[Sidenote: =John C. Calhoun, 1782=]
=155. The Champion of the War of 1812.= John C. Calhoun was born in
the same year as Webster (1782) in South Carolina. His parents were
Scotch-Irish. His father, a Revolutionary patriot, died soon after John
was born. John spent his early years roaming in the fields and woods.
He learned more there than from books, and he learned to think before
the thoughts of other people filled his memory.
[Sidenote: =Entered Yale College as a junior=]
At eighteen he began to prepare for college, under the care of his
brother-in-law, a Presbyterian minister. In two years he entered Yale
College. When in college he studied hard, and was graduated with high
honors.
[Sidenote: =A lawyer=]
Calhoun studied law diligently for three years, a year and a half of
the time in his native state, and a year and a half in Connecticut.
He began to practice law in South Carolina, but did not have great
success. Perhaps it was because the law was too dry for him, or perhaps
because he was soon elected to the legislature of his state.
In 1811 he was married, and was elected to Congress--two great events
in his life. Henry Clay, as Speaker, immediately put Calhoun on an
important committee. He quickly sounded a bugle call to war, declaring
that it was the duty of "Congress to call forth the patriotism and
resources of the country."
[Sidenote: =Works hard for the success of the army=]
During the War of 1812 he worked hard in Congress for the success of
the American army. After the war he favored a tariff to keep English
goods out of the country.
[Sidenote: =Secretary of War=]
President Monroe made him Secretary of War. He found the office in the
utmost confusion, but, by hard and careful work, he left the war office
a model for future secretaries.
[Illustration: JOHN C. CALHOUN
_From a photograph by Matthew B. Brady in the collection of the War
Department, Washington, D.C._]
[Sidenote: =Twice elected vice-president=]
[Sidenote: =Calhoun's "South Carolina Exposition"=]
=156. Calhoun Favors Nullification.= He was elected vice-president
in 1824, and again in 1828. In the last-named year he wrote a paper
called the "South Carolina Exposition." In this letter, and in others
that he wrote, he told the people of South Carolina there would always
be differences between the North and the South. He said the southern
people, using slave labor, would raise more tobacco and cotton than
they needed, and that the tariff was hurtful to the South. That the
northern people, using free labor, would manufacture all kinds of
things, and that the tariff would be helpful to them. This document
took the ground that between the North and the South there always would
be a conflict of interests. The South was devoted to agriculture, and
the North to manufacturing. The South had slave and the North free
labor.
[Sidenote: =South Carolina passes ordinance of nullification=]
Therefore, Calhoun concluded that to protect the South from the North
a state has the right to nullify a law of Congress. A state has this
right, because the state is above the nation. The states made the
Constitution. He believed that nullification was a means of saving the
country from secession.
South Carolina took the fatal step, and nullified the tariffs. This
decision was to take effect February 1, 1833, provided the United
States did not do something before that time to lower the tariff.
[Sidenote: =Jackson warns South Carolina=]
President Jackson warned the citizens of South Carolina against the men
who had led them to take this step. He hinted that the tariff would be
collected by the use of force, if necessary.
[Sidenote: =She withdraws her ordinance=]
We have seen how Henry Clay rushed his Compromise Tariff through
Congress. At the same time another bill was passed by Congress, which
gave President Jackson the right to use the army and navy in forcing a
collection of the tariff. South Carolina stopped her nullification, and
the excitement passed away.
[Sidenote: =Speech on the purpose of the Abolitionists=]
=157. Opposed to the Abolitionists.= The people who wished to do away
with slavery entirely were called Abolitionists. The Abolitionists
stirred Calhoun deeply by petitions in favor of abolishing slavery in
the District of Columbia. He declared that "the petitions are a foul
slander on nearly one half of the states of the Union.... The object
is to humble and debase us in our own estimation ... to blast our
reputation. This is the (manner) in which they are (trying)
abolition ... and now is the time for all opposed to them to meet the
attack.
"We love and cherish the Union. We remember with kindest feelings our
common origin ... but origin (is) to us as nothing compared with this
question.
[Sidenote: =The Union in danger=]
"The relation which now exists between the two races in the
slave-holding states has existed for two centuries.... We will not,
we cannot, permit it to be destroyed.... Should it cost every drop of
blood and every cent of property, we must defend ourselves.... It is
not we, but the Union, which is in danger."
[Illustration: THE HOME AND OFFICE OF CALHOUN, AT FORT HILL, SOUTH
CAROLINA]
[Sidenote: =Goes beyond most slaveholders=]
Not many in the Senate agreed with Calhoun then. In 1837 Calhoun
went much farther in the defense of slavery than any of the other
slaveholders would go. He declared in a great speech in the Senate that
"slavery is a good, a positive good."
[Sidenote: =The Revolutionary fathers did not agree with Calhoun=]
This was not the belief of the majority of even the slaveholders in
Congress or in the nation. Much less had it been the view of the men
who had fought out the Revolution, and who had made our Constitution.
The majority of slaveholders still looked upon slavery, at best, as
a necessary evil and one to be gotten rid of sometime and somehow.
Calhoun's view that "slavery is a good, a positive good," was an
entirely new view of slavery.
[Sidenote: =Calhoun aids the annexing of Texas=]
Calhoun was made Secretary of State under President Tyler, and
succeeded in annexing Texas to the United States. For this reason
Mexico made war with the United States.
[Sidenote: =Dispute over territory=]
The result of the war with Mexico was the gaining of territory in the
West and in the Southwest. Over this territory arose the great dispute
that sent the aged Henry Clay back to the Senate with the Compromise of
1850.
[Illustration: MONUMENT TO CALHOUN AT CHARLESTON, S.C.
_From a photograph of the monument, which was designed by A. E.
Harnisch_]
[Sidenote: =Calhoun opposed Compromise of 1850=]
Calhoun opposed that Compromise. He was too ill to speak, and a friend
read his address to a hushed and listening Senate. He declared that the
Union was in danger because the Abolitionists had stirred up strife.
He wanted all agitation against slavery stopped. In the second place,
he wanted an equal division of territory between the North and South.
"If you of the North will not do this, then let our southern states
separate, and depart in peace."
[Sidenote: =Farewell words to the Senate=]
"Having faithfully done my duty to the best of my ability, both to the
Union and my section ... I shall have the consolation ... that I am
free from all responsibility."
[Sidenote: =His last words=]
On March 31, 1850, he breathed his last words: "The South! The poor
South! God knows what will become of her!"