The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1902-06-11
BEN TILLAMAN.
4 Kentucky Editors Estimate of Our
sspio2 Senator.
PAYS TRIBUTE TO ). C. CALHOUN.
Tillman Net TO Use ;!iS
l'itchfork Quite.So

Tnlman Net 10 Use His
pitchforll Quite.So
Freely.
OF the triumvirS. Clay. Webster and
Calhoun. who daring the critical
period of sectional agitation lying
between the Missouri compromise OF
1929, and the compromise measure OF
1850. variOuSly divided the admiration
OF the people, Calhoun easily led IN
the perfection of bis intellectual and
ethical structure. He possessed not
the imagination OF Webster nor the
magnetism Of Clay: but to q MIND
richly stored and rightly trained, and
d logical power never surpassed, ne
united a c0manding personality: Douc
in its simplicity: supported by private
virtues to which neither Mr.. Clay nor
Nh. Webster could hrll a candle. lie
was undoubtly the chaSteSt public
man America has yet produced. not
excepting Washington. nor forgetting
Lincol: the very incarnation 0f pure
reason and pure morals.
Mr.. Calhoun was a leader OF men.
not a follower. He was 4 pubIIclSt
OF original ideas, constructive states
man. Although a doctrinaire. he
was 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
the exigencies Of debate. His courage
was undaunted, but restrained by
self-poSseSsion which never for a mo-
ment lost It's dignity. Among his COL
leagues be was respected as none other
was. He stood in his time, and he
stands in history, as the embodiment
of the rareSt type known to our fra'i
humanity. a superb manhood. uniting
in itself the too often conflicting ele-
ments of genius and character. Yet
was it Mr.. Calhoun'S strange destiny
to become the central figure, If not
the author, Of a series of errors OF
Judgment and intellectual misconcep-
tiens, ultimately 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
essential to the well being OF the south
ern States Of the Union.
That the government was a COM
pact ofindependent sovereignties, each
having the right to nullify the laws
of congress and to withdraw from the
Union at it own will, involving the
idea and doctrine Of peaceful SeceS-
sion:
These were the two cardinal mis-
takes to which this noble and great
mind dedicated all it's 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
barbarism and cruelty, and. IN his
own life, realized the most aScetic
ideals and exalted Puritanism. With
all his gifts Of intellect and culture,
he was provincial. Educated at
Yale, he detected, perhlps he eXag-
gerated, the commerciatiSm which
even then was beginning to corrode
the public life and conscience Of that
wide awake and go-ahead section. He
disliked travel. He enjoyed the repose,
the seignory, Of the platation. His
migrationS from the day Of his en-
trance to congress to his mortal exit
from the scene, had lain between
his home in South Carolina and
Washington city. II he had gone
abroad be 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 a 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 the institution Of
slavery to the advancing movement OF
the modern world His failure to see.
to know and to do cost the south
dearly. unless we are to consider all
that happens as preordained and from
the beginning of time inevitable.
South Carolina justly rereres the
memory of Calhoun; nor holds him an
swerable for that which only a seer,
inspired Of God, could have forecast
and averted. The archaic pile he
reared cut of his own high conscious
ness proved but the fabric Of a 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 stran-
ger wanders aimlesly among the desc
late shrines OF a gnostly past-the
crumbling walls, the shipleSs wharveS,
the empty martS, the very famlllar
household flowers CT chiralry torn
from the lintel-the spirit Of honor
and duty and love brood in the air
about him. whilst from the rice field
and the cotton patch. that no more
echo the song OF a blissful if ignorant
content, comes d voice saying. The
story is not yet tod to the end"
BEN TILLMAN.
A little less than three years before
John Caldwell Calhoun died in Wash
ington city. his harness on his back:
SOL