Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 11.pdf/452

 Calhoun as a Lawyer and Statesman.

CALHOUN

AS

A

LAWYER

AND

419

STATESMAN.

By Walter L. M1ller of the South Carol1na Bar. I WILL now present some estimates of Mr. Calhoun from various writers and thinkers, both of the past and present, taking them at random just as I come to them, without regard to their bias or leaning. Among them will be found the opinions of some of the really great men of the country. Mr. Jenkins, one of Mr. Calhoun's earliest and fairest biographers, says : " Among the intellectual champions of the Senate, Mr. Calhoun now stood, like Gabriel, confess edly preeminent. A world-wide reputation was his; no stranger entered the chamber without seeking him out as one of the first among his compeers; and the warmest ad mirers of Clay and Webster willingly con ceded that he was second only to the objects of their special praise. He attracted the attention alike of friend and foe — he was ' the observed of all observers.'" Says Oliver Dyer, a Republican and an Abolition ist, in his entertaining little book, " Great Senators " : "I was much impressed by the clearness of Calhoun's views, by the bell like sweetness and resonance of his voice, the elegance of his diction, and the exquis ite courtesy of his demeanor. Such a combi nation of attractive qualities was a revelation to me, and I spontaneously wished that Calhoun was an Abolitionist, so we could have him talking on our side. I thought that if he only were on our side he might even eclipse Wendell Phillips as an antislavery orator." Magoon, in his " Living Orators in America," says: "What in par ticular is to be observed with regard to Mr. Calhoun is, that, in a preeminent degree, his is the eloquence of character. There is a moral power in his life which imparts authority to his speech and commands re

spect." In the pages of the same writer we find the following: "Mr. Walsh, writing from Paris, remarked that Mr. Calhoun's speech on the Ashburton treaty was re garded by some of the best. French critics as one of the most classical and cogent argu ments of modern times." Mr. March, in his " Reminiscences of Congress," gives us an account of Mr. Cal houn's great speech on the Force Bill, and, in the course of it, speaks of its author as follows : " The character of this extraordin ary man has been the theme alike of ex travagant praise and obloquy, as zealous friendship or earnest enmity have held the pen. His sun has lately sunk below the horizon; it went down in all the splendor of noontide, and the effulgence of its setting yet dazzles the mind too much to justify an impartial opinion. But whatever may be the diversity of opinion as regards his pa triotism, or the integrity of his purpose, no one who respects himself will deny him the possession of rare intellectual faculties; of a mind capacious and enlightened; of powers of reasoning almost miraculous; of un equalled prescience, and of a judgment, when unwarped by prejudice, most express and admirable. On this, the greatest occa sion of his intellectual and political life, he bore himself proudly and gloriously. He appeared to hold victory at his command, and yet determined, withal, to show that he deserved it. There was a strength in his argument that seemed the exhaustion of thought, and a frequency of nervous diction most appropriate for its expression. The extreme mobility of his mind was felt every where and immediate. It passed from dec lamation to invective, and from invective to