CALHOUN 



1055 



CALICO 



JOHN C. CALHOUN 



Calhoun was born on March 18, 1782, near 

 Abbeville, S. C., of Scotch-Irish parents. His 

 early education was meager, for the family was 

 poor, but he studied hard and in 1802 was 

 able to enter the junior class at Yale College. 

 Graduating with 

 honors two years 

 later, he contin- 

 ued his study of 

 the law, was ad- 

 mitted to the bar 

 and began to 

 practice at Abbe- 

 ville. In the next 

 year (1808) he 

 was elected to 

 the state legisla- 

 ture, and there 

 he proved so 

 noticeably above 

 the average in 

 ability that iu 1811 he was sent to Congress. 

 Almost at once he became prominent as an ad- 

 herent, strangely enough, of Henry Clay, and 

 the two "war hawks," as they were called, 

 did much to bring on the War of 1812 with 

 England. A national bank, a strong navy, a 

 protective tariff all these Calhoun favored in 

 his early years, for he was then a nationalist 

 rather than a states' rights adherent. As Secre- 

 tary of War from 1817 to 1825, in the Cabinet 

 of Monroe, he displayed remarkable ability. 



In 1824 by a large majority he was elected 

 Vice-President on the ticket with John Quincy 

 Adams, but by this time his views were begin- 

 ning to shift, and from the date of his reelec- 

 tion to the Vice-Presidency in 1828, this time 

 under Jackson, his theories as he held them 

 to his life's end were fairly well established. 

 The agricultural states of the South were smart- 

 ing under what they called the "tariff of 

 abominations" a protective measure which 

 favored the manufacturing states of New Eng- 

 land at their expense; and Calhoun came for- 

 ward as their champion with his "South Caro- 

 lina Exposition," which declared that no state 

 could be bound by a Federal law which it 

 regarded as unconstitutional. This led to a 

 sharp break with Jackson, and the nullifica- 

 tion question was for years in the forefront 

 of public notice. Calhoun resigned the Vice- 

 Presidency in 1832 and entered the Senate, 

 and though Clay arranged a compromise which 

 prevented open warfare on the nullification 

 question, Calhoun remained a bitter critic of 

 Jackson's administration. See NULLIFICATION. 



From 1832 to 1843 he served in the Senate, 

 in 1844 was Secretary of State under Tyler, and 

 in the next year reentered the Senate, where 

 he served until his death. At first his advo- 

 cacy of slavery was merely incidental to his 

 faith in states' rights, but gradually he came 

 to look upon slavery not merely as necessary 

 but as desirable. He was largely responsible 

 for the admission of Texas to the Union and 

 therefore for the swiftly-following Mexican 

 War, but he ardently opposed that conflict. To 

 the last he was active in his efforts for his 

 beloved South, writing a final great speech in 

 1850 when he was so weak and ill that he had 

 to allow it to be read by a colleague. His 

 Disquisition on Government and Discourse on 

 the Constitution and Government of the United 

 States were remarkable discussions of constitu- 

 tional questions. A.MCC. 



Consult Von Hoist's Life of Calhoun; Dodd's 

 Statesmen of the South. 



CALICO, kal'iko, AND CALICO PRINT- 

 ING. When your grandmother was a girl she 

 thought herself very fortunate to have a dress 

 or two of pretty calico "print." Nowadays we 

 have so many cloths beautiful in texture as 

 well as in color or design that calico is no 

 longer a favorite for gowns. But grandmother's 

 calico cost perhaps seventy-five cents a yard, 

 while to-day from five to ten yards of it may 

 be had for that price, so because of its de- 

 creased cost many other uses have been found 

 for it. The cheaper grades of some materials, 

 such as percale and cretonne, are really calico, 

 though people would not buy them as readily 

 if they were called by that name. In England 

 the word calico includes plain white cotton 

 goods, but in the United States and Canada 

 it refers only to the less expensive cloth 

 stamped with designs in color. 



Printing. Most calico has its pattern on one 

 side only. This is because it is printed, very 

 much like a newspaper. A copper roller on 

 which is engraved the design is pressed tightly 

 against a padded cast-iron cylinder so placed 

 that the cloth passes between the two, like 

 clothes going through a wringer. The color, 

 mixed with starch or flour to keep it from 

 blotting, is transferred from the engraved part 

 of the roller to the cloth; a knife called the 

 color-doctor keeps the smooth part of the 

 roller clean. If more than one color is to 

 be printed there must be a roller for each. 

 Sometimes, to give the appearance of a cloth 

 in which the design is woven, calico is printed 

 on both sides, the pattern matching exactly. 



