Weekly national intelligencer., 1851-01-18

hitu uc SHdir Vi cPcdhcT OI the mouse OF HcpTc-
sentatives after Mr.. CLAWS departure on the Mis-
sion to Ghent, retired from Congress Immediately
after the termination of the war, Mr.. CALHOUN
in service through the succeeding
Congress, and Mr.. LowNDEs for several years
afterwards.
The Congress following the war was one Of
buoyant hope, of cheerfulness, and of tolerance in
regard to political differences, so great that there
may be said to have then began that fusion of party
which afterwards characterized the Administration
of Mr.. MONROE. Great questions of national po-
licy were discussed in liberal spirit as well by
those old members who had rode out the storm of
war and brought the ship of State into safe har-
bor as by those gifted and distinguished gentlemen
who came into the House of Representatives upon
the food-tde of opposition to the war; having been
elected whilst the war was still raging and heavy
clouds lowering over its prospects. In this Con-
gress Mr.. CALHOUN particularly distinguished him
self by the patriotic and liberal spirit in which he
advocated the retention, for the protection of
manufactures, of the duties upon imports, laid
for revenue during the. war |; by his agency
in the establishment of the Bank of the United
States by his efforts in favor of the principle Of
Internal Improvement by the General Government;
and by corresponding lberality upon other ques-
tions in which he took an active part. 1t was at
the close of celebrated speech of his on one Of
these subjects, that Mr.. GRosvENoR, Of New York,
himself one Of the abest off-hand debaers that
appeared in Congress, opposed in his party asso-
Citations to Mr.. CALHoUN-wth whom he had not
long before had serious personal difference, not
without difficulty adjusted through the interposition
of friends-rose, and, with generosity which did
him honor, complimented Mr.. CALHOUN on his in
dependent course. and closed his remarks with these
memorable words: Let the honorable gentleman
" continue, with the. same manly independence,
" aloof from party views and local prejudces, to
"pursue the great interests Of his country and fl
"fl the high destiny for ,ohich 1t is manifest he
" Das born. The buzz of popular applause may
!" not cheer him on the way, but he will inevitably
"arrive at high and happy elevation in the view
"of his country and the worlds M
With this prophecy yet ringing in his ears, Mr..
CALHOUN had but just returned home from Con-
gress, when he was called by President MONROE
into his Cabinet TO assume the duties of Secretary
Of War position which placed him in commune
cation with all the leading men Of the day, and
most nearly, Of course, with the gallant spirits of
the army of about his own age, who had seen SER
vice, and gained honor in it. The devotion of so
in Congress, with those others who came to him in
troops after he entered into the Administration,
could not have failed to awaken in his bosom ambi-
ton of higher eminence, though Mr.. GRosvENoR
had not predicted his elevation to it. And that
eminence we have never doubted that Mr.. CAL
HoUN would in due time have attained, had not
the march of events been anticipated by his
eagerness for it, and by such accident as would
have defeated the wsest and bestlaid plans, which
placed it finally beyond his reach. Upon the
public duties of Mr.. CALHOUN, this ambition, in
itself not unreasonable or unbecoming, had not,
whilst he remained in the station which he then
occupied, SO far as we know, any other than a
salutary influence. Nor would it have been
within our province even thus cursorily to aude to
it in the present discussion, had not the subsequent
disappointment of it constituted material link in
the chain of circumstances which have brought the
State of South Carolina into her present unfortu-
nate predicament.
For the first four years after Mr. CALHouN's
withdrawal from Congress, his place was supplied
by Mr.. ELDRED SIMpKINs, his ardent personal and
political friend, to whom succeeded, in 1921, Mr..
McDuFF1E, the disciple of Mr.. CALHOUN, deeply
imbued with his national sentiments, of which, even
before coming to Congress, he had given evidence
by able writings in opposition to the doctrines of
what was then called the Radical school of poll
tics. He entered earnestly and at once into the
business of the House, defending the Administra-
ton, and especially the War Department, against
the Radicals, they were called, with great zeal
and power.
Following Mr.. McDuFF1E, at an interval of two
years, came into Congress from the State of South
Carolina two other gentlemen, ROBERT Y. HAYNE,
in the Senate, of whom, now no more we shall say
nothing but what expresses his praise as an honor
able gentleman, and our sincere regret that he
had not lived till now, if only to have averted, as
we are persuaded he would have done, by his wise
and sobered counsels, the rash and ill-adysed
course which his State is now taking; and of
JAMES HAMILTON, jr., of whom we will say
nothing because he is still living, and, as he has
proved by portrait from his own hand, (recenly
published in our columns,) his raturel has under
gone no change during the twentyeight years which
have elapsed since he first took his seat as the Rem