Who is John C. Calhoun 1782–1850
Posted By : manager
Posted : September 8, 2020
John C. Calhoun 1782–1850
John Caldwell Calhoun was an American statesman and political theorist from South Carolina who served in many important positions including as
the seventh vice president of the United States from 1825 to 1832.
John C. Calhoun (1782-1850), was a prominent U.S. statesman and spokesman for the economical growth system of the South. As a young congressman from South Carolina, he helped steer the
United States into war with Great Britain and established the Second Bank of the United States
War of 1812, (June 18, 1812–February 17, 1815), conflict fought between the United States and Great Britain over British violations of U.S. maritime rights. It ended with the exchange of ratifications of the Treaty of Ghent
1812: A Nation Emerges
John C. Calhoun is considered one of the architects that gave the United States the winning edge about two of the key issues that started the war–the rights of neutral U.S. vessels and the impressment of U.S. sailors– it did open up the Great Lakes region to American expansion and was hailed as a diplomatic victory in the United States
Mismanagement by the War Department throughout the war frustrated Calhoun, and as secretary of war, he would later overhaul the department, making vast improvements for the future of the military. Calhoun is the only vice president to serve under different presidents
John Calhoun on Government and the Constitution
Calhoun notes that there is something within man that makes government necessary
“…it impels man to associate with his kind, renders it impossible for society to exist without government”
Calhoun discusses the supremacy of Federal and State governments in our Federal system of government In this respect, as well as their supremacy in
regard to each other [Federal and State], in their respective spheres, they stand on the same level.
Neither has any advantage, in either particular, over the other. The more the powers of the system are centralized in the federal government, the greater will be its power and patronage; proportionate with these, and increasing with their increase, will be the desire to possess the control over them, for the purpose of aggrandizement; and the stronger this desire the less will be regard for principles, and the greater the tendency to unite for sectional objects—the stronger section with a view to power and aggrandizement—the weaker, for defense and safety. Calhoun describes the type of government given to us by the founding fathers, created by Sovereign States, and sanctified by the blood of the patriots of 1776.
This is the type of government the Confederate States of America created when they drafted and adopted the Constitution of the Confederate States of America.