REGISTER OF THE JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN (1782-1850) PAPERS (1784-1980, Bulk dates 1802-1850) Mss 200 John Caldwell Calhoun Papers 5.5 cu. ft., including oversize items and maps, and 10 rolls of 35mm microfilm Introduction The Papers were donated to Clemson University Libraries and accessioned as 89-80, 89-203, 91-5 and 92-61. The Dumbarton Oaks articles were accessioned as 68-9-1 and 68-9-2. The photostatic copies of maps from Calhoun’s Fort Hill office were accessioned as 76-1. The Papers consist of correspondence and other materials documenting the career of Calhoun, the Calhoun and Clemson families, and United States politics during the early to mid-nineteenth century. The Papers were processed and this register prepared by Nancy Ogden Keller in 1998. Biographical Note John Caldwell Calhoun was born on March 18, 1782 near Abbeville, South Carolina, to Patrick and Martha Caldwell Calhoun. He graduated from Yale University in 1804 and studied law in Litchfield, Connecticut and in Charleston, South Carolina, being admitted to the bar and opening a law office in Abbeville, S.C. in 1807. In c.1832 Calhoun purchased the O’Bar gold mine in Georgia. He married his cousin, Floride Bonneau Colhoun, on January 8, 1811 and they had nine children: Andrew Pickens (October 15, 1811-Mar. 16, 1865), Floride (1814-1815), Anna Maria (Feb. 13, 1817-Sept. 22, 1875), Patrick (Feb. 9, 1821-June 1, 1858), Elizabeth (lived just five months), John Caldwell (May 17, 1823-July 31, 1855), Martha Cornelia (April 22, 1824-May 2, 1857), James Edward (Apr. 4, 1826-Nov. 29, 1861) and William Lowndes (Aug. 13, 1829-Sept. 19, 1858). Calhoun was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1808. He was elected a member of the United States House of Representatives and served there from 1811 to 1817 representing the congressional district made up of Abbeville, Newberry and Laurens counties of South Carolina. He was appointed Secretary of War on October 8, 1817 and served two terms during the presidency of James Monroe. Calhoun believed in a strong defense system; during his years as Secretary of War he reorganized the War Department and placed it on a firm fiscal foundation. Calhoun was also an adviser to President Monroe on the drafting of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine. In 1824 he was elected Vice President of the United States and served under President John Quincy Adams. He was again elected Vice President of the United States in 1828, serving under President Andrew Jackson. Calhoun resigned from the Vice Presidency in 1832 to become a United States Senator from South Carolina, as he felt he could best serve his state in that manner. He served as Senator from 1832-1843 and from 1845 until his death in 1850. 1 President Tyler appointed him Secretary of State on March 6, 1844 and during his brief term he strongly advocated the annexation of Texas. Calhoun was a proponent of nullification and state rights. He strongly expressed his views on that issue when in 1828 he drafted the South Carolina Exposition for the South Carolina State Legislature. Calhoun supported slavery and its extension to the territories; therefore, he favored the establishment of rights by the United States to the Oregon and Washington Territories; however, he opposed the Mexican-American War in 1846. He proposed internal improvements in transportation in order to open up the interior of the country and was in favor of a national bank. Although Calhoun was in Washington when his presence was required for national duties, he and his family established their permanent residence about 1825 at Fort Hill in the Pendleton area. The land is now the location of Clemson University. In 1838 his daughter, Anna Maria, married Thomas Green Clemson, the founder of Clemson University. Calhoun died March 31, 1850 in Washington, D.C. and was buried in St. Philip’s Episcopal Churchyard, Charleston, S.C. on April 26, 1850. Scope and Content Note The John C. Calhoun Papers consist of agreements, articles, clippings, correspondence, lists, notes, maps, microfilm, photographs, poems, receipts, speeches, statements, a survey book, an autograph draft and a photocopy of the “South Carolina Exposition” and other material. The Papers include items dating from 1784 to 1980, but the bulk of the material dates from 1802-1850. The Papers are arranged alphabetically by folder title and fall into five general areas: correspondence, miscellaneous, posthumous correspondence, posthumous miscellaneous papers and related material. The Calhoun correspondence is arranged chronologically, with undated correspondence at the end. This correspondence is arranged alphabetically by the name of the correspondent or, if the correspondence is unsigned, it is placed alphabetically in the correspondents file by the name of the recipient. Fragments of correspondence are placed in their own folder following the undated correspondence. Basically the correspondence is to and from Calhoun, but it also includes letters to and from other members of the family. Some letters have been transcribed. In addition to information on the life of the Calhoun and Clemson families, topics covered by the correspondence include the condition of crops, the sale of rice, mining, the annexation of Texas, banking, construction of railroads, the Mexican-American War, nullification, presidential elections and candidates, political parties, transportation, the slavery question, state rights, and protective tariffs. The miscellaneous items in Calhoun’s papers include clippings pertaining mainly to political events; handwritten copies of material relating to the slave trade in the 1790s such as an “Account of American Vessels trading for Slaves to Ye Coast of Africa”; and handwritten copies of foreign relations documents, including a summary of negotiations with Spain 2 for the period 1816-1829, and a settlement of claims of United States citizens against Peru in the 1840s. After Calhoun’s death, correspondence and items relating to Calhoun and the papers were added to the collection. The posthumous correspondence is arranged chronologically. They include letters of condolence to family members following the death of John C. Calhoun; there is also correspondence pertaining to the editing of Calhoun’s manuscripts pertaining to his views on government as well as letters of who should write a biography of Calhoun. The “Posthumous Miscellaneous” material includes such items as lists and indexes of Calhoun letters at Clemson by William Pinckney Starke and others; Carl L. Epting’s correspondence regarding John C. Calhoun; information about Dumbarton Oaks and Fort Hill; a photograph of Fort Hill c. 1880; writings of A. G. Holmes on John C. Calhoun; and an “Order of Procession for escorting the remains of the Honorable John C. Calhoun.” The “Related Material” consists of small collections of papers of other Calhoun family members kept with the Papers and include a survey book (1784-1792) of John Calhoun’s father, Patrick Calhoun; a list of John Ewing Colhoun’s lands, 1789; correspondence to Floride Colhoun, 1790-1791; and the A. Ransom Calhoun papers, 1853- 1862. The maps are photostatic copies made by the South Carolina Department of Archives and History in 1976 of five maps located in Calhoun’s office at Fort Hill and include a copy of a rare 1822 map of South Carolina by John Wilson. The microfilm consists of six reels of “John C. Calhoun Papers in the Library of Congress: Papers from Manuscript Groups” (Washington, DC: National Archives, 1954) and four rolls of “U.S. War Department: Records of the Office of the Secretary of War, Letters Sent, Military Affairs” for the period May 2, 1816-August 10, 1830 (File Microcopies of Records in the National Archives, no. 6, rolls 9-12. Washington, DC: National Archives, 1942). Correspondents in the Papers include James M. Buchanan, Armistead Burt, Andrew Pickens Calhoun, Cornelia Calhoun, Floride Calhoun, James Edward Calhoun, Anna Calhoun Clemson, Thomas Green Clemson, Floride Colhoun, John E. Colhoun, Richard K. Cralle, Jefferson Davis, Carl L. Epting, James Gadsden, Duff Green, James Hamilton, J. H. Hammond, Alester Garden Holmes, Andrew Jackson, James Knox Polk, Henry William de Saussure, W. Gilmore Simms, William Pinkney Starke, Alexis de Tocqueville, John Tyler and Daniel Webster. The letters to and from Calhoun have been published in The Papers of John C. Calhoun; related material can be found in the Thomas Green Clemson Papers, Mss 2. There is a card file index to the correspondence in Special Collections. 3 SEPARATION LIST Artifacts 1. Lock of John C. Calhoun’s hair sent to Governor J. H. Hammond of South Carolina immediately after his death by Mr. Scoville, his secretary. Also copy of a December 31, 1912 letter from J. H. Hammond, grandson of Governor Hammond donating the lock of hair. 2. Lock of John C. Calhoun’s hair which had been framed with a print of him and an autographed copy of his signature. (See Folder #2 under Oversize, below) Audiovisual Film about John C. Calhoun from Louisiana Tech Oversize Folder 1. Documents related to John C. Calhoun found in the Tillman Hall attic at Clemson University in 1980. • Appointment of John C. Calhoun as Secretary of War, 8 October 1817 •John C. Calhoun’s oath of office as Secretary of War, 8 December 1817 •Appointment of John C. Calhoun as Secretary of War, 16 December 1817 •Columbia College LLD diploma of John C. Calhoun, 3 August 1824 •Resolution and unsigned certificate of election of John C. Calhoun as Vice President, 11 February 1825 •Signed certificate of election of John C. Calhoun as Vice President, 12 February 1825 •Membership diploma of John C. Calhoun in the Antiquarian Brotherhood of Athens, 1838 •Request of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries, Copenhagen, that John C. Calhoun accept membership, 19 May 1840 4 •Notification to John C.