Interim Content

Calhoun, John Caldwell

Biography

18 Mar. 1782–31 Mar. 1850. Lawyer, politician. Born near Hutchinson’s Mill, Ninety-Sixth District (later Calhoun Mill, Mount Carmel, McCormick Co.), South Carolina. Son of Patrick Calhoun and Martha Caldwell. Graduated from Yale, 1804, in New Haven, New Haven Co., Connecticut. Attended Litchfield Law School, Litchfield, Litchfield Co., Connecticut. Admitted to bar, 1807, and practiced law in Abbeville, Abbeville Co., South Carolina. Member of South Carolina House of Representatives, 1808–1809. Married Floride Bonneau Calhoun, 8 Jan. 1811, in Charleston, Charleston Co., South Carolina. Member of U.S. House of Representatives, 1811–1817. U.S. Secretary of War, 1817–1825. Among founders of All Souls Unitarian Church, 1822, in Washington DC. Vice president of U.S. under John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, 1825–1832. Member of U.S. Senate, 1832–1843, 1845–1850. U.S. Secretary of State, 1844–1845. Appointed chairman of U.S. Congress Committee on Finance, 1845. Died in Washington DC. Buried in Charleston.

Links

Photograph by unknown photographer. (Courtesy National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.)

John C. Calhoun Photograph by unknown photographer. (Courtesy National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.)

Gender
Male