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ORATION, 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 Cdlwmt Bloiiuntcnt ^sioxiittioii 
 
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 OF THE 
 
 MILITARY AND FIRE DEPARTMENTS 
 OF CHARLESTON, 
 
 UPON THEIR 
 
 FIRST CELEBRATION, 
 
 IN HONOR OF 
 
 THE BIRTH-DAY OF CALHOM 
 
 AT THE 
 
 CHARLESTON THEATRE, MARCH 18, 1854. 
 
 BY W. D. PORTER. 
 
 PUBLISHED, 
 
 TiHil/niER WITH AN ODE WRITTEN FOR THE OCCASION BY W. J. RIVERS, 
 
 BY REQUEST OF THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 POWER-PRESS OF EDWARD C COUNCELL. 
 119 EAST BAY, CHARLESTON. 
 
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ORATION, 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 Caljwmt IpMitnmtt $,&mwixa% 
 
 OP THE 
 
 MILITARY AND FIRE DEPARTMENTS 
 
 OP CHARLESTON, 
 
 UPON THEIR 
 
 FIRST CELEBRATION 
 
 IN nONOR OF 
 
 THE BIRTH-DAY OF CALHOUN, 
 
 AT THE 
 
 CHARLESTON THEATRE, MARCH 18, 1854. 
 
 
 BY W. D. PORTER. 
 
 PUBLISHED, 
 
 TOGETHER WITH AN ODE "WRITTEN FOR THE OCCASION BY W. J. RIVERS, 
 
 BY REQ.UEST OF THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 POWER-PRESS OF EDWARD C. COUNCELL, 
 119 EAST BAY, CHARLESTON. 
 

 
CALHOUN MONUMENT ASSOCIATION, 
 
 18TH MARCH, 1854. 
 Resolved. That the thanks of the Association be tendered to the Hon. Wm. D. Por- 
 ter, for his able and eloquent Oration, delivered this morning; and also to Mr. W. 
 J. Rivers, for the Ode written for the occasion; and that the Secretary be instructed 
 to request from them their manuscripts, and have one thousand copies of the same 
 printed for circulation. — [Extract from the Minutes. 
 
 W. D. H. KIRKWOOD. 
 
 Sec'y C. M. Association. 
 
BIRTH D 1 Y OF CALHOUN. 
 
 FIRST ANNIVERSARY 
 
 OF THE 
 OF THE 
 
 MILITARY AND FIRE DEPARTMENTS OF CHARLESTON, 
 
 AT THE CHARLESTON THEATRE, 
 March 18th, 1854. 
 
 ORDER OF EXERCISES: 
 
 PRAYER BY THE REV. JOHN BACHMAN, D. D. 
 
 ORATION, 
 
 By Hon. William D. .Porter. 
 
 O ID IE3 , 
 
 By William J. Rivers, Esq. 
 
 The warrior we hail, who hath fought unsubdued, 
 
 While raged the dread storm of the battle around him ; 
 ! hail him who triumphed, unblemished with blood, — 
 
 For Justice and Truth with fair garlands have crowned him ! 
 We will praise thro' all time, the brave deeds of each clime — 
 Yet mightier than Valor, soars Wisdom sublime ; 
 And her vigils unwearied, bright visions disclose, 
 Where Peace fears no perils, and nations repose ! 
 
 We hail him who turned from the splendors of power, 
 
 O'er Truth's clouded altar his banner unfolding; 
 Our foes ever baffled, in strife's darkest hour, 
 
 With homage were bowed, our stern champion beholding. 
 Majestic he stood — as a prophet of God 
 
 The future revealing — and senates were awed ! 
 And his arm was still lifted, and fearless his soul, 
 
 As serenely he paused, where death's dark billows roll. 
 
 Shall we see, by no grateful remembrance adorned, 
 
 The grave where our dauntless defender is sleeping! 
 Tho' mourned for as never was conqueror mourned, 
 
 Tho' wept for with grief that hath hallowed our weeping ! 
 From afar to our home, shall the stranger e'er come, 
 
 And ask for his tomb, and our children be dumb'] 
 Oh, no ! o'er his ashes our deeds shall proclaim, 
 
 How in death, as in life, we have honored his name ! 
 
 BENEDICTION. 
 
ORATION. 
 
 To-day is the anniversary of the birth of Calhoun — a day 
 memorable in our annals, for it is associated with the advent of 
 the largest and most commanding intellect, and of the longest 
 and most faithful and illustrious public services, which it has 
 pleased heaven to vouchsafe to this favored commonwealth. 
 The occasion is fraught with recollections upon which we may 
 dwell with pnfit, and which we should cherish with feelings 
 of pleasure and pride. As we retrace the line of that great 
 public career, sanding out, as it does, for near half a century, 
 in bold relief, njon the history of the times — sullied by never 
 an act of dishotor, subserviency or unworthy compliance — and 
 illustrated by somany noble displays of genius and eloquence, 
 of constancy anc self-devoting virtue in behalf of great prin- 
 ciples of constituional liberty, we cannot but feel, and reve- 
 rently acknowledge, how much we have been honored by the 
 lustre of a name, which, in life, was our ornament and pride, 
 and which, unde the hallowing sanctions of death, has taken 
 its place in the moral firmament, a star among the constella- 
 tions, that with c benignant glory look down upon us from 
 above. Happy tta people who can claim as their own, not the 
 ashes only, but thdmmortal part, — the name, the renown, and 
 the example of a truly great man ; happier still, if they have 
 the virtue to provethemselves worthy of such a treasure. 
 
 Just four years 550, fellow-citizens, you witnessed a spectacle 
 such as you had Ever seen before, and will never see again. 
 On the day of whih I speak, all that was mortal of our dead 
 statesman was broght back, with the honors of the country, 
 from the late field c his glory, to the soil he had served so long 
 and loved so well. The sad and touching ceremonies which 
 followed, your memries will recal, without the aid of descrip- 
 
8 
 
 tion from me : — that scene at the Citadel Square, when the living 
 thousands there assembled, bowed by a spontaneous impulse, 
 with uncovered heads, before the funeral car, that bore within 
 its sable folds their pride and their hope, laid low in death ; — the 
 long " procession of the bereaved " which wound its way, in so- 
 lemn march, through the silent and almost deserted streets ; — that 
 other scene at the City Hall, then for the first time fitted up as the 
 chamber of the dead, where from morning till night the old and 
 the young, the high and the humble, men, women and children, 
 passed in unbroken line, through the dim-lighted catafalque, to 
 look their last upon their best; — and those closing ceremonies of 
 the morrow, when young men in the vigor of manhood, bore him 
 in their strong arms to the temple of the Most High, where, after 
 anthem and prayer and solemn service, words were spoken, of 
 fitting dignity and eloquent of grief, less in praise of the dead, 
 than in comfort and admonition to the living ! And how they 
 laid him in the earth ; — and marked the spot vith a memorial 
 stone, bearing the simple superscription of his name ; — and then, 
 strewing with garlands the grave of the mighty departed, turned 
 slowly and sadly away from all they had seei and heard, to 
 dwell in heaviness of heart upon what they ©uld never more 
 see or hear again ! All these things, I know. are still fresh in 
 your hearts ; and what stranger that beheld them, but must 
 have felt that one had fallen who was altogither worthy of a 
 people's love, and that he had fallen among those who knew 
 how to render the homage due to his worth ! 
 
 And so, indeed, he was worthy ; and it wil be an omen of 
 evil to those in whose service he lived ant died, when they 
 shall begin to forget his memory, and when the sad reproach 
 shall be theirs, that they honor him with teir lips, but their 
 hearts are far away. 
 
 The memories of a people — the recollectins connected with 
 their great names and great events — are pa| of their best trea- 
 sure : for out of these grow, in a good degre, their hopes, aspi- 
 rations and achievements. Virtue, public fld private, is nour- 
 ished by the contemplation of departed woih ; and one of the 
 strongest incentives to a high strain of seriment and action, is 
 
found in the traditions and records of brilliant eras. It is a 
 noble instinct of our nature, which prompts in us a desire to be 
 not unworthy the fame of our fathers. To feed this instinct — 
 to train the young eagles to the flight of the old ones — to culti- 
 vate and diffuse the love of virtue by popular exhibitions of 
 admiration and gratitude for its most signal manifestations, — 
 this is the wise policy of every people who have a past upon 
 which they can look back with pride, or a future to which they 
 look forward with hope. The Romans were accustomed to 
 carry in procession the statues of their dead ancestors ; and all 
 nations that have any claims to civilization have sought to 
 perpetuate in enduring forms, sensible to the eye, the lineaments 
 and virtues of those who have connected their names with the 
 glory of the country. We are beings of a nature mysteriously 
 compounded, and are educated by the senses, as well as by the 
 faculty of reflection. A sign or an image will oftentimes awaken 
 emotions that the colder appeals of reason could never touch. 
 As we linger around the memorials which commemorate great 
 men or great actions, we kindle in imagination, and drawing 
 to ourselves some portion of the inspiration of the place, learn 
 to emulate what we behold and admire. Bright deeds are fitly 
 embalmed in the song of the poet and the pictured page of the 
 historian ; but not in vain do the painter and sculptor ply then- 
 strokes of art, almost divine, to make the canvass glow and 
 the marble start to life. Bust and portrait, statue and column 
 are something more than mute memorials of affection : for, 
 while they perpetuate the remembrance of the dead, they speak 
 to the hearts of the living in a language which, in all ages and 
 countries, has found an interpretation and a response. There 
 is true philosophy, as well as a fitness and a beauty in these 
 things. 
 
 We have had two races of great statesmen. Of the first race 
 were the statesmen of the Revolution. They had a glorious 
 work to perform, and manfully and thoroughly did they accom- 
 plish it. It is true that great occasions generally call forth 
 great men, but it is equally true that these, in their turn, mould 
 and fashion, if they do not create, such occasions. A remarka- 
 ble exemplification of this may be found in our Revolution, 
 
10 
 
 which was essentially a work of principle. It is one of the 
 chief distinctions of the statesmen of that day, that without 
 waiting for actual oppression, they saw and resisted the very 
 beginnings of misgovernment. It was not the amount of the 
 tax, but the principle on which it was demanded, that kindled 
 into a flame of indignant patriotism their jealous love of liberty. 
 They knew, as by intuition, that there could be no freedom for 
 a people who were subject to be bound, " in all cases whatso- 
 ever," by the action of a legislative body in which they had no 
 representation ; and upon this theme they spoke and wrote, 
 remonstrated and reasoned, with a gravity of style and a 
 strength of argument that have never been surpassed. To the 
 clearness of perception, the vigor of understanding, and the 
 reach and comprehensiveness of thought which are so admira- 
 bly displayed in their State papers, they joined a courage and 
 constancy of soul which neither (oil nor danger could daunt or 
 discourage. And so, when the war of words was over, they 
 did not shrink from that of arms ; and, having once appealed 
 to the sword in defence of their rights and their homes, they 
 rose easily and grandly to the majestic conception of redeeming 
 the colonies from a condition of political dependency, and of 
 clothing them with the name, the powers and the attributes of 
 free and sovereign States. Over the perilous path of revolution, 
 through the valley of the shadow of death, they led the way 
 to independence; and. after seven years of war, against fearful 
 odds, and amid privations, reverses and disasters that would 
 have shaken the purpose of less constant men, they made good 
 their declaration, in the face and by the acknowledgment of 
 nations, and rescued the fairest portion of the New "World, for 
 ever, from the tyrannous grasp of the Old. 
 
 Nor did their services end with the achievement of indepen- 
 dence. Having broken asunder an old monarchy, they next 
 applied themselves to the work of building up a free republic. 
 When we consider the novelty of the enterprise, and the diffi- 
 culties necessarily incident to it. we cannot but regard this 
 undertaking as still more extraordinary than the other. Who 
 can tell how much of virtue, of wisdom and of political science 
 far in advance of the day was required, to restrain a liberty, 
 
11 
 
 just bom of revolution, from rushing madly into licentiousness ; 
 to teach a people, in the very flush and fever of a triumph won 
 by the sword, the noble lesson of self-control, and to turn, by 
 the power of reason and persuasion, into one broad, deep chan- 
 nel of safety, the conflicting tides of passion and opinion, which 
 threatened to overwhelm all in anarchy ; to devise for the sepa- 
 rate States laws and institutions, and new and untried forms of 
 popular representative government, recognizing the people as 
 the source of power, and securing, by proper guards and restric- 
 tions, the responsibility of the rulers to the ruled ; and after- 
 wards, with a view to the common defence, and the formation 
 of a more perfect union, to bind together by a Constitution, or 
 Fundamental Law, the several independent commonwealths 
 into one great confederated republic, embodying and realizing 
 to the eyes of foreign nations the idea of American constitu- 
 tional liberty, challenging their respect by its justice and its 
 power, and awakening everywhere, in the hearts of those who 
 dare to think of freedom, hopes and aspirations which, however 
 long subdued, will be cherished long — yea, even until the day 
 of their consummation shall come. 
 
 Truly they were great men, who could so deal with a mo- 
 mentous crisis in the history of a people ; who could call States 
 into being; invest them with the insignia of sovereignty ; or- 
 ganize them for happy and beneficent action, and administer 
 their early functions, at home and abroad, with distinguished 
 ability and success. On the rolls of fame there are no better 
 or brighter names than those of the founders of the republic — 
 of Washington "first in war, first in peace;" of Jefferson and 
 Adams, Madison and Franklin ; of James Otis, Patrick Henry, 
 Hamilton and Laurens ; of Gadsden, Hancock, the Rutledges, 
 the Pinckneys, and a host of others, their comrades and com- 
 patriots ! They have passed away, but their work survives ; 
 and though that work should perish, still will their names and 
 their principles live in the recollections of men, till history and 
 tradition shall be no more. 
 
 To them succeeded another generation of great statesmen. 
 They too were "racy of the soil," and of a masculine vigor 
 of character and intellect. Born amid the closing scenes of the 
 
12 
 
 revolution, and sprung, for the most part, from those who had 
 been actors in that great drama, they were familiar with the 
 men and traditions of the times; and standing, as it were, 
 near the fountain heads of patriotism, they drank largely of its 
 living and health-inspiring waters. The great questions then 
 in agitation, touching public and private rights, and theories 
 and forms of government, generated a bold spirit of speculation 
 and a courageous zeal for truth and freedom, which became 
 thoroughly interwoven with the texture of their characters. 
 As they grew to manhood, and advanced upon the stage of 
 political action, the workings of the new government in all its 
 departments, legislative, judicial and executive ; the lines of 
 partition between the State powers and the Federal powers, the 
 the former original and self existent, the latter derivative and 
 delegated ; the extension of the boundaries of the republic, by the 
 acquisition of new territory or the admission of new States ; its 
 systems of currency, public credit and internal improvement ; 
 and its foreign relations, particularly under the pressure of war, 
 gave rise to a multiplicity of questions and measures, which 
 were not only of new impression, but of sufficient magnitude to 
 call into requisition the resources of the largest and most com- 
 prehensive minds. Nor did they prove unequal to the exigen- 
 cies of their position, in their debates and discussions, happily 
 preserved for the delight and instruction of after times, they 
 poured floods of light, such as only genius and eloquence can 
 pour, upon the theory' and practice of our institutions; and 
 their statesmanlike conduct is amply attested by the steady and 
 well-assured growth of the country in power and consideration 
 abroad, and in all the elements of material and moral greatness 
 at home. 
 
 Among these post-revolutionary statesmen, Calhoun, Clay 
 and Webster were easily pre-eminent — "facile principes." 
 Their superiority was acknowledged by common consent. 
 They soared to heights and penetrated to depths which none 
 others could reach ; — by the true mastery of intellect, they 
 swayed the wills of masses of men ; — and by their joint counsel 
 and action, they modified and controlled the progress of the 
 country in its wonderful developments, in the distinguishing 
 
13 
 
 properties of their minds they differed, just as we see excelling 
 stars differ in glory. In one, an amazing power of thought 
 and reason was chiefly predominant ; in another, a brilliant 
 imagination and electrical eloquence ; and in the third, a beau- 
 tiful and extraordinary combination of the imaginative and 
 reasoning faculties. At times they stood side by side in the 
 cause of the country, marshalling her, with glorious rivalry, in 
 the ways of peace or of war ; and at other times, front to front, 
 in the van of opposing ranks, they contended for victory with 
 an ardor of battle that shook the realm to its centre. Who was 
 in the right and who in the wrong in these conflicts of opinion, 
 will always remain a fair subject for discussion and difference 
 of opinion ; but when the heated passions of the day shall 
 have died out and reason and justice shall have established 
 their sway over the minds of men, the clear and calm voice of 
 historical truth, speaking not for the day only, but for all time, ' 
 will declare that, however varied their opinions and their mea- 
 sures, they were one and all Americans and patriots at heart, 
 true men and great statesmen, animated by an honesty of pur- 
 pose, a zeal for what they believed to be the right, an intrepidity 
 of soul and a commanding power of intellect, that have shed 
 unfading lustre on the country. Such will be the verdict of 
 that great tribunal of posterity, to which their motives and their 
 actions are all now committed. 
 
 It is not expected, on this occasion, that a minute and de- 
 tailed narrative should be made of the life and services of Mr. 
 Calhoun ; but it is expected, and properly too, that something 
 should be said of his moral and mental qualities, as rare in 
 their assemblage as in their separate excellencies ; of his cha- 
 racter, so singularly pure ; of the great parts he acted in public 
 affairs ; and of his claims to be considered a statesman, an 
 orator and a political philosopher of the first rate, a benefactor 
 of his country, and the particular pride and glory of his State. 
 And although I cannot hope for the exercise of an ability at all 
 adequate to the occasion, still do I invoke, and would fain bring 
 to the task, some portion of that spirit of truth, of historical 
 justice and loving charity, with which the men of after times 
 will regard those whose names they will not willingly let die. 
 
14 
 
 There is something beautiful and touching in the life-long 
 relation which subsisted between Mr. Calhoun and the people 
 of South-Carolina. So much of fidelity on his part, and of 
 unfailing confidence on theirs, for so long a period of time, and 
 during so many trying vicissitudes, presents a moral picture 
 which no person of generous disposition can contemplate with- 
 out emotion. Those who think lightly of it, do not consider 
 the high qualities in which this remarkable instance of mutual 
 devotion had its origin. It was not the offspring of art and 
 management on the one side, nor of a blind and unreasoning 
 attachment on the other. No man ever stooped less than Mr. 
 Calhoun, to the degrading compliances of the demagogue or 
 the courtier ; his real nobility of soul recoiled from them with 
 scorn and loathing.- What his heart coined, his mouth spoke, 
 and that with a freedom and fearlessness of utterance that was 
 the best witness of his sincerity. It was not in self-seeking or 
 time-serving, but in the voice of his conscience, smaller but 
 more potent than the voice of the multitude, that he sought 
 and found the law of his conduct. Dear to him as was the 
 confidence of his State — dear (to use his own words, on a memo- 
 rable occasion) as light and life — he never hesitated to run the 
 risk of losing it, rather than disobey the sober and deliberate 
 dictates of his judgment. He had the heroic courage of mind, — 
 so essential to true greatness. — that could turn aside from power 
 and place and the dazzling rewards of a high and successful 
 ambition, to tread alone the narrow and rugged path of duty, 
 undismayed by clamor or calumny, and sustained only by the 
 consciousness of right and an intrepid faith in tlie ultimate 
 triumph of truth. It is in the union of the highest moral with 
 the highest intellectual nature, in that greatness of character 
 which is the last finish and crowning excellence of greatness of 
 mind, and which no single word perhaps so well expresses, as 
 magnanimity, taken in its best sense, that we find the secret 
 and the source of his marvellous ascendancy. Many, who 
 would not bow to the majesty of his intellect alone, rendered a 
 willing homage to the still more commanding majesty of his 
 virtue. 
 
 To the State of his birth, this great and good man, in obe- 
 
15 
 
 dience to the double instincts of filial piety and patriotism, gave 
 the first and choicest affections of his heart. He brought to 
 her service all the resources of his brilliant mind, all the ener- 
 gies of his ardent and aspiring soul. With a jealous love he 
 watched over her interests, and her honor was dear to him as 
 the apple of his eye. The radiance of his early triumphs shed 
 upon her a reflected glory, only to be surpassed by the noontide 
 and setting splendors of his later career. As her youthful 
 representative in the federal councils, he rose at once to the first 
 distinctions; and in that brilliant assemblage of orators and 
 statesmen, known as the Twelfth Congress, he was likened to 
 "one of the old sages of the old Congress, with all the graces 
 of youth," and was hailed as "one of the master spirits, who 
 stamp their names upon the age in which they live." In the 
 discharge of the duties of a high executive department to which 
 he was called, he signalized his administrative ability, giving 
 proofs that his faculties of action were equal to his faculties of 
 thought. The popular heart acknowledged the spell of his 
 genius; and under the victorious auspices of the great republi- 
 can party which then ruled the destinies of the country, he was 
 elevated to the second office in the gift of the people. But one 
 step more, and the summit of his ambition was reached ! That 
 step he forbore ; that ambition he checked and curbed in mid 
 career! The voice of his State called upon him, and he heard 
 it only to obey. For the sake of her cause, which he believed 
 to be the cause of " truth, justice and the constitution," he relin- 
 quished without a murmur, and seemingly without a regret, all 
 the bright ambitious hopes of his life, and took upon himself the 
 arduous and self-denying character of her champion and her 
 martyr. For more than twenty years, with a constancy of pur- 
 pose that knew not the shadow of turning, and a power of rea- 
 son and eloquence that will be admired so long as letters and 
 knowledge shall survive among us, he contended, literally to 
 the last beat of his heart, for the maintenance of her honor, and 
 the vindication of her equal rights as a member of the Federal 
 Union. And in the solemn closing hours of life, that so search- 
 ingly try the truth of the soul, he uttered a regret that he 
 could not have " one hour more in the Senate," to plead the 
 
16 
 
 self-same cause ! What wonder that in his noble genius, his 
 erect and dauntless bearing, his integrity so stainless and pure, 
 and his loyalty, which neither the smiles of power could 
 seduce nor its frowns intimidate, South-Carolina should recog- 
 nize the qualities most worthy of her admiration ! "What won- 
 der that she should extend to him in life the full measure of 
 her affectionate confidence, and now that he is dead, should 
 seek to perpetuate, by some enduring memorial, if not the glory 
 of his services, at least the truth and sincerity of her gratitude! 
 We are naturally curious to know something of the early 
 training of great men, and of the methods of discipline under 
 which they attained their mighty intellectual stature. All that 
 is known of Mr. Calhoun in this regard, exhibits the self- 
 reliance and native vigor of mind which characterized him in 
 after life, and affords a striking example of the power of well- 
 directed effort to compensate for the want of early advantages. 
 During his first eighteen years, the academical instruction he 
 received did not extend beyond the rudiments of reading, wri- 
 ting and arithmetic, as taught in a country school. But we 
 must not infer that this period of his life was passed without 
 improvement. A mind like his could not subsist in idleness. 
 Once in possession of the " golden keys," he unlocked for him- 
 self the storehouses of knowledge, and gathered what he would 
 from its heaps of rich and abundant treasure. By self-cultiva- 
 tion, which deals with the world within as well as the world 
 without, with our own thoughts as well as the thoughts of other 
 men, he developed and strengthened the natural powers of his 
 understanding. He certainly had, at that time, the power and 
 habit of study, for we learn that, from a small circulating library 
 within his reach, he selected various works on history and phi- 
 losophy, which he read with such intensity of application as 
 seriously to impair his health. In the choice of books, we may 
 discover the natural bent of his genius; and his method of 
 reading, described as so earnest and absorbing, was doubtless 
 of that character which appropriates facts and principles, incor- 
 porating them, as it were, by the power of thought, into the 
 mind, and rendering them available for use, whenever occasion 
 requires. Whether he had, at this time, any revelation to him- 
 
17 
 
 self of the capacious faculties that were slumbering within 
 him, or any glimpse or dream even of the great part he was 
 capable of acting in the affairs of life, cannot now be told ; but 
 certain it is, as will appear hereafter, that he had fixed in his 
 mind a high standard of the sort and degree of preparation 
 that was necessary to eminence in professional or political life, 
 and that if it became his lot to embark in either, he would not 
 be content to fall short of that standard. 
 
 In his 19th year, an elder brother, moved either by fraternal 
 love or an appreciation of his genius, proposed that he should 
 receive an education at College. To his acceptance of this 
 proposal Mr. Calhoun annexed two conditions, one of which 
 shows the truthfulness of his affections, the other the maturity 
 of his judgment, and both of them a fixedness of principle that 
 was characteristic of him. The first was that the consent of his 
 widowed mother should be freely given, without which he 
 would not think of leaving her. Neither ambition nor the pros- 
 pect of so great a boon as a liberal education could induce him 
 to disregard the promptings of filial piety. Another great man, 
 Mr. Webster, has told us that when his father first disclosed his 
 intention of sending him to College, he laid his head on that 
 father's shoulder and wept. How kindred in their emotions 
 are noble natures, and how beautifully do these fine touches of 
 humanity, gleaming out from them, like lights among the 
 shadows of a landscape, soften and relieve the sterner charac- 
 ter they acquire amid the cares and trials, the strifes and 
 struggles of the world ! Had that mother and that father been 
 spared to witness the full results of their self-denying parental 
 love, how would their hearts have swelled with a delight which 
 words are too poor to express ! Even now, they have their re- 
 ward ! 
 
 The other stipulation was, that such provision should be 
 made as would maintain him at his studies for a period of 
 seven years before entering upon his profession. Unless this 
 could be done, he preferred to remain a planter. In those em- 
 ployments which call for the highest displays of mind and 
 knowledge, he knew that the superstructure could not be high 
 and stable unless the foundation were laid broad and strong. 
 2 
 
18 
 
 Having set up in his breast a high ideal of excellence, he was 
 fixed in his determination either to compass it in full or to fore- 
 go the attempt. It is this spirit, the spirit of the motto " Ant 
 Caesar, aut nullus," that is the actuating principle of all great 
 efforts and great achievments. 
 
 Happily both of these conditions were complied with. They 
 have been dwelt upon not only because they illustrate the char- 
 acter of the man, but because they are of importance in the 
 way of encouragement and example to others. When Mr. 
 Calhoun entered upon the business of education, he entered 
 upon it in earnest, and with his whole soul. It was his habit 
 then, as afterwards, to do thoroughly whatever he undertook. 
 He was not content with the forms and outward shows of 
 things, hut penetrated to the interior and the substance, pluck- 
 ing out from the mystery its heart. The proper fruits of a 
 solid education exhibited themselves in the ease and power 
 with which, at his entrance upon life, he dealt with great af- 
 fairs. 
 
 The public life of Mr. Calhoun, from the time he entered on 
 the stage of political action, is part of the public life of the 
 country. So great was the part he played, and so thoroughly 
 did he stamp the impress of his mind and his will upon all the 
 leading questions of Federal policy, that no proper history of 
 the times can be written which does not embrace a history of 
 his opinions, actions and influences. In a more general point 
 of view, his public life may be divided into two parts or eras. 
 In the first of these he appears in the character of a great po- 
 litical leader, inspiring with the ardor of his mind the counsels 
 of the country ; animating it to a bold vindication of its honor 
 against foreign aggression ; rallying its spirits, marshalling its 
 resources, and organizing its victories in a war with the most 
 powerful nation of the earth ; shaping its domestic policy upon 
 the most liberal principles, in the delicate and difficult stages of 
 a transition from a state of war to a state of peace, and admin- 
 istering, with a capacity altogether unsurpassed, the high 
 executive functions with which he was clothed. In the other, 
 he stands forth in the rarer and grander character of a great 
 political reformer, seeing and sternly resisting the abuses of the 
 
19 
 
 times; battling, if without hope, with a heart of courage, on 
 the side of liberty against the side of power ; sacrificing all 
 personal considerations in a noble effort to restore the govern- 
 ment to its original purity, and to recall the country to the paths 
 of republicanism from which it had strayed ; throwing himself 
 into the breach of a violated Constitution, and struggling there 
 with the strength of a giant, and a self-devotion like that of 
 the Spartan at the Pass, to save the rights of the States and 
 the liberties of the people, from the overwhelming tide of fa- 
 naticism and consolidation which threatened to sweep them 
 away. Here are interesting and ample materials for political 
 biography ; but a few glances at his career in each of these as- 
 pects, is all that is compatible with the purposes and limits 
 of this occasion. 
 
 The war of 1812 has been called our second war for inde 
 pendence. It was a war for commercial, as the first was for 
 political independence. It was waged in vindication of neutral 
 rights, and for the freedom of the ocean as the great and com- 
 mon highway of nations. For a series of years previous to its 
 declaration, Great Britain and France, the two great antago- 
 nists in the mighty European struggle then in progress, 
 particularly the former, had impressed our seamen and com- 
 mitted depredations on our commerce, in utter disregard of our 
 rights as an independent, non-belligerent power. In fact, they 
 undertook, through their orders and decrees, to regulate our 
 whole trade with foreign nations. The sensibility of the coun- 
 try was deeply excited by these wrongs and indignities, but it 
 was the policy of the government to preserve peaceful relations 
 so long as it could be done consistently with the national honor. 
 In pursuance of this policy, resort was had to a system of re- 
 strictive measures, consisting of non-importation, embargo and 
 non-intercourse acts, in the hope of compelling justice and en- 
 forcing redress for the injuries to which we had been subjected. 
 
 No sooner did Mr. Calhoun enter Congress, than he advocated 
 a bolder and more decisive line of conduct. At this early 
 period of his life, while still a young man, he gave proofs of 
 that high quality of statesmanship which consists in taking 
 large and commanding views of public affairs in great emer- 
 
20 
 
 gencies, — going before rather than lagging behind public senti- 
 ment — not so much following it, as moulding, directing and 
 lifting it up. He was of opinion that we were about to enter 
 upon the second struggle for our liberties with our ancient 
 enemy, and that war speedily declared and wisely and vigor- 
 ously conducted, was the only means of establishing the honor 
 and safety of the country. He resolutely assailed the system 
 of restrictions, as inefficient in itself and inconsistent with the 
 genius of the people, and declared that he would prefer one 
 victory over the enemy — by sea or land — to all the good that 
 could ever be derived from restrictions. As chairman of the 
 Committee of Foreign Relations, he reported the bill declaring 
 war; and. after the declaration, he strenuously opposed the 
 views of those who were in favor of uniting restrictions with war. 
 "We have had," said he, "a peace like a war; in the name of 
 Heaven, let us not have the only thing that is worse, a war like 
 a peace." He rebuked the spirit of factious opposition; de- 
 nounced the low and calculating avarice that would shorten 
 the arm and cripple the power of the government in time of 
 war; and in a style of nervous and manly eloquence, admira- 
 bly suited to the occasion, appealed for a vigorous prosecu- 
 tion of hostilities to every feeling of pride and patriotism that 
 had a place in the hearts of his countrymen. There is so 
 much of spirit and vigor in the contrast he drew between an 
 active and a passive system of resistance, and in the animating 
 appeals he addressed to the country, through the debates in 
 Congress, that did opportunity allow, I should take pleasure in 
 reading for your enjoyment some passages from those noble 
 speeches, which even now ring out with a sound like that of a 
 trumpet, and which, with Mr. Clay's, were read at the head of 
 our armies, for the purpose of inspiriting the troops. 
 
 Time has fully confirmed the justice and policy of the war, 
 and too much praise cannot be rendered to those of our States- 
 men who comprehended the crisis in its full proportions, and 
 met it with a commensurate boldness and energy. It is im- 
 possible to regard the conduct of Great Britain at that time in 
 any other light than as a practical assertion of her supremacy 
 upon the ocean, and of her determination, whenever her inter- 
 
21 
 
 ests required it, to subject the commerce of the world to her 
 supervision and control. Her belligerent maritime policy, 
 resting upon her superior naval power, and undertaking to reg- 
 ulate, according to her own views, the principle and practice of 
 search and impressment, blockades and contraband of war, 
 amounted virtually to a substitution of her imperious will upon 
 the ocean for the recognized law of nations; — so that not only 
 the lives and property of our own citizens but the neutral rights 
 of States, were involved in the alternative of our resistance or 
 submission. In this point of view it was devolved upon the 
 young Republic, single-handed and alone, to defend not only 
 her own honor but the maritime rights of the civilized world, 
 against the colossal power of Great Britain, particularly after 
 the latter had been released by the peace of Paris from all 
 complication with European hostilities, and had been left free 
 to turn against her the whole might of fleets and armies, fresh 
 from the fields of their triumph. Her situation was full of 
 peril and responsibility, but she was not intimidated ; and un- 
 der the guidance of firm and patriotic counsels, she fought her 
 way, on land and on sea, to the issue of an honorable peace. 
 
 The Treaty of Ghent, it is true, did not profess to settle any- 
 thing in relation to the original causes of war. The British 
 orders in council had been revoked shortly after the declaration, 
 and the matters of impressment and blockade were left, by mu- 
 tual consent, in statu quo. The treaty looked only to the 
 restoration of peace and of commercial intercourse upon a 
 footing of reciprocity. Still the waging of the war was a prac- 
 tical vindication of the strength of the government and of the 
 patriotism of the people. To have succumbed would have 
 been an acknowledgement of weakness and an invitation to 
 greater aggressions. Nations, like individuals, hold their in- 
 tegrity and their safety by the tenure of a willingness and a 
 power to resist oppression. The effects of the course pursued by 
 the United States were felt immediately. The character of 
 the country rose in general estimation, and our flag, before al- 
 most unknown, acquired a name and a recognition abroad. A 
 higher tone of feeling and thinking, a tone of self-reliance and 
 self-respect, sprung up in the bosoms of the people. The mem- 
 
22 
 
 ory of Lundy's Lane and New Orleans became associated with 
 that of Saratoga and Eutaw ; and by a sort of retributive jus- 
 tice, in a war waged for the vindication of maritime rights, the 
 thunders of our young but gallant navy woke echoes tha 1 
 startled the "sea-girt Isle" in its dream of invincibility, and 
 announced in many a brilliant victory that the mastery of the 
 seas, if surrendered elsewhere, was still challenged by the 
 young Republic of the West. The present security of our 
 commerce on the ocean, and the immunity of American citizen- 
 ship in distant lands, are among the legitimate fruits of the 
 war of 1812. 
 
 The career of Mr. Calhoun as a member of Congress, and 
 as Secretary of War, placed him in the front rank of those upon 
 whom the affections and hopes of the country were fixed. Al- 
 though still young, he had displayed, in the highest degree 
 those qualities of mind and character which most captivate the 
 hearts of a free and intelligent people, and which to the end of 
 the chapter will sway the destinies of a polity like ours — such 
 as ardor, boldness, independence, a high and stirring eloquence 
 that appeals to the morale of our nature, a fearlessness of re- 
 sponsibility, a clear and quick sagacity to see what the highest 
 interests of the country demand in moments of exigency, and 
 an unflinching intrepidity in devising and carrying out the 
 measures proper to secure them. Perhaps I cannot convey a 
 more accurate idea of the estimation in which he was then 
 held, than by laying before you the opinion entertained of him 
 by one who was himself an orator and a ripe scholar, a pro- 
 found lawyer and a most virtuous and accomplished gentleman. 
 I allude to the late Wm. Wirt. In a letter from Mr. Wirt, then 
 Attorney General of the United States, to his friend William 
 Pope of Virginia, under date 12th Nov. 1824, he thus speaks of 
 Mr. Calhoun : 
 
 " I am sorry that you did not see Calhoun. He is a most 
 captivating man. If the Virginians knew him as well as I do, 
 he would be as popular in Virginia as he is in South Carolina. 
 His is the very character to strike a Virginian — ardent, gen- 
 erous, high-minded, brave, with a genius full of lire, energy 
 and light ; a devoted patriot, proud of his country, and prizing 
 
23 
 
 her glory above his life. I would turn him loose to make his 
 way in Virginia against any other man in the United States, 
 the ex-Presidents excepted. He wants only what age will give 
 him to assure to him, I think, the universal confidence of the 
 nation. He is at present a little too sanguine, a little too rapid 
 and tenacious; but he is full of the kindest feelings and the 
 most correct principles, and another Presidential term will, I 
 think, mellow him for any service of his country."* 
 
 Within a year from the writing of this letter, Mr. Calhoun 
 was elected to the Vice Presidency by an overwhelming vote. 
 The duties of this office are not of that engrossing character 
 which could occupy the whole attention of a mind like his. 
 It is understood to have been about this time that Mr. Calhoun, 
 whose attention had been excited by the alarming growth of 
 the Tariff system, instituted that searching and profound in- 
 vestigation into the powers and the policy of the Federal 
 Government, which wrought a change in his earlier opinions 
 and gave character and direction to the whole current of his 
 subsequent political life. Although there has been much ex- 
 aggeration as to the extent of his agency in particular measures, 
 there can be no doubt that while in Congress, during and im- 
 mediately after the war, he participated generally in those 
 views of domestic policy, sometimes called national, which 
 were then almost universal. Indeed, in his remarks on the 
 resolution in relation to the Madison papers, made in the Sen- 
 ate, in 1837, Mr. Calhoun admitted that "when a young man, 
 and at his entrance on political life, he had inclined to that 
 interpretation of the Constitution which favored a latitude of 
 powers ; but experience, observation and reflection had 
 wrought a change in his views, and above all, the transcendent 
 argument of Mr. Madison himself, in his celebrated resolutions 
 of 1798, had done more than all other things to convince him 
 of his error." It would not be just to his great memory, nor is 
 it necessary to his fame or character, that there should be any- 
 thing of concealment or disguise on this point. Magnanimity 
 does not consist in never committing an error, but in rectifying 
 
 * Kennedy's Memoirs of Wirt, 2 vol., p. 185. 
 
24 
 
 it and making atonement for it. as soon as discovered. It is 
 only the fool who never changes an opinion ; and he is no bet- 
 ter than a coward and a knave, who stifles in his breast the 
 convictions of reason and duty, and who, seeing the right, will 
 still the wrong pursue. 
 
 And here it may be proper to take a passing notice of the 
 imputation that the change in Mr. Calhoun's political conduct 
 was dictated by feelings of disappointed ambition, or of per- 
 sonal hostility to General Jackson. Those who make the 
 charge, have either overlooked or confounded the order and 
 succession of political events. A slight reference to facts and 
 dates will suffice to place this matter in its proper light. The 
 letter of Gen. Jackson to Mr. Calhoun, which led to the rup- 
 ture in their friendly relations, bears date 13th May, 1830. In 
 that letter he expresses " great surprise " at a communication 
 which has been made to him, and proceeds to say, ' : that 
 frankness which I trust has always characterized me through 
 life towards those with whom 1 have been in the habits of 
 friendship, induces me to lay before you the enclosed copy of a 
 letter from Wra. H. Crawford, Esq., which was placed in my 
 hands on yesterday." It is unnecessary for the present pur- 
 pose to enter into the subject-matter or the merits of the con- 
 troversy ; the material fact is. that until May, 1S30, the 
 relations between the President and Vice President were those 
 of political association and personal good will. 
 
 The agitation in South Carolina, upon the subject of a protect- 
 ive tariff, had its commencement more than ten years prior to that 
 date, the House of Representatives having, as early as 1820, af- 
 firmed the principle of Free Trade, but declined embarrassing 
 the action of Congress in what seemed to be intended for the regu- 
 lation of commerce. In 182S Mr. Calhoun wrote the celebrated 
 paper known as the " Exposition," which entered into a pro- 
 found analytical examination of the principle and operation of 
 the tariff system, and of the relations of the State and Federal 
 Governments to each other. In this paper the protective tariff 
 was characterized as unconstitutional, unjust and oppressive, 
 and as tending to corrupt the government and destroy the 
 liberty of the country ; and the remedy suggested in the event 
 
25 
 
 of a failure of all other redress, was that the State should in- 
 terpose her veto or sovereign authority, to protect the property 
 and liberties of her citizens from the consequences of a delib- 
 erate and dangerous infraction of the Constitution. At the 
 same time, forbearance was recommended, under the hope that 
 the great political revolution which on the succeeding 4th of 
 March would bring into power " an eminent citizen (General 
 Jackson), distinguished for his services to his country, and his 
 justice and patriotism, would be followed up, under his influ- 
 ence, with a complete restoration of the pure principles of our 
 government." The same Legislature which adopted this 
 Exposition, cast the vote of the State for Gen. Jackson as Pres- 
 ident, and Mr. Calhoun as Vice President. Is it not clear that 
 the "Exposition," which preceded the "correspondence " by 
 more than a year, distinctly put forward the grounds upon 
 which Mr. Calhoun afterwards planted himself, and foreshad- 
 owed the subsequent action of the State under the guidance of 
 his counsels? And is it not just as clear that nothing but a 
 transposition or utter subversion of authentic historical facts. 
 can lend the slightest shadow of foundation to the idea that the 
 personal feud with Gen. Jackson was the exciting cause of the 
 great political struggle in which Mr. Calhoun embarked? 
 
 Equally absurd and without foundation, is the charge of dis- 
 appointed ambition. In the fall of 1828, before the writing of 
 the Exposition, Mr. Calhoun was Vice President. In the elec- 
 toral college of that year, he had been re-elected on the same 
 ticket with Gen. Jackson. They had come into office on the 
 tide of a civil revolution which had swept away the power of 
 the younger Adams, as that of 1800 had swept away the 
 power of the elder. They stood together, the heads and repre- 
 sentatives of a great and victorious party ; and it may be 
 affirmed, without fear of contradiction, that the personal popu- 
 larity of Mr. Calhoun, like his official station, was then second 
 only to that of Gen. Jackson. He was in the line of succes- 
 sion, and it was generally conceded that the influence of the 
 Chief Magistrate would be exerted to promote his election to 
 the Presidency upon his own retirement at the end of four 
 years. It was at this time, and under these circumstances, 
 
26 
 
 with the most smiling auspices around him, while his stav was 
 yet in the ascendant and heckoned him on to the highest office 
 to which an American citizen can aspire, that he shut his eyes 
 upon the brilliant prospects before him, and devoted himself, 
 heart, mind and soul, to the hard, arduous and unpromising 
 task of reforming the government, and saving the country from 
 the fatal proclivities of its rulers. In his own simple but em- 
 phatic words — " The road of ambition lay open before me ; I 
 had but to follow the corrupt tendency of the times; but I 
 chose to follow the rugged path of duty." There will be dif- 
 ference of opinion as to the soundness of his views, or the 
 wisdom of his course, but it may be safely affirmed that our 
 civil history does not present an example of sterner or more 
 disinterested sacrifice of self to a sense of duty. 
 
 The particulars of that struggle are familiar to you — many 
 of you were actors in it, and most if not all of you know its 
 history by heart — the argument, the agitation and the fierce 
 contests — the assembling of the convention and passing of the 
 ordinance — the proclamation and counter-proclamation — the 
 call to arms, and the warlike preparations on both sides — the 
 breathing space that precedes the shock — and then ' : the Com- 
 promise" which stilled the troubled waters, and brought back 
 again the calm and peace. In that, as in most exciting civil 
 contests, the parties at home mistook each other's motives and 
 purposes. On one side, it was believed that there was a reck- 
 less determination to dissolve the Union, and on the other, that 
 there was an utter insensibility to the wrongs and injuries of 
 the State. Both parties were in error. Afteiwards mutual jus- 
 tice was done, and the era of good feeling restored ; and 
 thenceforward the unanimity of sentiment in the State has been 
 almost unbroken. 
 
 Throughout the whole contest with the Federal Govern- 
 ment, the bearing of Mr. Calhoun was erect, manly and 
 undaunted. He betrayed no fear, and shrunk from no respon- 
 sibility. It was one of those occasions that test the moral 
 courage — which is the highest form of courage and one of the 
 noblest attributes of mind. He knew that his cause was un- 
 popular ; that the hearts of the people had been turned against 
 
27 
 
 him ; that his motives and purposes were misunderstood or 
 misinterpreted ; that he was encircled by the arms and the 
 power of the very government whose action he arraigned and 
 sought to overthrow ; and that upon the issues of the contest 
 it depended whether his name would descend to posterity, 
 coupled with the epithet of traitor or of patriot : yet his coin- 
 age did not fail nor his heart sink — he stood alone in the Senate 
 house, unshaken, unterrified — and with no other weapons than 
 those of justice, reason and eloquence, won a victory for his 
 cause, and for himself a brilliant renown. There is something 
 in a moral attitude like this, which, if we are satisfied of the 
 sincerity of the man, although we may disapprove his cause, 
 compels our admiration and sympathy. And well might one 
 of his great antagonists, when in after years he stood beside 
 his bier, and felt the memory of this and other scenes come 
 thronging upon his heart, say to his surviving compeers, as he 
 described his demeanor in the Senate, ' : who did not feel that 
 he might imagine that we saw before us a Senator of Rome 
 when Rome survived." 
 
 It was certainly a great triumph to have brought to a stand 
 a progressive policy like that of the American system, which 
 pressed with gross inequality upon the capital and labor of the 
 South ; which tended to enrich one section while it impover- 
 ished the other ; which by means of the tariff created a surplus, 
 and by means of internal improvements supplied the means of 
 squandering it, thereby creating a demand as insatiable as the 
 supply was lavish ; and the end of which, if unchecked, no 
 man could well foresee. But still greater and more singular, is 
 the merit and service of having recalled the attention of the 
 country, by bold and profound discussion, to the nature, extent 
 and limitations of the Constitution under which we live ; of the 
 delegated and limited powers of a government which is federal 
 and not national, and in which the States are the "integers of a 
 multiple," and not " the fractions of a unit ; " and of the high, 
 transcendent right of each State in the last resort, whether 
 under or over the Constitution, to interpose in some form its 
 sovereign authority, for the protection of the property or the 
 liberties of its citizens; — a right which presents the only refuge 
 
28 
 
 from intolerable oppression on the one side, and bloody revolu- 
 tion on the other; a right to which, (whatever may be said to 
 the contrary,) every State of this Union will assuredly and 
 inevitably resort, whenever it feels that an occasion has arisen 
 of sufficient magnitude to call for its exercise. 
 
 It is in the order of Providence that at intervals of time men 
 should be reared up, whose office and mission it is to abridge 
 the powers and restrain the over-action of government; to 
 oblige society to recur to first principles; to remind rulers of 
 their trusts; and to enlarge or reclaim the liberties of the 
 people. The time was when these foes to the "right divine" 
 of rulers were denounced and oftentimes punished as traitors 
 to the peace of society ; but now they are known and honored 
 as the Apostles of Liberty. Such men were the leaders of the 
 Barons who wrested the charters from King John at Runny- 
 mede; such were Russell, and Sidney, and Hampden, and 
 Milton, who in later days, in England, witnessed of the truth ; 
 such were the Fathers of our Revolution ; such was Mirabeau, 
 whose sentiment it was that c: privileges shall have an end, but 
 the people are eternal ; " and such in our day was Calhoun, a 
 man of a century, whose character will be better understood 
 and more valued, as in the progress of our institutions, men 
 shall come to have a more thorough knowledge of that liberty 
 which in his own words, "comprehends the idea of responsi- 
 ble power ; that those who make and execute the laws should 
 be controlled by those on whom they operate ; that the gov- 
 erned should govern." 
 
 Time forbids us to follow Mr. Calhoun through the long se- 
 ries of useful and brilliant services which, as an independent 
 Senator in Congress, he rendered to the country. Party has its 
 uses, but it has also its evils, and one of these is its tendency 
 to blunt the moral sense, and to constrain to its behests the free 
 and independent exercise of the judgment. Party has also its 
 prizes and rewards; and the public man who undertakes to 
 question its infallibility pays the penalty by periling his pros- 
 pects of place and power. This Mr. Calhoun dared to do; 
 he would not take the law from party, because he recognized 
 higher obligations ; wherever his principles and his convictions 
 
29 
 
 of duty led him, there was he to be found, seeking always the 
 true spirit of the Constitution and the true policy of the coun- 
 try. Such men are rare, because self-sacrificing virtue — not in 
 a single instance upon emergency, but in steady, uniform, con- 
 sistent action— is rare ; but when found, especially in a popular 
 government where transient passion often takes the reason 
 captive, their value is beyond all price. Take as a single ex- 
 ample his course upon the Oregon controversy. This was one 
 of those exciting questions that touched the infirmity of the 
 American people— their love of land, their lust for territorial 
 acquisition. The public mind had been wrought up to the 
 highest pitch of excitement. The Democratic party, under the 
 lead of the President, and with an ascertained majority in both 
 Houses of Congress, had declared for " the whole of Oregon 
 or none," and the Whigs fairly reeled before the impending 
 storm. At this juncture, and with a view to the exigency, Mr. 
 Calhoun returned, after a short retirement, to the Senate. He 
 was offered by the President the mission to England, with the 
 charge of the Oregon negotiation. He refused it. He knew 
 that the battle was to be fought here before the country, and 
 here he determined to stand. Peace and war trembled in the 
 scales before him. Both parties looked to him. He stood be- 
 tween them like some great Tribune of the people, armed with 
 a veto upon the action of each. The opportunity was tempt- 
 ing to place himself at the head of a great popular movement, 
 but he determined that the peace as well as the honor of the 
 country should be preserved ; and by his able discussions and 
 the commanding influnnce of his position, he constrained a set- 
 tlement which saved us from the direful consequences of an 
 unnecessary war, and proved eminently satisfactory to the 
 sober, second thought of the people. Upon this occasion, as 
 upon others, he spoke that " word of guidance and deliber- 
 ance," which when timely spoken by the proper person, the 
 people seldom fail to recognize ; the word which rescues them 
 from the dominion of their passions, and guides them in the 
 path of true honor. In stemming the clamors of party and 
 the madness that ruled the hour. Mr. Calhoun rose to the 
 height of the patriot statesman, and stood before the country in 
 
30 
 
 the attitude and full proportions of a rare and commanding 
 greatness. 
 
 The union between these States— I mean the Constitutional 
 Union— is founded on the basis of perfect equality. Upon the 
 acknowledgment of independence, the colonies became separate 
 and sovereign communities, free to subsist severally or in con- 
 nexion as they might choose. The Constitution, which is the 
 law of the Union, professed to have for its object, among other 
 things, to "establish justice," to "insure domestic tranquillity," 
 and to " secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our 
 posterity." At the time of the adoption of the Constitution 
 there were slaves in almost every State ; but in the plantation 
 States they most abounded, and there, from the nature of the 
 soil and climate, they were most likely to continue and increase. 
 The regulation of commerce was with the North one of the 
 most powerful inducements to the Union ; but with the South, 
 whose great interest was agricultural, there was no such motive 
 or necessity. Still a fraternal feeling, a recollection of common 
 glories and common sufferings, and a general desire for security 
 against dangers foreign and domestic, sufficed to bring all the 
 States into a closer union than the confederation. But the 
 Southern States, with a wise forecast and jealous caution, re- 
 quired stipulations and securities in relation to that species of 
 property which they felt to be peculiarly their own. Accord- 
 ingly slave property was recognized and protected by the Con- 
 stitution, in the ratio of representation, in the ratio of direct 
 taxation, in the provision for the surrender of fugitives from 
 service or labor, and in the clause which allowed the importa- 
 tion of such persons as any State might choose, until the year 
 1820. And it is a curious but significant fact, that the adoption o f 
 this element in the ratio of direct taxation was intended as an 
 equivalent to the Southern States for what they lost by it in 
 the ratio of representation— an equivalent which has not been 
 enjoyed by them in consequence of the general resort of the 
 Government to indirect instead of direct taxation. 
 
 Slavery is one of those mysteries which human reason can- 
 not fathom. Why it has been and is and shall be, is of the 
 counsel of God. But there are some things which we, among 
 
31 
 
 whom it has existed for generations, do know — and these are of 
 them : that it has a sanction in the Bible as well as in the 
 Constitution ; that the co-existence of two races in this section 
 and the subordination of the one to the other, has been produc- 
 tive of positive good to both and has promoted the cause of 
 civilization and religion ; that the institution has grown with 
 our growth and strengthened with onr strength ; that it is 
 wrought into all the parts and fibres of onr system, social and 
 political ; and that in it are involved onr peace, well-being and 
 prosperity, nay, the very safety and existence of ourselves and 
 children. It is onr right, therefore, and our duty, to demand 
 that it shall not be disturbed by others, either directly or indi- 
 rectly. 
 
 Onr forefathers dealt with this great interest and element of 
 power like men and statesmen. They fairly balanced the 
 government in relation to it ; and the covenant that they made 
 in justice they- kept in good faith. Years of peace rolled on; 
 the government grew in favor by its wise and beneficent opera- 
 tion ; and the people of the States, even those who had been 
 distrustful of the Constitution, began to feel and acknowledge 
 that the Union which had sprung out of their liberties was a 
 new and cumulative blessing, like 
 
 " Another moon, 
 Risen on mid noon." 
 
 It was about the year 1818-19 that the spirit of fanaticism, 
 the evil genius of this country, reared its miscreated front in 
 the halls of federal legislation, bringing in its train discord, aliena- 
 tion and woe. The admission of Missouri into the Union was the 
 occasion of its appearance. An attempt was made to impose 
 upon that State a restriction as to slavery within her limits. A 
 fearful agitation ensued. Missouri was finally admitted without 
 the restriction ; but a provision was inserted in the bill autho- 
 rizing her to form a State government, by which slavery was 
 for ever prohibited in all the territory acquired from France, by 
 the name of Louisiana, lying to the north of 36° 30/ and not 
 included within the limits of the State of Missouri. This was 
 the Missouri compromise. It was a great and grievous error, 
 because it violated the equal rights of the States, under the 
 
32 
 
 Constitution, in an immense territory which was their common 
 property ; because it connected a great moral and political 
 principle with a geographical line ; because it established an 
 odious distinction between the slaveholding and the non-slave- 
 holding States ; and because it set an example which might be 
 converted, as it has been converted, into a precedent for other 
 and further encroachments. John Randolph saw it in this 
 light, and refused to listen to any compromise ; Mr. Jefferson 
 saw it in the same aspect, and said with a melancholy forebo- 
 ding, he should " die in the belief that the useless sacrifice of 
 themselves by the generation of 1776, to acquire self-govern- 
 ment and happiness to their country was to be thrown away by 
 the unwise and unworthy passions of their sons." The country 
 too has at length awoke to a sense of the error, and there is 
 reason to hope that it is in the way, not of repairing the mis- 
 chief, for that cannot be done, but of retracing, as far as may 
 be. the false step then taken. 
 
 For a series of years after the Missouri question, the spirit of 
 aggression lay seemingly dormant ; but it had been quietly rein- 
 forcing its strength and gathering up fresh materials of agitation. 
 It re-appeared in the year 1835, in a new shape, seeking to 
 abolish slavery in the District of Columbia and other places' 
 over which Congress had exclusive jurisdiction, and avowing 
 that its ultimate object was to abolish it in the States. It in- 
 vaded the school, the pulpit, the press, the popular elections 
 and the halls of legislation. It became a tremendous element 
 of political power, corrupted parties, swayed the operations of 
 government, and finally shook the Union to its centre. 
 
 When petitions in relation to slavery were first presented, Mr. 
 Calhoun was in the Senate. He opposed their reception. Apart 
 from the constitutional question, which he argued with great 
 ability, his principle was to resist aggression in its beginnings, 
 on the very frontiers ; and for the philosophical reason that 
 it is the more easily resisted there than elsewhere. Besides he 
 had the wisdom to know that the smallest danger to an object 
 of vital importance should never be disregarded. No statesman 
 of that day had so clear and deep an insight as he into the 
 magnitude of the evil and the disastrous consequences it in 
 
33 
 
 volved. With prophetic truth he foretold the stages of its future 
 progress. He warned the country that it would infect the then 
 sound masses of the North ; that its object was to establish a 
 foothold in Congress as the centre of operations for a crusade 
 against the institutions of the South ; and that if it were allowed 
 to proceed unchecked, deadly hostilities would spring up be- 
 tween the two sections, the conflicting elements of which would 
 rend the Union asunder. The warnings of Cassandra were 
 not more true or more unheeded. The outside barriers were 
 soon thrown down : petitions poured into Congress ; and aboli- 
 tion marched on its way triumphant. 
 
 Mr. Calhoun was opposed to the Mexican war. The depth 
 of that opposition, as he said, no man knew but himself. He 
 foresaw that it would bring an acquisition of territory, and by 
 inevitable consequence a renewal of strife. And such was the 
 end. Brilliant as were the successes of the war. nothing can 
 compensate for the civil mischiefs that have followed in its 
 train. 
 
 The counsel and conduct of Mr. Calhoun in relation to the 
 territorial question was wise, patriotic and truly conservative. 
 Timid minds called it rash, but in reality it was only bold and 
 statesmanlike. There are some diseases of the body politic 
 which take such deep root in the system as to defy the nostrums 
 of quackery and require the skill and courage of science. 
 This was one of them. He saw that it was a momentous issue 
 touching the foundation of government and the safety of society, 
 and he girded up his loins to grapple with it for life or for death. 
 The difficulty lay not only in the hostile feeling — whether origi- 
 nating in fanaticism, or the lust of power, or both combined — 
 which had arrayed one part of the country against the institu- 
 tions of the other ; but in the action of the government, which 
 in obedience to that sentiment, had destroyed the equilibrium in 
 the relative, political power of the two parts — an equilibrium 
 which the very existence of an unfriendly geographical feeling 
 rendered the more necessary for the protection of the weaker 
 section. With patriotic anxiety he looked around for a remedy— 
 for a means to "save ourselves and save the Union." He could 
 • see none outside the Constitution. What faith or dependence 
 3 
 
34 
 
 could be placed upon compromise, when even the Missouri line, 
 a great and fatal concession on the part of the South, was repu- 
 diated and scornfully rejected by the North. The political ele- 
 ments were in wild commotion. The winds and the waves 
 were up. There was no safety but in a retreat upon the Con- 
 stitution. Hear his words : " I see my way in the Constitution; 
 I cannot in a compromise. A compromise is but an act of 
 Congress. It may be overruled at any time. It gives us no 
 security. But the Constitution is stable. It is a rock. On it 
 we can stand, and on it we can meet our friends from the non- 
 slaveholding States. It is a firm and stable ground, on which 
 we can better stand in opposition to fanaticism than on the 
 shifting sands of compromise. Let us be done with compro- 
 mises. Let us go back and stand upon the Constitution." 
 
 The equality of the States in their federal relation, equality 
 in dignity and rights, was the great principle upon which he 
 planted himself, and to which he held with unrelaxing grasp. 
 It was the earnest and rooted conviction of his mind, confirmed 
 by deep study and a long experience, that nothing but the 
 practical recognition of this principle, enforced by fundamental 
 guarantees, could save the South — the section in which his own 
 dearest affections were garnered up, in which so much of intel- 
 ligence, virtue, high civilization and uncalculating patriotism 
 has its chosen seat, and which it harrowed the very depths of 
 his proud soul, to contemplate as sinking clown into a condition 
 of unresisting inferiority; and that nothing but this could in the 
 end save the Union— the arena of his glories and his sacrifices — 
 to which he had devoted so many years of noble and patriotic 
 service, and which in his heart of hearts, he loved better and 
 more wisely than those who slandered and calumniated his 
 name, and who, while they cried with treacherous lips "All 
 hail to the Union !" were inflicting blow after blow upon the 
 Constitution, which is the life of the Union and without which 
 it can " bear no life." 
 
 He died in the midst of the controversy. The "terrific diffi- 
 culty" pressed on his mind to the last, and with his dying breath 
 lie consecrated the principles for which he lived and labored. 
 In him the cause of the Conslitulion, which is the cause of 
 
35 
 
 justice and liberty, as well as of Union, lost a steadfast friend, 
 its ablest and most strenuous defender. And if indeed it has 
 been cloven down in disastrous battle, it was because genius 
 and virtue and the most chivalric spirit of heroism could not 
 avail anything to prevent the catastrophe. 
 
 "Si Pergama dextra 
 Defendi possent, etiam hac defensa fuissent." 
 
 The genius of Mr. Calhoun, as exhibited in his oratory and his 
 writings, was of a commanding character, and will live in its 
 effects not only on our institutions, but on the minds of men 
 wherever the record of his thoughts shall reach. In its modes 
 of display it was purely original, and more strongly marked 
 perhaps than that of any of our public men. His clear and 
 powerful intellect . grasped with equal facility the minutest 
 details and the broadest general views. The rapidity of his 
 intellectual processes was equalled only by their precision. 
 The thinking power — not only the power of analysis which 
 resolves complex ideas into their elements, but that of gene- 
 ralization which combines facts and principles into theories and 
 systems— was developed in him to an amazing extent. In this 
 regard, as well as in the fullness of his material and the sen- 
 tentious but pregnant brevity of his expression, his spoken and 
 written discourses are a discipline for the student, and will 
 instruct and delight posterity as they did the audiences to which 
 they were addressed. The ardor of his mind, the vehemence 
 of his will, was imprinted on every word he spoke and every 
 line he wrote ; but no one could fail to perceive that it was not 
 the zeal of the advocate, but the deep earnestness, the intense 
 and irrepressible enthusiasm of the lover of truth. Nor were 
 his discussions confined to the interests of party or the purposes 
 of a day ; for in many of his speeches and papers, and more 
 especially in that Posthumous Work which contains an elaborate 
 exposition of his views of the science of government, he 
 dealt with the great questions of right and liberty which are at 
 the foundation of society and which affect the permanent well- 
 being of mankind. To him more than to any of his cotempo- 
 raries will be awarded the praise of having found or made time, 
 
36 
 
 amid the busy cares of an active and stirring public life, to 
 devote the powers of his clear and profound mind to philosophi- 
 cal speculation ; and of having added, in systematic shape, the 
 suggestions of a high reason and the inductions of a large 
 experience to the general sum of scientific knowledge. 
 
 Mr. Calhoun's practical statesmanship was manifested in his 
 conduct of the war — of which he was the master spirit ; and 
 in the management of the War and State Departments— the 
 former of which he reduced to its present admirable state of 
 organization ; and there is no extravagance in affirming that in 
 power of combination, in fertility of resources, in the happy 
 adaptation of means to ends, and in all the qualities which 
 are required for administrative ability, he was not surpassed by 
 any executive officer the country has had. It is sometimes 
 said, as if in disparagement, that he failed to enforce his policy. 
 This may be the fault of opportunity or circumstances and not 
 of the man. The mere politician may win a short triumph 
 upon the expedient of a day ; but it requires a higher mould 
 of character, a nobler and more masterly wisdom, to mark out 
 the line of conduct which, however rejected or disregarded at 
 the time, will yet come to be recognized and approved by the 
 more enlightened judgment of the people. Fox was a great 
 statesman and yet he failed to carry out his policy ; but it is 
 believed that the principles and the fame of Fox are at this 
 day dearer to the heart of the mass of the British nation than 
 those of his great and successful rival, the younger Pitt. Mr. 
 Calhoun's name is identified with the freedom of commerce, and 
 with those principles of government which give the amplest 
 securities to the liberty of individuals and the rights of States^ 
 and just in proportion as mankind progress in the idea that the 
 world is governed too much, will his policy be enforced and his 
 statesmanship vindicated. 
 
 The character of Mr. Calhoun is a noble subject for contem- 
 plation. It has the mingled air of simplicity and grandeur which 
 we are in the habit of ascribing to the great historical charac- 
 ters of antiquity. He was 
 
 " Like Cato firm, like Aristides just, 
 Like rigid Cincinnatus, nobly poor." 
 
37 
 
 The same characteristics pervaded his personal demeanor, 
 his oratory and his public exhibitions of himself, for they sprung 
 out of the nature of the man. He knew no distinction between 
 public and private morality and regarded the State as but a 
 wider sphere of duty than the family. Venality did not soil 
 him, nor vulgar ambition corrupt his honesty. Office had no 
 charms for him except as a means of public good ; — witness his 
 refusal of the mission to England that he might confront the 
 danger at home, and his acceptance of the department of State 
 under Mr. Tyler, that by the annexation of Texas he might 
 add a noble domain to the Union and secure our commerce and 
 our frontier from the machinations of a foreign power. The 
 highest office could not have honored him more than he would 
 have honored it, for it was generally admitted that he was 
 altogether worthy of it. In times of peril the eyes of the coun- 
 try turned instinctively to him for counsel or command ; and 
 the people of his State, who knew him best, were held bound 
 to him, as if locked in indissoluble sympathy, by the wondrous 
 spell of his genius and worth. No low or sordid motive was 
 ever imputed to him; indeed nothing could be more admirable 
 than the high tone of his moral and political sentiment. Out 
 of this grew that stern and unyielding civic virtue which, as 
 presented in his public conduct, is a picture and a study; and 
 which, by the confidence it inspired, enabled him to stand alone, 
 without place or patronage, upon a level where no other man 
 could have stood so long, and by the force of his individual 
 authority to overrule the fierce struggles of party for the good 
 of the country. He resembled Chatham, not only in "the 
 question of his death," as falling in the Senate House ; but in 
 the high antique style of his virtue, in his contempt for " the 
 spoils," and in the indignant scorn with which he rebuked the 
 corruptions and smote the abuses of his day. Not being the 
 head of a great party, he received no venal adulation, nor did 
 he covet it ; and as he preferred the interests of the people to 
 their applause, his fame will be only the reflection of his great- 
 ness. [The real substance of this will throw a mighty shadow 
 along the tract of time ; and when hereafter men shall contem- 
 plate calmly and without passion, the simple but majestic quali- 
 
38 
 
 ties of his nature, his purity, his truthfulness, his contempt for 
 calumny, his courageous love of truth and justice, the deep ear- 
 nestness and sincerity of the man that looked upon duty as more 
 than life, and that greatness of soul which aspired in thought, 
 word and action to whatever is most excellent in the estimation of 
 men — all displayed, without effort or ostentation, in the private 
 and social relation, as well as upon the theatre of public action — 
 they will agree in the opinion that he was one of the grandest 
 characters that America has produced. 
 
 Gentlemen of the Association : — We are united for the pur- 
 pose of raising a suitable memorial in honor of the name of 
 Calhoun. In this work of civic gratitude, we but give expres- 
 sion to feelings and impulses that are common to the hearts of 
 the people of the State, and that will find a response in every 
 parish and district, from his late mountain home to his tomb near 
 the sea. It is not that a monument is necessary to his fame, for 
 this rests on foundations more enduring than marble or brass. 
 In his genius which was animated by duty, in his virtue which 
 stood " firm as a rock against the beating waves," in the great- 
 ness of his example, in the lessons of his recorded wisdom, and in 
 the sum of his illustrious public services which extended over a 
 period of more than forty years and compassed the whole circle 
 of national politics and interests; — in these are his titles to 
 renown. Tradition and history will take care of his memory. 
 Not for him are the column and the pile ! 
 
 " Dear son of Memory ! Great heir of Fame ! 
 What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name ? 
 Thou in our wonder and astonishment 
 Hast built thyself a livelong monument, 
 And so sepulchred in such pomp dost lie, 
 That kings for such a tomb might wish to die !" 
 
 We who have had the happiness to see and hear and know 
 him, have his image in our hearts, and need no other remem- 
 brancer. But a feeling of gratitude to the dead and a sense of 
 duty to posterity alike impel us to this work. Around the 
 monument we rear will cluster associations that will render the 
 spot a place of pilgrimage to those who succeed us. There 
 will they repair to refresh their patriotism, to strengthen or catch 
 
39 
 
 anew the sentiment of duty, and to learn how beautiful and 
 noble a thing it is to serve one's country and to be remembered 
 by it with blessings ! 
 
 Ladies of Carolina — .-With modest ardor you have obeyed 
 the instincts of your nature and brought the homage and the 
 offerings of your hearts to the altar of a great memory. In 
 what another has called "the almost seraphic purity of the 
 personal character" of Mr. Calhoun, and in the beautiful consist 
 ency of his public with his private virtue, is the charm that has 
 won you to this labor of patriotic love. There is hope in your 
 sympathy ; there is encouragement in your smiles ; there is the 
 sober certainty of success in your endeavors. And when in com- 
 ing years the column shall lift its summit in noble proportions to 
 the sky, a fit emblem of his worth and a memorial worthy the 
 gratitude of a generous people, its crowning beauty will be the 
 garlands of grace thrown upon it by the hands of his fair 
 country-women ! 
 
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