Ericsson had a distinguished career in naval design and is best known for his work on the USS Monitor, the U.S. Navy's first ironclad warship. To succeed Gilmer as Secretary of the Navy, Tyler appointed John Y. Mason, another Virginian. As his new Secretary of State, Tyler named John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, like _his_ predecessor an advocate of states rights, nullification of federal law by states, the annexation of Texas, and its admission into the union as a slave state. But where Gilmer and Upshur had supported annexation as a national cause, Calhoun recast the political discussion. <sep>, Pronoun: his <sep>, A: John C <sep>, B: Gilmer