Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/235

 Calhoun — Nullification Explained. 229

victions " of the Worcester Union haters. To those who really love the Union, as did Calhoun, it may be some comfort to know that — their "wills" or "convictions" having prevailed over the Consti- tution on the subject of slavery — this book indicates a willingness now to let the Union stand, at least until some new conviction may arise (ex. gr. on the Prohibition issue) to call for the expulsion from the confederation of those States that may oppose their " wills."

Calhoun was an ardent Union lover, and, among others, for the same reason that made the Worcester men such bitter Union haters; that is to say, because the Union, as ordained by the Constitution, was "the surest guarantee" of the right ol the Southern States to work out the solution of the slavery problem for themselves, in their own time and way, without interference of the general Government, or the intermeddling of the Northern States or their citizens. He clung to the Constitution for the same reason, among others, that made them denounce it as "a covenant with death and league with hell;" that is to say, because it clearly guaranteed this right to the Southern States. He was the ablest, most watchful and inflexible opponent of the Higher Law, which subordinated the Constitution and the Union to their " wills " or " convictions." For twenty years, from 1 83 1 to 1850, he was first among those who guarded the temple of his idol — the Union as ordained by the Constitution — against the incendiarism of those Erostrati. For ten years after his death, his spirit hovered around that temple and protected it from the torch, with which they sought to achieve a fame as lasting as his who "fired the Ephesian dome." An antagonism so prolonged very naturally aroused much bitterness of feeling on the part of the Union haters towards the Onion lover. Love and hate are the master passions of the human heart. Alas! that the latter is the more active, as Shake- speare has so admirably illustrated by Shylock, in whom hate was stronger than avarice, and avarice stronger than love for his daughter. But if Dr. von Hoist's idea was to achieve fame and fortune by pan- dering to that bitterness of feeling in 1882, he will surely be disap- pointed, if the manliness and magnanimity of the New England char acter has not been greatly overestimated.

On page r. Dr. von Hoist rolls up the curtain with a good deal of stage thunder, to display Calhoun's "impure idol" and "unholy cause" with tragic effect. On page 2 he says that " Calhoun has no claims on the gratitude of his country." On page 7 he seeks to dwarf Calhoun into " only an able politician, having many peers and even a considerable number of superiors." Page 10 he says: "He