wer as a speaker.
###

The eulogium pronounced on the character of the State of South Carolina by
the honorable gentleman, for her Revolutionary and other merits, meets my
hearty concurrence. I shall not acknowledge that the honorable member goes
before me, in regard for whatever of distinguished talent or distinguished
character South Carolina has produced. I claim part of the honor; I
partake in the pride of her great names. I claim them for countrymen, one
and all--the Laurenses, the Rutledges, the Pinckneys, the Sumters, the
Marions--Americans all--whose fame is no more to be hemmed in by state
lines than their talents and patriotism were capable of being
circumscribed within the same narrow limits.

In their day and generation, they served and honored the country, and the
whole country, and their renown is of the treasures of the whole country.
Him whose honored name the gentleman himself bears,--does he suppose me
less capable of gratitude for his patriotism, or sympathy for his
suffering, than if his eyes had first opened upon the light in
Massachusetts, instead of South Carolina? Sir, does he suppose it in his
power to exhibit in Carolina a name so bright as to produce envy in my
bosom? No, sir,--increased gratification and delight rather. Sir, I thank
God that, if I am gifted with little of the spirit which is said to be
able to raise mortals to the skies, I have yet none, as I trust, of that
other spirit which would drag angels down.

When I shall be found, sir, in my place here in the Senate, or elsewhere,
to sneer at public merit because it happened to spring up beyond the
little limits of my own state or neighborhood; when I refuse for any such
cause, or for any cause, the homage due to American talent, to elevated
patriotism, to sincere devotion to liberty and the country; or if I see an
uncommon endowment of Heaven; if I see extraordinary capacity or virtue in
any son of the South; and if, moved by local prejudice, or gangrened by
state jealousy, I get up here to abate a tithe of a hair from his just
character and just fame, may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!

Mr. President, I shall enter on no encomium upon Massachusetts. She needs
none. There she is; behold her, and judge for yourselves. There is her
history; the world knows it by heart. The past, at least, is secure. There
is Boston, and Concord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill; and there they
will remain forever. And, sir, where America