Calvin Colton

Calvin Colton (1789-1857) was born in Long Meadow, Massachusetts, in 1789. He would later attend Yale University, where he would graduate in 1812. Upon graduation, Colton would attend Andover Theological Seminary, and would be ordained as a Presbyterian Minister in 1815. He would then settle in Batavia, New York, where he served as a Pastor. Due to the partial loss of his voice, however, Colton would have to discontinue his pastoral work in 1826, but he would still continue his affiliation with the Church. Colton would then pursue a career in journalism before eventually becoming a Professor of Political Economy in 1852 at the Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Colton produced several works on the subject of political economy. The first of these was his monetary tract The Crisis of the Country, which appeared in 1840. Then, between 1843 and 1844, his Junius Tracts would appear as a series of articles, and this would contain the first elaboration of his concept of intellectual capital. In 1846, he would then publish The Rights of Labour. Colton’s most important and elaborate treatise would appear in 1848, however, under the title Public Economy for the United States, which spans over 500 pages.

As an economic theorist, Colton was a devout follower and personal friend of Henry Clay. Colton would even be responsible for writing a biography of Clay entitled The Life and Times of Henry Clay. This work is also far more than a mere account of Clay’s life, it also contains an impressive analysis of Clay’s economic thinking. In addition to writing Clay’s biography, Colton would also be responsible for editing the seven volume collection of The Works of Henry Clay, which made Clay’s speeches accessible to the general public. In addition to those aforementioned works, Colton also wrote on theology, including Thoughts on the Religious State of the Country, which appeared in 1836, and The Genius and Mission of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, which appeared in 1853. Colton continued in his Chair of Political Economy at Trinity until his untimely death on March 13, 1857.