Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1850-05-03
From the Washington Union.
BE. CaIhoun.

informs us its author of the
most distinguished in the repnbcone Who though he
differed as myself have from Mr. Calhoun some sub
ect yet shows how fully competent he was to the
probation of real aes The produetioni indeed
erou Offering from one spirit to the of anoth
err But Why should shroud the name OF tho author in
mystery His composition does honor to the living and to
the dead hesitation in saying that it emanates
from the pen Richard Rush. ESQ., of Philadelphia our late
Minister Paris whose is identified both with the
litics and the literature of his country.
A short Notice of the Death and Character of Mr..
If but henr speak in the Senate
could do good than previous occasion of my
These were among the last words of the lamented
Calhoun. How appropriate to patriot and states
man as the lamp of life was going out !" Save my
country, Heaven!" were the dying words of Pitt
We cannot know precisely what Mr.. Calhoun would
have said in the last hour he wished for but are
sure he would have spoken with sincerity what he
thought and with the deepest love of country in his
heart. This great " southerner,' and great Ameri-
can, too, has passed away and perhaps, since the
death of Washington, no death in our country has
awakened sensation SO nearly akin in some of its
striking characteristics to that which then pro-
duced We have lost men whilst they were WELD
ing who had in their day welded, more political
power but not one to whose sheer Intellectual and
moral pre- eminence such general tributes seem to
have been paid. Washington did not 1atter the peo-
pie nor did Calhoun. Both loved republicanism :
but both knew that men individually prone to
error, from ignorance passion and other causes and
that communities speaking and acting thro their
jories, must often be in error too and fall into de-
lusions. Calhoun never afraid to express this
sentiment act upon it. If Washington had not
put himself against popular deusons the subject
of the militia and short enlistments it may be doubt
ed whether he could have carried through the re-
voution, Incompatible were his qualities and pow
ers of achievement otherwise When the revolution
was finished, his Mighty fame overshadowed all COM
1,,HI L. i I.-l
accept the chief nagstracy He yielded at last on
ly to the unanimous enthusiastic voice of an ador-
ing, grateful country. AS President, party was a.
Dashed in his presence 1t stood off, and dared not
approach him. Calhoun, though belonging to par
ty, rose above it. 1t his opinion, in our age
that no man could be President unless he pandered
to the public as Bacon said, i" Great heights were
only to be reached by winding stairs" Calhoun's
mind was prophetic, well fruitful and profound
He spoke not from passion but knowledge Her
ample page, rich with the spoils of tme, was before
him. and he knew how to read it.
Of all Americans he was almost the only one not
oyerset by the great shock in Europe in 1913. That
our citizens should have given the French republic
cordial first welcome, In order to trial. if nothing
more and that both houses of Congress should have
done the same, natural, justifable and appear
ed to be of American obligation But in the eye the
nation in his place in the Senate, in the midst of
thusiasm for France, regenerated was supposed
calhoun paused. He invoked the resources of his
own mind. He reasoned he reflected He did not
believe that by suddenly proclaiming' republics
they were to be made. He knew that all progress
not for the BETTER and when too rapid could not
be good. The rights of man did not blind him to
the nature of man. He knew all excellence to be of
slow growth with nations persons; that it comes
ofpatence, education long preparation and training
and more gradually to governments than men His
mind full of light, inferred that such quick convul
sve movements in the other hemisphere must be the
work. with exceptions the rarest, of few selfish
men in some places and of what lord John Russell
called ga society of circulating revoutionists" in
others The real masses, he believed would be
thrown into worse condition than before lie saw,
also, that these suddenly "procaimed' republics
were totally different from ours His profound stu
DIV and knowledge of the constitution of the United
States and of everything anterior that had led to the
establishment of our republic, taught him this.
He believed that the inherent tendencies of these
new republics were to disorder, even to communism ;
and he feared their deteriorating influences upon
More especially did he fear it under predspos-
tions summarily to applaud all movements against
existing authority in Europe matter what their
nature, who their instruments and still the
especially, when numerous presses-those oligarchi-
cal engines in this country-not all of them the best
fitted it might be thought to instruct and direct the
public mind of great nation, are yet so apt to de-
eide in haste and with frightful certainty, ''where
angels fear to tread" upon all questions that come
foreign or domestic. He appreciated too much the
immense value of the republic, to behold without
grief the dsparagement of even the name abroad
without dread the recol upon the very principle of
equal rights, of which there was danger from the
terrible abuses committed abroad under the cloak of
t democracy.
, Mr. Calhoun's ambition was of the noblest, most
inspiring kind. Tt always sought great public ends
through noble means. Beautifully, most beautiful
w. did his colleague say, in announcing his death to
the Senate We saw him few days ago in the seat
near me, he had so long occupied the strug-
gle of great mind to overcome the infrmities of
e sinking body 1T THE EXHIBITION WOUNDED
EAGLE, WITH HIS EYES TURNED TO THE HEAVENS IN
0 WHICH HAD SCARED, BUT INTO WHICH WINGS
COULD NEVER CARRY HIM AGAIN.n
The figure as happy as touching. No man
= was more pure rarely public as pure. He
had the selfrelance of genius fertilizing in its
thoughts, and conscious of its powers but with
out particle of arrogance or presumption. When,
u as democrat of the Jefferson school, he entered
! Congress before the of 1872 he soon opposed
himself to embargoesand non-intercourse, weap-
ons unsuited to brave people in avenging wrongs
and insults. Yet they had been the policy of his
party. To arraign it dangerous at first to pop
u Iularity. But he did he, young man, bold when
boldness wisdom he young man, but then,
as always, frank in all that was high-minded, and
!. chivalrous under all circumstances. He for
drawing the sword against the gigantic mistress Of
the He was for throwing ourselves at up
4 on our courage and exertons. The step peril
ous although one which his broad, sagacious mind
told due to enlightened estimate of nation
al interests, it mperiously demanded by out
o RACES upon national honor-the persevering
E shocking outrage of imprisonment
He would have more embargoes, nom
trading to stop that to react upon that enormity-
His speeches In support of the lifted up the feel
Eiugs and Judgment of the nation by their combina-
ton of feryor and originality, with the impressive
elonuence of logic and discipline