The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1850-04-03

preserving the political power of the slaveholding
States he was far-sghted enough to perceive that
no present accommodation of the dispute could be
any thing more than temporary palliative, without
some substantial guaranty for the future, some
change in the Constitution by which the equilibrium
of power between the slave States and the free
should be restored as often as 1t should be
by the rapid growth and preponderance Of a popu-
lation having no attachment TO slavery.
Mr.. Calhoun was simple in his manners, and OF
easy access. In estimating the characters and'de-
signs OF men he was far from exerting the same sa
gacity which he showed in perceiving the effect of
measures; and the consequence was, that he al
lowed people TO possess his confidence and TO boast
Of his intimacy who were by no means worthy OF It,
II would not have been easy, for example, II his
enemies had been allowed the selection, TO have
provided him with set of more hopeessly unprin-
ciplcd as well as unlucky politicians than those,
with some exceptions, no doubt, who In this and
other northern States have Of late years been in
confidential correspondence with him. His conf
dence, however, lasted no longer than he in his I'M
suspecting temper, believed it deserved; if they
revealed themselves to him, as they sometimes did,
in their true characters, he dropped them at once
We hardly know whether to place 1t to the ac-
count of a certain magnanimity or certain prac-
teal inexpertness, that in his reliance upon the
force of the principles he supported he often neg
lected to secure the previous concurrence of those
whose cooperation he could not dispense with.
Thus, in the example we have already given, when
he proposed the only measure by which the slave
| States can hope to preserve an equality OF power
with the free-an amendment of the federal Con-
stitution-he appears to have consulted nobody, to
have desired the previous assent of no member, but
TO have brought out the proposal without taking the
least pains to prepare the minds of his supporters
| for receiving it.
| He saw that it was the only remedy worthy OF
the name, for the grievance of which he com
plained-the decline of the political consequence o.
| the slave States-and he proposed it boldly His
| friends saw how public opinion was startled by q
demand SO far beyond any thing hitherto made by
the South they denied all part in the scheme, and
l - 80
deeply wounded by this desertion, and by the OBJ
stnacy Of the representatives Of the South in cling
| ing to the wretched expedients Of compromise
which he treated with a just contempt we suppose
| there can be no doubt.
| The frankness, however, which led to this unre-
served and early disclosure OF his views Of the true
remedy in the case, was an honorable part Of Mr.
| Calhoun's character. He was no follower after the
| on the great questions before the nation like mar
who valued his convictions above the assent o
| those who listened to him.
His mind had naturally no turn for the ideal, the
esthetic, in those departments in which it employed
ITSELF if it had the tendency it was suppressed by
the training to which he subjected himself. II,
seems never to have thought of giving the leas
grace of arrangement or of illustration to the spec
ulations in which he delighted, to have supposed
that they could be rendered attractive impressive
by any thing beyond the bare statement of them il
such words as happened to be at hand. They OWED
nothing therefore TO rhetoric or to application, Of
to the manner in which they were presented.
| In private life, Mr.. Calhoun was honored and be
loved and to the purity of his personal character
no less than to his strength Of intellect and will, h
owed, no doubt, a large part Of that command which
South. We lament with them that this light i
struck out of the political armament. Thus, ont
by one,
| The stars Of human glory cast down
| and the brightest of those which remain to us arr
already not far from the horizon in which they mus