cated the war of 1812. Intrusted by President Monroe with the department of war, he infused an energy into its operations till then unknown, and inaugurated systems and improvements so comprehensive and splendid as almost to transcend the constitutional restraints. Subsequently, for a brief space, secretary of state, he pressed the acquisition of Texas with an energy that paralyzed the diplomacy of England and France, and soon overcame what many considered insuperable difficulties. There was scarcely any obstacle his genius and enthusiasm would not have encountered to push forward the republic, until he became convinced that all these energies and acquisitions were to be employed against the rights and institutions of the South, and then he grew rigidly conservative. He collected his great faculties and concentrated them into a lens, the focus being the Constitution, and there, by that powerful light, the country saw the danger that threatened it. Ardent by nature-the blood running impetuously through his veins-full of grand ideas, fitted for a career of splendor, he became reserved, circumspect, an austere constructionist, a penurious legislator, a stickler against appropriations, opposed pre-emptions and encouragements to Western immigration, and voted against the war with Mexico! The explanation of this surprising change is that he foresaw increased danger to the institutions of the South. The influx of foreigners, and their immediate investment with the privileges of citizens, he regarded as an evil. Most of them come here the victims of oppression and bad government, and with exaggerated and impracticable notions of liberty; it is natural that they should respond to the claim for the largest liberty. Those that settle in the North and West, unacquainted with our domestic system, and deriving all their information from abolitionists, naturally fall into their ranks. In

the South, where the institution speaks for itself, the immigrant population soon become slaveholders. But the proportion flowing North and West is as four to one, and the element may be set down as antagonistical to the South.

In 1850, Quitman, when organizing Mississippi for rcsistance, found sympathy and co-operation in South Carolina. She was ready to second any movement he might make. Under the ban for her single-handed but glorious struggle for nullification, "the rightful remedy," she had deemed it prudent, and for the benefit of the common cause, that some other sister state should take the initiative in the pending struggle for our institutions; but she was prepared for the contest, and, had it come to an issue, would have chosen Quitman as the common leader. In his whole career, civil and military, he had her confidence and respect. He had been toasted in South Carolina in 1851 as the first President of the Southern republic. At that period the Union party of nullification times had disappeared in South Carolina. The whole state was for resistance, but the leaders were divided as to the proper method. They were called "Cooperationists" and "Secessionists;" the latter being for the immediate secession of the state without waiting for the action of other states; the former deeming it prudent, if not indispensable, to have the co-operation of one or more states. With the Secessionists were all the then representatives in Congress (except Col. Orr), Governor Means, Ex-governor Seabrook, J. H. Adams, since governor, Colonel Maxy Gregg, R. Barnwell Rhett, and others. On the other side were Senators Barnwell and Butler, Colonel Orr, Langdon Cheves, C. G. Memminger, John L. Manning, James Chesnut, John S. Preston, A. G. Magrath, W. D. Porter, J. W. Hayne, James Simons, etc. Many of these gentlemen consulted Gen. Quitman. He,

of course, took as little part as possible in the controversy, though, when he found that other states that had been relied on, as Mississippi and Georgia, for example, receded from their position, he believed that South Carolina should act alone, and thus precipitate an issue. The controversy was ultimately tested by a popular vote, and the Co-operationists happily carried the state by a large majority. The present union of the South places in a very striking light the wisdom of the course then adopted.

It was a proud day for the veteran when he reached Columbia in the afternoon of the 3d of May. The Capitol artillery announced the approach of the train. The whole population of the city, and thousands from the surrounding country, had collected at the depôt to see the war-worn statesman. He was received by a committee of the Palmetto Association, and their chairman, Capt. W. B. Stanley, himself a gallant soldier, thus addressed him:

"GENERAL QUITMAN,-After the lapse of many years we meet again, yourself the illustrious guest, and I the humble representative of the survivors of the Palmetto Regiment organized into the Palmetto Association.

"On behalf of that Association, I thank God for the privilege which now crowns them of extending to you the hand of a joyful welcome to the capital of their state, and of assuring you that you are received alike in the arms and hearts of her people.

"The language of truth can not be confounded with the language of adulation, nor can just panegyric be of fensive either to modesty or taste.

"Let me, sir, then, with the frankness of the soldier, and as the organ of soldiers, declare to you that the presence of no living man could enkindle nobler sentiments or awaken prouder recollections in the minds of South Carolinians than your own.

"We hail you as our comrade in arms, and as our brave general, and although the terrible conflicts of the

-you as

valley of Mexico belong to history, we still hail y our brave and dauntless chieftain, whose voice rang loud amid the bloody clamors of musketry and artillery, stimulating the Palmettos in their struggle to plant the first standard of victory on the walls of the fallen capital of Mexico. South Carolina loves you in peace because you first loved her sons in war, ministering to them in sickness and privation, kind and cordial to them in their hours of repose, sharing their perils, and imparting to their bosoms the fiery courage of your own in the stormy hour of battle and blood.

"Our Butler, our Dickinson, and many other Palmettos, arc curtained by the rayless night of death; with them the fierce battle of life is ended forever. Sir, their dust, mingling with the soil of their beloved state as it does, breaks forth with our living voices to-day in sweet but mournful acclamation of welcome to you.

"The brave, the beautiful, the aged, and the young, all hands, all voices, all hearts, join to make you welcome to the capital of South Carolina.

.

"Her emblematic eagle, twin sister of Mississippi's own proud bird, displays her wings to greet you, and her emblematic tree freshens in its foliago at your approach. Smiles and tears, prayers and flowery wreaths, all that the beauty, and chivalry, and hospitality of South Carolina's capital can present you with, I place upon your brow.

"Again I say, welcome, welcome, thrice welcome be the general of our pride, affection, and veneration.”

The general replied to this generous welcome in brief and feeling terms. He was pale, emaciated, and feeble, and doubtless was then in the first stage of his last fatal illness. He was taken immediately to the residence of his friend, Col. A. J. Green.

On the 4th Gen. Quitman was escorted to College Hall by the volunteer battalion, including the fire companies of the city, the Arsenal Cadets, the Sons of Temperance, Palmetto and Congaree Lodges I. O. O. F., the members of the Eutaw Encampment, the Independent Fire Engine

Company, the students, graduates, and faculty of the university, the state and municipal authorities, and the Palmetto Association in the rear, 68 in number, survivors of many a hard-fought field. Three banners, battleriven, were borne in the procession-the flags of the Fairfield, Chester, and Newberry companies. These banners floated over the orator on the platform, and his companions in arms were clustered around him. When the general entered the spacious hall, filled with the beauty and talent of South Carolina, he was received with a feeling not to be expressed by mere acclamations; then, indeed, were "tears, smiles, and flowery wreaths" lavished upon him. The order of exercises was as follows:

"PRAYER by Rev. Dr. Thornwell.

"ODE: Welcome to the Chief" (sung in full choir). [By W. Gilmore Simms]:

"Open your gates, gay city, with a clang

Of martial gong and trumpet, and a fire,
Such as on plains of Churubusco rang

When your own forward sons went forth in ire;
Give voices to your hearts, that, when he hears,
His heart shall whisper, "These are brethren all
Of those who follow'd me with bended spears,
When Mexico was stooping to her fall;

When, at Chapultepec, we crush'd her powers,

And storm'd, through all her gates, our way to Aztec towers.'

"Oh! these are glorious momories, which are best

Treasur'd when thus ye welcome home the brave;

Thus keep ye shrin'd, within each martial breast,
The glory of the gallant sons ye gave;

So honor ye the children of your care,

Who thus go forth in confidence and pride,

This company bore on their standard a wreath of immortelies encircling a key of their engine-house which had been found on the person of one of its members slain in the battle of Churubusco.

This touching incident reminds me of poor Stanford, adjutant of Crittenden's battalion, shot at Havana. When leaving New Orleans, he carried with him his masonic apron; it had belonged to his father. The moment before his execution he requested that it might be sent to his only sister, the wife of Wm. L. Patterson, Esq., United States Consul, Genoa.