Calvin Colton

Born in 1789 in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, Calvin Colton became a Congregational minister before turning increasingly toward journalism and political writing. He studied at Yale, preached for a time, and later built a career as an editor, lecturer, and author.

Colton wrote widely on public affairs, including party politics, finance, and the future of the United States. He is especially remembered for works such as The Junius Tracts, The Public Economy of the United States, and The Life and Times of Henry Clay, which reflected his strong support for Whig ideas and for Clay in particular.

His career also included fiercely controversial writing on slavery and abolition. Rather than standing with the antislavery movement, Colton argued against abolitionism, a position that makes his work both historically significant and deeply troubling to modern readers. He died in 1857.