The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1855-01-03

JOHN G.. CALHous.-Ben. Lomand, Tals.
county Alabama received yours of the 7th
inst, few days ago. Having been warm
friend and ardent admirer of Mr.. Calhoun,
take pleasure in answering your inquiries con-
cerning his early life, as far as / am able. He
was seven years my senior, and of course was
but boy when he attained to the age of the
manhood. l first knew him in the year 1901,
when we were for few months school-fellows
in the academy then taught by the late dr..
Wadde, in Vienna. Mr. Calhoun soon after
this time entered Yale college, and my educa-
ton having only just begun, / saw nothing of
him, until commenced the study of law in the
summer of 1910. AT this time Mr.. G.. was
practicing law at Abbeville court house, the
late governor Noble being his partner. They
occupied as an Office, the house in which gov
ernor Noble afterwards lived till bis death.
After knew him as lawyer, Mr.. Calhoun al
ways boarded at the hotel known as ..The Red
House" and now occupied by the McLaren
family. During part, if not all the time he
boarded there, the hotel was kept by George
Whitefeld. The business of the court was, at
that time, divided pretty equally between the
three ofices-Ca Calhoun & Mobiles B. G. Yancy,s
and my brother George Bowie. There was at
this time six or eight students in these offices.
viz: captain Robt. Cunningham, of Laurens
district, and Nathaniel A. Ware in Calhoun g.
Mobiles, wilson Birk, of Georgia, J. T. White
field, and G. G. Yancy, in Mr. Yancy's and
the late chief justice of Alabama, Abner S.
Lipscomb, and myself, in my brothers. office.
Mr.. Calhoun was always kind and familiar
with young men, and ever ready to advance
them by his counsels and instructions. 1t WAS
our constant habit to assemble in the summer
evenings in Mr.. Calhoun's piazza and listen to
his conversation, in which his partner and Mr..
Yancy, and sometimes the older students par
ticipated. In this way he delighted to instruct
his young friends, and l believe we all pro6ted
greatly by such occasions. At this period Of
his life, and I believe ever afterwards, Mr. CAL
houn was in the habit of taking much exercise,
and always on foot. His customary walk was
up the Pendeton road, and he seldom turned
before he had walked mile and half This
exercise was usually taken very early in the
morning, and he was generally willing to have
one of his young friends as a companion-not
to enjoy their conversation, but to benefit them
by his. l remember, on one occasion, he in.
vited me to accompany him in his morning stroll
and refer to it now, not to claim any par
ticular intimacy with so distinguished man of
which any one mis- ght Justly be proud, but to
record disciplinary achievements of his own.
which struck me at the time as very wonderful
He was endeavoring to impress upon my mind
the great Importance of cultivating the power
of attention, and to encourage me in my efforts
he stated that to this end he had early subject
ed his mind to such course of rigid discipline.
and had persisted without faltering until he had
ac1 ,l bo
could now confne it as long as he pleased, to
any subject without wandering even for mo-
ment, and that it was bis uniform habit, when
subject for reflection, and that he never suffered
his attention to wander from it until he was satis-
fed with its examination. In this single achieve
ment is to be found, as firmly believe, the
principal cause Of his intellectual triumph, this
made him the greatest thinker of his age, and
to this achievement are We to attribute his won
derful powers of combination and analysis.
You ask me, "when, and on what occasion
did he make his very first public effort?" The
first public speech ever heard him make, was
on the occasion of public meeting of the citi-
zens of Abbevile, called on the occasion of
the wanton attack of the Leopard on the Chesa-
peake. On the occason-he was then a stu
dentof iaw-he astonished everybody ,and laid
the foundation of that enduring popularity in
his native district, which he retained to the day
of his death. If he had ever before made
public speech, | am not aware of the fact
You again ask "How did the family in its
early history spell the name? Until the time of
the generation to which Mr.. Calhoun himself
belonged, the name was spelled with an O in
stead of an nA-Colhoun. Mr.. James Calhoun.
The brother, believe to the day of his death.
wrote his name Colhoun. In earlier times, it
S probable the name was written Colquhoun,
IS believe tits to this day in Great Britain.
You do not expect me, | am sure, to attempt
4 deleniation of the character, private or public
If our departed friend, that has been done by
others much better than I could do it. None Of
lis friends ever loved him more, many perhaps
lnew him better than I did. And will only
i'd, that he possessed more equanimity than
my man | have eyer known. l never saw him
depressed in spirit, nor excited by anger. He
vas always cheerful-the natural result of
lfe of constant and uniform virtue
Having thus, very hastily and imperfectly,
,iven you all the information possess in refe-
ence to the inquiries of your letter, conclude
With the high esteem and respect with which l
IN. our friend, A. BOWIE.
A late London News says that hundreds Of
ons of rags and similar materials are being sent
rom Liverpool to the United States. It adds:
"A large quantity of this consists of jute, to
make a paper used for envelopes and similar
purposes in America, but which hitherto the
'ublic taste has been too fastidious to use here.
hey have there acquired great skill in work
1g it up with other materials that will not
'hiten or bleach, and thus produce handsome
nd strong paper.'
A Mr.. Dodson of Georgia, brother of the
dtor of the Georgia Examiner, who has set
ed in Kansas, gives his views about slavery in
lat territory. He says slavery exists in Kansas
nd needs no act of legislation to permit it; that
is impossible to get twhite labor there and they
ust have slaves, that Missouri will send half
er population there to protect the territory from
le control of the abolitonists. He adds that
aves hire readily at from $3.50 to 5000 per
mum, and that Kansas was intended BY proy,
ence for slave state