Calhoun did not find this an easy decision to make.
Above all things he wanted to be President. He was not the author of
nullification; and although he did not fully realize until too late
how much his state rights leanings would cost him in the North, he was
shrewd enough to know that his political fortunes would not be
bettered by his becoming involved in a great sectional controversy.
Circumstances worked together, however, to force Calhoun gradually
into the position of chief prominence in the dissenting movement. The
tide of public opinion in his State swept him along with it; the
breach with Jackson severed the last tie with the northern and western
democracy; and his resentment of Van Buren's rise to favor prompted
words and acts which completed the isolation of the South Carolinian.
His party's enthusiastic acceptance of Jackson as a candidate for
reelection in 1832 and of "Little Van" as a candidate for the vice
presidency--and, by all tokens, for the presidency four years
later--was the last straw. Broken and desperate, Calhoun sank back
into the role of an extremist, sectional leader.
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