John Caldwell Calhoun was born on March 18, 1782, in rural South Carolina. He was the fourth child of Patrick and Martha Calhoun. Descendants had arrived in Pennsylvania from Ireland in 1733 and eventually settled in an isolated area bordering on Cherokee country near presentday Abbeville, South Carolina. Patrick Calhoun quickly became the military and political leader of this rural community by leading friends and neighbors against Tories (Americans who supported the British during the American Revolution, 1775-83).

While in school, Calhoun read volumes on philosophy and history. Upon his father's death, Calhoun returned home to manage the farm. With financial support from friends and family, Calhoun enrolled at Yale College (now Yale University ) as a junior in 1802. After graduating in the fall of 1804, he studied law in a Charleston, South Carolina, office and moved on to the Litchfield Law School in Connecticut. After completing his studies...