USA > South Carolina > Biographical sketches of the bench and bar of South Carolina, vol. II > Part 22
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He removed to Mississippi, and died there in December, 1850, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. I regret that I have not the means of doing him fuller justice; but meagre as this sketch is it will place his name in company with his brethren of the Bar; and South Carolinans will remember him, and, I trust, will add much more to his fame than I have been able to do.
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JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN.
The great man whose name is above, belongs to the history of the United States. Still, he was of the Bar of South Caro- lina, and without some sketch of his life and character, the work to which I have devoted so much time and labor, would be incomplete. I am fully conscious of the difficulty of abridging such a life, and at the same time of doing justice to so distinguished a man; yet the task must be assumed and the duty performed.
John C. Calhoun was a native of Abbeville District, South Carolina. He was born 18th March, 1782, and was the son of Patrick Calhoun, and Martha Caldwell, his wife. His father was no common man-one of the early settlers of Abbeville District, he was distinguished for his energy and fearless in- trepidity of character. He was an eminent surveyor of the back-woods of South Carolina ; was often a member of the Legislature of South Carolina, after the Revolution. An an- ecdote is related, of how he defeated the first attempt made to change the name Ninety-Six to Cambridge. He made in large figures 96, and holding it up, said : " Turn it which way you will, it is still Ninety-Six." His argument, thus placed before the eyes of the members, was irresistable, and for the time saved the name consecrated by the Revolution.
The infant son of Patrick Calhoun and his wife, was called John Caldwell, after his uncle, Major John Caldwell, who was murdered at his own house, November, 1781, by the " bloody scout."
Mr. Calhoun received his academic education from his brother-in-law, the Rev. Moses Waddell, afterwards justly cel- ebrated as the great teacher of an academy at Wellington, Abeville District, and subsequently the President of Franklin College, Athens, Georgia. He entered the Junior Class of Yale College in 1802, and graduated in 1804. An English oration was assigned to him, he selected for his subject : "The
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qualifications necessary to constitute a perfect statesman," and prepared his oration, but was prevented by severe indisposi- tion from delivering it.
He immediately commenced the study of the law. He spent eighteen months at Gould & Reeves' celebrated law- school, at Litchfield, Connecticut ; the residue of the time of study, required for admission to the Bar, three years, he spent in the law-offices of Henry W. DeSaussure, Esq., in Charles- ton, and of George Bowie, Esq., at Abbeville.
He was admitted to the Bar in 1807, and opened his office at Abbeville ; he practiced there, and at Newberry, and I pre- sume in the other adjoining districts. My recollection of Mr. Calhoun as a lawyer, is from hearing him, when I was a school-boy at Newberry, and of course my judgement was then very imperfect. His reputation was extraordinary for so young a man. He was conceded, as early as 1809, to be the most promising young lawyer in the upper country. Chancellor Bowie of Alabama, who lived at Abbeville, and had a fine opportunity of knowing Mr. Calhoun's early repu- tation, as a lawyer, says : " With the members of the Bar, as well as with the people, he stood very high in his profession. Perhaps no lawyer in the State ever acquired so high a repu- tation from his first appearance at the Bar, as he did. With his towering intellect and untiring energy, he could not long remain second to any man in any station. With a mind like his, so logical, so profoundly metaphysical, so powerful to analyze, and so clear in its conceptions, he could not be less than a thorough and successful lawyer. When at the Bar, the business of the Court was nearly equally divided between himself, Mr. Yancey and my brother George."
At Newberry, he had also a large practice. Newberry District was the home of his mother's relations, and by their influence he would have received practice under any circumstances, but his acknowledged legal abilities were enough to make him, in that district, a leading lawyer, where the resident lawyers, until 1810, presented no claim to learning or eloquence.
Mr. Calhoun was elected to the House of Representatives
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in the General Assembly of South Carolina, in October, 1808, and took his seat on the fourth Monday in November. In that body he took a very prominent stand. In 1809, he was elected by the Legislature, a member of the third Board of Trustees of the South Carolina College. This was then, and ever since, has been regarded as a high compliment to any man.
Mr. Calhoun served in the State Legislature, the sessions of 1808 and 1809.
In October, 1810, he was elected to Congress from the dis- trict composed then of Abbeville, Laurens and Newberry. He married, in 1811, Miss Florida Colhoun, the daughter of John Erwin Colhoun, Esq., who was admitted to the Bar 24th March, 1789, and who practiced law with great reputa- tion in Charleston and at Ninety-Six. He was a Commis- sioner of Confiscated Estates, and was often a member of the General Assembly of South Carolina. Towards the close of his life, he spent his summers within two miles of Fort Hill. He died there a Senator in Congress from South Carolina, in 1801.
The war feeling in 1810, was beginning to extensively per- vade the United States. The message of President Madison, at the opening of Congress, was decidedly warlike. The re- sponse to it by the Committee of Foreign Relations, was of the same character. Mr. Calhoun's reply to Mr. Randolph, who spoke in opposition to the report, was universally regarded by the Republican party, as a triumphant refutation of his arguments, and a vindication of the necessity of war. At the second session, Mr. Calhoun unexpectedly found him- self at the head of the Committee on Foreign Relations, Mr. Porter, the Chairman, having withdrawn from Congress. In June, 1812, he reported and carried through Congress, the bill declaring war against Great Britain.
Mr. Calhoun, until December, 1817, was actively employed in Congress, and won just distinction as a man of business and an able debater. His speeches are acceptable to all, and will be read with pride and pleasure by every South Carolinian.
In December, 1817, he entered on the arduous duties of
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Secretary of War, under President Monroe. Mr. Calhoun had no previous military training, yet he showed, in a very short time, that he had the administrative genius of a great officer. He gave order, regularity and energy to the Depart- ment, which he found in great confusion. Gen. Bertrand, the Chief of the Board of Engineers, and even an officer of the great Emperor of the French, compared Mr. Calhoun's administrative talents, as Secretary of War, to his former great master. No one, certainly, ever left an office with as much reputation as Mr. Calhoun did, when he ceased to be Secretary of War, and was elected Vice President, and entered on the duties of that office on the 4th March, 1825.
In it he had little power, beyond a casting vote, and that of presiding over the deliberations of the Senate. The latter is sometimes a trying duty. It requires in general, great prompt- ness in decision, perfect impartiality, never-failing good humor, and unshaken firmness. These qualities Mr. Calhoun pos- sessed and exercised.
He was a second time elected Vice President, on the ticket with General Jackson as President. Unfortunately, the Presi- dent and Vice-President became irreconcilably opposed to each other. The causes of this difference do not properly lie before me, and I do not undartake to say where the fault was. No doubt it was unfortunate for the country, and particularly for South Carolina, who had sustained both, with unfaultering and unanimous devotion.
The dispute between South Carolina and the United States, on the Tariff, was assuming even a threatening aspect, in 1828, when Mr. Calhoun drew the celebrated "South Carolina Exposition and Protest, on the subject of the Tariff." Nulli- fication, of which Mr. Calhoun is said to be the father, (but which I have often heard Chancellor Harper claim to be his own progeny,) followed with all the consequences of party di- vision, to South Carolina, to which she had been many years a stranger.
In 1832, on the resignation of Senator Hayne, to assume the duties of Governor, Mr. Calhoun was elected a Senator in Congress, and resigned the great office of Vice President.
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In February, 1833, he and Mr. Clay agreed on a compro- mise, which led to a satisfactory adjustment of the Tariff, and to a rescinding of the Ordinance of Nullification, which re- stored peace and harmony to South Carolina.
Mr. Calhoun remained in the Senate of the United States, until the close of the session of 1843, when he resigned his seat, and proposed to seek the quiet and repose of private life for the balance of his life, but this he was not allowed to do. In 1844, he was appointed Secretary of State, by President Tyler, and was happily able to bring about the annexation of Texas.
In 1846, he was again elected by South Carolina, to the Senate of the United States, and felt it to be his duty to obey her call. On the 4th March, 1850, he made his last speech to the Senate of the United States. It was on the slavery ques- tion ; and of him, on that occasion, Judge Butler, after his death, eloquently said : " We saw him a few days ago, in the seat near me, which he had so long and honorably occupied. We saw the struggle of a giant mind exerting itself to over- come the weakness and infirmity 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 would never carry him again."
He died 29th March, 1850, at the City of Washington, in the sixty-ninth year of his age.
All parties, in and out of Washington, united in the greatest testimonials of respect to his memory. Everywhere the nation mourned his death. His great compeers and opponents, Clay and Webster, mingled their tears with his friends, over his remains, and testified to his great and exalted worth.
On the 25th of April, 1850, his body, in the charge of the committees of Congress, accompanied by the committees from Wilmington, North Carolina, and Charleston, reached the city, and Mr. Mason, the Chairman of the Committee of the Senate, placed the body in the care of the Governor of South Carolina, Whitemarsh B. Seabrook, by whom it was committed to the Mayor, T. Leger Hutchison. On this day the funeral obse- quies took place. Every place of business in Charleston was closed-the houses on the principal streets were clothed with
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emblems of mourning, and the grandest and most imposing pageant that ever took place in this ancient city, was wit- nessed by thousands and thousands of spectators. The City Hall was draped in mourning, to receive the remains, and it was there visited by thousands of the citizens, to pay their respects to the illustrious dead. On the 26th of April, his re- mains were conveyed to a tomb in St. Phillip's Church-yard, where they still remain. A massive monument is to be erected to his memory by the ladies of South Carolina, for which purpose $40,000 have been raised.
The short sketch of Mr. Calhoun given by Mr. Clay is, I think, most felicitous. He said that "he possessed an ele- vated genius of the highest order ; that in felicity of generaliza- tion of the subjects of which his mind treated, I have seen him surpassed by no one; and the charm and captivating influence of his colloquial powers, have been felt by all who have conversed with him."
In poetic lines the late Rev. S. Gilman happily sketched the great man of whom we have been speaking :
" Rarest gifts in thee we saw :
Thought that probed each latent law- Presence like a felt control, Speech that moved a nation's soul ! Giant mind with heart of child,
Nobly roused or reconciled- Braving but forgiving foes-
Stirred that millions might repose.
Thou wert loyal, trusting, free, Like thy State's own chivalry Moral stain could'st not endure,
Like thy own State's daughters pure. Thundering through the Federal dome, Studious at thy happy home. Followed, feared, condemned, approved
Still thou wert revered and loved. Falling at thy voice of Fame, There with ripe and world-wide name, Need'st no more from life-but we Darkling here, have need of thee."
In August, 1850, I delivered an oration on " public speak- ing," I alluded to Mr. Calhoun in the following words, with which I close this sketch :
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" It is only necessary to point to Fort Hill, near Pendleton, South Carolina, and in imagination, we behold the great leader of South Carolina, in all her political warfare, start from his farm, holding the Constitution of the United States high above his head, point to its violated pages, and hear him in indig- nant honesty, speak a people's wrongs, with all the brilliancy and clearness of Fox, and the deep and graceful reasoning of Burke!
" Honesty, morality, genius, love of country, and devoted service for forty years, will entitle him to the universal wail of sorrow, with which his death was but recently announced."
A MEMOIR OF HON. JOHN C. CALHOUN, BY JUDGE B. F. PORTER, OF ALABAMA.
" The death of this illustrious citizen, long identified with the public service, and mourned with a depth of sorrow more general, more solemn, and more impressive, than has ever distinguished any statesman since the decease of Washington, renders the tribute of praise, at once an appropriate and first duty. The deference which men of all classes pay to great abilities and incorruptible integrity, is a tribute due to a sense of the immortality of the soul and to the eminent superiority of virtue. When a life is found to be full of exhibitions of an exalted mind, and of devotion to principles of honor and morality, men, irrespective of mere difference of opinion, award it, involuntarily, the highest homage of their good opinion. Envy itself, which always accompanies the steps of the good man, and detracts from his fame and misconstrues his motives, worn out in the contest, perishes on his grave: and cotemporaries, who are ever distrustful of success, and invidious in concessions to merit, are the first to hang willows over the bier of one no longer capable of exciting jealousy, or of triumphing in the race of life.
It has been remarked, not unfrequently, with less of surprise than of disparagement, that Mr. Calhoun had a hold on the
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affections of the people of South Carolina, unequalled in the history of public men. This veneration for his person and opinions, has often been attributed to the predominance of a popular leader over the dependent, yielding mind of the pub- lic. This supposition is untrue. If asked to state the reason which, more than any other, caused the extraordinary popu- larity of this statesman, we would say, it was his stainless honor and incorruptible good faith. Out of these virtues, incomparable as they were, grew his self-denial, amidst the promptings of ambition ; his firmness in the cause of right!
We will not say that, in every instance, Mr. Calhoun saw the future with a perfectly true glance; or that the objects at which he looked, invariably sent back into his orb of vision, a reflection entirely correct, not sometimes broken by the media intervening-not occasionally obscured by rather hastily formed conjectures. But this we believe, he ever looked at things with honest intent-with an anxious wish to ascertain the truth, and to avoid evil; and he both honestly and boldly spoke out what he conceived of the mischiefs or advantages presented to his mind.
Mr. Calhoun was not ambitious in the sense in which that term has been used with reference to his motives and acts. He was desirous, ardently desirous, of being known as the advocate of the solid truths of politics. For the vanities of the position of a statesman he never longed; and, therefore, to obtain them, never conciliated or bargained. He fixed his mind on justice, on principle, on the essence of the mutual obligations arising between governments and the people; and to assert these he poured forth from the copious fountains of his intellect and his heart, the most brilliant offerings, and most profound devotion. We are confident that for station and dignity, independently of the right and glory of the means by which attained, he cared nothing. 'Sir,' said he to the writer, while in Charleston, on the last journey he made to Washington, 'The Presidency has not been in my thoughts for ten years. I would not take public office at the sacrifice of what is due to my own independence, or to my own opin- ions, still less by waiving the most immaterial right to which
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my fellow-countrymen are entitled.' Mr. Calhoun's whole life attests the sincerity and truth of this declaration. Like the great Halifax, so powerfully described by Macaulay, his public career shows the prominent fact, that, if ever he did vary his opinions, the change was never from the weaker to the stronger side. Public sentiment may, as is often said, be a fair vindication of what is proper to be done in a majority of instances; but it is not always right ; and certainly he who withstands it, if he furnishes no evidence of his superiority in judgment, gives incontestable proof of his candor and firmness. From the mass of politicians delineated by history, posterity delights to distinguish those, who, amidst great im- puted defects of character, and many errors of mind, have still preserved their sentiments inviolate-who, though mingled with all the slanders of the times in which they lived; and, notwithstanding, the temptations of place; the corruptions of party, and the persecutions of opponents, have nobly main- tained the truth, and resolutely spoken for the right. On the contrary, however successful they may have been for the period of elevation, and during the exercise of the power of patronage, mankind with one accord, the impious seductions of the age removed, condemn the dishonorable acts of the Machiavels and Woolseys of every time and country. The world is constantly deploring, and yet, while the thing is passing before it, constantly sustaining, the weaknesses and illusions of politics. Every revolution is based on a necessity for checking the corruptions of the dynasty preceding; and yet, the succession falls into the debaucheries of the power existing before. A mild and virtuous leader, raised up for the occasion, possessed of faculties to command the public voice and concentrate its suffrage, scarcely finds himself successful, before he discovers that he must be unjust. All that is violent in partizanship must succeed to whatever is sacred in princi- ple; ability and honesty must be sacrificed to expediency, and the fortunate politician must practice guilt as if it were public virtue, and condemn integrity as if it were depravity. The country in which we live presents, it is true, exceptions; but such have never been successful politicians. Public honours
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have fled from the statesman most worthy to wear them, and swelled the triumphs of those who have been dissolute in their public lives.
When we assert that Mr. Calhoun was not one of this latter class, we intend to raise no issue whatever with respect to the correctness of his views, considered as mere abstract political sentiment. Such a course would not only be disrespectful to these generous men who have entertained opposite opinions, and who have opened bosoms, long mailed in the armor of vigorous conflicts, and poured out from them magnanimous streams of eulogium and eloquence; but would be unsuited to the solemnity of the occasion of this memoir. As the evil he has done, if any, must be buried with him, so should all recollection of the violent controversies of his day be alike consigned to the tomb. The storms and agitations of the various political questions in which he engaged, have, we hope, passed away ; and friends and enemies alike sorrowing- alike relieved of prejudices and disarmed of resentments, amidst the departing rays of the sun of his last day, may stand in harmony around his grave, and multiply the records of his memorable devotion to the public service.
We do not intend to seek out for approbation or condemna- tion, any of those leading topics which, during Mr. Calhoun's public life, produced so much controversy, and in respect to which the people of the United States have been so divided. We seek to give a history of, rather than a criticism on, Mr. Calhoun's participation in public events. We will not hold a scale by which to determine his consistency or his fluctuations, if guilty of any. The Tariff, the Bank of the United States, State Rights-on all of these, whatever his views, they were invariably entertained in good faith and frankly expressed. His most inveterate enemy-and who has not such, however pure !- will admit this. In political fame, it is not the charac- ter of the man's opinions which is to be considered ; it is the honesty, the truthfulness of his conceptions and of his advo- cacy of them. We may not dwell too minutely on the nature of a measure proposed. The human mind is forced to view things through such various media, that we may well distrust
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its judgment. We are compelled as often to blush at following precedents, as at condemning sentiments. But, on questions involving clear principles, we may generally express ourselves without reserve. In measures embracing interests and hold- ing in issue the highest obligations, moral and political, we can decide without inflicting pain or exciting animosities. Of this nature shall be the incidents of Mr. Calhoun's life, on which we shall hazard approbatory reflections.
The circumstance which first brought Mr. Calhoun's name before the country, was an Address and Resolutions made to the people of Abbeville District, South Carolina, on the occa- sion of the attack on the Chesapeake by the Leopard. That brutal violation of the laws of nations and of humanity kindled a flame in every part of the Union. His speech in support of war was a fearless exposition of the privileges of American seamen, and an indignant denunciation of the cowardly attack which had violated them. It placed him at once so high in public confidence that he was soon after voted into the State Legislature. There his brief service was dis- tinguished by a masterly defence and sagacious arrangement of the affairs of the Republican party. He reviewed the pros- pects of the country, and predicted the difficulties in which Europe and the United States would soon be involved. He denounced the restrictive system proposed for the redress of our grievances, and pointed to a war with England as both expedient and inevitable. In order to prevent distraction in the Republican party, he proposed the name of Mr. John Langdon, of New Hampshire, for the Vice-Presidency, under Mr. Madison.
In 1810, Mr. Calhoun took his seat in the House of Repre- sentatives of the United States. The period was pregnant with portentous prospects. War raged over Europe. The Berlin and Milan decrees of France, and the British orders of council had divided the commerce of the world between these nations. The policy, so earnestly pressed on the consideration of the people of the Union, of Peace and Non-interference, it was not possible for the government to pursue, without abandoning every right dear to the citizen, and forfeiting
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every claim to the respect of foreign States. The navy of Great Britain swept the ocean. Flushed with victories, and arrogant under the acknowledged title of mistress of the seas, she boldly boarded our vessels, and manned her ships from our crews. Apprehensions that our trade and commerce would sink under resistance, paralyzed for a time the resolu- tion of our people. Embargoes and Non-importation Acts were the favorite measures of resistance. At this juncture, Mr. Calhoun entered the arena. He took a prominent part in the efforts to enforce the necessity of immediate preparations for war. The defence of a Report from the Committee on Foreign Relations devolved on him. He met John Randolph, and Philip Barton Key, in the discussion, and placed the question of the propriety of war beyond controversy. His speech wrung laudatory approval from the cautious and capable Mr. Ritchie. He was compared to Hercules with his club; he was likened in his moral sentiments to Fox; and when South Carolina was congratulated, it was said that Vir- ginia, full as she was of glorious intellect, was not so rich but that she might wish him her son. The following extract from Mr. Calhoun's speech on the occasion is valuable, as disclos- ing striking truths, clothed in apt phrase :
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