"From the war department I was transferred to the chair which you now occupy. How I acquitted myself in the discharge of its duties, I leave it to the body to decide, without adding a word. The station, from its leisure, gave me a good opportunity to study the genius of the prominent measure of the day, called then the American System, of which I profited. I soon perceived where its errors lay, and how it would. operate. I clearly saw its desolating effects in one section, and corrupting influence in the other; and when I saw that it could not be arrested here, I fell back on my own state, and a blow was given to a system destined to destroy our institutions, if not overthrown, which brought it to the ground. This brings me down to the present time, and where passions and prejudices are yet too strong to make an appeal with any prospect of a fair and impartial verdict. I then transfer this, and all my subsequent acts, including the present, to the tribunal of posterity, with a perfect confidence that nothing will be found, in what I have said or done, to impeach my integrity or understanding.

"I have now, senators, repelled the attacks on me. I have settled and cancelled the debt between me and my accuser. I have not sought this controversy, nor have I shunned it when forced on me. I have acted on the defensive, and if it is to continue, which rests with the senator, I shall throughout continue so to act. I know too well the advantage of my position to surrender it. The senator commenced the controversy, and it is but right that he should be responsible for the direction it shall hereafter take. Be his determination what it may, I stand prepared to meet him."

Mr. Webster also attacked Mr. Calhoun, and charged him with deserting the opposition when victory was within their reach, and his "coöperation only was wanted to prostrate forever those in power." These few words, said Mr. Calhoun in his reply, contained the whole secret of the denunciations levelled against him; and as Mr. Webster declared that he should soon move for a renewal of the protective policy, he pointed to this declaration as furnishing, if anything had been needed, a complete justification for his course. But he would not rest the matter here. He insisted, that Mr. Webster and himself entertained irreconcilable opinions in relation to the character of the government, its principles, and its true policy; and they were in their appropriate spheres when arrayed in open hostility.

A friend who was present during the delivery of Mr. Calhoun's speech in reply to Mr. Clay, says that, although he has heard many public speakers, he never witnessed such intense earnestness, such a display of impassioned eloquence, as characterized this great effort. The keen fulgent eyes of the speaker shot lightnings at every glance, his hair stood on end, large drops of sweat rested on his brow, and every feature and muscle were alive with animation. And while this burning flood of indignation was rolling in a deluge from his lips, the audience were so completely enchained that perfect silence was preserved, and a pin might have been heard to drop in any part of the chamber; and when he declared, with a gesture suited to his words, that he hurled back the dart which had been thrown against him, the eyes of all were involuntarily turned to witness the effect of the blow.

CHAPTER XI.

Resolutions on the Subject of Abolitionism-Opinions of Mr. CalhounAssumption of State Debts-Bankrupt Bill-Case of the Enterprise -Support of Mr. Van Buren-Election of Harrison and Tyler-The Public Lands-Distribution-The Bank Bills-Defence of the Veto Power-Mr. Clay's Resolutions-Tariff of 1842-Ashburton Treaty.

AMONG the intellectual champions of the Senate, Mr. Calhoun now stood, like Gabriel, confessedly preëminent. 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 admirers of Clay and Webster willingly conceded 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."

In debate he was felt to be powerful, and none dared enter the lists against him single-handed, unless clad in armor of mailed proof. It cannot be said that he never found his match; but one thing is true-he never owned a superior.

The abolitionists had continued to increase in numbers and in influence in the northern states, and one or both parties in that section often coquetted with them. at the state elections, in order to secure the success of their candidates, and not, in a majority of cases perhaps, with the view of ultimately rendering any assist

ance in the main object which they had in view. But they were thereby emboldened to make still greater efforts; they began to feel themselves of some consequence, and to assume the airs natural to those in the position which they occupied-that of a third party, holding, in many of the states, the balance of power. Mr. Calhoun earnestly desired that the Republican party should commit themselves decidedly against the abolitionists, and with that view he offered the following resolutions at the session of 1837-8 :

RESOLUTIONS ON ABOLITIONISM.

"Resolved, That, in the adoption of the Federal Constitution, the states adopting the same acted severally as free, independent, and sovereign states; and that each, for itself, by its own voluntary assent, entered the Union with the view to its increased security against all dangers, domestic as well as foreign, and the more perfect and secure enjoyment of its advantages, natural, political, and social.

“Resolved, That, in delegating a portion of their powers to be exercised by the Federal Government, the states retained severally the exclusive and sole right over their own domestic institutions and police, an 1 are alone responsible for them; and that any intermeddling of any one or more states, or a combination of their citizens, with the domestic institutions and police of the others, on any ground or under any pretext whatever, political, moral, or religious, with a view to their alteration or subversion, is an assumption of superiority not warranted by the Constitution, insulting to the states interfered with: tending to endanger their domestic peace and tranquillity, subversive of the objects for which the Constitution was formed, and, by necessary consequence, ten ling to weaken and destroy the Union itself.

“Resolved, That this Government was instituted and adopted by the several states of this Union as a common agent, in order to carry into effect the powers which they had delegated by the Consitation for their mutual security and prosperity; an i that, in fulfilment of this high an 1 sacred trust, this Government is bound so to exercise its powers as to give, as far as may be practicable, increased stability and security to the

domestic institutions of the states that compose the Union; and that it is the solemn duty of the Government to resist all attempts by one portion of the Union to use it as an instrument to attack the domestic institutions of another, or to weaken or destroy such institutions, instead of strengthening and upholding them, as it is in duty bound to do.

"Resolved, That domestic slavery, as it exists in the Southern and Western States of this Union, composes an important part of their domestic institutions, inherited from their ancestors, and existing at the adoption of the Constitution, by which it is recognized as constituting an essential element in the distribution of its powers among the states; and that no change of opinion or feeling on the part of the other states of the Union in relation to it can justify them or their citizens in open and systematic attacks thereon, with the view to its overthrow; and that all such attacks are in manifest violation of the mutual and solemn pledge to protect and defend each other, given by the states respectively on entering into the Constitutional compact which formed the Union, and, as such, is a manifest breach of faith, and a violation of the most solemn obligations, moral and religious.

“Resolved, That the intermeddling of any state or states, or their citizens, to abolish slavery in this district, or any of the territories, on the ground or under the pretext that it is immoral or sinful, or the passage of any act or measure of Congress with that view, would be a direct and dangerous attack on the institutions of all the slaveholding states.

“Resolved, That the union of these states rests on an equality of rights and advantages among its members; and that whatever destroys that equality tends to destroy the Union itself; aud that it is the solemn duty of all, and more especially of this body, which represents the states in their corporate capacity, to resist all attempts to discriminate between the states in extending the benefits of the Government to the several portions of the Union; and that to refuse to extend to the Southern and Western States any advantage which would tend to strengthen or render them more secure, or increase their limits or population by the annexation of new territory or states, on the assumption or under the pretext that the institution of slavery, as it exists among them, is immoral or sinful, or otherwise obnoxious, would be contrary to that equality of rights and advantages which the Constitution was intended to secure alike to all the members of the Union, and would, in effect, disfranchise the slaveholding states, withholding them from the advantages, while it subjected them to the burdens, of the Government."