CONGRESSIONAL SUMMARY. IN Washington, March 31st, 1850, died JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN, aged sixty-eight years and fourteen days. Mr. Calhoun had been of late in failing health, and the excitement of the recent events in Congress, proved too much for his undermined constitution. His death was like his life, self-sustained and unfaltering. For nearly half a century, Mr. CALHOUN had been in public life. During the whole of that period, his position was a prominent one. Crossing swords in debate with RANDOLPH, with CLAY and WEBSTER, Sought in counsel by MADISON and MONROE, his foot never failed him in such dizzy heights, his self-poised presence of mind never deserted him. Too much of a Statesman for a successful politician; too sectional in his views and feelings for a man of the nation, he was for that section all that a leader could be. In such capacity, his character was wellsuited to arouse enthusiasm and lasting regard. Immovable in his principles, of clear and logical intellect, singularly independent aud self-reliant in judgment and action, ambition, the greatness of most men, was Mr. CALHOUN'S only weakness. Kind and just in his domestic and social relations, he sought his only relaxation from official duties in the society of his friends and family. His conversational powers were remarkable, and contributed not a little to his political success. He possessed alike the confidence of his constituents and the respect of the great men with whom he was ever associated. Had the qualities which drew forth these feelings been less real and sterling, he could never have maintained this proud position. Mr. CALHOUN Commenced his public life in the Legislature of his own State. After serving there a few years, he was transferred to Congress, and at once took his place among the great minds of the country. His maiden speech was in defence of the resolutions recommending a declaration of war with Great Britain. He spoke in reply to one of the most brilliant efforts of RANDOLPH. He sustained the reputation he had earned at home, and gained the name of being the most effective orator of the day. The course he pursued in his responsible position as Chairman of the Committee of Foreign Affairs is now national history. At the age of thirty-five, he was invited by President MONROE to a place in the Cabinet. He was appointed Secretary of War. The affairs of this department were in the most complete confusion; so much so, that Mr. CALHOUN's friends doubted the prudence of his accepting a situation that demanded a business talent for affairs. He applied his powerful mind to the task, and organized the Department on a footing that stands to the present day. The unsettled accounts of the Government, amounting to near fifty millions, he reduced to less than three millions. The annual expenditure of the army he found four millions, and effected a saving thereon of one million three hundred thousand. At the close of MONROE's administration, he was elected Vice-President, and was re-elected in 1828. During the difficulties between South Carolina and the General Government, he resigned and was elected Senator in place of Hayne. This difficult position he held to the entire satisfaction of his partizans. But the doctrine of nullification, however grateful to his own State, was odious to the rest of the Union; and Mr. CALHOUN's prospects of the Presidency, and career as a national man were effectually checked. He continued to represent South Carolina in the Senate of the United States for eleven years. In 1844 he was appointed Secretary of State by President Taylor. During the year he held that office, he was mainly instrumental in bringing about a measure, that is now, in its effects, convulsing the country to its centre. His diplomacy cleared the way for the annexation of Texas. The English Government convinced from Mr. CALHOUN'S energetic remonstrances that the United States would permit no interference, suffered that country to fall quietly into our hands. Mr. CALHOUN in carrying this measure was true to the political instincts of his whole life. He denied his nationality as an American citizen, and admitted no claims but those of his own State and his own section. Staunch to his post, it was in the furtherance of these claims and this policy that he drew his last breath. "But he is gone-a man whose faults were few: A nobler treads not Senatorial halls; To his own views of right intensely true, To Heaven's great aim magnificently false ! With steadfast will, that none could bend or break, A kingly victim he to a profound mistake! He stood a bulwark 'gainst the advancing tide Of Human Progress, but the conquering wave Kissed as it sank, that brow's majestic pride, And wailed regretful murmurs o'er his grave. Long be his resting place a hallowed spot, Till Dignity, and Truth, and Manhood are forgot." On the announcement in the Senate of Mr. CALHOUN's death, Mr. CLAY spoke in eulogy of his virtues. My personal acquaintance with him," he said, commenced upwards of thirty-eight years ago. The Congress of which we then became members, was that among whose deliberations and acts was the declaration of war against the most powerful nation, as it respects us, in the world. During the preliminary discussions which arose in preparation for that great event, as well as during those which took place when the resolution was formally adopted, no member displayed a more lively and patriotic sensibility to the wrongs which led to that awful event than the deceased, whose death all unite now in deploring. Ever active, ardent and able, no one was in advance of him in advocating the cause of his country, and in denouncing the injustice which compelled that country to arms. In all the Congresses with which I have had any acquaintance since my entry into the service of the federal government, in none, in my opinion, has been assembled such a galaxy of eminent and able men as were those Congresses which declared the war, and which immediately followed the peace. In that splendid assemblage, the star which has now set, stood bright and brilliant. It was my happiness, sir, during a great part of the life of the departed, to concur with him upon all questions of national policy. During the session at which the war was declared we were messmates, as were other distinguished members of Congress from his own patriotic State. I was afforded by the intercourse which resulted from that fact, as well as from subsequent intimacy and intercourse which arose between us, an opportunity to form an estimate not merely of his public but of his private life, and no man with whom I have ever been acquainted exceeded him in habits of temperance, and in the simplicity and tenderness of social intercourse. And such was the high estimate I had formed of his transcendent talents at the end of his services in the executive department under the administration of * Tribune Newspaper. Mr. MONROE, that had he been translated to the highest office of the government, I should have felt assured, that under his auspices the honor and prosperity and glory of our country would have been safely preserved. Sir, he is gone. No more shall these halls witness in yonder seat, the flashes of his keen and penetrating eye. No more shall we listen to that torrent of clear, concise and compact logic poured from his lips. Sir, this is not the proper place, nor should I be the proper person to attempt a delineation of his character, or of the powers of his mind. I will only say that he possessed a lofty genius, that in his powers of generalization of those subjects of which his mind treated, I have seen him surpassed by no man, and the charms and captivating influence of his colloquial powers have been felt by all who have ever witnessed them. Mr. WEBSTER, on the same occasion, spoke in high testimony of the character of the departed Statesman. "I made my first entrance," he said, "into the House of Representatives in 1813. I there found Mr. CALHOUN; he had already been an efficient member of that body for two or three years. I found him then an active and efficient member of the assembly to which he belonged, taking a decided part and exercising a decided influence in all its deliberations, from that day to the day of his death. Amidst all the strifes of party and politics, there has subsisted between us always and without interruption, a great degree of personal kindness. Differing widely upon many great questions belonging to the institutions and government of the country, those differences never interrupted our personal and social intercourse. I have been present at most of the distinguished instances of the exhibition of his talents in debate. I have always heard him with pleasure, and often with much instruction, and not unfrequently with the highest degree of admiration. Mr. CALHOUN was calculated to be a leader in whatever association of political friends he was thrown, he was a man of undoubted genius and of commanding latent. All the country admit that his mind was perceptive and vigorous-it was clear, quick and strong. Sir, the eloquence of Mr. CALHOUN, or the manner of the exhibitions of his sentiments in public bodies, was part of his intellectual character-it grew out of the qualities of his mind-it was plain and strong, sometimes unsurpassed still always severe, rejecting ornament, not often seeking far for illustration. His power consisted in the plainness of his expression, in the closeness of his logic and in the earnestness and energy of his manner. These are the qualities, as I think, that have enabled him, through such a long course of years, to speak often and yet always to command attention. His demeanor as a Senator is known to us all-is appreciated and has done enough, and done so successfully, so honorably as to connect himself, for all time, with the records of his country." On Tuesday, March 19, Mr. Hale addressed the Senate in reply to Mr. Calhoun's speech on the slavery question. He proposed examining the history of the agitation of this subject, the account of which, he said, as given by Mr. Calhoun, sounded more like romance, than the truth of history. That gentleman had asserted that these agitations consisted in a series of aggressions by the North on the rights of the South; and that these aggressions, resulting in the loss of the equilibrium between the two sections, had commenced in the ordinance of 1787. But how, he asked, could that ordinance be termed an aggression, when the only dissenting vote, on its adoption, was from a Northern This ordinance, he said, which is no other than the original of the Wilmot Proviso, was passed with the full consent of the South, was re-enacted by the first Congress that assembled under the federal Constitution, and has continued to be re-enacted, in substance, from the time of General Washington, who signed the first act, down to President Polk, who signed the same provision in the Oregon bill. And this principle, the power of Congress to legislate on the subject of slavery in the territories, or between the United States and other countries, has been assumed in every act of the Federal Government, organizing territories from that time to this. In proof of this, Mr. Hale, referred to an act passed in 1794, prohibiting the carrying on the slave trade from the United States to any foreign place or country; to the act of 1798, making it unlawful to bring slaves into Mississippi Territory, from any place without the United States; and to the Oregon bill of 1848. venerated by us all. No man was more respectful to others--no man conducted with greater decorum and no man with greater dignity. I think there is not one of us but felt, when he last addressed us from his seat in the Senate, with his form still erect, with a voice by no means indicating such a degree of physical weakness as did in fact possess him, with clear tones, and an impressive and most imposing manner-there is none of us, I think who did not imagine that we saw before us a Senator of Rome, when Rome survived. Sir, I have not in public nor in private life, known a more assiduous person in the discharge of his appropriate duties. I have known no man who wasted less of life in any pursuits not connected with the immediate discharge of his appropriate duties. I have known no man who wasted less of life in what is called recreation, or employed less of life in any pur-state? suit connected with the immediate discharge of his duty. He seems to have had no recreation but the pleasure of conversation with his friends. Out of the chambers of Congress he was either devoting himself to the acquisition of knowledge pertaining to the immediate subject of the duty before him, or else he was indulging in those social interests in which he has so much delighted. My honorable friend of Kentucky has spoken in just terms of his colloquial talents. They certainly were singular and eminent-there was a charm in his conversation. He delighted, especially, in conversation with young men. I suppose that there has been no man among us who had more winning manners in his intercourse and conversation with young men, than Mr. CALHOUN. I believe one great power of his character, in general, was his conversational talent. I believe it is that as well as a consciousness of his high integrity, and the highest reverence for his talent and ability, that has made him so endeared an object to the people of the State to which he belonged. Mr. President, he had the basis, the indispensable basis, of a high character, and that was unspotted integrity, unimpeached honor and character. If he had aspirations, they were high and honorable. There was nothing grovelling, or low, or selfish that came near the head or heart of Mr. CALHOUN-firm in his purpose, perfectly patriotic and honest, as I am quite sure he was in the principles that he espoused and in the measures that he defended. Aside from that large regard for that species of distinction that conducted him to eminent station, for the benefit of the republic, I do not believe that he was imbued with selfish feelings. However, sir, he may have differed from others of us in his political principles, those principles and those opinions will descend to posterity under the sanction of a great name. He has lived long enough-he With regard to the assertion of the Senator from South Carolina, Mr. Hale continued, that the direct attacks on slavery in Congress have commenced within the limited period of fifteen years, he would refer him to the year 1776, and he would find one of the most "agitating" and "fanatical" papers that he could well find, beginning with the declaration that all men are created equal. He would also refer him to a petition dated 1776, from Benjamin Franklin as President of the Pennsylvania Society for the abolition of slavery. He referred also, to the action of Congress upon a petition of the inhabitants of the territory of Indiana, praying that slavery might be permitted within that territory for a limited period. Mr. Randolph, Chairman of the Committee to whom the petition was referred reported as follows: "That the rapid population of the State of Ohio, proves, in the opinion of the Committee that the labor of slaves is not necessary to promote the growth and settlement of colonies in that region. That this labor, demonstrably the dearest of all, can only be employed to advantage in the cultivation of products more valuable than any known to that quarter of the United States. And that the Committee deem it highly dangerous and inexpedient to impair a provision wisely calculated to promote the happiness and prosperity of the Northwestern country, and to give strength and security to that extensive frontier, and they believe that in the salutary operation of this law, the inhabitants of Indiana, will find, at no distant day ample remuneration for a temporary privation of labor and of emigration." Surely, continued Mr. Hale, these instances sufficiently prove that the ordinance of 1787 was not the act of a part, but of the whole country, that its spirit was impressed on the legislation of the country at the earliest period; and that it has continued them to the present day. Another cause of agitation, and of disturbance of the equilibrium, the Senator proceeded, is sought in the Missouri compromise. But this compromise, whenever offered, uniformly receives the votes of the South, while the North, as a body, are opposed to it. A third cause of disturbance is pointed out in the Oregon bill; but this bill was only passed in 1848, and has hardly been in operation a year and a half. A The next in this series of aggressions is what is called the unequal system of revenue and disbursement adopted by this government. But this revenue has been mainly raised by duties on imports, and such duties, Mr. Hale considered always fall upon, and are paid by consumers, be they where they may. state then, having ten times the population of another state pays ten times more revenue. Wherever the imports go, there the revenue is collected. With regard to the charge of unequal disbursements, the Senator thought it completely opposed to the whole testimony of history. "The expenditures of government are not made in the North, the officers of the government do not come from the North, nor are the great contracts made there. What is it that consumes one half, aye, three fourths of your revenue, but the army and the navy, and where is it expended? Why, where your Indian wars occur, your Seminole and Creek wars, in the Southern and not in the Northern portion of these States." The various tariffs, too, have been inveighed against by the Senator from South Carolina, as oppressive to the South. But this system of policy has been fastened upon the country by the force of Southern votes, and originally against the wishes and interests of the NewEngland States. The whole legislation of this country has been, in fact, under Southern influence. The Presidents of the United The bench States have been Southern men. of the Supreme Court has been filled from the South. And no man, he said, has done more to stamp upon our Councils the character and features of that section, than the honorable Senator from South Carolina. Mr. Hale then referred to the charge that the abolition societies of the North, although apparently disowned, were in reality courted and pampered by the rival factions in those states. Notoriously said he, these societies have been, until lately, under the ban of public opinion. Their presses have been destroyed, their orators mobbed, their meetings invaded; and it was not till the annexation of Texas was effected, that the public sentiment at the North began to lean towards abolitionism. But they saw in this measure, a settled purpose to aggrandize the South at the expense of Northern rights and feelings, and to use the power of the general government to spread the baneful institution of slavery. The annexation of Texas, Mr. Hale continued, was effected in an unconstitutional manner; and the rights claimed by that state to form new slave states out of her territories, were founded on a contract obtained in fraud, and consequently void. Congress has a right to admit states. So far, then, as concerns the admission of Texas, the compact was binding on the United States, and on Texas. Congress has no right to connect with such admission, a treaty with a foreign nation, fixing obligations on this government. All rights then claimed by Texas on the strength of this treaty were without proper foundation. But Mr. Hale then commented on the proposal for severer laws for the arrest of fugitive slaves. "What will be the effect of such laws? You come upon an individual, who has been born and nurtured in the North, owing allegiance, and entitled to protection there. You come upon him with an affidavit taken a thousand miles off, and you seize him. Where is that man's right? Where is the trial by jury? Where is the habeas corpus? Where is the protection which the constitution guaranties to the nearest citizen living under the law? Now, I am free to say, once for all much as I love the Union, much as I reverence its institutions. fond as are my memories which cling around its early histories, I would sacrifice them all to-day, before I would consent that the citizens of my native state should at one blow be stripped of every right that is dear to them, and for which their fathers bled and died. 1 During the last month, little of interest has taken place in Congress. The House has been awaiting the action of the Senate on the question of the admission of California, the Senate has apparently awaited the action of the country. Speeches have been made for the benefit of constituents, predictions of speedy dissolution by Southern members, and incredulous responses on the part of the North. Meantime four months of the session have gone by, and little of the large amount of business on hand has been transacted. to satisfy the public judgment and the public feeling of the extreme North and the extreme South, and from ocean to ocean. I believe it." Mr. FOOTE, in reply, objected to taking up the California bill first. He thought, in case of the admission of California per se, the nonslavery party in Congress would adopt the inaction policy proposed by the administration. This course of proceeding, he said, is already zealously advocated by leading Whig presses in the North. It has, even here, been openly avowed this session in both houses of Congress. Pass the California bill, and gentlemen will be heard to cry out that New Mexico and Deseret can do very well without government for the present, at least, until they have population sufficient to entitle them to demand admittance into the Union as States. He thought that to carry a suitable bill for the government of the Territories, especially without the Wilmot Proviso, would require all the favorable circumstances that the forbearance and tactics of its friends could bring to its support. And he assured Senators that the admission of California by herself, "would awaken a feeling of chagrin, of irritation, and flaming indignation throughout the whole South, which in his judgment, would make all future attempts of adjustment hopeless, and inevitably bring upon us all the evils which it has been the generous ambition of the Senator from Massachusetts to ward off and prevent." On Thursday, April 4th, the special order of the day being the resolutions of compromise, submitted by Mr. BELL, and the pending question thereon being a motion, by Mr. FooTE, to refer the same to a select committee of thirteen, Mr. WEBSTER reminded the Senate of the great delay in the discharge of their public duties, and thought the time was come, when, without encroaching on the liberty of discussion, they might proceed to some action on the subjects that had so engrossed their attention. He should endeavor, so far as lay in his power, to bring this question of the admission of California per se, to a decision by the Senate. After that, to take up, and act upon the territorial bill. He had no wish to check the liberty of debate; but he urged the necessity, instead of keeping all these subjects open and before them, from day to day, to take up some measures of a practical kind, and debate on that, until they were ready to act upon it. With regard to the proposition of Mr. FOOTE, he had no objection to coming to a vote upon it, but it was his opinion that every man was, by this time, as well informed upon these general subjects as he could possibly be after any report from a commit- The next day the same question being betee. He was for acting at once on California, fore the Senate, Mr. CLAY spoke as follows. and then upon the territorial bills reported by He deplored the mutual distrust, both of honor Committees on Territories. He wished this, and fidelity, which had arisen between parties for the sake of the satisfaction it would give during the present agitation. He did not parthe country, and the relief to men's minds. take of that feeling to the extent that others He wished, too, to enable Congress to go did. It had been his anxious desire, from the through with its ordinary duties, and he de- first, to see these great questions settled amispaired of any wise, temperate, and just cably, and harmony and fraternal feeling restorlegislation, until these disturbing causes be ed to this divided country. Every proposition removed. "I wish," said he," that this offered, that had this result in view, he had question-brought upon us by the events of hailed with delight. He was, therefore, ready the last two or three years somewhat unex- to vote for the proposition of Mr. FOOTE, pectedly should be settled. I wish it to be though far from sanguine as to the result. settled upon the true principles of the consti- For one, he was ready to vote for California! tution of the United States. I want no new either separately, or in conjunction with the platform. I ask for no concessions upon one other territories, and with, or without the side or the other-no new compromises. The boundaries she has marked out for herself. constitution is enough-broad enough, full He thought, in fact, California should have enough, efficient enough; and if we can bring been admitted on the instant of her apourselves to act with moderation, and temper- plication. But such had been the oppoance, and candor, and liberality, and I will sition to this measure, that he now believ say what is chiefly important with frater-ed the only way to insure her prompt adnal regard and sympathy upon the questions before us, in the spirit of the constitution, we are able to rescue the country from its embarrassment. We-we who sit here, clothed with this high authority for a moment-are able to rescue this country, to relieve it, and mission would be its combination in the same bill with provisions for the government of the rest of the territories. The accusation that such a course savored of disrespect, seemed to him completely imaginary. He saw no disrespect. What was there incon |