society of those so distant, yet so tenderly remembered.

The advantages of a tour in Europe would render the Lieutenant one of the most accomplished professional men living. He cordially approved of the Mexican war, and was zealous that the Navy should share the glory of the strife. He himself, forgetful of the bruised and suffering limb, and of a constitution injured by its effects, would instantly seize the boarding pike and cutlass, and leap to the oar.*

* And fling away that mystical blue and scarlet night cap which, in half a second, converts our handsome Lieutenant of the Navy into a quaint old Astrologer.

THE HONOURABLE JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN,

MEMBER OF THE SENATE FOR SOUTH CAROLINA.

"A reasoning, high, immortal thing."

CALHOUN is my Statesman. Through good report and through evil report; in all his doctrines, whether upon Slavery, Free Trade, Nullification, Treasury and Currency Systems, active Annexation, or masterly inactivity, I hold myself his avowed and admiring disciple. If this distinguished Statesman could be prevailed upon to visit England, either in a public or in a private capacity, he would command more admiration, and attract more interest than any other man of Europe or of America. The very anomaly of his position, the curious coincidences by which he becomes the representative of interests which, nominally at least, are in contra position to each other, and the

skill and determined fidelity with which he unites and guards each several one of these interests; preserving entire the integrity of all; these attributes together compose a character so unique, an attitude so extraordinary as to be unparalleled either in his own or in any other country of the world. To know, to understand, and to appreciate him, it is requisite rapidly to review the measures of which he is the acknowledged expounder and advocate. The champion of Free Trade ; a Slaveholder and Cotton Planter; the vindicator of State Rights, and yet a firm believer in the indestructibility of the Federal Union; now the advocate of war, and now of peace; now claimed as a Whig ; now revered as a Democrat; now branded as a Traitor; now worshipped as a Patriot; now assailed as a Demon; now invoked as a Demi-god; now withstanding Power, and now the People; now proudly accepting office, now as proudly spurning it; now goading the Administration, now resisting it; now counselling, now defying the Executive;-but in all changes of circumstance, all trials of patience, in smiling or in adverse fortune, ever forgetful of self, and faithful

only to the inspirations of the genius and the virtue of which his name is the symbol. No vice, no folly, no frailty has soiled his nature, consumed his life, or extorted his remorse; his Country has been his sole engrossing passion; loved with the devotion of a Brutus, and served with the fidelity of a Regulus; he has never wasted time; each moment has been and is employed in usefulness; his public hours in the advancement of just and wise measures of policy, and his moments of solitude in the study of all subjects which tend to elucidate those measures. Politics thus may be considered to have almost exclusively occupied the life of this great Statesman; not the sordid intrigue of partizanship, not the venal craving of place and pay, not the debasing sacrifice of honesty to popularity; his soul disdains such base employment of her faculties; nay, I question if, with all its keenness, his mind could comprehend such schemes of politics. His are not even the tactics of a state or section, nor alone those of the United States, or America: but they comprise those exalted views which, deduced from philosophy and history, and proved by practical experience,

are found to constitute the true policy of all nations, and to be the universal principles of all righteous governments. They are the DECALOGUE OF REPUBLICS. And the impressions produced by the single mind of this man; by the principles he has advocated; by the positions he has assumed; and by the latent rights to which he has given form and substance; will exercise throughout all time an influence more deeply based, and more abiding upon the Institutions of the United States, than any systems or movements which have yet been enunciated from the Constitution and predicated upon its Laws.

These principles from youth to manhood, and from manhood in its prime to advanced maturity, he has advocated with dauntless courage and unwearied constancy; no temptation, however dazzling, could lure him from the path of duty; and difficulty and danger in vain opposed him. To deny that he has ambition, the sole passion which men and angels share in common, would be to accuse him of stupidity; the weak, the dull, and the unfeeling alone are insensible to its instincts; a mind so exquisitely constituted as that of Calhoun