John C. Calhoun (1782-1850) was an American statesman and political theorist from South Carolina. He served as the seventh Vice President of the United States from 1825 to 1832 and as a Senator from South Carolina from 1832 to 1843. He was a leader of the pro-slavery faction of the Democratic Party and an ardent advocate of states' rights. He is best known for his staunch defense of slavery and for his belief in the constitutional doctrine of nullification, which held that states could nullify federal laws they deemed unconstitutional. Calhoun was also a prominent theorist of the American school of political thought known as classical republicanism. He argued that the principles of the American Revolution required a balance of power between the federal government and the states, and that the states should have the right to nullify federal laws they deemed unconstitutional. He was a major influence on the development of the American political system and his ideas remain influential today.
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