£l)c jfartmr'B ittontbhj bisitor. 



119 



the lower gratifications which have so many 

 temptations for unreflecting man. 



David, Joseph anil Susannah hail been made 

 to suffer under false accusations, and their souls 

 were purified by it. To us it may seem ili.it 

 their Bufferings were severe even to injustice. 

 But we can never know the extent of the disei- 

 pline necessary in these and similar cases. We 

 have no means by which to measure the rigor of 

 the punishment with the enormitj of the offence. 

 Hut having faith in the goodness ami wisdom of 

 God, we can believe that be will not afflict his 

 children beyond what is necessary to wean them 

 from the allurements of sin which would other- 

 wise lead them to destruction. Anil herein we 

 Bee bis divine love, the subject of his grace find- 

 ins comfort and even delight in what would 

 otherwise prove to he insupportable evils. 



In delivering this discourse, Father Mathew 

 spoke in a tone of profound sensibility, as if he 

 fell the truth of every word he uttered. 



Mr. Calhoun's farm. 

 A correspondent of the New York Herald, 

 who has been on a visit to Mr. Calhoun, gives 

 some interesting particulars respecting the resi- 

 dence of the great statesman of the South. We 

 extract those portions that relate to his planta- 

 tion and " people " : — 



"From the mill we passed into a large field of 

 Indian corn, and I assure you I do not exagge- 

 rate when I say that 1 never saw such a splendid 

 agricultural sight in my life. The field is in the 

 low ground or bottom, and covers one hundred 

 and twenty acres. The average height is twelve 

 to fourteen feet! — a sea of dark green, waving 

 with tassels and glossy silk of every hue and 

 color, and is grand beyond description. From 

 this we passed into a cotton field, which is as 

 large or larger, covering over one hundred and 

 twenty acres, and extending over hill and flat, 

 high and low ground. It was the first time 1 

 had ever seen cotton growing, and it was a new 

 and novel sight to me, Mr. Calhoun explained 

 to me the process of its cultivation. It is plant- 

 ed like Indian corn, and cultivated with even 

 greater care ; it is hoed four times. He pointed 

 out to me the blossoms; the first day after the 

 blossom appears, the flower is white ; the next 

 day red ; and the third it drops off, and the cot- 

 ton ball begins to form. It was in this stage I 

 saw it. It is a pleasant mode of farming. 



"There is nothing wanting on the farm, fields 

 of oats, of wheat, of potatoes, and of rice, all in 

 a forward state. The lice field occupies a part 

 of the low laud near the Seneca river, and 

 its pale green was in striking contrast with the 

 dark green of the corn.. The farm is a model 

 farm. It consists of about one thousand acres, 

 four hundred and fifty of which are in cultiva- 

 tion. Mr. Calhoun's striking method and ar- 

 rangement are seen every where. His system of 

 drainage, of duelling, and manner of planting 

 on the hill-sides — so that the furrows carry off 

 the water without allowing the land to wash— is 

 novel; and so useful is it found, that his neigh- 

 bors copy his plan. They have the advantage of 

 his example constantly before them; ami his 

 crops are far ahead of any one else in this re- 

 gion. There is not any thing which escapes 

 him. 



" After an hour had been spent in passing 

 through these fields, we returned towards his 

 out-buildings, cotton press, barns, granaries, fee. 

 1 was surprised. His uholo heart and soul 

 seemed absorbed in the farm. II. id 1 not known 

 with whom I was conversing, I should have set 

 him down in my mind as the most thorough go- 

 ing practical firmer I had ever met with. There 

 is no detail connected with it, which he is not 

 perfectly familiar, and as he carries you along 

 with him, he points out to you, and explains 

 every thing in the most simple manner possible. 

 * # # # '* »t 



"I went down to the slave quarter, and saw 

 them at work also in the field. 1 had heard so 

 much said in regard to Mr. Calhoun and his 

 slaves, that I was anxious to see them with my 

 own eyes. The slaves are certainly as happy 

 and contented as it is possible for them to he. 

 They love their master, and he is kind to them. 

 On Sunday they go to church, or do as they 



please. They have their holidays. There seems 

 to he as much aristocracy among the negroes of 

 Mr. Calhoun as among while folks. The mar- 

 riage of bis young male or female slaves with a 

 slave on another plantation, creates as much 

 excitement as a marriage in Asior Place would 



do. The mailer requires a deal of arrangement 

 and proper settlement. These matches are gen- 

 erally made up between parties residing on dif- 

 ferent plantations. 



"A very intelligent house servant of Mr. Cal- 

 houn was married the second night I was at ii is 

 house to a female slave on an adjoining planta- 

 tion. The marriage ceremony was performed 

 in the evening, and in the mansion of the pro- 

 prietor of the plantation. I listened to the fid- 

 dles and the happy songs of the negroes, on 

 their way to and from the wedding, from this 

 and all the neighboring plantations, until nearly 

 daylight. The ceremony was performed by the 

 oldest negro, who was a sort of authorized, or 

 rather recognized parson of the Methodist order. 

 Mr. Calhoun has some very old slaves on his 

 plantation. One old negress that I saw, Monemi 

 Calhoun, (by the way, all the negroes on his es- 

 tate are called by his name in the neighborhood,] 

 is over one hundred and twelve years old. She 

 has sixty-three living descendants on this plan- 

 tation, who lake care of the old dame. Her 

 husband lived to a very old age ; his name was 

 Polydore. Both were brought from Africa, and 

 have lived with the Calhouns for a century. The 

 negroes on this place pay as much respect to 

 the old negress as if the was a queen." 



Mr. Calhoun at Home. 



The following account of the great South Car- 

 olinan will be interesting to every reader: 



The family of the Senator consists of Mrs. 

 Calhoun, and seven children. Of these, one son 

 is a planter in Alabama, the next a captain in 

 the army at New Orleans — the eldest daughter 

 is in Europe, wife of our charge at Belgium. Of 

 the three sons at home, one is a physician, the 

 others are young men of twenty and eighteen. 

 Mr. Calhoun has upon his table every thing of 

 southern production hut is himself a spare eater. 

 The view from his house commands distant 

 mountain ranges, forty and sixty miles away. 

 His study is twenty feet south of his mansion, 

 has but one room and one door. His library is 

 not large, but choice, and most of the books re- 

 late to the Union and her interests. The key 

 of this building he keeps always under his im- 

 mediate control when at home. No one enters 

 it but himself, unless he is there. His house 

 stands on the Seneca river, one thousand feet 

 above the level of the sea, and two hundred feet 

 above the river. There are perhaps seventy or 

 eighty negroes on and about the place. The 

 largest part of his negroes are in Alabama, 

 where he owns a large cotton plantation under 

 the management of his eldest son. 



Mr. Calhoun has a peculiar manner of ditch- 

 ing, drainage and planting, of such utility that 

 his neighbors regard his as a model farm. His 

 crops are represented as far before those of any 

 other cultivator in that region of country. His 

 farm is known as Fort Hill, from a fort which 

 once stood there in the revolutionary war. Mr. 

 Calhoun's habits are very regular. He lises at 

 four or five o'clock — exercises on horseback, or 

 in a long walk over the farm for an hour; writes 

 until breakfast at eight, and, after breakfast, is 

 busy in bis library until one or two. On Friday, 

 which is mail day, lie rides to the village. His 

 newspapers, of which a large number are sent 

 to him, are spread in the hall for the use of his 

 visitors. He is very hospitable, is a great lion 

 even in the very neighborhood of his own house, 

 and in all the relations of private life, is a most 

 estimable, upright and worthy man. 



From some personal acquaintance with the 

 subject of the foregoing article more than thirty 

 years, although among those who have looked 

 upon Mr. Calhoun's political course as some- 

 times eccentric if not erratic, we can unite our 

 testimony to that of others in favor of the excel 

 lence of his character, and his walk as a man 

 who in private life, sets a good example. We 

 are glad to learn of such a man, whose domestic 



ties and cares are often thwarted by a divided 

 public and private life that he lias succeeded 

 well in the cultivation of the earth in that part 

 of our Union where slavery necessarily exists. 

 The person could not be named who treats his 

 domestics with more humanity than Mr. Cal- 

 Itoun: under his management as laborers theirs 

 is a life of ease, such as the hired free laborers 

 of the North cannot expect to realize. Know- 

 ing that the enterprise of Mr. Calhoun had 

 taught him to seek new and more fertile ground 

 in the fresh lands of Alabama, where he, wilh. 

 his son, was engaged in raising cotton as the 

 great staple of that country, we had supposed 

 that upon his old Carolina farm, long under cul- 

 tivation, he must make a losing business, and 

 that this was made up in the first fruits of the 

 rich new soil, likewise speedily to be worn out 

 from exhausting cultivation. But the descrip- 

 tion of his home farm, on which is a field of one> 

 hundred and twenty acres of corn whose aver- 

 age height is twelve to fifteen feet, may give the 

 northern man some idea of what good farming 

 will accomplish even in the old part of the South 

 where thousands of acres have been run out by 

 bad management, and where we had supposed 

 the country must lie abandoned because the 

 work done would he insufficient to subsist the 

 laborers upon the soil. 



Mr. Calhoun has what northern n>en would 

 consider extravagant ideas relative to those pe- 

 culiar institutions of the South which have been 

 the subject of quite a needless agitation of late 

 years throughout the country. The founders of 

 the Constitution knew better how to treat this 

 subject than the public men of the present day: 

 they did not countenance agitation for the sake 

 of agitation. Mr. Calhoun has a" enthusiasm 

 on this subject exceeded only on the opposite 

 extreme by a i'p.w men in the North who for the 

 last dozen years have been as monomaniacs on 

 the subject of slavery. Speaking upon the 

 prospects of the country, its. social relations and 

 improvements, no longer ago than the last win- 

 ter at Washington, Mr. Calhoun assured us that 

 the relations subsisting between master and 

 slave in the South presented a state of society 

 much more desirable than the best relations of 

 the people of the North ! Mr. C. probably 

 measured the relative condition of the two parts 

 of the country by what he had seen and felt in 

 the mixed confusion of our cities and thicker 

 settlements at the North, in many places of 

 which the notions of speculation and gain have 

 taught men to forget common humanity in the 

 ordinary traffic, and where it is but too much tho 

 fashion for the man of business to cheat or de- 

 ceive his neighbor. If he had been better ac- 

 quainted with some of our northern neighbor- 

 hoods where cultivation cf the soil is the sole 

 business, and where the desire to improve is a 

 prevailing sentiment, he must have given up his 

 notion that a state of servitude even under his 

 own system of humane treatment would he far 

 more desirable than that condition of happy equal- 

 ity which gives to every son and daughter of 

 Adam the privilege of education, qualifying them 

 for any conditio:, in life that may be found in 

 this colder country where free labor alone is 

 practicable. 



Nearly half a century ago, John C. Calhoun 

 spent a larger part of four years in the severe 

 labor of obtaining a scholastic education at Vale 

 college: he could not have made a career so 

 brilliant as has been his own without hard work 

 while a student. Did he not learn of Contiecti- 



