The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-05-27
louisville Courier Journal

OF the trumvirs. Clay Webster anl
Calhoun. Who during the critical period
Of sectional agitation lying between tfe
Missouri Compromise of 1N-o and the
Compromise Measures OF l>1o. variously
divided the admiration Of the people cal
houn easily led IN the perfection of his
intellectual and ethical structure He
possessed not the Imagination of Web
ter nor the magnetism Of Clay, but io
mind richhly stored and rightly tramrl
and a logical power never surpassed III
united a commanding personality. loric
in its simplicity; supported ~ private
virtues to which neither NJ. Clay, nor
Mr.. Webster could hold candle It.
was undoubtedly the chastest public man
America has yet produced, not excepting
Washington, nor forgetting Lincoln tho
very incarnation of pure reason an1 pure
morals
Mr. Calhoun was a leader OF men, not
follower He was a publeist Of orig
inal ideas, 4 constructive Statesman.
Although q doctrinairo, he MAS 4 man
Of affairs; and. whether in the War
Office or upon the floor Of the Senate,
he showed himself equal alike to the
work of administration and to tho eX-
igencies of debate. His courage was un-
daunted, but restrained by 4 self-posSes-
sion which never for q moment lost its
dignity. Among his colleagues he was
respected as none other Was He stood in
his time, and he stands III history, as the
embodiment of the rarest type known to
our frail humanity, a superb manhood,
uniting in itself the too often conflicting
elements of genius and character Yet
was it Mr.. Calhoun's strange destiny to
become the central figure. if not the au-
thor, of q series of errors Of judgment
and intellectual misconceptions, ulti-
mately visiting upon the South an Illiad
of woes.
That negro labor was Indispensable TO
the profitable cultivation Of cotton
sugar and rice, and that therefore, the
institution Of African slavery was cs-
scntial to the we'll being Of the Southern
States of the Union:
That the Government was 4 compact
Of independent sovereignties. each hay
ing the right to nullfy tho laws Of Con-
gress and to withdaw fom the Union at
its own will, involving the idea and doc
trine of peaceful secession,
These were the two cardinal mistakes
to which this noble and great mind
dedicated all its extraordinary forces.
deeply laying the foundation for a War
Of Sections disastrous in its consequences
TO the interests dear to his heart though
Mr.. Calhoun loved his country. valued
the Union, hated barbarism and cruelty
and in his own life realized the most
ascetic ideals and exalted Puritansm.
With all his gifts of intellect and cuI-
ture. he was provincial. Educated at
Yale, he detected. perhaps he exagger-
was beginning to corrode the public life
and conscience of that wide-aWake and
goa head section. He disliked travel He
enjoyed the repose the seignory, Of the
plantation. His migration from the day
Of his entrance to Congress to MS mortal
exit from the scene had lain between
his home in South Carolina and Wash
ington City. If he had gone abroad he
would have seen that the trend OF en-
lightened thought was set against slay-
cry and he would have known that il
could not be maintained for long IL few
States lying upon the South Atlantic
seaboard Of the United States. He would
have given his great intellect to the
finding OF some way to adjust tho nsti-
tuition of slavery to the advancing move
ment of the mod arn world. His failure
to see, to know and to do cost the South
dearly, unless are to consider all
that happens as preordained and from
the beginning Of time inevitable.
South Carolina justly reveres the Nom
ory of Calhoun; nor holds hiln answer
able for that which only seer inspired
Of God, could have forecast and avcfted.
The archaic pile re reared ont of his
own high consciousness proved but the
fabric Of vision. 1t was a. the Rec
public of Plato The beautiful mind he
noble purpose, that whilst lie lived gavc
it life and light, remain. and even as the
stranger Wanders aimlessly among the
desolate shrines Of a ghostly past-the
crumbling walls the shiple5s Wharvos
the empty marts, the very familiar
household flowers Of chiralry torn from
the lintel-the spirit of honor and duty
and love brood III the air about him,
whilst from the rice field and the cotton
patch, that no more echo the song OF d
blissful if ignorant content. comes I
voice saying: The story Is not vet told
TO the end,
A little less than three years before
John Caldwell Calhoun died n Washing
ton City, his harness or his bac? there
was born IN Edgeleld. South Carolina
q tahy 10y. destined 70 play 4 part and
cut q figure in tie public life Of the
Palmetto state. and to occupy the seat
in the Senate Of the United States which
Calhoun had filled so hong: a farmor
boy. as Calhoun was; and his name was
Benjamin Ryan Tiiiman.
Pursuing the restless life Of this stormy
petrol of contemporary politics, wc pre-
fer 10 believe that two baby Tillmans
were born that 11th Gf August 1917; one
with a pitchfork the other with dar-