Columbus Democrat

MR. Calhoun's Letter.—A dinner was recently given by the Whigs to Senator Preston, at Columbia S. Carolina, and letters of invitation were addressed to Mr. Calhoun and other members of Congress in order to afford them "an opportunity to meet and address the people." Mr. Calhoun declined the invitation and gave his reasons for so doing in a letter distinguished for his usual clearness & vigor of style. He "could not accept an invitation to partake in a festivity intended to honor the course of his colleague, without condemning and dishonoring his own." All must applaud this conduct in Mr. C. and there are few who would not feel such an invitation, under such circumstances rather as an insult than an honor. The letter presents some interesting views and we shall publish it entire in our next.

The following extract from it relative to a National Bank expresses our own views upon the subject. but with infinite more force and clearness than we could.—It is truth, every word truth:

"Between the two—the Constitutional Treasury and a National Bank—I could not hesitate. I do most solemnly believe, that a Bank with power and influence sufficient to effect the object proposed, would be the most dangerous of all measures— would be fatal to our free institutions and destructive of the commerce, interest and safety of the staple States. Its powers would make it despotic, and enable it to control the action of Congress, and to take from the people, in reality, the power of electing the President, who would be virtually elected by the Bank, and be but an instrument in its hands. It would, in a word, make a master—not a master having a common interest in the whole, and a motive to protect and cherish all the parts, but a local and sectional master, whose power would be wielded to aggrandize and build up one portion, by oppressing the other."