Calhoun Loved Politics, But Not Being VP

History has dubbed Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and John Calhoun “the great triumvirate” and “the immortal trio,” the congressional powerhouses of the era between the Founding and the Civil War. However, individual legacies were blurred at the expense of this clique. Calhoun was, after all, the vice president to both John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, a feat shared only by George Clinton (who served under both Jefferson and Madison). Calhoun lived a political life all of his own, full (and constitutionally suspect) even without history's forging ties to Clay and Webster.