The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-01-04

Calhena!s Last Appearance.

Calheua!s Last Appearance.
DR.. W. j. scott's Description Of his last day
In Me Senate.
Ispeak with the utmost deliberation
when l say that by far the most dramat.
ic incident which ever transpired in the
Senate chambers at Washington, was
when Mr.. Calhoun appeared for the
last time as member of that great body.
For some while the question of the ad.
mission of California as free State had
been uppermost in the public mind-had
seen thoroughly canvasaed by the public
press and was recognized as the pet
measure of the Taylor and Fillmore ad-
ministration. Mr.. Calhoun had of late
years devoted much thought to the prob.
lem of how to preserve tbeg great political
equilibrium between the two great geo.
graphical sections. He we'll understood
that to admit California as free State
was not only a violation to the plain
equities of the Missouri compromise of
1921, bat that such policy virtually ex.
cluded the slave holding States from the
entire territory acquired from Mexico By
the treaty of Guadsoupe Hidslgo. All
this in face of the fact that the south had
contributed more than it's proportional
share of the blood and treasure that it's
acquisition coat. It was to forestall this
fragrant injustice that the great Carolin-
isn left sick room against the advice
of his physicans asd on the 9th of Febu-
ayy 1850, he appeared for the
last time in dossnse of his southern con-
situenoy.
He wu much emaciated end only less
eoervated than the Earl of Chatham
when he made his last speech in the
house of lords and was borne thence in q
dying condition. In the case of Mr.. Cal.
honn. however, there was not the slight.
est suspicion that he was acting q part.
Quietly and almost unobserved by his
fellow senators, he took his accustomed
place with his senatorial robes folded
about him to shield him from the pierc-
ing cold of that frosty February msrn.
ing. Notwithstanding his evident febls.
ness there was no like of magnetism in
the CLINT of his steel gray eye IS when In
other days he had defined the ultimatum
Of President Jackson, who sought to reg
ulate the social relations of his cabinet
in the matter of Mrs. Eaton. Or when
at later date he had confronted and
confuted Mr.. Webster in their joint de.
bate on the States rights resolution in
1884.
It was with reference 10 his appearance
on this occasion that his great fival, Mr..
Webster, said that he looked every inch
q Roman senator while Rome still sur
vived. When the hour came for Mr..
Calhoun to speak there was hush of
eager expectancy blended with solem-
nifty as profound as when in some ancient
minstrel a vssper hymn is chanted
amidst the "dim religious light" of even
ing censors.
Mr.. Calhoun, first obtaining pc rmis'
sion of the Senate, handed his manu-.
script to Mr.. Mason, Of Virginia, who
read it to the crowded floor and gallery
with distinctness and impressivenesa
rarely equslled. When that reading Was
finished there was ripple of applause
and number of Mr.. Caltoun's personal
and party friends gathered shout him 10
extend their congratulations. Some of
the choicest spirits Of the opposition ranks
likewise paid their respects 70 the great
senator and ii was agreed On all aides that
the speech would go down the ages as
masterpiece Of American utatesmsnship.
There was pause in the business OF the
Senate IS Mr.. Calhoun very slowly re-
tired from the chamber and went to his
sick reom and in q few weeks peacefully
passed away.
The battle was nov fairly on. The
next great event in the senatorial debate
was the speech Of Mr.. Webster on the
7th of March following. The exordi-
nance of Cicero in his first oratioa against
Catiline did net surpass the e1ordum OF
Webster when he announced that he
proposed to speak on that supreme oc-
cesion, not as Massachusetts senator
but as an American senator, looking to
the welfare of ne particular section but
to the general good ofthe whole country
he insisted that the Wilmot proviso and
aud kindred legislative restrictions on
slavery, so far as they applied to newly
acquired territory was super servicesbls
attemptto to re-ensct the laws Of God
which had clearly interdicted it in the
physical conformation of New Mexico
and Utah. He fully realized that fol-
these patriotic utterances he would be
abandoned by some of his old friends,
bat be was reluctant to believe that he
would be handed to the death BY what
Randolph stignatized as the whole "Es'
sex kenuel," still less that the doom Of
Fsnuel Hall, the devoted cradle o.
American liberty, would be slammed ia
his fase. That even John Quincy Adams
would denounca him ss heartless trail
tor to human liberty and that after he
was dead that Aippaut word nonger
Wendell Phillips, should defame hi
name after the manner of the ass thai
spurned with his heels the sick lion in the
fable of Aesop. But so It proved in the
near future. No wonder that this grea
man while standing on State street stern
ly rebuked his Boston constituency il
these memorable words, "men of Mas
sacbusetts, yon have conquered q sterile
soil and an Improbable climate, but you