JOHN C. CALHOUN.

Læta viro gravitas, ac mentis amabile pondus,
Et sine tristitia virtus: non ille rigoris
Ingratas laudes, nec nubem frontis amabat;
Nec famam lævo quærebat limite vitæ.

bis countrymen, for thus his country may be saved by the costly oblation, as Rome was redeemed by the voluntary sacrifice of Decius.

We cannot but trust that this great and immeasurable loss may be the means of our national safety. When we see Clay and Webster, his great co-evals, and the rivals of his fame, forgetting the animosities of political warfare, and the deep differences of long party opposiIn the last agony of Jerusalem, her woes and tion, and vieing with each other in offering earnher fate were foretold long beforehand in solemn est and cordial homage to the magnificent proand mysterious forebodings by the last prophet portions of that mighty intellect which is eclipsed which was vouchsafed to the doomed people of forever, and to the stainless integrity of that pure God. The seer was however spared the misery heart which beats no more-we must indulge of witnessing the calamities he had so long predicted. Death smote him at his post, as he went his rounds on the ramparts of the fated city; and a kind Providence snatched him away as the evil days were breaking, which it had been his destiny to foresee, and his dread mission to

announce.

the hope that sectional jealousies and the strife of factions will be freely sacrificed as the most grateful hecatomb to the manes of the illustrious dead. The keys of a conquered city, which had been won under the auspices of the corpse of Bertrand Du Guesclin, were laid upon his coffin-the last and most precious honour to a So died Calhoun-the warrior in his harness-departed hero. May a more priceless trophythe sentinel at his station-the patriot in the per- the union of a divided nation-constitute the formance of his duty-and the single statesman last homage to Calhoun : then may his bereaved of his wide country whose eyes were not blinded country have a deeper and a juster pride in her by ambition, interest, or the desire of applause, dead son, than she can have in any of her living but were sufficiently purified from the delusions of worldly weakness, to read with prophetic understanding the signs of the heavens, and the terrible miseries of the impending night.

ones.

Calhoun's race was run and well run. His task was ended,-his work done-and his brilliant career was rounded off with a symmetrical What his far-reaching sagacity discovered, he perfection which has left no deficiency behind. had the boldness and the honesty to proclaim. His Treatise on the Constitution had received His last speech,-denounced, misconstrued, mis- the finishing touch of his haud-and will remain apprehended at the time of its delivery,-is al- for our instruction, the legacy of a patriot and ready a voice from beyond the tomb. At the statesman to his countrymen, which renders all hour of its composition it was irradiated by that posterity the inheritors of his profound wisdom. instinct of inspiration, which is breathed into the His last speech was the full outpouring of his soul of man by the hallowing touch of the Angel sagacity and love of country: it was the last of Death. Beneath the shadow of those som- word of a statesman, which left nothing further bre wings, the confused and intricate jugglery of to be said or done, until the nation had profited worldly passions, the dark labyrinths of political by that solemn warning. Had he lived, his counintrigue, the hollow semblances of terrestrial trymen might have turned a deaf ear to its inplausibilities, and the curious play of conflict- structions-cheated themselves into a dangerous ing interests become transparent; and, as the mists of human error are lifted from before our sight, the horizon expands, and the future is revealed in proportions more distinct than the fleeting features of the passing time. As the glory of the rising sun, before the descending revolution of the globe has brought his orb to light, gilds the summits of the lofty mountains, so even There is a singular harmony in the close of before the hand of Death has struck, the radi- the career of the truly great men who are so ance and celestial wisdom of the future world rarely vouchsafed to earth, and more rarely estirest at times upon the great minds of earth which mated at their just value until death has sanctiare hastening thither. It is with this feeling fied their career, and bereft us of their aid. that the last speech of John C. Calhoun should Through all changes and dangers they are prenow be read-and then it may be potent to avert served almost by miraculous interposition till the ruin which otherwise it might have only fore- their great work is fully accomplished; but the told. And so, let us hope, it will be regarded by moment they have placed the coping stone to

disregard of its prophetic truth-and lulled themselve into a delusive security by the imputation of petty motives to their adviser, or the still more beguiling fallacies of party opposition. Now, it is the voice of one speaking almost in the presence of his God, and dying in the service of his country.

the structure, that moment Death, so long impor- | man, and the far-reaching sagacity of a prophet. tunate in vain, steps in to claim his prey. His mind was vast and comprehensive, and his Doubted and denied as it may honestly be by acute reasoning powers were exercised upon an many, Calhoun has been for a long series of immense array of valuable acquisitions. He years the great and almost sole bulwark between was more of a political philosopher than of a the Union and its dissolution. He stood between politician. His acquaintance with men was perthe living and the dead, and for a time arrested haps limited, but his knowledge of the springs the plague. He could have done so no longer, and processes of national and social development and he is gone. The will remained, but the was exact and universal. The love of truth, of means were denied him by the angry commotion justice, of freedom, and of his country, constituof the times. His death may induce sobriety ted his ruling passions, and were accompanied and moderation, and thus avert the doom which by a thorough scorn of everything grovelling and he apprehended, or at least will spare him the base. He had possibly too little indulgence for pang of witnessing the rupture of that noble fab-human weakness, though he was not unforgiving ric to which he clung with such fond tenacity, to human error. His deportment is characterieven while advocating a still more sacred cause. zed as singularly cheerful, amiable, and fascinaBut at a solemn hour like this, we will not ting. His temperament was ardent, and his venture into the troubled waters of political con- whole soul was wrapped up in the cause to tention. In the Senate Chamber, his own pe- which his life and energies were devoted. His culiar arena, in the midst of his ardent friends powers of generalization were very conspicuons and his bitter foes, the voice of party was hushed yet his logic was as keen and as nicely tempered over his coffin; and all should imitate the touch- as a Damascus blade, and it was as strictly and ing observance of that solemn and stately for- minutely concatenated as the chain of proofs in bearance. The page is sacred to the memory of mathematical demonstration. But his intellect Calhoun, and we will not disturb his ashes by the grating sounds of political discord.

was too clear and unclouded not to shoot far beyond the range of inferior miuds,-and what mind was equal to his own? The eagle may gaze with unsheltered eye on the meridian sun, but weaker eyes can rest on it only in its decline. Thus Mr. Calhoun was ever so far in advance of his age and countrymen, that he never could retain, as he never desired, a party. His polit

Of Mr. Calhoun's life and career it is needless to speak here in detail. They were exhibited to the whole country with exquisite grace and comprehensive brevity by his distinguished colleague in the Senate. He had been long in public life, and had held the highest offices but one in the gift of the people. His elevation to the only cal deductions possessed the prophetic character one denied him could not have increased his dignity or reputation, though it might have afforded a wider field for his services to the nation. In every public function which he discharged, and they were various, he rather brought a fuller complement of glory to his office, than derived additional lustre from it. He was acknowledged equal to every duty before he was called to its performance in its exercise he was recognized to be superior to it. Each new dignity only proved of how much greater he was capable. From the commencement of his long public life to its closing scene, he enjoyed and merited the full confidence of his State, and was retained as a perpetual Senator by her unsolicited but unabating admiration for his wisdom and integrity. From his entrance into Congress until his death, during a period of forty years, his name is connected, and almost identified by imperishable links with the history of that country, which is largely indebted to his counsels and guiding hand for its rapid growth into greatness.

of exact science-but they were so rapid and spontaneous as to require some interpreter between him and his fellow citizens. Truth which appeared in its naked simplicity to his clear vision was not recognized without some outward garniture by others. The only adequate interpreter of his wisdom was the slow instruction and verification of time. Hence Mr. Calhoun's most profound and valuable suggestions were frequently presented at a premature and unseasonable moment, when the country was not yet prepared for them, and rejected by those who could not recognize their bearing or appositeness. It is an error which could only occur to an intellect of the highest order, but it is frequent with truly great minds, and is the last from which they can completely extricate themselves. On this principle the supposed vacillations and changes of Mr. Calhoun become intelligible as the regular processes in the orderly development of a great mind. The discovery of to-day was merely the stepping stone for the conclusions of to-morrow, The moral and intellectual attributes of Mr. which in their turn served as the scaffolding to a Calhoun consorted well with his lofty pre-emi- further and equally rapid advance. But others nence. To the innocence and purity of a child toiled slowly and painfully after him, and when he added the wisdom of a consummate states- they had reached his first position, they charged

A tribute to Mr. Calhoun no less just than Origin and History of the High Court of

profession on the loss from infirm health of such | ions depend-would alone afford a logical defia brilliant, distinguished, and venerable orna- nition of Equity. This impossibility of adement as Lord Denman, and express our sorrow quate definition is by no means a case of isolathat the advanced age of his successor he is ted occurrence in regard to Equity:-it is exnow seventy-two-forbids us to indulge in any perienced, though not to an equal extent in relong hope. gard to Political Economy,† and all sciences With this short and feeble tribute to the ele-"much immersed in matter"-it forms a leading vated character of the retiring Chief Justice and law with respect to the definition of species and his successor, we must pass on to subjects of genera in Natural History‡-and it occurs in a more immediate concernment.

very striking manner in the vague science of Philosophy, which scarcely any two persons will agree in defining by the same terms, or in restricting within the same limits.

It is perhaps singular that such ignorance or inaccurate information should prevail amongst even those who are well informed on other points, in regard to the nature of Equity and the func- Under these circumstances it must be extremetions of Equitable Jurisprudence. The com- ly difficult for the unprofessional student to aeprehension of these topics seems to be a mystic quire any satisfactory conception of the nature and esoteric knowledge confined to the limits of and functions of Equity, either from attempted the profession, and to be protected from the in- definition, or from the concise exposition of a trusion of the uninitiated, if not with as great few of its leading doctrines. Yet all are intercare, at least with as much success as the sacred ested in the attainment of a general comprehenmysteries of the Ancient Hierocracies. The sion of these matters; for the fortunes of all may unprofessional scholar has rarely any definite or be, at some period or other, protected or imperaccurate acquaintance with the nature and aims illed by Chancery proceedings. Moreover, the of the technical Equity of the English Courts, diffusion of accurate information respecting the and, until the Letters of Mr. Purton Cooper, the Court by which Equity is peculiarly administerContinental Jurists entertained exceedingly loose ed would be more effectual than any thing else and inappropriate conceptions on the subject. in dispelling those unreasonable and unfounded Ample excuse for the shadowy and erroneous prejudices which tend to the perpetuation of that ideas too frequently received may be found in ruinous anomaly, the union of Equitable and the vagueness and confusion of even our profes- Common Law Jurisdiction in the same Court, sional writers, and the incorrect or unguarded and the consequent prevention of the harmoniexpressions which have been occasionally em- ous development and orderly co-ordination of the ployed by the occupants of the woolsack. Black- whole body of our Jurisprudence. Virginia has stone's definition of Equity, is palpably defec- recently revised and systematized the whole of tive, and would justify the sneer of Selden. her Statutory Law, and whatever may be the Blackstone was probably indebted to Grotius for imperfections of her laborious codification, the atit, and we may suspect Grotius to have borrow-tempt and the result equally indicate the active ed his views from Aristotle and the Digest. We desire to improve her judicial institutions. The believe that Story is entitled to the honour of prospective assembling of a State Convention having first introduced into legal text-books a will afford an opportunity for the reorganization clear and precise circumscription of the character and objects of Equitable Jurisprudence-yet even Story's language may be deemed somewhat indistinct. The technical Equity of the English law is one of those phrases which do not admit of strict logical definition. For, as the thing itself is related to other similar institutions only by remote and varying analogies, and has nowhere in history or in existence, an exact or equivalent counterpart, the only definition that would suffice would be a formal enumeration of all the cases in which it was applicable, and the modifications under which it is applied. In other words, the whole body of Equity Jurisprudence, or, at least, the sum of those general principles on which the separate decis

εστι δε επιεικες το παρα τον γεγραμμενον νομον δικαιον. Rhet. i. c. xii. Dig. 1. xvii, 90, &c. Bracton, lib. iv.

of the Judiciary, and we merely express the feelings of the more intelligent portion of the Bar, when we avow the hope that advantage will be taken of the favourable occasion to dissever the Equitable from the Common Law Courts. Under the present system the action of the Judge in the exercise of his Equitable Powers is hampered and rendered singularly incongruous and unscientific by the predominance of Common Law habits of thought, and in the exercise of his Common Law Jurisdiction it becomes vague, confused, and fluctuating by the intervention of Equitable modes of apprehension. Thus two things, each admirable apart, are seriously impaired by

J. S. Mill's Essays on Pol. Econ. Ess. V. See also Mill's Logic. Introd. §1. Comte Cours de Phil. Pos. Leç. 1, tome i, p. 1.

Whewell's Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences.