American lawyer and politician, 7th Vice President of the United States (died 1850)

John C. Calhoun

John Caldwell Calhoun was an American statesman and political theorist who served as the seventh vice president of the United States from 1825 to 1832. Calhoun began his political career as a nationalist, modernizer and proponent of a strong federal government and protective tariffs. In the late 1820s, his views shifted, and he became a leading proponent of states' rights, limited government, nullification, and opposition to high tariffs, and distinguished himself as an outspoken defender of American slavery. Calhoun saw Northern acceptance of those policies as a condition of the South remaining in the Union.