b'Department of HistoryJohn C. Calhoun: a character studyHannah S. StanleySponsor: Dr. Deborah DavisIn the early 19th century, America was clearly starting the irreversible descent into civil war. Sects were developing, mainly pro-slavery and anti-slavery, each with their own representatives. Chief among these representatives of the southern/pro-slavery states was John C. Calhoun. Calhoun was the idyllic white southern man, well-educated, rich off the backs of slave labor, and fierce in his defense of states rights. This paper argues that while in the modern eye, Calhoun was a fierce protector of the wrong ideals, this attitude made him an adequate representation of the virtues of the southern man at the time. Using Calhouns speeches in the Senate and a study of his early life and his political career, this paper concludes that Calhoun represents one of earliest signs of the Civil War. To study John C. Calhoun is to understand why and how Americans became so polarized that war was inevitable.34'