Page:The Cambridge History of American Literature, v2.djvu/100

84 Publicists and Orators, 1800-1850 was calm and clear, as clear at least as the nature of his deli- / cately wrought system might well allow. In his speeches, he rarely, if ever, sought to stir his audience by mere flights of eloquence; he spoke, rather, as a man with his back to the wall, striking hard blows, seeking to defend himself and his section, tmconsciously appealing to the emotions, if appealing at all, because his own position was not free from pathos; for here was a great man defending a losing cause and heroically beating back the forces that were hourly gaining in numbers and strength. Even when discussing subjects which now appear of bygone interest, he commonly struck at fundamentals and at principles with such force and precision that many of his words still have vitality; and much that he said will long retain interest for the academic student of politics. With the possible exception of Hamilton there is no other politician in our history whose writings today — decades after the disappear- ance of the subjects discussed — contain so much deserving attention and challenging respect even from the unbeHever. History offers few examples of such leadership, such success in mapping out for some millions of people a course of conduct and the ideas and beUefs on which conduct rests. We have spoken of Calhoun as the great Southerner who presented with logical power the doctrines on which the South came to rest its case in defence of slavery. There were, how- ever, others almost as able and gifted who wrote and spoke on similar lines. In the early years of the century, the South- erners were on the whole nationalistic in sentiment ; opposition to national authority came from the North-east; but after the War of 1 8 12 the conditions changed; the South, partly doubt- less because it felt economic distress, began to complain. The first formidable protest came from Virginia and was directed against the Federal Court and its great chief justice, himself a Virginian, who was declared to be interpreting the Constitu- tion in violation of states' rights and to be intent on building up a consolidated government, or as we should now say a unitary state. Jefferson, thoroughly disliking Marshall and all his works, was in or behind these attacks, but the great protagonists were Judge Spencer Roane (i 762-1822) and John Taylor (i 750-1 824) of Caroline. Roane's argument was chiefly directed against the assumed right of final review of constitu-