Calhoun: American Heretic

by Robert Elder

The first biography in a quarter century of the intellectual father of Southern secession
John C. Calhoun is among the most notorious and enigmatic figures in American political history. First elected to Congress in 1810, Calhoun went on to serve as secretary of war and vice president. But he is perhaps most known for arguing in favor of slavery as a "positive good" and for his famous doctrine of "state interposition," which laid the groundwork for the South to secede from the Union -- and arguably set the nation on course for civil war.
Calhoun has catapulted back into the public eye in recent years, as the strain of radical politics he developed has found expression once again in the tactics and extremism of the modern Far Right. In this revelatory biographical study, historian Robert Elder shows that Calhoun is crucial for understanding the political climate in which we find ourselves today. By excising him from the mainstream of American history, we have been left with a distorted understanding of our past and no way to explain our present.

Genres: History, Biography, Politics, American History, Nonfiction, Civil War, Audiobook

656 pages, Hardcover

First published February 16, 2021

About the author

A specialist in the cultural, intellectual, and religious history of the American South in the 19th century, Robert Elder is Assistant Professor of History at Baylor University.

Reviews

[Porter Broyles · Rating 5 out of 5]

When you talk about early 19th Century America, you have to discuss John Calhoun. Along with Daniel Webster and Henry Clay, Calhoun was one of the three most powerful senators of his day---the Great Triumverate. These three men represented their regions in Congress and placed a stamp upon America.

John C Calhoun started out small but quickly rose to become the Secretary of War under James Monroe. As Secretary of War he became good friends with Secretary of State John Quincy Adams. Despite his being a slave owner from South Carolina and Adams being one of the biggest abolitionist in Congress, their friendship transcended ideology. When Adams ran for president in 1824, Calhoun was his Vice President. By 1828, their friendship had soured.

In 1828, when Adam ran for re-election, Calhoun accomplished a fete that has never been replicated---he ran for Vice President on both of the front runner's tickets! Both Adams and Andrew Jackson had him as their Vice Presidential candidate.

In 1832, Calhoun becomes the first Vice President to resign and leads South Carolina in a quickly squelched uprising. Despite what modern perceptions would be, he is not branded a traitor. He returns to Congress and once again returns to the White House Cabinet as Secretary of State!

All during this time, he has become one of the most outspoken proponents of state's rights, the rights of states to nullify federal actions, and the argument that slavery is a moral good. His alma mater, Yale, gives him an honorary doctorate and names a dormitory after him. In the years after JQA's presidency, JQA and Calhoun would grow to become bitter rivals over the issue of slavery. Yet, when Calhoun passes away, JQA would serve as one of his pall bearers.

Almost 170 years later, Yale University announces that it is renaming the dormitory and his name ha gone from being one of the great statesmen in American History to being condemned as one of the great symbols of the evil in America.

This is all background.

None of what I summarized above is new or revelatory. John Calhoun's legacy is such that even without reading a biography on the man, nothing I've said so far should surprise you!

So who was Calhoun? And what makes this book worthy of five stars?

Calhoun was a genius who constantly flew under the radar. Despite being a Southerner, he chose to attend college in the North. While Yale College didn't hold the same reputation it does today, it was still considered one of the better schools in the Americas. When he finished college, he decided to go to law school. In the late 18th century, most lawyers prepared for the bar by becoming apprentices to other lawyers. As there was no universally accepted text to study, this created a diverse basis for interpretting the law. The generally accepted legal treaties of the time was Blackstone's "Commentaries on the Law of England." Blackstone presented different interpretations on English law and provided a foundation to interpret and analyze the British Law.

America had no equivalent.

A small law school in Conneticutt founded by future Supreme Court Chief Justice Tapping Reeve was starting to challenge that idea. Reeve, a devout Federalist, taught an academically rigorous program wherein he strove to educate students in the law and rhetoric. Calhoun, a devout Jeffersonian/Republican, chose to attend Reeve's school despite ideological differences. Despite having a radically different world view from his mentor or fellow students, Calhoun excelled. His contrarian position from other northerners forced him to refine his logic and solidify the legal foundations upon which he espoused his arguments.

This was typical Calhoun.

One of the issues upon which Calhoun is best known is for his defense of slavery. Calhoun helped popularize the idea that slavery was a moral good and that it benefited blacks. Elder does not shy away from this topic, he helps the reader to understand Calhoun's arguments. He delves into how that argument arose from Calhoun's background---and how Calhoun helped propogate various myths/innacuracies that trickle down to the 21st century! The problems with the 1840 census comes to mind.

Another issue is that of states rights. Calhoun is often portrayed as an ideologue who helped lay the ground word for the secession of the South during the Civil War. His actions during the Nullification Crisis in 1832 are used to support this stereotype. In reality, Calhoun was very pro-Union. He was not a fan of secession, but his understanding of Union differs from how we understand it today. He believed in a theory of collaboration---one that on the surface sounds like the idea of popular sovereignty advocated by Stephen Douglas in the 1850s, but a little more nuianced. As I cannot do the subject justice in this review, all I can say is to read the book.

The last 20% of the book is where the book earned the fifth star.

While the book was an excellent biography of Calhoun, the last 20% presented a lot of facts and perspectives that carry through to the 21st century. Elder presents the facts. He is not writing an apologetic or arguing for/against a position, but Calhoun's legacy comes across clearly in the last 20% of the book.

[Kusaimamekirai · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I know not which to pronounce most guilty; the nation that inflicts the wrong, or that which quietly submits to it."-John Calhoun

I knew a little about the life of John Calhoun before starting this excellent biography of his life and times, however the more I read, the more I began to feel like it is exceedingly difficult to write an objective biography of such a fascinating, if not polarizing, man. And yet, that’s exactly what this biography accomplishes.
John Calhoun was born to Irish immigrant parents and from a young age felt the sting of class discrimination as not only a farmer’s son, but also being of Irish descent in a British colony. Calhoun however, much like Abraham Lincoln (perhaps the only time those two diametrically opposed people will ever stand in comparison to each other), refused to let his upbringing limit him. He would prove to be an extremely studious, and ambitious young man whose ambition never ceased until he breathed his last breath.
While it is easy to look back at Calhoun’s life and say he was the prime mover of sustaining slavery in America through his rhetoric (which he undoubtedly was) as well as someone whose profession of love for the Union rarely came without the caveat that secession was a very real possibility, his life was certainly a complex one.
He was throughout his life a staunch supporter of the rights of the minority, for Calhoun this typically meant the South and more specifically white southerners, and at least early in his career seemed to be willing to find compromises where they could be found.
Calhoun was also however, a deeply ambitious man who desperately wanted to be president. This ambition saw him at times stretch his own credibility and consistency in taking up positions that a few short years earlier he loudly opposed. He was for a national bank before he was against it. As secretary of war he built up America’s navy despite earlier being horrified by the idea of a standing army. He tried to push through an ambitious infrastructure program of roads and canals to connect the country, hoping that more interaction and commerce between disparate parts of the country would lead to less factionalism and more comity. Yet years later he would strongly condemn such projects as being beyond the scope of the constitution. (he would make an exception for infrastructure projects in his native south however where he used the tortured logic that because the Mississippi river was involved, it would benefit all sections of the country and was therefore constitutional).
The impressive thing about Calhoun however, and an indication of the depth of his intellect, was how he could contort these blatant contradictory positions into a coherent and forceful argument.
No more so than when he was arguing for slaveholders and the institution of slavery.
It is fair to say that this was the singular thing that all of his other beliefs revolved around. An avid expansionist, Calhoun opposed the Mexican war primarily because he feared the new territory would enter the union as free states and therefore reduce the power of slaveholders and the South. He was virulently anti-British not simply because of his upbringing but because he saw the British movement toward abolition as a threat to American slavery. Despite being a tireless supporter of states rights and government overreach, he supported the government banning abolitionist pamphlets in the mail while using the same mail to send pro-slavery propaganda around the country.
If slavery was involved, it was the one thing that Calhoun seemingly would or could not surrender to his ambition.
Calhoun was loved in the South and for many was the spiritual inspiration for the men who ten years after his death would secede from the United States under his name. He however was not similarly revered in the North where President John Adams would describe Calhoun (his vice president at the time) as:

“A man of considerable talent, and burning ambition, stimulated to frenzy by success, flattery, and premature advancement. Governed by no steady principle; but sagacious to seize upon every prevailing popular breeze to swell his own sails. [He is] the dupe and tool of every knave cunning enough to drop the oil of fools in his ear.”

Or an advisor to Andrew Jackson who would describe Calhoun as an:

“Ambitious demagogue and would sacrifice friends & country, & move heaven & earth, if he had the power, to gratify his unholy ambition.”

I particularly enjoyed the book’s epilogue in that the author clearly is trying to come to terms with Calhoun’s legacy. He talks briefly about Calhoun and other civil war statues that were being built across the South at the end of reconstruction and the beginning of Jim Crow in the late 19th century, as well as our current age’s movement to remove them. I think the author’s stance that while removal of the statues is appropriate, obliterating the memories of men like Calhoun, as odious as he was in certain respects, does a disservice to who we were as Americans and deprives us of a chance to have a national conversation about who we want to be. Some figures in our history were so influential that we cannot simply ignore them. I believe John Calhoun was one of these men and agree with the author’s final assessment of him that:

“We do not have to honor John C. Calhoun, nor should we. But he has not left us the luxury of forgetting him. Perhaps that, as much as anything else, is his real monument.”

[Christopher Saunders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert Elder’s Calhoun: American Heretic carefully considers antebellum America’s most controversial statesman. Over the course of a half-century in politics, John Calhoun, the fearsome Senator, Secretary of State and Vice President from South Carolina, moved from a fiercely nationalistic congressman to a crabbed southern chauvinist, with many peregrinations in between. Elder skews Calhoun’s pretensions of being a man of steadfast principle, instead stating that “ability to rationalize his actions was virtuosic.” It’s hard to argue with his assessment: Calhoun supported expansion against England in the War of 1812 but fiercely opposed annexation following the Mexican War (though on grounds of race rather than principle). He chafed at executive action by Andrew Jackson regarding tariffs but had no problem supporting his ban on abolitionist mailings. He spoke of federalism when he found it useful and sectionalism when it became de rigeur in Southern political circles. The one constant, Elder shows, was his devotion to “government for the white man”: if he expressed tepid endorsement of ending the slave trade and other moderate antislavery actions early in his career, they were supplanted by his later assertion of slavery as “a positive good” both for whites who benefited economically, and Blacks whom he considered lifted out of poverty and ignorance by white paternalism. In his final years his political views, once carefully considered, grew more extreme still, arguing that a “concurrent majority” required a contrived “balance “between sections and interests regardless of public will or proportional representation. Calhoun spent his last days breathing fire against the Compromise of 1850, by which time he’d done as much as anyone to inflame the debate over slavery, and to ensure the coming civil war.

Elder astutely analyzes Calhoun’s evolving philosophy, his escalating militancy (which shocked even his fellow southerners at times) and his desperate, overweening ambition (like many politicians, past and present, he was constantly running for President) that was constantly frustrated by his increasingly sectional politics. Nonetheless, through his various offices, copious writings and sheer longevity he left his mark, steering the South away from compromise and demanding that the North recognize slave states’ ostensible superiority (with minoritarian views of government that modern conservatives find increasingly appealing). If the book is light on Calhoun’s personal life, it’s because such personal life as he had was relatively subdued and not very interesting; nor are his feuds with Jackson, Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams and other contemporaries explored in great depth. Which is probably how Calhoun, the Politician and Philosopher of Discord would have wanted it. Undeniably a brilliant man, Calhoun put his brilliance to the service of an evil cause; and the country suffered its greatest calamity because of it.

[Online-University of-the-Left · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good account of the phrases of Calhoun's life, his radical right philosophy, and how his thinking is still with us in more ways than we might think.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better modern America history books, but it still gets in some biased PC jabs against the current cultural bogeymen Republicans (GOP) by grouping the "bad guy" Calhoun with the war Republicans (page 98) when no Republican Party existed back then. But given the current cancel culture, it's excusable. Wouldn't want to mistake him as associated with the Democrat Party, even though Andrew Jackson (for whom Calhoun served as VP) used to be considered the first Democrat Party president. But beyond that, his research is thorough, his conclusions make sense, and his writing is enjoyable. A fair number of the chapters were really thought provoking, concerning Calhoun's thinking on the political issues of the day. His clashes with Clay, Jackson, Webster etc really did bring that period alive. And surprisingly for a 21st century political history book, it actually mentioned the existence of the private sector a few times, and it's importance to society in that time period. So I'm inspired to read a few books about John Jacob Aster as my next deep dive into the pre-Civil War time period. I'll pick up a couple of old books from the library tomorrow. And fortunately, I don't have any SJW's as friends anymore, so I can say what I really think about him in my review.


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[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elder's publisher would seem to have us believe that we have somehow forgotten Calhoun. I think it is more accurate to say that the "woke" left would have us forget our history. We view Calhoun today as an anachronism of the slave states at our peril. Calhoun was at least honest in his views even should you find them disgusting by modern standards. Had all the political players of the era been as honest as was he there might have been a path that did not include the Civil War - but history rather took that option off the table. A pretty good listen in any case.

[Steven Z. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Today we live in a country where white supremacism is on the rise, descendants of former slave’s demand reparations, state legislatures try to obstruct the teaching of black history, the College Board gives in to extremists who did not like the content of Advanced Placement African history classes, the Supreme Court ends affirmative action for colleges, and state’s rights advocates seem to have the floor. Three years short of our 250th anniversary, the United States finds itself with a bifurcated population politically, economically, and socially over issues of race. The question is how did we get here, when did it originate, and who is responsible? Historian Robert Elder tries to provide some of the historical background in his recent biography of the former 19th century South Carolina Senator, Vice President, and Secretary of State John C. Calhoun, in CALHOUN: AMERICAN HERETIC. Some might argue how a man who was so impactful in the first half of the 19th century could still maintain such influence today. The answer offered by Elder is clear. Calhoun, a slave owner who argued that slavery was a positive good for America, furthered the doctrine of “state interposition” which for many became the legal argument for secession that led to the Civil War, and was the dominant spokesperson for the south, state’s rights, and the enslavement of blacks deserves a great deal of credit for setting the United States on the path it now finds itself confronting – a political climate that does not seem to have an exit ramp, with racial violence on the upswing.

Elder’s monograph should be considered the definitive account of Calhoun’s life through the lens of a cultural and ideological biography. The account encompasses all facets of Calhoun’s life and covers the most notable events of the first half of the 19th century. In doing so Elder traces the intellectual development of his subject very carefully. He pulls no punches as he outlines in detail how Calhoun went from a proponent of optimistic nationalism featuring what historians refer to as Henry Clay’s American system which consisted of internal improvements such as roads and canals linking the country’s economic development, a low tariff to promote trade, a National Bank, and the use of federal funds to assist the states to achieve his goals.

As the War of 1812 approached Calhoun justified his views of federal power over the states as a necessity because of the exigencies of war. Further his ideology was predicated on the concept of “honor,” particularly as it related to British impressment of American citizens. Throughout his career honor was foremost in his mind especially in debates with colleagues and those who opposed his beliefs. Elder has engaged in a prodigious amount of research that yields wonderful character studies of Calhoun’s contemporaries. An interesting example of his commitment to his personal honor belief system is the author’s description of his disagreements reflected in debates with Virginia’s House leader, John Randolph. Calhoun as his wont was to employ a carefully crafted barrage of logic that demolished his opponent, raising points with surgical precision one after the other. It was Calhoun’s strength of debate and putting pen to paper that allowed him to be the equal among the great figures of the period, like Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, among others.

However, by the late 1820s he argued that the tariff of 1828 was unconstitutional. His solution, referred to as the South Carolina Exposition and Protest, argued the concept of “nullification” whereby the states had the right to declare federal actions as “null and void.” His viewpoint was clear as the Tariff of 1816 was designed to provide revenue, not to encourage manufacturing. The 1828 version was not a revenue measure. At this point Calhoun was not calling for disunion, as Elder argues he was trying to find a way to preserve the structure of the Union consistent with the principle that power resided in the people, although the people of states.” Calhoun would work creatively to find solutions for problems that arose within the system.

Calhoun was always a fervent defender of slavery though his justifications were part of an evolutionary process. He always argued that treating slaves as property gave masters a financial interest in their well-being. Calhoun was very wary of the British who ended the transatlantic slave trade in 1807 and ended slavery at home in 1833. His concern rested on his fear that London would undermine slavery as the United States expanded and their machinations throughout the western hemisphere. He would consistently point out British hypocrisy especially its rule of India and of course with his Irish lineage his dislike of England was predictable.

Calhoun’s mindset could be very convoluted as he saw no connection between European feudalism with its lords and vassals and southern slaveholding society. For Calhoun slavery was a “positive good” as Africans achieved a degree of civilization they had never previously attained. Further, he argued that slaves were treated better than European laborers who existed among the poor houses of Europe. Slavery created a stable society unlike the labor unrest in the north. Finally, he stated slavery was “an institution uniquely suited – morally, economically, politically – to the conditions of the modern world.” A believer in English philosopher, Jeremy Bentham’s utilitarianism, the greatest good for the greatest number, slavery fit perfectly as black inferiority and lack of progress were self-evident. Calhoun could compromise at times (see the Missouri Compromise of 1820 or the Compromise of 1850), however, when he believed southern rights centering on slavery were threatened he would draw the line.

Elder is correct when he argues that the second watershed in Calhoun’s development apart from 1828 occurred in 1836 as he finally came to reject Jeffersonian principles he once espoused. First was conflict with Andrew Jackson who created “Pet Banks” that his administration could fund instead of a National Bank - this would foster the Panic of 1837, the worst depression in US history to that point as cotton prices were hit hard. Further, the election of Martin Van Buren in 1836 reinforced Calhoun’s fears of hereditary monarchy. The result Calhoun’s views of state’s rights solidified resulting in his vehement support for slavery. These views were further exacerbated with the Texas annexation crisis, the Mexican War, and northern attempts to block or limit any expansion of slavery into territories acquired from the war. For Calhoun legislation like the Wilmot Proviso which would not allow slavery in any territory obtained from Mexico pushed Calhoun over the edge arguing that if this went into effect disunion could only result.

Elder’s portrayal is of a brilliant man driven by intensity and unrelenting ambition. He believed that “Providence had placed him” on earth to complete his duty for his country. Elder strongly suggests that as Calhoun’s political career evolved his moods began to darken as does his belief system. Elder states he could be “noble, stubborn, suicidal or delusional,” all of which is supported by Calhoun’s own writings, speeches, political activity, and interaction with his contemporaries. Had Calhoun simply argued that slavery was a necessary evil whose abolishment would mean disaster for the south instead of arguing in a very tortuous manner that it was a moral good, economically sound, and made the south more democratic, he might be viewed more positively by history. However, his makeup would not allow this, and his defense of white racism, treatment of his slaves, and stubbornness are responsible for his reputation.

In Elder’s telling, Calhoun loved his country and his region, and despite his flaws his impact on American history cannot be denied. Elder’s work is one of objectivity that is well supported by the documentary evidence and should remain the most important biography of Calhoun for many years to come.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Calhoun is certainly an American Heretic. A man who believed there was fault in our founding documents and fundamentally believed in a different country than our Founders.

If you want a THOROUGH biography on John Calhoun this is it, but I am doxxing a star for some conclusions Elder draws in the Epilogue that I believe are unfounded.

“We do not have to honor John C. Calhoun, nor should we. But he has not left us the luxury of forgetting him.”

[Christopher Vona · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent biography of Calhoun, one that offers an even-handed treatment of a very problematic historical figure. Elder casts Calhoun as neither an untouchable giant nor as a villain to be cast away; instead, he presents us with a richly complicated human picture of someone who, at his best, grew the institutions that would one day blossom into fixtures of America, and who, at his worst, represented a toxic form of white supremacy whose poisonous effects are still felt in the present day.

Overall, I’d recommend this book to anyone trying to understand a complicated figure from America’s past and the long shadow he casts on its present.

[Caroline David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really opened my eyes to John Calhoun. Growing up in the south, I had only ever known the name but never heard of what he had done or even why I knew his name. This book really sheds light on what legacy Calhoun left. If you like Jon Meacham or Andrew Roberts writing style, you will like this author as well.

[Robert Sparrenberger · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent look at John C Calhoun is explored in this tome. The author’s pace and style are appropriate for this book and the analysis at the end when he explores calhoun’s legacy is well done and timely.

I was a bit disappointed that there were not photos included in the book. I had the kindle version and I kept looking for photos of Calhoun and other people in the book.

[Nate Worthington · Rating 5 out of 5]

546 pages. This book gave me two very eye opening realizations.

1. I’ve always known slavery was driven by economics as much as it was by racism. But this book really blew the lid off of my understanding of those motivations.

2. Our American education system has failed us. I know. That isn’t news. But hear me out. History was one of my favorite subjects in school and still is. I was lucky to have amazing history teachers in my life (two of them host a great podcast, “History, Politics, and Beer). But many people weren’t as lucky as me. For the most part, our American history classes teach us about the “discovery” of America, the American revolution, the civil war, WW1, the Great Depression and WW2, civil rights to current. But how many of us can rattle off every President off the top of our heads? How many of us knew John C. Calhoun was Vice President? We can write an essay on Lincoln but there are so many politicians we couldn’t ID in a picture nor can we explain notable laws or events they were a part of. And yet so many of them, especially from 1800-1850, either fought VEHEMENTLY for continued slavery or had the power to end it sooner than it did and chose not to.

These two truths are important because our ignorance of our own history is contributing to our ignorance of our present. And our black (as well our Hispanic and AAPI) brothers and sisters need us to learn it, learn from it and use our privilege and platform to not just knock down statues and monuments; but to pave new roads that lead to justice, peace and equity.

Final rating: Own It

[Jack W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Calhoun's life is quite interesting on its own, and author Rick Elder gave a fine picture of it.

The best parts were whenever John Randolph of Roanoke showed up and started dissing everybody and everything in sight. Example: "move your ugly hat woman, I want to see Daniel Webster die!"

I am so glad those two men (Calhoun and Randolph) make up the foundations of the southern conservative movement. I now know the movement will never lack personality, even if it sometimes lacks perspective.

[Dan Rheingans · Rating 3 out of 5]

This autobiography of Calhoun is excellently researched and provides a great look at his life and work in the Senate. It is also a slog to read. There are sections that felt completely unnecessary and put there just to show that “research had been done” but just felt like filler. The arguments made at the end of the book were supported well throughout the writing however and Elder had good things to say about Calhoun’s place within our history.

[Paul Womack · Rating 4 out of 5]

An overview of Calhoun, about whom I knew little and know a bit more. A goal in 2023 is to become familiar with his writings, as well as Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. In Calhiun’s case, I am trying to track dowm the source of much contemporary southern political thought. The last chapter, the Epilogue, is a very fine introduction to the lingering sentiments one can associate with Calhoun.

[Jerry Landry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book on a reprehensible and complicated individual whose legacy continues to resonate through the nation to the present day. Highly recommended read, and I commend Elder on his work with this biography.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

How a nationalist became the intellectual father of pro-slavery secession.

Former vice-president, Secretary of War, State, and senator from South Carolina, John C. Calhoun, is one of the most curious figures in American history. Early in his career he was an ardent nationalist, desiring a stronger national government to defend against foreign influence. But he's best known for his later defense of slavery as a positive good providing much of the intellectual underpinning for Southern secessionism.

Of late he's become a bogeyman for both the left and right with both sides claiming at various times that the other side is acting like Calhoun the secessionist. On the one hand this is odd because Calhoun died in 1850, well before the Confederacy seceded. So while it's easy to fault Calhoun for his defenses of slavery, he was never, strictly speaking, a Confederate or secessionist.

Robert Elder's new extensive biography does a wonderful job of tracing Calhoun's intellectual development and transition. As mentioned, his early political thought was decidedly nationalist. America needed defending from foreign (read: European) states bent on taking advantage of the new nation and Calhoun was at the forefront of that, trying to ensure protective tariffs for American industry (north and south).

That desire to protect Americans slowly morphed into a sectional conflict between North and South as the impact of tariffs was felt very differently between the two. Wrapped up in all this was the South's reliance on chattel slavery to maintain their economic (and political) position. Elder does a fine job showing how Calhoun's focus slowly shifted from defending "America" writ large to the portion of America that he thought most embodied the Jeffersonian ideal (agrarian Southern).

Elder also helps the reader understand that while Calhoun became synonymous with firebrand defenses of slavery, he didn't start as such a firebrand. While secession and threats thereof has a deep history in the US from all corners -- Calhoun's defenses of slavery were, for most of his career, muted and in line with much of his Southern contemporaries and Founders -- that slavery was an evil and unfortunate institution that had to be accommodated to ensure a break from England and one that everyone would hope would just go away quietly.

As that attitude shifted, at least in the north, from passive opposition to slavery to the more moralistic abolitionist movement, the defenses of slavery became that much more "active" and started to describe it as a positive good for all involved rather than a tolerable evil.

What's most fascinating about Elder's biography is Calhoun's very nuanced theories of constitutional legitimacy and how to ensure the protection of (political) minority rights. Calhoun's theory of the "concurrent" majority--i.e. the only real way to check a purely majoritarian rule is by granting near-veto power to substantial interests/sections within a population. While it was marshalled primarily in defense of an odious practice by arguing that the interests of the various Southern classes called for the preservation of slavery, the fact that it has been used (at least implicitly, because nobody wants to quote Calhoun favorably), by both sides of the political spectrum either as a way (on the left) to promote identity politics or as a way (on the right) to check the numerical majority, the fact remains that, as Elder closes, we have much to learn from John C. Calhoun, and erasing him from our collective historical memories, or only remembering him as a caricature, does everyone a disservice.

[Nigel Ewan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an engaging read, and ultimately very good. Elder's Calhoun is well drawn—he is not likeable, but definitely not a villain. The core thesis of the biography is that Calhoun's political philosophy should not be seen as a fundamentally conservative; instead, Elder persuasively argues, Calhoun's complex politics were both Jeffersonian and progressive. Reflecting on Calhoun's last great speech, this thesis is summarized well on pp. 498–499:

At the moment he spoke those words, of course, ["My object is to preserve. I am thoroughly conservative in my politics."] Calhoun was engaged in a monumental effort to write an argument for perfecting the American system of government that he professed to want to simply maintain. To him this was not a contradiction. Along with a deeply conservative instinct, he possessed a relentless drive toward improvement, a deep-seated belief in progress, and a sense that the world was constantly, swiftly changing. Preservation required adaptation. Conservation required re-creation.

Elder's own insecurity reveals itself in the epilogue, where he bends over backward to distance himself from any stain of Lost Cause ideology. He concludes the book by promoting a harsher reading of Calhoun's legacy (i.e., ultimately, Calhoun's racism was the most significant thing about him) than I think the biography itself necessitates. In contrast to the meat of the book, I don't think the epilogue will age well—it is altogether too 2021.

[Cynthia Marcus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an engaging, well researched and even handed portrayal of Calhoun. At 550 pages it is a detailed study of Calhoun's life, both professional and personal, as well as his political philosophy. This book is probably not the best choice for someone who has limited knowledge of the time period.

I was encouraged to see a comprehesive biography of Calhoun. In recent years he has been expunged from grade school and high school and I suspect college curiculums because of his view on slavery. I went to a Catholic school in NYC in the early sixties and our history books discussed in detail the actions of Calhoun, Clay and Webster. These names no longer exist in our children's history books. Jeffersonian democracy is never mentioned. As far as current history books are concerned the only thing Jeffererson did was negotiate the Lousiana Purchase. They never mention Jacksonian democracy and barely mention his military career. All he did was annihilate Indians. Our view of our history has become distorted, so it is good to see someone brave enough to tackle a controversial figure like Calhoun. It is too bad that this book will never meet a mass market audience or that its ideas will enter into our educational system.

Calhoun was on the wrong side of history. We can chastise him for that. Maybe even despise him, but he should not be forgotten because of it. He can abhor his views on slavery, but we should never forget that he worked his entire life in the service of his country as a lawyer, Representative, Senator, Vice President (twice) and Secretary of War. In addition, he was a gifted orator, talented debater and political philosopher. His theory of concurrent majority is an interesting albeit confusing concept and is still very much alive today. God forbid anyone should give him credit for that. One might also note this man worked diligently for his country and devoted his life to civil service and did not enrich himself because of it. Rather he died with minimal wealth. That might be a blueprint for our current politicians to consider.

State rights and Calhoun are synonymous. He believed that the Constitution afforded rights to the states and rights to the federal government. Those rights were sacrosant and should always remain separate. During his lifetime that division of power was not as well defined as it is today. Many of those rights are now codified. We know longer see states nullifying federal laws. However, recent developments such as the overturn of Roe and the return of abortion to the state level show the push and pull of state vs. federal rights continues.

Many historical tomes identify slavery with states rights and certainly that was an issue. However, Elder also discusses how slavery and the concept of property were linked and does an admirable job in defining Calhoun's views on this subject. Calhoun was a staunch believer in and defender of private property and this idea as much as states rights influenced and determined his view on slavery. We find the ownership of another human a repulsive concept today and it is almost inconceiveable for us understand that thought process. That was less the case during Calhoun's lifetime. Property ownership was the foundation of capitalism, free trade, a stable society and the very cornerstone of our political system. It was why his ancestors emigrated to The New World, fought in the Revolutionary War and created a new country. Calhoun would fight to his very last breath to defend it.

I take exception with Elder's sub title. A heretic is one that defies orthodoxy and promotes dangerous ideas. I do not believe Calhoun fits that description. Even his views on slavery were not unusual and not considerably out of the mainstream. He believed in the rule of law, but also believed that minorities needed to be heard and should have some order of power. He fought for the rights given to the states and asserted those rights that were assigned to the federal government. He worked to strengthen our Navy while always cautious about the over reach of our army. He further promoted the idea that without a balance in power between the various sections of the United States the country would devolve into chaos, and he worked diligently to maintain that equality. He believed that the Senate as the bastion of debate and encouraged his collegues to engage in rigorous exchange of ideas. None of these things rise to the level of a heretic.

Calhoun is a fascinating figure in American history. He needs to be criticized for his views on slavery, and his contributions should be acknowledged. Forgetting Calhoun is an enormous error. We have much to learn from him -- both the good and the bad.

[Bob Andrews · Rating 4 out of 5]

At least by modern moral standards, John C. Calhoun was a deeply flawed, detestable man of immense brilliance and unquestioned influence on his time and perhaps on ours.

Calhoun was vice president under two presidents (John Qunicy Adams and Andrew Jackson), Secretary of State, Secretary of War, congressman and senator.

He owned 77 slaves, used them on his farm and gold mine, occasionally ordered them beaten, sometimes selling them with no regard for splitting families. In an age when many southerners believed slavery was a necessary evil, Calhoun outdid the worst of them and argued slavery was a positive good. The core of his philosophy centered on his insistence that Thomas Jefferson was wrong when he wrote “all men are created equal.” To Calhoun, black men and women are simply and categorically inferior to whites.

Elder writes in the style of the best modern biographers - Andrew Roberts, Ron Chertow and others - and is even handed in his treatment of Calhoun, which is no small feat.

Yet, I have a few quibbles. It’s 546 pages, too long to hold the interest of an average reader and frankly Calhoun is not an overly fascinating man.

The book lacks a focus on pivotal moments. For example, when Calhoun made the move to become the voice for extreme racism, thus endearing himself to the south but insuring he would never be president, did he agonize? Did advisors caution him, and did anyone in the partisan press urge him to walk back his extremism for the sake of his political future or his party’s status? Or perhaps to avoid a civil war?

Elder notes all those occasions when Calhoun flip-flopped (he was for tariffs, then for free trade; he was a war hawk, then opposed the Mexican War; he opposed internal improvements, then supported them). Elder puts them all in the book but gives no more in-depth discussion of them than he does, say, the Dorr War.

What Elder does well is depict Calhoun’s reasons for his passionate defense of slavery. A slave-owner from the South, he felt attacked on all sides - the agrarian slave-dependent, unstable economy, British opposition to slavery, political anti-slavery forces and finally the lack of new slave states to balance free states. He knew in his heart that he had a losing hand. Calhoun saw every issue thru the distorting prism of protecting slavery at all costs.

Elder argues that Calhoun’s most significant contribution to political discourse, an illustration of his brilliance, might be his idea of “concurrent majority.” It basically allows the minority to block the actions of the majority by requiring that interest groups approve any action wanted by the majority. Such groups might be environmental, agriculture, business or civil rights, but in Calhoun’s case, it meant further protection of slave-holder rights.

Even today, the idea has some currency. It’s a check on the tyranny of the majority, and it provides another hurdle faced by legislators who want to change the nature of America. Of course, it also promotes gridlock.

Calhoun was more than a racist, but he certainly was that. He was a pivotal figure in pre-Civil War American, standing at the gates, refusing to let good people reach a compromise, insuring that the question of releasing blacks from slavery never happen in his time. I guess it’s good to get to know the villains of American history. This was a well-written, well-researched book about a pretty dull power figure.

[William Kepford · Rating 4 out of 5]

For history buffs.

Great book. If you want to know what happened in the U.S. between the Civil War and WWI- Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris is your book. If you want to know what happened between the War of 1812 and the Civil War- this is your book.

Fascinating read, although extremely detailed. Not quite day-to-day but detailed. Before I got the book one great wrong I thought during the Civil War is that Calhoun died a decade before the war started. A war that he, himself, fomented more than any other politician. He was a political genius and quite possibly a mental genius who always strived to be President. He was all about the South, eventually, when after a decade or so in the Senate he went home and saw what damage tariffs were doing to the southern cotton grower. Before I got the book I had always thought the great wrong was that William T Sherman did not make it to Abbeville, SC and burn everyone of the Calhouns out, even though John had already died.

There is one minor correction required in the book. It is a fascinating historical subject if you know it. The Petticoat Affair. When Andy Jackson was President, a member of his cabinet, and very good friend of Andy, married a woman who was a widower. Her name was Margaret (Peggy) Timberlake. She married Eaton a young U.S. senator. The entire Jackson cabinet spurned any political and social interaction with Mrs. Eaton because she did not wait the right amount of time before remarrying (among other things). The book states that her first husband (Timberlake) died of suicide. Everything I have read said he died of pneumonia and suicide was just speculation. I am surprised, if I am correct, that the author did not catch that as this book is well researched. The resulting embarrassment to Andy Jackson was that he fired almost every member of his cabinet. This is how Roger B. Taney arrived on the scene (don't get me started!).

(Also, for history buffs, you should check out (research further) what happened to Margaret Timberlake Eaton. To those history buffs like me you will see many commonalities between Eaton and Kate Chase).

If you are a history buff or just want to know what happened in this country between the War of 1812 and the Civil War this book covers pretty much everything you need to know as it relates to Washington, slavery, abolition, trade, the rise of the New England manufacturers, and states rights. When John C. Calhoun was Secretary of War after 1814 the decision by the country was not how many soldiers to have but, will we have a standing army! Yes our country was in its infancy. By reading it you will expose yourself to the "three greats": Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and of course John C. Calhoun.

[Duzclues · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would first of all like to thank Elder for writing this. It cannot be easy to put years of meticulous research into such an horrible human being, but at least my understanding of Antebellum politics has been greatly enriched by Elder’s sacrifice, and I suspect many other people’s understandings will be helped, too.

As white supremacy and contrarianism become more and more in fashion, as well as the fact that as I write this America is a couple of days into a new nullification crisis, Calhoun is sadly more relevant than ever, as Elder argues effectively.

I admit that I have not read too much into Calhoun specifically before this book, but when I came across him, he was portrayed as the incredibly intelligent politician that he was, yes, but, despite that intelligence, also as an unserious crackpot. However messed up Calhoun’s beliefs were, Elder’s clear mastery of Calhoun’s mindset and what led to his beliefs shows Calhoun as a man whose influence cannot be disregarded as an eloquent aberration from the very distant past. Of course, a deep understanding of the subject is a necessity for any biography, but I found Elder’s evident grasp of Calhoun to be exceptional. This was a very smartly written book.

As Elder recounts those arguments, you can see how Calhoun managed to twist his logic in such a way as to suit his interests, quite effectively at times. He would take completely contradictory positions on the same issue at different times through his career, and convince people it was he that was being consistent and his critics being inconsistent. That’s key to understanding Calhoun, and Elder’s ability to weave his way through that twisted logic is a great benefit to the reader.

It loses a star because there were points where the book was quite tedious, and the prose was pretty dull in a few places, but the scholarship more than makes up for that.

As Calhounism is manifesting in present day America more and more, and in ways, as Elder points out, we don’t really realize on the surface level, understanding Calhoun is incredibly important for anyone who wants to be informed about modern America. Especially as Calhoun’s doctrine of nullification has suddenly been endorsed by governors of over half of US states, it is important to realize where nullification comes from and the inauspicious company which these contemporary governors find themselves with. This book is great for exactly that, and, of course, understanding Antebellum politics. For that, I would highly recommend this book. Two thumbs up.

[Eli]

This bio does a good job balancing the image of Calhoun as a strident ideologue who rarely deviated from strongly held principles on the one hand, with his talents as a political operator constantly looking for the most expedient methods to achieve southern goals and personal political stardom on the other. The fact that these two strands of his personality converged to produce his aggressive defense of slavery is, to me, the book's most unsettling lesson. Seeing the rabid response of white southerners to rumors of slave uprisings and abolitionist pamphlets being mailed southward, he realized that harnessing that reactionary energy was his best chance to complete his lifelong quest to create a unified southern political bloc with himself at the helm. It would be almost comforting, in a roundabout way, to imagine his defense of slavery as a moral good as purely a matter of racism. If that were so, it could be written off as an expression of unenlightened personal hatred (though, as Elder points out, the man and his followers saw it as a forward-looking, modern outlook.) It was obviously racist, but it was also the product of cold political calculation. Calhoun correctly identified, far earlier than most, that slavery was to be at the center of of 19th century American politics, and he worked tirelessly to keep it there. Elder does a great job tracking Calhoun's journey from defending slavery as a necessary evil, to asserting the inequality of black and white in concert with emerging theories of scientific racism. But Elder never fully resolves the question of whether Calhoun really believed those theories, or whether he had to adopt them in order to maintain the consistency of his political outlook. It's chilling to consider the possibility that the latter is true, that a system as evil as chattel slavery could be instrumentalized in service of a political program dedicated fervently but not exclusively to its defense.

[Danielle T · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent biography of John C. Calhoun and his legacy on American political thought, especially in terms of the "concurrent majority" and that while he may have gone back and forth on positions, his staunchest defenses were to preserve slavery because he felt if the southern slave states were kept satisfied, the Union would be preserved (and yet via nullification and disunion planted the seeds for secession and the Civil War). I was also struck by Calhoun's sheer ambition tempered by the pride that he need *not* campaign for president (although he clearly wanted it and thought he was the best for the job). A weighty biography, which makes sense to cover a noted historical orator who wrote extensive letters.

I am a graduate of Clemson University, so I spent four years on Calhoun's old Fort Hill but don't recall much about his legacy from then (admittedly, student lore says either going inside the house or reading the text on the statue of Thomas Green Clemson before graduating will doom you to never matriculate). It was fascinating to read this while recalling the very grounds described and trying to envision where the old slave quarters were, for example. I also hadn't realized Thomas Green Clemson was a northerner who married in, so that was new for me. The university has done a better job in recent years about acknowledging the history they sit on, but it wasn't until (frankly, close to or after publication time I would assume) recently that they stripped Calhoun's name from the Honor College. The final chapters grapple with this, Calhoun's ongoing legacy into the 21st century. The concurrent majority is a useful idea for protecting the interests of a minority, but he used it to argue for protecting the southern interest in what he perceived to be the "benevolence" of a slave society.

[BookBurner · Rating 5 out of 5]

"This is Calhoun and he wife"

I loved this book. It would be easy to simplify Calhoun to a great evil. But it is so much more nuanced. After that thrilling read, I read him as a product of his time and a gifted orator who was misguided in his views. Rather than apologize for the South, the book explains in a rather intricate way the times and the impacts that Calhoun and his work had on the people he worked beside. So many times, I was in awe at what I was reading and just couldn't believe the skill in which such subhuman arguments were put forth. Such creativity and gymnastics are required to pitch liberty and discuss freedom but also how it is essential to enslave others. The punishment of such ideology was felt immediate and continues to this day. Every now and then, one can catch whispers of Calhoun level racism without the proper threads connecting them. With this book you will understand more about American racism and its origins than any book I have read so far. I love this book and want to read it every year. So much of his words ring true now even though the darkest parts continue to be a light to our most dim.

The whole time I read, I awaited his family line to diverge in views and insights but no. They kept on having slaves and they kept on being inundated with family death. Not saying the two are connected, it was just a popular pattern. Even after his death, his statue continued to intimidate and remind us the legacy that was not being progressed past. This part also gave me great pause and deliberation because these ancients we symbolize also have their messages immortalized which makes them all morally questionable. I walk away wondering if nostalgia for the past and our memories of it and yearn for past cruelties will continually evolve us into a barrel of hate monkeys.

In any case, I cannot recommend this book enough.

[David Jacobson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This very readable biography is both an appraisal of an epochal (but controversial) man and an opportunity to inhabit the often overlooked period of American history spanning from the War of 1812 to the Mexican-American War. John C. Calhoun was one of the major political actors of that period, occupying seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate as well as the offices of Secretary of War, Secretary of State, and Vice President. In his early career he was a nationalist, advocating for the Bank of the United States and internal infrastructure improvements; later, he became such a sectionalist as to advocate for state nullification of federal law (he is, in fact, known as the Great Nullifier). In a charitable light, this evolution can be seen as arising from the slow refinement of his political theory of the "concurrent majority": the idea that a true democracy must respect the rights of voting minorities by requiring near unanimity on the weightiest matters. In practice, though, as this deeply researched biography meticulously documents, the evolution was really an intellectual exercise in bending the lines of constitutional argument to conform to one underlying, fundamental goal: the defense of slavery not just as a peculiar institution or necessary evil, but as an unalloyed good.

This book traces this weighty history but is also filled with delightful historical vignettes, like when a fellow inn guest in Alabama argues hotly with Calhoun against nullification, only to later discover his opponent was the Great Nullifier himself. It ends with a powerful afterward that, in 20 pages, traces the threads of Calhoun's legacy through the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Jim Crow era to the present day.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5. This is a very readable bio of Calhoun, who probably contributed more than anyone else to the theoretical justifications of secession. He also was one of the earliest to shift from being defensive about slavery as a necessary evil to arguing it was an affirmative good. So he really does deserve scorn and anything named after him should be changed.

That said, the book does a really nice job of balancing this with his undeniable brilliance and early contributions to the country. Prior to the slavery question overtaking all of American politics, he was a strong nationalist following the War of 1812 and managed a really interesting synthesis of Jeffersonianism with Federalist-ism. At that time, he was very much for building national infrastructure and institutions when he was young. Even the first nullification can be seen as a way for him to try to keep the union together.

But slavery came to dominate politics, and he used his talents and prestige to defend it and set the road to disunion. For instance, his big idea (the "concurrent majority") basically means that all significant interest groups in a democracy should have veto power over important measures. Elder explains that this idea lives on (and can actually be useful in multi-ethnic democracies where pure majority rule would result in war/genocide). But Calhoun applied it as a justification for the South vetoing threats to slavery. And so that's how he has to be remembered - and it's tragic, b/c he could have been remembered in a very different way.

[B.J. Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm torn between 4 and 5 stars, but it's probably my anti-biography bias that pushes it to 4. Too much day-to-day account of what happened in Calhoun's life, especially with his kids.

This is also a fascinating read at this moment in a government shutdown with people pouting over not getting their political way. I feel like Calhoun might have gone full-on government shutdown some years if that had been an option in the first half of the 19th Century. If he weren't dead already, the scope and power of today's Federal government would kill him instantly with a combined stroke and heart attack.

Important points well made in the epilogue of this book. Taking down statues and renaming buildings doesnt erase the legacy of John C. Calhoun. We need to remember him and try to honor the good parts of long and varied public service while also reviling the horrid parts. A lot of his political thinking on protecting a minority in a democracy is again relevant today. And surprisingly relevant in many ways for several different minority factions simultaneously.

I've loved to hate on John C. Calhoun since about 1995. He deserves it. But he was also intelligent, principled, and astute. But he was a raving racist bigot who advocated for a destructive interpretation of the constitution and brought us secession. Learn about him; actually think about what he did and what he tried to do and how he tried to do it. Then think about how we can LEARN from all that and be better and do better today.

[Shane Zhang · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think Elder is right: we can't fully understand the america of today if we excise horrible events and people from history, and while banishing strawmen can feel good, it can also blind you.
When we say "cult of personality," we usually think the personality doesn't live up to the attention it gets. Probably, a culture or movement needed a figurehead and chose the best available option. Puppets aren't very interesting, and I have always thought that Calhoun was a puppet of the south's economic interest in slavery. But the quotes in this book, especially from Calhoun's enemies, describe the strongest personality I have ever read or heard about. At least the way Elder puts it, he was just so wildly and clearly competent that he was, practically on arrival as a freshman in the house of representatives, appointed to the foreign relations committee right in the middle of rising tensions with britain (tension that did culminate in the war of 1812.) A political enemy saying his gaze was so clear they thought his eyes gave off light in the dark. Every morning he took a three mile walk where he would focus all his attention on just one thing, to practice with attention. I don't have a ton of context for the kind of praise people gave his speaking ability, its true that in the era, people wanted to believe in the strength of orators and personalities, and that people today simply aren't on the lookout for similar qualities.
I would have never chosen to read this myself, but I would legitimately recommend the book to someone who wants to learn about constitutional law and government in general. The scary thing is that he did his greatest evils while feeling fine about himself.

[Earl Ecklund III · Rating 4 out of 5]

John C. Calhoun is one of the most fascinating figures in American history. He served as Congressman, Senator, Secretary of War, Vice President, & Secretary of State. He is best remembered for his staunch support of Southern rights, theory of nullification & his contributions to constitutional theory.

In this biography Robert Elder explores the life and career of his controversial figure. Elder traces the Calhoun family history due John C. and his upbringing and education including his time at Yale University. Calhoun was always a citizen of South Carolina first and a defender of America second. His early political career was very much that of a nationalist who pushed for a series of canals and roads including railroads to link the South to the rest of the country.

Elder traces Calhoun's shift from nationalist to State's rights advocate to the rise of Andrew Jackson and conversations with some of fellow Southerners. He pursued the presidency on two separate occasions but came short. Despite his reputation for disunion, his belief in nullification was part of a quest to find a way to preserve the Union while maintaining the Southern institution of slavery.

Elder sends a great deal of time on Calhoun's family and his relationships which were one of his strongest ties. A excellent contribution to the literature on Calhoun and very much recommended.