Calhoun on the Move

John Calhoun had an extensive public service pedigree. He began as a representative, served eight years under President Monroe as Secretary of War, briefly as President Polk’s Secretary of State, then again as Secretary of War for President Tyler, while serving sixteen years as a Senator. The brash, states-rights proponent, powerful orator from South Carolina was the first vice-president to serve under two presidents: John Quincy Adams (1825-1829) and Andrew Jackson (1829-1833). His history and role in the first half of America’s 19th century, particularly in sectional politics that paved the road to civil war, is extensive. His firebrand politics as a slaveholding, ardent state’s right supporter was a tour de force and made many enemies, particularly in northern states. By 1850, Calhoun was a tired, enfeebled, old man who was past his prime and his ability to cogently argue had passed. He was also suffering from tuberculosis, a disease for which there was no cure.

Saturday, March 30, 1850, Calhoun was restless and weak, and spoke little during the day. In the evening, letters were read to him, which sparked a surge of conversation from Calhoun. He spoke on the South in hopes it would unite against Northern aggression. There was little else from Calhoun and he passed the late evening in discomfort, sliding towards dissolution, as his final hours were spent in a boarding house that served as his residence in his waning years. Sunday, March 31, at 12:30 AM, his breathing became heavily labored. His son, Dr. John Calhoun, Jr., the only family member with him, took a seat beside his father’s bed. Calhoun asked his son to lay down, then asked his son if he was concerned. His son responded that he was and suggested his father take some wine, but he refused, telling him, “No, I don’t require any more stimulus.” Calhoun again asked his son to lay down, who, although greatly concerned about his dad, could nothing for his father. At 2:00 AM, he called to his son, “John, come to me!” He then asked him to feel his pulse because “I have no pulsation at the wrist.” He was then given some medicine (no record what it was) “which had a delightful effect.” At 5:00 AM, his son asked if he was in pain. Calhoun told him, “No, I have not felt the slightest pain throughout the whole attack.” His son then asked, “Are you comfortable now?” Calhoun was, telling him “I am perfectly comfortable.” These were his last words. At 5:45 AM, his motioned his son to his bed, held out his hand, gripped his son’s hand, looked at his face, and tried to speak. Calhoun then called another person in the room, Hon. Mr. Venable of North Carolina, over to his bed. Calhoun held his hand and then showed his wrist. Mr. Venable told him his pulse was faint and insisted he drink some wine. Mr. Venable took some wine out of the room’s wardrobe, poured a glass, walked back to the bed, and held it for Mr. Calhoun, who raised his head from his pillow and drank some of it. Mr. Venable then left the room and brought back with him two more men, the Hon. Mr. Wallace and Hon. Mr. Orr of South Carolina. Mr. Orr walked to the bed and checked Calhoun’s pulse. He then asked if he wanted the physician sent for, but Calhoun declined. Obviously focused on his wrist and with his impending demise, he again presented his wrist to Mr. Venable who remarked “there is no return of pulsation.” As Calhoun had his eyes locked on the face of Mr. Venable, he began to breathe heavily and put one hand on top of his head and ran it through his hair, and then placed his hand on his chest. His breathing then slowed considerably and a heavy, phlegm filled throat noise rose and fell with each draw of air. He then took a deep breath, passed away, and his eyes dimmed. Time of death was 7:30 AM. Mr. Venable then passed his hand over Calhoun’s face and closed his eyes.

Calhoun’s funeral, planned by a committee of six, was held in Washington at noon on Tuesday, April 2 in the U.S. Senate Chamber. Shortly before 11AM, the planning committee, pall bearers, and family and friends met at Calhoun’s residence, Old Brick Capitol boarding house. At 11AM, Calhoun’s coffin was carried out of the boarding house and taken to the U.S. Capitol. At 12:20 PM, Calhoun’s heavy iron coffin was brought into the chamber and placed on a bier before the Senate dais. Attending the funeral service was a long list of government notables, President Taylor and Vice-President Fillmore, the Speaker of the House, members of the House, the Diplomatic corps, Supreme Court justices, Cabinet members, and officers of the Army and Navy, along with family and friends. With the guests seated and the guest of honor in position, Senate Chaplain Rev. Dr. Butler began the service, reading the Episcopalian rites. Calhoun’s coffin was then carried out of the Senate chamber and taken down the steps of the Capitol’s East Portico and placed on a funeral car, forming part of a lengthy line of carriages waiting to escort the large funeral party to Congressional Cemetery. At the cemetery gates, the pallbearers escorted the coffin to the Public Vault and placed it on a simple bier. The burial service, much like Calhoun’s outward appearance, was direct, plain, and free of pomp and pageantry.

Three weeks later, on Monday, April 22, Calhoun’s coffin was removed from the Public Vault and taken to the Capitol East Portico steps, where it was received by a select escort composed of the Senate committee, the South Carolina select committee, representatives, two family members, and some affluent citizens. A somber and slow procession then proceeded to a wharf on the Potomac River. Calhoun’s coffin was then taken aboard on the streamer Baltimore, the deck draped in mourning, and carried inside and placed in the upper saloon, decorated with mourning emblems and black crape. (FN: Just after the coffin was placed, another coffin holding the remains of House Representative H. W. Willard’s son was placed next to it) The steamer began its journey down the Potomac River, passing by displays of mourning and flags aboard ships and buildings along the riverbank lowered to half-mast. Awaiting the steamer at Aquia Creek was a special funeral train to transport Calhoun’s coffin to Richmond. Greeting the steamer as it docked was a group of esteemed citizens from Richmond and Fredericksburg and a military escort to receive the coffin. As funerary music played, the coffin was removed and loaded into a funeral car. The train then lurched forward and slowly gained speed as it set out for Richmond, passing by Fredericksburg and then onto Milford, where a stop was made to allow the Fredericksburg contingent to exit the train. At 4:30 PM, the funeral train reached the outskirts of Richmond, and was met by a receiving committee and a funeral car, tethered to four black horses. A large assemblage of citizens, elected officials and military units then escorted the funeral car in a procession to the Capitol, where the coffin was placed in the “House of Delegates” and remained for the night. In the late morning, the coffin was escorted to the funeral car and taken in a procession to the train depot. The funeral train headed out for Petersburg, arriving around noon. Calhoun’s coffin was then escorted to St. Paul’s Church and placed on a bier. In the evening, the coffin was taken to the Petersburg and Roanoke Railroad depot, secured in a funeral car, and at 8:00 PM, the funeral train headed south for Weldon, passing through around 2:00 AM (Wednesday), and arriving in Wilmington at 1:00 PM. To adhere to the schedule and to arriving in Charleston the next day, there was little delay in. Calhoun’s coffin was promptly removed from the train and placed on a funeral car tethered to one white horse covered in black. In short order, the procession set out for the steamer, Nina, passing through an impressive display of mourning shown on decorated storefronts, homes, and ships anchored in the wharf. At 3:00 PM, with Calhoun’s coffin secured on the Nina, the steamer, joined by the Wilmington, lifted anchor, and headed for Charleston, chosen to receive the honors of welcoming home the state’s honored and celebrated patriot.

At noon, April 25, the Nina arrived in Charleston at Smith’s Wharf. Calhoun’s coffin was promptly conveyed to a massive and elaborately designed funeral car tethered to fix black horses, modeled after the one used for Napoleon Bonaparte. It was a sizeable piece of craftsmanship, measuring sixteen feet long, ten feet wide, and six feet high. Fixed to the middle of the funeral car was a dais twelve feet long, seven feet wide, and two feet high, surrounded by eight pillars topped by a black cornice twelve inches deep under a roof topped by four-foot-high plumes, with an overall height of twenty-three feet. Greeting this spectacular display of mourning was, arguably up this time, the largest crowd ever assembled in Charleston to pay their respects to the state’s legendary cantankerous senator. Every available space-tree, window, door, roof top, steeple-was occupied and crowds lining both sides of the processional route were several bodies deep. Just like every occupied space along the processional route, every building along the processional route was decorated with bands black crape and customary mourning emblems.

Between 12:00 and 1:00 PM, the procession reached Citadel Square and then onto City Hall, where it came to a stop. Body-bearers then removed the coffin and then delivered it to an Honor Guard who escorted the coffin into City Hall where it was placed on a catafalque described as a “tomb-shaped structure” where it remained through morning as an Honorary Guard made up of 200 men took turns watching over the remains. For the duration of its stay in City Hall, a steady stream of mourners paid their respects, passing through the main entrance, pausing at the catafalque, and exiting through a door in the rear.

On Thursday morning, 10:00 AM, Calhoun’s coffin was removed from City Hall and escorted in a procession to St. Philip’s Church, appropriately but modestly decorated for the funeral. Body bearers escorted the coffin down the main aisle and placed it on a bier covered in black velvet. The funeral service began with an anthem piece sung by a choir. Right Rev. Dr. Gadsden took to the podium and officiated the funeral service, with the Rev. Mr. Miles reading the funeral discourse. Calhoun’s coffin was then borne out of the church and carried directly across Church St. to Western Cemetery (referred to at the time as the “strangers graveyard,” used for visitors and travelers) to Calhoun’s simple tomb, identified by the American flag drooped over it, “its folds mournfully sweeping the verge of the tomb, as swayed by the passing wind.” Some remarks were given and Calhoun’s coffin, wrapped in an American flag, was then lowered into the rectangular brick tomb, lined on the inside with cedar, and then secured by a marble slab inscribed with one word, “Calhoun.”

Originally, Calhoun was to rest temporarily in Charleston as the South Carolina legislature made arrangements for his permanent residence in Columbia, a major part being a memorial grand in scope and size to match the history and character of its occupant. Charleston council and Mayor Thomas Leger Hutchinson requested the honor for the city to be the permanent home of Calhoun’s remains and sought permission from the family as well and cooperation with Governor Whitemarsh B. Seabrook. Permission was granted from both parties and Calhoun has remained in Charleston since his internment but has not always rested in the same spot.

Calhoun’s grave has brought with it an interesting tale that arose during the Civil War. In 1863, several male friends of Calhoun who lived in Charleston, worried over the very real possibility and threat of a fleet of Union ships sailing past Confederate forts into Charleston harbor and taking control of their beloved southern city, requested Gen. P.T. Beauregard alert them when the city was in danger of attack so they could remove Calhoun’s remains to a safe location. In either late August or early September, Gen. Beauregard notified Calhoun’s friends that Union monitor ships had made it past the bar of Charleston harbor and that, given the uncertainty of whether Confederate forts could defend the city, he felt the city was at risk of being attacked. On the Saturday evening, September 5, preceding the evacuation of Confederate forces from Morris Island, an integral part of the city’s defenses guarding the southern end of the harbor, Calhoun’s friends entered the gates of St. Philip’s Church and watched as several laborers removed Calhoun’s coffin from the confines of his brick vault. As the story goes, the coffin was moved into the church side cemetery, known as the “friendly graveyard,” and placed under the north gallery stairs (no information on whether they buried the coffin in a shallow grave) and hid with “loose material.” On Monday evening, Calhoun’s friends returned to the church and prepared a grave in the yard adjacent to the church. To keep its location secret, the laborers employed the previous night were not used; however, St. Philip’s sexton, a sexton from the Huguenot church, and two to three other witnesses were on hand. Apparently, despite several witnesses watching the secret burial, it remained a secret until Saturday, April 8, 1871 when Calhoun’s remains were returned to their original location in the “strangers graveyard.” During the return, a lady member of the church placed a laurel wreath on the coffin. Interestingly, his wife, Floride, who survived him by sixteen years, is buried in the “friendly graveyard” alongside their children.

For twelve years, Calhoun rested in Western Cemetery, in the lowly confines of a brick lined grave, built in haste, unadorned without much mention to his accomplished career as a senator and vice-president. In December 1883, a member of St. Philips Church and state representative, Charles Inglesby, introduced a Joint Resolution in the S.C. state legislature requesting an appropriation of $3,000 for a new Calhoun gravesite memorial. The resolution was passed unanimously and in January 1884, the $3,000 was secured. (FN: The memorial’s plans, estimates, and costs were overseen by S.C. Gov. Hugh Thompson.) A call for designs was published, providing the dimensions and specifications of the memorial work, and in quick order a design was secured and work on the memorial began. On Thursday, November 13, under the watch of a small party of state and local politicians and military officers, his “well-preserved” coffin, still with the wreath of laurel and cypress leaves placed on it from the reburial in 1871, was removed from his original brick vault. The brick vault was then dismantled, and the brick foundation prepared to make way for the new memorial and before the month was out the new memorial was in place, securing the remains of South Carolina’s infamous statesman.

Made of Vermont-Barre granite, Calhoun’s memorial is a massive block of craftmanship that compliments the fiery orator's larger-than-life personality. The bottom block, at nearly six-and-half feet wide and ten feet long and the second block, at eight feet long by four feet wide by two feet thick, serve as the sarcophagus for Calhoun’s coffin by way a cavity carved into the middle of the two blocks. The third block, at seven feet long by three feet wide and one foot thick, rests over the sarcophagus, supports the fourth and only inscribed block of the memorial, at six feet long, nearly two feet wide, and twenty-nine inches thick. The fourth block features a column anchoring each corner that helps to not only balance the memorial but also to frame the memorial’s four inscriptions, one per side. The fifth and final block of the memorial, despite being eight feet long, forty-five inches wide, and thirty inches thick, and jutting out over the rest of the memorial, is balanced by the fourth block and its anchoring columns. His inscriptions read,

John Caldwell Calhoun

Born March 18, 1782;

Died March 31, 1850

Secretary

of War

Vice President

Secretary

of State

Erected

By The State Of

South Carolina

A.D. 1884

Representative

Member Of Congress

United States

Senator

When sorting through the history of presidents and vice-presidents and their gravesites, there are a few who resided in multiple gravesites, e.g., Grant, Lincoln, Clinton; however, not all of the gravesites were preserved for future gravesite seekers. In the case of Calhoun, his original gravesite was dismantled but the marble slab that covered it was preserved and placed against the south wall of St. Philip’s Sunday School. And, the slab was also inscribed with a lengthy epitaph to compliment the simple inscription, “Calhoun.” It reads/read (at this time, I’m unable to verify if the original slab is still at the church),

“This marble for thirty-four years covered the tomb of Calhoun in the Western Churchyard. It has been placed here by the Vestry, near the spot where his remains were interred during the siege of Charleston, from which spot they were afterwards removed to the original tomb, and subsequently deposited under the Sarcophagus erected on the same site in 1884 by the State.”

Among the Vice Presidents, Calhoun was given one of the grandest send-offs among his contemporaries, rivaled perhaps by the funeral of Thomas Hendricks, President Cleveland’s brief serving Vice President. Calhoun was more than just a two-time Vice President, a Secretary of State, and a Senator, and fierce defender of slavery and states rights, nearly bringing the full might of the federal government upon his state with the nullification crisis he waged against President Jackson. He was the closest South Carolina had to a President. Whether one agrees or not, it cannot be disputed the state held him in high esteem made evident by the money spent on the massive granite sarcophagus that holds his remains. Politics aside, it’s a strong statement in support of an individual when the state pays for a memorial that would cost tens of thousands of dollars in today’s monies. Is it worth visiting? Yes. Why? One, the church and its cemeteries are worth walking through and, two, downtown Charleston is a beautiful area filled with great restaurants and interesting history to keep you busy for a long weekend.