In 1832, John C. Calhoun became the first Vice President of the United States to resign.

John Caldwell Calhoun (March 18, 1782 – March 31, 1850) was a leading United States Southern politician from South Carolina during the first half of the 19th century. Calhoun was an advocate of slavery, states’ rights, limited government, and nullification.

He was the first Vice President, (March 4, 1825 – December 28, 1832), under two different Presidents, Adams and Jackson, born as a U.S. citizen (his predecessors were born before the revolution) and also the first Vice President to resign his office.

After a short stint in the South Carolina legislature, where he wrote legislation making South Carolina the first state to adopt universal suffrage for white men, Calhoun, barely 30, began his federal career as a staunch nationalist, favoring war with Britain in 1812.

However, it is said by some historians, without stating clearly their point, that in the 1820s, the sometimes known as “Corrupt Bargain” of 1824 by Speaker of the House at the time, Henry Clay giving the Presidency, (March 4, 1825 – March 4, 1829), to 6th President John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay being rewarded with the Secretary of State under Adams, rather than to 7th President Andrew Jackson, (March 4, 1829 – March 4, 1837) led him to renounce nationalism in favor of states’ rights of the sort Thomas Jefferson and James Madison had propounded in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798.

By going into senatorial duties, renouncing to the Vice Presidency, in 1832, he got more power, apparently, than keeping associated to Jackson.

Comments are closed.