The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-03-17

A"S ~sso'A"@ P"ttta MtuOuucc Tue ueatu VI
GEORGE MeDurFiE, name illustricus ia the
annals Of his country and his State.
Though the heavy hand of disease has para
lyzed his powers of mind aud body for years past
and his existence has only been prolongation
of severe suffering to himself and his friends, yet
many still cherished the hope of his restoration
tO health and TO usefulness once more. But
such was not the ordination of Provi dence he
has been summoned away on the very eve OF a
struggle in which he could not have participated,
even had he been spared, so shattered had his
system been by the lingering disease under
which he wasted away. Those who once list
ened to those bursts of mpassoned eloquence,
which enchanted listening Senates and swayed
the tides of popular passion to and fro at the
bidding Of this mighty master of the spell of
speech, we'll know how just was the reputation
which shed its rays to gid even his decline.
But those who never enjoyed that privilege
should collect and examine those published
speeches into whchthe soul of patriot the intel
lect Of sage, and the prescience of prophet
seem to have been poured. Looking back now
upon the warnings then disregarded, the prophe-
ces then derided, and the suggestions and the
arguments then strange and startling but now SO
familiar to the public mind, we, and posterity can
better appreciate the soaring genius of George
McDurrIH, than his nearer and more immediate
contemporaries.
och Jov and
the great compeer and colleague who preceded
him on the passage TO eternity but one short
wear, was the same power given of lifting the
veil of the future, and seeing the difficulties and
the dangers which awaited the South, and the
institution of slavery. Stricken down in the
eliminating point of his career, the victim of a
private feud he has not been enabled to guide
his people on the path or through the perils he
so clearly foresaw and pointed out, but events
have already justified his sagacty, and covered
w til confusion the insolent assailants of the
dying lion, before whose roar they had so often
covered and trcmbled, while in the full flush of
his powers Almost his last public effort in
the Senate of the United States, the final flick
ering forth of the bright light of his glorious
and glowing intellect, was devoted to the advo-
cacy of SouthernCo nfederacy, and the picture
which he drew was 81 Striking and so vivid that
the sensation produced by that effort was equal
if not superior to any occasioned by his earlier
bursts of impassioned eloquence.
He has gone-but the memory of such men
cannot pass away with their mortal frames. Dust
to dust must return, but the immortal part the
informing spirit, the genius, must live on for
evermore.
South Carolina holds his ashes-the Universe
alone can be the sepulchre, and Eternity the
home of such soul. The storm of caumny
poured upon the living head for the devotion to
the home and mother, howled itself to rest
long since. The wall of sorrowing brethren,
who appreciate rightly his services in the great
cause of State-rights and Southern safety, will
be his requiem; and 50 long as the South shall
scorn submission to the lawless edicts of an in
solent majority, so long shall the name Of
GEORGE McDurFIE occupy high place in her
Pantheon, among the guardians of her rights
and liberties.
We trust that steps may be taken speedily to
collect, and give in connected form to the pub
lie. the scattered gems of thought, and reason,
and eloquence, with which he so profusely
strewed his path while in the councils of the
country.
His commentaries on the Constitution, and
expositions of the policy and purposes of the
North, as well as of the duty of the South,
might well accompany those of JOHN c. CAL
rHouN--an immortal twain--if not kindred in
fate" at least kindred in renown"
The Columbia Telegraph thus announces his
demise:
DEATH OF GEORGE McDUFFIE.-We regret
to learn by despatch from friend at Camden,
that General George McDuhe expired at nine
O'Clock, a. m, yesterday, at the residence of
Richard Singleton, esq, in Sumter. The event
at any time for years past, would not have been
considered improbable from his condition of
physical prostration and suffering, but coming
now, near the anniversary of MIR. Calhoun s
death, it must excite sadness and regret. The
name of George McDuflie is now enrolled in our
dist of the departed whose memories Carolina
will ever cherish, and to this list the last few
wears have made fearfully rapid additions.
49, UUorld,s ,fr and Qlaverv