He died of tuberculosis

One of the interesting facts about John Caldwell Calhoun is that he died of tuberculosis on March 31, 1850, at the age of 68, at the Old Brick Capitol boarding house in Washington, D.C. "The South, the poor South!" were his last words, according to legend. He was laid to rest in Charleston's St. Philip's Churchyard. During the Civil War, Calhoun's companions were anxious about the likely desecration of his grave by Federal troops and transferred his casket to a hiding place beneath the church's stairs during the night. His coffin was buried the same night in an unmarked cemetery near the church, where it stayed until 1871 when it was unearthed and returned to its original location.

After Calhoun died, an associate recommended that Senator Thomas Hart Benton deliver a eulogy on the Senate floor in his honor. Benton, a staunch Unionist, declined, explaining: "He's not dead, sir, he's not dead. His body may be lifeless, but his teachings are alive and well." Calhoun's Fort Hill farm, which he left to his wife and daughter, is now home to Clemson University in South Carolina. They sold it and its 50 slaves to a family member. Thomas Green Clemson foreclosed on the mortgage after the owner died. He eventually left the land to the state to be used as an agricultural college named after him. Floride Calhoun died on July 25, 1866, and was buried in St. Paul's Episcopal Church Cemetery in Pendleton, South Carolina, near their children but not with her husband.