Leaders in the States’ Rights Debate Essay

John Caldwell Calhoun was born the 4th child, and 3rd son, of Patrick and Martha Calhoun on March 18, 1782 in the backwoods of Abbeville, South Carolina. His father got really sick when he was just 17 years old. He was forced to quit school and work on the family farm. Eventually though with help from his brothers, he returned to school. He graduated with a degree from Yale College, Phi Beta Kappa, in 1804. After studying law at the Tapping Reeve Law School in Litchfield, Connecticut, he was admitted to the South Carolina bar in 1807. Calhoun married Floride Bonneau Calhoun, a first cousin once removed in January 1811. They had 16 children in 18 years. Three of the children died at birth. He settled his family in Pendleton, South Carolina, on a plantation that they named Fort Hill. He split his attention between his 3 loves politics, farming, and family. Although he did not have much, if any at all, charisma or charm, Calhoun was brilliant at public speaking and kept everything very organized, and after his election to Congress in 1808 he immediately became a leader of the â€Å"war hawks. † He became a State Representative in 1808 and in 1811 was elected United States Representative until 1817. From there he served as Secretary of War for President Monroe until 1825. Things heated up in the early 1830s over federal tariffs: Calhoun said that states could veto federal laws, earning him the nickname of â€Å"Arch Nullifier,† and Jackson threatened to use the army if South Carolina forced the issue. Calhoun than resigned as Jackson’s vice president, this was in 1832. He than became a U. S. senator, then briefly served as Secretary of State under President Tyler from 1844-1849. Finally he served in the Senate again until his death in 1850. Henry Clay was born to the Reverend John and Elizabeth Hudson Clay on April 12, 1777. He was the 7th of 9 children for his proud parents. He was born and raised in a half frame, 2 story house at the Clay homestead in Hanover County, Virginia. This was well above average home for a Virginia farmer of that time. His father, whom they called â€Å"Sir John† was a Baptist minister. He died four years after Henry was born. He left all the boys two slaves each and gave his wife eighteen slaves and 464 acres of land. It was not long before she married Capt. Henry Watkins, who loved his stepchildren like they were his own. Watkins packed up his family and moved them all to Richmond, Virginia. He and Elizabeth had seven children to add to the nine she had already her 1st husband John Clay. Henry soon was hired as a shop assistant in Richmond. His stepfather got Clay a guaranteed in the office of the Court of Chancery where he showed he had a good hand for the law. He made a friend by the name of George Wythe who had a bad hand. He hired Clay to be his secretary because of his neat handwriting. The chancellor decided Clay had a future and arranged a position for him with the Virginia attorney general Robert Brooke. Clay ended up in studies at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, studying under George Wythe. He received a formal legal education. Clay prepared for the bar, and was admitted in 1797. In 1803 Clay was elected to be the representative of Fayette County in the Kentucky General Assembly. Clay’s influence in Kentucky state politics was awesome enough that he elected by the Kentucky legislature into the Senate seat. He was elected the Speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1807. Than in 1810, United States Senator Buckner Thruston resigned and Clay was again appointed to fill his seat. He was in favor of strong state rights and very much against slavery but did want to save the union. Hence The Missouri Compromise. Robert Young Hayne was born on a rice plantation in St. Paul’s Parish, Colleton District, South Carolina on November 10, 1791. He studied at the Law Office of Langdon Cheves in Charleston, South Carolina. He was a respected American attorney, political leader, and spokesman for the South. In November 1812 he was admitted to the bar. He soon had his own large practice. During the War of 1812 against Great Britain, he was captain in the Third South Carolina Regiment. But that did not last very long. He was also a member of the South Carolina state legislature from 1814 to 1818. He served as Speaker of the House in the later year. He was the South Carolina attorney-general from 1818 to 1822. Than in 1823 was elected to the United States Senate. He was a Democrat. His first wife, Frances Henrietta Pinckney, passed away in 1820. After that he married Rebecca Brewton Alston, daughter of William Alston. Her father gave her a lot on lower King Street. Haynes built them a house on that lot. It remained in the family until 1863. Haynes is best remembered for his debate with Daniel Webster, where he set forth a doctrine of nullification. This said that by the power of the State itself, that the federal Tariff of 1828 and 1832 were unconstitutional and herefore null and void within the boundaries of South Carolina. He was completely against the Tariff of 1832 He was a member of the South Carolina Nullification Convention of November 1832, and reported that the nullification passed by that body on the November 24. After resigning from the Senate in 1832, he was Governor of South Carolina from December 1832 to December 1 834, and while in that position took a strong stand against President Andrew Jackson, though he was more conservative than many of the other people against it in his state. He was later president of the Louisville, Cincinnati & Charleston Railway from 1837 to 1839. Robert Young Hayne died in Asheville, North Carolina on September 24, 1839. His nephew, Paul Hamilton Hayne, was a poet who in 1878 published a book on the life of Senator Hayne. Andrew Jackson was born to Andrew and Elizabeth Hutchinson on March 15, 1767. This was only two years after they had emigrated from Ireland. He was born in the Waxhaws region. It is on the border of North and South Carolina. Jackson had two older brothers, Hugh and Robert. Their father died in an accident in February 1767, at the age of 29, three weeks before Jackson was born. The house that Jackson’s parents lived in is now preserved as the Andrew Jackson Centre and is open to the public. Jackson had a poor education in the local schools. At only 13 he joined a local militia as a courier during the American Revolutionary War. His oldest brother, Hugh, died from heat exhaustion during the Battle of Stono Ferry, on June 20, 1779. They other 2 boys were kidnapped by the British and held as prisoners. They were not given much food while locked away. Jackson refused to clean the boots of a British officer, the man slashed at the youth with a sword, giving him scars on his left hand and head, as well as an intense hatred for the British. They also got smallpox while being held. Their mother secured their freedom and Robert died just a few days later on April 27, 1781. His mother died from smallpox in November 1781. Jackson was left all alone at only 14. His entire immediate family had died from hardships during the war; he blamed the British. In 1781, Jackson worked for a time in a saddle-maker’s shop. Later, he taught school and studied law in Salisbury, North Carolina. In 1787, he was admitted to the bar, and moved to Jonesborough, North Carolina. Though his legal education was not the best, he knew enough to be a country lawyer on the frontier. Because he was not from a distinguished family, he had to prove himself. It didn’t take long before he prospered in the law world. He was a delegate to the Tennessee constitutional convention in 1796. When Tennessee achieved statehood Jackson was elected its U. S. Representative. In 1797, he was elected U. S. Senator as a Democratic-Republican. He resigned in less than a year. He served a judge in the Tennessee Supreme Court from 1798-1808. When he was elected president in 1829, and again in 1832, he was the very first President to invite the public to attend the White House ball honoring his first inauguration. Daniel Webster was born to Ebenezer and Abigail Webster on January 18, 1782 in Salisbury, New Hampshire. Him and his 9 other brothers a sisters were raised on his families farm, just a small piece of land belonging to his father. Daniel was not a healthy kid. Because of this his family tended to baby him. He was not made to do any farm work. He went to school at Phillips Exeter Academy, a preparatory school in Exeter, New Hampshire. After high school he attended Dartmouth College. After he graduated from Dartmouth he was apprenticed to the lawyer Thomas W. Thompson. Because of lack of money at home, Webster was forced to resign and become a schoolmaster. This was very common back than. In 1802 he became the headmaster of the Fryeburg Academy, Maine, for only one year. After this he left New Hampshire and got employment in Boston under the very well known attorney Christopher Gore in 1804. In 1805 Webster was accepted into the bar and returned to New Hampshire to set up a practice in Boscawen. Webster took an interest in politics. In 1813 he became a member of the U. S. House of Representatives of New Hampshire, where he served until 1817. He was the 14th US Secretary of State from 1841-1843. Afterwards he became a member of the U. S. House of Representatives of Massachusetts from 1823-1827. In 1845 he was elected Massachusetts United States Senator till 1850. Than he became the 19th U. S. Secretary of State from 1850-1852. Webster favored the union and federalism. He represented at least four clients against states’ interests before the US Supreme Court – and won every case.