The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1850-04-11
National sympathies.

L
| National sympathies.
In the universal sorrow which the ma
| ton has evinced on account Of the death
Of Mr.. CALHOUN, we get glimpses of the
loyalty and devotion to the Union which
every where exist, however they may be
obscured for the moment by the turbu-
lence of sectional agtations. The occa-
sion is a sad one which has revealed these
prevailing American sentiments; but, per-
haps, they have been more conspicuous
| for that reason. Mr.. CALHOUN was re-
garded as national property. His genius,
his virtues, his services were esteemed
part Of the inheritance of the whole peo-
pie. However his opinions were sustained
or combated, however his policy was ap-
proved or opposed, he was, nevertheless,
admired for his abilities and respected for
his purity of character. His fame was ma
tional, and his loss has been felt as national
| also. South Carolina has not been left
solitary mourner over his bier. Every
State has sympathised in her grief, and
We'd with her in Offering fitting homage
to his memory. Where his views of pub
lie policy we're resisted most stoutly, there
his loss has been most deeply deplored.
And though his native State may claim
the custody of his ashes, the East, the
West, the North and the Southwest, to-
gether with the rising empire upon the
Atlantic, will divide with her the legacy
of his renown.
1t is extracting sweets from flowers
which bloom in bitterness, 10 derive graft
fication from the evidences Of public sor-
row. But the outburst of popular distress
which every where met the announce
ment of Mr.. CALHoUN's demise may be
regarded as indicating a strong, national
sympathy between all sections of this
confederacy and the people of all sections:
sympathy which political differences
cannot even weaken, much less destroy I;
and which will prove bond of union too
strong to be snapped by main force, or
worn asunder by the friction of party
strifes. A love of the Union, venera-
ton for the memory Of her heroes and
sages who have won immortality on the
field or in the forum, lies at the bottom Of
these demonstrations of grief Had this
Union been sundered; had the Constitu-
ton been trampled in the dust had the
national flag been torn into shreds, the
death of Mr.. CALHOUN would have been
regarded, without the limits of his own
section, with no more emotion than that
which the decease Of an European states
man produces amongst us. But as Sen
ator Of the United States-as a man
whose achievements are interviewer with
the history of united and prosperous
people-his death has been lamented by
his countrymen as an individual loss.
None have weighed the effect of his death
upon party relations in the scale against
national affection. He was an American
citizen-a man who had impressed him
self upon the age and he is missed as a
shining light extinguished at the darkest
hour of the night.
II were a noble ambition to do some
thing worthy of the national grief What
ever tendencies may have been ascribed
to the public conduct of Mr.. CALHOUN,
his memory is another bond of Union. II
is comfort to know that as orr great men
disappear from the field Of their labors,
the common inheritance, which makes a
dismemberment Of the confederacy impos-
sible, accu I,ulates. The fierce encoun-
tiers in which they have participated,
though fearful to look upon as they passed
before us, become part and parcel of the
public wealth. As the traditions Of knight
errantry incorporate themselves into the
sentiment and minstrelsy of rude people,
so the encounters of great minds blend
themselves with the thoughts and aspira-
tons Of more enlightened states. It is
thus with the heroes of the Revolution,
the sages Of the early days of The Repub-
lie; and so il will be with Mr. CALHOUN
and the men who measured strength with
him for high purposes though in rugged
embrace. Whatever befall them whilst
they tarry with us, when they are gone
they contribute to the Immortality of the
Union.
What would people suffer, whose emo.
tons coin words to express the depth Of