sphere must be the work, with rare exceptions, of a few selfish or deluded men in some places, and, in others, of what Lord John Russell called, in the House of Commons, "a society of circulating revolutionists." The real masses, he believed, would be placed by so violent an overthrow of existing things in a worse condition than they were before. He saw also that these suddenly "proclaimed" Republics were totally different from ours. His know

ledge of the Constitution of the United States, and every thing that led to the establishment of our Republic, taught him this. He believed that the inherent tendencies of Republics starting into life instantaneously, were to disorder. He feared their deteriorating influences upon us. More especially did he fear it from our predisposition summarily to applaud all movements against existing authority in Europe, no matter what their nature, or who their instruments. He appreciated too much the immense value of our own institutions, to behold without grief the danger of disparagement to them by the odium likely to be brought upon Republics through the abuses of that word abroad.

Mr. Calhoun's ambition was of the noblest kind. Beautifully did his colleague say, in announcing his death to the Senate,* "We saw him a few days ago in the seat, near me, he had so long occupied; we

* Mr. Butler.

saw the struggle of a great mind to overcome the infirmities of a sinking body: it was the exhibition of a wounded eagle, with his eyes turned to the heavens in which he had soared, but into which his wings could never carry him again." The figure was happy and touching. No man was more pure; rarely a public man as pure. as pure. He had the selfreliance of genius, without a particle of arrogance. When, as a Democrat of the Jefferson school, he entered Congress before the War of 1812, he soon opposed himself to embargoes and non-intercourse, as weapons unsuited to our people for preventing or redressing wrongs and insults. Yet they had been the policy of his party. To arraign it was hazarding his popularity. He was then young, just entering into political life. He did, however, arraign it, promptly and openly. He was for drawing the sword against the gigantic mistress of the seas. The step was perilous. It was even daring; although, weighing our inherent resources, if we would draw upon them, a step which his enlarged mind told him was as due to a true estimate of our interests, as it was imperiously demanded by outrages upon the national honor. His speeches in support of the war lifted up the feelings of the nation. They never contained impassioned words, but always strong thoughts. His mind was destined to lead. His erect form at that day, his fine eye, his constant energy and buoyant spirit, blended

with a personal courtesy intrinsically attractive,who that remembers all this can fail, now that he is gone, to exalt to the proper height his manly bearing and devoted patriotism? He did honor to Carolina. He was one of the props of the Union. The times were dark. Britain was our foe; her formidable armies were upon our shores, fresh from victory over Napoleon's troops in Spain. Some among our friends quailed, and hosts of our people, fair in character and rich in means-especially in the cities were against us. The vindication of the national rights fell upon the Middle and Southern States-the new-born West co-operating; the latter limited at that time in population and resources. The North, in their corporate capacity as States, although there were splendid individual and local exceptions, protested against firing a gun. The South stood up for the whole Union. Comparatively, she had scarcely a ship to be plundered, or a man to be impressed, and Calhoun never faltered. His fidelity to his country's rights, and exertions in her behalf, were unremitting. The elder Dallas called him a young Hercules. He largely helped to teach the public how to think, by the frank expression of his own thoughts at that trying epoch. Nor did he ever disguise his thoughts. His great competitor of Massachusetts, Mr. Webster, magnanimously made this declaration in the Senate last month.

The war ended, he assumed, at the call of President Monroe, the direction of the War Department. In that post, his administrative abilities proved to be of the highest order. His brilliant career in the Senate since, has been so eloquently portrayed by his great associates of both parties in that body, and by speakers in the other House of Congress, when his death was announced, that inferior hands are warned not to touch upon it. Nor is there any need to dwell upon his dignified incumbency of the Vice-Presidential office, or the ability with which he used the pen while Secretary of State.

His whole public life was in harmony with his nature. A paramount principle of duty was ever present to him. He sought public ends by means varying as facts varied and time rolled on. In forty years; in an age of ceaseless activity; in the complications of policy and legislation incident to the shifting wants of a young and rapidly growing country, teeming with production, and still new to many of the schemes and operations of national industry, Mr. Calhoun may be found the advocate of opinions which he afterwards saw cause to modify, alter, or abandon. So among his illustrious compeers in the Senate you might have beheld all around him those who had been tariff and antitariff in opinion and conduct; bank and anti-bank; strict constructionists and latitudinarians. The difference is, and may here be adverted to not in

vidiously, that he ended for free trade; the principle to which the most prosperous nations would seem to be more and more inclining, though conflicting facts have hardly yet put at rest the conflicting theories. And he ended a strict constructionist of the Constitution; the doctrine which time and our expanding confederacy seem more and more to sanctify as the only doctrine for giving stability to the Union.

We do not design in this imperfect sketch to approve of all the opinions of Mr. Calhoun, though we might be slow to condemn some that others may have condemned; but we think his death a public loss at this juncture. Jefferson loved him, Madison loved him, Monroe loved him. The two latter confided in his counsels. All three honored him. Nor is it that we have been deprived of his talents that his loss is alone to be felt. Talents, and great talents, are never wanting in the world. We have them here in abundance. In France you cannot count them up. In Britain, in Germany, in Prussia, in all great countries, they are exuberant. Not so resolute integrity and honor in public men. It was Washington's supremacy in these that placed his fame upon its matchless pedestal. It was his uniform supremacy in these, at all times and under all circumstances, which caused a gifted Frenchman to exclaim in 1848, that "THE WANT OF THE AGE WAS A EUROPEAN WASHINGTON." The talents of