Springfield 1636-1886, History of Town and City, by Mason A. Green ...

426 SPRINGFIELD, 1 636-1886.
Calhoun got a rousing majority. He had had the satisfaction also
that year to have received all the votes but one for the speakership
at Boston. He probably never came nearer to eloquence than in his
Fourth of July address that year. The celebration was made of
special interest by the death a few days previous of Lafayette.
" Deep is the sleep of the hero !" exclaimed Mr. Calhoun, and he
paused, when the choir, under Colonel AVarriner, burst forth with
an anthem beginning with those words, and there were patriotic
tears for the dead. The peculiar qualit}^ in Mr. Calhoun, — this
career of dignified posturing for a principle or an economic fact, this
life-study for the wealth and prosperity of public institutions, with
the utter neglect of his own finances, this old-fashioned faith, that
eased his declining years b}' the acceptance of a deacouship in
the First Church with deeper gratification than a score of politi-
cal honors, — what wonder that he remained for so many years
the public man of Springfield ? His tall figure was made historic in
the troublous session of 1833, when, as speaker of the Massachusetts
House of Representatives, he put the famous resolves condemning
nullification, in which it was declared that the " right claimed by the
convention of South Carolina for that State of annulling any law of
the United States which it may deem unconstitutional, is unau-
thorized by the letter or spirit of the Constitution ;
" and there was
quite as much impressiveness in his movements when, as selectman
of the village, he apportioned a dollar here and a dollar there for
the poor of the community.
The Springfield Temperance Society was making fair progress in
its crusade. Its membership in 1834, after a three years' existence,
was two thousand five hundred. The town population was six
thousand seven hundred and eighty-four, leaving four thousand
two hundred and eighty-four for the society to labor with. Dm*-
ing the year previous eleven thousand five hundred gallons of
rum alone was sold in Springfield, one-half of which, it was estimated,
was consumed here. B. Fuller, Jr., proprietor of the Springfield