Minnesota weekly times. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1859, 1854-08-22

al activity and industry. The versatile man
thinks quicker and more intensely, has more men
tai life and energy, than the man whose thoughts
are all concentrated upon the same objects, whose
labors are all directed into the same chaunel.-
Elasticity of spirits and versatility of talent gen.
| orally 60 hand in hand and it seems wise pro-
vision Of nature that they should for man with
large endowment of the latter requires the aid
of the former to sustain him, and carry him
through the multiplicity of enterprises into which
he is led.
The four most prominent men talked OF as can
didates for the next presidency, besides the pre-
sent incumbent of the presidential chair, we be-
lieve are Everett, Seward, Houston, and Douglas.
We propose to glance hastily at the life and char
acter Of each, regarding them more especially
with view to availability as candidates for the
presidency.
Edward Everett, the greatest living orator; the
all-accomplshed, the ripe scholar, the experience
ed statesman, and the perfect gentleman, would
confer great honor upon the presidential chair, if
chosen to fill it.
Nature dealt very literally with MIR. Everett in
the outset, and circumstances and his own exer-
| tons have done the rest. The son of clergy
man, he graduated from Harvard College at q
very early age, with reputation for extraordin-
airy abilities. On leaving college, he first COM
menced the study Of law, but soon turned his at
tention to theology. and on the death of Buck
minister the most celebrated preacher Of the time,
place. Great as was the renown of his predcces-
sor, the fame Of the youthful Everett soon al
most eclipsed it. People focked in great numbers
to hear him, and his reputation for great elo
quence spread far and wide. Fired by noble
ambition for excellence, he labored with such un-
firing energy and assiduity that he soon impaired
his health and was obliged to resign his ministry.
He then went abroad, and spent several years
travelling through Great Britain and Europe. On
his return to the United States, he was made
Greek Professor in Harvard College. Soon after
this, the editorship of the North American Review
fell into his hands, and that venerable quarterly
was conducted by him for many years with mark
ed ability. Its pages now glisten with more than
fifty brilliant essays, on every variety OF topic,
that have been contributed to it by his fertile and
inexhaustible pen. He was but little upward Of
thirty when he was chosen member OF Congress,
post that he filed with great credit for about
ten years. He was then chosen Governor of Mas
sachusetts, and continued to fill that Office until
he was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to the
admirably calculated to reflect the highest honor
upon /; and the United States has never been more
ably represented at that court, than in his per-
son. On his return from England he was chos IN
President of Harvard College, has since been
Cabinet Minister, and is now United States SEN
ator.
What rich and varied experience he has crowd
nineteen and sixty! More than all, he has occu-
pied no position and filled no Office that he did not
confer as much honor upon as he received from
them. No man in the United States, probably,
has been brought in more immediate contact,
through all his life, with the conservatism of the
old world and the new, than Mr.. Everett and
Notwithstanding his great wealth and very gentle
manly tastes, habits, and associations, we know
of no production from any other distinguished
man in the Union, breathing more wholesome
and pure democracy, than his address before the
Colonization Society at Washington, a year or
two ago. 1t contains, however, but the sentiments
of his early years, again reiterated and enforced,
after a larger experience and more mature
judgment.
In his manners, Mr.. Everett is dignifed and
somewhat reserved, but bland and affable. He,
however, lacks that hearty, careless, free-and-
easy, good natured manner, which has distinguish
ed some of our great men, Jackson and Clay, for
instance, and which &C tells'' so much for availa
biity in candidate for the presidency.
There is in some men constitutional cool ma
ture, gayety and heartiness of manner, which
no amount of education OF experience OF great
ness can effect. One of this kind was judge Sto-
10 o.,u Earl OF Carlisle, man
who, as the reader knows, has the blood of all
the Towards running in his veins, when in this
country, one day called at his house in Cam
bridge, and found him with a large party Of young
children, his fine, benevolent countenance radiant
with perspiraton and delight, all sliding down
the banister on the stairs. A fourth-rate lawyer,
whose dignity was his principal capital, (not re-
gs.~dng the impossibility Of his being so
gagged, ) would have felt extreme modification at
being found on such an occasion in such undig-
nifed employment. We doubt if MIR. Everett has
ever been found by any Of the Towards, or the
Smiths even, sliding down stair-ban.sters since
early boyhood, but no one, we presume, world De
surprised to find Seward or Houston SO engaged,
and it is not impossible that ''the Little Giant
might sometimes perform the same feat, when In
one of his most genial moods.
1t is not so much the qualities of the head as Of
the heart, in great men, that wins the admiration
of tbs multitude. 1t was not the mental powers
Uc Cesar formidable as they were) that Cato so
much dreaded; !. was his generosity, his mag
nanimity, and widespread sympathy with his
felow-men. course on his virtues; they have
undone his country!'
There was no resisting the popularity Of that
good for nothing, unprincpled demagogue and
debauchee, John Wilkes. His genial wit and hu-
NOR and strong social feelings, broke through all
tho barricades Of fashion and etiquette, and as
sured the coal HEAVIER and chimney-sweep that no
thickness of coal dust or SCOT could divide the
bond of fellow feeling that united them. There
is nothing in the multitudinous pages of Bozzy's
life of his idol, so laughter provoking to us, as
the dinner scene where Wilkes brought all his
concliatory art to bear upon his gruf and stub
born old enemy, DR.. johnson; and the perfect
success he met with shows clearly how much
sood-natured wit and humor, as we'll as tact and
knowledge of human nature, he possessed.
POET LAUREArE.-The appelaltion given to
poet, whose duty it is to compose birthday odes,
and other poems Of rejoicing, for the monarch
in whose service he is retained. The laureate's
post in England is at present filed by Alfred Ten
nyson, and the services formerly required are dis
pensed with. The first mention of Kinks poet
in England, under the title of poet laureate, oc-
ours in the reign of Edward w. Poeta Laureatus
was, however, also an academical title in Eng
land, conferred by the universities when the cam
didates received the degree in grammar, (which
included rhetoric and versiGcation.) The last in
stance of laureated degree at Oxford, occurs in
1912. Ben johnson was court poet to James !,
and received pension, but does not appear to
have the title of laureate formerly granted him.
Dryden was appointed laureate to Charles II, and
afterwards to James IL, by regular patent un-
der privy seal. Nahum Tate, Rowe, Euslen
Cibber, Whitehead, I. Warton, Pye, Southy,
Wordsworth and Tennyson, (the last of whom
was appointed in 1857
YOUTHFUL HERoIsM.-The Cattskil Wing saws
that few days since, as father and two of his
sons-the latter being not more than 10 or IL
years of agc-were coming up the Cattskill
Greek on a canal boat, by some accident the fa-
Their fell overheard, and, being unable to swim.