Charles Benedict Calvert was an American politician, a representative in the Thirty-seventh Congress and the founder of the Maryland Agricultural College.
Background
Charles Benedict Calvert was born on August 23, 1808; the grandson of Benedict Calvert, earlier known as Benedict Swingate. The latter, of uncertain maternity, was the son of Charles, fifth Lord Baltimore. Benedict's son George Calvert, removed from Mt. Airy to Riverdale, Maryland, occupying there a large estate which still remains in the family. He married Rosalie Eugenia Stier, of Belgian parentage, who became the mother of George Henry Calvert and Charles Benedict Calvert.
Education
The large Riverdale farm probably induced Charles to study the problems of agriculture, for his whole life was devoted to furthering its development. After attending school in Philadelphia he entered the University of Virginia, graduating in 1827.
Career
Calvert left an impression far beyond the campus of the Maryland Agricultural College. He served three terms in the Maryland House of Delegates. His agricultural leadership began with his tenure as president of the Prince George’s County Agricultural Society, then expanded to the state and national level. He was a founding member of the Maryland Agricultural Society and served as its president in its formative years, 1848-1854. Later, he served as a vice president of the United States Agricultural Society. His association with agricultural societies provided a platform from which he could advocate another of his cherished goals—representation of farming interests at the highest level of executive government. Calvert represented the 6th District of Maryland in the 37th Congress from 1861 to 1863. The pinnacle of his service was the passage of a bill to create a separate bureau of agriculture, signed by Abraham Lincoln on May 15, 1862. The bureau was elevated to a cabinet department in 1889. He was also known in Congress as a proponent of slave owners’ property rights. At once a staunch unionist, a beneficiary of the planter’s way of life, and a citizen of a state more divided than any other, his life was a microcosm of the Civil War conflict.
However, Calvert must first and foremost be described as a farmer. He worked at and discussed cattle breeding, guano, farm buildings, machinery, and irrigation as easily as he discoursed on loftier and broader themes. He experimented widely and broadly to improve agricultural productivity.
No large cache of Calvert’s personal papers is available for examination, but he did regularly speak and write in public forums, and his ideas inspired comment from others. From his own words, we know that he was a man of strongly held views and plain but well-crafted language. He questioned the status quo in many arenas while holding fast to traditional ways in others.
His untimely death in 1864 robbed the Maryland Agricultural College of years of valuable stewardship and the world of an accomplished man.
Achievements
Politics
Calvert served as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates in 1839, 1843, and 1844. In 1860, Calvert was elected as a Unionist to the Thirty-seventh Congress, serving from March 4, 1861 until March 3, 1863, but was not a candidate for renomination in 1862.
Membership
He was a member of the U. S. House of Representatives from Maryland's 6th district and a member of the Maryland House of Delegates.
Personality
He was known as a generous man.
Connections
In 1839, he married Charlotte Augusta Norris of Baltimore, and together they had five children, four of whom lived to adulthood.