The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-02-02


 column article on MT. Calhoun. It so chanced that was just devouring Vol. of the Reports of American Historic As- sociation for 1899, book of 1,200 pages. wholly devoted to the publication of the imprinted correspondence of MT. Calhoun. About half of the letters are addressed to him, and the other half are written by him. These letters are strewn along l from 1894 to 1850; from the time when at
 22 years of age he was law student in Connecticut. to within a few days of his death at Washington. in March, 1850 | And the letters he writes are to the most varied personages; some to his fance; | others to his children and grandchildren;
 others to the most prominent men of the
 country. In these he talks of many
 things. such as farming, railroad enter prises, his slaves, etc., as well as Of the
 protracted political strife in which he
 was engaged for nearly the whole of his life. The letters to him are usually
 upon public topics.
 l To Alabamians this volume will possess | a peculiar interest. Many of their we'll I known families are mentioned in 1t, while from the hill country of South Carolina | where Mir. Calhoun dwelt, there swarmed | into this State many of their ancestors | Thus, May, 1920, Mir. sCali6un writes | from the War Department, for he was then in Mir. Monroe's Cabinet: Many of | our friends in South Carolina have emil grated to Alabama. Col. Pickens, Joseph, his brother. and Ezekiel Mir. Simpson
 and his family. Dr. Hunter and his fam | lily, from Pendleton. From AbbevilIe they are no less numerous; Mir. Bowie
 and family Dr. Miller and family. Dr. Casey" etc. Then we have mention of
 the late Colonel Chappell of Lowndes. Congressman Payne of Sumter, Governor Fitzpatrick. Mir Belser. and others. Mir Calhoun's room-mate at the Connecticut | law school was John NJ. Fielder. after wards prominent in South Carolina, and many of whose kindred are among us. The first election of MT. Calhoun to con- I gress. in lS1l, was over Gen. John A. FL more. who afterwards dweIt in Autauga. and who has many descendants here; and
 1t is compliment to the magnanimity of the Elmores that the sons of this first opponent were friends and adherents of MT Calhoun; Franklin H. Fillmore, who
 refused the mission to Great Britain from
 Mir. Polk. and was Federal Senator, writ Ing to MT. Calhoun, November. 1s42, that his two brothers, J. A. Elmore of Mont gomery and William A. Eimore of New Orleans. "are both your warm friends etc; and Franklin H. was the leader of MT. Calhoun's forces for several years, and has quite number of letters in this | volume to him.
 There are two or three letters each | from Chancellor Bowie of Talladega, | Chancellor Lesesne of Mobile, Messrs
 Dixon H. Lewis. William R. King and | John A. Campbell. There is one from MT. Calhoun to college student, in the 1 year 1S45. whose name was Jabez l.. NJ. l Curry; and that was ffty-six years ago, | whereas Dr. Curry now does not appear much over the age of 56. There Is only | one letter from MT. Yancey, written at Montgomery. 21 June. 1S4s, during the | Presidential contest between Messrs Taylor and Cass. and after Mir. Yancey | and Mir. Ray of Macon had been the only two delegates to Baltimore to obey their
 State instruction by going out of the convention there; and Mir. Yancey. full of | fervor for separate ticket. writes MT. Calhoun: We have at last started
 | Taylor's position in the late Whig Con- ventton has thrown into our arms all Democrats who were for him heretofore
 Belser resigns his place on the Taylor electoral ticket. Campbell of Mobile quit his Taylor ground and is with us.
 Here, Goldthwaite, Fillmore. Mayo CD,
 Semple Harris. Belser and kindred spir- | its, are with us. . . But upon whom shall we rally for President? Tazewell
 and Jeff Davis are suggested here. Will
 they do? I was Respondent a week ago; I am hopeful now. ." l The letters of MT King are interesting,
 though his orthography is rather defec- | tive. as was that of Mir Calhoun fre- quently. The letters of MT. Dixon 1T.
 Lewis are dignifed and stately, and | worthy of his fame as a skilful writer
 and thoughtful man. But the letters of
 MT. John A. Campbell are the most con- summate in virile texture and strength
 of fabric models of sustained and mas terful expression: insomuch that their author surely could not have envied Hume or Tacitus in the unaffected ele-
 gance and force of their dlction.
 A striking effect of these letters from
 others is that one and all attest the in- tellectual ascendancy of MT. Calhoun
 No one may deny the abilities of Camp
 bell Lewis, Dudley Mann, Yancey. Ham,
 mond, H V. Johnson. President Lord of
 Dartmouth ColIeEe. Henry S. Foote. Reu-
 ben Chapman Wilson Lumpkin, James Hamilton, r. w Pickens. R. B. Rhett. R. NJ. T. Hunter and others; and these
 men as rule write to MT. Calhoun as if they were consulting an oracle, or the hierophant of their faith; Senator Rhett
 terminR him "my aged friend and politi-
 cal father'' (Dec.. 1s43,1: Judge Huger re-
 signing his seat in the Federal Senate dS45) in order that Mir. Calhoun might
 
 State dS49) consulting him fin respect to the Federal relations to be discussed In his annual message. etc. Mir. Edward
 Everett of Massachusetts writes to him
 nS.eD that there should be 2 settlement
 of the tariff issue. and that if II be pos
 sihIe to effect this '1t can only he done by VOL" Fernando Wood of New York
 who entered Congress in 1S41. writes
 1S45) from the metropolis. Twenty times a day I am asked what course the great
 ton" Homage of this sort from such
 men most of whom cannot be suspected of other than sincere motives. and who
 were too great to flatter. are signal evi- dencas of the towering figure presented
 by MT. Calhoun during the last decade or
 two of his life. Even Mir. Benton his
 longtime political foe is quoted in one
 of these letters as saying that Calhoun
 was "too great and too pure man" to
 get the support of the Democratic party
 dS4N; though this must be taken in con-
 nection with the fact that MT. Benton
 was then breaking with that party.
 Certainly there were discordant voices.
 For the last twenty years of his life. MT
 Calhoun's attitude on public questions
 was so clearly defined that 1t invited the
 missiles of opponents It is not to be supposed that We should find much Of
 this discordance told in this volume. one
 interesting exception. however. Is given in letter from Billiard M Judge or Eutaw, this State. who writes (April. lS4O MT Calhoun that an attemut was being made to destroy his influence by
 the secret circulation of an abominaple