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The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
John Caldwell Calhoun (1782–1850)
Calhoun, John Caldwell. An American statesman; born Abbeville dist., SC, March 18, 1782; died in Washington, March 31, 1850. He was elected Representative in Congress in 1811, and there soon attained note; was Secretary of War in Monroe’s administration (1817); was Vice-President of the United States under J. Q. Adams (1825–29), and under Jackson (1829–32). He first distinctly promulgated his doctrine of Nullification in 1829. He became United States Senator in 1832 and so remained till 1843, when he was made Secretary of State by President Tyler; he was again elected to the Senate in 1845, and in that office died. As a speculative thinker, according to John Stuart Mill, he “displayed powers superior to [those of] any one who has appeared in American politics since the authors of ‘The Federalist.’” His most memorable treatise is ‘On the Constitution and Government of the United States.’ A ‘Discourse on Government’ is also notable. (See Critical and Biographical Introduction).