The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-02-26
CALHOUN AND JACKSON.
ignorance OF a Washington Post writer
Exposed.

To the Editor of The News and
Courier: I have just read in your
paper the racy sketch of Andrew Jack
son, drawn by a recent writer in the
Washington Post. The graphic pic
ture of Old Hickory which he has
given US, if highly colored, is never
theless life.like and true in it's main
features. But the incidental picture
of John G. Calhoun, which his nara
tive contains, ia entirely fictitious,
and untrue in every particular. 1t is
contradicted by the records Of the
Senate, by the history of the times
and by the facts Of the Ease. This is
the statement to which we seriously
object:
'When John G. Calhoun found he
could not be President he resolved to
be q traitor. He invented nulli6ca-
ton. His invention would have had
a great run, too, were it not for Jack
son. he resolved to hang Calhoun
following the first overt act, and he
lay in wait for him like a cat.
"Jackson arranged to put 10000
armed soldiers into South Carolina
within sixty days. He worked with
the accuracy of a machine and the
energy Of a storm. Calhoun was sim
ply frozen with fear when he finally
realized the tremendous blow the re.
sistless, enveterate Jackson stood
ready to deal. He awoke one morn.
ing to find his State surrounded and
the hangman's grip all but on his per-
sonal arm.
"'With notification, said Jackson,
the Union is like a bag of meal open
at both ends. Pick it up in any fash
ion and it all runs out. | will tie the
bag and save the country.
calhoun discovered that one detail
of this bag tying was to hang him,
and the color left his face. Calhoun
travelled night and day to get back to
South Carolina and still the storm he
had conjured so longto raise. He was
hurrying to save his own neck from
the halter, and it may be added that
he succeeded by the breadth of a
hair
There are six erroneous statements
in this brief extract.
Mr.. Calhoun always maintained that
he did not invent notification, but
deduced the right logically from the
Virginia and Kentucky resolutions Of
1898 and 1899, written by Jefferson
and Madison, though he unquestion-
ably carried it to a length which the
authors did not contemplate. He
did not quail with terror then, nor at
any other time in his life. He was as
brave as Jackson, though not as reck-
less, and the story Of his running
away from Washington is absurdly
false. He left South Carolina after
the Act Of Notification had been
passed, and travelled day and night
to Washington (not from it) to take
his seat in the Senate to defend his
native State against any and every
foe, nor did he leave his place until
the end of the session..
1t was my good fortune to hear the
most important debates of that stormy
session, including Mr.. Webster
grand Grafton on the national powers
Of the Government, and Mr.. Calhoun's
mastery defence Of the reserved
rights of the States as guaranteed by
the Constitution. No man who list
ened to his burning words, or who
could appreciate the keen power Of
his logical mind, and the evident hon
esty Of purpose by which he was
guided could fail to admire his daunt-
less spirit. The sole champion Of his
native State, with not n Senator,
except his colleague, in full sympathy
with him-with all the power Of the
most potent Administration which our
country had ever seen arrayed against
him-with the public opinion of the
nation, outside of two or three South
ern States, strongly opposed to him
be stood on the floor of the Senate
like a lion at bay, calm, courageous
and confident. lie never yielded an
inch to the overwhelming pressure Of
numbers, but maintained his bold
front until the end.
It was the highest exhibition of
moral courage which I have ever seen.
I thought SO then, and l think 50 still,
after the lapse of sixty years. | have
witnessed during and since the civil
war some exaltered manifestations of
heroic courage. I have seen Gen.
Lee in his defeat, the same calm, self
controlled, courteous gentleman that
he was in ante-bellum days, hiding a
broken heart under an unrufaed visage,
and looked with admiration upon the
noble, long-suffering man. But many
Others were bearing the same burden
of defeat, with, blasted hopes and
broken fortunes and homeless families.
There wal community Of sorrow, and
poverty and humiliation, for all stood
on the the same sad plane.
But Mr.. Calhoun in the Senate
stood alone. He had encountered the
strongest man in the nation, and still
L.