upper country of Virginia and the two Carolinas was settled mainly by Irish and Scotch-Irish emigrants,—a very different class of people from the more polished and refined Huguenots and descendants of the Cavaliers, who dwelt in the lower valleys of their noble rivers. The former were poor in this world's goods, but rich in those sterling qualities of heart and soul that fitted them so well for the hardships and privations of a pioneer life, and which constituted a richer legacy to their children than the wealth secured by their industry among the hills and dales of their forest homes. Among such a people, the means of instruction were, of course, quite limited, and children were taught the rudiments of learning principally by their parents.

Mr. Calhoun was indebted for the most part to his father and mother for the information acquired in his youth. There were few or no schools in the sparsely settled district where they resided, and the only branches of education taught in them were reading, writing, and arithmetic. When he was old enough they sent him to an ordinary country school, at which he learned al that his teacher could communicate. These draughts from the fountain, turbid though it was, created a thirst for more; but as there was not a single academy in the whole upper region of the state, and none within fifty miles, except in Columbia county, Georgia, of which Mr. Waddell, a Presbyterian clergyman who had married his sister, was the principal; and as his father was unwilling, both on account of his limited means, and of his aversion to the learned professions, to send him away from home; he reached the age of thirteen with

out having added anything to his stock of knowledge, except the limited amount of information he was able to pick up in conversation with others, and to obtain from the few books to which he had access.

At the age of thirteen he was placed under the care of his brother-in-law, and commenced a course of study in the higher branches. He had but just made a beginning in this new occupation, with which he was perfectly delighted, when the death of his father took place. His sister shortly after died, and Mr. Waddell immediately discontinued his academy. John continued to reside with his brother-in-law; but as the latter was absent for the greater part of the time, engaged in the performance of his clerical duties, he was left to depend upon his own resources for amusement. The plantation was in a remote district, and he had not a single white companion, with the exception, at intervals, of Mr. Waddell, and an occasional visitor. In this situation, had he fallen a victim to listlessness and ennui, it could not have been wondered at. But his active mind required employment, and in the house he found what proved to him a rich mine of intellectual wealth.

His brother-in-law was the librarian of a small circulating library, and to this he at once resorted. No one counselled or directed him in the selection of books for perusal, but as if led by instinct, he discarded fiction entirely, and occupied himself, to the exclusion of all lighter reading, with historical works in number, but he devoured them eagerly. Rollin's Ancient History; Robertson's Life of Charles V., and History of America; and a translation of Voltaire's

These were few

Charles XII., first attracted his attention. He was completely fascinated with the inexhaustible store of information which the French scholar had accumulated, and admired the well-turned periods and graceful and easy diction of Scotland's great historian, while he hung with delight upon the thrilling account of the daring exploits of the Swedish monarch. Having dispatched these volumes, he took up the large edition of Cook's Voyages, Brown's Essays, and Locke on the Understanding, the last of which he was unable to finish, for the reason that he had already overtasked his strength, and his health had become considerably impaired.

"All this was the work of but fourteen weeks. So intense was his application that his eyes became seriously affected, his countenance pallid, and his frame emaciated. His mother, alarmed at the intelligence of his health, sent for him home, where exercise and amusement soon restored his strength, and he acquired a fondness for hunting, fishing, and other country sports. Four years passed away in these pursuits, and in attention to the business of the farm while his elder brothers were absent, to the entire neglect of his education. But the time was not lost. Exercise and rural sports invigorated his frame, while his labors on the farm gave him a taste for agriculture, which he always retained, and in the pursuit of which he found delightful occupation for his intervals of leisure from public duties.

"About this time an incident occurred upon which turned his after life. His second brother, James, who had been placed at a counting-house in Charleston, returned to spend the summer of 1800 at home. John

had determined to become a planter; but James, objecting to this, strongly urged him to acquire a good education, and pursue one of the learned professions He replied that he was not averse to the course advised, but there were two difficulties in the way: one was to obtain the assent of his mother, without which he could not think of leaving her, and the other was the want of means. His property was small, and his resolution fixed: he would far rather be a planter than a half-informed physician or lawyer. With this determination, he could not bring his mind to select either without ample preparation; but if the consent of their mother should be freely given, and he (James) thought he could so manage his property as to keep him in funds for seven years of study, preparatory to entering his profession, he would leave home and commence his education the next week. His mother and brother agreeing to his conditions, he accordingly left home the next week for Dr. Waddell's, who had married again, and resumed his academy in Columbia county, Georgia. This was in June, 1800, in the beginning of his nineteenth year, at which time it may be said he commenced his education, his tuition having been previously very imperfect, and confined to reading, writ ing, and arithmetic, in an ordinary country school. His progress here was so rapid that in two years he entered the junior class of Yale College, and graduated with distinction in 1804, just four years from the time he commenced his Latin grammar. He was highly esteemed by Dr. Dwight, then the president of the college, although they differed widely in politics, and at a time when political feelings were intensely bitter.

The doctor was an ardent Federalist, and Mr. Calhoun was one of a very few, in a class of more than seventy, who had the firmness openly to avow and maintain the opinions of the Republican party, and, among others, that the people were the only legitimate source of political power. Dr. Dwight entertained a different opinion. In a recitation during the senior year, on the chapter on Politics in Paley's Moral Philosophy, the doctor, with the intention of eliciting his opinion, propounded to Mr. Calhoun the question, as to the legitimate source of power. He did not decline an open and direct avowal of his opinion. A discussion ensued between them, which exhausted the time allotted for the recitation, and in which the pupil maintained his opinions with such vigor of argument and success, as to elicit from his distinguished teacher the declaration, in speaking of him to a friend, that the young man had talent enough to be President of the United States, which he accompanied by a prediction that he would one day attain that station."

At the commencement, an English oration was assigned to Mr. Calhoun. The subject which he selected was-"The qualifications necessary to constitute a perfect statesman"-from which it may be inferred that he had already set his heart upon a political career, and that he loved to contemplate that beau idéal in statesmanship, which he afterward attempted to illustrate in his own career. Having taken his degree, he commenced the study of the law, which he regarded as the stepping-stone to the higher position at which he aimed. He spent three years in his legal studies, and in miscel

* Biographical Sketch of Mr. Calhoun, 1843.