which Jefferson was the head, the old State Rights Republican party—a permanent ascendency. In conclusion he said, "It would be presumptuous in me, Mr. President, to advise those who are charged with the administration of the Government what course to adopt; but if they would hear the voice of one who desires nothing for himself, and whose only wish is to see the country prosperous, free, and happy, I would say to them, You are placed in the most remarkable juncture that has ever occurred since the establishment of the Federal Government, and, by seizing the opportunity, you may bring the vessel of state to a position where she may take a new tack, and thereby escape all the shoals and breakers into the midst of which a false steerage has run her, and bring her triumphantly into her destined port, with honour to yourselves and safety to those on board. Take your stand boldly; avow your object; disclose your measures, and let the people see clearly that you intend to do what Jefferson designed, but, from adverse circumstances, could not accomplish: to reverse the measures originating in principles and policy not congenial with our political system; to divest the Government of all undue patronage and influence; to restrict it to the few great objects intended by the Constitution; in a word, to give a complete ascendency to the good old Virginia school over its antagonist, which time and experience have proved to be foreign and dangerous to our system of Government, and you may count with confidence on their support, without looking to other means of success. Should the Government take such a course at this favourable moment, our free and happy institutions may be perpetnated for generations, but, if a different, short will be their duration." Had the course advised been early and openly avowed and vigorously pursued in time, very different might have been the termination of the last presidential election; and it may be added, that the advice is not less applicable to the coming than to the past election, and, if the Federal consolidation party is ever to be permanently put down, and the State Rights Republican party to gain the permanent ascendency, it can only be effected by its adhering steadily and in good faith to the course advised.

The next session, that of 1839-40, which immediately preceded the late presidential election, was distinguished for the number and importance of the subjects that were agitated and discussed, and, it may be added, the ability and animation of the discussions. Among the more prominent of these may be included the public lands; the assumption of state debts; Mr. Calhoun's resolutions in reference to the case of the Enterprise; the Bankrupt Bill, and the repeal of the salt-tax; in all of which Mr. Calhoun took a prominent part. His speeches on his resolutions and on the assumption of state debts are among the ablest he ever delivered, and are worthy of the attention of all who desire to understand the subjects which they discuss

The presidential election having terminated in favour of the Whigs, the next session was principally occupied in the discussions connected with the public lands, preparatory to one of the leading objects of policy contemplated under the new administration. Mr. Calhoun made three speeches on the subject:† one on the prospective Pre-emption Bill; another on an amendment to it proposed by Mr. Crittenden, as a substitute, to distribute the revenue from the public lands among the states; and, finally, one in reply to Mr. Webster and Mr. Clay. In these the whole policy of the public lands, and the various plans which were proposed in reference to them, were discussed. It is a subject which early attracted Mr. Calhoun's attention, and has engrossed much of his reflection.

As far back as February, 1837, he offered a substitute, in the form of an amendment to the bill, to suspend the sales of the public lands, in which he proposed to cede to the new states the portion of the public lands lying within their respective limits, on certain conditions, which he accompanied by a speech. * See "Speeches," &c., Nos. 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, and 29.

explanatory of his views and reasons. He followed up the subject in a speech delivered in January, 1839, on the Graduation Bill; and in May, 1840, an elaborate and full report was made from the Committee on Public Lands, and a bill introduced by him, containing substantially the same provisions with his original proposition. These, with his three speeches already referred to, contain a full view of his objects and reasons for the proposed cession.

There have been few measures ever presented for consideration so grossly misrepresented, or so much misconceived, as the one in question. It has been represented as a gift-a surrender-an abandonment of the public domain to the new states; and having assumed that to be its true character, the most unworthy motives have been attributed to the author for introducing it. Nothing is more untrue. The cession is neither more nor less than a conditional sale, not extended to the, whole of the public domain, as represented, but to that portion in the new states respectively within whose limits they lie; the greater part of which are mere remnants, which have long since been offered for sale, without being sold.

The conditions on which they are proposed to be ceded or sold are drawn up with the greatest care, and with the strictest provisions to ensure their fulfilment; one of which is, that the state should pay 65 per cent. of the gross proceeds of the sale to the General Government, and retain only 35 per cent. for the trouble, expense, and responsibility attending their administration. Another is, that the existing laws, as they stand, except so far as they may be modified or authorized to be modified by the act of cession, shall remain unchanged, unless altered by the joint consent of the General Government and the several states. They are respectively authorized, if they should think proper, to adopt a system of graduation and pre-emption within well-defined and safe limits prescribed in the conditions; and the General Government is authorized to appoint officers in the several states, to whom its share of the proceeds of the sale shall be directly paid, without going into the state treasury; and these conditions are put under the guardianship of the courts, by providing, if they shall be violated, that all after rules by the state shall be null and void. So far from this being a gift, or an abandonment of the public lands to the new states, he has clearly proved, if there be truth in figures, that the Government would receive a greater amount of revenue from the lands in the new states, under the system he proposes, than under the present. These demonstrations are based on calculations which neither have nor can be impugned.

But his views extended far beyond dollars and cents in bringing forward the measure. He proposed to effect by it the high political objects of placing the new states on the same footing of equality and independence with the old, in reference to their domain; to cut off the vast amount of patronage which the public lands place in the hand of the executive; to withdraw them, as one of the stakes, from the presidential game; to diminish by one fourth the business of Congress, and with it the length and expense of its session; to enlist the Government of the new states on the side of the General Government; to aid in a more careful administration of the rest of the public domain, and thereby prevent the whole of it from becoming the property of the occupants from possession; and, finally, to prevent the too rapid extinction of Indian titles in proportion to the demand for lands from the increase of population, which he shows to be pregnant with great embarrassment and danger. These are great objects, of high political import; and if they could be effected by the measure proposed, it is justly entitled to be ranked among the wisest and most politic ever brought forward. That they can be effected, it is almost impossible for any well-informed and dispassionate mind deliberately to read the speeches and documents referred to, and to doubt.

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

revenue decreasing daily, the Secretary of the Treasury proposed an annual expenditure 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 maintained 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 opposition more distinguished for its ability, or more untiring in its energy. Its searching gaze seemed to read the hidden purpose with almost as much certainty 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 powerfully and accurately depicted, that even the authors of the measures would have been appalled had they been less reckless of the future. The natural affinity 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 majority 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 session 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 exclusively upon the details. At the succeeding session the principal subjects were the Treasury Note Bill, the Veto power, Mr. Clay's resolutions in reference 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.

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 glorious 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