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 manner for fear of being
shot and scalped! Can they pursue a party who pounce down on a
settlement and take property, and reclaim that property? Have they
ever done it? Did the old rangers of Texas ever fail to do it, when
they were seated on their Texas ponies? They were men of intelligence
and adroitness in regard to the Indian character and Indian warfare.

Do you think a man fit for such service who has been educated at West
Point Academy, furnished with rich stores of learning; more educated
in the science of war than any general who fought through the
Revolution, and assisted in achieving our independence? Are you going
to take such gentlemen, and suppose that by intuition they will
understand the Indian character? Or do you suppose they can track a
turkey, or a deer, in the grass of Texas, or could they track an
Indian, or would they know whether they were tracking a wagon or a
carriage? Not at all, sir.

We wish, in the first place, to have men suited to the circumstances.
Give us agents who are capable of following out their instructions,
and who understand the Indian character. Give us an army, gentlemen,
who understand not only the science of command, but have some notions
of extending justice and protection to the Indian, against the
aggression of the whites, while they protect the whites against the
aggressions from the Indians. Then, and not till then, will you have
peace.

How is this to be done? Withdraw your army. Have five hundred
cavalry, if you will; but I would rather have two hundred and fifty
Texas rangers (such as I could raise), than five hundred of the best
cavalry now in the service. . . . . . Cultivate intercourse with the
Indians. Show them that you have comforts to exchange for their
peltries; bring them around you; domesticate them; familiarize them
with civilization. Let them see that you are rational beings, and they
will become rational in imitation of you; but take no whiskey there at
all, not even for the officers, for fear their generosity would let it
out. . . . . . I would have fields around the trading houses. I would
encourage the Indians to cultivate them. Let them see how much it adds
to their comfort, how it insures to their wives and children abundant
subsistence; and then you win the Indian over to civilization; you
charm him, and he becomes a civilized man.

FOOTNOTE:

[10] Every one in the Alamo was massacred. The inscription there now
is: "Thermopylæ had its messenger of defeat: the Alamo had none."

WILLIAM CAMPBELL PRESTON.

~1794=1860.~

WILLIAM CAMPBELL PRESTON was born in Philadelphia, being one of the
Preston family of Virginia who afterwards went to South Carolina. He
was educated at South Carolina College, being graduated in 1812,
studied law under William Wirt, and later went to Edinburgh, where he
had Hugh Swinton Legaré as fellow-student. He travelled in Europe with
Washington Irving, and was introduced to Sir Walter Scott.

[Illustration: ~Old Plantation Home.~]

In the practice of law he was very successful, and he made a high
reputation as a popular orator, even rivaling, it is said, his
uncle, Patrick Henry. His style is abundant, classical, finished. He
was in the State Legislature 1828-32, and in the United States Senate
1836-42.

From 1845 to 1851, he was president of his Alma Mater, South Carolina
College, and during his office it rose to a high point of efficiency
and became the most popular educational institution in the South.

WORKS.

 Addresses.

As an example of Mr. Preston's simpler style and a description of the
charming social life of Columbia--the spirit of which still lives and
graces the capital of South Carolina--the following extract is given.
It is from a newspaper article on the death of Mr. Preston's former
law-partner, Col M'Cord, and is a noble tribute to him and to his
distinguished wife, Mrs. Louisa S. M'Cord.

LITERARY SOCIETY IN COLUMBIA, 1825.

(_Written on the Death of Colonel David J. M'Cord, 1855._)

Many will bring tributes of sorrow, of kindness and affection, and
relieve a heaving bosom by uttering words of praise and commendation;
for in truth, during many years he has been the charm and delight of
the society of Columbia, and of that society, too, when, in the
estimation of all who knew it, it was the rarest aggregation of
elegant, intellectual, and accomplished people that have ever been
found assembled in our village. Thirty years since, amidst the sincere
and unostentatious cordiality which characterized it, at a dinner
party, for example, at Judge De Saussure's, eight or ten of his
favorite associates wanted to do honor to some distinguished
stranger--for such were never permitted to pass through the town
without a tender of the hospitality of that venerable and elegant
gentleman--whose prolonged life exhibited to another generation a
pattern of old gentility, combined with a conscientious and effective
performance of not only the smaller and more graceful duties of life,
which he sweetened and adorned, but also of those graver and higher
tasks which the confidence of his state imposed upon his talents and
learning. To his elegant board naturally came the best and worthiest
of the land. There was found, of equal age with the judge, that very
remarkable man, Dr. Thomas Cooper, replete with all sorts of
knowledge, a living encyclopædia,--"_Multum ille et terris jactatus et
alto_"--good-tempered, joyous, and of a kindly disposition. There was
Judge Nott, who brought into the social circle the keen, shrewd, and
flashing intellect which distinguished him on the bench. There was
Abram Blanding, a man of affairs, very eminent in his profession of
the law, and of most interesting conversation. There was Professor
Robert Henry, with his elegant, accurate, and classical scholarship.
There were Judges Johnston and Harper, whom we all remember, and
lament, and admire.

These gentlemen and others were called, in the course of a morning
walk of the Chancellor, to meet at dinner, it might be, Mr. Calhoun,
or Captain Basil Hall, or Washington Irving; and amongst these was
sure to be found David J. M'Cord, with his genial vivacity, his
multifarious knowledge, and his inexhaustible store of amusing and
apposite anecdotes. He was the life and the pervading spirit of the
circle,--in short, a general favorite. He was then in large practice
at the bar, and publishing his Reports as State Reporter. His frank
and fine manners were rendered the more attractive by an uncommonly
beautiful physiognomy, which gave him the appearance of great youth.

M'Cord entered upon his profession in co-partnership with Henry
Junius Nott; and when a year or two subsequently, this gentleman,
following the bent of his inclination for literature, quitted the
profession, Mr. M'Cord formed a connection with W. C. Preston,--thus
introducing this gentleman, who had then but just come to Columbia,
into practice. The business of the office was extensive, and the
connexion continued until their diverging paths of 

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