history forest

Today, December 28, 1832 John C. Calhoun, then the Vice-President of the United States resigned his position to accept a term as Senator from South Caorlina. He became the first Vice-President to resign from office. He first served under President John Quincy Adams as well as the next President, Andrew Jackson. (Does this make him a professional Vice-President?) He resigned out from under Andrew Jackson.

John Calhoun also served as a Senator (didn’t I just say he resigned to take that job?) as well as a US Representative and Secretary of War, as well as Secretary of State!

What is interesting is that while Calhoun was serving as VP for Adams, he realized that Jackson had more popularity and that it was possible for greedy, self-serving politicians to manipulate things, so he jinxed Adams’ chance for re-election and served under Jackson’s administration.

Read John Caldwell Calhoun’s biography (short) at the US Congres website.

Here’s a little longer bio on him, from a site that appears to be in the Netherlands!