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the existing Administration. "On the occasion of his removal," said Charles Ingersoll, "Mr. Calhoun behaved like an angel." He came into the Senate, in the Congress of 1845-6, to preserve the peace between the two mightiest nations of the earth; and he proved himself equal to the emergency, by his fulfilment of the trust that a nation had reposed in him.

The private position of Mr. Calhoun is as remarkable as his public station. An hereditary Slave owner, he was born and educated a ruler; he sways his people with justice and mercy, and the habitual possession of power has revealed to him the secrets of the art of Government. His gracious, princely nature, accustomed to give command without appeal, is equally accustomed to receive submission without reserve; hence his gentleness; hence his indulgence; hence his compassion; no vulgar upstart display of authority is traced in his intercourse with those who own him for their Lord; "he saith to one man, come, and he cometh ; and to another, go, and he goeth;" and he is served with the perfect love that casteth out fear.

And to this education in the art of Government, as Slaveholders at home, and from their birth, it is mainly owing that the Statesmen of the Southern Sections display such rare, such excelling wisdom in their discharge of the Offices of the Republic. Of eleven Presidents, three only have been from other portions of the Union; two from Massachusetts, and one from New York. To the Northern and Eastern States may be awarded many attributes essential to the prosperity of a country and the increase of wealth; but from the South have sprung the helmsmen that have steered the Ark of the Republic. Their minds are more universal, as well as more concentrating, more deliberative, as well as more daring; and to these latter is also accorded the preeminence in the study of mathematics, and the power of analysis. Doubtless, origin, climate, and constitution contribute powerfully to organize the faculties of man; but I assign the system of Slavery as one of the most vital influences in forming that capacity for rule so characteristic of the Southern race.

The cotton planters of the United States possess a monopoly, bestowed upon them by nature, which places in their hands an immense controlling power, both in America and in England; and as Free Trade advances, this power will extend to other European countries. Suppose our own case; if in any dispute these States should refuse to grow a sufficiency of the staple, or should lay an embargo upon it, Manchester, Bolton, Glasgow, and other manufacturing districts, would be revolutionized and ruined. It is true that the planters themselves would suffer to a certain de

gree, but they possess within their estates all the means of life. Without money, they could exist-and without any difficulty; for they could always provide for their own consumption, corn, pork, cotton, sugar, and other necessaries. There is, perhaps, no race of men in the world so independent of his neighbour as the American planter, and none so powerful as a regulator of the prosperity of his own and other nations. However mortifying it may be to haughty England to acknowledge it, no other sources can supply her wants.

The first time I saw Mr. Calhoun was in the Senate. A western member was urging war for Oregon; Calhoun sat silent, but was visibly chafed. The first time I heard him speak, the words were words of peace and praise for England. This was the only time during the space of a month that the name of my country had been uttered except in anger,—and the voice of Calhoun was as the voice of an angel ;-and for many minutes I wept, overcome by feelings which it were a vain attempt to describe. His appearance is unlike that of other men. His person is tall and thin, and I have always seen him dressed in black. His action is quick, and both in society and in the Senate very expressive. He speaks with the utmost rapidity, as if no words could convey his speed of thought; his face is all intellect, with eyes so dazzling, black, and piercing that few can stand their gaze. Sixtyfour years have left their dark centre yet undimmed, and the surrounding blue liquid and pure as the eye of childhood. I have seen but one alone with eyes so beautiful. Sometimes their intense look is reading each thought of your bosom; sometimes they are beaming with the inspirations of his own. I believe they give out light in the dark. And I have often beheld them suffused with emotion, when the feelings of that ingenuous breast have been excited by honest praise, or moved by sympathy. Mr. Calhoun's general expression is that of unceasing mental activity and great decision. His forehead is broad and full; a deep furrow extends quite across, and above the eyebrows there is considerable fulness. His hair is thick, and long, and straight, and gray, and is thrown back from his face; the eyebrows are very near to the eye, and the cheeks are denuded of flesh. The mouth is thin, and somewhat inclined downwards at the corners; it is the proud and melancholy lip of Dante. His complexion is bronzed by the sun of the South.

I was often at the house of Mr. Calhoun, and if I admired his public career, I honoured even more his pure and lovely private life. I have understood that one reason of his declining the mission to England, in 1845, was the indisposition of his daugh

ter, whom he had himself attended during the arduous period that he was Secretary of State. He is adored in his family, and his manners, at all times agreeable, at home are captivating. "Would you wish me," said he, " to leave my family, to sacrifice one-tenth part of the portion of life that yet remains to me, to go to England? I have made an allotment of these years; a portion for America, a portion for my own private affairs, (for I am a planter, and cannot afford to be idle,) and a portion I have reserved for peculiar purposes connected only with myself. But convince me that my Duty is involved in any measure, and as that has been through life my guide, so will I yield." (He is the most unpersuadable of men.)

"Mr. Calhoun," said I, speaking of America, “you are a great experiment."

"We are more," said he, "we are a great hit."

"Will the Atlantic and the Pacific States be divided into separate Republics?"

"They cannot be; the Mississippi, a great inland sea, will keep them united. The Union is indissoluble."

On the 5th of February, I inquired, " Mr. Calhoun, what is in the future?"

"Peace and Free Trade," said he. And Peace we have, and he made it; and Free Trade we have, and to him we owe it. Both measures are emphatically his work.

"What is the crop of cotton?" "Below two millions of bales."

"I have eight sons in England."

"Bring them all here; we are an exulting nation; let them grow up with the country; besides, here they do not want wealth. I would not be rich in America, for the care of money would distract my mind from more important concerns."

"Give the Planters Free Trade, and let every Planter be the parent as well as the master of his Slaves; that is, let the Slaves be made to do their duty, as well as to eat, drink, and sleep; let industry and morality be taught them, and the Planter will have reason to be satisfied; he will always obtain seven or eight per cent. upon the value of his Slaves; and need never be compelled to the distressing alternative of parting with them, unless he allows them, by over indulgence, to waste his substance.”

"Sir Robert Peel," observed Mr. Calhoun, "is the great Minister of Transition."

"I fear his Income Tax will render England a more extreme Oligarchy than she already is," said I.

"Very probably; still, there is much Freedom in your England."

"The past is gone; the present is no more; the future alone is ours." This was said, one day, in reference to the general maxims of life and living.

"I like balls, they are beautiful things; but now I have a cough, (which I caught at the Convention of Memphis,) and I fear the evening air."

"Ladies should always be dressed in white, and wear a girdle."

Mr. Calhoun has great respect for such external forms as tend to promote order and dignity; and I believe it was he who established the rule, (during his Vice-Presidency,) that the Members of the Senate should be addressed by their distinctive appellation of "Senators."

"We Americans are the most excitable people on earth: we have plenty to eat and to drink, so we seek war for sport, that we may exhaust ourselves and our exuberance.”

"Look at the mighty Mississippi! Twenty hundred miles you may travel on his waters; go on for days and nights, and see no change; it is a valley that would contain all Europe."

After a

On the morning after the Free Trade measures were carried in the House, I saw Mr. Calhoun for the last time. struggle of two and twenty years, Truth and He had been successful, but no personal exultation sparkled in his eye, or triumphed in his words. The measure and its great consequences alone occupied his thoughts. "And there will be no reaction," said he," which ought always to be avoided; I have ever most carefully guarded against it."

"I refused the Mission to England, because the Peace was to be made here; England did not want war. I should have been of no use there; here I could do much." It is generally acknowledged that Mr. Calhoun was prevailed upon to re-enter the Senate to effect this object, and that the generality of the Whigs had coalesced with his party upon this point; certain it is that they (the Whig party) voted with Mr. Calhoun during the Session of 1845-6, on every subject, Free Trade alone excepted.

"Mr. Calhoun, you are very dear to England for the sake of this peace and this Free Trade." "I did not think," he answered, "that my name was even known in England, where I myself have never been."

"The British government has exhibited the greatest wisdom, judgment, and magnanimity. Had there been the least false step

on the other side-had the speeches in Parliament, or the articles in the public journals, been of an exasperating character-we could not then have arranged matters on this side as we have done. No two men could have displayed more integrity of purpose, more forbearance, and more sagacity, than Lord Aberdeen and Sir Robert Peel."

From a singular coincidence of circumstances, I had the happy fortune to convey to Mr. Calhoun the testimonies offered to his worth by many leading men.

"The President declares that you possess his perfect confidence and his highest personal esteem. Buchanan pronounces you preeminent in talent and virtue. Mr. Crittenden, Mr. Winthrop, Mr. Benton, Mr. Hannegan, have all expressed for themselves and their respective parties, the highest encomiums that men can utter of each other."* And Calhoun spoke not; but his eye glistened, and in silence he took my hand, and pressed it. How few have been indulged with such a privilege; a stranger and a sojourner among them, to me it was permitted to convey the tribute awarded by these distinguished Americans to the virtues of their fellow-citizen.

Inflexible, self-sacrificing, and proud, this extraordinary personage is akin to the great names of antiquity; his sentiments are proverbs; his forecast is prophecy. He is self-made; no external advantages have contributed to the formation of his mind and character; he received no elaborate college education; derived no advantages from extensive foreign travel; no thoughts nor words from the prompting of other gifted men; he has never crossed the Ocean. Simple and frank, no secrets, no mystery, exist in his presence; all that he thinks, or hopes, or observes, is expressed in unreserved and natural truthfulness; no suspicion clouds his bright mind, and his remonstrance is administered openly and directly, for he deals not in the vulgarity of calumny. He is pledged to no party : "I am the partisan of no class, nor, let me add, of either political party. I am neither of the opposition nor administration." He holds in supreme contempt all arts to obtain popularity; independence and integrity to him are of priceless worth :

"His honour is his life, both grow in one,

Take honour from him, and his life is done."

Twice he has turned aside his footsteps from the Presidency;

* Mr. Crittenden is the representative of the politics of Mr. Clay, in the Senate. Mr. Winthrop is the Whig leader in the Lower House. Mr. Benton and Mr. Hannegan are the Democratic representatives of different sections and parties of the West.

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