John C. Calhoun

John Caldwell Calhoun (1782–1850) was an American political theorist and statesman from South Carolina who served as Vice President under both John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, Secretary of War, Secretary of State, and US Senator. Educated at Yale and Tapping Reeve's Litchfield Law School, Calhoun was initially an ardent nationalist and 'War Hawk' during the War of 1812.

As federal tariffs damaged the agricultural South, Calhoun transformed into the intellectual champion of states' rights and Southern sectional interests. In his 1828 South Carolina Exposition and Protest, he formulated the doctrine of state nullification, asserting that sovereign states have the constitutional right to void unconstitutional federal laws. His political philosophy of the 'concurrent majority' remains a foundational text on minority veto powers within majoritarian democracies.