Daily national Republican., 1863-09-17
MEN OF IDEAs-sEwARD AND CAL

To-. l4I. avs. hOUN II. .-#
The Rev. A. d. Mayo, In recent address
before the Union Literary Society OF Antioch
College (ohio), on " The Scholars Vocation in
the New Republic" thus sketches the two
American statesinen whore conflicting ideas he
deems the mainspring of our present gigantic
uonvulsiou! n ..T5 .l'
"Amid the thousand civil aud martial digni.
taries that have figured iu America during the
last half century, each of whom has fundIy I'm
agined himself the handspring Of the Union,
two quiet, scholarly statesmen have best repre-.
sentcd the diversing tendencies Of the Repub.
lie, and portrayed It's history as In prophecy.
First of these was John &. Calhoun, of South
Carolina, tho man who held In his brain all
tho aristocrdtic idcas Of tle age, In their
application to our own land. He believed
reilgously in a Government of the few, In
which the laborcrs should be n mcnial class,
and tho gentry the rulers of society. In this,
he represented tho aspirations of Southern so.
ciety, and of large districts and formidab ble
tendencies in the North. But he saw that the
only path to this ordcr Of atfalrs was civil wal
and anarchy. So he preached secession, not as
the final condition of the people, but as the re
volutionary highway 10 concentrated power.
years ago the whole arlstocratic class, South
and North, were ready to prccipitato the couns
try into revolution (christcned . Scces sion, %
In order to rc.cstablish the nation as a consoii.
dated aristocracy. The public life of Calhoun
was "a failure. lie had little Administrative
ubilityj but he was the philosophical teacher Of
n generation ofstatcsmcn and generals, indeed
of the leading classes Of entire Commo wcalths,
In the method OF accomplishing the overthrow
Of the New Republic, aud the establishment OF
u New Europe In America. .....
"Whilc Calhoun was breathing out his last
breath at Washington, the new Senator from
New York, William Il. Seward, was stammer
| ing through his first speech In tue Capitol, on
the admission Of California To the Union.
That speech contains the peoples whole an.
hwcr 10 the entire programme of the dying
champion of Southern urstucrucy. That hours
talk to a contcmptuOus Senate aud "a careless
people placed Mr.. Sew ard at the head of the
philosophical statesmen of the New Republic,
and history Will set him over against the
great South Carolinan, as the man who soon.
est and most 60 mplctyly saw at, through, and
around his ,liLtr,le scheme Of American
desp"tism, and Predicted its downfall a,
the moment oil lis apparent triumph. Mr..
Seward saw then that secession was aiming at
precipitdte The country into tremendous rev
olulion. He told the naughty men engaged IN
the conspiracy that If they inaugurated civil
war 10 establish des potisni, the ruling class ol
the South, and all they represented, would &c
to the bottom of bloody sea, while the people
would reach their final destiny in the establish
menl OF the New Republic. The idea conlral
izcs all lac has said, thought, and done sine,
that eventiul day. Ills great speeches hay,
been observations Of the progress of that revo
luton, as from point overlooking the entr,
field. Like all progressing philosophical men
he has counted too enthusiastically on the peo
pie, and often been seemingly contradicted BY
events. Like his great opponent, his chief sue
cess has not been as an executive statesman
aud he has been disappointed in his persona
ambition. But ahun he is dead, and all h,
said and wrote and thought about American
affairs shall bc gathered up into one coRsisten
whole, II viii hr known how capacious wal
that range of vision that took In the who'll
past, present, aud future of the Republic; ant
how strong WAS that faith In man which, II
tue very turmoil Of civil war, could cheerful!
prophecy the complete success Of those grea
Ideas and institutions. ON which the Union viii
rise 10 the Foremost rank among the nation
Of the earth" -