1782-
1850.
U.S politician from the state of
South Carolina. After serving in the state
legislature, he was elected to the U.S.
House of Representatives and, with
Henry Clay, was a major force in convincing the House to declare war on
England, thus officially starting the
War of 1812. Later he became
Secretary of War under
President James Monroe and was
Vice President under both
John Quincy Adams and
Andrew Jackson. He resigned as Jackson's Vice President in
1832 because he disagreed with Jackson on the protective
tariffs that led to the
nullification crisis when South Carolina put Calhoun's pro-
states'
rights views into action by threatening to nullify the tariffs.
Calhoun was elected to the Senate after resigning as Vice President, and later was Secretary of State under John Tyler before returning to the Senate. He remained a leading force in politics, and in 1957, more than a hundred years after his death, the U.S. Senators of the time named him as one of the five greatest U.S. Senators in the country's history.