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Page 31 text:
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Historical Sketch JOHN C. CALHOUN. By Wm. S. M. f OHN CALDWELL CALHOUN was born, of Scotch-Irish parents, near T Little Eiver, then Ninety Six District, now Abbeville county, South -J Carolina, on the 18th day of March, 1782; and died March 31, 1850, a senator of the United States, in the city of Washington. He was for a while a pupil of the famous school-master Waddell, under whom he opened for the first time a Latin Grammar. Long afterwards Mr. Calhoun spoke of his teacher in these words: In that character [as a teach- er] he stands almost unrivaled. He may be justly considered as the father of classical education in the upper country of South Carolina and Georgia. His excellence in that character depended not so much on extensive or profound learning as a felicitous combination of qualities for the goverment of boys and communicating to them what he knew. He was particularly successful in exciting emulation among them, and in obtaining the good will of all except the worthless. In 1802 the young Carolinian entered the Junior class of Yale College, where, on the 12th day of September, 1804, he graduated a bachelor of arts. In 1805 and 1806 he studied law at Litchfield, Connecticut, and was admitted to the bar at Columbia, South Carolina, in 1807 — the year in which his illustrious son-in-law, Thomas G. Clemson was born in Philadelphia. In Oc- tober that year Mr. Calhoun was elected to the State Legislature. Three years later he was chosen a member of Congress; and January 8th, 1811, he married his second cousin, Floride Calhoun, only daughter of Honorable John Ewing Calhoun. Mr. Calhoun was Secretary of War under President Monroe, and Vice- President of the United States under John Quincey Adams and Andrew Jackson. In 1832 — nulification times — he resigned the Vice-Presidency, and a few months afterwards was elected to fill out the unexpired term of General Hayne in the United States Senate. In 1843 and ' 44 he was a candidate for 25
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Page 32 text:
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the presidency, but withdrew in January of the latter year. President Tyler, in March of that year, appointed Mr. Calhoun Secretary of State, which office he filled a year with marked ability. In the fall of 1845 he was again elected to the Senate of the United States, this time to fill out the unexpired term of Judge Huger. Mr. Calhoun ' s family are buried in the Episcopal church yard, Pen- dleton, South Carolina. The great statesman himself was interred in the old graveyard of St. Philip ' s Church, Charleston. During the war between the states some of his friends in the community fearing the desecration of his grave should the city fall into the hands of the enemy removed and secreted the re- mains, which were afterwards put back, and still lie, in their former resting place. The public career of Calhoun has been known only from the speeches and other papers in his published Works, from the American State Papers, and from the records of Congress. Calhoun, the man, apart from his public career has remained virtually unknown. Calhoun is to many readers a mere abstraction — a purely political eidolon. The American Historical Association has recently (1900) published his correspondence edited by Dr. J. Franklin Jameson, of Brown University. A few sentences from the preface may be of interest: Xot a single word has been omitted for the supposed benefit of Calhoun ' s reputation. Indeed, it might be said of him as of very few public men, that he had nothing to fear from the post-humus publication of his papers. Calhoun was neither gossippy nor spiteful, nor was he a man of active personal animosities, for his politics revolved around principles rather than personalities. The Clemson College collection embraces two thousand three hundred letters to Calhoun, nearly all written in the decade 1840-50, from about nine hundred writers, representing all classes of Southern society, and from many Northerners. It is interesting to see how uniform an opinion of Calhoun on the part of his supporters these letters re veal. No one expects anything of him but the most highminded political conduct; and in this respect, alas, the letters that are not printed, though many of them are from office seekers and second-rate politicians, tell the same story as those that are printed. Dr. Jameson tells us he Has included enough of the private family let- ters, without, he hopes, violationg the sanctities of domestic life, to exhibit Calhoun as a human being and a member of a family, to show his constant devotion to his wife and her mother, his strong affection for his children, his anxious care for their well-being and improvement, his abiding interest in all kinsmen. The writer of this sketch once saw — and copied — a few faded sheets of 26
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