them from their degradation, even seeking to educate them, when it was more than probable that they would return to their barbaric habits,—­a race, as it would seem from experience, very difficult to civilize.  Adams thus spoke of his young colleague:  “Mr. Calhoun is a man of fair and candid mind, of honorable principles, of quick and clear understanding, of cool self-possession, of enlarged philosophical views, and of ardent patriotism.  He is above all sectional and factious prejudices more than any other statesman of this Union with whom I have ever acted,”—­a very different verdict from what he wrote in his diary in 1831.  Judge Story wrote of him in 1823 in these terms:  “I have great admiration for Mr. Calhoun, and think few men have more enlarged and liberal views of the true policy of the national government.”

The post he held, however, was not Calhoun’s true arena, but one which an ambitious young man of thirty-five could not well decline, from the honor it brought.  The secretaryship of war is the least important of all the cabinet offices in time of peace, and was especially so when the army was reduced to six thousand men.  Its functions amounted to little more than sending small detachments to military posts, making contracts for the commissariat, visiting occasionally the forts and fortifications, and making a figure in Washington society.  It furnished no field for extensive operations, or the exercise of remarkable qualities of mind.  But inasmuch as it made Calhoun a member of the cabinet, it gave him an opportunity to express his mind on all national issues, and exercise an influence on the President himself.  It did not make him prominent in the eyes of the nation.  He was simply the head of a bureau, although an important personage in the eyes of the cadets of West Point and of some lazy lieutenants stationed among the Indians.  But whatever the part he was required to play, he did his duty, showed ability, and won confidence.  He doubtless added to his reputation, else he would not have been talked about as a candidate for the presidency, selected as a candidate for the vice-presidency, and chosen to that position by Northern votes, as he was in 1824, when the election was thrown into the House of Representatives, and the friends of Henry Clay made Adams, instead of Jackson, President.  Calhoun’s popularity with all parties resulted in his election as vice-president by a very large popular vote.  He deserved it.  The day had not come for the ascendency of mere politicians, and their division of the spoils of office.

The condition of the slaveholding States at this period was most prosperous.  The culture of cotton had become exceedingly lucrative.  Rich planters spent their summers at the North in luxurious independence.  It was the era of general “good feeling.”  No agitating questions had arisen.  Young men at the South sought education in the New England colleges; manufacturing interests were in their infancy, and