Calhoun

John Caldwell, an American es: born in Abbeville district, S. C., March 18, 1782; graduated with distinction at Yale College in 1804, and was admitted to the South Carolina bar in 1807. After serving for two se ions in the Legislature of his native State, he was elected to Congre in 1811. From that time until his death he was seldom absent from Washington, being nearly the whole time in the public service, either in Congre or in the Cabiaet. When he first entered Congre , the difficulties with England were fast approaching actual hostilix ties, and he immediately took part with that section of the dominant party, whose object it was to drive the still reluctant administration into a declaration of war. They succeeded, and, as a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations, he reported a bill for declaring war, which was pa ed in June, 1812. When Monroe formed his administration in 1817, Calhoun became Secretary of War, a post - which he filled with great ability for seven years. In 1824, he was chosen Vice-President of the United States under John Q. Adams, and again, in 1828, under General Jackson. With the latter he did not long continue on amicable political relations, but entered into fierce opposition, when the President, and a majority of Congre , determined to enforce submi ion to the Jaw of 1828, imposing a heavy protective tariff. It was at this period that he broached his famous “ Nullification Doctrine,” which is substantially, that the United States is not a union of the people, but a league or compact between sovereign States, any of which has a right to judge when the compact is broken, and to pronounce any law to be null and void which violates its conditions. In short, Calhoun was the.first great advocate of the doctrine of Sece ion. From this time forward, for the last 17 years of his public service, he hardly aspired to be considered a national statesman acting for the whole country; he was content, even proud, to be viewed only as a Southern statesman. Hence his advocacy of the extreme doctrine of State-Rights; his censure of the Mi ouri Compromise, pa ed 13 years ‘before, when he was himself in the Cabinet; his support of all measures tending to the extension of slave-holding territory; and, finally, his proposal to amend the Constitution by abolishing the single office of the presidency, and creating two presidents, one for the North, and the other for the South, to be in office at the same time. The place in which he advocated these doctrines was the floor of the United States Senate, where he continued for the rest of his life, except for a short time at the close of Mr. Tyler’s administration, when he accepted the office of Secretary of State. He died in Washington, March 81, 1850.