ys impressive, was unusually so that day; his argument, always
close-knit and logical, was the very summation of these qualities; his
words seemed edged with fire as he argued that the Constitution is
supreme, the Union indissoluble, and that no state has, or can have the
right to resist or nullify a national law. It was the greatest oration
of America's greatest orator.

Of its effect upon the people who heard it we have spoken; throughout
the country it produced a profound impression. The North felt that a new
prophet had arisen; the South, a new foeman. The great advocate of
nullification, however, was not Hayne, who would be scarcely remembered
to-day but for the fact that it was to him Webster addressed his reply,
but that formidable giant of a man, John C. Calhoun--the man whom the
South felt to be her peculiar representative on the question of state
rights, of nullification, and, at last, of slavery. His fate was one of
the saddest in American history, for the cause he fought for was a
doomed cause, and as he sank into his grave, he saw tottering down upon
him the great structure which he had devoted his whole life to
upholding.

Not much is known of Calhoun's youth. He was the grandson of an Irish
immigrant who had settled in South Carolina, graduated from Yale in
1804, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and, returning to his native
state, was, in 1811, elected a member of Congress. That was the
beginning of a public career which was to last until his death.

Almost from the first, he was consumed with an ambition to be President,
and perhaps would have been, but for an incident so trivial that, under
ordinary circumstances, it would have had no consequences. In 1818, as
Monroe's secretary of war, Calhoun had occasion at a cabinet meeting to
express some censure of Andrew Jackson's conduct of the Seminole war--a
censure which was deserved, since Jackson had violated the law of
nations in pursuing his enemy into a foreign country. Twelve years
later, when Jackson was President and Calhoun, as Vice-President, was in
direct line of succession, so to speak, Jackson heard of Calhoun's
remarks, flew into a violent rage, came out as Calhoun's declared enemy,
and dealt the death-blow to his presidential aspirations.

Smarting from this injustice, Calhoun turned his attention to the
question of state sovereignty, and in February, 1833, South Carolina
passed the nullification ordinance to which we have already refer