Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/338

 330 FRANCES PACKARD YOUNG The Calhoun family were prominent in the life of Washing- ton. Their official dinners were described SOCIAL as being the most pleasant of any given POSITION IN by members of the cabinet, the reason be- WASHINGTON ing that they invited women, and that Calhoun was an exceedingly good con- versationalist. 129 The attentions and aid which they received at the death of one of their daughters indicated the regard which people had for them. Young men especially seemed to be greatly attracted by Calhoun, and many were influenced by his political ideals. 130 Calhoun was not a man who studied patiently and deeply on any problem. After giving it a brief MENTAL survey and grasping the essential points QUALITIES OF he depended on his intuition and genius CALHOUN to arrive at a solution. Often this method brought him correct and even brilliant conclusions, but sometimes he advocated such radical measures that his followers rejected them and lost their confidence in him. Once he advised a member of the Cabinet to study less and trust more to his genius. "He certainly practised his own precepts and became justly a distinguished man," wrote William Wirt, "It may do very well in politics where a proposition had only to be compared with general principles with which the politician is fa- miliar" 131 Another, writing of Calhoun's early career, declared : "He wants, I think, consistency and perseverance of mind, and seems incapable of long continued and patient investiga- tion. What he does not see at the first examination, he sel- dom takes pains to search for; but his analysis never fails to furnish him with all that may be necessary for his immediate purposes. In his legislative career, which, though short, was uncommonly luminous, his love of novelty and his apparent solicitude to astonish were so great that he has occasionally been known to go beyond even the dreams of political vision- 129 Ticknor, George, Life of, I, 349. 1 30 Hunt, G., John C. Calhoun, 39. 131 Am. Hist. Review, II, 571-2, 1905-6. John P. Kennedy, Memoirs of the Life of W llam Wirt, 1849; II, 164.