CHAPTER VII.

Conclusion.

ONE of the first acts of the new administration was to call an extra session in the spring of 1841. Flushed with success, and confident in their power to consummate their entire system of policy, the Whigs assembled at the commencement of this session with overwhelming majorities in each House of Congress. The Republicans came, under circumstances well calculated to dispirit them, and too weak in point of numbers to have made an efficient opposition except under the most skilful management. It soon became manifest, as the plan of the campaign was developed, that the majority were determined to sweep everything by "coups-de-main," and would not depend upon address at the expense of time to take any post which could possibly be carried by storm. They commenced in the House of Representatives by wresting from the minority some of the most inestimable of the privileges of debate: privileges which the minority had enjoyed from the institution of the House of Representatives up to that time, and even during the war, when the opposition, by its factious course, seemed to have justly forfeited all respect, if it had not been deemed the sacred right of the tax-payer to be fully heard before new burdens were imposed upon him. But the minority were no longer allowed to debate questions in the Committee of the Whole until they were satisfied with the hearing.

The majority seized the power of arresting the debate whenever they chose, and thus, under the pretence of preventing factious delays, they acquired the means of terminating the discussion whenever it searched their purposes too deeply, or developed too strongly the consequences of their measures. Under this state of things, there was little left to the opposition but the mere vote; and the majority so completely acquired the whole sway in the lower House that it was by their grace only that their opponents could even remonstrate against their measures. In that body one overruling influence seemed to prevail, which did not emanate from within, but cast its shadow from without. Nor could even the fascinations of the splendid genius that controlled, relieve the dull, dreary, and depressing sense of dependance under which that House seemed to think and move. In the Senate, however, this tendency to the absolute power of a majority met with a severe and effective resistance. Determined never to yield up the arms which were necessary for the contest, they repelled every attempt to introduce "the gag.". Foremost among the opposition stood Mr. Calhoun, and the parliamentary annals of the world hardly afford an instance of a more formidable array of intellectual force than that opposition then presented. Nothing could be more brilliant than its career through the whole of this short but eventful session.

The majority boldly assumed the old Federal positions upon the bank, the tariff, and the distribution of the proceeds of the public lands. Confident in their strength to carry it, they openly avowed their system. Profusion in public expenditure and special legislation seemed to be the order of the day. To the shattered victims of the war so long waged by the stock interests, a deliverance from all obligation for the past was declared in the Bankrupt Law; and the affiliated system of the bank, the tariff, and the distribution tempted them with an almost boundless prospect for future indulgence. The prodigal, the idle, the desperate, the visionary speculator, and even the cunning usurer, were each invited, by some appropriate hope, to join in the general foray, when the whole field of productive industry was to be given up to plunder. There seemed to be at last a prospect that Hamilton's system would prevail. With a

revenue decreasing daily, the Secretary of the Treasury proposed an annual ex-
penditure of about $27,000,000, and recommended a distribution among the states
of the proceeds of the public lands. This lavish expenditure was to be main-
tained from customs alone; and through the influence of another bank expansion,
our people were to be tempted to buy freely under the ruinous rates of duties
which were proposed. Entreaty and remonstrance were alike unavailing with
the majority, which for a while pursued its course without regard to the rights
of the states or the freedom of individual pursuits, which were overwhelmed in
their way.
The whole hope of an efficient resistance to these measures in
Congress now rested on the Senate, where the necessary privileges of debate
were still retained. Our history does not present us an instance of an opposi-
tion more distinguished for its ability, or more untiring in its energy. Its
searching gaze seemed to read the hidden purpose with almost as much cer-
tainty as it followed the open movements of its adversary. The purposes and
principles of the system proposed by the majority were so clearly exposed by
skilful amendments or in vigorous debate, that the public attention was fully
aroused and directed to the consequences: consequences which were so pow-
erfully and accurately depicted, that even the authors of the measures would
have been appalled had they been less reckless of the future. The natural af-
finity between the tariff and distribution, which Mr. Calhoun had proclaimed so
long before, was now clearly proved by the course of the majority during this
session. So essential did they deem the distribution in order to secure the
permanence of the tariff, that they ventured upon the former measure at every
hazard, and at a time, too, when the revenue was deficient, and there was scarcely
a hope that the customs would afford money enough for the current expenses of
the Government. This ominous combination, which Mr. Calhoun had sacrificed
so much to avert, was now at hand, and he met it in a speech,* which is one of
the finest specimens of his power and style. There are portions of that speech
in which he traces the consequences of distribution with a spirit of inquiry so
eager, so searching, so keen, that he forgets himself and the personal feelings of
the contest in the contemplation of the vision of ruin before him, and seems to
seek relief from his forebodings by unbosoming himself to the country. The ma-
jority now faltered, for the first time, under the appeals of the opposition, and
incorporated a provision for suspending the distribution when the duties upon
imports exceeded a certain rate-a provision to which we have since owed the
suspension of that dangerous act. The condition of the finances, which seemed
not to have been fully appreciated by the majority, together with the proviso of
which we have spoken, rendered the distribution law practically inefficient.
Their bank bills had been vetoed by the President, from whom they were soon
alienated; the Bankrupt Law was generally odious, and it seemed to require
nothing more than the absurd and extravagant Tariff Act of the succeeding ses-
sion to consummate their ruin. Thus did the opposition come out of the contest
with flying colours at the close of that eventful session. The part which Mr.
Calhoun bore in this crisis is so justly and so thoroughly appreciated by the
country, that no particular comment upon it is necessary.

Suffice it to say, that the discussions of the extra session and of that which
succeeded it were important and exciting. The most prominent of the extra
session were upon the M'Leod case, the Report of the Secretary of the Treas-
ury, and the Bankrupt Law. The debate on the bank bills turned almost ex-
clusively upon the details. At the succeeding session the principal subjects
were the Treasury Note Bill, the Veto power, Mr. Clay's resolutions in refer-
ence to the revenue and expenditures, the Loan Bill, and the Tariff Bill. To
Mr. Calhoun's speeches upon these subjects we simply refer, because they are
so recent as to be familiar to all, and not because they are less worthy of study
than some others of a more distant date, from which we have extracted freely.
Indeed, we have so often found occasion to recommend the perusal of the par-
* See "Speeches," &c., No. 31.
+ Ibid., No. 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36.

a

ticular speech to which we were referring, that we were almost afraid of exciting the suspicion that our object was more to eulogize the statesman than to instruct the reader; and yet we are sure that all who study these speeches will acquit us of such a motive. We have recommended their perusal because we believed that they gave the best view of the state of public affairs, and of the mode in which a statesman would deal with such events, which has yet been furnished; nor did we know of any other models, either of statesmanship or oratory, in our own parliamentary annals, to which we could better invite the attention of the student. Indeed, we could scarcely direct him amiss among these speeches for specimens of luminous conceptions, or of that simple and natural order of propositions which constitutes a peculiar charm in style, and enables the orator to fascinate his audience, and carry them along with him. The English language affords no finer examples than are to be found in these speeches of the power of analysis in eliminating the truth of a case from circumstances which obscure and embarrass it. Nor are there any more attractive for novel and profound speculation, in which he sometimes deals when such lights and shadows are necessary to complete the picture which he is drawing. In how many of the unexplored regions of human thought will the attentive reader be startled to find the trace of his footstep, and yet so rapid is he in his flight over his subject, that he scarcely takes time to set up his flag on the lands which he has found, or to perpetuate the evidences of his title to the honours of discovery.

Here, perhaps, we ought to leave the reader to draw his own conclusions as to the nature of the man and of his public services from the narrative which we have given; and yet we feel that it will be impossible for him to understand either fully, even with the aids which we have offered him, without a careful study of his speeches, reports, and other public addresses, in connexion with the history of the times; a study to which we again commend him, as well worthy of the time and labour which it may cost. For ourselves, we can truly say, that our estimate of his public services has increased with our opportunities for studying them, and that our admiration of his character has grown as his private and political history became more familiar to us. Indeed, it would almost seem to us, at times, that it belonged to the destiny of the American people to have reared up such a man, and that one of its necessities required him to pursue that long and stormy career, through which he has watched and helped to steer the ship of state with an eye that never winked and an energy that never tired It required his indomitable will, and a nature thus rarely constituted, to have maintained this eager and incessant labour for the happiness of the American people, and to have led, for so long a period, the triumphal march of our glori ous institutions. With a turn of mind naturally philosophical, his great power of analysis and his faculty of attentive observation early enabled him to form a system for the conduct of life, both in his private and public relations, and to determine within his own mind upon the true ends of human action; ends which he has pursued with a matchless constancy, while a knowledge of his ultimate destination and of the high objects of his journey has cheered him along through the thorny paths of public life. Of all the men whom we have ever seen, he seems to us to have surveyed most completely the whole ground of human action. To these advantages he adds another, which constitutes, perhaps, his highest quality as a statesman. It is the faculty of considering circumstances in their combinations, and of determining their relative power in propelling events. To analyze this combination, or "juncture" (as he sometimes calls it), and to determine the resultant of all these forces, is, in his opinion, the highest and rarest faculty of a statesman. If he values this power more than most others, it is because he has derived more benefit from its use, and well may he estimate highly that quality which, by affording him an insight into futurity far beyond the usual range of human vision, has given him such

control over events. These were the gifts in whose strength he presented himself on the stage of the world in the very commencement of his public life, as one fully grown and armed for the trials which belonged to the time and the place. True to those noble instincts which spring more from a Divine source than from human reason, he ever leaned to liberty as against power, and early learned to resist those temptations which so often lead man to increase the power of the mass, which he is content to share as a member, at the expense of those separate and individual rights of which nature constituted him the peculiar guardian, and which were only given as the means of self-culture, and as indispensable to the moral elevation of his being.

His public life may be divided into two grand epochs: the first, in which he put forth his whole energies to enable his countrymen to maintain their independence against foreign aggression; and the second, in which he undertook the more difficult task of freeing their domestic legislation from those devices by which one was enabled to prey upon another. In each of these periods he has been emphatically "the man of his time," and he has ever regarded the tenets of the Republican party as indicating the best means of attaining these ends under our form of government. Of all men now living, he, perhaps, has contributed most to illustrate and establish that political creed. We are aware that we expose ourselves here to the sneers of some of those literal expositors of the law, who believe that man was made for the Sabbath and not the Sabbath for man. But we repeat the assertion, that in all the public exigencies in which he was called to act, he made the nearest practical approach to the great ends of the Republican party which human wisdom or foresight could then devise. In all the great measures of our government since he first entered Congress, his influence has been felt either in their origination or modification, and to this influence more than any other the Republican party is indebted for its present proud position before the world.

Morally considered, the great objects of the Republican party are simple and few. Its first is to preserve, as far as possible, the independence of individual action and pursuit; and it rejects all limitations upon this independence which are not essential to the great ends of social organization. It regards all of those powers which man wields in his aggregate or corporate capacity as so many limitations upon his individual rights, and it yields those which are indispensable to the institution of society as so many concessions which necessity has extorted from liberty. These are the terms upon which they would grant Government its powers; and they would administer the power thus limited with an equal regard for all who are entitled to share the benefits of the trust. Tried by these tests, Mr. Calhoun has nothing to fear, when the circumstances are considered under which he was called to act.

In the first epoch of his public life, we were forced to defend ourselves in a war with the most formidable nation of the globe, and with the only power whose arm was long enough to reach us in our distant position, and within the defences of so many natural barriers. In its commencement it was a war of independence, and it might become a contest for existence. In this state of things, it was in our aggregate power alone that we were to find the strength to resist foreign assaults, and every American patriot sought the means of increasing it as far as the limitations of the Constitution would permit. The war was a measure of the Republican party, and the unpatriotic course of the opposition devolved upon them alone the duty of devising the means to prosecute it. Under these circumstances, the Republican party deflected from the natural line of their direction, and sought to concentrate as much power in the Government as they then believed indispensable for the successful conduct of the war. How far they were right or wrong, it is not our province here to determine; but certain it is, that there was much in the overruling power of circumstances to justify their course and excuse their errors, if errors they may be called. With

how. much more justice may the same apology be made for Mr. Calhoun himself. The leading advocate of hostilities and the chairman of the committee which reported the declaration of war, with a deep responsibility to the country for the success of that contest, which he was accused of precipitating; young, ardent, and indignant at the course of foreign and domestic enemies, it is surprising that he was not less scrupulous of the Constitution in calling forth the means of defending it, and our people against foreign expositions of law and justice, which ultimately might have overturned all, unless arrested by our successful resistance. And yet, upon how many great occasions did he restrain the Republican party from aberrations from their principles.

It was he who opposed the restrictive system against the majority of the party. It was he, too, who took a prominent part in resisting the system of forced loans in the case of the merchants' bonds, and who defeated Mr. Dallas's vast scheme of a national bank to issue irredeemable paper, which was recommended by a Republican President and supported by the party. Session after session did he combat it, until he succeeded in restoring to the country a speciepaying paper, and something like uniformity in the medium in which its taxes were collected. And although the opinions of that day, growing out of the exigencies of the war, exaggerated the necessity for roads and canals as military defences, and called for the general use of a power which was given by the Constitution within the narrowest limits, it is remarkable that he has nowhere expressly affirmed the existence of such a power in the Federal Government.

His views of the proper use to be made of this power, if it existed, or could be obtained, when given in obedience to a call of the House of Repreresentatives, were perhaps the ablest ever taken of the relation of this subject to our military defences, yet he cautiously abstained from deciding the constitutional question. This was before the Republican party had paused in that career in which they were concentrating power within to defend themselves against attacks from without. In a review of this period of his life, it may with truth be said, that all those acts for which he has been reproached as departures from the State Rights creed, were substitutes for much worse measures, which, but for him, his party would have adopted; and, although some of them were neither the wisest nor best, according to the present standard of information, they were each the nearest approach to the true Republican line of action which was permitted by the state of public knowledge and feeling at the time. But, whatever may have been the errors of the early part of his public life, he nobly redeemed them in the second period, which commenced from his election to the vice-presidency. It was during the interval then allowed for reflection that he first examined thoroughly the working of the machinery of the Government in its internal as well as its external relations. He was among the first of the Republican party to pause in that career by which power had been consolidated in the Federal Government, without due reflection upon its consequences to the states and the people. He saw that the distribution of the political powers of our system, as contemplated by the Constitution, had been deranged, and that vast affiliated stock interests had been permitted to grow up almost unconsciously, which threatened to absorb the whole power and influence of the Confederacy, and to substitute a government of the few for that of the many; and, worse than all, he saw many of the Republican party so deeply entangled in the consequences of past action, and so little aware of the mischiefs which threatened them, that it was impossible to receive their co-operation in the efforts which were necessary to save the Government from deep organic derangement, and the party itself from utter annihilation. His position gave him a deep interest in the unity of the party, if he had looked to himself alone; the road to office was open and easy; but the higher and more alluring path to fame lay along a steeper route and over rugged and difficult precipices. Between these alternatives he did not hesitate, but determined at once to strike