Calhoun, John Caldwell | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

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John C. Calhoun Summary

Calhoun, John Caldwell

(b. March 18, 1782; d. March 31, 1850) Antebellum statesman; served as vice president and secretary of war; strong spokesman for the southern states.

Although best remembered as the leading spokesman for the South in the controversies leading up to the Civil War, John C. Calhoun played a substantial role in the history of American society in relation to many aspects of war. In a national career of forty years, he was U.S. representative and senator, vice president, secretary of war, and secretary of state. Elected representative from South Carolina in 1811, he immediately became one of the leading "War Hawks," the coalition determined to vindicate the honor of the new United States by armed resistance to British insults and depredations. In 1812 Calhoun wrote Congress's declaration of war against England. His support for the war was not merely verbal. He was so active and energetic in legislative support for the war effort that a leading newspaper referred to him as "the young Hercules who carried the war on his shoulders."

The most important role that Calhoun played in American military history was undoubtedly his service as secretary of war in the cabinet of President Monroe, 1817 to 1825. When Calhoun took over, the War Department, which was the largest and most geographically dispersed part of the federal government, was in administrative, logistical, and financial chaos. With careful planning, Calhoun reorganized the department with an efficient bureau system and laid a foundation that was basic to the U.S. peacetime military establishment for many years to come. His governing principle was the concept of an "expansible army," a small but well-designed peacetime force that could be rapidly expanded under trained officers in case of national emergency. Calhoun's efforts touched every aspect of the army, including supply, health, and education, as well as the combat arms. The prestige of West Point dates from Calhoun's time. He continued to carry out the Jeffersonian policy of toward Native Americans (gradual and peaceful removal to the West). Later, as senator, Calhoun was a strong critic of President Jackson's harsher policy toward American Indians.

In 1825 Calhoun became vice president, but resigned in 1832 to become a senator and take a leading role in his state's conflict with President Jackson's administration, a conflict known as the Nullification controversy. In the South Carolina Exposition in 1828, Calhoun argued that the Southern minority, through the tariff, was being exploited by the majority, and that the remedy for this was

state action to nullify an unconstitutional federal law. For the rest of his life he developed ideas regarding the restraint of majorities, culminating in his Disquisition on Government, which remains of interest to students of politics. For most of the rest of his life, he was a senator from south Carolina. He played an influential role in all controversies of the "Jacksonian era," increasingly focused on rallying the South to resist the Free Soil movement that would ban slavery from all future new states.

The former young "War Hawk" also became, in the last part of his career, a critic of "manifest destiny" and militarism. He argued forcefully against diplomatic and military confrontations with Mexico and with Great Britain over Oregon, two issues many leading politicians were eager to pursue. To Calhoun, there was no need for belligerence. The proper stance, he argued, was "masterful neglect." The natural westward dynamic of the American people would guarantee all the just territorial ambitions of the United States peacefully.

As secretary of state (1844–1845) under President John Tyler, Calhoun initiated the admission of Texas to the Union, which was carried through by the succeeding Polk administration. However, he became a strong (and unpopular) opponent of the war with Mexico that broke out in 1846. He abstained from voting on the declaration of war, contending that the war was unnecessary and had been deliberately brought on by the President to preempt the constitutional authority of Congress. This, he warned, was a dangerous precedent for the future.

Calhoun also argued for a negotiated settlement, short of the U.S. army occupying the Mexican capital, and for limited territorial demands. In eloquent speeches he contended that American occupation of foreign countries was more likely to tranform American society from republic to empire than it was to bring freedom to those countries. Further, Mexican territory was "forbidden fruit" because the struggle to control it would bring on unsolvable conflict between the North and the South that would end in war, which was an accurate prophecy.