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In honor of John C. Calhoun, a great South Carolina
statesman,
many schools will celebrate his birthday on Tuesday, March
18, with "South Carolina Day."
John C. Calhoun (1782-1850) was educated at Moses Waddell's Academy and Yale College, from
which he graduated in 1804. After studying law, he opened a law office in Abbeville. Calhoun's
political career began in 1808 when he was elected to the state legislature.
In 1810, Calhoun was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and soon became known as one
of the War Hawks who persistently called for war with Britain.
Throughout the War of 1812, he was determined to raise troops, provide money, speed up supply lines,
and anything else that would assist the military effort.
After three terms in Congress, Calhoun was appointed Secretary of War by President James Monroe.
This portrait of Calhoun was painted by Charles Bird King while Calhoun was Secretary of War.
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Fort
Hill
Fort Hill was the home of John C.
Calhoun, South Carolina's pre-eminent19th century statesman,
from 1825 until his death in 1850.
The antebellum plantation home, office and kitchen are furnished mostly with family artifacts.
John Caldwell Calhoun's
national political career spanned
40 years from 1810 to 1850.
His service in the national government included:
United States representative (1811-1817);
secretary of war to President James Monroe (1817-1825);
vice president to President John Quincy Adams (1825-1829);
vice president to President Andrew Jackson (1829-1832);
United States senator (1832-1843);
secretary of state to President John Tyler (1844-1845)
and United States senator (1845-1850).
Thomas Green Clemson, Calhoun's son-in-law and
founder of theUniversity, envisioned
"the preservation of the home of the
illustrious
man who spent his life in the public service of his country."
Thomas Clemson willed that Fort Hill "shall always be open for the inspection of visitors."
Location
Fort Hill is located in Clemson, S.C., near
the intersection of Fort Hill Street and Calhoun Drive
in the center of the Clemson University campus.
Fort Hill is
open Monday - Friday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.;
Saturday, 10 a.m. to noon & 1 to 4:30 p.m.; and
Sunday, 2 to 4:30 p.m. Closed university holidays.
The song playing
is our State song, "Carolina".
Acting on the memorial of the South Carolina Daughters of the
American
Revolution that the patriotic song "Carolina," written by Henry Timrod,
South Carolina's most beloved poet, be set to music by
Miss Anne
Custis Burgess, and be made "legally the State Song."
The General
Assembly, on February 11, 1911, adopted
Senator W.L. Mauldin's
Concurrent Resolution that it
"be accented and declared to be the State Song of South Carolina."
"Carolina"
Written by Henry
Timrod
Composed by Anne Custis Burgess
Hold up the glories of thy
dead;
Say how thy elder children bled,
And point to Eutaw's
battle-bed.
Carolina! Carolina!
Throw thy bold banner to the
breeze!
Front with thy ranks the threatening seas
Like thine own proud
armorial trees,
Carolina! Carolina!
Thy skirts indeed the foe may
part,
Thy robe be pierced with sword and dart,
They shall not touch
thy noble heart,
Carolina! Carolina!
Girt with such wills to do
and bear,
Assured in right, and mailed in prayer,
Thou wilt not bow
thee to despair,
Carolina! Carolina!
South Carolina Flag History
The state flag of South Carolina was officially adopted in
1861.
It has a white crescent moon and a white palmetto tree on a blue ground.
Three white
crescent moons (on a blue background) were first used on
a South
Carolina banner protesting the Stamp Act in 1765.
In 1775, Colonel William Moultrie designed a banner for South Carolina
troops;
it had a white
crescent moon on a blue field.
Col. William
Moultrie chose the blue which matched the color of their
uniforms and a crescent which reproduced the silver
emblem
worn on the front of their caps.
When South Carolina seceded from the Union, the palmetto tree was
added
to the flag. The palmetto tree was chosen because this tree
had helped South Carolinians defeat the British in a battle at
Sullivan's
Island (during the Revolutionary War).
The South Carolinians built a fort out of palmetto wood, and when
the British fired cannonballs at the fort, instead of knocking the fort
down,
the soft palmetto wood just absorbed the cannonballs.
Pledge To The South Carolina Flag
I salute the flag of South Carolina and pledge to the Palmetto state, love, loyalty and faith.
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State Capital
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State
Motto |
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State
Tree |
State
Flower
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State
Fruit Peach  |
State Animal White Tail Deer  |
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State Bird |
State
Fish |
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State
Butterfly |
State Insect Carolina Mantid Common Name: Praying Mantis  |
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Dog Boykin spaniel
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State
Reptile Loggerhead Turtle
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| State
Spider Carolina wolf spider
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State
Amphibian Spotted salamander  |
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Game Bird Wild Turkey 
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State
Shell Lettered Olive 
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Stone Blue granite  |
State
Gemstone Amethyst
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State Beverage Milk  |
State
Hospitality Beverage Tea 
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| State
Dance
The shag
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State
Folk Dance
The square dance |
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Waltz The Richardson waltz
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Fast Facts South Carolina License
Plate State Capital
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Whispering Bill Anderson songwriter, Columbia |
South Carolina Links
Graphic and Information Credits
South Carolina logos from Discover
South Carolina
South Carolina map from Enchanted
Learning
John C. Calhoun photos from
The
History of Clemson web site
State Symbols from Microsoft Home Publishing and
State House Girls web site.
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South Carolina Kindergarten Curriculum Standards
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