State interposition, and to forget, and to induce the country to forget, the part he took. We hold ourselves among the warmest, if not among the most politic, of Mr. Calhoun's friends, and we are willing and anxious to rest his claims to the admiration and gratitude of his country, on the part he took, by means of the interposition of State action, in arresting the obnoxious policy. It is here, more than anywhere else, that is revealed his disinterestedness as a man, his fidelity as a patriot, and his courage, force, and wisdom as a statesman. It was a proud moment for Mr. Calhoun, that when he rose in the Senate chamber, to pronounce his protest, and that of the chivalrous State he represented, against the coercive measures recommended by the administration; when, with the axe of the executioner suspended over his head, and the chief of the nation watching eagerly for an opportunity to command it to fall, with the whole force of the government arrayed against him on the one hand, and on the other the whole force of the opposition, scarcely inferior, when he rose there and stood unmoved, and with his single force turned back each hostile army, and laid their respective chiefs at his feet, and dictated to them the terms on which he would grant them mercy. There is no instance in our history where a man has dared so much, nor where such daring has been crowned with. so sudden and so signal a triumph. The moral attitude of the man, at that moment, was sublime, almost beyond a parallel in history. He set then to the statesman an example of civic virtue, of moral heroism, of patriotic devotion, and of consummate wisdom and skill, rarely, if ever, before, exhibited in so eminent a degree, and which none but statesmen of the very highest order can even appreciate, much less follow. Shall a friend of Mr. Calhoun blush at this sublime example, which every republican statesman should struggle, in case of need, to imitate? Shall we pass lightly over it, for fear we may kindle up anew some old prejudices, and perhaps endanger his success as a candidate for the Presidency? What is the Presidency

of these United States to such a man as Mr. Calhoun? Just as if an election to the Presidential chair were a new triumph for him, who alone had proved himself more than a match for the combined forces of both administration and opposition; and who had seen. both Jackson and Clay at his feet! Just as if he had not already risen higher, and achieved honors far above all possible official rank and dignity! It may be a matter of some moment to the country, whether Mr. Calhoun shall or shall not be President of the Union; to himself it is none at all. The Presidential chair may receive new dignity and lustre from him; to him it can give none.

We have heard it said, that Mr. Calhoun is ambitious; and we believe he is ambitious; but his ambition is of that sort which is incomprehensible to the ignoble minds who aspire to place and power as the means of acquiring wealth or renown; it is of that sort which leads a Socrates to persist in teaching the youth of his country to love truth, and practise virtue, at the risk of being condemned to death; the Decii to devote themselves for the salvation of the Republic; and the saint to prefer burning at the stake, to the abandonment of principle, or the desertion of the cause of God and humanity. Ambition of this sort he has, and in a much larger abundance than falls to the lot of ordinary mortals; and we thank God, that, for the honor and safety of our common country, it is so. Little men, petty politicians, unconscious of aught great or generous in their own feelings or motives, may fancy, that, in his resistance to the tariff of 1828, he was governed by spite toward the chief of the administration, and that he was moved. by disappointed ambition. Disappointed ambition! Why, he stood the second officer in the Republic, and with one foot, as it were, in the first, the most popular man in the nation, at least with a single exception, and able at will to rise to the highest official rank and dignity the country could give. Such a man's ambition disappointed? Preposterous. That he was disappointed in General Jackson, whom he had

generously supported for the Presidency, that he may even have spurned with contempt the petty intrigues, the narrow and selfish policy, introduced by politicians. of the Albany school, whose loftiest maxim was, "to the victor belong the spoils," is very possible; but no man, holding the position he held before the country, could possibly have taken the course he did, risked so much, sacrificed so much, from any purely personal motive. Say, if you will, his doctrine was unsound, or that its application was uncalled for; but do not, we beseech you, so libel your own hearts, and your own knowledge of human nature, as even to pretend, that a man can do what he did at the command of any other voice than that of the deepest convictions of duty, the loftiest patriotism, and the most generous devotion to principle.

We confess, that we linger with uncommon pleasure, and hope, on this period of Mr. Calhoun's life. In these days of venality and corruption, of selfishness and plunder, when patriotism is scouted, and civic virtue scarcely once thought of, it is some consolation to find one, even in the ranks of the highest, who can be moved by more generous impulses than love of popularity, and follow the lead of a loftier ambition than the mere selfish possession of place and power. His example is full of moral grandeur, and with superb majesty rebukes the whole herd of selfish and intriguing aspirants. It proves that Providence has not wholly deserted us and given us over to a reprobate mind, and permits us to hope, even in these hours of darkness, that there is in the country the virtue that will redeem and save it. Yes, my countrymen, there is yet hope for us; the Providence that watched over us in the days of our childhood, that, from the little band of wanderers in the desert, has enabled us to become a great and mighty nation, and whom we have so often proved by our transgressions and hard-heartedness, is yet with us, and will deliver us.

We wish our limits would permit us to go through with an analysis of the remaining questions, and point

out the part Mr. Calhoun has taken; but this we cannot do, for it would be to rediscuss all the great and leading questions which have agitated the country since 1834. In all these questions Mr. Calhoun has taken part, freely, boldly, independently, sometimes on the side of the administration, sometimes on that of the opposition, sometimes against both; but always in obedience to the same leading thought, the same elevated, generous, and patriotic policy. He never offers a factious opposition, nor yields an indiscriminate support. He always considers every question on its own grounds, and supports or opposes it for its own merits or demerits, never in reference to its bearings on this or that party; thus acting always from his own independent convictions, from party dictation, never. Here he is strikingly distinguished from the chief of the Albany school, below whom, in the virtues of the partisan, he falls as far, as he rises above him in the virtues of the citizen, and the accomplishments of the statesman. Mr. Van Buren has, in politics, no standard of right and wrong but the will of his party, on the surface of which he floats, ready to take any direction the selfish views of its managers may give him; he is always pliable, manageable, with no obstinate convictions of his own in his or anybody's way. He is the beau idéal of a true party man, riding, as we said of him some years ago, on the storm, but not directing its course. We cannot say as much of Mr. Calhoun. His deficiencies in a party sense are notorious, and not to be concealed. He may use party, but he will not serve it; he may give law to it, but absolutely refuses to take the law from it. He assumes to judge even party itself, to labor to set it right, where wrong; and, if he cannot set it right, he keeps on his course without it, or even against it. Mr. Van Buren is loyal to party; he will adhere to his party, when it is in the minority, as well as when it is in the majority; for he relies for his own success not on his own personal merits as a man, or a statesman, but solely on the success of his party; thus merging, without reluctance, his own individuality in his

party, and consenting to be nothing out, or independent of it; yet, if his party is divided, he takes good care to maintain a prudent reserve, or to vote with the larger division. What enemy of his has ever been able to isolate him from his party? Who has ever caught the weasel asleep? Mr. Calhoun, on the contrary, is often found voting with the minority of his party, often completely isolated from it, and not unfrequently in decided opposition to it. Ascertain where his party is going, and you know where to find Mr. Van Buren; to know where to find Mr. Calhoun, you must comprehend his principles of government, and his views of governmental policy, and perceive clearly where these lead, for there you may know beforehand he is sure to go, with, without, or against, party, as the case may be. To men, whose rule of action is to go with their party, have yet to learn that true consistency is in standing, not by one's party, but by one's principles, all this may seem very inconsistent, and to mark a man on whom no reliance can be placed; to men, who, conscious of no individual merits or responsibilities of their own, seek to merge themselves in the irresponsibleness of party, all this may seem a very great imprudence, even a crying sin; but we need not add, that it is the only course a high-minded and honorable man, conscious of his responsibility to his God and to his country, ever will, or ever can, take.

and who

We intend returning to the subject of this article in our next, and to take up, at considerable length, Mr. Calhoun's senatorial career, subsequent to the passing of the Compromise Act. We will close our present remarks, by saying, that we have introduced Mr. Calhoun into our pages, without reference to the fact, that he is now before the American people as a prominent candidate for the Presidency. Whatever may be our personal feelings and wishes, we are, in point of fact, in no sense pledged to his support, and speak in no sense as the organ of him or his friends. In this Journal we are non-committal on the Presidential question, save so far 17

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