Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-06-14
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And, Curiously enough, the smoke had
hardly cleared from PalO Alto field be-
| fore Abraham Lincoln. a young men,
Producing a resolution which asked the
marking of the spot where that out
rage was committed" Perhaps it was
an outrage. Many still hold it so. But
Lincoln's life had matters not gone
just as they did.
With the cessions from Mexico came
the great domain of California. Now,
look how strangely history sometimes
works out itself. Had there been any
suspicion of the discovery of gold in
California neither Mexico nor our re-
public ever would have owned it! Eng
land surely would have taken it. The
very year that my treaty eventually
was ratified was that in which gold
was discovered in California! But it
was too late then for England to in
terfere; too late then, also, for MeXi-
co to claim il. We got untold mill
lions of treasure there. Most of those
millions went to the northern states,
into manufactures, into commerce. The
north owned that gold; and ii was that
gold which gave the north the power
to crush that rebellion which was born
of the Mexican war-that same rebel
lion by which England, too late, would
gladly have seen this Union disrupted
so that she might have yet another
chance at these lands she now had lost
for ever.
Fate seemed still to be with us, af-
ter all, as have so often had occasion
to believe may be a possible thing.
That war of conquest which Mr.. Cal
houn opposed, that same war which
grew out of the slavery tenets which
he himself held-the great error Of his
otherwise splendid public life-found
it's own correction in the civil war. 1t
was the gold of California which put
down slavery. ThenCeforth slavery
has existed legally only north of the
Mason and Dixon line!
We have our problems yet Perhaps
some other war may come to settle
them. Fortunate for us if there could
be- another California, another Texas,
another Oregon, to help us pay for
them.
|, who was intimately connected with
many of these less known matters
claimed for my master a reputation
wholly different from that given to him
in any garbled history" of his life.
l lay claim in his name for foresight
beyond that of any man of his time.
He made mistakes, but he made them
bravely, grandly, and consistently.
Where his convictions We're enlisted,
he had no reservations, and he used
every means, every available weapon
as | have shown. But he was never
self seeking, never cheap, never insin-
cere \ detester of all machine poll
ticians. he was n statesman worthy to
be called the William Pitt of the United
States. The consistency of his career
was a marvellous thing; because
tnOuSn ne CHdnSeu III HIS DclltlS, ilt
was first to recognize the changing
conditions of our country. He failed,
and he is eXecrated. He won, and he
is forgot.
My chief. Mr.. Calhoun, did not die
until some six years after that first
evening when Doctor Ward and had
our talk with him. He was said TO
have died of q disease of the lungs, yet
here again history is curiOusly mistak-
en-. Mr.. Calhoun slept himself away. |
sometimes think with a shudder that
perhaps this was the revenge which
Nemesis took of him for his mistakes.
His last days were dreamlike in their
passing His last speech in the senate
was read by one of his friends, as Doc
tor Ward had advised him. Some said
afterwards that his Illness was that
accurscd sleeping sickness" imported
from Africa with these same slaves. 1t
were a strange thing had John CAL
houn indeed died of his error! At least