The Memories of Fifty Years: Containing Brief Biographical Notices of Distinguished Americans, and Anecdotes of Remarkable Men; Interspersed with Scenes and Incidents Occurring during a Long Life of Observation Chiefly Spent in the SouthwestSparks, W. H. (William Henry)
History
The Memories of Fifty Years: Containing Brief Biographical Notices of Distinguished Americans, and Anecdotes of Remarkable Men; Interspersed with Scenes and Incidents Occurring during a Long Life of Observation Chiefly Spent in the Southwest
Sparks, W. H. (William Henry)
Georgia -- History -- 1775-1865; Southwest, Old -- History; United States -- Biography
confidence was to effect all he desired. This was done; the breach was
irreparable. Van Buren was sent, in the interim of the session of
Congress, minister plenipotentiary to the Court of St. James.
Mr. Clay had come back into the Senate, and was heading and leading an
opposition, then in the majority in the Senate; and the nomination of
Van Buren was rejected. Jackson, assured that Calhoun had deceived
him, was bitter in his denunciations of him, and Calhoun was
sympathizing with this opposition. Jackson denounced Calhoun as his
informant of Crawford being the Cabinet minister who had in Cabinet
council moved his arrest. Calhoun gave the lie direct to the
assertion; and that Jackson was capable of lying, referred as evidence
to his statements relative to the charge of bargain and intrigue
against Mr. Clay. But enough had been done to crush out the popularity
and the hopes of Calhoun, beyond the limits of South Carolina. There
never has been so sudden and so terrible a fall from such a height of
any man in this nation--not excepting that of Aaron Burr. John C.
Calhoun, in talent, learning, and statesmanship, was greatly superior
to Jackson, and unsurpassed by any man of the age. But the breath of
Jackson was the blight which withered his laurels, and crushed his
prospects, and destroyed his usefulness forever, in a night.
What consequences have grown out of this quarrel, I leave for the pen
of the historian. Yet I cannot forbear the speculation that the late
and most disastrous war was one, and of consequence the ruin and
desolation of the South, and the threatened destruction of the
Government at this time. The agitation which led to these terrible
consequences, commenced with Mr. Calhoun immediately subsequent to
these events. Does any man suppose, if Mr. Calhoun had succeeded to
the Presidency, that he would have commenced or continued this
agitation? For one, I do not. The measure of his ambition would have
been full: his fame would have been a chapter in the history of his
country--his talents employed in the administration of the Government,
the honor and boast of her people, and her preservation and prosperity
the enduring monument of his fame and glory. But, wronged as he
believed, disappointed as he knew, he put forth all his strength, and,
Samson-like, pulled down the pillars of her support; and, disunited,
crushed, and miserable, she is a melancholy spectacle to the patriot,
and in her desolation a monument of disappointed ambition.
That Mr. Calhoun anticipated any such results, I do not believe. To
suppose he desired them, and to the end of his life labored to produce
them, would be to suppose him little less than a fiend. Blinded by his
prejudices and the hatred natural toward those who had accomplished
his political ruin, he could not calmly and dispassionately weigh the
influence of his acts upon the future of his country.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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