Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1850-03-29
(f'Vm the Neto Orleans Delta.)
JOHN G. CALHOUN

IN '''.'', 'icie is one quality univeI-
sally conceded TO him, which renders him
Pre-cfn'nent among the great men of our
naaoa--st Is his MORAL COURAGE Tn
TINS, none of our great politicians can com.
pare with him. There is rot a particle Of
,he demagouge, the temporizer, or com
promizer about him. He thinks for him
self, acts for himself, and assumes the re-.
sponsibilty for his opinions, and acts
without looking to the shifting views and
movements OF party, or feeling the popu.
lar pulse One of the very deep thinkers
ana elaborates students among our states
man, his opinions are always formed after
careful, cautions examination, intense
study, and reflection. They are too no
closet opinions The observing is as
largely developed as tie reflective facul-
ty' IN the extraordinary intellect cf this
great man. He is, indeed, more a stu
dent OF men than of books. He derives
the chief material Of his thoughts from
the great, busy world, whose constant
movements he closely watches, as il
Were, f.om a high and elevated point of
observation, unreached by the storms of
passion and mists of prejudice that enyel
oped the struggling masses.
Having once formed and deeply ma
tured his opinions, John G. Calhoun nev-
er pauses or hesitates to proclaim them,
regardless of consequences-pat of
present unpopularity, Indifferent to de-
traction and abuse; and awaiting, with
calm, philosophic resignation, the effect
oftime, Of reflection, of mature thought
upon the minds of the people. These
are sthe characteristics which make John
Q. Calhoun the truly great man of the
nation. His enemies even those who,
prompted by the petty passions and mar
row views of the times, denounce him, as
no other man in this nation has been de-
nounce' concede him these qualities.
There is something of the truly sublime
the moral sublime--in the scene lately
presented in our Senate, on the occasion
ofperkars The last exhibition which this
great man will ever give, of his transcen-
dant qualities of the head and heart.
Having reached quite an advanced age,
after service of perhaps the longest and
most arduous of any of our statesmen,
MrsGalhoun attended the present session
OF Congress with great reluctance, under
aphysical debility which nothing but the
most pressing sense of duty could induce
him to overlook. He saw the storm was
gathering in our political horiz n, and
knew where his post was in the hour of
peril. He once more abandoned the
calm enjoyment, tLe domestic pleasures,
and the ennobling studies of Fort Hill,
and repaired to his seat at Washington,
among the Conscript Fathers of the Re-
public. He had hardly, however, enter
ed upon the duties, when he was visited
with a, painful and depressing disease,
which condemned him to his bed at the
rery time when his country needed his
counsel, and the great interest he repre-
sents suffered from his absence. For
sometime the country was filed with fear
and apprehension that the great Senator
would not again appearin that assembly,
whose august d,, Iity and exalted charac-
ter he had contributed SO much to elevate.
There was painful rumcrs that the illus
trlous statesman was rapidly Fastening to
his grave. His voii could not be filed.
The debates in the Senate took an excited
turn. The South seemed without head
or chief to marshal her forces. The de-
lusive word 'Compromise," hitherto SO
pregnant with mischief to the interest of
the South, began to mislead the unrehcc-
ting, and friShten the timid. Affairs APP
preached a fearful issue The South ap-
peared as if she would be overwhelmed
by the combined treachery of her own
sons, echoing the false cry of disunon. and
by the fanaticism of tie traitors of the
North. AT this moment all eyes turned !
towards the silk ch.ss,an..lf OF the o.oat |
S.".@,2,c2; ~. @s,,. There he lay, PROSTATE in
body, bit ;""inh. sill! active mind, revolving
the great matters which agitated the ma
tion, and with his big heart still throbing
with unfailing devotion to the rights to
which his whole life had beenconsecra ed
Soon do the exulting and braggart tones
ofthc invading North penetrate his sick
Arousing all his energies, and
for a moment, conquering the lastitude of
age, and the debility of protracted illness,
he calls around him his friends, and rails
ing shimselfupon his couch, dictates to his
cnlInonrn tho canfipoantc yvh;cb he Ioeiras I