Chapter Eleven.

JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN.

HE two last great Statesmen of the primitive

and heroic period of the republic were

Calhoun and Webster. They were born the same year, grew up with their country, and died at nearly the same age. They may be pronounced the two great intellectual champions of the two great physico-political divisions of the country, the north and the south; the two foremost representatives of the two opposite schools of political doctrine, as to the true theory of the federal government; and long ere that terrible arbitration of arms by which was tried the question whether individual States could secede from the Union, these great leaders had contended over the same question, on the floor of the

senate, with a power of argument never surpassed, if ever equalled, before that body. I shall finish my book with a sketch of these two great men.

John Caldwell Calhoun was born in the district of Abbeville, South Carolina, on the 18th of March, 1782, and died at Washington, March 31, 1850. He was of Irish descent on the side of both parents. His grandfather came from Donegal, in the north-west of Ireland, to Pennsylvania, in 1733, when his father, Patrick Calhoun, was but six years old. The stock was probably what is known as Scotch-Irish, and the family was Presbyterian. Moving along the Alleghanies, with the tide of migration, the Calhoun family settled on the Kanawha, in Virginia. But these settlements being molested by the Indians, after Braddock's defeat, they moved further south, and in 1750, established what was known as the Calhoun settlement, on the Cherokee frontier, in upper South Carolina, and in what is now called the Abbeville district. The pioneer settlers in this region were often engaged in conflicts with the Indians, in which the father of our subject took a prominent part; and in the Revolutionary struggle, he was an ardent whig, and was exposed to much danger from the tories of that section. In 1770 he was married to Martha Caldwell, like himself of an Irish Presbyterian family. The third son of this union was John C. Calhoun, born as has been remarked, the same year as Daniel Webster. Not only were they born about the same time, but both were descended from a hardy, vigorous stock; from parents of stern moral principles, accustomed to hardship and dan

Both were

ger and of more than ordinary intelligence and inclination to learning. It may be conjectured that there was Scotch blood in the veins of Webster as well as Calhoun, as the name is said to be Scotch for Weaver. nurtured on the frontier, and accustomed in early life to the freedom and freshness of nature, and to habits of industry and frugality. Both received, as children, household instruction, Calhoun little other, and both were made familiar with the Bible; and with both, subsequent education was gained not without serious struggles and domestic sacrifices.

Young Calhoun, at an early age, was a diligent student, especially of history and metaphysics, and even injured his health by his close application to books. His father dying, however, when he was about 13, he continued to labor on the farm to aid in the support of the family, and postponed his efforts for an education till he could be assured of the means without diminishing the support of his mother. Persuaded at length by a brother, satisfactory arrangements was made with that brother and with his mother, by which he could carry on his studies; and he entered a private academy, taught by the Reverend Doctor Waddell, a brother-in-law, and in two years was fitted to enter the junior class of Yale College, from which institution he graduated with great distinction, in 1804. The president of the college, Doctor Dwight, having engaged with him on one occasion in a discussion on the origin of political power, said afterward, "That young man has talent enough to be President of the United States." Three years more were spent at the north, in the

Law School, at Litchfield, Connecticut, when he returned to his native district, and soon after commenced the practice of law. Besides all his diligence in study, like Clay, he had cultivated assiduously and with great success, his talents for extemporaneous debate.

The irritation caused by the claims of Great Britain to search American ships, and by other aggressions on our commerce, reached his native district, and though in his own estimation yet a student, he was appointed to draw up a report and resolutions, which he supported in a speech of such force that he was elected to the Legislature. His service there during that session gave such satisfaction that he was chosen to represent the district in Congress, where he took his seat in November, 1811, it having been convened by the President a month earlier than the regular time. He had been married in May preceeding, to his second cousin, Floride Calhoun.

Upon entering Congress, he gave up the legal profession, though specially gifted for it, and already quite successful. The party in favor of war, after a struggle of three or four years, at length had a majority in Congress, and ardent young nen like Calhoun, were bent on forcing the administration into a war policy. Mr. Calhoun was placed on the Committee on Foreign Relations, and on the retirement of its chairman, became its head, and brought in a bill for an embargo of sixty days, as a measure preliminary to a declaration of war. He became in fact the leader of the war party.

His distinguished career in Congress and as a Cabinet officer, forms a prominent page in our history. Foresee

ing its importance in a great commercial nation, he was a warm advocate of enlarging the navy, a measure which became generally popular, after its brilliant success in the war with Great Britain. Non-importation and non-intercourse had been favorite ideas with his party; but seconded by Lowndes and Cheeves, he was largely instrumental in exploding the doctrine, and fostering that of diversified industries, and extended intercourse with the nations of the earth, as a means of building up a broad and enlarged civilization. He saw also that a sound and stable national currency was most desirable, and warmly advocated a national bank. In these broad and statesman-like views, the young South Carolina politicians were in advance of the Democrats of the Virginia school, which upheld what the New England men denounced as a narrow, anti-commercial policy; and thus New England and South Carolina were drawn towards each other, in a common willingness to put down the Virginia dynasty, which it was felt was not only narrow in its views, but arrogated to itself all political wisdom. This feeling came out strongly in connection with the discussions as to the establishment of a national bank. Mr. Eppes, Jefferson's

son-in-law, had reported against the measure as unconstitutional. Mr. Calhoun proposed to meet the difficulty by chartering the bank in the district of Columbia. After fierce and protracted debate, resulting in a compromise among the friends of the measure, a scheme for a bank was finally proposed, in which the main features of Mr. Calhoun's plan were preserved, and the great necessity of some such measure being felt, after the peace with