Announcer: A production of the South Carolina Educational Television Network Mary: The private life of a very important person is frequently different from the image projected to the world.

We are visiting Fort Hill, home of John C. Calhoun, considered to be the foremost statesman of South Carolina.

Fort Hill is in the heart of Clemson University.

You will enjoy a visit here.

♪ ♪ ♪ Fort Hill is a beautiful home.

For 25 years it was the residence of John C. Calhoun, but this was not always his environment.

He was born in the Long Cane settlement near Abbeville on a farm on which he worked hard.

He was educated in his brother-in-law's academy and attended Yale University, where he finished Phi Beta Kappa in two years.

He studied law in Litchfield, Connecticut, and practiced law for a year or so in Abbeville.

He was more interested in government and politics than in the practice of law.

Along the way he met his second cousin, Floride Bonneau Calhoun, a beautiful young lady of French Huguenot descent from the aristocratic Lowcountry of the state.

They were married and had ten children, seven of whom lived to adulthood.

Calhoun served the government in every capacity.

He was a state senator and twice was vice president of the United States.

However, he resigned his second vice presidency to become a state senator, where he felt that he could serve the people of the South more efficiently because laws passed by the federal government were detrimental to the economy and progress of, particularly, South Carolina.

So John C. Calhoun led the fight for states' rights at a time which was very tragic in American politics.

Senator Strom Thurmond expressed that theory so well by saying, "Local people understand local problems best, so therefore, local laws should be made by local people."

For this principle, Calhoun fought throughout his life.

He died in 1850, but until then, this beautiful home was his official residence.

And Mrs. Calhoun, with her ideas of the Lowcountry, transformed a simple, four-room farmhouse into this beautiful example of Southern Greek Revival style, with its three piazzas and its extensive grounds.

Even today the grounds are very lovely.

An allee of cedar trees was the carriage drive, and huge, old trees of every description.

Fort Hill has been lived in as a private home until 1935.

The restoration of Fort Hill was assisted by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and now it belongs to Clemson University and consequently to we, the people of South Carolina.

It's a very lovely place, beautifully furnished.

Our hostess and tour guide is Ann Russell.

♪ This is a beautiful room.

This is the parlor.

Where the formal entertaining of national and international guests takes place.

Many items in here belonged to John and Floride Calhoun, but others are family pieces through the years.

This was the sp inet harpsichord?

That's right...that belonged to Mrs. Calhoun.

That's an English piece.

She was ve ry musical, an artist, ex cellent needlewoman, and ran the plantation like a man.

Plantation mistress, that's right.

This lovely item here-- let me see-- five sons and two daughters?

That's correct.

The oldest son ran the cotton plantation in Alabama.

Andrew Pickens, right.

Then Anna married Thomas Sumter, who became founder-- I mean Thomas Clemson became the founder of Clemson University.

That's a story for another day!

Okay, all right... hope we can tell it!

This was An na's piano.

Given by her uncle right before she married, so that's very significant for Anna and Thomas Clemson.

The university could be said to have been founded in this room because they were married here.

This could be the site of the start of Clemson because the wedding of Anna Calhoun and Thomas Clemson took place here almost 150 years ago.

Beautiful!

This is An na's portrait?

Right...that was painted when they lived in Belgium.

She was in her early 30s, mother of the two children also pictured in this room.

She's just be autiful!

This couch catches th e imagination.

It's horsehair up holstered, but the mahogany is carved, te ll me the story.

I think this came originally fr om Mount Vernon.

Right...this is Mount Vernon furniture, but at Fort Hill legitimately because one of Clemson's sisters married into the George Washington family, and this was inherited.

Would the eagles be there because of Ge orge Washington?

It is possible, there is some story that those eagles might have been the copy from which the first coins were made, so that is a possible story that you could relate to.

These side pieces ha ve scales.

Right...they would be serpentine.

The feet are dolphin feet.

You could refer to that as the dolphin sofa as well as the George Washington sofa.

Extremely valuable antique!

This chair, th is Hitchcock, which shows a great deal of use, was George Wa shington's?

That was in the Washington family.

Once again, legitimately here at Fort Hill because of the Clemson connection with the Washington family.

We must do Thomas Clemson because we need a detailed explanation.

This lovely chair with th e king's head on the handles was a gift to Clemson from the king of Belgium, from King Leopold, and we refer to that as the royal chair for that reason.

May we see the dining room?

Sure!

Let's go.

♪ This is a truly beautiful room!

The banqueting table... the size is tremendous!

This is actually two tables, two single-board dr op-leaf tables extended as one banquet table, so that's as big as it will ever be.

I understand these are Duncan Phyfe originals.

Right, the table is Duncan Phyfe.

That's African mahogany, for th ose interested in the woods.

The chairs, ti ger maple, also Duncan Phyfe, a set of 12, really museum-quality furniture.

Oh, it is beautiful.

Speaking of wood, you were telling me earlier, that this lovely sideboard, the wood came from the officers' quarters of the USS "Constitution."

That's right.

Why did they take the wood out?

The ship was going to be de clared unseaworthy, so before it wa s destroyed, this was made from the wood fr om the officers' quarters.

Then Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote the poem.

That's right... hi s poem "Old Ironsides" really romanticized th e ship.

And saved it.

The coffee urn is beautiful.

Tell me about the portrait.

That's Mrs. Calhoun at the time of her marriage.

Floride Calhoun.

She was about 19 years old, the epitome of the Southern belle, very aristocratic Ch arleston background.

That's the way she'd li ke to be remembered.

And a French Huguenot.

That's a very Fr ench-looking portrait.

Her mother was Fr ench Huguenot ancestry.

That was painted du ring the Napoleonic era.

The French influence in Am erican fashions is evident.

She spoke French fluently.

Yes, sh e did.

Which portrait of John Caldwell Calhoun would you select as the best?

There are many, many throughout his lifetime.

I guess I would say the George Peter Al exander Healy portrait.

He was the leading po rtrait painter in the 19th century-- le ading American painter.

The original painting is in the Greenville art museum in their Southern co llection.

There is a copy of that painting in the Senate re ception room honoring Calhoun as one of five outstanding senators.

A Senate committee under John F. Kennedy selected these gentlemen, and one is John C. Calhoun.

Our own John Caldwell Calhoun.

Not only do we appreciate him today, but this lovely chest of silver was presented to the Calhoun family by the French government.

That was a political gift, I guess, from the French government to the Calhouns, made by Odiot, O- d-i-o-t. That's very si gnificant in terms of what it represents ab out Calhoun.

But considering that Calhoun died in 1850, the fact that the entire chest is intact for a hundred and almost 40 years is just beautiful!

Is this room ever used today?

It could be used for special occasions if the president of this university has very select groups to entertain.

What better setting than Fort Hill?

It would be an aura of charm.

It isn't used often but is available for special occasions.

The master bedroom and nursery are on the first floor, and the other six bedrooms are upstairs.

May I see the master bedroom?

Sure... let's take a look.

♪ (Mary) This is a beautiful room!

These antiques are gorgeous.

I wish we had time to tell the story of everything... but we don't.

In your folder you mention this lovely bed as coming with the Calhouns from their home in Georgetown.

This was used at their Du mbarton Oaks residence.

It was a gift fr om Mrs. Calhoun's parents.

You can also add th at this bed was slept in by the Marquis de Lafayette when he visited the Calhouns in Washington, D.C., when Lafayette made his tr iumphant tour of America.

Floride spoke to him in French most fluently.

And he was so enchanted that when he got back to France, he sent her trees and shrubs.

They are on the grounds there today.

I remember reading a sad story about the young lady who made this quilt.

The two daughters were Anna and Cornelia.

When Cornelia was 12, she fell from a swing, injured her spine, and in spite of medical attention, was never able to walk again.

That's correct.

She remained in the home and made this quilt.

Cornelia's coverlet, we call that.

That was finished in the 1840s... very old, ve ry beautiful.

This piece that you call a combination case piece...

I've never seen one like it.

It was made in Pendleton, near here, by a local craftsman.

It was designed by Mrs. Calhoun, copied from one owned by Dolley Madison.

They were good friends.

They would have known on e another in the Capital.

Hanging cabinets for garments would be on either side of a dressing table.

It's a combination wa rdrobe and dresser.

I love this nursery with the three-quarter bed, the hangings, and that three-sided crib, which is not missing a side.

No... th at's the way it was.

At night it could be put ag ainst the mother's bed so she could nurse the child wi thout having to arise.

In the daytime, pu t against the wall so the child co uld be protected.

And the doll bed and dresser.

That belonged to Anna Calhoun.

Then, of course, the small chairs.

What I call th e little people chairs.

I can hardly wait to see what you have in those six bedrooms upstairs.

Let's go!

♪ (Ann) This is the sleigh bed in this bedroom over the state dining room.

Sleigh bed would be be cause of the shape of the head an d foot.

That's right.

All these antiques ar e beautiful...

I've walked th rough other rooms.

There are memorabilia from various members of this family through 150 years.

Right...these are original family pieces.

We will take a quick view.

The bathing chambers ar e fascinating.

They're really very luxurious.

By standards of the past, they're really something!

We have two si t-down tubs where your feet would go over.

Then we have a sombrero tub.

That sombrero tub is great.

One would get wet and soap oneself and be sluiced with clean water?

Your interpretation's as good as mine!

Fascinating...and so is the Clemson room.

That is great.

♪ ♪ (Ann) Th is is a famous piece of furniture in the house... the Thomas Clemson se ven-foot cannonball bed.

Seven-foot?!

It was made fo r the frame of Thomas Clemson, ob viously very large, designed by his mother-in-law.

It's another local piece, made in Pendleton... does that ring a bell?

By the same cabinetmaker.

By the same one that made the combination case piece, so this is also a local piece.

What a thoughtful mother-in-law to think about the excessive height of the gentleman.

You told me something else that I was extremely interested in.

The original curtains in here have been reproduced faithfully by the School of Textiles of Clemson University.

That's right... th ese are copied from the original ones th at hung here at Fort Hill.

Isn't it amazing that, with modern technology, we can reproduce like that... handmade things?

So many of these six bedrooms are marvelous... smaller ones and larger ones.

A succession of bedrooms reflects the size of the Calhoun family with their se ven children.

With a little extra for company.

Lots of company at Fort Hill!

♪ We're on the first floor in the family dining room furnished with memorabilia of many generations.

The thing that fascinates me is this six-foot fireplace.

This is distinctive about Fort Hill... you have a kitchen in the middle of this elegant plantation home.

This takes you back to early farmhouse days when the cooking was done here, this open-hearth fireplace Dutch oven.

This was the original cottage.

The original kitchen of the early farmhouse.

This Dutch oven is unusual, where they baked breads and pies.

Baking was done by heat retained in stone.

Fires were built in the top oven.

When the bricks we re hot enough, fires were removed, it ems put inside.

Beautiful bricks.

I notice in this corner, on the lovely cabinet, we have knife boxes, early Chippendale.

They wo uld be some of the oldest antiques in the house because they could da te back to that era.

The 1720s.

Used for storage of silver vertically.

Almost 300 years ago, people would store the silver like we do kitchen knives today.

You have the family coat of arms, but I cannot pronounce what it is.

I say "C ol-houn"... gloss over th e middle syllable.

The ancestral home is in Scotland, although Calhoun's father and grandparents were born in Ireland, so Scotch-Irish to give full credit to the background.

Check my facts.

Patrick was a child when-- I mean Patrick-- The father, that's correct.

Brought John as a child-- no, Patrick was a child.

Right... came to America.

They stayed near the Waxhaws before coming to Long Cane.

His father was an American pioneer in South Carolina!

They carved a home from that wilderness.

Exactly... Indians were around.

Indians?

This was the days that people read about!

His grandmother was killed in an attack.

His grandmother was born in Ireland, came to America with her family, eventually died, victim of an Indian massacre.

That wasn't so long before the adulthood of John Calhoun.

He listened to politics, government, the need for law and education, because his father led a delegation from the Upcountry to the legislature demanding representation.

His father was the first Upcountry legislator in South Carolina, and Calhoun followed in that tradition.

And followed magnificently through troubled times.

He certainly did.

I appreciate being permitted to hold Calhoun's solid gold watch.

That's one of the most be autiful artifacts we have... 18-carat gold, En glish make.

I feel almost reverent since I touched it.

This scarf belonged to his daughter.

That was a gift to Anna fr om the queen of Spain.

This is Calhoun's cane.

That's right... political gift inscribed, "Nullification is the rightful remedy."

Very useful, very political.

What a beautiful thing, and his julep cup... sterling silver, English, 1799.

This fireplace, again, when the outside kitchen was built... the fireplaces are similar.

Did they copy this?

I would think so be cause the cooking apparently was done in the same way in the outside ki tchen as in this or iginal kitchen.

It looks similar.

You have two items of Americana.

We have a corner cabinet an d six arrow-back chairs, very valuable, Am erican primitive.

Very beautiful, and a lovely appointed kitchen with the artifacts you've gathered.

♪ This building is Calhoun's office, separated from the house by about 50 feet.

One feels that one's almost in a sanctuary here because it was so private to him.

Not only did he write his orations here and do his thinking about constitutionality, but from here he also ran the plantation.

That's right... this was his office for plantation business.

And kept the records as well as legal things.

In studying about Calhoun, I can't understand the man's mind because he was so completely original.

His thinking was his own.

He didn't depend upon any prior written material, just a tremendous intellect which helped guide our country.

It was from this desk that he did his plantation work.

And he began his pr ofessional career with that desk as a lawyer in his hometown of Abbeville.

That's an important pi ece of furniture!

What about the chair?

The chair wa s his chair in the United States Senate, hi s senatorial chair.

Sacred... almost sacred.

But the piece of furniture in here that intrigues me is this very ornate desk.

That was given to Calhoun by the people of South Carolina when he was elected to the vice presidency.

It's European, Sw iss oak, magnificent hand-carved ro ll-top desk.

A gift from the people who supported him.

Very mu ch so!

Few people were allowed to enter unless he was here, but his crippled daughter, Cornelia, was one of his favorites.

Probably Cornelia wo uld have been allowed in this inner sanctum.

He loved her very much.

Do we have a picture of Cornelia?

Unfortunately, we don't.

And another spot that he loved?

He loved Cornelia's garden.

He designed this to be what you see today, a garden.

He did it fo r Cornelia.

It's now a memorial to her.

It's just charming!

I could use a cup of coffee.

Would you make one in that special urn?

Mrs. Calhoun's cousin from New York said, "If I give this to you, "will you give me a good cup of coffee every time I come to Fort Hill?"

I'll get one.

Thank you.

Calhoun's last speech to the United States Senate was in 1850.

His health had declined dreadfully.

He was able to read two or three sentences and handed the manuscript to his friend, Senator Mason from Virginia, who read the speech.

There wasn't a dry eye.

Webster and Clay spoke to Calhoun briefly, and he was assisted from the floor.

He died 13 days after his 68th birthday.

The people of Charleston requested that, as Calhoun was a citizen of the state and of not just one county, he be buried in their port city of Charleston, and the family agreed.

After lying in state, his body was brought by railroad and boat to Charleston where, with great ceremony, it was accepted by the governor of South Carolina and taken to its final resting place in the churchyard of St. Philips Church.

During the War Between the States it was suspected that desecration to the grave might occur, so secretly the coffin was exhumed and buried in a very private, secret spot in which it remained until hostilities ended and peace came to that portion of our state.

Shortly after the death of Calhoun, some ladies began to raise money for a statue in his memory to be erected in Charleston.

A great deal of money had been raised when the War Between the States broke out.

The treasurer, afraid that the money might be stolen or lost, sewed it into the folds of a dress.

There it remained until after the Civil War.

Finally, the statue was erected, and it stands today in Moore Place.

In 1884, a beautiful mausoleum was given to St. Philips churchyard over the grave, the final resting place of this great American statesman.

Great statesman, patriot, excellent senator, leader of his people... he was all of that.

Yet in Cornelia's garden at beautiful Fort Hill, looking over the many acres that he loved so much, we see the loving husband and the father, John C. Calhoun.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪