Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/236

 230 Southern Historical Society Papers.

began the practice of law;" and sneeringly adds: " but it does not appear that the public were especially eager to avail themselves of his services as an attorney and counsellor, nor that he distinguished himself in any case of importance. * * He would undoubtedly never have become a great lawyer, because he was not objective enough to examine his premises with sufficient care," etc.

Page i6, speaking of Calhoun's advocacy of the war of 1812, he says: "So the first act of Calhoun on the national stage was to sound the war trumpet. Henceforth incessant war, war to the bitter end, was to be his destiny to the last day of his life; though it was in later yearr to be waged, not against a foreign aggressor, but against inter- nal adversaries, against the peace of the Union, against the true wel- fare of his own section of the country "

Page 26, this calumny is repeated by a negative pregnant, when he says: " At this time (war of 1812), Calhoun did not seek the satis- faction of his personal ambition at the expense of the Union;" thereby seeking to make the impression that at another time he did.

Page 33, he speaks of Calhoun (interrogatively, it is true,) as " a young zealot, who did not know how to bridle his tongue, but on the gravest questions of the day babbled out the first thoughts that hap- pened to flit through his giddy brain."

P^gc 57' speaking of Calhoun's admirers, he uses the qualifying adjective "blind," and adds, "if there still be any left." Page 142, he calls Calhoun "the fanatical champion of the ideas of the Middle Ages." His pet epithet, however, is "doctrinaire," which reminds us of Dr. Johnson's encounter with the fishwoman of Billingsgate. If von Hoist's unmeasured zeal in the service of the Worcester Con- vention Union haters had stopped here, it had been quite as harmless, if not so funny, as the mathematical epithets with which Johnson silenced the fishwoman.

But on page 233, speaking of Calhoun's dispatch to Pakenham of 1 8th April, 1844, he drops his favorite epithet "doctrinaire," for "Liar!"

Calhoun died 31st March, 1850. He had been in his grave over thirty years. His fame is part of the inheritance of the whole Amer- ican people. It is much to be regretted that such language concern- ing him should now appear in 1882 under so respectable an im|)rint as that of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. In justice to them, we assume that in their extensive business, it is impossible {or them personally to supervise all that comes from their press. They are compelled to entrust much to others.