Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/85

Rh of a Slave State, a native of a Slave State, and himself a slave-holder, he yet regarded slavery as an evil, and should regard it as a crime to aid in the extension of the curse to territory which had hitherto been free; this manly, candid declaration, from a man in his position, deserves all esteem, and his vivid description of nature and the circumstances of life in the Western lands, shows both knowledge and talent.

Near to the senator from Missouri, and most striking in the camp of the Southerners, stands forth Soulé, the senator of Louisiana, and forming a strong contrast to the former. The hawk of Missouri is a proper representative of the State, with the wild river and the richly metallic mountains, the boundary of the Indians. The land where the orange glows, where the sugar-cane flourishes, and where French civilisation and French manners have been naturalised ever since they fled thither from France at the period of its extremest refinement; that flowery, beautiful Louisiana could not have sent to Congress a more worthy representative than the French Consul Soulé. Possessed of that beauty peculiar to the South, with its delicate features, eyes and hair of that rich dark colour which distinguish the Spaniards, and also the handsomest portion of the French population, Soulé has that grace of manner and expression which is found among the men of these nations, and which is not met with among the Anglo-Saxons and Northmen, however good and handsome they may be. Soulé has come forward in the Senate on the Californian question, to advocate “the rights of the South,” but always as a man of genius and tact; and on the occasion of a resolution which was opposed to the interests of Louisiana as a Slave State; he also declared himself for the preservation of the Union. His great speech produced a great effect, and I have heard it praised by many. I have read it, and find nothing in it to admire as of a