Litchfield enquirer., 1837-04-27
GREAT MEN OF THE NORTH AND SOUTH.

dlscourses in his lively sketchy manner :-
 Nlne tenths of the active intellect of this
 country IS, or has been undoubtedly enga-
 ged in the profession of law ;-but in the
 north the lawyers often seem to have the
 powers which Burke had, and Fox and
 Sheridan too of uniting politics and ltera- ture at the same time, and of distinguishing themselves as much in one way as the other. Daniel Webster, for an example, is just as mighty with his pen as with his tongue, no matter whether he is talking of architecture or poetry, in New-England Lyceum, or ot political economy and constitutional law with Gen. Hayne in the Senate of the Uni ted States. The diversified power of Neb- sIer it is which gives him renown in Eng land as well as America, and which would make him as famous in the British House of Commons as in the American Senate.- Edward Everett has something of the same power, with more taste and learning, it may be, with less energy than Webster. Now MT. Preston, of South Carolina, who for the first three times person hears him, is the most eloquent man in this country, and who undoubtedly will produce more on popular assembly hearing him for the first time than any other man, is the represen- tative of southern intellectual energy,-but Mir. Preston's speeches one can't report, and generally speaking they will not bear reporting: for the metaphors and images are often in bad taste where there is leis- urc to examine them :-and again, he sell dom says any thing which leaves an impress sion after it is said. Calhoun has another education with southern mind. Tho most exalted fancies are ever floating in his head, the fruits of his southern training 1; he embodies them with northern precision, taste and aptitude, the result of his Con- necticut education. Hence, with no elo- quence at all as an orator, the cause of his great and just fame. Henry Clay, who in our opinion is the greatest statesman in America, and who, certain it is, whether he be in the minority or majority, has in the greatest crisis, exerted the most tri- umphant influence over the destinies of his country, is more of a southern than north- ern man in his tastes, his habits of educa- ton and his eloquence: and for this very reason, with an intellect not SO capacious as his, will nevertheless live and be known years and years aficr Calhoun is forgotten, or remembered only as the distinguished contemporary of the Demosthenes of Amer ica. Webster, indeed, is the only great statesman of this day who is sure of post humous reputation, and who willli as long as the English language lives. The truth is then, and the inference too, that there is a want of literary taste among our south. erns. They are not rigid enough in thei' works, severe enough in the air they give them, to stand the test of cool examination
 For fortnight, Clay would be laughed at in the English House of Commons; but Webster would hold his rank in an hour : though, true it is, after the fortnight was over Clay would seem like new and great light wandering over the heavens. We of the north and English too, go on that ideas are the thing, and not wOrds. Every wort
 with US should weigh pound as word can. This is much in public speaking, but it is every thing in literature. Hence the secret of the success of northern literature, and of want of success on the part of the south. The south and the west are ver- bose. Their magnificent ideas they ex- pand and beat out. Such men as Cham nIuS dHu VcUSlcT CouCeHuo'0 ""u "''So- rate what they have to say. Webster speaks in axioms. Tazewell is a mighty man, that we should have made Webster of, if we had caught him young, and if we could have trained him in New England.
 But somehow or other, the scarceness of the white population of the south materially affects opinions, educations, and tasles.- We of the north come in contact with each other, and thus rub off our prejudices one against the other. Criticism reaches and hurts us; and ridicuIe kills us of. Hence our vanity is Iopped and kept down, and our eccenlricities trimmed and kept in order. Again. intellect is favored by the excite ment of a crowded population. As the flint strikes fire by friction, so thought strikes out thought on the same principle. Great men, says somebody, grow up in clusters. But southern mcR do not come in contact with each other. Their cities are few villages there are none-ihc plantations are far apart, and their roads arc bad.-- Hence they cannot cultivate their tasts as "a more thickly settled population can. hence they do not wear of their prejudice. and hence too. their remarkable vanity, aud their universal belief that their manners