All societies are ruled by an elite group which enjoys the fruits of the labor of a less- privileged group.
• Regions were divided as to whether slavery should be allowed in the formerly Imperial Spanish and Mexican lands.
• The debate over this issue culminated in the Compromise of 1850.

Relationship with Others:

• Shared similar ideas with Daniel Webster and Henry Clay.
• Opposed by Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, James K. Polk, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan.








Radziejewski