John C. Calhoun

John C. Calhoun.
John C. Calhoun (March 18, 1782 – March 31, 1850) was a senator from South Carolina, a Cabinet member, and the seventh Vice President of the United States, from 1825 to 1832, under presidents John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. Calhoun began his political career in the House of Representatives as a prominent leader of the war hawk faction supporting the War of 1812. Early in his career, he was a modernizer and a proponent of a strong national government and protective tariffs. By the late 1820s, his views reversed and he became a leading proponent of states' rights, limited government, and opposition to high tariffs. His support for South Carolina's right to nullify federal tariff legislation put him into conflict with unionists such as Jackson, and in 1832 he resigned as vice president and entered the Senate. As Secretary of State under John Tyler from 1844 to 1845, he supported the annexation of Texas as a means to promote slavery, and helped settle the Oregon boundary dispute with Britain.