DEATH OF MR. LOWNDES.
I had but a slight acquaintance with Mr. Lowndes. He resigned
his place on account of declining health soon after I came into
Congress; but all that I saw of him confirmed the impression of
the exalted character which the public voice had ascribed to him.
Virtue, modesty, benevolence, patriotism were the qualities of
his heart; a sound judgment, a mild persuasive elocution were the
attributes of his mind; his manners gentle, natural, cordial,
and inexpressibly engaging. He was one of the galaxy, as it was
well called, of the brilliant young men which South Carolina sent
to the House of Representatives at the beginning of the war of
1812--Calhoun, Cheves, Lowndes;--and was soon the brightest star
in that constellation. He was one of those members, rare in all
assemblies, who, when he spoke, had a cluster around him, not of
friends, but of the House--members quitting their distant seats, and
gathering up close about him, and showing by their attention, that
each one would feel it a personal loss to have missed a word that he
said. It was the attention of affectionate confidence. He imparted
to others the harmony of his own feelings, and was the moderator as
well as the leader of the House and was followed by its sentiment
in all cases in which inexorable party feeling, or some powerful
interest, did not rule the action of the members; and even then he
was courteously and deferentially treated. It was so the only time
I ever heard him speak--session of 1820-21--and on the inflammable
subject of the admission of the State of Missouri--a question on
which the inflamed passions left no room for the influence of reason
and judgment, and in which the members voted by a geographical line.
Mr. Lowndes was of the democratic school, and strongly indicated
for an early elevation to the presidency--indicated by the public
will and judgment, and not by any machinery or individual or party
management--from the approach of which he shrunk, as from the touch
of contamination. He was nominated by the legislature of his native
State for the election of 1824; but died before the event came
round. It was he who expressed that sentiment, so just and beautiful
in itself, and so becoming in him because in him it was true, "That
the presidency was an office neither to be sought, nor declined."
He died at the age of forty-two; and his death at that early age,
and in the impending circumstances of the country, was felt by
those who knew him as a public and national calamity. I do not
write biographies, but note the death and character of some eminent
deceased contemporaries, whose fame belongs to the country, and goes
to make up its own title to the respect of the world.