Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1859-01-29

stritcs of faction shake the Government
and even threaten it, we may pause with
advantage long enough to remember that
we are reapiug the reward of other men :
labors This liberty we inherit this adj
mirable Constitution, which has survived
peace and war, prosperity and adversity :;
TINS double scheme of Government, State
and Federal, so peculiar and so little un-
derstood by other Powers, yet which pro
tects the earnings of industry, and makes
the largest personal freedom compatible
with public order These great results
were not acquired without wisdom and toll
and blood. The touching and heroic re-
cord is before the world; but to all this
we were born, and, like heirs upon whom
mas heen cast great inheritance, have only
the nigh duty preserve, to extend and to
acorn 1T. The grand productions of the
era IN which the foundations Of this Coy
crnment were laid, reveal the deep sense
Its founders had of their obligations to the
whole family ofman. Let us never forget
that the responsibilities imposed on this
generation are by so much the greater than
those which rested on our revolutionary
ancestors, as the population, extent and
power OF our country surpass the Cluwnng
promise of its origin.
1t would be a pleasing task to pursue
many trains of thought not wholly foreign
to this occasion, but the temptation to en-
ter the wide field must be vigorously curb
ed yet l may be pardoned, perhaps, for
one or two additional reflections.
The Senate is assembled for the last time
IN this Chamber. IIcnceforth it will be
converted to other uses; yet it must re-
main forever connected with great events.
and sacred to the memories of the DEPART
ed orators and statesmen who here en-
gagged in high debates, and shaped the mol
icy OF their country. Hereafter the Amer
lcan and the stranger, as they wander thro'
the Capitol, will turn with instructive rev
ercncc to view the spot ON which so many
and great materials have accumulated for
history. They will recall the images of
the great and good, whose rcnown is the
common property Of the Onion; and chief
ly, perhaps, they will lingcr around the
seats once occupied by the mighty three,
whose names and fame, associated in life,
deathhas not been able to sever llustrious
men, who, in their generation sometimes di.
Vldcd, sometimes led, and sometimes re-
sisted public opnion-forthcy were of that
higher class of statesmen who seek the right
and follow their convictions.
There sat Calhoun, the Senator, inhcxi-
BILE, austerc, oppressed, but not overwhclm-
cd by his deep sense of the importance of
hls public functions; seeking the truth
then tearlcssly following it-a man whose
unsparing intellect compelled all his emo
tlons to harmonic with the deductions of
his vigorous logic, and whose noble counte
nance habitually wore the expression of
one engaged in the performance of high
public duties.
This was Wcbster's seat. He, too, was
even such Senator. Conscious of his own
vast powers he reposed with confidence on
himself; and scorning the comtrivances of
smaller men, he stood among his peers all
the greater for the simple dignity of his
senatorial demeanor. Type of his North
ern home, he rises before the imagination,
in the grand and granite outline of his
form and intellect, like great New Eng
land rock, repclling New England wave.
AS writer, his productions will be cher
lshcd by statesmen and scholars while the
English tongue is spoken. As a senatorial
orator, his great efforts are historically as
sociatcd with this Chamber, whose very air
seems yet to yibrate beneath the strokes Of
his deep tones and weighty words.
On the outer circle, sat Henry Clay, With
his impetuous and ardent nature untamcd
by age, and exhibiting in the Senate the
same vehement patriotism and passionate
eloquencc that of yore electrified the House
OF Representatives and the country. His
extraordinary personal endowmcnts, his
courage, all his noble qualities, invested
him with an individuality and charm of
character which in any age would have made
him favoritc of history. He loved his
country above all earthly things. Hcloved
liberty in all countries. lllustrious man
Orator, patriot, philanthropist--his light,
at Its meridian, was seen and felt in the
remotest parts of the civilized world and
his declining sun, as it fastened down in
the west threw back its level beams, in
huos of mellowed splendor, to illuminate
and to cheer the land he loved and served
so well.
All the States may point, with gratified
pride, to the services in the Senate OF their
patriotic sons. Crowding the memory,
come the names of Adams, Hoyne, Mason,
Otis, Macon, Pinckney, and the rest--1
cannot number them, who, in the record
of their acts and uttcranccs, appeal TO their
successors to give the Union destiny not
unworthy of the past. What models were
these, toawakcn emulation or TO plunge in
despair Fortunate will be the American
statesmen who, in this age, or in succeed
ing times, shall contrihnte to invest the