Meanwhile Governor Hayne had called the Legislature of South Carolina together to take measures for enforcing the Ordinance of Nullification. They authorized the Governor to call The Ordinance of Nullification forbade all promulgate the decided expression of your will constituted authorities, State or National, within to remain in the path which alone can conduct the boundaries of South Carolina, to enforce the you to safety, prosperity, and honor. Tell them payment of duties imposed by the tariff laws; that, compared to disunion, all other evils are and that in no case of law or equity, decided in light, because that brings with it an accumulathe courts of South Carolina, touching the au- tion of all. Declare that you will never take thority of the Ordinance, or the validity of acts the field unless the star-spangled banner of your of the Legislature of that commonwealth for country shall float over you; that you will not giving effect thereto, should there be an appeal be stigmatized when dead, and dishonored and to the Supreme Court of the United States. It scorned while you live, as the authors of the first was also ordained that all public officers should attack on the Constitution of your country. Its take an oath to obey that Ordinance on penalty destroyers you can not be. You may disturb of forfeiture of office. Having thus bound the its peace; you may interrupt the course of its people of the State hand and foot to self-created prosperity; you may cloud its reputation for despotism (for they did not submit the ordinance stability; but its tranquillity will be restored, to the people), without a chance of appeal to the its prosperity will return, and the stains upon accustomed tribunal, the conspirators defiantly its national character will be transferred and redeclared that they would not submit to "coer- main an eternal blot on the memory of those cion" by the United States, and that they should who caused the disorder." consider the passage by Congress of any act declaring the ports of that State abolished or closed, or in any way interfering with their commerce, as "inconsistent with the longer continuance of South Carolina in the Union;" and that the peo-out the militia of the State for the purpose, and ple of the State would henceforth "hold them- ordered the purchase of ten thousand stand of selves absolved from all further obligation to arms, and a requisite quantity of equipments and maintain or preserve their political connection munitions of war. The feelings of the politiwith the people of the other States," and would cians of other States were consulted. Those of proceed forthwith to "organize a separate gov- Virginia, Georgia, and Alabama approved of the ernment, and do all other acts and things which action of the "Palmetto State," and gave assovereign and independent States may of right surance that, in the event of secession, those States do." The ordinance was to take effect on the first would join her in forming a Southern Confederday of February ensuing after its passage. It acy. But North Carolina, always patriotic at was signed by more than one hundred leading cit-heart, nobly refused to stain her annals with izens of South Carolina, and thus officially communicated to the President of the United States. The time for action had now arrived, and CalFortunately for the country there was a man houn resigned the Vice-Presidency and took his at the head of the Government whose patriotism seat in the Senate of the United States, where and courage had never been found wanting. It he might do battle for disunion more potently. was equal to this emergency. South Carolina, The President had resolved to arrest him on his through her unscrupulous politicians, had been arrival at Washington, have him tried for high placed in the attitude of open, forcible resist- treason, and hung if found guilty. This, in the ance to the laws of the United States, which the then condition of public feeling in the Southern President had solemnly sworn to execute. An- States, might have been a most pernicious step, drew Jackson was not a man to be trifled with. one that would have kindled the flames of civil He quickly perceived his duty, and as quickly war instantly. Webster and others persuaded hastened to the performance of it. The Ordi- Jackson not to adopt that extreme measure, but nance of Nullification reached him on the 1st endeavor to win back the deluded people. of December. On the 10th of the same month proclamation already mentioned followed; and he issued a Proclamation, kind but firm, per- on the assembling of Congress the President, in suasive but admonitory, in which he denounced his annual Message, called attention to the atthe pernicious doctrine of State supremacy, and titude of South Carolina, and asked for co-operwarned the people of South Carolina that they ation in suppressing the rising rebellion. He had had been deceived by demagogues. "Eloquent already taken precautionary measures. Quite a appeals to your passions, to your State pride, to large body of troops, under General Scott, were your native courage, to your sense of real inju-stealthily thrown into Fort Moultrie in Charlesry," he said, "were used to prepare you for the ton harbor, and a sloop of war was sent to the period when the mask, which concealed the hid-same waters to protect the national officers of eous features of disunion, should be taken off. It fell, and you were made to look with complacency on objects which, not long since, you would have regarded with horror." He reason-force in the maintenance of the laws these troops ed fraternally with them, and begged them to were before their faces, and the guns of Fort retrace their steps. “Snatch from the archives Moultrie were silently but admonishingly telling of your State the disorganizing edict of its con- them to be careful not to interfere with the busivention; bid its members to reassemble, andness of the Charleston Custom-house. even the semblance of treason and rebellion. The customs, if necessary, in the performance of their duties. Before the inhabitants of Charleston were aware that the President would resort to The President had declared, in substance, in his Message that his policy would be a peaceful one toward the rebellious State so long as peaceful measures promised to be effectual; but in the event of persistent contumacy, he was prepared to force South Carolina into submission. This determination of the Government, the presence of General Scott with a competent force, and the sloop of war in the harbor, caused a material abatement of rebellious zeal in the capital of the turbulent State, and it became evident to the leaders there that South Carolina would not be permitted to sever the bond that bound her to the Union. Her famous Ordinance was not enforced; the revenues were regularly collected; and the national laws continued to be executed without interruption. Such being the case, the conspirators in the Convention, illy concealing their mortification after such a display of arrogance, resolved to postpone their intended forcible resistance until the first of February. Wilkins, of Pennsylvania, from the Judiciary Committee, submitted a bill on the 21st of January, known as the Force Bill. It was immediately assailed with the greatest violence as unconstitutional. At about the same time Mr. Calhoun introduced his series of Resolutions on the Powers of the Government, in which were involved the doctrines of nullification and the right of secession. In the course of the debates on these Resolutions and the Force Bill, he first promulgated, publicly, those mischievous sentiments concerning the nature of our government, the bitter fruit of which is the present rebellion. He made the Virginia Resolutions of 1798 his text, and the avowed source of his political creed; and with his clear, logical, subtle mind he framed utterances of such amazing sophistries, in most ingenious aspects, that many were confounded, and a few were, for the moment, half converted to his views. But he so misrepresented the real character and design of those resolutions, so falsely declared that they afforded a warrant for nullification and secession, that Senator Rives, of Virginia, for the honor of his State and the truth of history, rebuked him. Madison, their author, had already declared that the resolutions and the debates in the Virginia House of Delegates disclosed "no reference whatever to a constitutional right in an individual State to arrest by force the operation of a law of the United States."* And that venerable statesman, then over eighty years of age, vehemently spurned the doctrine of the nullifiers, that our government is only a league of States, saying, “What can be more preposterous than to say that the United States, as united, are in no respect or degree a nation, which implies a sovereignty?"+ On the very first day of the session of Congress bills for the reduction of the tariff were introduced. One reported by Mr. Verplanck, from the Committee of Ways and Means, was very favorably received, especially by those who wished to conciliate the radical opponents of the tariff, of the South Carolina school. But long debates followed, and February, as well as the session of Congress, was drawing to a close, when, to the astonishment of every body, Mr. Letcher, of Kentucky, an ardent friend of Mr. Clay, rose in his place and moved to strike out every word of the bill except the enacting clause, and insert in lieu of it a bill introduced in the Senate by Mr. Clay, which has since been called the Compromise Bill. It was a formal abandonment of the American System, and confessedly a measure to heal disaffection and save the Union. It proposed a gradual reduction of the tariff in the course of ten years, in such a way that all interests would be unharmed. Mr. Clay professed to believe that it would not only heal | nate personal ambition. He was a disappointed all present dissensions, but prevent future ones; and that by separating the question of tariffs from politics, the business of the country would become more stable. It was ably opposed in the House by John Davis, of Massachusetts, who sagaciously remarked: "You propose to bind us [New England] hand and foot, to pour out our blood upon the altar, and sacrifice us as a burntoffering to appease the unnatural and unfounded discontent of the South—a discontent, I fear, having deeper root than the tariff, and will continue when that is forgotten." John Davis simply wrote history in advance of events. This Compromise Bill was passed, and the voice of disunion was hushed for a while. The secret history of the measure will be noticed presently. In a Message to Congress on the subject of affairs in South Carolina, the President recommended that body to revive some old acts which would enable him to enforce the revenue laws in that State, and crush rebellion in the bud. In accordance with this recommendation, Mr. It is worthy of notice, that in the course of these debates Calhoun, generally reticent and cautious, revealed, almost unconsciously, the secret spring of his desires for a dissolution of the Union and a Southern Confederacy to be inordi man. He had ardently desired a nomination + Letter to William C. Rives, March 12, 1833. than that of the Aborigines whom they have ex-Constitution and the Government." He had pelled, or of their slaves...... Every Southern heartily supported the Force Bill. Although man, true to the interests of his section, and opposed, politically, to the Administration, he faithful to the duties which Providence has allot- had said: "I believe the country is in considted him, will be forever excluded from the honors erable danger; I believe an unlawful combinaand emoluments of this government, which will be tion threatens the integrity of the Union. I bereserved for those only who have qualified them- lieve the crisis calls for a mild, temperate, forselves, by political prostitution, for admission bearing, but inflexibly firm execution of the into the Magdalen Asylum." Past and subse- laws. And, under this conviction, I give a quent history convict that malignant conspirator hearty support to this Administration in all of uttering a willful untruth-uttered for the sole measures which I deem to be fair, just, and necpurpose of "firing the Southern heart," until, in essary. And in supporting these measures I the language of an Alabama conspirator of our mean to take my fair share of responsibility, to day (Yancey), "at the proper moment, by an support them frankly and fairly, without reflecorganized concerted action, they could precipi- tions on the past and mixing other topics in their tate the Cotton States into a revolution." discussion." He was utterly opposed to compromising and temporizing measures with a rebellious faction, and told Mr. Clay so; and from that time he was not approached by those who were willing to shield conspirators from the sword of justice. Allusion has been made to the secret history of the Compromise Bill, which, for the time, quelled the turbulence of the South Carolina politicians, and foiled the weapons of disunion so adroitly wielded by Calhoun and his fellowconspirators. He and Clay had long been rival aspirants for the Presidency and antagonistic in political principles. Now, to the surprise of every body, they appeared to be in coalition. It was a deep mystery to the uninitiated, and remained so until in after years, when Clay and Calhoun became more bitterly antagonistic, that the latter revealed some of the secret history of that apparent coalition. It was substantially this, according to Mr. Benton: Mr. Clay drew up a compromise bill and sent it to Mr. Calhoun by Mr. Letcher. Calhoun objected to parts of the bill most decidedly, and remarked that if Clay knew the nature of his objections he would at least modify those portions of the bill. Letcher made arrangements for a personal interview between these eminent Senators, who had not been on speaking terms for some time. The imperious Clay demanded that it should be at his own room. The imperiled Calhoun consented to go there. The meeting was civil but icy. The business was immediately entered upon. The principals were unyielding, and the conference ended without re The relative position of the National Government and South Carolina, and of the President of the United States and Mr. Calhoun, in the winter of 1833, placed the latter in great personal peril, which his friends perceived and tried to avert.sults. Among others consulted on the subject by them was Letcher, of Kentucky, Clay's warm personal friend. He knew that South Carolina must yield, on some terms, to the authority and power of the National Government, and he conceived the idea of a compromise by which, in so yielding, she might preserve her dignity. He proposed it to Mr. Clay, who, sincerely desiring reconciliation, entertained the idea, and submitted it to Webster. The amazing intellectual plummet of the latter had fathomed the turbid waters of Nullification far deeper than had the brilliant Kentuckian, and he instantly said, “No -it will be yielding great principles to faction. The time has come to test the strength of the an amendment to the Constitution, what he adroitly termed "the rights of the minority," by giving to the States the veto power, by which every law passed by the Congress of the United States might be made null and void. This was nullification in its mildest form. If it had been ingrafted upon the national Constitution the Slave States would have controlled the government forever. But such a doctrine was opposed to the fundamental idea of a republican government, namely, submission to the will of the majority; and Mr. Calhoun and his followers, knowing such an amendment to the Constitution could never be obtained, resolved to secede, and form what the modern conspirators call a "homogeneous government" that is, an aristocratic government, representing slaveholding communities only, and having no affinity with men who believe in the doctrines of the Declaration of Independence, written by one of their caste. Letcher now hastened to the President and sounded him on the subject of compromise. "Compromise!" said the stern old man, stern only toward wickedness, "I will make no compromise with traitors. I will have no negotiations. I will execute the laws. Calhoun shall be tried for treason, and hanged if found guilty, if he does not instantly cease his rebellious course." Letcher now flew to M'Duffie, Calhoun's ardent friend, and alarmed him with a startling picture of the President's wrath. night, after he had retired to bed, Letcher was aroused by a Senator from Louisiana, who informed him that Jackson would not allow any more delay, and that Calhoun's arrest might take place any hour. He begged Letcher to He warn Calhoun of his danger. He did so. found the South Carolinian in bed. He told him of the temper and the intentions of the President, and the conspirator was much alarmed. That Meanwhile Mr. Clay and J. M. Clayton of Delaware had been in frequent consultations on the subject. Clayton had said to Clay, while his bill was lingering in the House, “These South Carolinians act very badly, but they are good fellows, and it is a pity to let Jackson hang them ;" and advised him to get his bill referred to a new committee, and so modify it as to make it acceptable to a majority. Clay did so, and Clayton exerted all his influence to avert the withdrew his motion, but with the declaration that unless the measure, in full, was voted for by all the nullifiers he should renew it. Instantly one of their friends moved an adjournment. It was carried, and the conspirators went home "to sleep, perchance to dream," on their predicament. They knew of only one way, and that a most thorny one for their pride, still open for their escape. They all knew the character of the President, and the reliability of his promises. So they concluded to vote as Mr. Clayton demanded, but begged that gentleman to spare Mr. Calhoun the mortification of appearing on the record in favor of a measure against which at that very time, and at his instance, troops were being raised in South Carolina, and because of which the politicians of that State were preparing to declare her secession from the Union! Mr. Clayton would not yield a jot. Calhoun was the chief of sinners in this matter, and he, of all others, must give the world public and recorded evidence of penitence, whatever his "mental reservations" might be. "Nothing would be secured," Mr. Clayton said, "unless his vote appears in favor of the measure." calamity which hung over Calhoun and his friends. He assembled the manufacturers who had hurried to the capital when they heard of the Compromise Bill, to see whether they would not yield something for the sake of conciliation and the Union. At a sacrifice of their interests, these loyal men did yield, and agreed to withdraw all opposition to the bill, and let it pass the Senate, providing all the nullifiers should vote for certain amendments made by the Lower House, as well as the bill itself. The nullifiers in committee would not yield. The crisis had arrived. The gallows was placed before Calhoun's eyes. Clayton earnestly remonstrated with him. He pointed out the danger, the folly, the wickedness of his course; and notified him that unless the amendments were adopted, and that by the votes of himself and political friends, the bill should not pass; that he (Clayton) would move to lay it on the table when it should be reported to the Senate, and that he had strength enough in that House pledged to do it. "The President will then," he said, "be left free to execute the laws in full rigor." His object, he told them plainly, was to put them squarely on the record; to make all the nullifiers vote for the amendments and the bill, and thus cut them off from the plea of "unconstitutionality," which they would raise if the bill and amendments did not receive their votes. Unless they were so bound he knew that the present pacification would be only a hollow truce, and that they would make this very measure, probably, a pretense for renewing their resistance to what they were pleased to call "unconstitutional measures" of the National Government, and for resuming their march toward secession and independence. He was peremptory with both Clay and Calhoun, and warned them that this was the last chance for compromise. Mr. Clayton was inexorable. Clay and Calhoun agreed to the amendments. These with the bill were reported to the Senate. All the nullifiers voted for the amendments in order, until they came to the last, that of home valuation, which was so revolting to the great leader of the conspirators. When that came up Cal- Jackson warned his countrymen that slavery houn and his friends met it with the most violent would be the next pretense used by the conopposition. It was the last day but one of the spirators against the life of the nation. The session, and a late hour in the day. Finding fulfillment of that prophecy commenced almost the nullifiers persistent in their opposition, Clay- on the day of its utterance. About the year ton, to their great consternation, suddenly exe- 1831 there was established in the city of Washcuted his threat. He moved to lay the bill on ington a newspaper entitled the United States the table, and declared it should continue to lie Telegraph, which was the confidential organ if there. Mr. Clay begged him to withdraw his not the private property of Mr. Calhoun. "Of motion. Others entreated him to give a little all the vehicles-tracts, pamphlets, and newspamore time. He was inflexible. There was pers-circulated by the abolitionists," said Govfluttering in the bevy of nullifiers. Calhoun ernor Hill, of New Hampshire, in 1836, in alluand his friends retired behind the colonnade sion to it, "there is no ten or twenty of them back of the Speaker's chair, over which was the that have contributed so much to the excitement portrait of Washington, the great Unionist, and as a single newspaper printed in this city. I there held a brief consultation. It was very brief, need not name this paper when I inform you for time and opportunity were precious. Sena- that, for the last five years, it has been laboring tor Bibb came from the trembling conclave and to produce a Northern and a Southern party— asked Clayton to give a little more time. This to fan the flame of sectional prejudice, to open was a token of yielding, and he complied. He wider the breach, to drive harder the wedge The Senate met; the bill was taken up; and the nullifiers and their friends, one after another, yielded their objections on various pretenses. At length, when all had voted but Mr. Calhoun, he arose, pale and haggard, for he had had a most terrible struggle. He declared that he had then to determine which way he should vote, and at the termination of his brief remarks he gave his voice in the affirmative with the rest. It was a bitter pill for that proud man to swallow. The alternative presented to him was absolute humiliation or the gallows. He chose the former. With that act fell the great conspiracy to break up the Government of the United States in 1832. The violent clamors raised in South Carolina and the Gulf States on the appearance of Jackson's Proclamation soon ceased. The Ordinance of Nullification was repealed, and Nullifier became, as it deserved to be, a term of reproach throughout most of the Union. "Trenty-eighth September, 1841. "MY DEAR SIR-I condole with you from my heart on the loss you have sustained, and I feel proud of your permitting me to sympathize with your affliction. It is a similar circumstances, by many of your countrymen since great satisfaction to me to have been addressed, under the Curiosity Shop' came to a close. Some simple and honest hearts in the remote wilds of America have written me letters on the loss of children-so numbering my little pouring out their trials, and sources of comfort in them, book, or rather heroine, with their household gods; and so before me as a friend, that I have been inexpressibly moved, and am whenever I think of them, I do assure you. You have already all the comfort that I could lay before you; all, I hope, that the affectionate spirit of your brother, now in happiness, can shed into your soul. which shall divide the North from the South." tended visit to America was made in the followIn the columns of that paper, and in his speech- ing characteristic letter to his friend and cores, Mr. Calhoun became the eulogist of slavery, respondent, Mr. L. Gaylord Clark, then editor and ungenerously and falsely accused the people of the Knickerbocker Magazine: of the North of a desire to interfere with that system in the Southern States. "Until he spoke," says a late writer, "the South generally felt that slavery was only to be regarded as a choice of evils-an unfortunate inheritance, to be endured as long as it must be endured, to be abolished as soon as it could be abolished safely. It was John C. Calhoun that effaced from the heart of the South the benign sentiments of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Randolph. It was Calhoun who began all that is to be deplored in the agitation of slavery questions. It was he who strove to rob the people of the North of their right to petition, and the right of the people of the South to receive what they chose through the mail. It was he who cut the magnetic cord that connected the South with the feeling of the age, and thus made the peaceful solution of the problem difficult."* CHARLES DICKENS. ......"On the Fourth of next January, if it please God, I am coming with my wife on a three or four months' visit to America. The British and North American packet will bring me, I hope, to Boston, and enable me, in the third week of the new year, to set my foot upon the soil I have trodden in my day-dreams many times, and whose sons (and daughters) I yearn to know and to be among. "I hope you are surprised, and I hope not unpleasantly. Faithfully yours, CHAS. DICKENS.” Not long after his arrival at New York Mr. HERE are few readers of the works of any Dickens, with a number of gentlemen who had curiosity to see the Man as well as the Writer;' and in the absence of the ability to see him, their curiosity is equally great to "hear all about him;" to learn how he looks, acts, "walks, and talks;" each particular as to his personal appearance, dress, manners, etc.; whether he is shy and silent in company, or scintillating and brilliant in conversation, etc., etc. | the correspondent to whom the foregoing letter was addressed. I have preserved some memoranda of the things which most interested myself on this occasion. That Mr. Dickens was also interested appears from a postscript to a letter written after his return to England, in which he says: "This day twelvemonth I dined at your house: the pleasantest dinner I enjoyed in America. What a company!" The notes of acceptance to the invitation to meet Mr. Dickens at dinner of the gentlemen who were present were pleasant and character to have lost, was couched in a few well-chosen words, which embodied a perfect “picture in little" of Mr. Dickens's peculiar artistic characteristics. Halleck, in closing his note, in reference to an incidental hint in the letter of invitation of his host that he "must not forget the hour of dining"-a fault which his friend "John Waters" had woefully lamented—playfully said : "A letter from you will always give me pleasure; but yours of yesterday was quite unnecessary: Perhaps no writer in modern times has excited this very natural desire more generally, or to a greater degree, than Charles Dickens. Even as we write, we see by the public journals that an offer has been made, "from responsible par-istic. That of Mr. Henry Inman, which I regret ties" in New York, to guarantee to Mr. Dickens fifty thousand dollars for one year's "Readings" (three times a week) from his popular works in this country; while a similar sum, with his expenses paid, awaited his acceptance in Australia. Now in all this there is only the evidence of a general desire to see and hear the Author and the Man; for every work from which he will read is as "familiar as household words” to all who will attend his "Readings." How many hundreds has the writer known who have made pilgrimages from our city to Sunnyside, simply to look upon Washington Irving; possibly with the hope to hear him in familiar conversation, but at all events to see him; and failing in that, at least to look upon the place where he "lived, and moved, and had his being." "And were the journey for this purpose one of fifty miles, and on foot," said a friend not long ago, an enthusiastic admirer of the writings of Irving, "it would be well repaid to hear once more his living voice." The first announcement of Mr. Dickens's in • Parton's "Life of Andrew Jackson," iii., 433. "The bridegroom may forget the bride Was made his wedded wife yestreen; That smiles sae sweetly on her knee:* It was certainly a great satisfaction to find seated at the same table, in all the enjoyment which mutual regard and affection could create, men so well known to the reading world in both hemispheres, and equally honored in each, as * The death of his correspondent's twin-brother, Willis Gaylord Clark. |