A GREAT PUBLIC CHARACTER. 93 



or the tradition which they believed for such, against 

 empiricism. During his Congressional career, the Govern 

 ment was little more than an attache of the French legation, 

 and the Opposition to which he belonged a helpless revenant 

 from the dead and buried Colonial past. There are some 

 questions whose interest dies the moment they are settled ; 

 others into which a moral element enters that hinders them 

 from being settled, though they may be decided. It is hard 

 to revive any enthusiasm about the Embargo, though it 

 once could inspire the boyish muse of Bryant, or in the 

 impressment quarrel, though the Trent difficulty for a time 

 rekindled its old animosities. The stars in their courses 

 fought against Mr. Quincy s party, which was not in 

 sympathy with the instincts of the people, groping about 

 for some principle of nationality, and finding a substitute 

 for it in hatred of England. But there are several things 

 which still make his career in Congress interesting to us, 

 because they illustrate the personal character of the man. 

 He prepared himself honestly for his duties, by a thorough 

 study of whatever could make him efficient in them. It 

 was not enough that he could make a good speech ; he 

 wished also to have something to say. In Congress, as 

 everywhere else, quod voluit valde voluit ; and he threw a 

 fervour into the most temporary topic, as if his eternal 

 salvation depended upon it. He had not merely, as the 

 French say, the courage of his opinions, but his opinions 

 became principles, and gave him that gallantry of fanati 

 cism which made him always ready to head a forlorn hope 

 the more ready, perhaps, that it was a forlorn hope. 

 This is not the humour of a statesman no, unless he holds 

 a position like that of Pitt, and can charge a whole people 

 with his own enthusiasm, and then we call it genius. Mr. 

 Quincy had the moral firmness which enabled him to decline 

 a duel without any loss of personal prestige. His opposition 

 to the Louisiana purchase illustrates that Roman quality in 

 him to which we have alluded. He would not conclude the 

 purchase till each of the old thirteen States had signified its 

 assent. He was reluctant to endow a Sabine city with the 



