The North-Carolinian., 1860-01-14
FAYETTEVHL C..
WEDNESDAY MORNING, JANUARY IL, 1860.
NOW AND THEN


NOW AND THEN
We have at the present time in our national Con
gress as able men ever did honor to the nation.
We may look back to the time of Clay Calhoun,
Webster, and Marcy, (the latter of whom con-
slider equal in craftsmanship to any of the former,
and we may say that i'll times have befalen the ma
ton, not only in sectional strife, but also in the
mental calaber of her statesmen and orators We
all look with peculiar reverence upon the old school
OF statesmen, and not only upon them and their
memory, but also upon the few lone stars who have
been left monuments of the past-not only is this
the case but inclined to look upon youthful
talent with very deprecatng glance, and sigh for
the days of g auld lang syne.''
If in the retrospect we can such men CLAY
WEBSTER, CALHOUN, CHoATE and MARCY, whose
memory seems to fill mind with something akin to
| reverence for their superiority-we must not let
the past blind eyes to the fact that Now in
national halls there breathes men, who, though
young, yet destined to scale the highest pnacle
of the ladder of fame and indeed it may be- attract
the admiration and applause of the civilized world.
We not far degenerate that an American Pitt
or Fox or Burke, may not now have taken their
place in the councils of the nation.
1t is said that times of great import raise natur
ally from their exigences great minds. Our nation
is now the amphitheatre of stormy and all import
ant events their equal has not been experienced in
the age of our Republic, and it seems that such
men have already been produced by the people. If
we take glance at the past and then view The pre-
sent prominent post occupied in the public mind by
the young men of the times, form better
conclusions of the relative merit of the leading
spirits of both times.
The maiden speech of Webster great effort
worthy of the giant intellect that produced tit
powerful and logical, because the mind of the
man from its very nature. The eloquence
of Clay inborn, and not artificial acquired
and his first appearance on the political stage at
tracted the applause and admiration of the nation.
Clay always national in his sentiments-Web
ster's early education taught him to be northern,
and not national, but experience taught him to be
a statesman Calhoun giant, whose strength
only revealed when tested-his fame not
the production of hot-house but the gradual and
natural production of the season in which he lived
Marcys life and power was hidden until opportuni-
ty and circumstances brought his master mind in
all its strength and transcendent superiority before
an admirHg nation in all the qualifications Of full
grown craftsmanship.
The present session Of Congress has brought be-
fore the public some men whose lives are bound to
tell upon the nations greatness. First and pre-em-
nent Of these, is Roger A. Pryor, of Va, whose
brilliant course has just commenced and the end Of
which believe is destined to attain the highest
and most exalted position in the nation Mr. Pryor
is young, scarcely thirty five years DID, but for
height of eoquence, and logical and statesmanlike
argument, he is unequaled by any of Americas
most favored and gifted sons. We look upon Mr.
Pryor as great man who will yet be classed in
fame by the side Of those whose lives we have
just reviewed. Brown, of KY, is another though
little heard of-will undoubtedly attract the atten-
ton of the American world, if not that of Europe
and the continent. Mr.. Nelson, of Tennessee, is
another gentleman, though differing with in pol
itics, is also man of superior attanments and will
doubtless make his mark in the world. 1t can not
be denied that these men now the most promis-
ing of the present day, and of them we be-
leve are equal to those produced by any former