专八人文知识需知的美国名人--约翰.卡德威尔.卡尔霍恩

专八人文知识需知的美国名人--约翰.卡德威尔.卡尔霍恩

　　英语专八人文知识涵盖的知识面较广，考生们需要平时多积累小常识，这样在专八考试中才能游刃有余，新东方在线整理了专八人文知识需知的美国名人系列知识点供考生们参考。

　　John Caldwell Calhoun (March 18, 1782 – March 31, 1850) wasthe seventh Vice President of the United States and a leadingSouthern politician from South Carolina during the first half ofthe 19th century. Calhoun, a brilliant orator and writer, beganhis political career as a nationalist and proponent of protectivetariffs; later, he was a proponent of free trade, states' rights,limited government, and nullification. Calhoun built his reputationas a political theorist by his redefinition of republicanism toinclude approval of slavery and minority rights. His redefinitionwas widely accepted in the South and rejected in the North at the time. His defense of slaverybecame defunct, but his concept of concurrent majority, whereby a minority has the right toobject to or perhaps even veto hostile legislation directed against it, has been incorporated into theAmerican value system.

　　A representative leader of the Irish in South Carolina, he served as Vice President under JohnQuincy Adams and under Andrew Jackson, was the first Vice President to have been born after theAmerican Revolution, and was the first Vice President to resign from office. Calhoun briefly servedin the South Carolina legislature. There he wrote legislation making South Carolina the first state toadopt universal suffrage for white men. As a "war hawk" he agitated in Congress for the War of1812, and as Secretary of War under President James Monroe he reorganized and modernized thewar department, building powerful permanent bureaucracies that ran the department, as opposedto patronage appointees.

　　Although Calhoun died nearly 10 years before the start of the American Civil War, he was aninspiration to the secessionists of 1860–61. Nicknamed the "cast-iron man" for his determination todefend the causes in which he believed, Calhoun supported states' rights and nullification, underwhich states could declare null and void federal laws which they deemed to be unconstitutional. Hewas an outspoken proponent of the institution of slavery, which he famously defended as a"positive good" rather than as a "necessary evil". His rhetorical defense of slavery was partiallyresponsible for escalating Southern threats of secession in the face of mounting abolitionistsentiment in the North.

　　Calhoun was one of the "Great Triumvirate" or the "Immortal Trio" of statesmen, along with hisCongressional colleagues Daniel Webster and Henry Clay. Calhoun served in the House ofRepresentatives (1810–1817) and the United States Senate (1832–1843; 1845–1850). He wasappointed Secretary of War (1817–1824) under James Monroe and Secretary of State (1844–1845) under John Tyler. In 1957, a Senate committee chaired by John F. Kennedy namedCalhoun (along with Clay and Webster) as one of the five greatest senators in U.S. history.

　　War hawk

　　Although he had little charisma or charm, Calhoun was a brilliant orator and strong organizer, andafter his election to Congress in 1810 he immediately became a leader of the "war hawks," alongwith Speaker Henry Clay and South Carolina congressmen William Lowndes and Langdon Cheves.They disregarded European complexities in the wars between Napoleon and Britain, and brushedaside the vehement objections of New Englanders; they demanded war against Britain to preserveAmerican honor and republican values.[8] Clay made Calhoun the acting chairman of the powerfulcommittee on foreign affairs. On June 3, 1812, Calhoun's committee called for a declaration of warin ringing phrases. The episode spread Calhoun's fame nationwide. War—the War of 1812—wasdeclared but it went very badly for the poorly organized Americans, whose ports were immediatelyblockaded by the British Royal Navy. Several attempted invasions of Canada were fiascos, but theU.S. did seize control of western Canada and broke the power of hostile Indians in battles in Canadaand Alabama.

　　Calhoun labored to raise troops, to provide funds, to speed logistics, to improve the currency, andto regulate commerce to aid the war effort. Disasters on the battlefield made him double hislegislative efforts to overcome the obstructionism of John Randolph of Roanoke and DanielWebster and other opponents of the war. With Napoleon apparently gone, and the British invasionof New York defeated, peace was achieved on Christmas, 1814. Before that news reached NewOrleans, a massive British invasion force was utterly defeated at the Battle of New Orleans, whichmade a national hero out of General Andrew Jackson. The mismanagement of the Army during thewar distressed Calhoun, and he resolved to strengthen the War Department so it would never failagain.

　　Nationalist

　　After the war, Calhoun and Clay sponsored a Bonus Bill for public works. With the goal of building astrong nation that could fight future wars, Calhoun aggressively pushed for high protective tariffs(to build up industry), a national bank, internal improvements (such as canals and ports), andmany other nationalist policies he later repudiated.

　　Calhoun expressed his nationalism in advising Monroe to approve the Missouri Compromise, whichmost other Southern politicians saw as a distinctly bad deal. Calhoun believed that continuedagitation on the slavery issue threatened the Union, so he wanted the Missouri dispute to beconcluded.[citation needed]

　　John Quincy Adams concluded in 1821 that: "Calhoun is a man of fair and candid mind, ofhonorable principles, of clear and quick understanding, of cool self-possession, of enlargedphilosophical views, and of ardent patriotism. He is above all sectional and factious prejudices morethan any other statesman of this Union with whom I have ever acted." Historian Charles Wiltseagrees, noting, "Though he is known today primarily for his sectionalism, Calhoun was the last ofthe great political leaders of his time to take a sectional position—later than Daniel Webster, laterthan Henry Clay, later than Adams himself."

　　An observer commented that Calhoun was "the most elegant speaker that sits in the House... Hisgestures are easy and graceful, his manner forcible, and language elegant; but above all, heconfines himself closely to the subject, which he always understands, and enlightens everyonewithin hearing; having said all that a statesman should say, he is done." His talent for publicspeaking required systematic self-discipline and practice. A later critic noted the sharp contrastbetween his hesitant conversations and his fluent speaking styles, adding that Calhoun "had socarefully cultivated his naturally poor voice as to make his utterance clear, full, and distinct inspeaking and while not at all musical it yet fell pleasantly on the ear."

　　Secretary of War: 1817–25

　　In 1817, President James Monroe appointed Calhoun Secretary of War, where he served until1825. Calhoun continued his role as a leading nationalist during the "Era of Good Feeling". Heproposed an elaborate program of national reforms to the infrastructure that would speedeconomic modernization. His first priority was an effective navy, including steam frigates, and in thesecond place a standing army of adequate size; and as further preparation for emergency "greatpermanent roads," "a certain encouragement" to manufactures, and a system of internal taxationwhich would not be subject like customs duties to collapse by a war-time shrinkage of maritimetrade. He spoke for a national bank, for internal improvements (such as harbors, canals and rivernavigation) and a protective tariff that would help the industrial Northeast and, especially, pay forthe expensive new infrastructure. The word "nation" was often on his lips, and his conscious aimwas to enhance national unity which he identified with national power.

　　After the war ended in 1815 the "Old Republicans" in Congress, with their Jeffersonian ideology foreconomy in the federal government, sought at every turn to reduce the operations and financesof the War Department. In 1817, the deplorable state of the War Department led four men toturn down requests to fill the Secretary of War position before Calhoun finally accepted the task.Political rivalry, namely, Calhoun's political ambitions as well as those of William H. Crawford, theSecretary of the Treasury, over the pursuit of the 1824 presidency also complicated Calhoun'stenure as War Secretary.

　　Calhoun proposed an expansible army similar to that of France under Napoleon, whereby a basiccadre of 6,000 officers and men could be expanded into 11,000 without adding additional officersor companies. Congress wanted an army of adequate size in case American interests in Florida orthe west led to war with Britain or Spain. However the nation was satisfied by the diplomacy thatproduced the Convention of 1818 with Britain and the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819 with Spain, theneed for a large army disappeared, and Calhoun could not prevent cutbacks in 1821.

　　As secretary, Calhoun had responsibility for management of Indian affairs. A reform-mindedmodernizer, he attempted to institute centralization and efficiency in the Indian department, butCongress either failed to respond to his reforms or responded with hostility. Calhoun's frustrationwith congressional inaction, political rivalries, and ideological differences that dominated the lateearly republic spurred him to unilaterally create the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1824. He supervisedthe negotiation and ratification of 38 treaties with Indian tribes.

　　Slavery issues

　　Calhoun led the pro-slavery faction in the Senate in the 1830s and 1840s, opposing bothabolitionism and attempts to limit the expansion of slavery into the western territories.[citationneeded] He was a major advocate of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, which required the co-operationof local law enforcement officials in free states to return escaped slaves.

　　Whereas other Southern politicians had excused slavery as a necessary evil, in a famous February1837 speech on the Senate floor, Calhoun asserted that slavery was a "positive good." He rootedthis claim on two grounds—white supremacy and paternalism. All societies, Calhoun claimed, areruled by an elite group which enjoys the fruits of the labor of a less-privileged group.

　　In that speech, he stated: "I may say with truth, that in few countries so much is left to the shareof the laborer, and so little exacted from him, or where there is more kind attention paid to him insickness or infirmities of age. Compare his condition with the tenants of the poor houses in themore civilized portions of Europe—look at the sick, and the old and infirm slave, on one hand, inthe midst of his family and friends, under the kind superintending care of his master and mistress,and compare it with the forlorn and wretched condition of the pauper in the poorhouse."

　　After a one-year service as Secretary of State, (April 1, 1844 – March 10, 1845) Calhoun returnedto the Senate in 1845. He participated in the epic political struggle over the expansion of slavery inthe Western states. Regions were divided as to whether slavery should be allowed in the formerlyImperial Spanish and Mexican lands. The debate over this issue culminated in the Compromise of1850.

　　Legacy

　　During the Civil War, the Confederate government honored Calhoun on a one-cent postagestamp, which was printed but never officially released.

　　Calhoun was honored by Minneapolis, naming one of its Chain of Lakes, Lake Calhoun, after him.

　　Calhoun was also honored by his alma mater, Yale University, which named one of itsundergraduate residence halls "Calhoun College" and erected a statue of Calhoun in HarknessTower, a prominent campus landmark.

　　Clemson University campus, South Carolina, occupies the site of Calhoun's Fort Hill plantation,which he bequeathed to his wife and daughter. They sold it and its 50 slaves to a relative, for whichthey received $15,000 for the 1,100 acres (450 ha) and $29,000 for the slaves. (They werevalued at about 600 USD apiece.) When that owner died, Thomas Green Clemson foreclosed themortgage. He later bequeathed the property to the state for use as an agricultural college to benamed after him.

　　A wide range of places, streets and schools were named after Calhoun, as may be seen on theabove list. The "Immortal Trio" were memorialized with streets in Uptown New Orleans. CalhounLanding, on the Santee-Cooper River in Santee, South Carolina, was named after him. TheCalhoun Monument was erected in Charleston, South Carolina. The USS John C. Calhoun was aFleet Ballistic Missile nuclear submarine, in commission from 1963 to 1994.

　　In 1957, United States Senators honored Calhoun as one of the "five greatest senators of all time."

　　约翰·卡德威尔·卡尔霍恩(John Caldwell Calhoun，1782年3月18日-1850年3月31日)，美国政治家，南卡罗来纳州人。他是19世纪前半叶最著名的美国政治家之一。 　　虽然卡尔霍恩在美国南北战争爆发前十年就逝世了，但他是后来短命的美利坚联盟国的主要精神设计师。卡尔霍恩享有“铸铁人”之称，原因是他毫不动摇地坚持他的信仰。他提出了无效论的理论。这个极端理论的内容是任何州在认为任何联邦法律违反宪法的话可以宣称这个法律无效。他是奴隶制的强烈支持者。他维护奴隶制，说奴隶制是一个“正当的财产”，而不是一个必要的坏事。他对奴隶制的强烈维护是南方针对北方不断增强的反奴隶制态度开始威胁退出联邦的因素之一。 　　卡尔霍恩的这个遗产使得他与南方反叛息息相连。但是卡尔霍恩生前却始终为联邦政府服务。他在华盛顿哥伦比亚特区任多个高职。他是第七任美国副总统：首先任约翰·昆西·亚当斯(1825年至1829年)、后来任安德鲁·杰克逊(从1829年至1832年)的副总统。1832年辞职后任美国参议院议员，在参议院里他的势力更加加强。从1810年到1817年他还曾任美国众议院议员，从1817年到1824年美国战争部部长，从1844年到1845年美国国务卿。

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