A HISTORY 
 
 PROCEEDINGS IN THE CITT OP NEW ORLEANS, 
 
 ON THE OCCASION OF THE 
 
 FUNERAL CEREMONIES 
 
 IN HONOR OF 
 
 CALHOM, CLAY AID WEBSTER, 
 
 WHICH TOOK PLACE 
 
 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9th, 1852. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE GENERAL COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS, ON THE AUTHORITY 
 
 OF THE CITY COUNCIL. 
 
 c, L, 
 
 NEW ORIEANS: 
 
 PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF THE PICAYUNE. 
 
 1853.
 

 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THIS PAMPHLET is designed to preserve in a connected and 
 durable form, a full account of the Public Obsequies celebrated in the 
 City of New Orleans on the 9th of December, 1852, in honor of the 
 illustrious statesmen CALHOUN, CLAY, and WEBSTER. 
 
 Every thing connected with the ceremonial, from its first inception 
 at a public meeting in Banks' Arcade, through all the stages of 
 preparation, to the final grand conclusion, is herein minutely and 
 faithfully recorded, and is deemed eminently worthy of preservation, 
 as a memorial of a great event in the history of the age, a rare incident 
 in our municipal annals, and a magnificent spectacle, which will not 
 soon be surpassed. The ceremonial will be marked by all who 
 witnessed it, as an epoch in their lives. No such pageant, so vast in 
 its scale, so full in its details, managed with so much skill, and executed 
 so perfectly has ever before been exhibited here. The Executive 
 Committees seem to have exactly comprehended the wishes of their 
 fellow-citizens, and all they proposed was amply responded to by the 
 voluntary acts of the people. The long drawn and solemn procession, 
 marching to the sounds of wailing music, with banners craped and 
 muffled, escorted the stately hearse and its funeral urns, with all the 
 appointed emblems of mourning, through streets thronged with silent 
 multitudes, and draped with spontaneous habiliments of grief. For the 
 whole route, extending miles, not only the streets and sidewalks were 
 thronged almost to obstruction, but the windows, story upon story, 
 and the verandahs, balcony over balcony, were filled with serious
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 faces, looking intently upon the moving train below. Sable draperies 
 curtained and festooned whole rows of houses, and scarcely a block 
 failed to exhibit some costly or tasteful device, in unison with the 
 official preparations, and exhibiting the universal sympathy with the 
 objects of this public homage. 
 
 Setting aside all of this, which might rightfully be attributed to 
 individual vanity and love of display, or to the popular fondness for 
 parades and holidays, there was in the whole proceeding a sincerity 
 and earnestness of feeling rarely witnessed, and which is not likely 
 to be witnessed by any man twice in his lifetime. The thought, 
 unexpressed, and perhaps not clearly defined, produced a profound 
 impression upon most minds, that with the death of the Illustrious 
 Triumvirate, whose memory these obsequies were designed to honor, 
 a great gulf has been opened between the present and the past of the 
 country that we are entering upon a new era in our national 
 career, without the counsels that have thus far been our guides the 
 genius that has illuminated our way the eloquence and wisdom we 
 have been accustomed to invoke, and have never found to fail us in 
 moments of peril or doubt. The sense of national deprivation and 
 national loss is thus obscurely mingled with misgivings for the future 
 which a rigid examination by reason might not altogether justify, but 
 which testifies to the vast space occupied in men's thoughts and hearts 
 by the Great Dead. 
 
 We are not of those who believe that nature exhausts itself in 
 any age in the production of great minds : or that any epoch will be 
 found in human history without the evolvement of the genius to 
 grapple with events and shape them to the ends of human progress. 
 Others will rise to take the mastery of their own generation, to 
 become orators, philosophers, statesmen, for those who come after us.
 
 PREFACE. 5 
 
 But the events and the training by which they are to be raised to the 
 height of matured intellect and power to which these had attained in 
 the acknowledged estimate of their cotemporaries, lie in that undis- 
 covered future, into which we strain our thoughts vainly to penetrate. 
 We have seen them in the fullness of their development, and we 
 mourn them, not as men with whom greatness and virtue and elo- 
 quence have perished from the land, but because we know what they 
 were, and what they have done, and were capable of doing : and we 
 do not know who is to be the CALHOUN, the CLAY, or the WEBSTER 
 of the time that we feel to be coming, when we know that we shall 
 need them. There is no want of faith in Providence or trust in 
 humanity, in the mingling of these doubts for the future with the 
 grateful memories of the past, and the reverent homage we pay to the 
 great endowments and great virtues with which the subjects of these 
 funeral tributes have elevated and adorned the American name. 
 
 Among the superstitions of the heathens prevalent in all times, 
 but most known to us in the literature of the classics, is that which 
 supposes the spirits of the dead to be pleased and composed by the 
 honors paid to their mortal remains. Hence the ancients instituted 
 expensive games and sacrifices for the dead. Among barbarous 
 nations the sentiment runs into cruel excesses, corresponding with 
 the character of the race, in offering that which was most exciting to 
 the pride and passions of the living, as a tribute after death. The Iliad 
 closes with a gorgeous account of the pomp with which Troy exhibited 
 her acute grief for the death of her great champion. 
 
 " Such honors Ilion to her hero paid, 
 
 And peaceful slept the mighty Hector's shade." 
 
 A purer code has reformed the philosophy of this belief and 
 changed the manner of its manifestations, but the sentiment which 
 gave rise to it is eternal and universal. The great pass away, and
 
 6 PREFACE. 
 
 we do not now institute games, or slaughter oxen, or build up sacri- 
 fices. We think not that their shades will repose more or less quietly 
 from any manifestation of our reverence and regret. But we give 
 vent to natural and honorable emotions ; and though the rest of the 
 dead may not be stirred to any human joy by any thing done for 
 their honor on earth, we know and feel that many a living heart, 
 strained with cares, and striving against doubts and discouragements 
 in the steep ascent to fame, will be soothed and strengthened in its 
 tasks, and borne onward and upward in its aspirations, by these 
 majestic tokens of the homage which genius wins from the world. 
 They set up beacons upon which longing eyes gaze intently in 
 absorbing veneration for the past, and swelling souls find in them a 
 perpetual motive and unfailing support in the toils and exertions of 
 public life. They are the aliment upon which young ambition feeds 
 and hardens until it is able to achieve the greatness it emulates, and 
 to earn the lofty rewards of posthumous renown, the aspiration after 
 which first fired its zeal. 
 
 In the contemplation of these unstinted honors to the memory of 
 CALHOUN, CLAY and WEBSTER, not only will many an obscure youth 
 find stimulants to perseverance in the path of public duty, but living 
 statesmen yet in the heat of conflict, may find in them the consoling 
 assurance of a just appreciation, when they, too, shall have emerged 
 into an atmosphere cleared of the partisan mists of the day. To that 
 serene region, Death raises them at once. There the prejudices of 
 the time vanish, and the instincts of justice, gratitude and reverence 
 resume their sway. The dead have no longer partisans or enemies 
 among their countrymen. We all join to do honor to their memory 
 to claim an equal share in their renown to mourn together over their 
 loss, and to unite as kindred to plant laurels upon their tombs.
 
 
 A HISTORY 
 
 OF THE PROCEEDINGS IN THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS, ON THE OCCASION OF THE 
 
 FDNERAL CEREMONIES IN HONOR OF CALHOUN, CLAY AND WEBSTER, 
 
 WHICH TOOK PLACE ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9th, 1852. 
 
 The intelligence of the death of DANIEL WEBSTER was first made 
 known in New Orleans, by the publication of an extra issued from the 
 office of the Picayune, on the afternoon of the day on which the 
 illustrious American died. The event, which threw the greatest nation 
 of the world into unfeigned mourning, took place at the country 
 residence of the deceased, Marshfield, Massachusetts, at 3 o'clock, on 
 the morning of Sunday, October 24th, 1852. The Picayune alone, 
 received the sad news that day, by telegraph, and immediately pub- 
 lished it, accompanied by the following message, promptly issued by 
 the Hon. A. D. Grossman, Mayor of this city. 
 
 MAYORALTY OF NEW ORLEANS, 
 October 24, 1852. 
 
 The American people are again bowed down in grief for the lose of one of their greatest and 
 most patriotic statesmen. DANIEL WEBSTER, whose matchless intellect towered above all his 
 compeers, is no more. Of that mighty trio CLAY, CALHOUN and WEBSTER each one of whom 
 devoted a lifetime to his country's cause, and whose dying breath was yielded up in the service of a 
 grateful and admiring, but now, alas ! afflicted people, the last has been gathered to the tomb of 
 his fathers. But a few short months since, the nation was called upon to mourn the loss of HENRY 
 CLAY, and now again the funeral pall is spread over the land at the announcement of the death of 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 
 
 And while a nation's tears are flowing at this national bereavement, it is fitting that we should 
 display the outward simbols of woe, as an evidence feeble and inadequate though the expression 
 may be of the affection, esteem, admiration and reverence in which the lamented deceased was 
 held in this community. For DANIEL WEBSTER, though calling himself a citizen of Massachusetts, 
 was emphatically a national man in the broadest sense of the term. 
 
 Therefore, I, A. D. Grossman, Mayor of the City of New Orleans, do issue this my proclamation, 
 recommending to my fellow-citizens as a token of respect for the departed statesman, to abstain 
 from their ordinary business associations on Monday next, the 25th hist I also recommend that 
 the flags be displayed during the day at half-mast from the various public buildings, and from 
 vessels and steamboats in port, and that minute guns be fired from sunrise to sunset, the command- 
 ing officers being authorized to carry this order into execution. 
 
 It is expected that the various offices of the City Government, as well as all other public 
 offices, be closed after 12 o'clock, on that day. 
 
 (Signed) A. D. GROSSMAN, Mayor.
 
 8 HISTORYOFTHE 
 
 That important and responsible body, the Whig Central Execu- 
 tive Committee of the State of Louisiana, held a special meeting, 
 and published the following feeling and appropriate remarks and 
 
 resolutions : 
 
 SUNDAY APTBBNOON, Oct. 24, 1852. 
 
 The Intelligence of the death of DANIEL WEBSTER having been communicated to this Com- 
 mittee, the following preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted : 
 
 Another great name has been added to the list of the dead ! Another bright star blotted out 
 from the galaxy of the nation 1 Another constellation of genius, the rays of which have penetrated 
 the darkest corners of the earth, has set forever in the horizon I The triumvirate of gigantic 
 intellect extols no more t CALHOUN, CLAY and WEBSTEB, each in his turn has obeyed the inexorable 
 decrees of fata The mightiest intellect of the age the great expounder of the Constitution the 
 patriotic and bold advocate of the Compromise the man who submitted to the sacrifice of violent 
 sectional opposition, in order that he might do his duty to his whole country the great defender 
 of American rights, and the liberty of mankind DANIEL WEBSTEB, is dead. 
 
 A whole nation is again bowed down in sorrow. While yet we grieve for the loss of the 
 immortal CLAY, we are called upon again to mourn. Upon the wings of lightning fit messenger to 
 symbolize and convey the great loss the American people has sustained the intelligence of his death 
 has sped itself to every corner of the land. "The Union, now and forever, one and inseparable," 
 has lost its great supporter. For near half a century he has been to the Constitution an American 
 Atlas upon his broad shoulders he has borno it manfully, repelling successfully attacks upon it 
 from every quarter, until the name of DANIEL WEBSTEB and the American Constitution have 
 become almost " one and indivisibla" 
 
 The great Whig party of the country has lost another of its distinguished leaders all that is 
 left to it of him is the consciousness of his immortality the remembrance of his virtues the 
 admiration of his genius. The measure of his greatness was full to overflowing. Proud would wo 
 have been as Whigs to have battled under his leadership, to have followed his standard to victory ; 
 but it was decreed by an all-wise Providence that no more of earth's ephemeral honors should be 
 conferred upon him, but that the mighty monarch, Death, should place upon his brow the seal of 
 immortality. While we bend with fitting humility to the inscrutable decree that has deprived our 
 country of one of its brightest ornaments, we feel we should be wanting in our duty as Americans 
 did we fail to offer this, our humble tribute, to the memory of DANIEL WKBSTEB. Be it therefore 
 
 Resolved, That the Whig Central Executive Committee of Louisiana tender to our brother 
 Whigs of Louisiana and the entire country, our sincere and heartfelt sorrow and profound sympathy 
 for the great loss our country and our party has sustained in the death of DANIEL WEBSTEB. 
 
 liuolvtd, That the committee room be draped with the usual emblems of mourning, and the 
 members wear the usual badge for thirty days. 
 
 Rtsalttd, That a copy of the foregoing preamble and resolutions be forwarded to the afflicted 
 relatives of the deceased. 
 
 (Signed) I. N. MARKS, President. 
 
 E. SOLOMON, Secretary. 
 
 The next morning, the Democratic State Central Committee 
 published the following preamble and resolutions : 
 
 The intelligence of the death of DANIEL WEBSTER having been communicated to the Com- 
 mitte<y the following preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted : 
 
 Whereas, DANIEL WEBSTEB has passed away from among the people of this nation, a mighty 
 man, whose name is part and parcel of the glory of our common country. Therefore,
 
 FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 
 
 Resolved, That the Democratic State Central Committee of Louisiana most deeply sympathise 
 with all their fellow-citizens in this great national loss. 
 
 Resolved, That this committee do most heartily proffer to the Mayor of New Orleans, its co- 
 operation in any measures which the city may deem proper to take hi honor of the illustnovis 
 dead. 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted to the near relatives of the deceased. 
 
 FMTT.K LA SERE, President 
 J. L. LEVY, Secretary. 
 
 The melancholy intelligence, though daily expected for some 
 time previous, struck every heart with the suddeness of a thunderbolt. 
 It could scarcely be realized. A silent sorrow pervaded the vast city ; 
 the abstracted looks and sombre expression of every man's counte- 
 nance indicated how busy his thoughts were with the stores of 
 reminiscences of the departed orator, which he had cherished even 
 from his school days. This universal feeling found embodiment the 
 morning after the news was received, Monday, October 25th, in a 
 public meeting, held at very short notice, in the large public hall at 
 Banks's Arcade, on Magazine street. 
 
 The hall was crowded, our oldest and most respected and influ- 
 ential citizens, of all occupations and nations, joining heartily and 
 promptly in the impromptu demonstration. The following officers 
 were called upon to preside: 
 
 PRESIDENT Mayor Grossman. 
 
 VICE PRESIDENTS T. A. Adams, J. N. Howell, D. S. Dewes, M. 
 Garcia, J. L. Carman, A. M. Holbrook, J. L. Levey, E. Lapere, J. 
 C. Larue, A. Musson, G. C. Lawrason, Col. Palfrey, Col. Hays, E. 
 H. Durell, N. R. Jennings, J. A. Clark, A. W. Tufts, C. C. Lathrop, 
 I. Bridge, B. Fallon, G. B. Duncan, Col. Monaghan, J. A. Beard, R. 
 B. Sykes, J. L. Winter, S. C. Reid, A. Munroe, B. Florence, C. M. 
 Waterman, N. E. Bailey, F. Leach, J. J. Durant, J. G. Dunlap, H. S. 
 Barton. 
 
 SECRETARIES H. Marks, Warren A. Grice, Durant da Ponte, D. 
 Scully. 
 
 The President briefly explained the object of the meeting. " We 
 have assembled," he said, " to make arrangements to pay a suitable 
 token of regret at the death of the great orator, statesman and pacifi- 
 cator, whose loss we mourn to-day ; and all citizens, irrespective of 
 party, will join in this tribute." B
 
 10 HISTOBYOFTHE 
 
 On motion, the following committee was appointed by the Presi- 
 dent to prepare suitable resolutions : G. B. Duncan, N. R. Jennings, 
 Col. Monaghan, J. C. Larue, Isaac Bridge, Thomas A. Adams, I. N. 
 Marks, Col. Seymour, W. L. Gushing, Alexander Walker. 
 
 The committee retired, and whilst they were out, the meeting 
 was addressed by Mr. E. J. Carrell, of the Crescent newspaper, and 
 Hon. John C. Larue, Judge of the First District Court of this city. 
 Their remarks were listened to with deep silence and with an eager 
 attention which showed how strong was the emotion which pulsed in 
 the hearts of the crowded audience. Judge Larue came forward 
 after loud calls, and delivered a beautiful eulogy on the character of 
 the deceased. He admitted that he, and those of his political creed, 
 had often-times differed with Mr. "Webster on the political questions 
 of the times, but all had always admired the towering genius, the 
 eloquent tongue, and gigantic mind of the champion of our country's 
 honor, who had given it a broad name, upon which all the nations of 
 the civilized world looked with admiration and respect. He admired 
 Mr. Webster most when, in opposition to the expressed opinion of 
 his own State, of his own" city, and all the prejudices which could be 
 brought to bear upon him, he boldly walked up to the breach, with 
 Clay and his associates, and laid down his prejudices on the altar of 
 his country. The South was most indebted to him, in gratitude for 
 defending her rights when they were in peril. May the roses bloom 
 o'er his grave, till the earth crumbles into dust ! 
 
 Many were moved to tears at the conclusion of the speaker's 
 deeply pathetic remarks. 
 
 The committee then reported the following preamble and reso- 
 lutions, which were unanimously adopted, and then the meeting 
 adjourned : 
 
 The sensation which pervaded our entire Republic, caused by the removal of one of its purest, 
 ablest, and most illustrious patriots and statesmen, baa scarcely subsided, and again the inscrutable 
 decrees of Providence have smitten us with affliction, which human language is inadequate to 
 portray. The last of the three greatest men of modern times the admiration of the civilized 
 world the ornament, the pride, the boast of the American people has descended to the tomb 
 DANIEL WEBSTER is no more. 
 
 JVhfle we bow before the throne of Omnipotence, and humbly confess the justice of Him who 
 afflicts his children only for their good, it is meet that wn manifest the feelings which pervade our 
 hearts, by striving to convey to our fellow-citizens a faint description of their intensity. Therefore,
 
 FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 11 
 
 Resolved, That, as American citizens, we cannot without the deepest and most overwhelming 
 emotion, contemplate the loss of those three master-spirits whose giant intellects, consummate 
 statesmanship, and unassuming patriotism, contributed so much to give tone to the present age, 
 and earned for this people a fame that can never perish our CALHOUN CLAT WEBSTEB. 
 
 Resolved, That a committee of ten citizens be appointed by his Honor the Mayor, to confer with 
 similar committees of the Common Council, and other public bodies, who shall constitute a general 
 committee of arrangements, for the purpose of selecting a day, and making the necessary prepara- 
 tion for a solemn funeral pageant, in honor of the great dead. 
 
 The U. S. District Court, the City District Courts, Recorders 
 Courts, and public offices, Federal, State and Municipal, all adjourned 
 on Monday morning, in honor of the memory of the illustrious deceased, 
 whilst the citizens generally draped their stores and residences in 
 mourning. The public buildings wore similar symbols of woe ; the 
 flags of the fleet of shipping and steamboats in port floated at half- 
 mast ; the solomn bells tolled mournfully on the ear, and the deep 
 mouthed cannon filled up at intervals, in muttering thunder tones, the 
 pauses of sad silence. 
 
 On Tuesday evening, Oct. 26th, the City Council met in accor- 
 dance with the special call of the Mayor, who addressed to the Boards 
 of Aldermen and Assistant Aldermen, the following message : 
 
 MAYORALTY OF NEW OBLEANS, OCT. 26, 1852. 
 
 To the honorable President and Members of the Board of Aldermen and the Assistant Board of 
 Aldermen of the city of New Orleans : 
 
 Gentlemen I have caused you to be convoked this day for the purpose of taking a becoming 
 action on the death of the great American statesman, DANIEL WEBSTEB. On the receipt of the 
 melancholy intelligence on Sunday, I issued a proclamation recommending to my fellow-citizens to 
 abstain from their ordinary business avocations on Monday, and to display the usual emblems of 
 mourning, as a testimonial of the reverence and esteem in which this mighty pillar of the Republic 
 was held. I am happy and proud to say that this recommendation was very generally observed ; 
 but the people of New Orleans, yielding to none other in their admiration of that genius, patriotism 
 and eloquence, the like of which may not be sought for since the last of the great triumvirate 
 CALHOUN, CLAY, WEBSTEB has paid the debt of nature, deem that an occasion so afflicting, and 
 which has bowed down a whole nation in mourning, should be marked by a more formal observance 
 than the hasty but sincere expression of feeling manifested yesterday. 
 
 Accordingly, a public meeting was held at the Arcade yesterday ; at which, among other 
 appropriate and expressive resolutions, it was resolved, " That a committee of ten citizens be 
 appointed by the Mayor, to confer with similar committees of the Common Council, and other 
 public bodies, who shall constitute a General Committee of Arrangements, for the purpose of 
 selecting a day and making the necessary preparations for a solemn funeral pageant in honor of the 
 great dead.' 1 In conformity with this resolution, I beg to apprise your honorable body that I have 
 appointed the following gentlemen on that committee, and would respectfully urge the nomination 
 of a joint committee on the part of the Common Council, to co-operate with the citizens in paying 
 a tribute worthy of the city of New Orleans to the memory of the departed statesman and patriot, 
 DANIEL WEBSTEK.
 
 12 HIST ORY OF THE 
 
 Committee Samuel J. Peters, John R. Grymes, A. M. Holbrook, W. L. Gushing, Win. Monaghan, 
 T. A. Adams, Joseph Genois, John L. Lewie, Manuel Garcia, H. R. W. HilL 
 I hare the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 A. D. GROSSMAN, Mayor. 
 
 In the Board of Aldermen a committee of four, consisting of 
 Messrs. Harris, Labatut, Lugenbuhl and Burke, was appointed to 
 confer with the committees previously named, as to the manner of 
 paying suitable honor to the memory of the great dead. 
 
 It was also resolved that the members of this Board should wear 
 the badge of mourning for thirty days. 
 
 In the Board of Assistant Aldermen, after the reading of the 
 Mayor's message, the following resolutions, presented by Mr. Forbes, 
 were unanimously adopted : 
 
 Be it Retohed, That in the death of DANIEL WEBSTER the Union has lost a great support, and 
 the American people a magnificent representative. 
 
 Retained, That the death of a truly great statesman, such as DANIEL WEBSTEB was, is a 
 mournful dispensation, which calls for the most earnest and solemn commemoration of such a 
 grave national affliction. 
 
 Retained, That in the loss of so great a man, whose merits were grand in the dignity of the 
 statesman, the eloquence of the orator, the wisdom of the negotiator, and the nationality of the 
 American, our country realizes an impoverishment of national fame and national intellect. 
 
 Retained, That we are fully prepared to join in any demonstration expressive of our con- 
 sciousness of this public calamity, and that for six months the Council chambers be shrouded in the 
 usual emblem of mourning. 
 
 A committee of eight members : Messrs. Nixon, Place, Heerman, 
 Burthe, Derbes, Dolhonde, Watkins, and Philbrick, was appointed to 
 act in conjunction with the committees appointed by the Mayor, by 
 the meeting at the Arcade, and the Board of Aldermen. 
 
 On the morning of Saturday, October 30th, the members of the 
 Bar of New Orleans met in the Supreme Court room, for the purpose 
 of taking the share in the general ceremonial which the long and 
 brilliant connection of the deceased with their profession entitled them 
 to and made it incumbent on them to assume. 
 
 The meeting was called to order by M. M. Cohen, Esq., and 
 Mr. E. A. Bradford, of Massachusetts, one of the most prominent and 
 respected members of the legal profession in this city, was called upon 
 to preside. 
 
 On taking the chair, Mr. Bradford addressed the meeting for 
 about twenty minutes in a strain of happy eloquence, distinguished for
 
 m 
 
 FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 13 
 
 classic beauty and elegant diction and sentiment to a degree as pleasing 
 to the taste, as it was touching to the feelings of his listeners. 
 
 At the close of his remarks, a committee was appointed to draft 
 and report resolutions appropriate to the occasion. 
 
 During the absence of the committee, Mr. Rand, a young member 
 of the Bar, delivered a very beautiful and touching address relative to 
 the character and great mental qualities of the deceased. The meet- 
 ing was also addressed by the Hon. J. P. Benjamin, U. S. Senator 
 elect, in an impromptu discourse clothed in the distinguished gentle- 
 man's usual clear and felicitous language. 
 
 The committee then reported the resolutions appended, which 
 were unanimously adopted. They were afterwards, on motion of 
 J. R. Grymes, Esq., on behalf of Isaac Johnson, Attorney General of 
 the State, ordered to be spread on the minutes of the Supreme Court. 
 
 Inasmuch as it hath pleased Divine Providence to remove from our midst the Honorable 
 DANIEL WEBSTEB, the acknowledged head of the American Bar, his professional brethren of the 
 city of New Orleans, entertaining a profound veneration for his memory, as an expression of their 
 sentiments, do resolve : 
 
 1st. That in contemplating the character of the deceased as a Lawyer, we have just cause to be 
 proud of his transcendent abilities and natural endowments, which had been cultivated with untiring 
 industry through a long life. His arguments were remarkable for their compact and lofty freedom, 
 power and application. To use the apt language of a great man in reference to a kindred genius, 
 he was eminently distinguished for completely exhausting every subject he discussed, and left no 
 argument on the other side unnoticed and unanswered. The reported cases fall immeasurably 
 short of doing any sort of justice to his powerful intellect and accurate logic, to the extent of his 
 knowledge, or the eloquence of his illustrations. He stated principles, and enlarged .and explained 
 them, until those who heard him were lost in admiration at the strength and power of the human 
 understanding. Upon the dry technical rules of law he shed the illumination of his mighty mind, 
 and those subjects in our profession which are regarded as harsh and forbidding, were by his just 
 taste, the purity and elegance of his style, clothed with the attractions of a liberal science and the 
 embellishment of polite literature. 
 
 3d. That the members of the Bar of New Orleans entertain the conviction that the matchless 
 solidity, purity, and patriotic nationality of hia works, will ensure their preservation through all 
 coming ages as an imperishable monument of his genius, and that they will ever be regarded by 
 our citizens as masterly expositions of the spirit of the laws which give living power to our consti- 
 tutional fabric of government, in which he saw with his great compeer in the profession, " a pledge 
 of the immortality of the Union.' 1 
 
 3d. That a copy of the foregoing resolutions be handed to the Attorney General, to be by him 
 presented to the Supreme Court, with the request that the same be entered upon the minutes of 
 said Court on the first day of the meeting of the coming session, and that a like copy be handed to 
 the District Attorney of the United States, to be presented to the Circuit Court, with the request 
 that they be entered upon the records of the said Court. 
 
 4th. That a committee of five be appointed by the chair to select gentlemen to deliver eulogies 
 upon the life and character of HENRY CLAY and DANIEL WEBSTEB, and that said committee be
 
 14 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 also requested to confer with the Hon. George Eustis, as to the eulogy to be by him delivered upon 
 the life and character of JOHN C. CAI.BOCN. 
 
 5th. That the members of the Bar will wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days. 
 
 6th, That a copy of the foregoing resolutions be sent to the family of the deceased, with the 
 expression of the sympathy of the members of this Bar in their irreparable loss. 
 
 A committee was then appointed in accordance with the resolu- 
 tions. 
 
 On Monday morning, November 1st, at the opening of the U. S. 
 Circuit Court, Logan Hunton, Esq., U. S. Attorney, announced the 
 decease of Hon. John McKinley, one^ of the Associate Judges of the 
 Supreme Court of the United States ; of the Hon. HENRY CLAY, and 
 of the Hon. DANIEL WEBSTER, as having occurred since the adjourn- 
 ment of the Court in June last ; and on moving an adjournment as a 
 mark of respect to the deceased, paid a feeling tribute to their 
 memories, which was eloquently responded to by his Honor Theo. 
 H. McCaleb. Whereupon the court adjourned. 
 
 On Friday, November 15th, at 12 o'clock, the committee of 
 citizens appointed by Mayor Grossman, met for the first time in the 
 City Hall, in the chamber of the Board of Aldermen. The committees 
 from the Boards of Aldermen and Assistant Aldermen were present. 
 H. R. W. Hill, Esq., one of our oldest and most influential merchants, 
 was called to the chair, and Alderman J. O. Nixon and Col. William 
 Monaghan were appointed Secretaries. 
 
 The chairman explained the object of the meeting. On sugges- 
 tion, it was resolved, that the committee appointed at the meeting of 
 the Bar should be invited to unite in making arrangements. 
 
 Alderman Harris remarked, that he thought it proper that any 
 or all of the societies of the city ought to be invited to take a part in 
 the proceedings. 
 
 Col. Hill stated his own individual views to be, that in any 
 arrangements which might be made, the spirit of liberality and fellow- 
 ship should be extended to all societies and classes of citizens ; that 
 the platform should be made broad enough to embrace all associations, 
 trades and public bodies, and that a day should be appointed when 
 all persons should rest from their usual labors, and cordially unite in 
 making an imposing and grand funeral rite in honor of the memory 
 of the great departed.
 
 FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 15 
 
 On motion of Alderman Lugenbuhl, the chair appointed a sub- 
 committee of eight, to prepare a programme, and report to the General 
 Committee at a future day. 
 
 The chair appointed the following gentlemen : Aldermen Lugen- 
 buhl and Harris, on the part of the Board of Aldermen ; Aldermen 
 Place and Watkins, on the part of the Board of Assistants ; Messrs. 
 Holbrook and Gushing, on the part of the citizens ; and Messrs. Cohen 
 and Elmore, on the part of the bar. On motion, the Chairman, Col. 
 Hill, was added to the committee. 
 
 From the first, the revered names of CALHOUN, CLAY and WEB- 
 STER, had been so spontaneously united in the thoughts and regrets 
 of every one, and the expression of sorrow for their loss, and admira- 
 tion for their characters and services occurred so constantly and 
 prominently in all the meetings that had taken place, that it was no 
 matter of astonishment or opposition when the Sub-Committee, at their 
 first meeting, resolved to report in favor of a solemn funeral ceremony 
 in honor, not of WEBSTER alone, but of his great compeers, CALHOUN 
 and CLAY, with him. The idea met with universal approbation, and 
 the more so that there was a general consciousness that the city had 
 not acted with a due regard to its own dignity in passing over without 
 municipal notice and ceremony, the deaths of such illustrious Ameri- 
 cans, patriots, statesmen and orators, as JOHN C. CALHOUN and HENRY 
 CLAY. There had long been a desire to repair this apparent neglect, 
 and the opportunity to do so now offered, was eagerly seized upon. 
 Besides, it struck the general mind, that a ceremony uniting the 
 feelings entertained by the entire community towards the departed 
 Triumvirate, would be impressed with a more imposing solemnity, 
 commensurate with the history of the deceased as a trio in the nation's 
 councils, than a funeral display designed to honor the memory of only 
 one of them. The latter would be sectional ; the former, national. 
 
 The Sub-Committee went actively to work with the design of 
 preparing for this general ceremonial. At the next meeting of the 
 General Committee, which took place on Thursday evening, November 
 llth, they offered through Mr. Lugenbuhl, a series of resolutions 
 defining the plan they had adopted. A funeral procession was of 
 course to bo the main feature of the occasion. The day was fixed for
 
 16 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 Thursday, the 9th December. The committee also recommended 
 that on that day all persons should be desired to close their places of 
 business, that the bells of the churches and of the city be tolled, that 
 all flags on the shipping be hoisted at half-mast, and that the dwellings 
 of the citizens be draped in mourning; that a committee be appointed 
 to invite the military, fire department, benevolent and other societies 
 to join in the procession; that Chief Justice Eustis be appointed to 
 deliver the eulogy on CALHODN, Judge McCaleb that on CLAY, and 
 Christian Roselius, Esq., that on WEBSTER ; that the Committee of 
 Arrangements appoint thirty-one pall bearers, one from each State in 
 the Union ; that Col. Labuzan be appointed Grand Marshal, and Gen. 
 Tracy, First Assistant Grand Marshal of the procession, with power to 
 appoint their aids, one from each district, and such other aids as they 
 might require, after consultation with the Committee of Arrangements ; 
 and that the Grand Marshals be empowered to prepare and publish a 
 programme of the procession. 
 
 Mr. Place, on behalf of the Sub-Committee, then submitted apian 
 of a grand Cenotaph, with pillars and other beautiful architectural 
 ornaments, after a plan drawn by Mr. Mondelli. Lafayette Square 
 was recommended as the place where the Cenotaph should be erected, 
 and it was also recommended that the square be lighted up on the 
 evening of the ceremony, until 10 o'clock at night. 
 
 Mr. Cohen, on behalf of the Sub-Committee, reported in favor of 
 engaging the Odd Fellows' Hall, Dr. Scott's Presbyterian Church, 
 and the Lyceum Hall, for the purpose of delivering the eulogies, all 
 of which it was determined should be delivered at the same time. 
 The reports of the sub-committees were unanimously adopted, with 
 a plan of a funeral car designed by Mr. Dubuque, and that of illumi- 
 nating Lafayette Square, by M. Catoir. 
 
 Messrs. Harris, Adams, Durant, Gushing and Heerman, were 
 appointed a Committee of Invitation. 
 
 Messrs. Cohen, Lewis and Lugenbuhl were appointed a com- 
 mittee to inform the gentlemen selected as the orators, of their 
 appointment. 
 
 The Sub-Committee, consisting of Messrs. Lugenbuhl, Harris, 
 Place, Watkins, Holbrook, Gushing, Cohen, Elmore and Hill, were
 
 FUNERAL CERE MONIES. 17 
 
 then appointed to act as the Committee of Arrangements, and were 
 clothed with full power to carry out the plans already adopted, and to 
 take such other steps in perfecting them as they might deem necessary. 
 
 The Sub-Committee of Arrangements were now busily occupied 
 in despatching invitations to be present at the ceremonies, to all parts 
 of the country to Governors of States, Mayors of Cities, City 
 Councils, distinguished citizens, members of the Federal Government, 
 and especially, as a mark of respect, to the families of the deceased. 
 The Sub-Committee also had a large amount of labor in drawing 
 up, with the very efficient aid of the Grand Marshal, Col. Labuzan, 
 Deputy U. S. Marshal for this district, the general features and minute 
 details of the Programme of Ceremonies, 
 
 On Friday, November 19th, the Sub-Committee published the 
 following circular, the object of which will be seen by a perusal: 
 
 The citizens of New Orleans have set aside the ninth day of December next, for the celebration 
 of appropriate Funeral Ceremonies in respect to the memory of the deceased Statesmen, CALHOUN, 
 CLAY and WBBSTES. The occasion will be one of peculiar solemnity and interest, and the cere- 
 monies will be of a grand and impressive character. 
 
 It is desirable that our fellow countrymen, in the interior and at a distance, sharing in the 
 profound emotions of reverence for the illustrious dead, and regret for the bereavement of the 
 nation in their loss, should have an opportunity to take a part hi the public manifestations of these 
 feelings. The Committee, therefore, express the hope that their country friends of this and the 
 neighboring States, will join them in the procession of that day, and give to the mournful pageant 
 a more imposing aspect as a wider demonstration of the national grief. 
 
 It is believed that a large assemblage could be gathered here, without sensible inconvenience to 
 the visitors and little absolute cost Business brings great numbers to the city during the winter, 
 and timely arrangements could, in many cases, make that time quite as convenient for the purpose 
 as any other. It is an object, however, well worthy of an effort; and the Committee hope to see 
 here many visitors, representing worthily the sympathies of the people of other places in the 
 paying of these Public Honors to departed Genius, Virtue and Wisdom. 
 
 (Signed by the Committee.) 
 
 The above circular was sent to the interior. On the 18th 
 November, a card appeared signed by Messrs. R. J. Ward, R. W. 
 Adams, C. Bullitt, J. T, Belknap, L. McKnight, Edward Parmele, 
 H. S. Buckner, Tho. Hunter, M. O. H. Norton, Chas. Harper, H. G. 
 Adams, L. D. Addison, Jr., Logan Hunton, John W. Price, J. L. 
 Armstrong, Ben. Bland, Chas. F. Sands, John H. Owen, Geo. F. 
 Strother, R. W. Kearney, Edward J. Carrell, F. F. Parmele, Wm. 
 Chambers, Colville Bell, F. S. Browne, A. S. Trotter, Garnett Duncan, 
 J. M. Fimister calling on Kentuckians in the city and vicinity to
 
 18 HI STORY Of THE 
 
 meet that evening, for the purpose of making preparations to join as 
 a body in the funeral obsequies. The meeting took place, but as no 
 report has been found, no account of its details can be given. How- 
 ever, Messrs. E. Parmele, J. L. Armstrong and R. W. Adams were 
 appointed a committee of arrangements on the part of the Kentuckians, 
 and they immediately entered actively on their duties, in preparing 
 banners, music, badges, &c., and in urging their countrymen to turn 
 out in strong numbers on the occasion. 
 
 A 
 
 On the 21st November, a notice appeared from the Grand 
 Secretary of the Grand Lodge of the order of Masons in the State, 
 requesting the members under that jurisdiction " to join the public 
 funeral procession and ceremonies in honor of the memories of those 
 distinguished statesmen and patriots, Brothers HENEY CLAY, JOHN C. 
 CALHOUN, and DANIEL WEBSTER." The Brethren were directed to 
 assemble on the day of the ceremonies, in strict Masonic funeral dress, 
 at the Masonic Hall, corner of Baronne and Perdido streets, First 
 District, where they would be organized by the Grand Marshal, G. 
 W. Race, and his assistants. Transient Brethren were also invited 
 to attend. 
 
 On the 27th November, a notice was published by Messrs. W. 
 A. Elmore, C. de Choiseul, M. M. Cohen, Chas. S. Reese, Richard 
 Bremen, L. E. Simonds, S. L. & E. L. Levy, S. M. Westmore, E. 
 W. Moise, S. Bonner, T. S. Moise, H. C. Gladden, W. D. Smith, 
 Geo. W. Cross, M. M. Simpson, J. L. Levy, A. C. Labatt, D. C. 
 Labatt, J. E. Simonds, W. W. Wood, B. N. Moss, J. H. Marks, I. N. 
 Marks, M. Abrams, J. P. Abrams, J. F. Gambe, all well known gen- 
 tlemen in this city, inviting their fellow-citizens of South Carolina to 
 attend a preliminary meeting to be held ot the office of the Crescent 
 Mutual Insurance Company, corner of Camp street and Commercial 
 Place, First District, on Monday evening, the 29th, " to take into con- 
 sideration the propriety of uniting with their fellow-citizens in doing 
 honor to the memory of their countryman, JOHN C. CALHOUN, and to 
 HENRY CLAY, and DANIEL WEBSTER." 
 
 The meeting took place and was numerously attended. W. E. 
 Elmore, ex-Attorney General of the State, was called on to preside,
 
 FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 19 
 
 and I. N. Marks was appointed Secretary. The chair briefly stated the 
 objects of the meeting. 
 
 Mr. Cohen, as one of the Committee of Arrangements on the 
 part of the city, gave information in relation to the general arrange- 
 ments for the 9th December. 
 
 On motion of J. A. Barelli, a committee of five was appointed to 
 make all necessary arrangements for the South Carolinians to join in 
 the ceremonies. 
 
 The Committee was composed of M. M. Cohen, I. N. Marks, J. 
 D, B. DeBow, A. C. Labatt, and Dr. Axson. 
 
 The meeting then adjourned to assemble again on the call of the 
 Committee of Arrangements. 
 
 On the 2d December, the Committee published a call for another 
 meeting to take place on the 7th, and also inviting all Carolinians to 
 unite on the morning of the 9th, at the City Hall, opposite Lafayette 
 Square, to arrange for taking their place in the Procession. 
 
 On the 23d November, the Foremen of that very large, influen- 
 tial and respectable body, the Fire Department of this city, held a 
 meeting and adopted the following Preamble and Resolutions : 
 
 Whereas, The citizens of New Orleans in common with the people of this great nation, 
 have deemed it but proper to set apart a day to do honor to the memories of the three great Ame- 
 rican statesmen. JOHN C. CALHOUN, HENRY CLAY and DANIEL WEBSTEK, the exalted spirits of the 
 age, and the very pillars of this happy confederacy ; who have lately passed from our midst, and 
 thus deprived this country of its wisest guides and counsellors. And 
 
 Whereas, we, members of the Fire Department of this city, fully sensible of the greatness of 
 the departed, and the services they have rendered to their country, do most cordially approve of 
 the matter proposed. 
 
 Resolved, That we, members of the Fire Department of the city of New Orleans, do most 
 cordially approve and sanction the course of our citizens in setting apart a day for celebrating the 
 funeral solemnities of these great and good men, and pledge our aid and influence in endeavoring 
 to procure the general participation of the Department. 
 
 (Signed) J. C. McLELLAN, Chairman. 
 
 RICH'D. L. ROBERTSON, Jr., Sec'y. 
 
 From this time up to within a day or two of the funeral cere- 
 monials, all the various Societies of the city, Military, Benevolent, 
 Firemen, Masonic, Odd Fellows, Temperance, Screwmen, Printers, 
 Grocers, were actively engaged in preparing for the occasion, not 
 only to make a striking display of their own numbers, but to give a 
 more imposing effect to the entire ceremony. The Board of Directors
 
 20 HISTORYOFTHE 
 
 of the First District Public Schools ordered that the boys and male 
 teachers of the schools should join in the Procession, with the Directors 
 themselves at their head. 
 
 The New England Society, one of the first associations in the 
 South, from the influential positions of its members in our city society 
 and business, of course took a deep interest in the projected cere- 
 monies. They felt the loss of DANIEL WEBSTER, not alone as 
 Massachusetts men, but as natives of all of those States which form 
 New England, and to which the departed orator was more especially 
 endeared. The large number of New Englanders resident in the city 
 and visiting it, answered the first call of the Society with alacrity 
 and at a meeting held on the 2d December, a Committee of Arrange- 
 ments was appointed to prepare for a general turn out of the New 
 Englanders in a style befitting their numbers and the interest they 
 more peculiarly felt on this occasion of mourning. The Committee 
 consisted of Messrs. J. W. Stanton, Zachary Taylor, Geo. W. Lamb, 
 J. H. Felt, L. Spring, W. H. Carter, and W. H. Bartlett. On the 7th 
 December, they published the following notice : 
 
 The Committee of Arrangements appointed at a meeting of the natives of New England, held 
 at the office of the Crescent Insurance Company, on the 2d inst, respectfully invite all natives of 
 New England that may be in the city on the 9th inst, whether citizens or strangers, to join with 
 them in observing the ceremonies of the day. 
 
 The Committee are induced to extend the invitation in this special manner, inasmuch as very 
 many of their fellow-citizens (New Englanders) are members of various city societies and bodies, 
 viz : the Military, Odd Fellows, Firemen, &c., and as such intend to join in the Procession and 
 other observances of the day. 
 
 While we cheerfully recognize the duty of members of the societies referred to to join with 
 their respective societies in the observance of the ceremonies, yet the Committee venture to hope 
 and believe that on an occasion like this, which is to do honor to the memory of our illustrious 
 statesman, the pride and glory of every native of New England, I UMKI, WEBSTER, together with 
 his eminent fellow-statesmen CALHOUN and CtAT, that all sons of the Pilgrims, without exception, 
 will specially unite for that purpose. 
 
 The Committee, therefore, earnestly invite all natives of the New England States, that may be 
 in the city, to meet on the morning of the 9th inst., at the office of the Crescent Insurance Com- 
 pany, corner of Camp street and Commercial Alley, for the purpose of organizing and joining in 
 the Procession. 
 
 The Shipmasters in port were called on to meet on the evening 
 of the 7th December, at the office of J. P. Whitney & Co., 91 Camp 
 street. The meeting was fully attended, and suitable measures were 
 taken for this influential body to participate in the ceremonies.
 
 FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 21 
 
 The numerous Societies composed of natives of foreign countries, 
 were by no means backward in the display of a spirit similar to that 
 which animated our native and naturalized citizens. The mass of the 
 population of the city exhibited a deep interest in the matter, and on 
 all sides in hotels, boarding houses, private residences, from those of 
 the richest to those of the poorest, stores, shops, warehouses busy 
 hands were at work obeying the dictates of warm hearts and active 
 fancies, in preparing mourning drapery and devices, whereby to 
 express the sorrow the people felt for the loss of the men they delighted 
 to honor and admire. It was no mere official ceremony that was to 
 be performed; it was a ceremony which took its shape from the 
 heartfelt, impulses of the thousands who dwell in the Crescent City. 
 
 Several Societies sent in communications to the Committee, 
 giving their reasons why they should not be able to attend on the 
 9th the Order of the Lone Star, the Howard Association, and others. 
 Their peculiar objects, either political or charitable, prevented their 
 appearance in public. Most of their members, however, joined the 
 procession under the banners of other Associations and Societies, civil 
 and military. 
 
 The numerous Foreign Consuls in the city notified the Com- 
 mittee by letter of their intention to be present at the ceremonies. 
 The Governor of the State, Joseph Walker, sent word that illness 
 would prevent his attendance. It was understood that the Mayor of 
 Charleston would be present, as the Common Council of that city 
 granted him leave of absence for the purpose. His Honor did not 
 make his appearance, in consequence of indisposition. The Committee 
 sent invitations to all the officers of the Army stationed here, com- 
 mencing with Gen. Twiggs, Commander of the Division, through all 
 branches of the service ; also to the officers of the Revenue Service 
 then in port. A special invitation was sent to Lieut. Col. Nauman, in 
 command at the U. S. Barracks below the city, to join the procession, 
 at the head of the battalion of the Fourth Artillery. 
 
 A committee was appointed for the reception of ladies at the 
 delivery of the orations at the Odd Fellows' Hall, Lyceum Hall, and 
 Presbyterian Church, situated around Lafayette Square. This com-
 
 22 HISTOHY OP THE 
 
 mittee met, and the following sub-divisions of its members took 
 place : 
 
 FOR THE LYCEUM HALL Aaron Harris, V. Heermann, T. L. 
 Bayne, M. Blasco, Wm. Vincent, Jr., Armand Coycault, Edward C. 
 Wharton, Germain Vincent, George Rareshide, T. S. Clark. 
 
 FOR THE ODD FELLOWS' HALL J. D. Dameron, Octave Voorhees, 
 P. E. Mortimer, Fred. Stringer, A. Layet, Henry Hall, G. Bouligny, 
 E. Giquel, Thomas A. James, R. W. Dean. 
 
 FOE THE CHURCH F. Camerden, A. Flash,G. B. Duncan, W. C. 
 Raymond, C. Elder, R. B. Sumner, Thomas J. Dix, W. J. Dewey, 
 Benj. Bloomfield, P. H. Goodwin. 
 
 The following gentlemen were appointed committees for the 
 reception of distinguished visitors : Dr. J. Labatut, J. B. Dolhonde, 
 W. C. C. Claiborne, T. A. Adams, W. C. Nicou, H. W. Palfrey, T. 
 A. Clarke, and John Claiborne. 
 
 The owners of private and public carriages and vehicles were 
 directed to withdraw them from the streets through which the proces- 
 sion was to pass, after the hour of 11 A. M., and it was stated that no 
 obstruction of any kind would be permitted in those thoroughfares. 
 The Chief of Police, Capt. Nouenes, was charged with the enforce- 
 ment of these orders. 
 
 Major General Lewis, commanding the First Division of Louisiana 
 Militia, having accepted the invitation of the Committee of Arrange- 
 ments, issued orders on the 2d December, for the volunteer companies 
 under his command to join in the ceremonies, fully equipped for 
 funeral service Brigadier Gen. Augustin, commanding the Louisiana 
 Legion, Brig. Gen. Tracy, commanding the First Brigade, and Brig. 
 Gen. Cronan, commanding the Ninth Brigade, being charged with the 
 execution of the order. 
 
 The Banks issued notices that the day of the funeral ceremonies 
 would be observed by them by closing their doors, and attending to 
 no business. 
 
 On the 3d inst. the General Committee of Arrangements published 
 their programme for the ceremonies of the 9th. We give merely the 
 order of Procession, without details of special directions.
 
 FUNERAL CEREMONIE'S. 23 
 
 The Joint Committee appointed by the Mayor, Members of the Bar, and the Common Council 
 of the city of New Orleans, to make the necessary arrangements for solemnizing the obsequies of 
 the lamented CALHOUN, CLAY, and WEBSTEB, have adopted the following Programme of Arrange- 
 ments for the occasion: 
 
 COL. CHARLES A. LABUZAN 
 
 has been unanimously selected as the Grand Marshal of the Day; and 
 
 GEN. E. L. TRACY 
 
 First Assistant Marshal. 
 
 The following gentlemen have been selected and will act as District Marshals and Aids : 
 
 MARSHALS. 
 
 First District CoL J. B. WALTON. 
 
 Second District... .OVIDE DE BUYS, Esq. 
 
 Third District JAMES PHILLIPS, Esq. 
 
 Fourth District... A. W. JOURDAN, Esq. 
 
 AIDS. 
 
 CoL C. R, Wheat, CoL Henry Forno, CoL C. M. Emerson 
 
 CoL A. W. Bosworth, Robt. A. Grinnan, Esq., Richard Richardson, Esq 
 
 V. H. Ivy, Esq., Samuel G. Risk, Esq., John Adams, Esq., 
 
 Wm. Sutton, Esq., Joseph Bruneau, Esq., A. Sckreiber, Esq., 
 
 Edward Flash, Esq., Joseph Etter, Esq., James Beggs, Esq., 
 
 Thomas Hunton, Esq., John Claiborne, Esq., Edward Thompson, Esq., 
 
 Chas. W. Canfield, Esq., N. Trepagnier, Esq., J. K. Rayburn, Esq., 
 
 Charles Leeds, Esq., Joseph Hufty, Esq., H. J. Ranney, Esq. 
 
 The Procession will move from the City Hall, opposite Lafayette Square, at 11 o'clock, A. M., 
 precisely, and will pass down St. Charles street to Poydras street, up Poydras street to Camp street 
 down Camp and Chartres streets to Conti street, up Conti street to Levee street, down Levee 
 street to Toulouse street, down Toulouse street to Chartres street, down Chartres street to St 
 Ann street, down St. Ann street to Royal street, up Royal street to St. Louis street, down St. Louis 
 street to Bourbon street, up Bourbon and Carondelet streets to St. Joseph street, up St. Joseph 
 street to Camp street, down Camp street to Julia street, down Julia street to St. Charles street, 
 down St. Charles street to Lafayette Square. 
 
 And in order that all those who participate in the Funeral Obsequies may have an opportunity 
 of witnessing it, the ceremony of depositing the Urns in the Cenotaph on Lafayette Square will take 
 place as soon as the Grand Marshal shall have formed the entire procession in column en masse 
 on Lafayette Square, when the Rev. Mr. Walker will pronounce the Benediction hi depositing the 
 Urns in the Cenotaph ; at the closing of which ceremony the procession will be dismissed by the 
 Grand Marshal. 
 
 Immediately after which, the following ceremonies at the places designated will take place : 
 AT LYCEUM HALL, First District Prayer, by Rev. Mr. Walker Funeral Dirge, by Band- 
 Eulogy on JOHN C. CALHOUN, by Hon. Geo. Eustis Benediction, by Rev. Mr. Dobbs. 
 
 AT ODD FELLOWS' HALL, First District Prayer, by Rev. Mr. Cleghorn Funeral Dirge, by 
 Band Eulogy on HKNBY CLAY, by Hon. Theo. H McCaleb Benediction, by Rev. Mr. Cleghorn. 
 
 AT DB. SCOTT'S CHUBCH, Lafayette Square Prayer, by Rev. Dr. Scott Funeral Dirge, by the 
 Choir Eulogy on DANIEL WEBSTEB, by Hon. Christian Roselius Benediction, by Rev. Mr. J. 
 TwitchelL 
 
 The Arrangements of the Day will be under the command of the Grand Marshal 
 Minute guns will be fired during the day from the head of Canal street.
 
 24 
 
 H 1ST O RY OF THE 
 
 It is respectfully requested that all places of public and prirate business be closed, and that the 
 same, together with the dwellings of citizens, be dressed in mourning. 
 
 It is also respectfully requested, that our fellow-citizens wear the usual badge of mourning on 
 the left arm during the moving of the Procession. 
 
 Persons having charge of the church and fire-alarm bells in this city, are requested to cause 
 the same to be tolled during the day. 
 
 Masters of vessels and steamboats in port, and the proprietors of the various public buildings 
 in the city, are respectfully requested to display their colors at half-mast from sunrise to sunset. 
 
 The Military, the several Orders, Societies, Associations, and other bodies that desire to partici- 
 pate in the ceremonies of the day, are requested to assemble at such places as they may respectively 
 select, and repair to the places of rendezvous by 10 o'clock, A. M. 
 
 ORDER OF PROCESSION 
 
 FIRST GRAND DIVISION. 
 
 CoL CHARLES A. LABUZAN, Grand Marshal. Gen. E. L. TRACY, First Assistant Marshal. 
 
 Special Aids to Grand Marshal : 
 
 Col. C. R. Wheat, CoL C. M. Emerson, Col. Henry Fomo, 
 
 Col. A. W. Bosworth, Robt. A. Grinnan, Esq., Richard Richardson, Esq., 
 
 Thos. Hunton, Esq , John Claiborne, Esq., H. J. Ranney, Esq. 
 
 Volunteers of the First Division Louisiana Militia, under the command of Major General John L. 
 
 Lewis, as a Military Escort, as follows : 
 
 Washington Regiment. 
 Volunteer First Brigade Louisiana Militia, commanded by Col. W. W. W. Wood. 
 
 Louisiana Legion, commanded by Gen. D. Augustin. 
 Battalion of U. S. Artillery, under the command of Lt. Col. George Nauman, U. S. Army. 
 
 SECOND GRAND DIVISION. 
 
 Colonel J. B. WALTON, First District Marshal. 
 Aids : J. K. Rayburn, Esq., N. Trepagnier, Esq^ Joseph Etter, Esq,, C. W. Canfield, Esq. 
 
 Music. 
 Officiating Clergymen and Orators of the Day, in carriages. 
 
 MILITARY 
 
 MILITARY 
 DETACHMENT 
 
 AS 
 
 GUARD OF HONOR. 
 
 O) 
 
 DETACHMENT 
 
 GUARD OF HONOR. 
 
 Under the command of Major Soira.
 
 FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 25 
 
 PALL BEARERS: 
 
 Representing the Thirty One States of the Union, on both sides the Car. 
 
 PALL BEAKEHS. PALL BEARERS. 
 
 Geo. Foster, Massachusetts. H. L. Peire, Louisiana. 
 
 B. F. Flanders, New Hampshire. Thomas K. Price, Tennessee. 
 W. G. Gale, Rhode Island. Julian Neville, Ohio. 
 Oliver Palmes, Connecticut. John R. Shaw, Missouri. 
 
 S. F. Wilson, New York. S. O. Nelson, Alabama. 
 
 J. O. Pierson, New Jersey. Col. S. H. Mudge, Illinois. 
 
 G. Doane, Pennsylvania. \Vm G. Mullen, Indiana. 
 
 Dr. J S. Copes, Delaware. B. P. Voorhies, Mississippi. 
 
 Capt. James Stockton, Maryland. Col. Josiah Cole, Michigan. 
 
 James R. Jennings, Virginia. Moses Greenwood, Arkansas. 
 
 F. A. Lumsden, North Carolina. Gerard Stith, Wisconsin. 
 
 Chas. S. Reese, South Carolina. T. C. Twichell, Iowa. 
 
 Dr. Geo. E. Harral, Georgia. J. T. Doswell, Texas. 
 
 C. C. Lathrop, Vermont. Chas. G. Barclay, Florida. 
 M. O. H. Norton, Kentucky. T B. Winston, California. 
 Capt S. S. Green, Maine. J. W. Mader, Oregon. 
 
 Delegates of Four each, from the States of South Carolina, Kentucky and Massachusetts, as 
 
 Chief Mourners. 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. KENTUCKY. SOUTH CAROLINA. 
 
 Joseph Harrod, Esq , Cuthbert Bullitt, T. N. Waul, 
 
 S H. Kennedy, John H. Owen, W. A. Elmore, 
 
 R. J. Palfrey, A. S. Trotter, J. D. B DeBow. 
 
 Jacob H Felt. W. G. KendalL Geo C. McWherter. 
 
 Joint Committee of Arrangements In Carriages. 
 
 Citizens of Massachusetts, Kentucky, South Carolina. 
 
 The Mayor, accompanied by Distinguished Strangers. 
 
 Recorders of the First, Second, Third and Fourth Districts, hi carriages. 
 
 The Board of Aldermen, with their Clerk, preceded by their Sergeant-at-Arms, and headed by their 
 
 President, in carriages. 
 
 City Attorney, City Treasurer, Comptroller, Surveyor, and their Deputies. 
 Veterans of "14 and '15, in carriages. 
 
 The Clergy. 
 His Excellency Governor Joseph Walker and Suite. 
 
 Lieutenant Governor. 
 
 Secretary of State, State Treasurer, Attorney General. 
 Auditor of Public Accounts, Civil Engineer. 
 
 Surveyor General. 
 
 State Superintendent of Public Education. 
 
 Members of the U. S. Senate and House of Representatives. 
 
 Members of the State Senate and House of Representatives. 
 
 Major General D. L. Twiggs and Suite, commanding Western Division United States Army. 
 
 Officers of the United States Army. 
 
 Officers of the Navy and Revenue Service. 
 
 Foreign Consuls, in carriages. 
 
 Officers of Louisiana Militia. 
 Regents of the University of Louisiana. 
 
 D 
 
 *
 
 26 HI8TORYOFTHE 
 
 Law Faculty of the University of Louisiana Medical Faculty of the University of Louisiana. 
 
 Judges of the Supreme Court. 
 
 Judges of the United States Circuit and District Courts. 
 Judges of the District Courts of the State. 
 
 United States District Attorney. 
 
 United States Marshal and Deputies. 
 
 Collector of the Port. 
 
 Naval Officer. 
 
 Surveyor of the Customs and Deputies. 
 Appraisers and Assistant Appraisers. 
 
 Postmasters and Deputies. 
 
 United States Receiver and Register of the Land Office. 
 Superintendent, Treasurer, and Officers of the Mint 
 
 District Attorney. 
 Sheriff of the Parish of Orleans and adjoining Parishes. 
 
 Members of the Bar Justices of the Peace. 
 Deputy Sheriffs of Parish of Orleans and adjoining Parishes. 
 
 Clerks and Deputy Clerks of the U. 8. Courts. 
 Clerks and Deputy Clerks of Supreme, State and City Courts. 
 
 Recorders of Mortgages and Deputies. 
 Register of Conveyances and Deputies. 
 
 Notaries Public. 
 
 The Members of the Press. 
 
 Whig and Democratic State Central Committees. 
 
 THIRD GRAND DIVISION. 
 
 OVIDE DE BUYS, Esq., Second District Marshal. 
 Aids : Samuel G. Risk, Esq., John Adams, Esq., 
 
 Music. 
 Fire Department of New Orleans, Algiers, Gretna, Carroflton, and Milneburg, with their banners. 
 
 The Masonic Order under the Grand Lodge of the State. 
 
 Independent Order of Odd Fellows Grand Lodge and its Subordinate Lodges. 
 Grand Encampment and its Subordinates. 
 
 FOURTH QRAND DIVISION. 
 
 JAMES PHILLIPS, Esq, Third District Marshal 
 
 Aids: A. Schriber, Esq , Joseph Bruneau, Esq , James Beggs, Esq. 
 
 Music. 
 New Orleans Mechanics' Society. 
 
 New England Society. 
 Typographical Union of New Orleans. 
 
 St. Andrews' Society. 
 
 Hibernian, Shamrock and St. Patrick Benevolent Societies. 
 St Michael Benevolent Burial Society.
 
 FUNERAL CERE MONIES. 27 
 
 French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish Benevolent Societies. 
 
 Delegation of the Sons of Temperance. 
 
 Father Mathew Temperance Societies Temple of Honor Sons of Temperance. 
 
 German Benevolent Society German Emigrant Society. 
 
 St. Joseph Society. 
 
 FIFTH GRAND DIVISION. 
 
 A. W. JOURDAN, Esq., Fourth District Marshal 
 
 Aids : V. H. Ivy, Esq , Win. Sutton, Esq., Edw. Thompson, Esq , Joseph Hufty. 
 
 Music. 
 
 Screwmens' Benevolent Association of New Orleans. 
 
 Mutual, Turners' and Grocers' Associations of New Orleans. 
 
 Harbor Master and Port Wardens. 
 
 Ship Masters. 
 Steamboat Captains. 
 
 Board of Directors, Teachers and Boys of the 1st, 3d, 3d and 4th District Public Schools. 
 
 Orphan Boys from the 3d and 4th District Asylums. 
 
 Citizens and Strangers generally. 
 
 All day Wednesday the preparations for the next day's solemn 
 ceremonies occupied thousands of rough and fair hands. Towards 
 evening the great city hushed to stillness, as if pausing before the 
 vast page of glorious, national reminiscences and deeds, and words 
 that History had inscribed under the revered names of CALHOUN, 
 CLAY and WEBSTER, and over which she was now about to throw a 
 veil of mourning. Every man and woman felt a something stirring 
 within them befitting the solemnity of the occasion, a deep seated 
 regret as for the loss of those who were dear, and would never again 
 be seen or heard ; an awing sensation as if the shades of the mighty 
 dead had come on the black pall of the storm that swept* over the city 
 that night, and bent motionless in the sombre canopy of heaven over 
 the great mass of humanity that was on the morrow to put on the 
 garments of woe for their departure hence into the spirit world.
 
 m 
 
 28 HISTORTOPTHE 
 
 Thursday, the 9th December, opened with a cloud dispelling 
 breeze from the north that cleared up the skies, brightened the ap- 
 pearance of the city, gave a bracing tinge to the air, and materially 
 assisted in drying the streets which had been deluged by rain during 
 the night. At an early hour, on all sides, the evidences were plentiful 
 of the general determination to solemnize the day in the most appro- 
 priate manner. Row after row of windows and balconies, and house 
 and store fronts, for miles in extent from north to south, and east to 
 we st speedily displayed the sable and white insignia of mourning, 
 arranged according to the dictates of thousands of fancies and tastes, 
 some in the simplest folds, some on a small plan, some on grand 
 dimensions, some with an elaborateness of design in which velvet, silk, 
 crape, linen, drawn in arches, columns, broad bands, rosettes, mingled 
 harmoniously with wreaths, banners, altars, urns, and statuary, 
 formed tableaux most striking and beautiful. The inscriptions of the 
 names of the dead Statesmen were by scores. These, and their 
 veiled busts and portraits, exhibited in windows and doors, or on 
 balconies, spoke eloquently and impressively of the great deeds and 
 words of the departed, recalling continually to the passing multitudes 
 sayings or services which had become household words with the 
 American people which the school-boy declaimed, the youth thrilled 
 to hear, the man burned to equal, the woman delighted to admire, 
 and the whole United States treasured up as precious examples of 
 unsurpassed wisdom, courage, eloquence and patriotism, 
 
 These many present memorials of the great dead, meeting the 
 eye in every direction, though at first attracting the gaze of curiosity, 
 immediately afterwards presented the sad, the solemn thought that it 
 was not to celebrate another triumph of the burning genius, lofty 
 devotion, or far stretching wisdom of these three men, that the city 
 had put on her flaunting robes ; no a mightier than they whose 
 voice though unheard, and form though unseen, thrilled the hearts and 
 awed the minds of men with a power more terrible and irresistible 
 than any human voice or form could do, had conquered the uncon- 
 querable, and it was Death's gloomy, chilling triumph the mighty city 
 was now to celebrate, despite itself, with frowning reluctance and 
 heavy heart.
 
 FUNERAI* CERE MONIES. 29 
 
 The flags of the large number of ships, steamboats and steamers 
 in port were displayed at half-mast ; the bells of the numerous churches 
 answered each other at measured intervals in deep, sullen tones ; the 
 flags of the foreign consuls were appropriately suspended at half-mast 
 and draped in mourning ; the public buildings, hotels, newspaper 
 offices, arsenals, clubs, had the national banner floating to the breeze, 
 with streamers and rosettes, and bands of crape, significantly expressing 
 the interest of their display. 
 
 The streets presented, besides this strange appearance of gloomy 
 devices and drapery stretching far in the distance in any direction the 
 eye selected, the impressive and never tiring one of thousands on 
 thousands of men, women and children, most of them dressed as if 
 for a holiday, moving in closely-pressed throngs, pouring along 
 unceasingly and slowly and steadily, meeting in masses at the corners, 
 but crossing or mingling with each other without confusion or noise. 
 Indeed, the order and decorum displayed throughout the entire day 
 by this immense multitude of human beings, without the necessity of 
 a police corps to control or dirict their movements, formed a subject 
 of general and admiring comment, and one for much reflection. 
 
 Business was everywhere suspended, of course, from the Courts 
 and Municipal offices, the Post Office and U. S. Customhouse, to stores, 
 shops, counting-houses, and even the humblest establishment of the 
 humblest individual. The vast Levee was silent and almost deserted ; 
 the apparently never ending crescent-formed row of triply moored 
 shipping, and stately steamers and steamboats, was deserted by the 
 swarm of human beings that usually cluster around its track. 
 
 Lafayette Square was from an early hour the central point of 
 attraction. A dense mass of gazers swarmed around it, continually 
 on the more, long ere the moment arrived for the assembling of the 
 corps that were to form the procession. The wide and lofty flight of 
 steps and the portico of the marble walled and pillared City Hall, and 
 the balconies, windows, doors, and even the roofs of the fine private 
 residences surrounding the Square, were packed with spectators, most 
 of whom were ladies, while every foot of space in the four streets 
 enclosing it was occupied. The large and beautiful Square itself was 
 
 fa
 
 30 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 kept clear of all intruders by the Police and by the Volunteer Military 
 Company of Crescent Rifles, commanded by Capt. J. J. Casey, and 
 attached to the Washington Regiment under Col. Wood. 
 
 All night long, despite the drenching rain, the workmen, lighted 
 by the glare of many torches, had been busy in erecting the grand 
 Cenotaph, designed by Mr. A. Mondelli, long known in this city as a 
 scenic artist of distinguished ability. Daylight found the wearied 
 laborers still at their task, but they relaxed no work for all that, and 
 the tall and imposing monument was completed in time. It held the 
 centre of the Square, and towered to a height that attracted the eye 
 at a considerable distance. Though the materials of which it was 
 composed were simply painted wood and canvass, it bore an admirable 
 resemblance to marble. The design was a classic structure of the 
 Composite order, being, in outline, a broad pedestal or base, with wide 
 and deep buttresses projecting on the same level, one from each side, 
 and ornamented at the corners by tall bronzed tripods. Two flights 
 of steps, one fronting on St. Charles, the other on Camp street, led to 
 the central platform, which was surmounted by an elegant dome 
 upreared on four tall, slender columns, the dome being crowned by a 
 large gilt eagle, and the whole structure adorned with flowing and 
 tastefully arranged mourning drapery, with emblems and inscriptions 
 appropriate to the occasion. The large space under the dome, on the 
 platform, was open on the four sides, and was sufficiently elevated to 
 enable any one in the street, a good distance off, to see what would 
 take place there. Its centre was occupied by a high altar covered 
 with black velvet, and intended to receive the urns. The Cenotaph 
 measured at the base, including the buttresses, eighty-four by sixty 
 feet, and was sixty feet in height. It presented a very chaste and 
 elegant appearance, and was the object of general admiration. 
 
 At an early hour, the United States troops from the Barracks 
 below the city, marched throgh the streets and took up the position 
 assigned them in the Square. They numbered two companies, under 
 the command of Lieut. Col. Nauman, of the U. S. Fourth Artillery. 
 Their neat, soldiery appearance made them a conspicuous feature 
 in the Procession.
 
 "I 
 
 FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 31 
 
 At ten o'clock, the different bodies of citizens and military began 
 to assemble in and around the Square. The Clergymen, Orators of 
 the Day, Pall Bearers and Chief Mourners met in the Governor's 
 Room of the City Hall ; the Foreign Consuls, Officers of the Revenue 
 Service, Veterans of 1814-15, the Regents of the University of 
 Louisiana with the Officers of the Law and Medical Faculties of that 
 Institution, in the Recorder's room ; the Judiciary, Members of the 
 Bar, Officers of the Customs, Post Office and Mint, the U. S. District 
 Attorney and Marshals, the U. S. Receiver and Register of the Land 
 Office, in the U. S. Court Room ; the Mayor, the Right Reverend 
 Bishop Polk, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, (an invited guest,) 
 the Aldermen and Assistant Aldermen, the four Recorders, and the 
 Joint Committee of Arrangements, in the Council Chamber; the 
 Sheriff, Deputy Sheriffs, Clerks and Deputy Clerks of the several 
 Courts, in the U. S. District Clerk's Office; and the Notaries Public 
 and some Members of the Press in the Office of the Clerk of the U. S. 
 Circuit Court. 
 
 The Grand Marshal, with his Aids mounted and in elegant 
 costumes, with scarfs, mourning insignia, etc., took up his stand punc- 
 tually at 10 o'clock, in front of the City Hall, where the different corps 
 and societies reported to him their arrival as they appeared from all 
 quarters, and marched into position. 
 
 The Volunteer Military Companies, under the command of Major 
 General Lewis, took up their ground in Lafayette Square, the left 
 resting on St. Charles street ; the South Carolinians formed on the 
 east side of St. Charles street, the right resting on South street ; the 
 Kentuckians occupied the centre of St. Charles street, the right resting 
 opposite St. Charles street ; the Massachusetts Delegation the west 
 side of St. Charles street, and the right resting opposite South street. 
 
 The Fire Department held the centre of Poydras street, west 
 side of St. Charles, the right resting on St Charles street ; the Free 
 Masons and Odd Fellows the north side of Poydras street, west side 
 of St. Charles, the right resting on St. Charles. 
 
 The Mechanics and New England Societies, and the other 
 Societies named in the Fourth Grand Division of the Programme, 
 formed on St. Charles street, the right resting on Girod.
 
 32 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 The Screwmens' Benevolent Association and the other Mutual 
 Associations took up the west side of Camp street, the right resting 
 on South ; the Turners' and Grocers' Associations, the Harbor Mas- 
 ters, Port Wardens, Ship Masters and Steamboat Captains formed on 
 Camp street, the right resting on South street ; and the Board of 
 Directors, Teachers and Boys of the Public Schools, and the Orphan 
 Boys, took up their position on the east side of Camp street, the right 
 resting on South street. The Carriages intended for the Procession, 
 formed in Hevia street, the leading ones resting on St. Charles, where 
 near the corner, stood the Funeral Car. 
 
 These dispositions were made promptly and with order, so that 
 when the Procession began to move at 1 1 o'clock, the various bodies 
 fell into their places in the column without stop or confusion. 
 
 The head of the Procession, led by Grand Marshal Labuzan and 
 a brilliant staff, moved into Camp street and turned towards Canal, its 
 approach being heralded by the booming of cannon, which fired at 
 measured intervals, and the wailing, funeral notes of many bands. 
 To describe the appearance of Camp street would be but a repetition 
 of what has been said before such an immense crowd of men, women 
 and children as filled the doorways, windows, balconies story on 
 story and occupied every foot of space on the sidewalks, wherever 
 it was possible for a person to stand, has never before been gathered 
 in this city, large and populous as it is. 
 
 The Grand Marshal was followed by the Washington Regiment, 
 Volunteer First Brigade, Louisiana Militia, commanded by Col. W. 
 W. W. "Wood, accompanied by his staff, Adjutant Keating and Sur- 
 geon Booth. The field band preceded them, the drums muffled and 
 beating a slow funeral march. Marching with the left in front, came 
 first, the Jackson Rifles, Lieut. Forno commanding; the Crescent 
 Rifles, Capt. Casey ; the Regimental Colors, guarded by an escort 
 from the Emmett Guards ; then these Guards, under Lieut. Nolan, 
 and the Louisiana Grays, Capt. Leach. The Regiment numbered 
 108 men. Their field battery composed of four guns and caissons, 
 drawn by two horses each, with twenty mounted artillerymen, fol- 
 lowed them.
 
 FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 33 
 
 Next appeared that fine old corps, the Louisiana Legion, com- 
 posed principally of citizens of foreign birth, or, when native born, 
 of foreign descent. They numbered in their ranks many veterans of 
 well fought fields in both continents, and therefore are regarded by 
 the old residents of New Orleans with a peculiar interest. 
 
 Gen. Augustin, commanding the Brigade, aided by a numerous 
 staff, headed the Legion, the march of which was opened by the 
 Pioneers in huge bearskin shakos, and armed with formidable axes. 
 Two large and excellent field bands accompanied the Legion. 
 Behind the Pioneers, marched that corps d'&lite, the Battalion of 
 Artillery, which numbered over 100 men. Behind them came the 
 time-worn colors of the Legion, properly escorted, and followed by 
 the Spanish, Swiss, French and German Companies, under the com- 
 mand of Lieut. Col. Eichols. The Legion numbered in all 232 
 muskets, and was followed by two batteries of three brass guns and 
 caissons each, drawn by two horses each, and escorted by twelve 
 mounted artillerymen. These pieces belonged to the Battalion of 
 Artillery. The gallant old officer, Major Gaily, who had so long 
 commanded the Battalion, followed the guns in an open barouche, 
 illness preventing him from attending otherwise. 
 
 Last came the U. S. Troops, under Bvt. Lieut. Col. Nauman. 
 Their trim and soldierly, yet modest appearance, were the objects 
 of continual praise and notice. Their other officers were Capt. J. B. 
 Picketts, First Artillery, commanding ; First Lieut. J. B. Fry, and 
 Second Lieut. H. E. Maynadier. 
 
 Major General Lewis, with a numerous and brilliant staff, closed 
 the First Division. 
 
 The Second Grand Division was opened by a band of music, 
 followed by two carriages in which rode the officiating Clergymen 
 and Orators of the Day. 
 
 The Funeral Car came next. It was the principal feature of the 
 Procession, and an examination of it showed that it had been prepared 
 by careful and tasteful hands. To Mr. Dubuque is due the credit 
 of its design and execution. It measured eleven feet in length by 
 sixteen in height, and about eight in breadth. The bed or platform
 
 34 HISTORYOPTHE 
 
 was a large shell covered with black velvet, and adorned with silver 
 trimmings. Three bronzed urns stood on this shell, each bearing 
 in silver letters a name of the illustrious dead CALHOUN, CLAY, 
 WEBSTER. This long, black-velvet covered and draped base supported 
 a tall black-velvet and silver trimmed canopy, reared on slight corner 
 uprights, with a nodding black plume at each corner, and a gilt eagle 
 surmounting the whole. Two bronze eagles couchant adorned the 
 sides of the car, occupying its entire length. The Car was richly 
 draped throughout with black velvet, edged with gold and silver lace 
 and fringes, and with the names of CALHOUN, CLAY and WEBSTER, in 
 large silver letters on the broad draperies on either side which hung to 
 the ground. Six grey horses, covered with black velvet housings, which 
 were studded with silver stars, and stamped with shields containing 
 the arms of South Carolina, Kentucky and Massachusetts, drew this 
 splendid Car slowly along, each horse being led by a colored groom 
 clad in mourning. A military guard of honor marched in single file, 
 with shouldered muskets, on each side of the Car. It consisted of six 
 men from the U. S. Artillery corps, six from the Legion, six from the 
 Battalion of Artillery, and fifteen from the Washington Regiment, 
 thirty -three men in all, under Major Soria. The pall bearers, thirty- 
 one in number, representing the different States of the Union, marched 
 in single file, just next to the Car, some inside the guard of honor, and 
 the others behind. 
 
 The Delegates of Four each from the States of South Carolina, 
 Kentucky and Massachusetts, acting as chief mourners, now appeared, 
 followed by ten carriages occupied by the Joint Committee of Arrange- 
 ments, the Mayor of the City, several invited guests, and the Foreign 
 Consuls, as follows : J. H. Eimer, Austria and Baden ; P. Reynaud, 
 Brazil ; F. Rodewald, Bremen ; F. F. C. Vless, Denmark and Saxony ; 
 W. Mure, Great Britain ; A. Roger, France, decorated ; W. Vogel, 
 Hamburg, Oldenburg and Prussia; F. W. Kerchoff, Lubeck ; W. 
 Prehn, Mecklenburg; B. Vails, Montevideo, in uniform; O. L. Dabel- 
 steen, Mexico, in uniform ; A. Lanfear, Sweden and Norway ; J. P. 
 Uldermeester, Netherlands ; J. A. Barelli, Portugal and Two Sicilies, 
 in full uniform ; E. Johns, Russia ; L. C. Daron, Rome ; J. A. Merle,
 
 FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 35 
 
 Switzerland ; J. Lanata, Sardinia ; C. J. Mansoni, Tuscany, and C. 
 Honold, Wurtemburg. In the carriages were also, in full uniform, 
 Bvt. Major General D. E. Twiggs, commanding the Western Division 
 of the U. S. Army ; Col. Thos. F. Hunt, Assistant Quarter Master 
 General ; Bvt. Lieut. Col. A. J. Coffee, Paymaster ; Bvt. Lieut. Col- 
 W. "W. J. Bliss, Assistant Adjutant General ; Bvt. Lieut Col. A. C. 
 Myers, Assistant Quarter Master; Bvt. Major J. F. Reynolds, Third 
 Artillery, aid de camp to General Twiggs ; Dr. C. McConnick, 
 Assistant Surgeon; Bvt. Capt. Geo. W. Lay, Sixth Infantry, Judge 
 Advocate, Western Division ; and Capt. W. T. Sheveman, Commis- 
 sary of Subsistence all of the United States Army. Also Lieut. J. 
 G. Bushwood. commanding the U. S. Revenue Cutter Duane, then in 
 this port, and her other superior officers, Second Lieut. J. M. Jones, 
 and Third Lieut. L. Forrest, and a number of the members of the City 
 Council, the Recorders and other City Officers ; some of the Veterans 
 of 1814-15, and the Judges and Officers of the City and United States 
 Courts. 
 
 A striking feature of the Procession was then presented in the 
 advance of the select delegations of citizens from South Carolina, 
 Kentucky and Massachusetts, marching abreast in three distinct 
 columns, each of two files front, and each corps bearing rich banners, 
 elegant scarfs, and other mourning insignia. 
 
 The South Carolinians took up the right of the street, the Ken- 
 tuckians the centre, and the Massachusetts delegation the left. The 
 former displayed an elegant banner, having on one side a portrait of 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN, and on the other the coat of arms of their State. 
 The Kentuckians, mustering stronger than the two other delegations, 
 bore a beautiful banner, with a green ground, ornamented with gold 
 and fringed with crape. The inscriptions on one side, " Our dead live 
 in History," and " Seal of Kentucky," were at the top ; two figures 
 with clasped hands stood in the centre ; beneath them was the motto, 
 " United we stand Divided we fall ;" and at the bottom were the 
 words, " Kentucky Mourns." On the other side was a portrait of 
 HENRY CLAY, a perspective view of Ashland, and underneath, the 
 words, " Our whole Country,"
 
 36 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 The Massachusetts delegation had a rich and tastefully adorned 
 banner, with the mottoes, " Liberty and Union," " New England," 
 and " One and Inseparable." The three delegations numbered 214 
 persons. 
 
 This Division was closed by the officers of the United States 
 Customhouse, Post Office, Land Office, Sub Treasury, Mint; the 
 Sheriffs and District Clerks, and their Deputies a numerous body, 
 all dressed in black and wearing mourning badges. 
 
 The Third Grand Division was opened by the Algiers, Gretna, 
 Carrollton and Milneberg Fire Companies, numbering 110 men. They 
 were followed by the Fire Department of this city consisting of 
 twenty-four companies 1150 men. The Firemen were without their 
 engines, and were all except No. 2 and a Hook and Ladder company, 
 dressed in full uniform. The two companies excepted were in 
 citizens' dress of black. Each company had its banner adorned with, 
 and each man wore mourning badges or scarfs. A number of bands 
 of music were interspersed in this long and brilliant column. Com- 
 pany No. 1 had their horse in line, shrouded in mourning trappings ; 
 No 2 had two horses ; No. 9, three horses ; No. 13, one horse. The 
 members of No. 24 brought up the rear of the Department, on 
 horseback. 
 
 The Masonic Fraternity of this State, accompanied by Brethren 
 from Mississippi and other adjoining States, followed the Firemen. 
 They numbered 200, marching four abreast, under the direction of 
 their Grand Marshal, G. W. Race. Each member wore the funeral 
 regalia of the Order white aprons and gloves, and mourning scarfs 
 and badges. 
 
 The Order of Odd Fellows followed, and closed this Division. 
 A white satin banner, fringed with black, and bearing the emblematical 
 links of the I. O. O. F. preceded the six Marshals of the Order, on 
 horseback. Then marched the members of the Order, 350 strong, 
 which is not a third of their whole number in this city. They were 
 all dressed in mourning, and moved to the strains of a splendid brass 
 band.
 
 FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 37 
 
 The Fourth Grand Division was headed by the Portuguese, 
 Spanish, French and Italian Benevolent Societies, numbering 180 
 members, with a fine band of music, furled flags in mourning, and in 
 the centre of the Portuguese line, a black velvet pall embroidered with 
 a large silver cross, and carried by -six bearers. 
 
 The Mechanics' Society, one of the oldest and most influential 
 in the city, followed. They mustered 156 men, appropriately and 
 simply decorated. 
 
 Next came the New Orleans Typographical Union, 120 in 
 number prominent for their respectable array as well as for their 
 decorations and decorum. They were marshalled by Mr. Charles 
 Hall, and accompanied by several members of the press, and persons 
 formerly connected with the printing business. The old banner of 
 the Union was displayed, bearing on one side the mottoes, " Printing, 
 the Art Preservative of Arts," " State of Louisiana," " Union and 
 Confidence," with the coat of arms of this State. On the other side 
 was the portrait of a Ramage press, with the inscriptions, " Tyrants' 
 Foe and Peoples' Friend," and " New Orleans Typographical Asso- 
 ciation, founded April, 1835." 
 
 The Sons of Temperance, with an elegant blue silk banner 
 fringed with gold, followed, marshalled by W. S. Mount, and num- 
 bering 145 men. The Hibernian, Shamrock, St. Patrick and St. 
 Andrew Benevolent Societies, and the St. Michael Benevolent Burial 
 Society, mustering in all 130 individuals, closed the Fourth Division, 
 with banners and music. 
 
 The Screwmens' Benevolent Association, plainly decorated, opened 
 the Fifth Grand Division. They numbered 226 men, and were pre- 
 ceded by a band of music and the simple banner of the Society. 
 
 The members of the German Turnverein Association in their 
 picturesque dress, followed, mustering some 30 men. They preceded, 
 what was one of the most interesting features of the procession, the 
 Board of Directors, teachers and boys of the Public Schools of the 
 four Districts of the City. The boys were over one thousand in 
 number, marching four abreast, and mostly under ten years of age. 
 The Male Orphan Asylums were represented by 104 of their little
 
 38 HISTORYOPTHE 
 
 proteges dressed in their usual plain, neat uniform. The whole Pro- 
 cession was closed by the Association of Stevedores, who to the 
 number of thirty, rode on horseback, and volunteered to take the 
 position in the ranks held by them. 
 
 It is impossible to describe the ensemble produced by this imposing 
 body, numbering as it did over five thousand persons, each arrayed in 
 some insignia of mourning. What with the variety and amount of 
 rich or elegant costumes and banners, and continued streams of music 
 filling the air, the effect was quite bewildering. The coup d'oeil of the 
 long column and the spectators, filling up the street, and seen from a 
 distance was truly grand and impressive. 
 
 The Procession took exactly one hour and forty minutes to pass 
 any one particular point ; its length was over one mile and a half; and 
 from the time it left Lafayette Square to the time it returned there was 
 two hours and half. 
 
 On arriving at the Square, by St. Charles street, the Washington 
 Regiment, under Col. Wood, entered, and formed on either side of 
 the avenue leading from the street to the Cenotaph. Up this armed 
 avenue to the platform of the Cenotaph marched the Officiating 
 Clergy, the Orators of the Day, then the Committee of Arrangements, 
 Commanding Officers with their Staffs, the Officers of the Army, 
 Revenue Service, and the Veterans of 1814-15, saluted as they passed 
 by the Washington Regiment. 
 
 The rest of the Procession then filed into the Square. The 
 Kentucky and Massachusetts delegations occupied the north side, 
 facing the Cenotaph ; the ftfasons and Odd Fellows were in their rear. 
 The U. S. Artillery was drawn up at the foot of the Cenotaph on the 
 Camp street side ; the Battalion of Artillery took up the ground in 
 their rear. The Legion, on the same side, opposite the Battalion, was 
 covered in front by the South Carolina delegation, who stood near the 
 south-east corner of the Cenotaph. The Firemen, the Civic Societies, 
 and boys of the schools took up the whole of the south side of the 
 Square. 
 
 Presently up the guarded avenue, from St. Charles street, marched 
 a band of music, followed by the thirty-one Pall Bearers in their
 
 FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 39 
 
 white scarfs. All heads were bared as they approached ; the troops 
 presented arms, and there was a general silence in the vast mass of 
 lookers on as the Pall Bearers mounted the steps of the Cenotaph, 
 where the Grand Marshal and the other persons previously mentioned, 
 stood ready to receive them. Three of the Pall Bearers bore the 
 urns. These were deposited on the tall altar in the centre of the 
 platform ; an impressive, death-like stillness reigned while the Rev. 
 Mr. Walker pronounced a brief but feeling benediction, and then the 
 Grand Marshal proclaimed the Procession to be dismissed. 
 
 It is not an unfit place here to state that the credit of the 
 admirable order observed in, and imposing effect produced by this 
 grand Procession, was mostly due to the tact, experience, and energy 
 of the Grand Marshal. 
 
 The different societies and corps, civil and military, then moved 
 out of the Square to the sound of gay music, and the immense crowds 
 surrounding the place began to disperse. The orations at Lyceum 
 Hall, Odd Fellows' Hall and the Presbyterian Church followed, and 
 were attended by large and evidently much interested audiences. By 
 the able manner in which the Committees of Reception at these 
 localities performed their duties, the most perfect order was preserved 
 throughout. The ceremonies observed at them before and after the 
 eulogies are sufficiently indicated in the programme. The decorations 
 of these three halls were under the charge of Mr. Etter, and they 
 reflected very favorably for his taste and skill. A minute description 
 of them is deemed consistent with the purposes of this record. 
 
 At the Odd Fellows' Hall, on Camp street, the decorations were 
 of the chastest character. To those who did not see the large 
 splendid room in which the oration on CLAY was delivered, it will only 
 be necessary to say that the seventeen windows which gave light to 
 the magnificent Ball Room, as well as the nine blank windows therein, 
 were all curtained and draped in mourning. The gallery or orchestra 
 was most tastefully festooned, and heavy flounces of black and white 
 crape fell gracefully from every fold of their full proportions. All the 
 large mirrors in the room were handsomely craped without stint, and 
 the platform presented a beautiful coup ffoeil. The stand itself was
 
 40 HISTORYOFTHE 
 
 carpeted with black, whilst around its front and sides hung a profusion 
 of black and white draperies, interspersed with rosettes of crape. 
 The speaker's stand in the centre formed the apex of a sweeping 
 drapery, which extended from either side to the busts of the "dead 
 though living" CLAY, and thence descending to the corners of the 
 stand, falling off in heavy folds. The view from the front of the hall 
 to the speaker's stand was of a sombre magnificence. 
 
 The Presbyterian Church, on South street, where the oration on 
 WEBSTER was pronounced, was almost the counterpart of Odd Fel- 
 lows' Hall inside, except that the windows were not curtained. 
 Draperies encircled the church entirely, whilst heavy folds of black 
 cloth fell from the tall steeple outside to the base of the columns 
 beneath. 
 
 The Lyceum in the City Hall, where the eulogy on CALHOUN 
 was delivered, was draped, as near as the difference in rooms would 
 permit, in a similar manner to the room in Odd Fellows' Hall. 
 
 After the delivery of the eulogies, the streets still continued 
 thronged until a late hour, the people being apparently unwilling to 
 lose any opportunity of examining and engraving on their minds the 
 many objects and scenes that rendered the day so peculiar and so 
 mournfuL In the evening Lafayette Square presented a strange 
 spectacle. It was lighted up by tall, fixed torches arranged in regular 
 order in the outline of a cross over the area. The night was black 
 and windy, and the waving of the dark trees, the ghastly glare of the 
 flaring lights on the tall, gloomy, mysterious looking Cenotaph, formed 
 a singular, impressive and awing picture. 
 
 Thus ended a day which has formed a memorable epoch in the 
 history of New Orleans. The citizens have a right to be proud of the 
 manner in which they testified their veneration for the memories, 
 admiration for the talents and services, and sorrow for the loss of 
 the three greatest American Statesmen and Orators of the present 
 century.
 
 A DISCOURSE 
 
 UPON THE LIFE, CHARACTER AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF 
 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN, 
 
 PRONOUNCED BEFORE THE CITIZENS OF NEW ORLEANS, DECEMBER 9th, 185-2, BY GEORGE 
 EUSTIS, L.L. D., CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 FELLOW CITIZENS : 
 
 The duty assigned to me in the ceremonies of the day, is to 
 address you on the life and character of JOHN C. CALHOUN. 
 
 A meeting of our citizens was convened immediately after his 
 death, and I was honored with a* invitation to deliver an eulogy on 
 that occasion. 
 
 The condition of the public mind on those topics with which Mr. 
 CALHOUN'S political course had been identified, was deemed at the 
 time too excited for a proper appreciation of its merits. This objec- 
 tion has been gradually removed, until this imposing ceremony in 
 honor of the illustrious American triumvirate responds to the popular 
 voice in homage to the memory of CALHOUN. 
 
 The lapse of time since his decease has offered opportunities for 
 a more deliberate consideration of his character, and the events which 
 have since transpired enable us better to judge of the sincerity and 
 sagacity of his political views, and to do greater justice to his motives 
 and opinions. 
 
 As we can all recollect, the intelligence of his death was received 
 with consternation by the people of Louisiana. It was visible on 
 every countenance, and every one seemed to feel that a great calamity 
 had befallen him. Men's minds were disturbed by the aspect of affairs 
 at the Capitol, and the counsels of CALHOUN were looked up to in the 
 emergency. The influence of his intellect, and strong hold upon 
 public opinion, was regarded as one of the main preservatives of
 
 42 EULOGY ON 
 
 public tranquility. Although no more than the relations of other 
 public men existed between him and the people of this State, his loss 
 was deplored as of a benefactor in intimate connection with them. 
 
 But it was in his native State that his memory received its well 
 merited homage. The deep veneration, the silent but heartfelt grief, 
 manifested by all classes bond as well as free bore testimony to 
 his private as well as his public worth. Nor was this a mere ebullition 
 of feeling on the occasion which passed away with the pageant of his 
 obsequies. For months after his interment his grave was strewn 
 with flowers by the hands of affection a beautiful homage of the 
 female heart to purity and genius. The generous emotions called 
 forth by his death, were the consequences of his character as a man, 
 a neighbor, and a friend. Mere public services would not have 
 caused them ; but with him the private virtues were admirably blended 
 with the highest intellectual endowments, and were as vivid and 
 as actively employed among those about him, as if he had been 
 confined to the circle of domestic life. In estimating the character 
 of Mr. CALHOUN, we must consider his private virtues as one of the 
 main elements of his greatness, and of the great influence over his 
 fellow men, which he possessed to a remarkable extent. 
 
 He was born in 1782, in Abbeville District, South Carolina, at 
 the settlement which still bears the name of his family, in the midst 
 of the tumults of the Revolutionary War. The early impressions of 
 his childhood were necessarily associated with its traditions and 
 events, and created in him those strong characteristics which marked 
 his after life. Brought up in the midst of a people in a measure 
 isolated, in whom truth, independence, and manliness were the 
 prominent virtues, and whom the artificial modes of society had not 
 even reached, still less contaminated, a sense of duty became his 
 paramount thought. The want of academic instruction was more 
 than supplied by parental care. His early education was in the 
 sanctuary of his family. The strong intelligence of the father, the 
 watchfulness and affection of the mother, directed and sustained the 
 youthful mind in the way of knowledge and the paths of right and 
 truth, from which surrounding associations offered no temptation to 
 deviate. He thus had the best basis for his future intellectual cultiva-
 
 JOHNC.CALHOUN. 43 
 
 tion, and without this, all education is for the most part of little use 
 either to the individual or to society. Under our free institutions 
 what is the State but an aggregation of families ? The impressions 
 which the child receives from the parent within the magic circle of 
 home, are never effaced. Misfortune, depravity, crime, even time, 
 which spares nothing else, are powerless to destroy them. If these 
 early impressions are for good, the foundation is laid, and learning 
 and knowledge may well be based upon it. The parental education 
 in early life is not only the best, but the safety of the State rests in a 
 measure upon it. As long as the sanctity of the family and its duties 
 are sustained, self-government can maintain itself in security. This 
 education Mr. CALHOUN received under circumstances the most 
 favorable for the future development of his intellectual powers, which 
 were neither weakened by undue excitement, nor diverted to trifling 
 or frivolous subjects, but employed about the duties and relations of 
 men. The manner in which his youthful mind was trained, necessarily 
 led him to reflection and the appreciation of the value and beauty of 
 intellectual pursuits. His reading was probably interrupted and 
 desultory, and it does not appear that he had the benefit of any 
 classical instruction until after his manhood. He entered Yale 
 College in 1802, and was graduated two years afterwards. His 
 attainments there show that the time of his youth had been usefully 
 employed. He had brought with him habits of application and a 
 maturity of intellect which enabled him easily to master his collegiate 
 studies, while his sense of duty saved him from idleness and the 
 allurements of pleasure. His position in the institution was of the 
 highest distinction, and he had the good fortune to receive the praise 
 of its distinguished head, by whom it was an honor to be praised, and 
 who with unerring sagacity predicted the future brilliant success of 
 his pupil. Nor was the impression less strong among the fellow 
 students of Mr. CALHOUN, and among the traditions of the college his 
 name is always mentioned as one of its brightest ornaments. After 
 having been graduated he became a student of law, and after his 
 admission to the bar, he practised for a few years with distinction in 
 his native State.
 
 44 EULOGTON 
 
 In contemplating the early part of the life of Mr. CALHOUN, we 
 see an earnest of what followed. We observe in him no waste of time 
 or opportunity, none of the follies and passions incident to his age, but a 
 steady advance in the great purpose of his life, and the acquisition of 
 knowledge as the element of future usefulness. With very scanty 
 means of improvement in his early years, we find him closing his 
 academic course with distinguished honors, and with a reputation 
 which the most worthy might envy. His course at the bar, and in the 
 State Legislature to which he was elected, was eminently successful. 
 On being known his merits could not fail to be appreciated, and after 
 a few years he was transferred to the Congress of the United States 
 by the voters of his native district. It was there in the conflicts which 
 preceded the war of 1812, that Mr. CALHOUN made his first impression 
 on the American people an impression which was kept alive during 
 the progress of the war, and which has never been effaced from those 
 who felt it. The times were the most portentous and alarming of 
 any which this country has ever witnessed since the Revolution. 
 Harassed by accumulated vexations and wrongs, submission was no 
 longer consistent with honor, and the emergency was met in a spirit 
 worthy of a nation conscious of her dignity and rights. War was 
 declared with Great Britain, but the unanimity so much needed at the 
 crisis, did not prevail in our public counsels ; and it was in the conflicts 
 which this difference of opinion gave rise to, that the ability of Mr. 
 CALHOUN became conspicuous, and established his fame as an Ameri- 
 can Statesman. The occasion was one requiring the highest faculties 
 with which man is endowed. Mere oratory was as nothing, or an 
 humble accessory to the work of that day. The statesman had to 
 deal with difficulties of the gravest kind. His was not the easy task 
 of watching public opinion in order to follow it, but the labor of 
 creating and sustaining it. His work was to call forth and marshal 
 the resources of the nation moral as well as natural and direct 
 them in the struggle with the self-styled mistress of the ocean, and 
 arbiter of the nations of the earth. History has recorded the deeds 
 of those days. Our victories on the ocean and the lakes, which the 
 skill and the intrepidity of our navy obtained, and on the land within 
 the sound of the Great Cataract, and at New Orleans, keep alive
 
 JOHNC. CALHOUN. 45 
 
 their memory. With them are associated the names of the illustrious 
 patriots, who by their indomitable spirit and steadfastness, maintained 
 the cause of their country amidst the vicissitudes of war, and in the 
 darkest moments of defeat and disaster. 
 
 An occasion like this, as was natural, brought together in the 
 public counsels men of the greatest talent and distinction ; and it is 
 no disparagement to the fame of any one of them, to say that Mr. 
 CALHOUN was in all respects his equal. Nor were the honors of those 
 days easily won. The opposition throughout the administration of Mr. 
 Madison was conducted by men of the highest character, influence, and 
 ability. Many of them had established their reputations as public 
 men, and possessed great weight with the country men with whom 
 it was honorable to compete in so noble a cause. Amidst all the 
 differences and collisions of opinion, it was the peculiar good fortune 
 of Mr. CALHOUN, that while he supported with zeal and firmness his 
 own convictions of policy, he at the same time secured the good will 
 and respect of his distinguished opponents, who on frequent occasions 
 bore testimony to his great talents and worth. 
 
 The close of the war found him one of the foremost men of the 
 nation. Perhaps in the whole course of our history there is no man 
 who at his time of life had earned to himself so elevated a position. 
 Already he had won the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens, 
 and established his fame as an orator and statesman. Attracted by 
 his urbanity of manners and the fascination of his varied intellectual 
 powers, all sought his society, and none came from it without the 
 impression of his greatness. Nor did his success disturb in any 
 respect the habits of his life, or induce any relaxation from his laborious 
 application to intellectual pursuits. His mind was constantly employed 
 upon those great topics of political science which were his favorite 
 studies, and which occupied his leisure during life. 
 
 In 1817 commenced the administration of James Monroe, the 
 successor of the enlightened and virtuous Madison, Mr. CALHOUN 
 received from him the appointment of Secretary of War, and continued 
 at the head of that department until the close of his second adminis- 
 tration in 1825. The duties of that office were not at that period a 
 mere administrative routine. On the contrary, the late war had
 
 46 EULOGYON 
 
 accumulated a mass of unfinished business in the department. Its 
 difficulties were increased by the want of a proper system of expendi- 
 ture and accountability. This had not been felt with a small army in 
 time of peace, but necessarily produced great embarrassments during 
 the operations of war, and confusion at its close. Under ordinary 
 circumstances an office like this offered little inducement to a man in 
 the position of Mr. CALHOUN. The exchange from his career of 
 triumph in the House of Representatives to the details and drudgery 
 of an administrative office could present no attractions to a man of his 
 temperament There is generally among men of his class a fondness 
 for the pursuits in which they excel, and an aversion to those of an 
 opposite character. They leave with regret the theatre in which they 
 address and hold intercourse with a people and receive its applause, 
 for the fastidious and irksome labors of a place in which their voice is 
 not heard, and their exertions are unknown or unappreciated. It was 
 sufficient however that this branch of the government most needed 
 reformation to secure to the country the benefit of his services. 
 
 During the quiet and prosperous administration of Mr. Monroe, 
 the War Department under his charge was reorganized, and the 
 present admirable system introduced and carried into effect. It is no 
 small praise to his skill and ability that they commanded the confi- 
 dence of military men, and that his administration of the War Depart- 
 ment is an epoch in the history of our military establishment. In 
 considering the recent achievements of our army the fortunate results 
 of courage, skill, and the complete organization of every branch of 
 the service, we ought not to overlook the intelligence which first gave 
 the direction and established the organization from which so much 
 has inured to the honor of our arms and the strength of our republic. 
 In taking charge of the War Department Mr. CALHOUN was thrown 
 entirely upon his own judgment and responsibility. The greatest 
 confusion prevailed in all branches of the department Nearly fifty 
 millions of accounts remained outstanding and unadjusted. After 
 reducing them to a few millions, and introducing order and account- 
 ability in every part of the service, and bringing down the annual 
 expenditure of the army to four millions and a half, without taking a 
 single comfort from officer or soldier, he left the department in a con-
 
 S I 
 
 JOHNC. CALHOUN. 47 
 
 dition which might be advantageously compared with the best in any 
 country. He removed higher up our military posts on the Mississippi 
 and Missouri, and took measures for the security of our frontier and 
 the extension of the fur trade. His whole administration was charac- 
 terized by system, foresight and activity, and established his reputa- 
 tion as an enlightened and accomplished statesman in the fullest sense 
 of the term. 
 
 In the canvass for President which came on towards the close of 
 the last term of Mr. Monroe, the name of Mr. CALHOUN was brought 
 before the public for that distinguished station. He was not however 
 a candidate for the Presidency at the election, but received a large 
 majority of electoral votes for the office of Vice-President, and took 
 his seat as the presiding officer of the Senate on the 4th March, 1825. 
 He was re-elected in 1829, and remained in office until 1832. 
 
 During the time that Mr. CALHOFN filled the chair of the Senate, 
 it is conceded by all that he presided over the deliberations of that 
 august body with singular dignity and moderation. Amidst the con- 
 flicts of debate, the struggles and activity of party spirit, his justice 
 and impartiality were never questioned. Some of his decisions gave 
 rise to much discussion in the excited state of feeling at the tune, and 
 different views were taken of their correctness ; but upon a dispassionate 
 and thorough consideration of the subject, the views taken by him 
 of the duties of his office, and of the relations of the Vice-President 
 towards the Senate under the Constitution were concurred in, and 
 since that time the rule established by his decisions has been acted 
 upon as a settled constitutional principle. 
 
 The state of things which occasioned Mr. CALHOTJN'S resignation 
 of the Vice-Presidency, and his immediate transfer as a senator to the 
 body over which he had with such general satisfaction presided, con- 
 stitutes one of the most important epochs in the constitutional history 
 of our country. South Carolina through the organ of a convention of 
 her citizens, had declared by a solemn act some of the most important 
 laws of the United States to be unconstitutional, null and void, had 
 pledged herself to renounce all connexion with the Union, if an attempt 
 should be made to carry them into effect by force, and her legislature 
 was engaged in maturing measures necessary to meet such a contin-
 
 48 EULOGYON 
 
 gency. The President of the United States stood pledged before the 
 country to execute the laws. His name, his services, and his known 
 determined resoluteness of character, gave weight to the solemn pledge 
 which he renewed in a formal proclamation. An appeal to force 
 appeared to be inevitable, and the future to offer little else than con- 
 fusion, civil discord and violence. Our country was saved from this 
 result by a concession on the part of the government of the United 
 States, made in a spirit of justice and of peace. The obnoxious tariff 
 laws were modified, and all further agitation on the subject was termi- 
 nated. 
 
 Just before the commencement of the session of Congress in 
 which these momentous matters were to be acted upon, Mr. CALHOUN 
 resigned the office of Vice-President, and was appointed Senator by 
 the legislature of South Carolina to fill the vacancy made by the elec- 
 tion of General Hayne to the office of Governor of the State. The 
 avowed object of his change of position from that of presiding officer 
 to that of member of the Senate, was to explain before it as it were 
 in the presence of the people the principles and conduct of the party 
 of which he prided himself upon being the champion. This act alone 
 bespeaks greatness, and bears the impress of confidence and manly 
 sincerity, of noble disinterestedness and self devotion. Public expecta- 
 tion was at its highest point, and was not long in suspense. At the 
 appropriate time Mr. CALHOUN brought forward a series of resolutions 
 embodying the principles upon which the measures of South Carolina 
 had been based, and which he relied upon for her justification. 
 
 The prominent point disclosed in these resolutions is, that under 
 our system any State has a right to annul at discretion within its limits 
 any law of the General Government which it may deem unconstitu- 
 tional. The foundation of this right is denied from the assumption 
 that the United States are not one people but a confederacy of States 
 in certain things mutually independent of each other, each possessing 
 the same right to judge of the extent of the obligations subsisting 
 between itself and the others, and of the manner in which those obli- 
 gations are observed or violated that is possessed and exercised by the 
 parties to an alliance of independent sovereigns ; that a breach of the 
 conditions of the compact by one party exempts the others from the
 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN. 49 
 
 obligations to observe it, and leaves them at liberty to renounce it 
 entirely, or to take such other measures, not inconsistent with justice, 
 as they may deem expedient for the security of their rights. This 
 doctrine was sustained by Mr. CALHOUN as the shield of State rights, 
 and essential to the protection of the minority interests of the commu- 
 nity, and the liberty and union of the States. The right assumed was 
 not that of resistance on the part of the State in cases of unconstitu- 
 tional and extreme oppression, but it clothed the States with the power 
 of annulling in the exercise of their own constitutional power the acts 
 of the General Government. 
 
 The principles set forth in the resolutions of Mr. CALHOUN met 
 with a feeble support out of the State in which they were acted upon. 
 The judgment of our ablest publicists was adverse to them, as were 
 the opinions of most of the legislatures of different States expressed 
 on the proceedings of the South Carolina Convention. The great 
 mass of public opinion was with the General Government, and the 
 State of Virginia alone interposed her good offices for the suspension 
 of the enforcement of the nullifying ordinance. 
 
 These discouraging appearances had no effect in checking the 
 zeal or weakening the purpose of Mr. CALHOUN. He had from his 
 official positions been for nearly fifteen years withdrawn from all public 
 debate, but on taking his seat in the Senate he was at once found ready 
 for all its exigencies. With an enlarged experience, great maturity of 
 intellectual powers, a practical observation of the workings of our 
 Government i:i all its tendencies, and the high reputation which his 
 public labors had secured to him, he appeared before the people of the 
 United States confident of being able to vindicate his doctrines, to 
 impress in all who heard him the conviction of their truth, and establish 
 them as a part of the fundamental law of the land. JVtr. CALHOUN 
 advocated the doctrine of Nullification as a peaceable remedy against 
 grievances. It was not new; it was considered as resting in high 
 authority, but had never been before acted upon, and its application 
 was attempted for the first time. He thought that our federative sys- 
 tem in extreme cases authorized this intermediate remedy between 
 'oppression and resistance; that instead of being a measure of revolution 

 
 50 EULOGVON 
 
 and anarchy, it was one of peace and safety ; and that its existence 
 and recognition would impress moderation and justice upon the action 
 of the General Government. These doctrines descend to posterity 
 under the sanction of his great name. 
 
 The debate which followed on this occasion was one of the most 
 memorable in our history it was addressed to the standard of the 
 highest intelligence, and did honor to all who took part in it. The 
 foundations of our Government were thoroughly examined and dis- 
 cussed with an ability rarely equalled, and the whole debate was 
 conducted with the elevation and dignity which the gravity of the 
 subject required. However unsuccessful Mr. CALHOUN had been in 
 establishing his doctrines under the theory of the Constitution, there 
 was but one impression as to his great ability, whether displayed in 
 assailing the positions of his antagonists, or in fortifying and defending 
 his own. ' 
 
 This discussion, involving as it did the gravest questions that ever 
 occur with us, furnishes the most thorough exposition of the origin and 
 theory of our political system which has yet been produced, and affords 
 materials invaluable to the future historian and statesman. The 
 conduct of Mr. CALHOUN in this controversy between the General 
 Government and the State of South Carolina, was necessarily subject 
 to severe animadversion. The weight of his influence, moral and 
 political, which was thus brought to bear against the Union, was looked 
 upon with no favor by a large majority of his political friends, but 
 without injuring in the slightest degree their confidence in the purity 
 of his motives or the elevation of his purpose the sentiment on the 
 part of those who entertained the most opposite opinions to his, was 
 one of regret without unkindness or the least asperity. 
 
 Mr. CALHOUN remained in the Senate until after the ratification 
 of the Ashburton treaty in 1843, devoting his whole resources of 
 knowledge and experience to the investigation and settlement of the 
 important questions of public policy which were under consideration 
 during that period. He was afterwards called from his retirement to 
 fill the office of Secretary of State under the administration of Mr. 
 Tyler, and was subsequently returned again to the Senate during that 
 of Mr. Polk, and remained in that body until his death.
 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN. 51 
 
 Having acted a distinguished part in all the great political ques- 
 tions of his time, he has left to posterity the means of forming a just 
 appreciation of his conduct, his views, and his principles. His powers 
 have been tested in various ways and in different spheres. 
 
 His Senatorial labors being the most recent, and having been 
 directed to those all-absorbing topics which still occupy the public 
 mind, form an interesting part of our history and claim a large share 
 of public attention. As they were the result of reflection and ex- 
 perience under great opportunities of observation during his political 
 life, they will probably be considered hereafter as the crowning glory 
 of his name. It is fortunate for a statesman of his enlarged mind that 
 it should be employed on subjects of great and enduring moment 
 involving not only the welfare and prosperity of the present, but the 
 peace and security of the future and not wasted or its force weakened 
 by being thrown away upon matters of a selfish and ephemeral interest. 
 It does not appear that such matters ever engaged his attention : the 
 movement of his intellect was high, and all his purposes were elevated 
 and sincere. 
 
 It is highly creditable to the people of the United States that their 
 divisions and contests among themselves have been upon questions of 
 polity deeply affecting their political and material interests, and that 
 these questions after examination, discussion, and sometimes violent 
 agitation, have been determined generally by a very decided weight 
 of public opinion, and subsequently acquiesced in generally. A 
 general system of internal improvements by the Government of the 
 United States at one time found favor with a majority ; but on a 
 partial experiment its abuses were so monstrous and its disastrous 
 consequences so apparent, that after a fair test of the popular sentiment 
 it was abandoned. 
 
 The cause of the measures of the State of South Carolina just 
 stated, was the abuse of the protective system which bore oppressively 
 on the agricultural interests, to which the schemes of internal improve- 
 ments furnished aliment by requiring large disbursements of public 
 money raised by an unjust and unequal taxation, and expended in a 
 manner to operate on the worst weakness of humanity in purchasing 
 support. The power of the protective system became immense, and
 
 52 EULOGY ON 
 
 by a combination with the banking interest, which controlled the 
 currency, and thereby had the mastery of the commercial interest, and 
 connecting itself with the struggles for political ascendancy, there 
 appeared to be no limits to its dangerous progress. It was from the 
 hand of Mr. CALHOUN that this system and its combinations received 
 their death blow. It was he who aroused public attention to its 
 enormities, and with an admirable power of analysis a patience and 
 toil which a sense of duty to his country alone enabled him to exert 
 placed before the people the abuses, the injustice and the consequences 
 of the system in all its complicated effects. The subject began to be 
 understood; it attracted the attention of the enlightened and reflecting 
 to its obvious results, and the consequence was a decided change in 
 public opinion against the extremes to which the system had been 
 pushed. More reasonable counsels prevailed, and public opinion has 
 been since verging to the opposite extreme, and has settled down in 
 favor of the liberal policy of 1846. 
 
 The financial policy of the Government, dependent on the receipt 
 and expenditure of the public revenue, was a subject of still greater 
 moment, as it regulated the currency and consequently the nominal 
 value of every species of property. The banking system was one of 
 those inheritances we received from the mother country, and the 
 benefits of the intimate connection and dependence of the operations 
 of the Government upon it were taken upon trust, and viewed as a 
 matter of political necessity. At the time of the suspension of specie 
 payments, when the evils and dangers of the connection were dis- 
 closed, an attempt was made to separate the affairs of the Government 
 from all connection with banks. The attempt after a violent struggle 
 resulted in the establishment of the Independent Treasury system, which 
 has fully answered all the purposes of Government. At that time the 
 subject was little understood in this country and in England. The 
 most gross errors of opinion prevailed among enlightened men con- 
 cerning the necessity and policy of the prevailing system. Mr. 
 CALHOUN far, very far in advance of public opinion, took his stand 
 against it, and with a foresight and sagacity almost unequalled, demon- 
 strated the necessity of the divorce of the State and banks, under the 
 fatal consequences of which the country was then suffering, and ex-
 
 JOHNC. CALHOUN. 53 
 
 plained the invaluable advantages of the plan to be substituted for this 
 unnatural and disastrous alliance. 
 
 Public opinion on this subject was completely revolutionized, and 
 the measures and views of financial policy then entertained, are now 
 looked back upon with wonder as the delusions of the day. Mr. 
 CALHOUN'S views of policy relating to the financial and other material 
 interests of the country appear to comprehend the great changes which 
 its condition has since undergone with the increase of territory, wealth, 
 population, and its progress in the arts, and to be in accordance with 
 the exigencies of these combined elements. These views were pre- 
 sented in debate with masterly force of argument and illustration. 
 
 The Ashburton treaty which terminated the vexed and long 
 pending controversy on the subject of the North Eastern boundary, 
 received his cordial support; and on that occasion, in stating his 
 reasons for his vote, he exhibited in their strongest light his modera- 
 tion, his accurate acquaintance with the subjects embraced in the 
 treaty, and his patriotic and elevated purposes. He did not insist upon 
 his views on several points, and voted for the treaty as a measure of 
 conciliation, and as the first step towards a durable good understanding 
 and peace. On all the important, subjects before the Senate Mr. 
 CALHOUN took a leading part in the debate. The Bankrupt Law, 
 the Public Lands, the Veto-power engaged his attention and called 
 forth his best exertions, as well as those topics directly connected with 
 the financial and general policy of the country. 
 
 After a short retirement from the Senate, he was, with the 
 unequivocal approbation of the Nation, appointed to the office of Secre- 
 tary of State. With reluctance he accepted the appointment, which 
 had been unanimously confirmed by the Senate without the usual 
 forms observed by that body. The condition of our foreign affairs 
 required the services of a statesman of great experience and weight of 
 character, and Mr. CALHOUN carried to the office the confidence of all. 
 The subject of the annexation of Texas was then pressing upon public 
 attention, and the time had come when it was necessary for the 
 Government to act definitively upon this important question. The 
 difficulties which it presented were met promptly by Mr. CALHOUN, 
 who gave such a direction to the negotiation that Texas became one
 
 54 EULOGY ON 
 
 of tke United States. This vast addition to the territory of the United 
 States was neither sought in the spirit of conquest nor obtained for 
 purposes of aggrandizement, but as a means of providing for the 
 future security and peace of the Union. It was a measure of high 
 public policy, the advantages of which were not so apparent at the 
 time as to prevent a violent opposition ; but on a mature consideration 
 of the relations existing between this country and Texas, their union 
 was evidently little short of a necessity. 
 
 The accession of Mr. Polk to the Presidency found Mr. CALHOUN 
 again in private life ; but the alarm created by the Oregon question, 
 called him from his retirement to place him once more in that body 
 in which he would be enabled to exercise a controlling influence. 
 His opinions were known to be eminently pacific. Familiar with the 
 origin of the question and the different unsuccessful attempts to adjust 
 it ffom his recent position of Secretary of State possessing all the 
 information concerning its condition, he thought it involved the issues 
 of peace or war, and put forth his unremitted and anxious efforts in 
 the Senate for its adjustment. 
 
 Mr. CALHOUN was opposed to the late war with Mexico. He 
 was essentially a man of peace, and looked upon war as in direct 
 conflict with our policy, and detrimental in its consequences to our 
 institutions. The war of 1812, which he advocated and supported 
 throughout, he considered as called for by our national honor, and 
 necessary to our national independence. Since that period whenever 
 he took any part in our relations with foreign powers, his counsels 
 were marked with moderation and his views were almost exclusively 
 pacific. 
 
 We are thus brought near the close of the career of this great 
 man, who for a period of almost forty years had been before the public 
 eye in conspicuous public situations, in the midst of the most bitter 
 conflict of parties, and in active connection with all the prominent 
 events of our history during that time. 
 
 At the time of the decease of Mr. CALHOTTN, he was the repre- 
 sentative of the great mass of opinion in the Southern States in relation 
 to their rights under the Federal Constitution respecting Slavery, 
 which opinion was fortified by an immense support in other parts of
 
 JOHNC. CALHOUN. 55 
 
 the Union among the enlightened, the virtuous, and the patriotic of all 
 parties. This support, though not manifested on all occasions, rested 
 upon strong and deliberate views of both duty and interest, and a 
 sincere attachment to our institutions. What had been prophecy in 
 1836 on the part of CALHOUN, became fact in 1849. The organized 
 incendiary movement for the overthrow of the fundamental law of the 
 Union, with its orators, preachers and presses, had accomplished its 
 great purpose on its way to distinction. It acquired a foothold in 
 Congress under the insidious mask of the right of petition a right 
 dear to those whose ancestors had fought the battle of civil and 
 religious liberty in Europe. An indiscriminate and undue respect for 
 that right had led to abuses of the most scandalous and disreputable 
 character, and resulted in open attacks on the integrity of the Consti- 
 tution itself. At the outset the movement seemed to be confined to 
 well meaning persons who were, or thought they were under the 
 influence of religious impulses. In England an administration for the 
 purpose of obtaining the votes of a sect, and thereby maintaining its 
 ascendancy, had spread desolation over their colonies in the West 
 Indies, by the abolition of domestic servitude. Notwithstanding the 
 political independence which the United States attained by the Revo- 
 lution, a social dependence to a certain extent still exists on our part. 
 Literature, the arts, commerce, and a common language, combine in 
 keeping up the dependence, and to impose on us not only the conven- 
 tial and social, but also the religious conceits which break out in the 
 midst of that artificial state of society. The excitement on the subject 
 of Slavery, which in its origin was confined to a few, and was therefore 
 harmless, soon became too powerful an element not to be turned to 
 account, and its progress exhibits one of the most marked examples 
 of ignorance and profligate demagogueism which the history of civili- 
 zation can present. It was fostered in order to be used in the contests 
 of numbers, and became formidable when men of note availed them- 
 selves of it as the means of their success. Many fanned the kindling 
 flame, who have recoiled from the consequent conflagration. Had 
 the feeling been met at the commencement with the energy and inde- 
 pendence since displayed in resisting it, it would have been kept within 
 its circle among that class of opinions which it is better for society to
 
 56 EULOGYON 
 
 tolerate than to disturb, and would have been impotent in affecting the 
 tranquility of the country. The mass of the people of the non-slave 
 holding States have always been in favor of the compromises of the 
 Constitution in their integrity, and too much credit cannot be given to 
 those public men who at all hazards of personal influence have nobly 
 exerted themselves in sustaining them, and in staying the plague which 
 threatened their destruction. If the guaranties of the Constitution are 
 not to be carried out, if its conservative power is to be withdrawn 
 from any portion of the Union, what remains for the protection of its 
 citizens? The most absolute despotism is comparative freedom to 
 their condition. If there is a higher power than the Constitution, and 
 this power is the conscience of a class of persons whom the accident 
 of an election may elevate to authority, we have merely the substitu- 
 tion of fanatic and unbridled license in place of the fundamental law. 
 Fanaticism has been the curse of our race. Its history fortunately has 
 been written. When once admitted into the governing power of a 
 system like ours, it can produce little else than tyranny and brutal 
 violence, and must necessarily destroy it. To resist the invasion of 
 our institutions on their outward edge by this element of danger, is a 
 matter of self preservation. 
 
 Those who are so ready at all times to impugn the motives of 
 the advocates of State rights, ought to bear in mind that they are liable 
 to misunderstand them. An extreme sensitiveness on the subject of 
 the rights of the States has its date in the origin of our Government. 
 In the States whose social condition offers no vulnerable point to be 
 affected by the action of the General Government, little is to be appre- 
 hended from its interference, and less from its adverse action. But in 
 the States where the condition of a large class is sought to be dis- 
 turbed, social order itself is liable to be upturned and society itself 
 disorganized by a departure from the conservative principles of the 
 Constitution : an active and self protecting vigilance on their part 
 ought therefore to excite neither surprise nor distrust among just and 
 right minded men. That the people of States so situated should be 
 feelingly alive to every danger of this sort, and use every precaution 
 to maintain their peace and security by preserving their political 
 power, would seem to be the natural consequences of their position.
 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN. 57 
 
 The views and motives of a people whose public counsels have taken 
 this direction, are liable not to be appreciated by those who have 
 known the General Government only from its benefits, and have no 
 reason to fear its antagonism. The active agency taken in public 
 affairs by men of education, of talent, and of property in the Southern 
 States, plainly shows that the rights of the States are held as involving 
 their deepest interests. They have been at all times determined that 
 their States shall maintain their due and proper influence. They have 
 manifested this determination through the press, their legislative bodies, 
 in Congress, and in public discussion. The ability with which the 
 cause has been sustained, and the devotion and disinterestedness with 
 which it has been upheld, has created and sustained an influence 
 which is all prevailing among the people of those States, and is fortified 
 by the concurrence in these opinions of a large mass of citizens of 
 other States. 
 
 In the judgment of the soundest statesmen of this Republic, and 
 of a large majority of the people, the preservation of the Union is only 
 to be maintained by the confinement of the powers of the General 
 Government within the limits of the Constitution. 
 
 Those who have read the history of the contests of civil liberty, 
 must see that safety is only secured by the vigilant opposition which 
 every assault of power instantly encounters from the spirit and intelli- 
 gence of the governed. Instead of permitting the aggressions of power 
 to accumulate and acquire such a hold on opinion as to sanction their 
 continuance, and then seeking relief in public resistance and civil war, 
 the present theory of free government is to resist the first tendency of 
 power towards aggression in constitutional rights, and thus nip the 
 evil in the bud. The policy is preventive rather than remedial, and 
 commends itself to the plainest understanding of man. So thought 
 Mr. CALHOUN, and on this principle he acted. 
 
 When Mr. CALHOUN in the midst of a state of disquietude and 
 alarm, which he had for a long time foreseen and predicted, made his 
 last appeal to the Senate and to the people of the non-slave holding 
 States, as the arbiters of the future security of the Union, he was 
 unable to declare it orally : it was read by another by permission. His 
 
 i
 
 58 EULOGY ON 
 
 presence in his visibly declining health, gave a painful interest to the 
 imposing scene. His discourse had been dictated by him in a physical 
 condition which would have disabled most men for such an exertion ; 
 but the feebleness and pains of body did not impair or divert the 
 energies of the soul within him. He only saw before him the dangers 
 which beset the country should evil measures prevail, and without 
 heed of his personal sufferings or the risk to which the exciting effort 
 exposed him, he abandoned his sick bed for the Senate, and gave his 
 last advice amidst her distracted counsels invoking the spirit of justice 
 and the duties of patriotism on the part of those who alone held the 
 power of perpetuating our institutions and of saving the Union. He 
 continued his presence in the deliberations of the Senate for a few 
 days, notwithstanding the evident sinking of his physical powers. 
 
 The difficulties which attended all attempts of an adjustment of 
 the pending difficulties he was fully alive to, and in a letter to a friend 
 written a few days previous to his death, he thus expresses himself: 
 
 " This may be the last of my communications to you. I feel 
 " myself sinking under the wasting power of disease. My end is 
 " probably very near. Before I reach it I have but one serious wish 
 " to gratify ; it is to see my country quieted under some arrangement, 
 " alas ! I know not what, which will be satisfactory to all, and safe to 
 the South." 
 
 He was evidently alarmed at what he considered the inevitable 
 consequence of the continued agitation of the Slavery question. He 
 had no fear that disunion would be effected at a single blow, but 
 thought it must be the work of tune, unless its fatal causes were 
 arrested ; that the chords which bound the States together political, 
 social, religious and moral, would ultimately become so weakened by 
 injustice and offence, that they would cease to be sufficiently strong to 
 hold the Union together. It was under these deep emotions that he 
 traced the origin of this disastrous condition to which the body politic 
 was verging, and made his last effort to rouse the country to a sense of 
 its dangers, and of the necessity of justice for its future security. 
 
 The death of Mr. CALHOUN at this juncture was felt as a national 
 loss. The value of his counsels and influence was then appreciated, 
 and the homage paid to his memory in both Houses of Congress by
 
 JOHNC. CALHOUN. 59 
 
 his opponents, as well as by his friends, bespoke their deep conviction 
 of his worth. Nor were any more forward in doing justice to the 
 deceased than his illustrious rivals in the career of glory, whose ser- 
 vices we are now commemorating with his own. 
 
 Notwithstanding the prominent position of Mr. CALHOUN, his 
 private life has been but little known. The close attention which he 
 always gave to his public duties and the labor which they required, 
 the character of his intellectual pursuits, and his habits of reflection 
 and study, left him little time for anything else. During his intervals 
 of leisure, agriculture and the management of his estate were his 
 amusement as well as his occupation. He never suffered himself to 
 be weaned from the claims of home ; and his duties as a husband, a 
 father, and the head of a family, were fulfilled in a manner equally 
 amiable and exemplary. The associations of affection and friendship 
 which clustered round the circle of his family, he kept alive and 
 adorned by his unreserved and kind intercourse, and the genial influence 
 of his well stored intelligence. His watchful interest in those whom 
 Providence had committed to his charge, was never weakened or abated 
 by the cares of public life. On all occasions he manifested the warmest 
 interest in the education and welfare in the youth of the country. 
 Accessible to all, attractive in his manner, his society was eagerly 
 sought by the young, and few left him without some agreeable and 
 useful impression : he lost no occasion of conveying to them such ideas 
 as would tend to strengthen their purposes of good, and elevate their 
 views of duty. He was always pleased when an opportunity presented 
 itself of holding intercourse with young men, and his acquaintance with 
 the studies of youth gave great value to his conversation, which was 
 enhanced by the kindest manner and the interest he seemed to take in 
 their future welfare. Nor was this appearance delusive. His inter- 
 course with the world had not dried up the deep sympathies of his 
 nature, nor diminished his feelings of benevolence towards his fellow 
 men. 
 
 The condition and admirable order of his farm, and the regularity 
 with which his private affairs were conducted, were the result of only a 
 portion of his leisure during his retirement from public business. He 
 sought information on all subjects which directly interested humanity.
 
 60 EULOGY ON 
 
 With the principles of mathematics and the kindred sciences he was 
 familiar, and kept up his knowledge of their progress and new appli- 
 cations. His favorite studies were the moral and political sciences. 
 He knew thoroughly the history of man in the different phases of 
 civilization through which he has passed. Every thing that has fallen 
 from him is replete with the evidence of his deep reflection on the 
 duties and relations of communities and of the citizens to the State. 
 His well directed industry and economy of time enabled him to prepare 
 in the latter part of his life his profound and elaborate Treatise on 
 Government the result of his meditations and enlarged experience. 
 
 The fascination of Mr. CALHOUN'S colloquial powers all have felt 
 who have enjoyed the advantage of listening to his conversations. 
 They were most eloquent, and were important elements of his in- 
 fluence over the minds of men. He was exceedingly regular and 
 temperate in his habits, and without any taste for ostentation or luxury. 
 His deportment was dignified and prepossessing, at the same time 
 imposing. A strict and habitual observer of the proprieties of life in 
 all his relations, public and private, he exhibited in himself the model 
 of a Christian, gentleman, and citizen. 
 
 But it was within the more intimate circle of his personal friends 
 that his character was more highly appreciated. His candor, his 
 truth, his fidelity, the entire absence of anything approaching indirec- 
 tion or concealment in his social relations, as well as the kindness of 
 his affections, created an attachment on the part of his friends which 
 is rarely witnessed. Its force has been manifested a thousand times 
 in the zeal and devotion with which he has been defended, and the 
 steadfastness with which on all occasions their sincerity has been 
 maintained. It was shown during Ids illness by their increasing 
 anxiety, and at his death by their heartfelt and profound affliction, 
 which revives with every incident which calls up the memory of their 
 departed friend. 
 
 - It is evident from the writings and speeches of Mr. CALHOUN, 
 that he had studied with advantage the great masters of ancient elo- 
 quence. He appears to have arrived at the strength and breyity of 
 the Greek of the times of Thucydides in the close energy of his 
 sentences and the abrupt rapidity of his thoughts sometimes indulging
 
 JOHN C. CALHOTJN. 61 
 
 in the more copious eloquence which was the improvement of the 
 next generation. He had the first requisite of a great orator he was 
 a good man, and his character stood as a guaranty for the truth of 
 what he said and of the sincerity with which it was uttered. In the 
 most exciting stages of debate his mode of argument was fair and 
 manly never losing himself in confusion, nor seeking to embarass 
 his adversary by taking any undue advantage. Nothing could divert 
 him from the even tenor of his way from the dignity with which he 
 always bore himself. He seemed to feel an unlimited confidence in 
 his own powers, and to speak from the fullness of knowledge. He 
 treated most subjects without putting forth his strength, convincing 
 his hearers by what he said of the store which he held in reserve. 
 But on the great questions which called forth the exertion of all his 
 force, the resources of his intellect, his admirable exercise of the 
 reasoning faculty, his comprehensive knowledge of political science, 
 never failed to produce an effect memorable in the annals of Senatorial 
 eloquence. This effect was by no means confined to those who 
 entertained his opinions or who advocated the same cause with him ; 
 those who differed from him most those who were, as it were, 
 alienated from him by adverse sentiments were not less the admirers 
 of his talent, and proud of him as one of the brilliant lights of his 
 country. His discourses were sustained throughout without being 
 formal or too stately. He appeared to disdain every thing like mere 
 ornament, and never introduced anything in his speeches which did 
 not contribute to the effect of the whole. He took no pride in 
 overcoming the difficulty of a moment and becoming the hero of an 
 occasion, and little interest in the ephemeral purposes of party. His 
 aim was higher it was directed with a single view to the great interests 
 of the country. 'He never descended from his elevation by the intro- 
 duction of anything personal or trivial, or any attempt at wit.' At all 
 times prepared for discussion on the subjects as they presented them- 
 selves for consideration, he was equally prompt and ready in the 
 defence of his conduct and opinions. On occasions of this sort some 
 of his most successful oratorical efforts were made. He was master 
 of the weapons of satire and sarcasm, which he seemed to forbear to 
 make use of from a consciousness of his strength, and never employed,
 
 62 EULOOYON 
 
 unless the necessity of the controversy called for them for his self 
 defence. His manner was grave and self-possessed, vehement and 
 severe at times, and his delivery was what might be expected from a 
 man of clear head and sound heart full of his subject and earnestly 
 intent on his purpose. His discourses, though they were the result 
 of the most elaborate reflection and study, bore none of the ordinary 
 marks of preparation. His subjects were not treated in the mode or 
 order T>f the rhetorician, but his power of analysis and description was 
 so perfect that they were at once placed in so striking a light as to 
 need no further illustration. And in his replies, the vulnerable points 
 of his adversary were often made so apparent by his simple exposition 
 of them, as to require no other refutation. In this respect his skill was 
 wonderful, and shewed him to be a thorough master of his great art. 
 It rendered him most formidable in deliberative assemblies, and gave 
 him a controlling power over all subjects under discussion. 
 
 Mr. CALHOUN was through life the opened and determined foe 
 of corruption and of every thing approaching it, whatever phase it 
 might assume whether in power or out of power. He scorned 
 indirection and intrigue. Demagogueism he loathed. He had no 
 relish for the applause of the day, and no sympathy with those who 
 seek it its triumphs had no attractions for him. He did not believe 
 that it was his mission to watch the popular gale and connect himself 
 with the conceits which are thrown up on the surface of society, but 
 to give to his fellow men his own convictions founded on the lights of 
 his own judgment and the dictates of his own conscience. 
 
 Deeply read in the Scriptures, he manifested on all proper occa- 
 sions a profound reverence for their truth, and a sense of religious 
 obligation. It indeed is the lot of few men to possess a character so 
 complete in all its essential points, and forming so perfect a whole. 
 
 He who could accomplish so much as Mr. CALHOUX has done, 
 must have been no ordinary man. His success in any one of the 
 branches of his career, as an Administrator, as a Statesman, or as an 
 Orator, is worthy of the ambition of the most aspiring. He was 
 exclusively the architect of his own fortune. He husbanded the scanty 
 opportunities for improvement of his early youth, and by study, reflec- 
 tion, and self-training, prepared himself for his future eminence. By
 
 JOHNC. CALHOUN. 63 
 
 his own exertions, without the adventitious aids of fortune and of 
 patronage, he placed himself early in life among the foremost men of 
 this land, superior to many in some respects inferior to none. 
 
 He died in the service of his country, in Washington City, on 
 the 31st March, 1850, leaving a glorious fame and a spotless reputa- 
 tion, and only regretting that he was no longer able to labor in assuring 
 tranquility to the State, and permanent protection to our institutions. 
 
 He had for sometime been conscious of his approaching end. 
 He preserved his faculties and his composure to the last. His death 
 was marked by those characteristics of simplicity and unostentatious 
 dignity which distinguished his life. Amidst a scene of heart-rending 
 grief of his beloved family and friends, who watched his death-bed with 
 the intense anxiety of devoted affection, he closed his earthly career 
 with the calmness and resignation of a Christian. 
 
 He has left behind him a great heritage to his children a great 
 example to his country a name renowned in her annals and in the 
 history of free institutions.
 
 -0
 
 EULOGIUM 
 
 ON THE LIFE, CHARACTER AND SERVICES OF 
 
 HENRY CLAY, 
 
 BY THEODORE H. McCALEB. 
 
 Delivered in the Odd Fellows' Hall, on the 9th of December, 1852, on the occasion of the Funeral 
 
 Obsequies in honor of 
 CALHOUN, CLAY AND WEBSTER. 
 
 The solemn spectacle, fellow-citizens, which everywhere meets 
 the eye, is one of profound and extraordinary interest. The imposing 
 Ceremonies in which we have been called to participate, have arrested 
 the attention of every patriot, and awakened the tenderest sensibilities 
 of every heart. A day has been set apart by public authority and by 
 common consent, to be consecrated to national sorrow. Our beautiful 
 city has suddenly paused in the midst of her wonted gaiety, to clothe 
 herself in the garments of mourning. Her accustomed song of joy 
 and revelry is hushed; her voice of sorrow is mingling with the 
 funeral strain ; and her heart all saddened and subdued, is throbbing 
 in unison with the muffled drum, as it beats the funeral march in honor 
 of the fallen champions of the Republic. 
 
 While we contemplate these manifestations of public mourning, 
 this temporary cessation of the ordinary pursuits of life, the aspect of 
 silent sadness which reigns in the usually active and crowded scenes 
 of commercial industry, it is impossible not to feel, and to feel deeply, 
 how weak is the voice of eulogy, how powerless is all human effort to 
 give an adequate expression of our sorrows for the loss of those, to 
 whose memory we have assembled to render our heartfelt tribute of 
 affectionate and grateful regard. It would be vain therefore for me to 
 attempt to give utterance to the emotions of profound humility with 
 which I appear before you, your delegated organ, to perform the 
 melancholy but grateful duty assigned me on this interesting occasion.
 
 66 EULOGY ON 
 
 Our CALHOUN, our CLAY, and our WEBSTER are no more. They 
 are all gone. One by one, they have passed from the great theatre of 
 their glory and renown. The places which once knew them, will 
 know them no more forever. Almost three years have rolled away 
 since the Nation was called to deplore the loss of her CALHOUN. 
 Months have elapsed since she followed the remains of her CLAY to 
 the chosen spot of his final repose. The voice of Philosophy had 
 whispered peace to her troubled spirit, and the tumultuous agitations 
 of grief had been succeeded by the holy calm of resignation to the 
 irresistible decrees of the Omnific Word ; but her great heart is again 
 pierced by the dart of affliction, and her voice of lamentation, giving 
 utterance alike to her past and present grief, is once more heard over 
 the lifeless form of her WEBSTER. Like the fond mother who has 
 surrendered one by one all her loved and cherished sons to the cold 
 embraces of the grave, who recalls over her last departed the virtues that 
 adorned them all, and beholds again in imagination their noble forms, 
 s when side by side they watched over and protected her with the 
 same filial devotion ; she yields her bleeding heart to that agony of 
 suffering which no hope can assuage, no philosophy can soothe, and 
 pours forth her accumulated sorrows over their common tomb. 
 
 And now, fellow-citizens, while the venerated names of CALHOUN 
 and WEBSTER are, upon other tongues, the themes of eulogy and 
 praise it becomes my pleasing duty to present to your grateful con- 
 templation a brief review of the life, character and services of HENRY 
 CLAY. 
 
 Brief, indeed, must be the review of such a life, of such a character, 
 and of such services, to be comprehended within the limits of this 
 occasion. A life from early manhood devoted to the promotion of 
 the happiness, prosperity and glory of his country ; a character whose 
 unsullied purity, moral elevation and Olympic grandeur, have become 
 the bright exemplars of the future statesman ; and services, which in 
 their momentous effects and consequences are to be felt upon the 
 destinies of this Republic through all time, might well be regarded as 
 appropriate subjects to be left to emblazon the tomes of the future 
 historian. It is not, however, for the purpose of imparting knowledge 
 upon topics, of which as Americans you can never be presumed to be
 
 HENRY CLAY. 67 
 
 ignorant, that in a passing tribute to the memory of the illustrious 
 dead, we advert to the shining qualities that adorned his character, 
 or glance at the prominent part he performed in the grand drama of 
 public life. We seek rather, by reviving a recollection of the past, to 
 awaken the mind to a full and solemn sense of the nature and extent 
 of the national bereavement, and by recurring to the glorious examples 
 that have gone before us, to enable us the better to appreciate the 
 importance of the obligations we are called upon to discharge. As 
 successors to the rich inheritance of constitutional liberty and repub- 
 lican glory bequeathed to us by the good and the great who have 
 gone down to their graves, we cannot hope to preserve that inheritance 
 and transmit it unimpaired to posterity, if we cease to venerate the 
 characters, refuse to emulate the examples, or fail to observe the 
 precepts of those from whom we have received it. 
 
 We cannot reflect upon the solemn and heartfelt manifestations 
 of public grief which immediately followed the death of Mr. CLAY, 
 without feeling that his highest, his noblest eulogy is the sorrow 
 exhibited by his countrymen on the melancholy occasion. We all 
 felt that the long lingering illness of the venerable patriot had gradually 
 prepared us to listen with calm and Christian resignation to the intelli- 
 gence of his final dissolution. And yet, when on the wings of the 
 lightning that intelligence was conveyed to the remotest parts of the 
 Republic, we well remember how that Republic from its centre to its 
 extremities was convulsed by the shock produced by the sudden 
 assurance that the great Statesman was no more. The whole Nation 
 seemed bowed down with a sense of its irreparable loss, and clothed 
 itself with the habiliments of mourning; and the people joined with 
 one accord in rendering funeral honors to the mighty dead. In every 
 city, town and village through which his mortal remains were borne 
 on their way to their final resting place, the mourning thousands 
 assembled to testify their affectionate regards for his memory. Sorrow 
 was depicted upon every countenance, and all eyes were turned to 
 behold the bier that contained the last of him, who but a few months 
 before, with form erect and eagle eye, had moved in the midst of his 
 admiring countrymen, the object of their gratitude and love. The 
 swelling tones of organs pealing among clustered columns, and along
 
 68 EULOOYON 
 
 the spacious domes of lofty cathedrals ; the measured toll of funeral 
 bells resounding from the spires of every consecrated fane throughout 
 the length and breadth of the land, were mingling in one universal 
 knell one solemn dirge over the Christian patriot. In view of all 
 which then occurred, and of all which is now passing before us, how 
 forcibly are we reminded of those ebullitions of popular grief which 
 we are told by Tacitus were exhibited in Rome upon the announce- 
 ment of the tidings from Syria, of the death of Germanicus : Ut, ante 
 edictum magistratuum, ante Senatus-consultum, sumpto justitio, desere- 
 rentur fora, clauderentur domus : Passim silentia et gemitus ; nihil 
 compositum in ostentationem ; et quamquam neque insignibus lugentium 
 dbstinerent, altius animis moerebant* 
 
 Death has indeed most signally exerted its customary effect upon 
 the public estimate of the character and services of our departed 
 Statesman. It has augmented the veneration for his memory, in pro- 
 portion as it has been instrumental in diminishing political asperity 
 and prejudice, and in silencing the senseless clamors of party malice. 
 His great name and illustrious services are upon all tongues. Friend 
 and foe are united in rendering homage to the fame of the noblest of 
 our country's benefactors. All, all now remember the Statesman who 
 stood by his country in the hour of her thickest gloom ; whose moral 
 courage and resolution, sustained by his lofty eloquence, had rendered 
 him equal to every occasion whether an effort was demanded in 
 support of a great measure of public policy, or in vindication of the 
 rights of our Republic against the world. They remember the Patriot, 
 whose great soul at all times and in every emergency embraced his 
 whole country ; whose last act was the noblest evidence of his undying 
 attachment to that Union, to whose best interests, to whose permanent 
 preservation his whole life was steadily and ardently devoted. They 
 remember the MAN, whose name 
 
 "No act of base dishonor ever blurred ;" 
 
 the man who walked untouched and triumphant through the fiery 
 furnace seven times-heated, of detraction and persecution ; the man, 
 
 * Annali b. 3d.
 
 HENRYCLAY. 69 
 
 for whose foreordained destruction, there were those who paused not to 
 
 Distort the truth, accumulate the lie, 
 And pile the pyramid of calumny ; 
 
 the man, who single handed against a host, had fluttered his assailants 
 " like an eagle in a dove cote alone he did it ;" who stormed the 
 very citadel of calumny, and planted the victorious banner of Truth 
 upon its walls ; the man who was ever ready to compromise upon a 
 measure of public policy affecting the security of the union of these 
 States ; but whose chivalric soul ever scorned to compromise a princi- 
 ple, in thought or deed, whenever his own honor or the honor of his 
 country was involved. It is for the loss of such a Statesman, such a 
 Patriot, such a Political Champion, such a Civic Hero, that a grateful 
 and admiring people have been called to mourn. All political animosi- 
 ties are forgotten, or buried forever in his honored grave. His 
 eloquence, his patriotism, the incorruptible purity of the Man, and the 
 comprehensive wisdom and unerring forecast of the Statesman, are 
 alone remembered. In the language of Macauley depicting the 
 sorrows of England for the death of Lord Chatham: " Detraction is 
 overawed. The voice of even just and temperate censure is mute. 
 Nothing is remembered but the lofty genius, the unsullied probity, 
 the undisputed services of him, who is no more. For once all parties 
 are agreed." 
 
 The life of Mr. CLAY presents a striking illustration of the 
 superior advantages afforded by our free republican institutions for 
 the development of all those attributes of moral and intellectual power 
 which constitute the truly great man. It demonstrates the efficacy of 
 that noble self-reliance which poised upon an indomitable will, and 
 disdaining all foreign aid, recoiling from no shock however violent, 
 and dismayed at no peril however appalling, steadily pursues its end, 
 and patiently but surely works out the salvation and triumph of its 
 possessor. 
 
 Mr. CLAY was born in Hanover County, Virginia, on the 12th of 
 April, 1777, nine months after the Declaration of Independence ; and 
 it may therefore be truly said that his infancy was cradled amid the 
 storms of the Revolution. The first lesson taught him by maternal 
 affection was the story of his country's suffering, and of the heroic
 
 70 BU LOGY ON 
 
 achievements of those who rose in vindication of her rights against 
 the oppressions of arbitrary power. At five years of age he was 
 fatherless, and according to his own declaration, contained in his 
 memorable reply to one of the many rude and malignant attacks of 
 Mr. Randolph, " inherited from his father nothing but indigence and 
 ignorance." The means of education in the district of country where 
 he was born were extremely limited, and confined to such advantages 
 as were usually afforded in the country schools of that period. In 
 one of these he acquired the mere rudiments of an English education. 
 In 1792, through the kind interposition of friends, he obtained a situa- 
 tion in the office of the Clerk of the High Court of Chancery in 
 Richmond, where at the age of fifteen years, an age when the youth 
 of more favored lands were gaining an introduction to the pages of 
 Cicero and Virgil, Xenophon and Homer, the future Statesman was 
 toiling for a daily subsistence, and acquiring a practical acquaintance 
 with the technicalities and details of that profession, of which he was 
 destined to become one of the brightest ornaments. He soon attracted 
 the attention of the learned and accomplished Chancellor Wythe, by 
 whom he was employed as an amanuensis, and of whose paternal 
 advice and instruction he was for four years the grateful recipient. 
 Through the intercession of his venerable friend, he was admitted into 
 the office of Robert Brooke, Esq., the Attorney General, and formerly 
 Governor of Virginia. He there acquired a sufficient knowledge of 
 the law, to enable him to obtain from the Judges of the Court of 
 Appeals of his native State, a license to practice ; and one year after 
 he entered the office of Mr. Brooke, he left Richmond for the West, 
 and established himself permanently in Lexington, Kentucky. Before 
 leaving Richmond, however, Mr. CLAY had enjoyed peculiar advantages 
 for a young man ambitious of distinction in his profession. He had 
 formed the acquaintance of almost all the distinguished Virginians of 
 that period, among whom may be mentioned Edmond Pendleton, 
 Spencer Roano, Chief Justice Marshall, Bushrod Washington, and 
 Mr. Wickham. It was also his good fortune to hear on two occasions, 
 that unrivalled champion of American Independence, Patrick Henry, 
 once before the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of 
 Virginia, on the question of the payment of the British debts ; and
 
 HENRY CLAY. 71 
 
 again in the House of Delegates of Virginia, on the claims of the 
 supernumerary officers in the service of the State, during the Revo- 
 lutionary War. Mr. CLAY retained through life a vivid recollection 
 of the appearance and manner of that extraordinary man. The im- 
 pression of his eloquent powers on his mind was, "that their charm 
 consisted mainly in one of the finest voices ever heard, in his graceful 
 gesticulation, and the variety and force of expression exhibited in his 
 countenance.*" Those who have listened to the eloquence of Mr. 
 CLAY, will remember how preeminently he was distinguished for these 
 very characteristics of the orator, which had impressed his own mind, 
 as prominent ornaments in the eloquence of his renowned exemplar. 
 We can easily imagine the effect which a popular or forensic effort of 
 such a man as Patrick Henry, would produce upon such a mind as 
 Nature had given to young CLAY. We can easily depict in our imagi- 
 nations the beaming countenance of the youthful auditor, as he follows 
 with rapture and delight the daring flights of an orator whose fame 
 he was even then resolved to emulate. We recall the picture of the 
 young Thucydides listening with tearful interest to the beautiful history 
 of Heroditus, as it was read to the admiring multitude at Olympia ; 
 and that of the young Demosthenes, retiring from the applauding 
 throng, upon the conclusion of an oration of Callistratus, to meditate 
 in retirement on the thrilling scene through which he had passed, and 
 under the influence of the fire of inspiration still glowing in his heart, 
 to renew those intellectual toils through which alone he too might 
 hope to win that popular applause, which to the ear of young ambition, 
 is sweeter than the music of the spheres. 
 
 The professional success of Mr. CLAY in his adopted State far 
 surpassed his fondest hopes, and was in all respects such as might be 
 confidently anticipated from his previous assiduity and exemplary 
 conduct. His energetic devotion to business, his superior talents as 
 an advocate, and his honorable bearing as a man, secured for him 
 popular favor and popular confidence ; and the young and friendless 
 attorney who had rejoiced over his first fee of fifteen shillings, soon 
 found himself in possession of a lucrative practice, and holding a high 
 
 * Life of Mr. CLAY by Eppes Sargent.
 
 72 EULOGY ON 
 
 rank at a bar, which even at that early period could number among 
 its members such men as George Nicholas, Joseph Hamilton Daviess, 
 James Hughs, John Breckenridge and William Murray. It may be 
 mentioned as a remarkable fact in connection with his career as an 
 advocate, that he was successful in every criminal trial for a capital 
 offence in which he appeared for the accused party. During his 
 whole political life he was frequently engaged in important cases 
 before the Courts of Kentucky, and before the Supreme Court of the 
 United States. No member of the American bar was more efficient 
 in the presentation of the merits of a case to a jury ; while the many 
 important decisions in favor of his clients, from the highest tribunal 
 known to our law, upon questions of great public importance, and 
 involving principles of constitutional law, bear ample testimony to his 
 professional acumen, his profound research, and his thorough mastery 
 of legal principles. We have the authority of Mr. Justice Story for 
 saying, that as a jurist of extensive attainments and profound ability, 
 Mr. CLAY was regarded by Chief Justice Marshall, the highest 
 authority to which we can appeal as second to no lawyer in this 
 country. 
 
 After a prosperous and distinguished career as a lawyer and local 
 legislator in the State, among whose generous and gallant sons he had 
 cast his lot for life, he was elected to a seat in the Senate of the United 
 States, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the resignation of the Hon. 
 John Adair. His election was only for the fraction of a term ; but we 
 find in his speeches, and in the resolutions presented by him during 
 that brief period, the germ of that great system of Internal Improve- 
 ment, of which he was afterwards the ablest and most eloquent advocate. 
 On his return to Kentucky, he was again elected by the citizens of 
 Fayette County to represent them in the Legislature of the State, and 
 at the next session was chosen Speaker of the Assembly. He how- 
 ever participated in all the important debates which arose in the body 
 of which he was the presiding officer, and continued actively and with 
 great distinction to serve the State as one of her local representatives, 
 until 1809, when he was again elected to the Senate of the United 
 States.
 
 as 
 
 HENRYCLAY. 73 
 
 It would be impossible fellow-citizens, within the limits of this 
 occasion, to notice with minuteness, the splendid services of Mr. CLAY. 
 We shall therefore glance at a few of the most important public 
 measures, and the most prominent political events in the history of the 
 country, with which his name has been intimately associated. 
 
 We cannot, as Louisianians, pass unnoticed his zealous exertions 
 on the subject of the navigation of the Mississippi; his able and eloquent 
 assertion of the rights of our Government to the district of country 
 lying between the Mississippi and Perdido Rivers, a large portion of 
 which now forms a part of our own State ; his active participation in 
 the proceedings of Congress, which enabled Louisiana to form a 
 constitution, and to gain admission into the Union upon an equality 
 with the other members of the Confederacy; and his strenuous 
 efforts in favor of the maintenance of a naval force in the Gulf of 
 Mexico, for the protection of the commerce of the valley of the Missis- 
 sippi. These are services which create a local interest in his fame, 
 and which acquire an increasing importance whenever we compare 
 the present position of Louisiana with what it was a short time after 
 she passed from the dominion of France and Spain, to form one in 
 that great family of Independent States, whose commerce is upon 
 every ocean, and whose flag is upon every breeze. 
 
 But it is rather as citizens of the Union, that we love to dwell 
 upon the services of Mr. CLAY. We love to recur to that dark period 
 in our history, made bright and glorious by American valor and 
 American genius ; a period when the Republic was called upon to 
 vindicate her honor against wrongs committed upon her commerce by 
 England and France, under the Berlin and Milan decrees, and the 
 British orders in council. Under the pretext of prosecuting legitimate 
 hostilities in pursuance of these retaliatory measures, the most atrocious 
 depredations were committed by both nations upon our neutral trade. 
 And while France was induced by our stern remonstrances to abandon 
 her unjust and abominable policy, so far at least as it related to 
 American vessels, England continued to persevere in her course of 
 arrogance and oppression, until an indignant people demanded ven- 
 geance for her unprovoked hostilities upon the property of our 
 
 L
 
 74 EULOGY ON 
 
 merchants, and for her barbarous impressment of our mariners while 
 pursuing their peaceful avocations upon the highway of nations. 
 
 This important crisis in our affairs occurred in 1811, during the 
 administration of Mr. Madison. Mr. CLAY was then a member of the 
 House of Representatives, and had been elected its presiding officer. 
 The mind of the amiable President was inclined to peace, though he 
 afterwards proved firm, when his resolution was once taken. A pacific 
 policy was also recommended by Mr. Gallatin, then at the head of the 
 Treasury Department. Against every measure tending to a declara- 
 tion of hostilities, were arrayed the powerful talents of Mr. Randolph, 
 of Virginia, and Mr. Quincy, of Massachusetts. It is not difficult, 
 however, to imagine what would be the conduct of Mr. CLAY in such 
 an emergency. Like the Antaeus of ancient fable, he rose with 
 renewed and redoubled vigor, under the Herculean pressure of 
 opposition that attempted to bear him to the earth. He was 
 then in the prime of life, " with the rose of heaven upon his 
 cheek, and the fire of liberty in his eye." He saw and felt 
 that there was but one course to be pursued for the vindication 
 of the insulted honor of the country, and for a prompt and effectual 
 redress of her accumulated wrongs, and that course involved a 
 declaration of war. He advocated the embargo laws, because the 
 measure was a direct precursor to war; he advocated the increase of 
 the Army and Navy, and every other measure that would lead to the 
 declaration of hostilities. Side by side with Mr. CALHOUN, he nobly 
 sustained the honor of the country. High above their compeers 
 shone these two young and gallant champions of the Republic the 
 Tancred and Rinaldo of political chivalry. The conduct of Mr. CLAY 
 on that memorable occasion cannot perhaps be better described than 
 by adopting the language of a member of Congress, who was a per- 
 sonal witness of the effect of his eloquence upon the crowds who daily 
 hung upon his thrilling accents. " On this occasion," said he, " Mr. 
 CLAY was a flame of fire. He had now brought Congress to the 
 verge of what he conceived a war for liberty and honor, and his voice 
 rang through the Capitol like a trumpet-tone sounding for the onset. 
 On the subject of the policy of the embargo, his eloquence like a 
 Macedonian phalanx bore down all opposition, and he put to shame
 
 HENBYCLAY. 75 
 
 those of his opponents who flouted the Government on being unpre- 
 pared for war." 
 
 His great object was finally accomplished. War was declared. 
 The military and naval resources of the country were called into 
 requisition, and both on the land and on the ocean, the honor of the 
 country was gloriously sustained. 
 
 In consequence of the friendly interposition of the Emperor 
 Alexander of Russia, a willingness was expressed by the Ministry of 
 England to negotiate with our Government a treaty of peace. Mr. 
 CLAY and Mr. Russell were appointed by Mr. Madison, Commissioners 
 for this purpose, and accordingly Mr. CLAY on the 19th of January, 
 1814, resigned his station as Speaker of the House of Representatives, 
 and proceeded on his mission to Ghent. He was there joined by 
 Messrs. Adams, Gallatin and Bayard, who had left St. Petersburg and 
 repaired to the place appointed for the meeting of the Commissioners, 
 for the purpose of aiding in the arrangement of the terms of peace. 
 The treaty was signed in December, 1814. Afterwards a commercial 
 convention, highly advantageous to the trade and navigation of the 
 country, was concluded in London, by three of the Commissioners of 
 Ghent, viz : Messrs. Adams, CLAY and Gallatin. 
 
 The public career of Mr. CLAY was subsequently distinguished by 
 the able, eloquent, and untiring support he gave to the cause of Internal 
 Improvement, and to the protection of Domestic Industry. Let the 
 mere sectional politician say what he may, these great measures were 
 absolutely necessary, to enable the country to develop with rapidity 
 her great natural resources, and to secure her independence of the 
 manufactories of Europe. Those who would properly appreciate the 
 services of Mr. CLAY, must look to the situation of the country while 
 she was yet young and in a comparatively feeble state ; and not to 
 her present prosperous position, with her great facilities for international 
 communication, and for prompt and rapid transportation from State to 
 State ; nor to her splendid manufactories, which are soon destined not 
 only to rival, but to surpass' establishments of the same character in 
 the Old World. Nor should we limit our enquiry to the condition of 
 the country in time of peace; but we should view the subject as the 
 great Statesman himself was accustomed to view it, with reference to
 
 76 EULOGY ON 
 
 the contingency of war, and to those calamities which war must 
 inevitably entail upon every great commercial nation. What would 
 be the condition of our country without manufactures, and without the 
 facilities of transportation from one part of the Union to the other, for 
 cannon and other munitions of war, while the fleets of a powerful 
 enemy are sweeping the ocean, and prowling along our coasts? The 
 policy of Mr. CLAY demanded the aid of Government, for the prose- 
 cution of what individual resources and individual energy in the earlier 
 period of our history were inadequate to accomplish. He aimed at 
 the security of our commercial independence, and of our internal 
 prosperity, at all times, and in every emergency. 
 
 With the zeal and energy displayed by our great champion of 
 Universal Liberty, in the cause of South American and Grecian Inde- 
 pendence, you are all familiar. His speech in support of his proposition 
 to send a minister to the United Provinces of the Rio de La Plata, is 
 one of the ablest and. most elaborate arguments which emanated from 
 the illustrious Statesman during his whole public career. It is full of 
 historical information and statistical details, and evinces by its laborious 
 research, the deep, heartfelt anxiety of its author to secure for the 
 colonies the encouragement of our own Government, in the establish- 
 ment of that political independence for which they were nobly con- 
 tending. His speech in support of Mr. WEBSTER'S proposition to 
 send a commissioner to Greece, is a short but gallant appeal in behalf 
 of a people, in whose favor the sympathies of every humane heart would 
 be naturally and most warmly enlisted. There cannot be presented to 
 the imagination of a true friend of liberty, a spectacle more grand and 
 imposing than was exhibited in the Congress of our Republic, when 
 CLAY and WEBSTER, the great Orators of America, stood forth the 
 undaunted advocates of the restoration of freedom to the land of 
 Pericles and Demosthenes. 
 
 The exertions of Mr. CLAY in behalf of both South America and 
 Greece, were zealously continued during the time he was at the head 
 of the Department of State under the administration of Mr. Adams; 
 and with what success, we shall presently have occasion to notice. 
 
 As a diplomatist his abilities were displayed to the greatest 
 advantage. In the negotiations which led to the Treaty of Ghent, he
 
 HENRYCLAT. 77 
 
 wielded "the pen of a ready writer;" while his excellent judgment, 
 great prudence and practical intelligence, rendered him at all times an 
 efficient coadjutor and a safe councillor of his distinguished associates 
 in the commission. He not only aided in bringing to an honorable 
 close the war of 1812, but subsequently also, in conjunction with 
 Messrs. Adams and Gallatin, as we have already seen, in securing by 
 the Commercial Convention signed in London, on the 3d of July, 
 1815, those reciprocal advantages for our commerce and navigation, 
 which proved to be so effectual in enabling our enterprising mer- 
 chants to recover from the paralyzing consequences of the war. His easy 
 and conciliatory deportment, his perfect freedom from all duplicity, 
 and from that mysterious, enigmatical style of conducting diplomatic 
 conferences, once so common at the different courts of Europe, gained 
 for him the respect and confidence of the English negotiators. 
 
 The prudence and wisdom of Mr. Madison were never more 
 happily displayed than in the appointment of the members of the 
 Commission to adjust our difficulties with Great Britain. There was 
 Adams, learned on all subjects, and fortified by a thorough knowledge 
 of international law ; there was Gallatin, ready in all financial details, 
 and familiar with the commerce of the globe ; and there was CLAY, 
 bearing the reputation of an orator of rare abilities, quick to discover 
 an advantage, and prompt in turning it to the interest of his cause, 
 ever active, ever vigilant, looking alike to the present honor and ulti- 
 mate prosperity of the country. Such an array of talent and ability . 
 could not fail to exert a favorable impression on the diplomatists of 
 the proud and haughty nation before whom the rights of our young 
 Republic were to be vindicated, and her high character maintained. 
 It formed an appropriate sequel to the gallant exploits of our Army 
 and Navy. England learned for the first time, that she was neither 
 the mistress of the ocean, nor the undisputed arbiter of nations ; that 
 we not only possessed a power to check her progress upon the land 
 and upon the ocean, but also a moral and intellectual ability to teach 
 her the great and immutable principles of international justice. 
 
 It has been truly said that the diplomacy of our country was 
 never more efficiently conducted than during the time our foreign 
 relations were committed to Mr. CLAY. The number of treaties he
 
 78 EULOGY ON 
 
 negotiated while at the head of the Department of State, was greater 
 than all that had been previously concluded there, from the adoption 
 of the Constitution.* He concluded and signed treaties with Colombia 
 and Central America, with Denmark, Prussia and the Hanseatic 
 League. He also effected a negotiation with Russia for the settlement 
 of the claims of American citizens, and concluded a treaty with 
 Austria, but left the Department before it was signed. His letters to 
 Mr. Gallatin, while the latter was our Minister at London, upon the 
 subject of our trade with the British colonies, and the navigation of 
 the St. Lawrence, have ever been regarded as documents of rare value 
 in the history of our negotiations, and have deservedly placed the 
 writer among the most accomplished diplomatists of the age. Another 
 State paper, which has probably gained him more reputation than all 
 others which have emanated from his pen, is his letter of instructions 
 to the Delegation to the Congress of Panama. But that which will in 
 all time secure to his memory the veneration of every ardent lover of 
 liberty, is his successful appeal to the Emperor of Russia, through our 
 Minister at St. Petersburg, (Mr. Middleton,) to contribute his exertions 
 towards terminating the war which was then raging between Spain 
 and her South American colonies. He was equally successful in 
 obtaining the acquiescence of the same great power in the recognition 
 of the independence of Greece. His strenuous exertions while he was 
 Secretary of State, in connection with the noble efforts previously 
 made by himself and Mr. WEBSTER, upon the proposition of the latter 
 to send a commissioner to Greece, were mainly instrumental in exciting 
 the sympathies of Europe in favor of the struggling people of that 
 ancient home of freedom ; and in securing to them a recognition of 
 those constitutional guaranties for the protection of their rights under 
 a limited monarchy, for which they had long contended. And now, 
 in the musical strains of Whittier : 
 
 The Grecian as he feeds his flocks 
 In Tempo's vale, on Morea's rocks, 
 Or where the gleam of brieht blue waters 
 Ig caught by Scio's white armed daughters, 
 While dwelling on the dubious strife 
 Which ushered in his nation's life, 
 8hall mingle in his grateful lay 
 Bozzaris with the name of CLAY. 
 
 * Lifr of Mr. CLAY by Kppei Sargent
 
 HENRYCLAY. 79 
 
 It is a remarkable fact in connection with these distinguished 
 diplomatic services of Mr. CLAY, that, at the very time he was devoting 
 his best energies to the advancement of the honor and glory of his 
 country, and to the cause of human liberty in other portions of the 
 globe, he was at home the object of a malignant persecution, which 
 has had no parallel in the history of political or party warfare. We 
 know indeed that the charge which was urged against him, has long 
 since, in the language of his great compeer, who has so soon followed 
 him to the grave, " sunk into the general mass of stale and loathed 
 calumnies ;" that it is now regarded as " the very cast off slough of a 
 polluted and shameless press ;" and being " incapable of further mis- 
 chief, it lies in the sewer, lifeless and despised." And while we thank 
 God that no one would if he could, we thank Him still more, that no 
 one could if he would, " give it dignity or decency, by attempting to 
 elevate it, or to change it from what it is, an object of general disgust 
 and scorn. On the contrary, the contact if he choose to touch it, is 
 more likely to drag him down, down to the place where it lies itself." 
 And we do not on this occasion, when all are united in rendering 
 homage to the virtues of the mighty dead, allude to it with any design 
 of reviving unpleasant recollections of the past, but for the sole purpose 
 of presenting in a clearer and bolder light the unconquerable spirit of 
 the man, who never quailed before the envenomed darts of detraction ; 
 who never bowed his majestic form, nor vailed his lofty plume to the 
 arrogance of power. 
 
 Mr. CLAY, fellow citizens, was in the highest and broadest accepta- 
 tion of the term, an American Statesman. With the sentiments of the 
 mere local or party politician he had no sympathies in common. His 
 views of every great measure of public policy, were always compre- 
 hensive, always national. He regarded the members of the Confederacy 
 as constituent parts of one great whole ; and he felt, therefore, that 
 whatever contributed to promote the interests of a part, would, in its 
 ultimate effects and consequences, redound to the benefit of the whole. 
 That carping, narrow-minded jealousy, which feels itself called upon 
 to resist every measure of Government apparently designed for the 
 benefit of a particular locality, found no countenance or support from 
 Mr. CLAY. It is the easiest of all things to be a sectional or party 
 a
 
 80 EULOGY ON 
 
 politician ; it is the most difficult of all, to rise to the dignity and inde- 
 pendence of a statesman. With the former the primary object is 
 victory ; and it is a matter of minor importance what prinoiple may 
 be sacrificed in obtaining it. To the latter victory brings no laurels, 
 but when it heralds the triumph of principle. How few, how very few 
 are willing to withhold from party what is due to their country. How 
 many think of their country only when the triumph of party has been 
 secured. No man struggled more manfully for the success of his 
 party than Mr. CLAY ; but how easily could he surrender it and sacri- 
 fice it, and every thing that appertained to it, and even himself, 
 whenever it became necessary to protect the Union, or to ward off a 
 blow which political assassins were aiming at the Constitution. For 
 such an occasion, come when it might, the great Patriot was always 
 ready, and always equal to the demands of his country. It was then 
 that he knew no friends, no party, but the friends and the party who 
 were arrayed in defence of the Constitution and the Union. It was 
 then, that 
 
 " Among the mightiest, bent on highest deeds," 
 
 we found him always prepared to act under the influence of those 
 "sublime emotions of a patriotism, which soaring towards heaven, 
 rises far above all mean, low and selfish things, and is absorbed by one 
 soul-transporting thought of the good and the glory of one's country ; 
 that patriotism, which catching its inspirations from the immortal God, 
 and leaving at an immeasurable distance below all lesser, grovelling, 
 personal interests and feelings, animates and prompts to deeds of self- 
 sacrifice, of valor, of devotion, and of death itself."* It was then, 
 fellow-citizens, that he " WOULD RATHEE BE RIGHT, THAN TO BE PRESI- 
 DENT." It was then, that official power, however acceptable otherwise 
 to a generous ambition, however gratifying to the pride of an old 
 soldier of a hundred battles, as an evidence of his country's confidence, 
 and as a forerunner of an honorable discharge, lost all its charms, and 
 sank into utter insignificance. For what allurements had power how- 
 ever exalted, for the generous, high-souled patriot, when it could no 
 longer be associated with the honor, the greatness and glory of his 
 country ? 
 
 "Mr. CLAY'S Speech on the Veto Power.
 
 HENRY CLAY. 81 
 
 As an Orator, Mr. CLAY has, by common consent, long been 
 regarded as the first on the roll of great names in our country. His 
 eloquence was in perfect unison with his general character. It was 
 bold, ardent, and impassioned ; and when prompted by great excite- 
 ment, gushed like a torrent from the heart. The very fountains of 
 his soul seemed to be broken up, and amid the rush of tumultuous 
 emotions, he was utterly unconscious of the external world. With an 
 easy flow of language that never failed him ; with a voice ever under 
 the most perfect control, and attuned to the sweetest harmony, now 
 rising like the full tones of an organ, " till sound seemed piled upon 
 sound," and now falling into the softest melody, no orator perhaps 
 ever exercised a more commanding and entrancing influence over the 
 feelings of an audience. There was an awful grandeur in his 
 denunciation, before which the coldest and most philosophical opponent 
 stood appalled ; but in his pathetic appeals to the passions, there was 
 a charm which never failed to awaken the tenderest sensibilities 
 of the human heart. His speeches on the subject of the war, are 
 striking examples of these qualities. He was an enemy to all sophis- 
 try. As a logician, he was clear, cogent, and profound. He was 
 laborious in his researches, and rarely engaged in debate upon a 
 great measure of public interest without being fortified by an accumu- 
 lation of facts, which the dispassionate, unprejudiced mind found 
 it difficult to resist. Many of his best efforts have never been pub- 
 lished, and are now irretrievably lost. His speech on the Missouri 
 Compromise, like that of Mr. Pinkney on the same subject, has never 
 been given to the public in a form to enable his countrymen to judge 
 of the effect of that appeal, which originally secured for him the 
 proud appellation of the Great Pacificator. But even if we possessed 
 all that is lost, we should still feel, as we hung over the glowing 
 pages, that there was yet wanting something to complete the charm ; 
 something which the inimitable manner, and the musical, clarion-toned 
 voice of the orator himself could alone supply. We should be 
 reminded, at every step of our progress, of the story of the celebrated 
 /Eschines, while a teacher of Rhetoric at Rhodes. In response to the 
 enthusiastic plaudits of his students upon hearing him read the oration 
 of Demosthenes upon the Crown, the generous rival and antagonist of
 
 82 EULOGY ON 
 
 that great orator exclaimed : " What would have been your applause 
 could you have heard it from Demosthenes himself?" Those who 
 heard, can surely never forget, the peroration of Mr. CLAY'S speech in 
 the Senate of the United States on the Expunging Resolutions. He 
 flamed in his lofty attitude of defiance like a burning seraph, while 
 every bolt which he hurled amid peals of thunder upon his opponents, 
 seemed 
 
 "bright 
 With nn immortal's vengeance.'' 
 
 The sword of his indignation like that 
 
 " Of Michael from the armory of God, 
 
 Was given him tempered BO, that neither keen 
 
 Nor solid, might resist that edge." 
 
 The character of Mr. CLAY will serve as a pattern of intellectual 
 and moral excellence worthy of the imitation of all who may aspire to 
 public honors the mirror before which they may array themselves 
 for the conflicts of public life. His untarnished honor, his lofty pride, 
 his dauntless courage, his never failing self-reliance, his deep sense of 
 moral obligation, his incorruptible integrity, his " delicate sensibilities 
 exalted into sublime virtues," his magic eloquence and comprehensive 
 wisdom, all so harmoniously blended, contributed to form an Ameri- 
 can, to whom all Americans in all coming time may turn with admiration 
 and gratitude. 
 
 England in the reign of her good Queen Anne, was wont to 
 point to her Bolingbroke, as the " Beacon of English Statesmen." If 
 great sagacity, the most untiring physical energy, great mental endow- 
 ments, combined with irresistible eloquence, could justify his claims to 
 the enviable title, posterity may never withhold it. But where in his 
 character, as history has portrayed it, do we find those great moral 
 qualities which preeminently distinguished tho public career of our 
 American Orator and Patriot ? qualities which will enable the coun- 
 trymen of the latter to point to his glorious example, as a Pharos to 
 the statesmen of the world. 
 
 In forming its estimate of human greatness, the mind is ever 
 inclined to resort to comparisons. In fixing the rank or position of a 
 truly great man, in modern times, we naturally recur to the past, in
 
 HENRYCLAY. 83 
 
 order to determine how far he approximates to those examples which 
 history holds up to our admiration, and which have long since received 
 the favorable verdict of posterity. If a commander with the wreath 
 of laurel upon his brow, stands prominently before the world, we 
 inquire how he will compare with an Alexander, a Hannibal, or a 
 Cassar. If an orator become the object of popular admiration, and give 
 evidence of those great powers of eloquence which ever have been and 
 ever will be regarded as the noblest gifts of Heaven, we associate him 
 with those masters of his art whose names have come down to us 
 from renowned antiquity. So also do the mighty ministers, who, in 
 different ages of the world, have successfully guided the destinies of 
 their country, still stand as the grand criteria of modern statesman- 
 ship ; and our test of present greatness is still a comparison with the 
 past. Apply this test to the illustrious man whose character and 
 services are now the subject of consideration, and we will find, that in 
 no age of the world can we designate an example of a great statesman 
 or orator, with which his own life will not afford us a favorable com- 
 parison ; and there is no extraordinary event or occasion in history 
 which demanded the exercise of great mental and moral endowments, 
 in which we cannot readily imagine that he, had he been cotempo- 
 raneous with the event, and locally affected by its influence, would not 
 have been a prominent actor. He possessed the very qualities to 
 render him conspicuous, and to cause him to be designated among 
 thousands, as the man to determine, to lead, or to guide in the hour of 
 difficulty or danger, or whenever and wherever the great cause of 
 civil liberty might demand the aid of an eloquent and invincible cham- 
 pion. With him, who " wielded at will the fierce democratic of 
 Athens," he would have hurled defiance at the power of Philip and 
 his successors ; and all the gold of Macedonia, Susa and Ecbatana, 
 would never have abated one jot of his loyalty to the Republic. With 
 the great Roman orator, he would have resisted the growing power of 
 the Dictator ; and neither the flattering offers of favor from the usurper 
 himself, nor the persecutions of the arbitrary triumvirate which suc- 
 ceeded, would ever have drawn him off, or driven him from the 
 defence of the liberties of his country. With Tacitus and the younger 
 Pliny, he would have poured out his indignation before the Senate of 
 
 ^
 
 84 EULOOYON 
 
 Rome against the robberies and cruelties committed by the proconsul 
 of Africa. With the former, he would have arraigned before the 
 justice of the world every act of oppression, whether it emanated from 
 a commander at the head of his conquering legions, or resulted from 
 the execution of the mandates of imperial power. If he could have 
 been thrown in the midst of modern revolutions, who does not feel 
 that his eloquence would have animated, his courage have confirmed, 
 his wisdom have guided the devoted apostles of Truth. He would 
 have added strength to the energies of the boldest, and imparted a 
 more glowing zeal to their efforts in the cause of civil and religious 
 freedom ; and all the edicts that ever emanated from the indignation 
 of thrones, would never have arrested him in the prosecution of his 
 purpose ; all the thunders that were ever forged in the furnaces of 
 despotism would never ,have silenced his counter thunders, until 
 " the banner of Liberty was abroad upon the mountains in its first 
 loveliness, and the assaults of tyranny could no longer prevail against 
 it." With John Hampden, he would have resisted step by step every 
 attempt to subvert the rights of the citizen, every encroachment upon 
 the privileges of Parliament ; and with him he would have charged the 
 squadrons of the fiery Rupert. Contemplate him in imagination, 
 amid the storms of the American Revolution not as he really was, an 
 infant Hercules in his cradle, but in the full possession of those intel- 
 lectual and moral energies which in the maturity of manhood he 
 displayed ; and who does not believe that he would have stood in the 
 van with the noblest of the champions of Independence, and have 
 " felt the great arm of Washington lean on him for support." In any 
 age of the world, the great abilities and high personal qualities of our 
 departed patriot, would have rendered him illustrious, and equal to the 
 exigencies of any cause his generous soul would have prompted him 
 to espouse. 
 
 Although, fellow-citizens, it was the lot of Mr. CLAY never to 
 reach the summit of his ambition; although he was never called by his 
 countrymen to fill the higlfest political station within their gift, what 
 generous and enlightened mind within the whole range of the Republic, 
 can feel that mere official power or authority, however elevated, could 
 add one cubit to the statue of his great fame ? Do we not find in
 
 HENRY CLAY. 85 
 
 this instance of popular injustice, rather an augmentation than a 
 diminution of the glory that encircles his name ? Did the refusal of 
 the Emperor Tiberius to grant the triumph demanded by Dolabella 
 for his conquests in Africa, detract from, or add to, the glory of his 
 achievements ? The accomplished historian has, with characteristic 
 brevity and energy, given us the answer: Huic negatus honor gloriam 
 intendit* 
 
 Let not the honors we render this day to the memory of our 
 departed patriot, cease with the ceremonies of this solemn occasion. 
 There are yet others in reserve, which it becomes us, fellow -citizens, 
 in common with our countrymen throughout the Union, to award, in 
 commemoration of his illustrious services. Let us rear aloft the marble 
 monument to his memory. Let us present to our own generation, 
 and to those who are destined soon to fill the places which we now 
 occupy, his beloved and venerable form, as an object of eternal grati- 
 tude and regard. Let us behold him still erect, as we were wont 
 to view him in life, while he stood forth the dauntless champion 
 of his Country's rights, and the watchful guardian of her Constitution. 
 Let us behold him as the plastic hand of an American Republican 
 Artist only can present him to our admiring gaze. Let the fame 
 of the Statesman and the Artist thus become blended in the remem- 
 brance of posterity. Let the name of HIRAM POWERS be associated 
 with that of HENRY CLAY, through all time, like the name of 
 Flaxman with that of Nelson; like the name of Michael Angelo 
 with that of Lorenzo de Medici ; like the name of Lysippus with that 
 of Alexander ; like the name of Phidias with that of his Olympian 
 Jove. And when, hereafter, the shapeless block of marble torn from 
 the classic quarries of Carrara, shall take its place upon the easel, let 
 the artist remember, that no naval hero, however glorious ; no mag- 
 nificent patron of letters and arts, with the commerce of nations 
 tributary to his sway ; no conqueror of the world, with his invincible 
 phalanx at his heels ; no Pagan god with all his Olympian thunders, 
 ever formed a nobler subject for the inspiration of the sculptor's genius, 
 than the peerless Orator, the incorruptible Statesman, the self-sacrificing 
 Patriot of his own mountain land. 
 
 * Tacitus.
 
 86 EULOGY ON 
 
 Fellow-citizens, our CALHOUN, our CLAY, and our WEBSTER are 
 no more. Their great spirits are fled, and their once towering forms 
 are now alike the lowly tenants of the tomb. They live no longer to 
 guide us by their counsels, nor to animate us to the performance 
 of good deeds, by the fervor and firmness of their patriotism. Who 
 now shall stand where they have stood ? Who now shall lead 
 where they have led? Who now shall think for our country as 
 they have thought, or speak as they have spoken ? Who now shall 
 rush to the rescue of the Constitution in the hour of peril? Who now 
 shall rise as the bulwarks of the Union when fiery fanatics and pre- 
 sumptuous demagogues shall assail it ? Sad indeed are the emotions 
 of our hearts, as we contemplate the melancholy bereavement which 
 our country has sustained. But let us never, never, fellow-citizens, 
 despair of the Republic. Though our revered patriots are gone, they 
 yet speak to us in " voices from the tomb sweeter than song." They 
 speak to us in their immortal precepts. They live in the light of their 
 ever glorious examples. By those precepts, and by that light, let all 
 who may hereafter be called to the service of the country, be guided 
 and governed. While we know that we can never hope to equal in 
 renown our departed patriots, we may at least emulate their virtues, 
 and follow in the " track of their fiery car." Let us remember, 
 that the more closely and diligently we pursue the high path of glory 
 trod by them, the more faithfully we shall discharge our sacred obli- 
 gations to our country. Let us remember that there are duties which 
 devolve upon the humble as well as the exalted ; and that in every 
 condition it is honorable to serve our native land. And while we 
 contemplate that unapproachable sphere of intellectual glory in which 
 our departed Statesmen and Orators revolved, we should not only feel 
 and act in accordance with the sentiment of Cicero : Tamen est puL- 
 chrum in gecundis tertiisque consislere ;* but we may also derive conso- 
 lation from the noble admonition of Quintilian : Quin animo si hanc 
 cogitationem kominet habuissent, ut nemo se melioremfore eo, qui optimus 
 fuisset, arbitraretur, hi ipsi, qui sunt optimi nonfuissent. Verum 
 
 ut transeundi spes non fit, magna tanem cst dignitas subsequendi.\ Our 
 
 * DC Oratore. N. 4. tOrat lost. lib. 12.
 
 HENRY CLAY. 87 
 
 path along the future is radiant with the light of past glory. Let that 
 glory forever blaze in the ascendant, and no obstacles however great, 
 no dangers however appalling, shall arrest our triumphant progress. 
 Our great Republic is on her march to a higher and still more brilliant 
 destiny. She is preparing to put forth anew her giant energies in the 
 great cause of human liberty and human happiness. 
 
 "Hope elevates, and joy 
 Brightens her crest." 
 
 The memory of her mighty dead ; her lofty attitude in the eyes 
 of the world; the resplendent hopes of the future, all animate her to 
 the execution of her high commission and her cry is, ONWARD, 
 ONWARD, FOREVER!
 
 V 
 
 A DISCOURSE 
 
 UPON THE LIFE, CHARACTER AND SERVICES OF 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER, 
 
 BY CHRISTIAN ROSELIUS. 
 
 Delivered in the Rev. Dr. Scott's Church, on the 9th of December, 1852, on the occasion of the 
 Funeral Obsequies in honor of CALHOUN, CLAY and WEBSTEB. 
 
 We have assembled in this sacred temple, fellow-citizens, to pay 
 our feeble tribute of respect to the memory of DANIEL WEBSTER, and 
 to mingle our sorrow with that of the whole Nation for the bereave- 
 ment occasioned by his death. During a period of nearly half a 
 century, this eminent citizen occupied a prominent position in the 
 councils of the Republic, and was always the watchful, able, fearless 
 and successful champion of free institutions and true constitutional 
 liberty, not only in his own country, but throughout the world. He 
 stamped the impress of his mighty mind on the age in which he lived. 
 He gave an impulse and direction to the astounding and almost 
 miraculous development of the resources of the whole country, whether 
 agricultural, commercial or manufacturing. His patriotism was lofty, 
 ardent and unalloyed by any mean or selfish motives. As a States- 
 man, he was actuated by liberal and comprehensive views, never 
 resorting to mere expedients for the purpose of temporising, or of 
 avoiding official responsibility. As a Jurist, he stood preeminent, not 
 only at the American Bar, but his opinions are quoted as authority, 
 and command respect in the Courts of Westminster, as well as in the 
 Halls of St. Stephen's ; and, as an Orator, he has enriched the lan- 
 guage with undying eloquence. 
 
 That the death of such a man should produce a profound 
 sensation on the public mind, could not but be expected. It is 
 indeed a public loss, and a cause of public mourning. How strikingly
 
 90 EULOGY ON 
 
 appropriate is the impressive language which fell from his eloquent 
 lips twenty-six years ago, when pronouncing the eulogy of two 
 of the great founders of the Republic, who died on the fiftieth 
 anniversary of its independence : " He is no more. He is dead. But 
 how little is there of the great and good which can die. To their 
 country they yet live, and live forever. They live in all that perpetuates 
 the remembrance of men on earth ; in the recorded proof of their 
 own great actions, in the offspring of their intellect, in the deep 
 engraven lines of public gratitude, and in the respect and homage of 
 mankind. They live in their example ; and they live emphatically, 
 and will live in the influence which their lives and efforts, their princi- 
 ples and opinions now exercise, and will continue to exercise on the 
 affairs of men, not only in their own country, but throughout the civilized 
 world. A superior and commanding human intellect, a truly great 
 man, when Heaven vouchsafes so rare a gift, is not a temporary flame, 
 burning brightly for a while, and then giving place to returning dark- 
 ness. It is rather a spark of fervent heat, as well as radiant light, with 
 power to enkindle the common mass of human mind, so that when it 
 glimmers in its own decay and finally goes out in death, no night 
 follows, but it leaves the world all light, all on fire, from the potent 
 contact of its own spirit. Bacon died ; but the human understanding, 
 roused by the touch of his miraculous wand to a perception of the 
 true philosophy, and the just mode of inquiring after truth, has kept 
 on its course successfully and gloriously. Newton died ; yet the 
 course of the spheres are still known, and they yet move on by the 
 laws which he discovered, and in the orbits which he saw and described 
 for them in the infinity of space." 
 
 Yes, fellow citizens, though the tomb has closed over all that was 
 mortal of DANIEL WEBSTER, yet his spirit lives and is among us : it 
 lives in the great deeds performed for the good of his country ; it 
 lives in the lessons of wisdom which his immortal works teach us so 
 eloquently; it lives in the bright example of virtue and patriotism 
 which he has bequeathed to us. May his great deeds be ever held in 
 sacred remembrance ; and may his example be ever kept before the 
 eyes of the American people as an incentive to those noble virtues 
 which his whole life illustrated.
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 91 
 
 The lives, characters and services of such men as WEBSTER, 
 CLAY and CALHOUN, are identified with the history of their country. 
 When the future historian shall give an account of the wonderful pro- 
 gress and magnificent career of the United States, during the period 
 these great men exercised their influence on the destiny of the Nation, 
 they will stand out in bold relief from the historic canvass, and their 
 conduct and actions will be weighed in the scales of even-handed 
 justice. All that can be attempted on this occasion is, to trace a faint 
 and imperfect outline of the principal incidents in the life of the illus- 
 trious dead who is the special subject of this discourse. 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER was born on the 18th January, 1782, the last 
 year of the Revolutionary War, at Salisbury, in the State of New 
 Hampshire. His father was a man of great vigor of mind, and of a 
 striking personal appearance. " He belonged to that intrepid border 
 race which lined the whole frontier of the Anglo American colonies ; 
 by turns farmers, huntsmen and soldiers, and passing their lives in one 
 long struggle with the hardships of an infant settlement, on the skirts 
 of a primeval forest." His mother, " like the mothers of so many men 
 of eminence, was a woman of more than ordinary intellect, and pos- 
 sessed a force of character which was felt throughout the humble circle 
 in which she moved. She was proud of her sons, and ambitious that 
 they should excel. Her anticipations went beyond the narrow sphere 
 in which their lot seemed to be cast, and the distinction attained by 
 both, and especially by DANIEL, may be traced in part to her early 
 promptings and judicious guidance." From his earliest youth he 
 manifested great eagerness for learning ; but although education had 
 been encouraged and fostered in the New England States from their 
 first settlement, still the teachers in those days were not always the 
 most competent to impart solid and extensive instruction to their 
 scholars. Young WEBSTER, however, availed himself as far as possible 
 of the limited means of education which were placed within his reach. 
 On account of his father's narrow circumstances, the thought of enjoy- 
 ing the advantages of a collegiate education had never occurred to 
 him, until his father informed him of his intention, at the age of fifteen. 
 " I remember," says Mr. WEBSTER, in an autobiographical memoran- 
 dum of his boyhood, " the very hill which we were ascending, through
 
 92 EULOGYON 
 
 deep snows in a New England sleigh, when my father made known 
 his purpose to me. I could not speak. How could he, I thought, 
 with so large a family, and in such narrow circumstances, think of 
 incurring so great an expense for me ? A warm glow ran all over me, 
 and I laid my head on my father's shoulder and wept." He entered 
 Dartmouth College in 1797. During his collegiate course, which he 
 completed in 1801, he gave sure indications of his future eminence. 
 On leaving College, he selected law as a profession, a science whose 
 vast and comprehensive range, acute distinctions and logical structure, 
 are remarkably adapted to call forth the latent powers of the mind. 
 Though he had to struggle with difficulties and to overcome obstacles 
 which the straightened means of his parents threw in his way, he did 
 not despair, but met the emergency like a man determined to succeed. 
 To enable himself to complete his own professional education, and to 
 assist his brother through College, he took charge, for a short time, 
 of an academy at Fryeburg, in Maine, and acted as assistant to the 
 Register of Deeds of the County. His biographer justly observes, 
 " that trials, hardships and efforts constitute no small part of the 
 discipline by which a great character is formed." Under all these 
 discouragements and difficulties, Mr. WEBSTER laid the foundation of 
 that eminence in his profession which justly entitled him to the proud 
 distinction of being the greatest Lawyer of his day. He made himself 
 thoroughly acquainted with every branch of jurisprudence. Taking 
 at the very outset, an enlarged and liberal view of the science, his acute 
 and discriminating mind perceived at once that law is not composed 
 of a collection of heterogeneous and incongruous rules, dictated by the 
 whim and caprice of the law-maker ; but that it is a beautiful and 
 harmonious system, devised by the profoundest wisdom and foresight, 
 to regulate the multifarious rights and obligations arising from the 
 complex relations of social life, and founded on the great and immuta- 
 ble principles of right and wrong inscribed on the mind of man by the 
 hand of his Creator. Hence he did not content himself with the 
 perusal of the ordinary black-letter text books which are usually put 
 into the hands of law-students, some of which, when read exclusively, 
 are but too apt to contract, instead of enlarging the mental vision ; but 
 he enriched and invigorated his intellectual faculties by the careful
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 93 
 
 study of the Book of Books, as well as the writings of the ancient and 
 modern classics. Such were the preparations with which Mr. WEB- 
 STER embarked on the voyage of active, busy life. He was admitted 
 to the Bar in May, 1807, and in September following he settled in 
 Portsmouth, where he remained in the practice of the law for nine 
 successive years. 
 
 His political career commenced in May, 1813, by his taking his 
 seat as a member of Congress from his native State. Since that 
 period, he has, with short intervals, performed an active part on the 
 great theatre of public life. To follow him step by step through those 
 busy, varied, and often spirit-stirring scenes, would far exceed the 
 limits of this address. 
 
 In whatever point of view Mr. WEBSTER'S character is considered, 
 we discover in it every element of true greatness and goodness. One 
 of his distinguishing characteristics was, that while he was gifted with 
 a towering intellect to direct his thoughts, he possessed a warm and 
 generous heart to give a proper impulse to his feelings. 
 
 From the very beginning of his political life he was a Statesman, 
 in the true sense of the word ; his conduct was always governed by 
 piinciples, to which he steadily adhered through good and evil report. 
 The politician trims his sail to catch the popular breeze ; but the 
 statesman is frequently compelled to face the storm of popular opinion, 
 at the risk of his own political existence. Mr. WEBSTER was often 
 exposed to this peril, and never shrank from it. As early as 1806, he 
 took part in the discussion of the momentous question which then 
 agitated the Nation, whether our commerce should be actively pro- 
 tected, or whether the suicidal embargo and gun-boat policy should be 
 persisted in. The tide of public opinion at that time ran strong in 
 favor of the latter, but that did not deter him from giving utterance to 
 these statesman-like views : " Nothing is plainer than this : if we will 
 have commerce, we must protect it. This country is commercial as 
 well as agricultural. Indissoluble bonds connect him who ploughs 
 the land with him who ploughs the sea. Nature has placed us in a 
 situation favorable to commercial pursuits, and no government can 
 alter the destination. Habits formed by two centuries, are not to be 
 changed. An immense portion of our property is on the waves. Sixty
 
 94 E U I, O G Y O N 
 
 or eighty thousand of our most useful citizens are there, and are 
 entitled to such protection from the Government as their case requires." 
 
 Such was the state of public opposition, that the argument of the 
 youthful patriot remained unheeded, until our commerce had been 
 almost entirely swept from the ocean. The policy of the Government 
 was not changed until eight years afterwards. He reverted to the 
 subject in an oration delivered in 1812; and in 1814, he again made a 
 powerful appeal for the protection of our commerce, in one of his 
 first speeches delivered in Congress. " Unclinch," he exclaims, " the 
 iron grasp of your embargo. Take measures for that end before 
 another sun sets upon you. With all the war of the enemy on your 
 commerce, if you would cease to make war upon it yourselves, you 
 would still have some commerce." 
 
 The policy thus so eloquently and perseveringly advocated by 
 Mr. WEBSTER, was at last adopted, and its results soon verified his 
 predictions. 
 
 In August, 1816, Mr. WEBSTER removed to Boston, retired from 
 active political life, and devoted himself, during a period of six years, 
 exclusively to the duties of his profession. It was at this time that his 
 reputation as a Lawyer was fixed. He took his position in the front 
 rank of the great Jurists who then adorned the Boston Bar. At this 
 period, too, he made some of those great forensic efforts, as a Constitu- 
 tional Lawyer, which placed him beyond all competition in that 
 highest branch of jurisprudence. He argued the celebrated Dartmouth 
 College case before the Supreme Court of the United States, on the 
 10th of March, 1818. It involved the question, whether the Legis- 
 lature of New Hampshire possessed the constitutional power to alter 
 the charter of Dartmouth College without the consent of the corpora- 
 tion ? Mr. Ticknor describes this great effort as follows : " He opened 
 his cause, as he always did, with perfect simplicity, in the general 
 statement of its facts, and then went on to unfold the topics of his 
 argument in a lucid order, which made each position sustain every 
 other. The logic and the law were rendered irresistible ; but as he 
 advanced, his heart warmed to the subject and the occasion. Thoughts 
 and feelings that had grown old with his best affection, rose unbidden 
 to his lips. He remembered that the institution he was defending,
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 95 
 
 was the one where his own youth had been nurtured ; and the moral 
 tenderness and beauty this gave to the grandeur of his thoughts, the 
 sort of religious sensibility it imparted to his urgent appeals and 
 demands for the stern fulfilment of what law and justice required, 
 wrought up the whole audience to an extraordinary state of excitement. 
 Many betrayed strong agitation ; many were dissolved in tears. When 
 he ceased to speak, there was a perceptible interval before any one 
 was willing to break the silence ; and when that vast crowd separated, 
 not one person of the whole number doubted, that the man who had 
 that day so moved, astonished and controlled them, had vindicated for 
 himself a place at the side of the first Jurists of the country." The 
 great constitutional principles contended for by Mr. WEBSTER, in 
 support of the rights of his Alma Mater, were fully recognized by the 
 Court, and the act of the Legislature of the State of New Hampshire, 
 attempting to alter the charter of Dartmouth College, was declared 
 null and void. We may form some conception of the merits of the 
 argument in the Dartmouth College case from the fact related by the 
 late Mr. Justice Story, that the Supreme Court listened to Mr. WEB- 
 STER for the first hour with perfect astonishment, for the second hour 
 with perfect delight, and for the third hour with perfect conviction. 
 This was the first case of any importance since the organization of the 
 Federal Judiciary, in which the Supreme Court was called upon to 
 exercise the high attribute with which the Constitution has invested it, 
 of deciding questions relative to the powers of sovereign States, which 
 in other countries can only be settled by the arbitraments of the sword. 
 The extraordinary jurisdiction possessed by this august tribunal, is one 
 of the most admirable features in the complicated machinery of Federal 
 and State governments. The wisdom, prudence and firmness with 
 which justice has been administered in that Court, have in no small 
 degree contributed to the stability of our glorious institutions ; and 
 Mr. WEBSTER'S name will be forever associated with those of Mar- 
 shall, Story, Taney, and other great Judges of the modern Areopagus, 
 who have lulled popular excitements so often produced by the con- 
 flicting rights and claims of States, by the still small voice of reason. 
 Whatever may be the effect of professional training on the qualifications 
 of a Statesman, it is evident that in this country there is a great class
 
 96 EULOGYON 
 
 of questions, and those of the highest importance, which belong alike 
 to the Senate and the Court. Mr. WEBSTER presents a forcible illus- 
 tration of the correctness of this observation. 
 
 Nor did his forensic duties prevent him from cultivating and 
 exercising those transcendant gifts of eloquence with which Nature 
 had so richly endowed him. On the 22d of December, 1820, he 
 delivered an oration of surpassing pathos and beauty, in commemoration 
 of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. This splendid production 
 is, among many other things, remarkable for a prediction which was 
 realized during the orator's lifetime. Speaking of the energy, the 
 enterprise and success of the natives of New England, he says : " It 
 may be safely asserted, that there are now more than a million of 
 people, descendants of New England ancestry, living free and happy 
 in regions, which hardly sixty years ago, were tracts of unpenetrated 
 forest. Nor do rivers, mountains or seas resist the progress of industry 
 and enterprise. Ere long the sons of the Pilgrims will be on the shores 
 of the Pacific." 
 
 He now stood at the head of the American Bar, almost without a 
 rival, reaping the golden harvest of a large and profitable practice, 
 and having before him the certain prospect of an independent fortune. 
 The worldly wise will no doubt wonder that he should have been 
 induced to abandon a position so advantageous and enviable. But his 
 fellow-citizens considered that they were entitled to his services on a 
 more enlarged sphere of action. With a patriotic devotion to his 
 country, and a disinterestedness by which his whole life has been 
 characterised, he responded to the call. 
 
 In 1822 he returned to political life, by being elected a member 
 of Congress from the city of Boston. He took his seat in December, 
 1823. At that time the sympathies of the American people had been 
 strongly enlisted in behalf of regenerated and heroic Greece struggling 
 for freedom. On the 19th of January, 1824, ho pronounced his 
 splendid and triumphant vindication of the cause of freedom and the 
 rights of humanity, against the base and insidious machinations of that 
 conspiracy or alliance of despots, which was blasphemously called 
 Holy. The speech is replete with the noblest sentiments, and breathes 
 the spirit of the loftiest patriotism in every line. Instead of availing
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 97 
 
 himself of those captivating classical allusions, which lay in such pro- 
 fusion in his way, he made but a single reference to Greece, as the 
 mistress of the world in letter^ and arts. He treated, in a Statesman- 
 like manner, what he justly called the great question of the age, the 
 question between absolute and regulated governments, and the duty of 
 the United States on fitting occasions to let their voice be heard on 
 this question. 
 
 In the month of June, 1827, Mr. WEBSTER was elected to the 
 Senate of the United States. As a Senator he took a leading part in 
 the discussion of the various questions and measures which came up 
 before that body. But it was not before the beginning of 1830, that 
 he was called upon to buckle on his armor in the defence of the Con- 
 stitution and the Union, in a series of efforts of transcendant ability 
 and eloquence, for which the people, without distinction of party, 
 bestowed on him the glorious appellation of the " Defender of the 
 Constitution." 
 
 The startling doctrine of nullification, secession and disunion, was 
 first openly avowed and advocated in the Senate of the United States by 
 Mr. Hayne of South Carolina, in the debate on the resolution intro- 
 duced by Mr. Foot of Connecticut, on the subject of the sale of the 
 public lands ; and it is difficult to understand how the discussion to 
 which it gave rise, could embrace a question involving the very 
 existence of the Government. Such, however, was the fact. 
 
 Twenty years have rolled by since the nullification agitation 
 shook the Union to its centre, and we can scarcely realize at this 
 distance of time the imminence of the impending danger. That Mr. 
 WEBSTER was in a great measure instrumental, under Providence, in 
 saving the Republic, and in averting the dreadful calamities by which 
 it was threatened, no one will deny. His powerful appeal to the 
 sober reason and calm judgment of the American people, hushed the 
 angry elements which were distracting the public mind. The orthodox 
 political faith, which he enforced with such a sincerity of conviction 
 and overwhelming power of argument, was first listened to, and finally 
 embraced by many whose minds had been bewildered by the heresy 
 of nullification.
 
 98 EULOOYON 
 
 There is no exaggeration in the assertion that Mr. WEBSTER'S 
 reply to Hayne, is one of the most powerful speeches to be found in 
 any language ; its sublime eloquence and irresistible logic sweep along 
 with a grandeur and magnificence unsurpassed by any orator either 
 of ancient or modern times. 
 
 " Seldom, if ever," observes Mr. March, his able biographer, 
 "has a speaker in this or any other country had more powerful 
 incentives to exertion. A subject, the determination of which involved 
 the most important interests, and even duration of the Republic ; 
 competitors unequalled in reputation, ability or position ; a name to 
 make still more glorious, or lose forever ; and an audience comprising 
 not only persons of this country most eminent in intellectual greatness, 
 but representatives of other nations, where the art of eloquence had 
 flourished for ages. All the soldier seeks in opportunity, was here. 
 Mr. WEBSTER perceived, and felt equal to the destinies of the moment. 
 The very greatness of the hazard "exhilerated him. His spirits rose 
 with the occasion. He awaited the time of onset with a stern and 
 impatient joy. He felt like the war-horse of the Scriptures, who 
 ' paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength ; who goeth on to 
 meet the armed men ; who saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha ! and 
 who smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the 
 shouting.' *A confidence in his own resources, springing from no vain 
 estimate of his power, but the legitimate offspring of previous severe 
 mental discipline, sustained and excited him. He had gauged his 
 opponents, his subject, and himself" 
 
 No analysis of this great oratorical effort can possibly convey to 
 the mind any conception of its close and irresistible logic, its withering 
 sarcasm, the beauty of its imagery, and the splendor of its diction. 
 Many of its passages have been selected as brilliant gems of oratory, 
 and inserted in every treatise on elocution. His reply to Mr. Hayne's 
 bitter attack on Massachusetts, is so full of words that burn, and 
 thoughts that breathe, that although familiar to every one, it may well 
 be repeated here : 
 
 " Mr. President," said he, " I shall enter on no enconium upon 
 Massachusetts; she needs none. Behold her and judge for yourselves. 
 There is her history ; the world knows it by heart. The past at least
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 99 
 
 is secure. There is Boston, and Concord, and Lexington, and Bun- 
 ker Hill ; and there they will remain forever. The bones of her sons, 
 fallen in the great struggle of Independence, now lie mingled with the 
 soil of every State from New England to Georgia ; and there they 
 will lie forever. And, Sir, where American liberty raised its first 
 voice, and where its youth was nurtured and sustained, there it still 
 lives, in the strength of its manhood, and full of its original spirit. It 
 discord and disunion shall wound it ; if party strife and blind ambition 
 shall hawk at it and tear it; if folly and madness, if uneasiness under 
 salutary and necessary restraints, shall succeed in separating it from 
 the Union, by which alone its existence is made sure, it will stand, in 
 the end, by the side of that cradle in which its infancy was rocked ; it 
 will stretch forth its arm, with whatever of vigor it may still retain, 
 over the friends who gather around it ; and it will fall at last, if fall it 
 must, amidst the proudest monuments of its own glory, and on the 
 very spot of its origin." 
 
 The Orator throws his whole soul into the magnificent peroration 
 of this great speech : 
 
 " While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratifying pros- 
 pects spread out before us, for us and our children. Beyond that, I 
 seek not to penetrate the veil. God grant that in my day, at least, 
 that curtain may not rise ! God grant that on my vision never may 
 be opened what lies behind ! When my eyes shall be turned to 
 behold for the last time the sun in Heaven, may I not see him shining 
 on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union ; on 
 States dissevered, discordant, belligerent ; on a land rent with civil 
 feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood ! Let their last feeble 
 and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the Repub- 
 lic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full advanced, 
 its arms and trophies streaming in their original lustre, not a stripe 
 erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured, bearing for its motto 
 no such miserable interrogatory as, " What is all tlds worth ?" nor 
 those other words of delusion and folly, " Liberty first, and Union 
 afterwards ;" but every where spread all over in characters of living 
 light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over 
 the land, and in every wind in the whole heavens, that other senti- 
 
 m
 
 100 EULOGY ON 
 
 ment, dear to every true American heart, Liberty and Union, now 
 and forever, one and inseparable !" 
 
 While Secretary of State, under Presidents Harrison and Tyler, 
 he succeeded in settling the difficult and vexed question of the North 
 Eastern Boundary, which had been the subject of negotiation between 
 the United States and England, almost ever since the Peace of 1783. 
 The attitude which the two nations had assumed towards each other 
 in relation to the disputed territory, was of the most alarming charac- 
 ter. Adverse and hostile forces had actually assembled on the north- 
 eastern boundary; and if prompt and efficient measures had not been 
 devised by Mr. WEBSTER, to avoid an open collision between the 
 troops, without compromiting the honor of either country, a war with 
 England would have been inevitable. His diplomatic intercourse with 
 foreign governments was frank, open and honorable: he considered 
 the dissimulation, stratagems and trickery of hackneyed diplomatists, 
 as unworthy a great people. No Statesman was ever more successful 
 in carrying on our foreign relations than Mr. WEBSTEH. 
 
 With the commencement of President Folk's administration, Mr. 
 WEBSTER returned to the Senate of the United States. Though 
 unconnected with the Executive branch of the Government, the fact 
 is well established, that he exercised a controlling influence with the 
 British Ministry in the settlement of the Oregon question in 1846. 
 
 The acquisition of California gave rise, as we all remember, to 
 the discussion of the Slavery question, which agitated the public mind 
 to such an alarming extent, that serious apprehensions were entertained 
 that it might eventually lead to a dissolution of the Union. At this 
 crisis, the Great Pacificator, HENRY CLAY, (whose death, alas! we 
 also mourn,) stepped forward, and introduced those Compromise 
 measures, which it is to be hoped, have removed that exasperating 
 topic of dissension and ill feeling forever. The happy effects which 
 have flowed from that wise and seasonable legislation, have silenced 
 all opposition to it except by a set of deluded fanatics, who are 
 addressed in vain by the voice of reason, and who are ready to sacri- 
 fice all the blessings we enjoy individually and as a nation, to gratify 
 their frantic rage, and execute their reckless determination to do 
 mischief. But when the Compromise was first proposed, it met with
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 101 
 
 the most violent opposition, both from the North and the South ; an 
 opposition which could not have been successfully resisted by the 
 united and commanding ability and influence of Mr. CLAY, Mr. Cass, 
 and the other patriotic Statesmen of both parties, who acted with 
 them, if Mr. WEBSTER had not come to the rescue. In that hour of 
 peril, when the stoutest hearts felt apprehensions for the safety of the 
 Republic, he infused new confidence, and inspired fresh hopes into 
 the public mind, by his great speech for the Constitution and the 
 Union, pronounced in the Senate of the United States, on the 7th of 
 March, 1850. This speech produced a most powerful effect, not only 
 in the Halls of Congress, but throughout the whole country. It was 
 the last time the great " Defender of the Constitution" had to mount 
 its ramparts to repulse the assaults of its enemies. And he fought this 
 last battle in defence of the Constitution of the United States, the 
 great charter of political and social rights, most nobly and triumphantly. 
 Let us listen for a moment to the fervent and patriotic exhortation 
 with which the Orator concludes : 
 
 "And now, Mr. President, instead of speaking of the possibility 
 or utility of secession ; instead of dwelling on those caverns of dark- 
 ness ; instead of groping with those ideas so full of all that is horrid 
 and horrible, let us come out into the light of day ; let us enjoy the 
 fresh air of liberty and union ; let us cherish those hopes which belong 
 to us ; let us devote ourselves to those great objects that are fit for our 
 consideration and our action; let us raise our conceptions to the 
 magnitude and importance of the duties that devolve upon us ; let our 
 comprehension be as broad as the country for which we act, our 
 inspiration as high as its certain destiny; let us not be pigmies in a 
 case that calls for men. Never did there devolve on any generation 
 of men higher trusts than now devolve on us, for the preservation of 
 this Constitution, and the harmony and peace of all who are destined 
 to live under it. Let us make our generation one of the strongest and 
 brightest links in that golden chain which is destined, I fondly believe, 
 to grapple the people of all the States to this Constitution for ages to 
 come. We have a great popular Constitutional Government, guarded 
 by law and by judicature, and defended by the affections of the whole 
 people. No monarchical throne presses these States together; no
 
 102 EULOGY ON 
 
 iron chain of military power encircles them; they live and stand under 
 a Government popular in its form, representative in its character, 
 founded upon principles of equality, and so constructed, we hope, as 
 to last forever. In all its history it has been beneficent ; it has trodden 
 down no man's liberty ; it has crushed no State. Its daily respiration 
 is liberty and patriotism. Its yet youthful veins are full of enterprise, 
 courage, and honorable love of glory and renown. Large before, the 
 country has now, by recent events, become vastly larger. This Repub- 
 lic now extends, with a vast breadth, across the whole continent. 
 The two great seas of the world wash the one and the other shore. 
 We realise, on a mighty scale, the description of the ornamental border 
 of the buckler of Achilles : 
 
 ' Now, the broad shield complete, the artist crowned 
 With his last hand, and poured the ocean round ; 
 In living silver seemed the wares to roll, 
 And beat the buckler's verge, and bound the whole."' 
 
 Shortly after this speech had been delivered, the venerable Hero 
 of Buena Vista died, and 'our present excellent Chief Magistrate was 
 called upon to fill the Executive Chair. Mr. WEBSTER was appointed 
 Secretary of Slate. It is needless to dwell on the ability with which 
 he discharged the functions of that high trust, and how far he con- 
 tributed to the success of President Fillmore's administration, for it is 
 fresh in our memories. 
 
 When we consider Mr. WEBSTER'S character in the domestic and 
 social relations of life, it equally inspires us with respect and admira- 
 tion. Those tender feelings and sacred affections which endear and 
 hallow the family circle, gushed profusely from his heart during a 
 long life; nor was their current interrupted by the frost of age, or the 
 distraction and turmoil of public cares. In the dedication of his works, 
 as late as 1851, he gives expression to those feelings in tfie most 
 touching manner. As a friend he was warm and sincere, and as an 
 enemy he was placable and forgiving. He lost the nomination for the 
 Presidency last June, because he had felt it his duty to oppose the 
 appointment of a prominent politician to fill the vacancy on the bench 
 of the Supreme Court of the United States, occasioned by the death 
 of Mr. Justice Woodbury ; still he spoke of the gentleman by whom
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 103 
 
 his nomination had been defeated, with kindness and respect. He was 
 full of the milk of human kindness. Wherever he discovered worth 
 and talent, he was ready to do them homage and give them encourage- 
 ment. 
 
 His personal appearance, especially when he rose to address the 
 Senate, was remarkably imposing. He was a perfect personification 
 of Milton's conception of a great Statesman and Orator : 
 
 ********* \Vith grave 
 Aspect he rose, and in his rising seemed 
 A pillar of State ; deep on his front engraven 
 Deliberation sat, and public care. 
 ********* Sage he stood 
 With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear 
 The weight of mightiest commonwealths ; his look 
 Drew audience and attention still as night, 
 On summer's noontide air." 
 
 His is not the impetuous, vehement, stormy eloquence of CLAY, 
 nor the fervid, didatic, powerful ratiocination of CALHOUN. His oratory 
 is not like the mountain torrent, dashing on in its fury over rocks and 
 cataracts ; but rather like a mighty river, flowing on majestically in 
 its deep channel, carrying every obstacle before it without any apparent 
 struggle. All his oratorical efforts are distinguished by a compre- 
 hensive, deep and accurate analysis of principles, and a close, irresistible 
 logic. Though gifted with a rich fancy and an exuberant imagination, 
 yet he kept these potent auxiliaries of eloquence always in strict 
 subordination to his analitical and logical powers, and only called in 
 their assistance to illustrate and give effect to his argument. A mere 
 flight of the imagination, for the purpose of embellishment alone, is 
 not to be found in the whole range of Mr. WEBSTER'S speeches. He 
 disdains the glare and tinsel of the rhetorician; but the wonderful 
 charm of his oratory consists in the force, originality and correctness 
 of his thoughts. He carefully avoids the fatal mistake of confounding 
 pomposity of diction with genuine eloquence. His narration is simple, 
 unaffected and perspicuous. He rises with the importance and dignity 
 of the theme he is discussing. When expatiating on, and developing 
 the great principles of our own peculiar American Liberty, both his 
 heart and his genius seem to luxuriate in their proper element. More 
 quotations from his speeches have been made in this discourse than
 
 104 EULOGY ON DANIEL WEBSTER. 
 
 may be considered admissable, but the object was to exhibit the leading 
 feature of his character an ardent and sincere attachment to the Con- 
 stitution and the Union. He was deeply impressed with the truth, 
 that 
 
 " The greatest glory of a free-born people, 
 Is to transmit that freedom to their children." 
 
 To assert that Mr. WEBSTER had no faults, would be claiming for 
 him an exemption from the frailty of human nature. He lived and 
 died in the faith and hopes of a Christian. Indeed his whole life, when 
 compared with the great statesmen and orators of antiquity, is a 
 glorious exemplification of the difference which exists between Pagan- 
 ism and Christianity between stoicism and Christian morality. 
 
 He has departed full of years and honor, and his memory is em- 
 balmed in the grateful recollection of his countrymen. The name of 
 DANIEL WEBSTER will become a household word, like those of Wash- 
 ington, Franklin, and their great compeers ; it will awaken thrilling 
 associations of patriotism and liberty ; and his bright example will 
 excite a noble emulation to preserve and transmit, unimpaired, that 
 glorious Union, to which he was so devotedly attached, from genera- 
 tion to generation, to the last syllable of rec6rded time. 
 
 That this memorial of the Ceremony of the 9th December, 1852, and its antocondente, may be 
 considered an accurate record, worthy of preservation by the citizens who took part in them, will 
 be a sufficient compensation for the labors of the General and Sub-Committees. 
 H. R. W. HILL, President. A.HARRIS, J. LABATUT, J. L. LUGUNBUHL, 
 
 J. M. BURKE, J. O. NIXON, L. II PLACE, V. IIEERMANN, 
 
 L. BURTIIE, M. BLACIIE, A. DERBES, J W. DOLIIONDE, 
 
 J.A. WATKINS, 8. W. PH1LBRICK, ISAAC BRIDGE, JNO. R. GRIMES, 
 
 A. M. HOLBROOK ) W. L GUSHING, W.MONAGHAN, THUS. A. ADAMS, 
 
 JOS. GENOIS, JNO. L LEWIS, MANUEL GARCIA, M. M. COIIEN, 
 
 C. MAURIAN, W. A. ELMORE, T. J. DURANT.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
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