The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1902-06-05
WATERSON,S ADVICE
TO TILL MAN.
The Kentucky Editor Sees Il
Jcky1 Hyde Nature in the
S>,.r, rornIiua Senator.
Pho oIo,,isvilIe Courier-J ournal.

So,,tI, Carolina Senator.
l The Louisville Courier-Journal.
or the triumvirs, Clay, Webster and
= Calhoun. who during the critical pe
rod of sectional agitation lying be-
} tween the Missouri compromise of
, 1920, and the compromise measure of
1850, variously divided the q imiration
of tho people, Calhoun easily led in
the perfection of his intellectual and
ethical structure. Ito possessed not
the Imagination of Webster nor the
magnetism of Clay; but to mind
richly stored AMI rightly trained, and
a logical power never surpassed, he
united a commanding personality;
Doric in It's simplicity; supported by
private virtues to which neither Mr..
Clay nor Mr.. Webster could hold
candle. He was undoubtedly the
chastcst public man America has vet
produced, not excepting Washington,
nor forgetting Lincoln; the incarna.
ton of pure reason and pure morals.
MIR. Calhoun was leader of men,
not a follower. lie was pubicist
of original ideas, q constructive states.
man. Although a doCtrinaire, he was
a man of affairs, and whether in the
war Office, or upon the floor of the
Senate, he showed himsolf equal alike
to the work of administration and to
the cXigcncics of debate. His courage
was undaunted, but restrained by Il
sclf-posscssion which never for mo-
mont lest its dignity. Among his col
leagues he was respected as none other
was. lie stood in his time, and he
stands III history, as the embodiment
OF the rarcst type known to Our frail
humanity, superb manhood, uniting
IN itself the too often conflicting cIc-
ments of genius and character. Yet
was IL MIR. CalhOun's strange destiny
to become The central figure, if not
the author, Of a series of errors of
judgment aud intellectual! misconcep-
ton, ultimately visiting upon the
South al llliad of woes.
That negro labor was indispensable
to the profitable cultivation of cotton.
sugar and rice, and that, therefore, tho
institution of African slavery was cs-
scntial to the well being of the South
crn States of the Union;
Ihat the government was a compact
OF independent sovcreignties, each hay
ing the right to nullify the laws of
Congress and to Withdraw from the
Union at its own will, involving the
idea and doctrine of peaceful seces-
sion;
These welc the two cardinal mis-
takes to which this noble and great
mind dedicated all its extraordinary
forces; deeply laying the foundation
for war OF sections disastrous in its
consequences to the interests dear to
his heart, valued the Union, hated bar
barsm and cruelty, and in his own
life, realized the most ascctic ideals
AMI exalted puritanisln. With all his
gifts Of intellect and culture, he was a
provincial. Educated at Yale, he de,
tcctcd, perhaps he exaggerated, the
commcrcialism which even then was
i, beginning to corrodc the public life an,
conscience of that wide-awake and 90
ahead section. He dislikcd travel
lie enjoyed the rcpose, the selgnory
: of the plantation. His migrations
! from the day of his entrance to Con.
gress to his mortal exit from the
scene, had lain between his home in
South Carolina and Washington city
If be had gone abroad he would have
seen that the trend of enlightened
thought was set against slavery and he
would have known that it could not
be maintained for long in few States
lying upon the South Atlantic sea-
board Of the United States. He would
have given his gleat intellect to the
lindlng of some way to adjust the insti-
tuition Of slavery to the advan"in.
movement Of the modern world. Ills
failure to see, to know and to do cost
the South dearly, unless we are to con.
slder all that happens as prcort,ained
and from the beginning of time incvi-
table.
South Carolina justly rcvcrcs the
memory of Calhoun; nor holds him an
swerable for that which only a soer,
inspired of God, could have forecast
and averted. The archaic pile he rear
ed out of his own high consciousness
proved but the fabric of vision. 1t
was as the republic of Plato. The
beautiful mind, the noble purpose,
that, while he lived, gave it life and
[ light, remain; and, even as the
stranger wanders aimlessly among the
| desolate shrines of ghostly past-the
| crumbling walls, the shipcss wharvcs,
the empty marts, the very familiar
household flowers of chivalry torn from
the lintel-.he spirit of honor and duty
and love brood in the air about him,
whilst from the rice field and the cot
ton patch, that no more echo the song
OF blissful if ignorant content, comes
voice saying, The story is not yet
| told to the end"
A little less than three years before
John Caldwell Calhoun died in Wash.
ington city, his harness on his back,
there was born N Edgelield, S. G.,
baby boy, destined to play part and
cut figure in the public life of the
Palmetto State, and to occupy the scat
| in the Senate of the United States
which Calhoun had filed so long;
farmers boy, as Calhoun was, and his
name was Benjamin Ryan Tillman.
Pursuing the restless life of this
stormy petrol OF contemporary politics.