41, deeply resentful toward the
President and displeased at Webster. Having carried through Congress the
tariff bill already mentioned, he rose on March 31 to offer "the last
motion I shall ever make in this body," and to read his farewell address
after the manner of his great antagonist Jackson, who had sent to
Congress a similar message on his retirement in March, 1837. It was an
affecting scene as the able and dramatic orator prayed "the most
precious blessings upon the Senate," even upon Calhoun, who at the close
extended his hand for the first time in several years. "Sober old
Senators as well as ladies in the galleries shed tears at the scene";
yet it was known that Clay would seek the Presidency two years later.
Calhoun, likewise, retired "forever" from the august legislative
assembly, twelve months later, the better to lay his plans for the
Democratic nomination in 1844. Though the South was not ready to unite
in support of its greatest statesman, its leaders were ready to adopt
his views and carry out his policy. The South, with its cotton, tobacco,
and sugar plantations yielding their increasing annual returns, was
preparing for another effort at getting control of the National
Government. And changes of sentiment as well as economic development
favored her in the struggle.

In Virginia the reforms of 1829 had been inadequate. The slavery problem
was still a burning question, and the Nat Turner insurrection of 1831,
in which a few slaves rose against their masters and killed many men,
women, and children, forced a reconsideration. Again the difficult
problem was declared insoluble. Thomas R. Dew, a professor of political
science in William and Mary College, gave the deciding counsel in
elaborate testimony before a committee of the legislature, which was
enlarged and published in book form in May, 1832. He contended that
slavery was a positive good; that negroes could not live in the South
except in a state of bondage; and that for the State of Virginia, at
least, it was a most profitable institution. The time had passed, he
contended, for men to believe or teach the fallacies of the Declaration
of Independence. Society, certainly Southern society, was taking on a
stratified form in which all men had their definite places; and the
North, too, was fast drifting in the same direction, because of the
influence of their growing industries, in which it was essential that
some should be masters of great plants and di