r's conversation with him is
enough to make a necessitarian of anybody. Accordingly, he
is more complained of than blamed by his enemies. His
moments of softness by his family, and when recurring to old
college days, are hailed by all as a relief to the vehement
working of the intellectual machine,--a relief equally to
himself and others. These moments are as touching to the
observer as tears on the face of a soldier."

Of his appearance in the Senate, and of his manner of speaking, Miss
Martineau records her impressions also:--

"Mr. Calhoun's countenance first fixed my attention; the
splendid eye, the straight forehead, surmounted by a load of
stiff, upright, dark hair, the stern brow, the inflexible
mouth,--it is one of the most remarkable heads in the
country."

"Mr. Calhoun followed, and impressed me very strongly. While
he kept to the question, what he said was close, good, and
moderate, though delivered in rapid speech, and with a voice
not sufficiently modulated. But when he began to reply to a
taunt of Colonel Benton's, that he wanted to be President,
the force of his speaking became painful. He made
protestations which it seemed to strangers had better have
been spared, 'that he would not turn on his heel to be
President,' and that 'he had given up all for his own brave,
magnanimous little State of South Carolina.' While thus
protesting, his eyes flashed, his brow seemed charged with
thunder, his voice became almost a bark, and his sentences
were abrupt, intense, producing in the auditory a sort of
laugh which is squeezed out of people by the application of
a very sudden mental force. I believe he knew not what a
revelation he made in a few sentences. _They were to us
strangers the key, not only to all that was said and done by
the South Carolina party during the remainder of the
session, but to many things at Charleston and Columbia which
would otherwise have passed unobserved and unexplained_."

This intelligent observer saw the chieftain on his native heath:--

"During my stay in Charleston, Mr. Calhoun and his family
arrived from Congress, and there was something very striking
in the welcome he received, like that of a chief returned to
the bosom of his clan. He stalked about like a monarch of
the little domain, and