John Niven paints a portrait of Calhoun that is both sympathetic and tragic . He says that Calhoun 's ambition and personal desires " were often thwarted by lesser men than he . " Niven identifies Calhoun as a " driven man and a tragic figure . " He argues that Calhoun was motivated by the near disaster of the War of 1812 , of which he was a " thoughtless advocate , " to work towards fighting for the freedoms and securities of the white Southern people against any kind of threat . Ultimately , Niven says , he " ... would overcompensate and in the end would more than any other individual destroy the culture he sought to preserve , perpetuating for several generations the very insecurity that had shaped his public career . " Recently , Calhoun 's reputation has suffered particularly due to his defense of slavery . The racially motivated Charleston church shooting in South Carolina in June 2015 reinvigorated demands for the removal of monuments dedicated to prominent pro-slavery and Confederate States figures . That month , the monument to Calhoun in Charleston was found vandalized , with spray-painted denunciations of Calhoun as a racist and a defender of slavery
Charleston church shooting
Charleston church shooting
John C. Calhoun