Calhoun as a Lawyer and Statesman. boy's voice thunders in the capitol and electrifies a listening senate; a nation does honor to the great Southern statesman, and surely Carolina to her own Calhoun." In the second place, I would emphasize his temperance and his clean personal life. I would not make a false impression here. He was not a total abstainer. He was, how ever, " fully temperate." Mr. Calhoun started out in life with a somewhat delicate constitu tion and, though he built himself up by work ing for a while on a farm and no doubt kept himself in good condition by looking after one afterwards; still, I have no doubt that it was largely due to his temperate habits that he lived so long and accomplished so much. And then about his life you never have heard the voice of scandal raised. He was a pure man in his private life. He did not go to Washington to spend his money, waste his time, ruin his constitution, and mar his character on the dissipations common to too many public men. His course in the long run is the safest and certainly it is the best. And now I have come to the last, and by long odds the most important, characteristic of Mr. Calhoun, — his high moral character. It was this, more than anything else, that was the secret of his strength, the inspiring force of his splendid eloquence, the explana tion of his success, and the controlling ele ment of his life. The value of this quality can well be illustrated by an incident that occurred in the late war between the States. I obtained it from the lips of Col. George McDuffie Miller, the gallant commander of Orr's regiment of rifles in McGowan's brigade. It occurred on the fields of Vir ginia during the dark days of the war, when despondency and gloom had settled like a pall upon the country. The regiment was on the eve of an engagement and its com mander was at his post. It was, however, by no means clear what the result of the en gagement would be, either to the officers or to the men, and what added to their per
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plexity and discouragement, they were com pletely in the dark as to what was the plan of action and the end to be accomplished. Colonel Miller represented himself as almost overcome with a feeling of despondency un til he happened to look around and there, a few feet behind him, sat Stonewall Jackson, mounted on his horse and calmly looking on. Jackson's presence was an inspiration. With one glance Colonel Miller said that he felt like a new man — all feeling of despon dency was gone; it mattered not how great the difficulties, Jackson was there, and they were safe. What brought about this change? It was the moral heroism of Jackson that in spired his men. We do not know: how it acts, but it was there. It was the cropping out of this same quality in Calhoun that made him, when a farmer-boy of thirteen, anxious though he was to receive an educa tion and become a professional man, unwill ing to leave the farm and avail himself of these advantages, unless he could first get the consent of his mother. It was moral heroism, speaking out in the face and man ner of the young lawyer and politician, that so soon brought him to the front in politics and caused him to be elected to the legisla ture at the head of the ticket. It was the moral heroism that the people recognized in Calhoun, — it was because they knew that they could trust him in time of danger — it was because they knew that " he stood as their champion . with spear in rest and heart on flames.'
sheathed in the panoply of genius," that in duced them to nominate and elect him to Congress. It was his moral heroism that put him, a mere stripling, at the head of his party on the floor of Congress during the war of 18 12. It was the moral heroism of Calhoun that enabled him to battle so man fully for the South and for more than forty years proudly to carry her banner. Dr. Pinckney tells us that, in 1833, about the time of " The Great Debate," there was tjreat excitement in Washington. It was
