The Fate of Calhoun

It was originally said that the state heritage preservation act did not
apply to the Calhoun monument because it was designed to protect only
soldiers' monuments.  A new suit has been launched against the vandals of
the Columbia city government to include Calhoun in the protected persons.
Clyde Wilson, along with others submitted a sworn statement to support the
suit:​

COMES NOW, Clyde Wilson, first duly sworn, who deposes and states as follows:


I was awarded the Ph.D by the University of North Carolina in 1971. I was a member of the faculty of the History Department of the University of South Carolina-Columba for 34 years, retiring as Distinguished Professor. Among other activities I was the primary editor of The Papers of John C. Calhoun, a documentary editing and publication project which ran from the 1950s to 2005, when I published the 28th and final volume. These 28 volumes included the letters, speeches, and writings of Calhoun as completely as possible.

In the 1950s the National Historical Publications and Records Commission recommended documentary publication projects for select early American leaders---Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, Clay, Webster, and John C. Calhoun. The University of South Carolina undertook the project for Calhoun and continued to support the project to its end, as did the NHPRC. The South Carolina Department of Archives and History also provided support. Scholarly reviewers wrote of the quality and importance of The Papers of John C. Calhoun.

In 1959 a U.S. Congressional committee chaired by future President John F. Kennedy named Calhoun as one of the 5 most important Senators in American history. Kennedy included a complimentary comment on Calhoun in his book, Profiles in Courage (1956). In 1951 the Pulitzer Prize for Biography was awarded to Margaret Coit’s sympathetic book, John C. Calhoun: American Portrait.

In a long-term and international perspective, Calhoun’s importance in history is great. He is the most important person ever produced by South Carolina. He held most of the high offices of the federal government, legislative and administrative, for 40 years, 1811—1850. Beyond this, Calhoun is one of the very few political leaders who has been recognized as one of the most important political philosophers in U.S. history. His “A Disquisition on Government” is still studied and praised worldwide today. British, Italian, and Japanese scholars have written about him, among others.

Even if we discount all else, Calhoun’s role in American military history justifies a memorial. In regard to both war and peacetime defense his role was very important and one must say almost heroic. He first came to public attention protesting against the U.S. government’s lack of response to highhanded British interference with American ships, stopping them on the high seas and seizing sailors into their own Navy. Response was necessary both for national honor and defense of our citizens. This stand caused his neighbors to send him to the U.S. House of Representatives in his twenties.

In his first speech in the House, against the opponents of action, he was called “one of those masters spirits who stamp their image on the age in which they live.” He drafted the declaration of war for the House. For Calhoun his responsibility was only beginning. In legislation and debate he played a foremost role during the war. He was called “the young Hercules who carried the war on his shoulders.”

The most important aspect of Calhoun’s role in the military is his eight year service as Secretary of War from age 35 to 42. The War Department was the largest and most far-flung part of the government. It ended the war in organizational and financial chaos, inefficiency, and the need to reduce it to peacetime size. President Monroe had offered the position to several prominent men who turned it down. It required a lot of hard work with little likelihood to enhance prestige. But Calhoun, feeling a responsibility for the effects of the war and for national defense, took on what was regarded as an impossible and thankless job.

His service as Secretary of War (covered in volumes 2—9 of The Papers of John C. Calhoun) is generally regarded as the most outstanding of any man in earlier American history. There is no question that he built a force that greatly aided the victories of the U.S. army in the Mexican War and the Civil War.

Calhoun reorganized Army administration into a system of bureaus---commissary, quartermaster, ordnance, engineers, medical, and others, placed the ablest officers in charge and required accountability from them. This system was copied in Europe.

He planned and saw built the system of Atlantic and Gulf coastal defenses that remained important up to at least World War I. The prestige and importance of West Point dates from this period. Calhoun raised entrance requirements and put the best officers in charge. The institution not only provided military skill and knowledge but was long the best college in the U.S. for engineering and administrative training.

Calhoun’s goal in these reforms was to provide a small peacetime army that was quickly expandable in case of need. Able officers and organization could mobilize the eager American volunteers who would appear to support a just cause. Most West Point men served a few years in the army and then went into private engineering and industry, a great help to building up the country.

His service of Secretary of War was so outstanding that both John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, who agreed on nothing else, accepted Calhoun as Vice President in 1824.

In 1844 President Tyler appointed Calhoun Secretary of State. During one year he negotiated a peaceful settlement of the contentious Oregon Territory issues, establishing the U.S./Canadian boundary where it has remained. He also undertook negotiations that would guarantee that Texas would join the Union as a State.

On the Mexican War Calhoun’s mature statesmanship provides perhaps much wisdom for future generations. While supporting and praising the Army, he sat silent in the vote on a declaration of war. He believed that President Polk had brought on war by provoking an unnecessary border incident. This was a very bad precedent. A state of war came into existence without a Congressional declaration. He also warned against imperialism—taking over foreign peoples and governments.

This was bound to destroy republican freedom.