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The Green Bag.

press the sentiment of the entire community, was, without impiety, the voice of God." Then, again, as we have already seen, he was accustomed from early youth to attend church, and kept up this habit throughout his life, not simply being present, but listen ing closely to the words of the preacher. Oliver Dyer says : " He impressed me as being deeply, but unobtrusively religious, and was so morally clean and spiritually pure, that it was a pleasure to have one's soul get close to his soul — a feeling that I never had for any other man." When he died, we find that memorial ser vices were held in Charleston, Columbia, and other places in the State, and eloquent ser mons were preached by such men as Thornwell, Miles, Palmer, Coit, Barnwell, Whyte, and others, who embraced the occasion to comment upon his great life, and to hold him up as an exemplar for the youth of the State. Ur. Thornwell in his sermon before the students of the South Carolina College, spoke of him in the highest terms, as follows : "That bell which summoned us to prayer seems to have kept time with his expiring breath — and before wc had gathered ourselves in this hall, or assumed the devout posture of wor shippers, South Carolina's honored son, and one of America's distinguished statesmen, was numbered with the dead." Rev. Mr. Miles, in his memorial discourse, which he preached in St. Philip's Church in Charleston, pictured before his hearers the ideal statesman, — setting forth the qualities which should characterize him and the prin ciples which should inspire his life and control his conduct. He emphasized the importance of religious principles in these words : " Reverencing those virtues in the Divine Being, who is at once their fountain and perfection, he is filled with their full dignity, and imbued with a sense of de pendence upon God — recognizing Him as the Arbiter of Nations, who establishes and destroys — possessing a solemn conscious

ness of accountability to a Judge of unerring equity — he is immeasurably elevated above the corrupt influence of the seducing dema gogue, the temptations of faction, the forgetfulness of duty, and the lure of false ambition. Shall we ever behold the living embodiment of such a statesman? The univeral voice of the commonwealth — the homage which we are now paying to an illustrious name — the revered dust which lies before us — all pro claim that the character is real! that the man has passed forever from among us." These were all Carolina preachers, who lived in the same State with Mr. Calhoun: most of them, perhaps all, knew him per sonally, and certainly all of them knew him by reputation. The higher, therefore, is the tribute. A kinsman of Mr. Calhoun, residing in this city, says that the latter had the highest respect for the church and for ministers of the gospel — that he would not allow the members of his family to criticise in an un kind way preachers, it mattered not to what church they belonged nor how ignorant, and that, on one occasion, he threatened to send one of his boys away from the table for criti cising a preacher too freely. That Mr. Cal houn never made a personal profession of faith in Christ, I believe, is true and is to be regretted : but that he believed in the great truths of religion, the testimony is clear. I have presented Mr. Calhoun's ideas on this subject fully for several reasons. In the first place, it is an interesting phase of his life; in the second place, — and these last two reasons show its pertinence to my theme — a man's religious belief throws light on his public life and character; and in the third place, because I do not think that any man can become a great statesman, in the highest and best sense of that term, without believing in the great, cardinal principles of Christianity. Col. Henry D. Capers, in an article on "Old Pendleton," gives us an interesting description of Mr. Calhoun's last resilience