Senator, South Carolina · 1832–1850
John C. Calhoun
Theorist of nullification and a defender of slavery as a positive good. States’ rights against a national majority.
John C. Calhoun is on the former-members chart, not the current Congress. The office on file is Senator, South Carolina, 1832–1850. The placement note is: Theorist of nullification and a defender of slavery as a positive good. States’ rights against a national majority.
The dot is economics +8 and authority +58. That is near the middle on economics. The other axis sits toward authority. Former members are placed from the public career, not from a 119th Congress Voteview score.
Said: The states could nullify a federal law, and slavery was a positive good. Done: Nullification failed in his lifetime. The positive-good argument became the Confederacy’s after his death. The placement follows what the career did when the two diverge.
The nearest other former members on these two numbers are Richard Russell (+4 / +58) and Strom Thurmond (+18 / +66). Nearness is not a school of thought.
This page does not add votes that are not in the placement note. The bills themselves are in the Congressional Record for those years.