Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1993. [Vol. 1.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 21)

STUDIES - András Tamóc: The Politics of a Cast-Iron Man. John C. Calhoun and His Views on Government.

The South's plantation based economy demanded a captive labor force leading to a burgeoning slave trade. A different economy contributed to the evolution of an unprecedented mindset, paving the way for the gentleman plantation owner's entry into American mythology. According to Boorstin, the South became an "island within the United States", a land part myth, part fact. Despite evidence to the contrary Southerners fervently believed in the area's cultural, political homogeneity and social harmony.

3 While the plantation gentry saw only one South,

4 the "peculiar institution" of slavery led to profound political differences that eventually shattered the myth and deposited the "Southern gentleman" on history's dust-heap. The subject of this essay is such a gentleman planter whose political career and personality development acutely reflected the crisis of conscience of the Pre-Civil War South. John Caldwell Calhoun was born on March 18, 1782 in Abbeville, South Carolina.

5 He was named after his maternal uncle who gave his life in the Revolutionary War. John's father, Patrick was an Irish immigrant who settled in Western Pennsylvania in 1733. Harassed by constant Indian attacks he moved southward, eventually reaching Long Canes Creek of the Carolina country in 1756. Patrick fought the British and hostile natives alike to keep the family farm. In 1769 he ran in a local election championing the cause of the backcountry gentry against encroachment by Charleston's planter aristocracy. Having been elected to the provincial assembly he became the voice of middle-class plantation owners throughout the state. Patrick's fiery individualism and political ingenuity were passed on to John, one of his five children. Although John grew up on his father's farm, he was not formally taught until the age of thirteen. In 1795 he was enrolled in his paternal uncle's boys' academy. In the school's strict, disciplined atmosphere he discovered the joy of learning and the pleasure of reading. Patrick Calhoun's death in 1796 interrupted John's promising academic career, making him 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid. 5 Merill D. Peterson, The Great Triumvirate (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), p. 18. QA