Leaders in the States' Rights Debate

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John C. Calhoun, also known as the " cast-iron man." Born in California on March 18, 1782, I am sure could never imagine in his life that he would become seventh vice president of the United States of America as well as secretary of war and state. I mean he studied law under Tapping Reeve at Litchfield Conn. Then in 1808, he officially began his public career in South Carolina where he then lived until his death in 1850. Being born in the frontier was not a bad thing, at least not for Mr.Calhoun. In 1811 he married his cousin, Floride Calhoun and from that he acquired a large plantation. In the same year he also began working as chairman of the house of committee on foreign affairs. He was one of the " leading warhawks " and encouraged the war of 1812. His act as chairman ended in 1817. But that did not stop him from remaining a nationalist after the war. He was also an efficient secretary of war from 1817 to 1825, under president Monroe.Also in 1825 John Calhoun became the vice president for John Quincy Adams . In december of 1832, he quit the vice presidency after he was elected to the senate, where he defended his states rights principles in debates with Daniel Webster, who I will talk about later. John Calhoun supported states rights and nullification, this means that states could declare null and void federal laws that they viewed as unconstitutional. Calhoun was a very outspoken proponent of the institution of slavery, he defended that it was a "positive good" in place of a "necessary evil" . Daniel Webster was born in the same year as his friend John Calhoun, in 1782.January 18. He was born in New Hampshire but lived in Massachusetts for most of his life. He graduated from Dartmouth College where he studied law in 180... ... middle of paper ... ...nt of the territory south of the river ohio after the year 1791. Jackson was elected delegate to the Tennessee constitutional convention in 1796. The next year he was elected United States senator as a demorcratic-republican. However, he resigned within a year. In 1798, he was appointed judge of the Tennessee supreme court, until 1804. He was also a planter, slave owner and merchant. He built his home and the first general store in Gallatin, Tennessee, in 1803. The next year he acquired the Hermitage, a 640 acre plantation near Nashville. The plantation grew to be 1,050 acres. He grew cotton as a primary crop, which was actually grown by his slaves. Jackson started with 9 slaves, and by 1820 he had 44. Later he had up to 150.He could have owned 300 slaves. In 1824, he became president and was reelected in 1832.He was president until 1837 and he died on June 8, 1845.

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