The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1864-10-12

f3t ROMANS uSSt TIC SafiS WI" "
express prophet and poet, probably be
cause they discovered an analogy be
tween the profession of the heather pro
rhd. which required him to draw largely
l!pou his imagination, and the calling Of
the poet, whose proper existence Is in
worlds of his own creation, And yet
thcrc is justice in the analogy, even
taxing our own sense Of the word pro
phct. Every man of high genius, whe-
ti.,r he be poet or not, is more or less
q prophet; and il is for this reason tha'
ncu OF the loftiest intellect are so often
NEGLECTED; during their lives, to become
immortal after they are dead, ihcy gen
.rally live too far in advance OF their
aye 10 bc estimated properly by their
ca.tcrauorallrS and 1t Is only when
fine. in it, everlasting march, brings the
world abreast Of them, that they begin
10 he understood
one Of tho most remarkable instances
of contemporary mistake with regard to
the views and objects of an individual,
VIC are inclined to believe, occurred IN
the Ease of the late John Z. Calhoun
Aaored in his native State, and generally
acknowledged everywhere else to be Il
man Of vast abilities, the impression pre-
vailed everywhere but in South Carolina
that his public course, especially during
the last twenty-five years Of his life, was
dictated by a settled hostility to the
Union On more than one occasion he
took an opportunity to declare that he
was as firm 81 friend as the Union could
boast Of and that the measures he re
commended were intended by him to
prevent its utter destruction. With the
sagacity Of genius he forcsaw that un-
less the progress of the Government and
the Northern people could be arrested i'll
tall career, it must inevitably go, and he
applied himself to the task of preventing
the catastrophe. 1t was a melancholy
and, as the event proved, a hopeless
task Outside Of the State OF South
Carolina thee were few to cheer him in
his labors !; for few could appreciate his
far-reaching sagacity or realize the truth
vi the visions that rushed SO thick upon
his sight. Yet he labored on, persist
entity, pertinacously, even obstinatcly,
amidst abuse, misrepresentation, and that
full share Of obloquy which never fails
10 attend upon that man who has the
misfortune to be in advance of his age,
We do not believe that truer Ia
tr.ot taking patriotism IN its sense of
forty years ago, when it meant attachment
IL the Union, ever lived than John G.
Calhoun. He saw the cloud when it first
rose out of the sea, and was no larger than
Il mans hand, He saw it, and he pointed
1t out 10 his Countrymcn; bat ii was
beyond their horizon. As it marched
and spread. it grew blaCkcr at every step
OF Its progress; yet, even after it had
burst in thunder upon the earth, there
were millions who still could not, or
would not, see the deadly nature of the
storm. MIR Calhoun applied all the en-
crgics of his mighty intellect for years
to arrest the progress of an evil which
he felt assured must end in the dcstruc
ton vi the Union, and ne failed. We
have never doubted that the conviction
that ali his labors had been in vain ma
terially shortened his life; yet hc went
down to the grave with the reputation,
among the majority Of his countrymen,
Of decided disunionist-of a man whose
whole existence had been one long plot
against the Union, Never was the
memory of man so unjustly treated.
Now, however, that his ear is closed
forever to the voice of regret and reean-
tation, it begins to be seen what he really
was. This war has fully Developed, as
facts, what he fnresaw as probabilities
years ago let Mr.. Calhoun's life
be read by the light of this war,
and it will ho acknowledged that the
theory he taught, and the measures he
proposed, were the only theory and the
only measures which could, by any pos
siblity, have saved the Union. They
were rejected, overlooked, despsed; and
disruption and war were the consequence.
We could not see then that they would
save the Union. lie could We can all
see now how they might have done it, for
they would have removed those very
causes which produced its ruin.
Why, indeed, should not MIR. Calhoun
have wished to save the Union? He was
one of the most distinguished men it
ever produced. When little more than
boy, he stood in the House Of Repre-
sentatives abreast Of Clay and Lowades.
When but thirty, he was Secretary of
War, and was at the time regarded as the
most remarkable man of the whole |
country. He rendered his name i'm
mortal by his speeches, and they were
all delivered in the Federal Congress. i