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tiability, and the ideas it suggests of strength and usefulness. And such is a fit type of the eloquence of John C. Calhoun.

His features are very striking, invested as they are with thought, expression, sympathy, and passion--the undisguised consciousness of intellectual power. His vocabulary is adequate to express all the refinements of analytical distinctions: his countenance is equally adequate to convey all the minute subtleties of feeling, when the vocal organs are too much oppressed by emotion to speak. He has real greatness, dignity, and force, can inspire a trifle with importance, and wield every forensic implement with effect. Impotency itself becomes strength in the hands of genius, while the greatest abilities are dwarfed into impotency by the touch of mediocrity. The shepherd's staff of Paris would have been a deadly weapon in the grasp of Achilles; but the ash of Peleus could only have fallen unused from the dainty fingers of the perfumed and effeminate archer. Only that majesty is truly imposing which is tempered by emanations of intelligence, adorned with honor and softened into love. Such is the character of Mr. Calhoun, prominent among the

"Men whose great thoughts possess us like a passion
Through every limb and the whole heart; whose words
Haunt us as eagles haunt the mountain air;

Thoughts which command all coming times and minds,
As from a tower a warden."

CHAPTER V.

GEORGE MCDUFFIE,

THE IMPETUOUS.

In the subjoined remarks on the eloquence of Mr. McDuffie, we shall endeavor to depict him, not as he is now, in his infirm and emaciated condition, but as he was in the days of his physical firmness and mental glory. Then, his strong memory, expressive physiognomy, powerful voice, and excited action, gave to him extraordinary weight as a speaker. He broke into the political arena with the fury of a competitor too late for the combat; and, as if to redeem lost time, or to annihilate as soon as possible the antagonist who had summoned him to the fight, he amazed all by the eloquent violence, the unexampled impetuosity, and fierce earnestness with which he smote down his foes. In his best days there was in him an impetuous and concentrated grandeur, a scornful energy, which was rendered exceedingly effective by spontaneous fervor and a comprehensive mind.

"His voice blew like the desolating gust

Which strips the trees, and strews the earth with death.

His words were ever like a wheel of fire,
Rolling and burning this way now, now that:
Now whirling forth a blinding beam, now soft
And deep as Heaven's own luminous blue-and now
Like to a conqueror's chariot wheel they came,
Sodden with blood and slow, revolving death:
And every tone fell on the ear and heart,
Heavy and harsh and startling, like the first
Handful of mould cast on the coffined dead,
As though he claimed them his."

In every department of high endeavor, we occasionally meet with heroes who always appear in a tempest, as if generated by its fury. They are insubordinate but illustrious, braving defeat and attempting the apparently impossible, with disordered garments, dishevelled hair, and extended arms, smiting in every direction, but with an eye unblenching and a heart undismayed. Such was Kleber at Heliopolis, Danton in the French assembly, Diderot among militant philosophers, and McDuffie in the American Congress. This Jupiter Tonans was ever armed with thunders which he launched against his foes, without showing them the anvil on which they had been forged, and without revealing the slow and laborious process by which they were prepared. Suddenly he would appear, without any previous intimation of his design, to smite down what he regarded as the monster Consolidation, and victoriously fight the battles of Free Trade and State Rights.

All great questions are raised and settled by men in earnest-men who have bound invaluable principles about their hearts which they feel are "part and parcel"

of their being, and in the defence of which they will sacrifice everything dear rather than let them go. Such earnestness is very sure to make tremble, if not entirely to overthrow, the systems to which it shall come in full force to be opposed. It is not dainty in its means, nor obscure in its opposition. It levels against them wit, satire, persuasion, argument. It heeds not, in this matter, the decisions of the powers that be. It is not afraid of being taunted as treasonable. Truth is its aim; error is in its way; and with a view to one, it cannot afford to be delicate towards the other. A lie is called a lie, shown to be a lie, denounced as a lie, and men are told to reject it or perish.

Mr. McDuffie has distinguished himself both as a writer and speaker. Of his elaborated political writings we need adduce but a single specimen. It is taken from a work entitled "National and State Rights Considered," was written in his early maturity, and is the more noticeable as being somewhat antagonistic to his subsequent opinions and action. We quote it as a fair sample of the earnest discrimination and condensed force peculiar to this author. Says he :

"You assert, that when any conflict shall occur between the General and State Governments, as to the extent of their respective powers, each party has a right to judge for itself. I confess I am at a loss to know, how such a proposition ought to be treated. No climax of political heresies can be imagined, in which this might not fairly claim the most prominent place. It resolves the Government at once into the elements of physical force, and introduces us directly into a scene of anarchy

and blood. There is not a single power delegated to the General Government, which it would not be in the power of every State Government to destroy, under the authority of this licentious principle. It will be only necessary for a State Legislature to pass a law, forbiding that which the Federal Legislature enjoins, or enjoining what the Federal Legislature forbids, and the work is accomplished. Perhaps you would require the State Judiciary to pronounce the State law constitutional. I will illustrate by a few examples:

"Suppose Congress should pass a law to lay and collect taxes, imposts and excises,' and that a State Legislature should pass another, declaring the objects for which the revenue was intended were unconstitutional, and therefore prohibiting the officers of the General Government, by severe penalties, from collecting the taxes, duties, imposts and excises. Suppose Congress should pass a law to raise an army' for a national war, and a State Legislature pass another, declaring the war 'wicked, unrighteous and unconstitutional,' and therefore prohibiting the officers of the General Government, under heavy penalties, from recruiting soldiers, within the limits of the State. Suppose Congress should pass a law for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States,' and a State Government should pronounce it unconstitutional, and provide heavy penalties against all officers, judicial or ministerial, who should attempt to enforce it. I need not multiply cases; for if you will duly consider these, you will find enough to satiate your keenest relish for anarchy and disorder. In all the above cases, you

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