pointed at as the model scholar.  Accidents, too, generally favor a rising man.  Mr. Calhoun made an extremely lucky hit in 1815, which gave members the highest opinion of his sagacity.  In opposing an ill-digested scheme for a national bank, he told the House that the bill was so obviously defective and unwise, that, if news of peace should arrive that day, it would not receive fifteen votes.  News of peace, which was totally unexpected, did arrive that very hour, and the bill was rejected the next day by about the majority which he had predicted.  At the next session, he won an immense reputation for firmness.  An act was passed changing the mode of compensating members of Congress from six dollars a day to fifteen hundred dollars a year.  We were a nation of rustics then; and this harmless measure excited a disgust in the popular mind so intense and general, that most of the members who had voted for it declined to present themselves for re-election.  Calhoun was one of the guilty ones.  Popular as he was in his district, supported by two powerful family connections,—­his own and his wife’s,—­admired throughout the State as one who had done honor to it upon the conspicuous scene of Congressional debate,—­even he was threatened with defeat.  Formidable candidates presented themselves.  In these circumstances he mounted the stump, boldly justified his vote, and defended the odious bill.  He was handsomely re-elected, and when the bill was up for repeal in the House he again supported it with all his former energy.  At the conclusion of his speech, a member from New York, Mr. Grosvenor, a political opponent, with whom Calhoun had not been on speaking terms for two years, sprang to his feet, enraptured, and began to express his approval of the speech in ordinary parliamentary language.  But his feelings could not be relieved in that manner.  He paused a moment, and then said:—­

“Mr. Speaker, I will not be restrained.  No barrier shall exist which I will not leap over for the purpose of offering to that gentleman my thanks for the judicious, independent, and national course which he has pursued in this House for the last two years, and particularly upon the subject now before us.  Let the honorable gentleman continue with the same manly independence, aloof from party views and local prejudices, to pursue the great interests of his country, and fulfil the high destiny for which it is manifest he was born.  The buzz of popular applause may not cheer him on his way, but he will inevitably arrive at a high and happy elevation in the view of his country and the world.”

Such scenes as this enhance the prestige of a rising man.  Members weak at home envied at once and admired a man who was strong enough to bring over his constituents to his opinion.  He was fortunate, too, in this, that a triumph so striking occurred just before he left the House for another sphere of public life.  He had what the actors call a splendid exit.