LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 GIKX OF" 
 
 . 
 
 a -<w 
 
 Received <_7^r. , &f / ^ 
 
 Accession No. Jo 3 <3 ? . Cla&s No. 
 

TTBRARy 5 
 
 " OF THB 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
. ^^-^ 
 
THE 
 
 LIFE AID PUBLIC SERVICES 
 
 OP 
 
 HENRY CLAY, 
 
 .DOWN TO 1848. 
 
 BY EPES SARGKENT. 
 
 EDITED AND COMPLETED AT MR CLATS DEATH, 
 
 BY HGRUVCE GREELEY. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 C. M. SAXTON, BARKER & CO., ^ PARK ROW 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO: H. H. BANCROFT & CO. 
 
 1860. 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, 
 By H. GREELEY & T. McELRATH, 
 
 Clerk s OflSce of tne District Court, cf the United States,* s-f fit the Soutbent 
 Distric. c* /<s* t.fk. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 SEVERAL sketches, more or less elaborate, of the Character 
 aid Career of HENRY CLAY, appeared during his life-time, oftener 
 prefixed to collections of his Speeches ; though one independent 
 Memoir, of decided merit, was written more than twenty years 
 since by GEORGE D. PRENTICE, Editor of the Louisville Jour 
 nal, and then widely disseminated. That, however, has long 
 been out of print, while the more eventful and memorable half 
 of Mr. Clay s biography was yet in the future when Mr. Pren 
 tice wrote. And I have reason to believe that Mr. Clay himself 
 gave the preference, among all the narratives of his life which 
 had fallen under his notice, to that of EPES SARGENT, first is 
 sued in 1842, and republished, with its author s revisions and 
 additions, in the summer of 1848. 
 
 The aim of Mr. Sargent was not so much to impart his own 
 conception of Mr. Clay s views and motives as to enable every 
 reader to infer them directly from the Statesman s own words, 
 or those of his illustrious cotemporaries whether compatriots or 
 rivals. His work, therefore, is rather a collection of authentic 
 materials for the future biographer than an original and exhaustive 
 essay. For the time had not arrived nay, has not yet arrived 
 for a final and authoritative analysis of Mr. Clay s character, 
 nor for a conclusive estimate of the nature, value, tendencies, 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and results of his public measures. We Americans of 1852 
 nearly all of us who read or think, with many who do neither 
 are the heated partisans or embittered opponents of Mr. Clay 
 with him or against him, idolizing or detesting him, we have 
 struggled through all the past decades of our manhood. He has 
 been our demigod or demon through the last quarter of a cen 
 tury, while many of us date our admiration or our hostility from 
 the year 1812. If, then, we can but preserve and intelligibly 
 present the facts essential to a just estimate of Mr. Clay s char 
 acter, we may very properly remit to th next generation the 
 duty of analyzing those facts, and determining what manner of 
 man was the Orator of Ashland whose voice enchained and 
 wielded listening Senates, and whose weaponless hand was 
 mightier than the truncheon of generals, or the scepter of 
 monarchs. It is at least the duty of his surviving friends to take 
 care that he be not misrepresented to and undervalued by pos 
 terity because the facts essential to his true appreciation were 
 not seasonably collected and fitly set forth. 
 
 This, then, is the aim and end of the work herewith submitted 
 a candid presentation of the facts essential to a just estimate 
 of Mr. Clay s Life and Public Services, from the point of view 
 whence they were regarded by his devoted, unselfish compatriots 
 and friends. If he has been over-estimated, if the system of 
 Public Policy which he so long and ably advocated be mistaken 
 and unsound, time will so determine. Should the ultimate ver 
 dict be as I think it can not adverse to his eminence as a 
 Statesman, it need not therefore blast his reputation as a Man. 
 That he was a sincere and ardent Patriot, an earnest though un 
 pretending Philanthropist, a beloved Husband and Father, a kind 
 and just Neighbor, a chivalrous Adversary, and an unfailing 
 Friend these are no longer doubtful. So much, at least, is 
 secure from the venom of calumny and the accidents of fortune. 
 Let some future Plutarch or Thucydides fix and declare the 
 world s ultimate verdict on the American System and its Father ; 
 but we, who knew and loved him well, may more truly and 
 vividly, even though awkwardly and feebly, depict how looked 
 and felt, how spoke and acted, how lived and loved, the man 
 Henry Clay. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 The Editor, in revising the work of Mr. Sargent, has taken 
 tne responsibility of omitting or modifying some passages which 
 involved harsh judgments of those Political brethren who, at one 
 time or another, have seen fit to prefer some other Whig to Mr. 
 Clay as a candidate for the Presidency. He did not perceive that 
 those judgments bore any proper relation to Mr. Clay s charac 
 ter or career, while their reproduction would tend to revive feuds 
 and heart-burnings now happily laid to rest. That Mr. Clay 
 might have been elected President in 1840, had he been nomi 
 nated by the Harrisburg Convention, may very readily be affirmed 
 at this time, by men who had ample reason to doubt it at the 
 gloomy close of the Elections of 1839. It was far easier to 
 demonstrate, not in that year only, that Mr. Clay deserved to be 
 President than that he would be a successful candidate. And 
 there is nothing in this which, rightly considered, proves Whig 
 principles obnoxious or Mr. Clay unpopular. Among the Three 
 Million Voters of our Republic, a majority in favor of every 
 feature in a comprehensive, affirmative, positive, vigorous system 
 of Public Policy, can rarely be expected. One who assents to 
 the general outline will object to this detail, another to that, and 
 so on ; while a great many decline fatiguing their brains with 
 any thorough study or investigation, but jump at the conclusion 
 that the truth lies somewhere between the contending parties, 
 and probably about half way. Thus the expounder, the cham 
 pion, the embodiment of either party founded on great principles 
 of public policy and logical in their adherence thereto, is almost 
 certain to lose the votes of the great body of twaddlers, fence- 
 men, and others who split the difference between the contending 
 hosts, though his nomination has evoked the profoundest enthu 
 siasm, and been hailed with unbroken acclamation. Let those 
 who still marvel that Mr. Clay, while so popular a man, was not 
 a successful candidate, consider what would have been the 
 chance of Mr. Calhoun s election, had that eminent Statesman 
 been nominated against his great antagonist in 1844, or indeed 
 at any time. He would not have received one-fourth of the 
 Electoral Votes ; and yet Mr. Calhoun was the truest and ablest 
 exponent the Country has known of the Political creed antagon 
 ist to that of Mr. Clay. 
 
niTBODTTCnON. 
 
 With regard to the important questions which have more re 
 cently agitated the Republic, especially those relating to or in 
 volved in the Compromise, the Editor has endeavored to place 
 them fairly and clearly before the reader, so far at least, as was 
 deemed necessary to a thorough understanding of Mr. Clay s 
 course. If, in the absence of authorities and the haste of prepa 
 ration, injustice has been done to any one, or any important fact 
 has been overlooked, he solicits corrections, and will be happy 
 to embody them in the Life. 
 
 One point may as well be here noted. It has recently been 
 stated with confidence, by one who has in this case no conceiva 
 ble motive for falsehood, that Mr. Clay was actually born in 
 1775, and so was two years older than he has hitherto been, 
 and in the body of this work still is, represented. Improbable 
 as this story would seem, it is not utterly devoid of corrobora- 
 tion. Should investigation establish its correctness, it will of 
 course be readily conformed to in future editions of this work, 
 should such be demanded. 
 
 And thus inviting correction, but by no means deprecating un 
 friendly criticism, conscious that haste and a complication of 
 engrossing duties have marred the execution of his work, but 
 confident that the illustrious subject will nevertheless be found 
 faithfully and clearly depicted in this volume, the Editor closes 
 his task and solicits for its performance only that it be tried by 
 the standard of its own modest aims, rather than by that of the 
 critic s preconception of what its aims should have been. 
 
 H. O. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Hrth and Parentage His Early Days The Mill Boy of the Slashes Studies Law- 
 Hears Patrick Henry Removes to Kentucky Debut at a Debating Society Be 
 comes a Successful Practitioner Cases in which he distinguishes himself He advo 
 cates the Policy of gradually Emancipating the Slrves in Kentucky Opposes the 
 Alien and Sedition Laws Is elected to the General Assembly Instances of his Elo 
 quenceAffair with Col. Daviess Appears at the Bar for Aaron Burr Subsequent 
 Interview with Burr in New York 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Elected to the Senate of the United States His First Speech in Favor of Internal 
 Improvements Is chosen Speaker of the Kentucky House of Assembly Speeches 
 and Reports Resolutions in Favor of American Manufactures Duel with Hum 
 phrey Marshall His Sentiments in Regard to Duelling Takes his Seat a Second 
 Tune in the United States Senate Speaks in Behalf of Domestic Manufactures Lays 
 the Foundation of the American System Speech on the Line of the Perdido 
 Labors of the Session Third Session of the Eleventh Congress The United States 
 Bank He becomes a Member of the United States House of Representatives la 
 chosen Speaker on the first Ballot Critical State of Public Affairs Is in Favor of a 
 War with Great Britain Speech on the Bill for raising Troops On a Naval Estab 
 lishment Carries his Measures Our Naval Successes .26 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Mr. Clay prefers a Seat in the House to one in the Senate Reasons for making him 
 Speaker The President recommends an Embargo The Measure opposed by John 
 Randolph and Josiah Quincy Defended by Mr. Clay His Intercourse with Ran 
 dolph War declared The Leaders in the House Mr. Cheves aud Mr. Gallatin 
 Mr. Clay appointed to confer with President Madison-*Anecdotes Events of the 
 War Motives Federal Abuse Clay s Reply to Quincy Effects of his Eloquence- 
 Passage of the Army Bill Madison re-elected President Mr. Clay resigns the 
 Speaker s Chair, being appointed Commissioner to Ghent His Services during the 
 
 War 39 
 
 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Meeting of the Ghent Commissioners Mr. Clay visits Brussels Anecdote Mode of 
 transacting Business Untoward Event Mr. Clay refuses to surrender to the British 
 the Right to navigate the Mississippi His Reasons Controversy between Messrs. 
 
8 CONTENTS. 
 
 Adama and Russell Mr. Clay s Letter Goes to Paris Is introduced to the Duke of 
 Wellington by Madame de Stael Hears of the Battle of New Orleans Visits Eng 
 landLord Castlereagh and his First Waiter Waterloo and Napoleon Mr. Clay s 
 Reception in England Declines going to Court Sir James Mackintosh Lord Gam- 
 bier, &c. Mr. Clay s Return to New York Reception Re-elected to Congress- 
 Vindication of the War Internal Improvements His Country, his Whole Country. .52 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 Recharter of the United States Bank Mr. Clay s Views in 1811 and 1816 Scene in 
 the House with Randolph The Compensation Bill Canvasses his District Skirmish 
 with Mr. Pope The Old Hunter and his Rifle The Irish Barber Repeal of the 
 Compensation Bill South American Independence Internal Improvements Mr 
 Clay s Relations with Mr. Madison Intention of Madison at one Time to appoint 
 him Comrnander-in -Chief of the Army Election of James Monroe Mr. Clay carries 
 his Measures in Behalf of the South American States His Eloquent Appeals His 
 Efforts successful His Speeches read at the Head of the South American Armies 
 Letter from Bolivar, and Clay s Reply 64 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Internal Improvement Mr. Monroe s Constitutional Objections Mr. Clay replies to 
 them Congress adopts his Principles The Cumberland Road ^-Anecdote Monu 
 ment Discussion of General Jackson s Conduct in the Semim/j Campaign Mr. 
 Clay s Opinions of that Chieftain in 1819 A Prophetic Glimpse Mr. Adams and 
 General Jackson The Father of the American System Bill to regulate Duties, &c. 
 Mr. Clay s Speech in Behalf of the Protective Policy His Great Speech of 1824 
 Passage of the Tariff Bill Results of his Policy Voice of the Country His unremit- 
 ted Exertions Randolph s Sarcasms Anecdote 79 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Missouri Question Mr. Clay resigns the Speakership The Union in Danger He 
 resumes his Seat in Congress Unparallelled Excitement His Compromise of the 
 Question Pacification of Parties Character of his Efforts Proposition of John 
 Randolph and some of the Southern Members Interview with Randolph Anec 
 dotes Randolph and Sheffey Mr. Clay s Retirement from Congress Derangement 
 of his Private Affaire Return to the House Again chosen Speaker Jeu d Esprit 
 Mr. Clay s Address Independence of Greece His Speech Labors during the Ses 
 sion of 1824 Reception of Lafayette in the House Welcomed by Mr. Clay Lafay 
 ette s Reply Lafayette s Wish to see Mr. Clay President Anecdote Mr. Clay and 
 Mr. Monroe 88 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ie Presidential Question Nomination of Mr. Clay His Qualifications set forth- 
 General Harrison in favor of Henry Clay Slanders in the House Kremer s Letter- 
 Monstrous Nature of the Charges against Mr. Clay His Course in Regard to them- 
 Appointment of a Commitee of Examination Compete Refutation of the Calumny 
 Mr. Clay s Address to his Constituents Election of John Quincy Adams by the 
 House Exasperation of Gen. Jackson s Friends Mr. Clay s Independence of Spirit- 
 Motives of his Preference Gen. Lafayette substantiates his Assertions Mr. Clay 
 appointed Secretary of State Views of this Act> Slander temporary Justice inev 
 itableHis Character as Speaker Anecdotes, &c 102 
 
CONTENTS. 9 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Account of Mr. Clay s Intercourse with General Jackson Beverley Carter s Letter- 
 General Jackson the Accuser of Mr. Clay Mr. Buchanan Final Refutation of the 
 Slander Mr. Adams s Testimony Repeated more strongly in 1843 Opposition to 
 Mr. Adams s Administration Its Character John Randolph s Assaults His Duel 
 with Mr. Clay Last Interview with Mr. Clay in 1833 Impaired State of Mr. Clay s 
 Health Qualifications for the Secretaryship The Panama Instructions Objects 
 proposed in the Panama Congress Mr. Clay s Letter to Mr. M ddleton His Nego 
 tiations while Secretary of State Treaties Documents from his Pen Policy of 
 Mr. Adams s Administration Coalition of the Opposition Their Consistency The 
 Colonial Bill Mr. Van Buren Modes of Attack Federalism and Democracy Jack- 
 sonism and Federalism identified Presidential Election of 1828 Choice of Andrew 
 Jackson Economy under Adams, Jackson, and Van Buren Mr. Clay s Views 
 toward the new Administration He leaves Washington Gross Attempt to injure 
 his Private Credit His Letter to R. Wickliffe, Esq 112 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Air. Clay s Return to Kentucky Triumphant Reception Public Dinners Speeches 
 Mr. Clay and the Colonization Society His Sentiments on Slavery Abolition Peti 
 tions Visit to New Orleans Natchez Complimentary Reception by the Louisiana 
 House of Representatives Visit to Ohio Dines with the Mechanics at Columbus 
 His Election to the United States Senate in 1831 Nomination to the Presidency 
 The Tariff Defence of the American System Mr. Clay s Estimate of the Irish Char 
 acterReduction of Duties Letter of T. H. Benton 130 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Reception of the Amended Tariff at the South Progress of Nullification Re-Election 
 of General Jackson Proclamation The Protective System in Danger The En 
 forcement Bill Perilous State of Affairs Henry Clay comes Forward with his Plan 
 for a Compromise Origin of that Measure Particulars in Regard to it Mr. Clayton 
 of Delaware Anecdote Leading Motives of Mr. Clay Statement of Hon. H. A. S. 
 Dearborn Passage of the Compromise Bill Public Gratitude Characteristics of 
 Mr. Clay s Public Career His Visit to New-England Triumphal Reception Hon 
 ors paid to him on his Route . .138 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Public Lands Anecdote Mr. Clay s Report Its Provisions Passage of the Land 
 Bill It is Vetoed by Gen. Jackson Right of the Old States to a Share in the Public 
 Domain Mr. Clay s Efforts Adjustment of the Question Mr. Van Buren s Nomina 
 tion as Minister to England Opposed by Mr. Clay... 148 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Fhe Currency Question General Jackson s " Humble Efforts" to improve our Condi 
 tion Recharter of the United States Bank, and the President s Veto Mr. Clay s 
 Speech upon the Subject Character of the Veto Power Removal of the Deposites 
 Secretaries Duane and Taney Mr. Clay s Relations toward the Bank His Resolu 
 tions in Regard to the Removal of the Deposites His Speech Anecdote Passage 
 of Mr. Clay s Resolutions The Protest Its Doctrines Eloquent Debates in the 
 Senate Mr. Leigh Interesting Incident The Protest excluded from the Journal 
 Unremitted Exertions of Mr. Clay Public Distress Memorials Forcible Compari 
 son The Panic Session Anecdote Mr. Clay s Departure for Kentucky Serious 
 Accident 155 
 
 A* 
 
10 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Our Claims on France Hostile Tone of General Jackson s Message of 1834 Recom 
 mends Reprisals Mr. Clay s Report on the Subject Discussion Unanimous Adop 
 tion of his Resolution Effect of the Message Speech on presenting the Cherokee 
 Memorial Executive Patronage The Cumberland Road .......................... 169 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Settlement of our French Affairs Mr. Clay s Land Bill His Speech Passage of the 
 Bill in the Senate Abolition Petitions Mr. Clay vindicates the Right of Petition 
 The Deposite Banks Prediction Independence of Texas Various Questions 
 Return to Kentucky Re-elected Senator in 1836 State of the Country in 1829 and 
 1836 A Contrast Administration Majority in the Senate Mr. Calhoun s Land Bill 
 Opposition of Mr. Clay Tariff His two Compromises The Specie Circular Its 
 Rescision Benton s Expunging Resolution Miscellaneous ........................ 175 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Presidential Campaign of 1836 Mr. Clay declines being a Candidate Result Mr 
 Van Buren s Policy A Retrospect Democratic Doctrine Issue of the " Experi 
 ment" The Extra Session Mr. Van Buren s Message The Sub-Treasury Scheme 
 Indications of a Split in the House Discussion of the Sub-Treasury Bill Mr. Clay s 
 Speeches His Resolution in Relation to a Bank Treasury-Notes Session of 1837-8 
 Defeat of the Sub-Treasury Measure Mr. Clay s Review of the Financial Projects 
 of the Administration Various Subjects His Outline of a Plan for a National Bank 
 Mr. Clay s Course on the Abolition Question His Visit to New York in the Sum 
 mer of 1839 Cordial Reception, by the People, of the "Man of the People" ......... 185 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 The Harrisburg Convention Mr. Clay the Choice of the People Presidential Con- 
 tests of 1824 and 1832 Intrigues in the Convention Means employed to thwart the 
 Nomination of Mr. Clay Organization of the Convention Nomination of General 
 Harrison Acquiescence of the Kentucky Delegation Mr. Clay s Letter Remarks 
 of Gov. Barbour, Mr. Leigh, Mr. Livingston John Tyler nominated for the Vice- 
 Presidency- Grounds of the Nomination .......................... . .............. 195 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Mr. Clay again in Congress Passage with Mr. Calhoun Reconciliatory Incident The 
 Bankrupt Bill, <fcc. The Sub-Treasury again A Government Bank Mr. Clay visits 
 his native County of Hanover His Speech Proposed Reforms He addresses the 
 Harrison Convention at Nashville Democracy Born a Democrat Reminiscence of 
 a Revolutionary Incident ........................................................ 200 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 Election of General Harrison He visits Mr. Clay Second Session of the Twenty-Sixth 
 Congress Inauguration and Death of General Harrison The Extra Session Mr. 
 Clay s Labors John Tyler s Veto of the Bank Bill Mr. Clay s Eloquent Speech in 
 Reply to Mr. Rives The Van Buren Men in Congress call to congratulate John 
 Tyler on his Veto Mr. Clay s Fanciful Description of the Scene Events succeeding 
 the Veto More Vetoes The Tariff Mr. Clay resigns his Seat in the Senate- 
 Impressive Farewell ............................................................ 203 
 
I 
 
 CONTENTS. It 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Return to Kentucky Speech at Lexington Visits Indiana Scene with Mr. Menden- 
 haD Remarks on Slavery Personal Matters Slanders refuted The Dayton Con 
 vention Visit to the Southwest Triumphal Progress Return Home Contemplated 
 Visit to the Southeast Letters on the Tariff Letter to the Whigs of Fayette County, 
 Vet., _i Regard to John Tyler Again visits New Oi leans Addresses the Whig Con 
 ventionLeaves New Orleans on his Way to North Carolina 21 1 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 A Retrospect The Harrisburg Convention A Mistake committed Mr. Clay s Rela- 
 tions toward Gen. Harrison Anecdotes Mr. Clay and John Tyler 211 
 
 CHAPTER XXIL 
 
 Mr. Clay is nominated for the Presidency He returns to Kentucky The Texas Ques 
 tion, and his Views upon it> Their Fulfilment The Annexation Scheme The Whig 
 Conventions at Baltimore Mr. Clay accepts the Nomination for the Presidency 
 The Democratic Convention Party Preparations Old Slanders revived The Elec 
 tion and the Result 226 
 
 CHAPTER XXIH 
 
 How the Whigs were defeated The Foreign Vote Native Americanism The Lib 
 erty Party and Mr. Birney False and contradictory Issues Misrepresentations 
 Frauds Opposition to Registry Law presumptive Proof Public Confidence in Mr. 
 Clay 247 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 The Consequences of the Election The War How commenced Mr. Gallatin s State 
 mentMr. Clay on the War Comparison with the Last War The Twenty-Ninth 
 Congress State of the Country The Tariff and the Sub-Treasury, tc. *.258 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Testimonials in Honor of Mr. Clay Instance of the Devotion of his Friends His 
 Address on receiving a Vase from Ladies of Tennessee A Visitor s Description of 
 Mr. Clay at Ashland Mr. Clay visits New Orleans and St Louis A Misrepresenta 
 tion noticed His Appeal in Behalf of famishing Ireland ...266 
 
 CHAPTER XXVL 
 
 Successes of our Army in Mexico Buena Vista Mr. Clay receives News of his Son s 
 Death Letter of General Taylor announcing the Event Mr. Clay joins the Church 
 His Visit to Cape May Address of the New York Delegates, and his Reply 275 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIL 
 
 Mr. Clay s Speech and Resolutions at Lexington on the Mexican War The Response 
 from the People 283 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIIL 
 
 Mr. Clay in Washington His Address before the Colonization Society His Appear, 
 ance in the Supreme Court- :ie visits the White House AnecdoteThe Castle- 
 Garden Mwttntf- D*th of Mr. AdamsMr Clay in Philadelphia, In New York, Lo. ..flM 
 
12 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 Mr. Clay s Professional Career Chief-Justice Marshall s Opinion of him Personal 
 Details His Popularity, and the Secret of it Traits of Character Richard M. John- 
 eon s Eulogy upon him Mr. Clay s Habits of Life His Wife and Children Domes 
 tic and Social Relations Conclusion 31$ 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 Mr. Clay again a Candidate for the Whig Presidential Nomination (1848) His Popu 
 larity and Unpopularity His former Defeats Objections to General Taylor The 
 Philadelphia Convention Its Ballots Gen. Taylor nominated Mr. Clay s Course 
 Taylor and Fillmore elected 322 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 Mr. Clay returned to the Senate Opening of the XXXIst Congress Defeat of Win- 
 throp for Speaker Mr. Clay on Gen. Cass s Anti-Austrian Resolution On Congres 
 sional Honors to Deceased Members 329 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 Retrospective Glance at the Annexation Struggle Origin and Grounds of the War with 
 Mexico Slavery in the Territories The Wilmot Proviso The Disputed Boundary 
 of Texas The Democracy committed to the Pretensions of Texas therefore dis* 
 abled for resisting the Extension of Slavery Peril of New Mexico 334 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 Mr. Clay proposes a Compromise Its Character and Provisions His Speech in Ex 
 position Protests of Messrs. Foote, Mason, Jefferson Davis, Downs, Berrien, Butler, 
 &c. Progress of the Discussion Formation and Report of the Committee of Thir 
 teen Discussion and Defeat of the Omnibus Bill Its Passage in Fragments 
 Mr. Clay s Objects 339 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 Aessjon of 1850- 51 Mr. Clay on the Tariff Question The Great Struggle on the River 
 and Harbor Bill Authors and Means of its Defeat Mr. Clay s Efforts to pass it 
 Dodges and Dodgers Close of Mr. Clay s Legislative Career 35i 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 Executive or Called Session Constructive Mileago Mr. Clay s Compromise Letter to 
 his New York Friends XXXIId Congress Mr. Clay s Health failing His Inter 
 view with Kossuth He prefers Mr. Fillmore for President Gradually sinks His 
 Religious Convictions His Death 365 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI 
 
 Announcement in the Senate and House Remarks of Messrs. Underwood, Cass, Hun 
 ter, Hale, Clemens, Cooper, Seward, G. W. Jones, and W. Brooke, in the Sen 
 ate Prayer of the Chaplain Remarks of Messrs. Breckinridge, Ewing, Caskie, 
 Chandler, Bayly, Venable, Haven, James Brooks, Faulkner, Parker, Gentry, Bowie, 
 and Walsh, in the House Funeral at the Capitol Rev. Mr. Butler s Sermon De 
 parture of the Funeral Cortege Its Reception in Baltimore, Washington, New York, 
 Albany, Cincinnati, &c. Funeral at Lexington 371 
 
 POETIC TRIBCTES 425 
 
 I 
 
Fv8 
 
 OF THK 
 
 ERSITY 
 
 LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 HENRY CLAY. 
 
 i. 
 
 HIS YOUTH AND EARLY MANHOOD. 
 
 HENRY CLAY is a native of Hanover county, Virginia. He 
 was born on the 12th of April, 1777, in a district of country 
 familiarily known in the neighborhood as the Slas/ias. His 
 father, a baptist clergyman, died during the revolutionary war, 
 bequeathing a small and much-embarrassed estate and seven 
 children, ot ^whom Henry was the fifth, to the care of an affec 
 tionate mother. The surviving parent did not possess the means 
 to give her sons a classical education ; and the subject of our 
 memoir received no other instruction than such as could be ob 
 tained in the log-cabin school-houses^ still common in the lower 
 parts of Virginia, at which spelling reading, writing, and arith^ 
 metic, are taught. 
 
 " in 1792, his mother, who had become united, in a second mar 
 riage, with Mr. Henry Watkins, removed to Woodford county, 
 Kentucky, taking all her children, with the exception of Henry 
 and his oldest brother. It was always a subject of regret with 
 Mr. Clay, that he was deprived at so early an age of his mother s 
 counsel, conversation, and care. She was a woman of great 
 strength of mind, and was tenderly attached to her children. 
 
 He had been only five years old when he lost his father ; and, 
 consequently, his circumstances in early life, if not actually in 
 digent, were such as to subject him frequently to hard manual 
 labor. He has ploughed in cornfields, many a summer-day, 
 
14 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 withou. shoes, and with no other clothes on than a pair of Osna- 
 burg trowsers, and a coarse shirt. He has often gone to mill 
 with grain to be ground into meal or flour ; and there are those 
 who remember his youthful visits to Mrs. Darricott s mill, on the 
 Pamunkey river. On such occasions he generally rode a horse 
 without a saddle, while a rope supplied the place of a bridle. 
 But in the absence of a more splendid equipment, a bag contain 
 ing three or four bushels of wheat or corn was generally thrown 
 across the horse s back, mounted upon which the future states 
 man would go to mill, get the grain ground, and return with it 
 home. 
 
 At the age of fourteen, he was placed in a small retail store, 
 kept by Mr. Richard Denny, near the market-house in the city 
 of Richmond. He remained here till the next year (1792), 
 when he was transferred to the office of the clerk of the high 
 court of chancery, Mr Peter Tinsley. There he became ac 
 quainted with the venerable Chancellor Wythe, attracted his 
 friendly, attention, and enjoyed the benefit of his instruction and 
 conversation. The chancellor being unable to write well, in 
 consequence of the gout or rheumatism in his right thumb, be 
 thought himself of employing his young friend as an amanuensis. 
 This was a fortunate circumstance for the fatherless boy. His 
 attention was thus called to the structure of sentences, as he 
 wrote them down from the dictation of his employer ; and a 
 laste for the study of grammar was created which was noticed 
 and encouraged by the chancellor, upon whose recommendation 
 he read Harris s Hermes, Tooke s Diversions of Purley, Bishop 
 Lowth s Grammar, and other similar works. 
 
 For his handwriting, which is still remarkably n^t and regu 
 lar, Mr. Clay was chiefly indebted to Mr. Tinslg^r Chancellor 
 Wythe was devoted to the study of Greek. He was at one time 
 occupied in preparing reports of his decisions, and commenting 
 upon those of the court of appeals, by which some of his were 
 reversed ; and in this work he was assisted by his amanuensis. 
 After the reports were published, he sent copies fo Mr. Jeffer 
 son, John Adams, Samuel Adams, and others. In these copies 
 he employed Henry Clay to copy particular passages from Greek 
 authors, to whom references had been made Not understand- 
 
REMOVES TO KENTUCKY. 15 
 
 ing a single Greek character, the young copyist had to transcribe 
 by imitation letter after letter. 
 
 Leaving the office of Mr. Tinsley the latter part of 1796, he 
 went to reside with the late Robert Brooke, Esq., the attorney- 
 general, formerly governor of Virginia. His only regular study 
 of the law was during the year 1797, that he lived with Mr. 
 Brooke ; but it was impossible that he should not, in the daily 
 scenes he witnessed, and in the presence of the eminent men 
 whom he so often heard and saw, be in the way of gathering 
 much valuable legal information. During his residence of six 
 or seven years in Richmond, he became acquainted with all or 
 most of the eminent Virginians of the period, who lived in that 
 city, or were in the habit of resorting to it with Edmond Pen- 
 dleton, Spencer Roane, Chief- Justice Marshall, Bushrod Wash 
 ington, Wickham, Call, Copeland, &c. On two occasions, he 
 had the good fortune to hear Patrick Henry once, before the 
 circuit court of the United States for the Virginia district, on 
 the question of the payment of the British debts ; and again be 
 fore the house of delegates of Virginia, on the claim of the 
 supernumerary officers in the service of the state during the 
 revolutionary war. Mr. Clay remembers that remarkable man, 
 his appearance and his manner, distinctly. The impression of 
 his eloquent powers remaining on his mind is, that their charm 
 consisted mainly in one of the finest voices ever heard, in his 
 graceful gesticulation, and the va.iety and force of expression 
 which he exhibited in his face. 
 
 Henry Clay quitted Richmond in November, 1797, his eldest 
 brother having died while he yet resided in that city. Bearing 
 a license from the judges of the Virginia court of appeals to 
 practise law, he established himself in Lexington, Kentucky. 
 He was without patrons, without the countenance of influential \/ 
 friends, and destitute of the means of paying his weekly board. 
 " I remember," says he, in his speech of June, 1842, at Lexing 
 ton, " how comfortable I thought I should be, if I could make 
 100 Virginia money per year; and with what delight I re 
 ceived the first fifteen-shilling fee. My hopes were more than 
 realized. I immediately rushed into a lucrative practice." 
 
 Before assuming the active responsibilities of his profession, \ 
 
J6 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 he devoted himself with assiduity several months to his legal 
 studies. Even at that period the bar of Lexington was eminent 
 for its ability. Among its members were George Nicholas, 
 James Hughes, John Breckenbridge, James Brown, William 
 Murray, and others, whose reputation was sufficient to discour 
 age the most stout-hearted competition. But true genius is rarely 
 unaccompanied by a consciousness of its power ; and the friend 
 less and unknown youth from Virginia fearlessly entered the 
 field, which, to a less intrepid spirit, would have seemed pre 
 occupied. He soon commanded consideration and respect. He 
 was familiar with the technicalities of practice ; and early habits 
 of business and application, enabled him to effect an easy mastery 
 of the cases intrusted to his charge. Hi& mbtle appreciation of 
 character, knowledge of human nature, and faculties of persua 
 sion, rendered him peculiarly successful in his appeals to a 
 jury ; and he obtained great celebrity for his adroit and careful 
 management of criminal cases. 
 
 An anecdote is related of him about the time of his mst en 
 trance upon his profession, which shows that, notwithstanding 
 his fine capacities, he had some native diffidence to overcome 
 before they were fairly tested. He had joined a debating soci 
 ety, and at one of the meetings the vote was about to be taken 
 upon the question under discussion, when he remarked in a low 
 but audible whisper, that the subject did not appear to him to 
 have been exhausted. 
 
 "Do not put the question yet Mr. Clay will speak," ex 
 claimed a member, who had overheard the half-hesitating re 
 mark. 
 
 The chairman instantly took the hint, and nodded to the young 
 lawyer in token of his readiness to hear what he had to say. 
 With every indication of extreme embarrassment, he rose, and in 
 his confusion, began by saying: " Gentlemen of the jury" un 
 consciously addressing his fellow-members as the tribunal, to 
 which he had perhaps often made imaginary appeals in his 
 dreams of a successful debut at the bar. His audience did not 
 add to his agitation by seeming to notice it, and, after floundering 
 and blushing for a moment or two, and stammering out a repetition 
 of the words, " Gentlemen of the jury," he suddenly shook off all 
 
INSTANCES OF HIS ELOQUENCE. 17 
 
 signs of distrust and timidity, and launched into his subject with 
 a promptitude and propriety of elocution, which excited general 
 surprise. 
 
 To those familiar with the perfect self-possession of Mr. Clay s 
 manner in after-life upon all occasions, the most trying and 
 unexpected, this instance will present an amusing contrast ; for 
 the evidence is not on record of his ever having failed for an in 
 stant in his resources of repartee or of argument in debate. 
 
 Shortly after this early essay in public speaking, he was ad 
 mitted as a practitioner before the Fayette court of quarter ses 
 sions, a court of general jurisdiction. Business soon poured in 
 upon him, and during the first term he had a handsome practice. 
 His manners and address, both in personal intercourse and be 
 fore a jury, were unusually captivating. Frank ja avowing his 
 sentiments, and bold and consistent in maintaining them, he laid 
 the foundation of a character for sincerity and honor, which amid 
 all the shocks of political changes and the scurrility of partisan 
 warfare, has never been shaken or tainted. In the possession 
 of these attributes, beyond the reach of cavil or of question, is to 
 be found the secret of that inalienable attachment among the 
 vast body of his friends, which has followed him throughout his 
 career. 
 
 One of the most important cases, in which Mr. Clay was en 
 gaged during the first three or four years of his professional life, 
 was that in which he was employed to defend a Mrs. Phelps, 
 indicted for murder. This woman was the wife of a respectable 
 farmer, and until the time of the act for which she was arraigned, 
 had led a blameless and correct life. One day, in her own 
 house, taking some offence at a Miss Phelps, her sister-in-law, 
 she levelled a gun, and shot her through the heart. The poor 
 girl had only time to exclaim, " Sister, you have killed me," and 
 expired. Great interest was excited in the case, and the court 
 was crowded to overflowing on the day of trial. Of the fact of 
 the homicide ther^ could be no doubt. It was committed in the 
 presence of witnesses, and the only question was to what class 
 of crimes did the offence belong. If it were pronounced murder 
 in the first degree, the life of the wretched prisoner would be the 
 forfeit ; but, if manslaughter^ she would be purished merely by 
 
18 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 confinement in the jail or penitentiary. The legal contest was 
 long and able. The efforts of the connsel for the prosecution 
 were strenuous and earnest ; but Mr. Clay succeeded in not only 
 saving the life of his client, but so moved the jury in her behalf 
 by his eloquence, that her punishment was made as light as the 
 law would allow. He gained much distinction by the ability 
 he displayed in this case, and thenceforth it was considered a 
 great object to enlist his assistance in all criminal pursuits on the 
 part of the defendant. It is a singular fact, that in the course 
 of a very extensive practice in the courts of criminal jurispru 
 dence, and in the defence of a large number of individuals ar 
 raigned for capital offences, he never had one of his clients sen 
 tenced to death. 
 
 Another case, in which he acquired scarcely less celebrity, 
 was shortly afterward tried in Harrison county. Two Germans, 
 father and son, had been indicted for murder. The deed of kil 
 ling was proved to the entire satisfaction of the court, and was 
 considered an aggravated murder. Mr. Clay s efforts were there 
 fore directed to saving their lives. The trial occupied five days, 
 and his closing appeal to the jury was of the most stirring and 
 pathetic description. It proved irresistible, for they returned a 
 verdict of manslaughter. Not satisfied with this signal triumph, 
 he moved an arrest of judgment, and, after another day s contest, 
 prevailed in this also. The consequence was, that the prisoners 
 were discharged without even the punishment of the crime, of 
 which the jury had found them guilty. 
 
 An amusing incident occurred at the conclusion of this trial. 
 \n old, withered, ill-favored German woman, who was the wife 
 of the elder prisoner, and the mother of the younger, on being 
 informed of the success of the final motion for an arrest of judg 
 ment, and the consequent acquittal of her husband and son, ran 
 toward the young advocate, in the excess of her gratitude and 
 joy, and throwing her arms about his neck, kissed him in the 
 eyes of the crowded court. Although taken wholly by surprise, 
 and hardly flattered by blandishments from such a source, young 
 Clay acquitted himself upon the occasion, with a grace and good 
 humor, which won him new applause from the spectators. All 
 great emotions claim respect ; and in this instance so far did the 
 
HIS SUCCESS AS A LAWYER. 19 
 
 sympathies of the audience go with the old woman as to divest 
 of ridicule an act, which, in the recital, may seem to have parta 
 ken principally of the ludicrous. 
 
 Notwithstanding his extraordinary success in all the criminal 
 suits intrusted to him, the abilities displayed by Mr. Clay at this 
 period in civil cases were no less brilliant and triumphant. In 
 suits growing out of the land laws of Virginia and Kentucky, he 
 was especially distinguished ; rapidly acquiring wealth and pop 
 ularity by his practice. It is related of him, that on one occasion, 
 in conjunction with another attorney, he was employed to argue, 
 in the Fayette circuit court, a question of great difficulty one 
 in which the interests of the litigant parties were deeply involved. 
 At the opening of the court, something occurred to call him 
 away, and the whole management of the case devolved on his 
 associate counsel. Two days were spent in discussing the points 
 of law, which were to govern the instructions of the court to the 
 jury, and on all of these points, Mr. Clay s colleague was foiled, 
 by his antagonist. At the end of the second day, Mr. Clay re- 
 entered the court. He had not heard a word of the testimony, 
 and knew nothing of the course which the discussion had taken ; 
 but, after holding a very short consultation with his colleague, he 
 drew up a statement of the form in which he wished the instruc 
 tions of the court to be given to the jury, and accompanied his 
 petition with a few observations, so entirely novel and satisfac 
 tory, that it was granted without the least hesitation. A corre 
 sponding verdict was instantly returned ; and thus the case, which 
 had been on the point of being decided against Mr. Clay s client, 
 resulted in his favor in less than half an hour after the young 
 lawyer had entered the courthouse. 
 
 For an enumeration of the various cases in which Mr. Clay 
 was about this time engaged, and in which his success was as 
 marked as his talents were obvious, we must refer the curious 
 reader to the records, of the courts of Kentucky, and hasten to 
 exhibit the subject of our memoir on that more extended field, 
 where his history began to be interwoven with the history of his 
 country, and a whole nation hailed him as a champion worthy of 
 the best days of the republic. 
 
 As early as 1797, when the people of Kentucky were about. 
 
20 LIFE OF HENRY CLAV 
 
 electing a convention to form a new constitution for that state 
 Mr. Clay may be said to have commenced his political career 
 His first efforts were made on behalf of human liberty, and at the 
 risk of losing that breeze of popular favor, which was wafting on 
 his bark bravely toward the haven of worldly prosperity and re 
 nown. 
 
 The most important feature in the plan for a new constitution 
 submitted to the people of Kentucky, was a provision for the 
 prospective eradication of slavery from the state by means of a 
 gradual emancipation of those held in bondage. Against this 
 proposal a tremendous outcry was at once raised. It was not to 
 be questioned that the voice of the majority was vehemently op 
 posed to it. But young Clay did not hesitate as to his course. 
 In that spirit of self-sacrifice, which he has since displayed on 
 so many occasions, in great public emergencies, without stopping 
 to reckon the disadvantages to himself, he boldly arrayed himself 
 on the side of those friendly to emancipation. In the canvass, 
 which preceded the election of members of the convention, he 
 exerted himself with all the energy of his nature in behalf of 
 that cause, which he believed to be the cause of truth and justice. 
 With his voice and pen he actively labored to promote the choice 
 of delegates who were pledged to its support. He failed in the 
 fulfilment of his philanthropic intentions, and incurred temporary 
 unpopularity by his course. Time, however, is daily making 
 more apparent the wisdom of hiy counsel. 
 
 Mr. Clay has not faltered in his views upon this great ques 
 tion. They are now what they were in 1797, In maintaining 
 the policy of this scheme of gradual emancipation he has ever 
 been fearless and consistent. Let it not be imagined, however, 
 that he has any sympathy with that incendiary spirit which would 
 seem to actuate some of the clamorers for immediate and uncon 
 ditional abolition at the present time. His views were far- 
 sighted, statesman-like, and sagacious. He looked to the general 
 good, not merely of his contemporaries but of posterity ; and his 
 plan stretched beyond the embarrassments of the present hour 
 into the future. A more just, practicable, and beneficent scheme 
 than his, for the accomplishment of a consummation so devoutly 
 to be wished by humanity at large, could not have been devised. 
 
HIS ErFORTS IN FAVOR OF EMANCIPATION. 2) 
 
 It resembled that adopted in Pennsylvania in the year 1780 at 
 the instance of Dr. Franklin, according to which, the generation 
 in being were to remain in bondage, but all their offspring, born 
 aftei a specified day, were to be free at the age of twenty-eight, 
 and, in the meantime, were to receive preparatory instruction to 
 qualify them for t]je enjoyment of freedom. Mr. Clay thought 
 with many others, that, as the slave states had severally the right 
 to judge, every one exclusively for itself, in respect to the insti 
 tution of domestic slavery, the proportion of slaves to the white 
 population in Kentucky at that time was so inconsiderable, that 
 a system of gradual emancipation might have been adopted 
 without any hazard to the security and interests of the common 
 wealth. 
 
 Recently a charge was made by the principal opposition paper 
 at the south, that Mr. Clay had joined the abolitionists ; and the 
 ground of the charge was the averment that he had written a let 
 ter to Mr. Giddings, of Ohio, approving the leading views of that 
 party. Upon inquiry, it appeared, however, that the letter was 
 written by Cassius M. Clay, a namesake. In noticing the erro 
 neous statement, Mr. Clay remarked, in a letter to a friend : " I 
 do not write letters for different latitudes. I have but one heart, 
 and one mind ; and all my letters are but copies of the original, 
 and if genuine, will be found to conform to it wherever they may 
 be addressed." 
 
 Would that every candidate for the presidency might say this 
 with equal sincerity and truth ! 
 
 Notwithstanding the failure of his exertions in arresting the 
 continuance of negro servitude in Kentucky, Mr. Clay has never 
 shrunk from the avowal of his sentiments upon the subject, nor 
 from their practical manifestations in his professional and politi 
 cal career. For several years, whenever a slave brought an ac 
 tion at law for his liberty, Mr. Clay volunteered as his advocate ; 
 and he always succeeded in obtaining a decision in the slave s 
 favor. Opposition in every shape would seem to have roused 
 the most ardent sympathies of his soul, and to have enlisted his 
 indignant eloquence in behalf of its unfriended object. The im 
 pulses, which urged him at this early day to take the part of the 
 domestic bondsmen of his own state, were the same with those 
 
33 LIFfc OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 by which he was instigated, when the questions of recognising 
 South American and Grecian independence were presented to 
 the consideration of a tardy and calculating Congress. 
 
 During the administration of John Adams, 1798- 9, the famous 
 alien and sedition laws were passed. The popular opposition 
 with which these extraordinary measures were received, is still 
 vividly remembered in the United States. By the " alien law," 
 the president was authorized to order any alien, whom "he should 
 judge dangerous to the peace and safety" of the country, " to de 
 part out of the territory within such time" as he shoftld judge 
 proper, upon penalty of being " imprisoned for a term not exceed 
 ing three years," &c. 
 
 The " sedition law" was designed to punish the abuse of 
 speech and of the press. It imposed a heavy pecuniary fine, and 
 imprisonment for a ternf\)f years, upon such as should combine 
 or conspire together to oppose any measure of government : upon 
 such as should write, print, utter, publish, &c., "any false, scan 
 dalous and malicious writing against the government of the United 
 States or the president," &c. 
 
 Mr. Clay stood forth one of the earliest champions of popular 
 rights in opposition to these memorable laws. Kentucky was 
 one of the first states that launched their thunders against them ; 
 and though many speakers came forward to give expression to 
 the indignation which was swelling in the public heart, none 
 succeeded so well in striking the responsive chord as our young 
 lawyer. He was soon regarded as the leading sp ; "lc of the op 
 position party ; and it was about this time that ^ title of " THE 
 GREAT COMMONER" was bestowed upon hii. 
 
 A gentleman, who was present at a meeting where these ob 
 noxious laws were discussed, describes the effect produced by 
 Mr. Clay s eloquence as difficult adequately to describe. The 
 populace had assembled in the fields in the vicinity of Lexington, 
 and were first addressed by Mr. George Nicholas, a distinguished 
 man, and a powerful speaker. The speech of Mr. Nicholas was 
 long and eloquent, and he was greeted by the most enthusiastic 
 cheers as he concluded. Clay being called for, promptly ap 
 peared, and made one of the most extraordinary and impressive 
 hinngues ever addressed to a popular assembly. A striking 
 
ELECTED TO THE STATE LEGISLATURE. 23 
 
 evidence of its thrilling and effective character, may be found in 
 the fact that when he ceased, there was no shout- no applause. 
 So eloquently had he interpreted the deep feelings of the multi 
 tude, that they forgot the orator in the absorbing emotions he had 
 produced. A higher compliment can hardly be conceived. The 
 theme was a glorious one for a young and generous mind, filled 
 with ardor in behalf of human liberty and he did it justice. 
 The people took Clay and Nicholas upon their shoulders, and 
 forcing them into a carriage, drew them through the streets, amid 
 shouts of applause. What an incident for an orator, who had not 
 yet completed his twenty-second year ! 
 
 Four years afterward, when Mr. Clay was absent from the county 
 of Fayette, at the Olympian springs, he was brought forward, with 
 out his knowledge or previous consent, as a candidate, and elected 
 to the general assembly of Kentucky. He soon made his influence 
 felt in that body.^ In 1804, Mr. Felix Grundy, then an adroit and 
 well-known politician, made an attempt in the legislature, to pro 
 cure the repeal of a law incorporating the Lexington Insurance 
 Office. He was opposed at every step by Mr. Clay ; and the war 
 of words between the youthful debaters, drew to the hall of the 
 house throngs of spectators. Grundy had managed to secure 
 beforehand a majority in his favor in the house ; but the members 
 of the senate flocked in to hear Clay speak, and so cogently did 
 he present to their understandings the impolicy and unconstitu 
 tionally of the measure under discussion, that they refused to 
 sanction it after it had been passed by the other branch, and a 
 virtual triumph was thus obtained. 
 
 It is recorded of Mr. Clay, that, in the course of the legislative 
 session of 1805, he made an effort to procure the removal of the 
 seat of government from Frankfort ; and his speech on the occa 
 sion is said to have been an inimitable specimen of argument and 
 humor. Frankfort is peculiar in its appearance and situation, 
 being sunk, like a huge pit, below the surrounding country, and 
 environed by rough and precipitous ledges. " We have," said 
 Mr. Clay, " the model of an inverted hat ; Frankfort is the body 
 of the hat, and the lands adjacent are the brim. To change the 
 figure vt is nature s g^eat penitentiary ; and if the members of 
 
24 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 this house would know the bodily condition of the prisoners, let 
 him look at those poor creatures in the gallery." 
 
 As he said this, he pointed with his finger to half a dozen 
 figures, that chanced, at that moment, to be moving about in the 
 gallery, more like animated skeletons than respectable compounds 
 of flesh and blood. The objects thus designated, seeing the 
 attention of the whole assembly suddenly directed toward them, 
 dodged, with ludicrous haste, behind the railing, and the assembly 
 was thrown into a convulsion of merriment. This argumentum 
 ad hominem proved irresistible. The members of the house 
 agreed that it was expedient to remove the seat of government, 
 but it was subsequently found impossible to decide upon a new 
 location, and the legislature continues to hold its sessions at 
 Frankfort. 
 
 It was an early resolution of Mr. Clay, that no litigants, rich 
 or poor, should have occasion to say, that for want of counsel 
 they could riot obtain justice at every bar where he could appear 
 for them. Col. Joseph Hamilton Daviess, at that time United 
 States district attorney, and a man of influence and distinction, 
 had committed an assault and battery at Frankfort, on Mr. Bush, 
 a respectable citizen, and a tavern-keeper at that place. The 
 bar of Frankfort declined instituting an action for the latter against 
 Col. D. Bush finally appealed to Henry Clay, who promptly 
 undertook the case, and brought the suit in Lexington. In the 
 argument of a preliminary question, Mr. Clay felt it his duty to 
 animadvert with some severity upon the conduct of Col. Daviess , 
 whereupon the latter, after the adjournment of the court, ad 
 dressed a note to him, remonstrating against his course, and ex 
 pressing a wish that it should not be persevered in. Mr. Clay 
 immediately replied that he had undertaken the cause of Mr. 
 Bush from a sense of duty ; that he should submit to no dictation 
 as to his management of it, which should be according to his own 
 judgment exclusively ; but that he should hold himself responsi 
 ble for whatever he did or said, in or out of court. A challenge 
 ensued ; Mr. Clay accepted it, and proceeded to Frankfort for the 
 hostile meeting. There, by the interposition of mutual friends, 
 the affair was accommodated in a manner honorable to both 
 parties. 
 
HIS DEFENCE OF AARON BURR. 25 
 
 In the autumn of 1806, the celebrated Aaron Burr was arrested 
 in Kentucky, on a charge of being engaged in an illegal warlike 
 enterprise. The sagacity and penetration of that extraordinary 
 man were never more clearly evinced than in his application to 
 Mr. Clay to defend him. Mr. Clay believed, and it was generally 
 believed in Kentucky, that the prosecution was groundless, and 
 was instituted by Col. Daviess, whom we have already men 
 tioned, who was a great admirer of Col. Hamilton, and who dis 
 liked Burr, because he had killed Hamilton in a duel, and was, 
 moreover, his opponent in politics. Mr. Clay felt a lively sym 
 pathy for Col. Burr, on account of his being arrested in a state 
 distant from his own, on account of his misfortunes, and the dis 
 tinguished stations he had filled. Still he declined appearing for 
 him, until Burr gave him written assurances that he was engaged 
 in no enterprise forbidden by law, and none that was not known 
 and approved by the cabinet at Washington. On receiving these 
 assurances, Mr. Clay appeared for him ; and, thinking that Burr 
 ought not to be dealt with as an ordinary culprit, he declined re 
 ceiving from him any fee, although a liberal one was tendered. 
 
 Burr was acquitted. Mr. Clay shortly after proceeded to 
 Washington, and received from Mr. Jefferson an account of the 
 letter in cipher, which had been written by Burr to General 
 Wilkinson, together with other information of the criminal de 
 signs of Burr. Mr. Clay handed the written assurances above 
 mentioned, to Mr. Jefferson at the request of the latter. 
 
 On his return from Ghent, Mr. Clay made a brief sojourn in 
 the city of New York, and visited, among other places of interest, 
 the federal court, then in session, escorted by his friend, the late 
 Mr. Smith, then marshal, formerly a senator from New York. 
 On entering the court-room, in the city-hall, the eyes of the bench, 
 bar, officers, and attendants upon the court, were turned upon 
 Mr. C., who was invited to take a seat upon the bench, which 
 ne politely declined, and took a position in the bar. Shortly 
 after, a small gentleman, apparently advanced in years, and with 
 bushy, gray hair, whom Mr. Clay for an instant did not recognise, 
 approached him. He quickly perceived it was Col. Burr, who 
 tendered his hand to salute Mr. Clay. The latter declined 
 receiving it. The colonel, nevertheless, was no epulsed, but 
 B 
 
26 LIFE OF HENRY CLAF. 
 
 engaged in conversation with Mr. Clay, remarking, that he had 
 understood, that besides the treaty of peace, the American com 
 missioners had negotiated a good commercial convention with 
 Great Britain. Mr. Clay replied coldly, that such a conven 
 tion was concluded, and that its terms would be known as 
 Boon as it was promulgated by public authority. Col. B. ex 
 pressed a wish to have an hour s interview with him, and Mr. C. 
 told him where he stopped but the colonel never called. Thus 
 terminated all the intercourse which ever took place between 
 Henry Clay and Aaron Burr. And yet, even out of materials 
 like these, Detraction has tried to manufacture weapons for its 
 assaults ! 
 
 II. 
 
 HIS COURSE IN CONGRESS 1806 TO 1812. 
 
 ON the twenty-ninth of December, 1806, Mr. Clay produced 
 his credentials, and took his seat in the senate of the United 
 States. He had been elected by the legislature of the state of 
 Kentucky, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the resignation of the 
 Hon. John Adair ; and, from the journals of Congress, he seems 
 to have entered at once actively upon the discharge of the duties 
 of his new and exalted position. His first speech was in favor 
 of the erection of a bridge over the Potomac river); and at this 
 period, we perceive the dawning of those views of " internal 
 improvement," which he afterward carried out so ably, and his 
 advocacy of which should alone be sufficient to entitle him to 
 the lasting gratitude of the country. He amused the senate, on 
 this occasion, by quoting a passage from Peter Pindar, as appli 
 cable to a senator by whom he had been assailed, and who was 
 remarkable for the expression of superior sagacity which his 
 countenance was wont to assume when he rebuked the younger 
 members of the body. The picture was apt and graphic : 
 
 " Thus have I seen a magpie in the street, 
 A chattering bird, we often meet ; 
 A bird for curiosity well known, 
 
 With head awry, and cunning eye, 
 Pep knowingly into a marrow-bone." 
 
ELECTED TO THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 27 
 
 This speech was soon followed by his presentation of a reso 
 lution, advocating the expediency of appropriating a quantity of 
 land toward the opening of the canal proposed to be cut around 
 the rapids of the Ohio, on the Kentucky shore. 
 
 The subject of appropriations for internal improvements was 
 at that time a novelty. So far as it related to the establishment 
 of post-roads, it had, it is true, been discussed in February, 1795 ; 
 but no formal opinion of Congress was expressed, so as to be a 
 precedent for future action. 
 
 A committee, consisting of Messrs. Clay, Giles, and Baldwin, 
 was now appointed to consider the new resolution, and on the 
 twenty-fourth of February, 1 807, Mr. Clay made an able report 
 to the senate, in which we find the following passage : " How 
 far it is the policy of th,e government to aid in works of this kind 
 when it has no distinct interest ; whether, indeed, in such a case, 
 it has the constitutional power of patronage and encouragement, 
 it is not necessary to be decided in the present instance." A few 
 days afterward, he reported a bill providing for the appointment 
 of commissioners to ascertain the practicability of removing the 
 obstructions in the navigation of the Ohio at the rapids. This 
 bill passed the senate by a vote of eighteen to eight.) 
 
 The following resolution, presented the day of the passage of 
 the bill, shows that Mr. Clay, thus early in his career, was deeply 
 impressed with the importance of a system of internal improve 
 ment. He may truly be called the father of that system which 
 has so incalculably advanced the general prosperity of the Re 
 public : 
 
 " Resolved, That the secretary of the treasury be directed to prepare and 
 report to the senate at their next session, a plan for the application of such 
 means as are within the power of Congress, to the purposes of opening roads 
 and making canals ; together with a statement of undertakings of that nature, 
 which, as objects of public improvement, may require and deserve the aid 
 of government; and, also, a statement of works, of the nature mentioned, 
 which have been commenced, the progress which has been made in them, 
 and the means and prospect of their being completed ; and all such informa 
 tion as, in the opinion of the secretary, shall be material in relation to the 
 objects of this resolution." 
 
 The resolution was passed with but three dissenting voices. 
 During this session, an attempt was made to suspend the 
 habeas corpus act, for the purpose of enabling the president to 
 
28 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 arrest, without going through the forms and delays of the law 
 Col. Burr, of whose evil intentions there was now sufficient 
 proof. Mr. Clay did not speak on the motion, but his vote was 
 recorded against it, not through any tenderness toward Birr, but 
 because of the danger of instituting such a precedent against the 
 liberty of the citizen. The motion was, however, carried o. the 
 senate, but defeated in the house of representatives. 
 
 Mr. Clay s election to the senate of the United States, had been 
 but for the fraction of a term, amounting to a single session, f In 
 the summer of 1807, he was again chosen by the citizens of 
 Fayette to represent them in the Kentucky legislature, and at the 
 next session he was elected speaker of the assembly. In this 
 position, he did not content himself with faithfully discharging 
 the ordinary duties of a speaker. He entered the arena of de 
 bate, and took an active part in most of the important discussions 
 before the house. A motion having been made to prohibit the 
 reading, in the courts of Kentucky, of any British decision, or 
 elementary work on law, he opposed it with a vigor and eloquence 
 that could not fail of effect. More than four fifths of the members 
 of the house had evinced a determination to vote for the motion.; 
 It was argued that the Americans, as an independent people, 
 ought not to suffer themselves to be governed, in the administra 
 tion of justice, by the legal decisions of a foreign power. ;Mr. 
 Clay had to contend against a most formidable array of popular 
 prejudice. To obviate one of the most potent arguments of the 
 friends of the motion, he ingeniously moved to amend it by limit 
 ing the exclusion of British decisions from Kentucky, to those 
 only which have taken place since the 4th of July, 1776, the date 
 of American independence, and suffering all which preceded that 
 period to remain in force. He maintained that before the dec 
 laration of our independence, the British and Americans were 
 the same nation, and the laws of the one people were those of 
 the other. He then entered upon one of the most eloquent 
 harangues that ever fell from his lips. i He exposed the barbarity 
 of a measure which would annihilate^, for all practical uses in the 
 state, the great body of the common law ; which would " wan 
 tonly make wreck of a system fraught with the intellectual 
 
SPEAKER OF THE LEGISLATURE. 29 
 
 wealth of centuries, and whelm its last fragment beneath the 
 wave." 
 
 Those who had the good fortune to hear Mr. Clay on this occa 
 sion, describe his speech as one of transcendent power, beauty, 
 and pathos. A gentleman, who was a partaker in the effect pro 
 duced by his eloquence, says : " Every muscle of the orator s 
 face was in motion ; his whole body seemed agitated, as if every 
 part were instinct with a separate life ; and his small, white hand, 
 with its blue veins apparently distended, almost to bursting, moved 
 gracefully, but with all the energy of rapid and vehement gesture. 
 The appearance of the speaker seemed that of a pure intellect, 
 wrought up to its mightiest energies, and brightly glowing through 
 the thh;. and transparent veil of flesh that enrobed it." 
 
 It is almost needless to add that Mr. Clay prevailed on this 
 occasion in turning the tide in his favor, and the original motion 
 was rejected. \ 
 
 A report drawn up by him in 1 809 upon a question of disputed 
 election is worthy of notice in this place. The citizens of Har- 
 din county, who were entitled to two representatives in the gen 
 eral assembly, had given 436 votes for Charles Helm, 350 for 
 Samuel Haycraft, and 271 for John Thomas. The fact being 
 ascertained that Mr. Haycraft held an office of profit under the 
 commonwealth, at the time of the election, a constitutional dis 
 qualification attached and excluded him. He was ineligible, and 
 therefore could not be entitled to his seat. It remained to in 
 quire into the pretensions of Mr. Thomas. His claim could 
 only be supported by a total rejection of the votes given by Mr. 
 Haycraft, as void to all intents whatever. Mr. Clay contended 
 that those votes, though void and ineffectual in creating any right 
 in Mr. Haycraft to a seat in the house, could not affect, in any 
 manner, the situation of his competitor. Any other exposition 
 would he subversive of the great principle of free government, 
 that the majority shall prevail. It would operate as a fraud upon 
 the people ; for it could not be doubted that the votes given to 
 Mr. Haycraft were bestowed under a full persuasion that he had 
 a right to receive them. It would, in fact, be a declaration that 
 disqualification produced qualification that the incapacity of 
 one man capacitated another to hold a seat in that house. The 
 
30 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 committee, therefore, unanimously decided that neither of the 
 gentlemen was entitled to a seat, 
 
 Such were the principles of Mr. Clay s report. It was unani 
 mously adopted by the house ; and its doctrines have ever since 
 governed the Kentucky elections. 
 
 In December, 1808, Mr. Clay introduced before the legislature 
 of Kentucky a series of resolutions approving the embargo, de 
 nouncing the British orders in council, pledging the cooperation 
 of Kentucky to any measures of opposition to British exactions, 
 upon which the general government might determine, and de 
 claring that " THOMAS JEFFERSON is entitled to the thanks of his 
 country for the ability, uprightness, and intelligence which he has 
 displayed in the management both of our foreign relations and do 
 mestic concerns? 
 
 Mr. Humphrey Marshall opposed these resolutions with ex 
 traordinary vehemence, and introduced amendatory resolution,, 
 of a directly opposite tendency ; but Mr. Marshall was the only 
 one who voted in favor of the latter. Mr. Clay s original resolu 
 tions were adopted by a vote of sixty-four to one. 
 
 Soon after this event, Mr. Clay introduced a resolution recom 
 mending that every member, for the purpose of encouraging the 
 industry of the country, should clothe himself in garments of do 
 mestic manufacture. This resolution was at once most emphat 
 ically denounced by Mr. Humphrey Marshall, who stigmatized 
 it as the project of a demagogue, and applied a profusion of harsh 
 and ungenerous epithets to the mover. Mr. Clay retorted, arid 
 the quarrel went on until it terminated in a hostile encounter. 
 The parties met, and by the first shot Mr. Marshall was slightly 
 wounded. They stood up a second time, and Mr. Clay received 
 a hardly perceptible flesh-wound in the leg. The seconds now 
 interfered, and prevented a continuance of the combat. 
 
 Mr. Clay was once again called upon in the course of his po 
 litical career, by the barbarous exactions of society, to consent 
 to a hostile encounter ; but we are confident that no man at heart 
 abominated the custom more sincerely than he. The following 
 passage in relation to this subject occurs in an address, which, 
 in his maturer years, he made to his constituents : " I owe it to 
 the community to say, that whatever heretofore I may have done, 
 
HIS SENTIMENTS ON DUELLING. 31 
 
 or by inevitable circumstances might be forced to do, no m 
 holds it in deeper abhorrence than I do that pernicious practice. 
 Condemned as it must be by the judgment and philosophy, to 
 say nothing of the religion, of every thinking man, it is an affair 
 of feeling about which we can not, although we should, reason. 
 Its true corrective will be found when all shall unite, as all ought 
 to unite, in its unqualified proscription." 
 
 When the bill to suppress duelling in the district of Columbia 
 came before the senate of the United States, in the spring of 
 1838, Mr. Clay said, no man would be happier than he to see 
 the whole barbarous system for ever eradicated. It was well 
 known, that in certain quarters of the country, public opinion 
 was averse from duelling, and no man could fly in the face of that 
 public opinion, without having his reputation sacrificed ; but there 
 were other portions again which exacted obedience to the fatal 
 custom. The man with a high sense of honor, and nice sensi 
 bility, when the question is whether he shall fight or have the 
 finger of scorn pointed at him, is unable to resist, and few, very 
 few, are found willing to adopt such an alternative. When pub 
 lic opinion shall be renovated, and chastened by reason, religion, 
 and humanity, the practice of duelling will at once be discounte 
 nanced. It is the office of legislation to do all it can to bring 
 about that healthful state of the public mind, and although it may 
 not altogether effect so desirable a result, yet he had no doubt it 
 would do much toward it, and with these views he would give 
 his vote for the bill. 
 
 In the winter session of Congress, in 1809- ! 0, Mr. Clay took 
 his seat a second time in the senate of the United States. *) He 
 had been elected by the legislature by a handsome majority to 
 supply a vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Mr. Buckner 
 Thurston, whose term wanted two years of its completion. 
 From this period the public history of Mr. Clay may be found 
 diffused through the annals of the Union. The archives of the 
 republic are the sources from which the materials for his biog 
 raphy may be henceforth derived. When time shall have re 
 moved the inducements for interested praise or censure, posterity 
 will point to the records of his civic achievements, glorious though, 
 bloodless, no less as furnishing a well-established title to their 
 
32 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 admiration and gratitude, than as a perpetual monument of his 
 fame. 
 
 fyhe predilections which Mr. Clay had early manifested in 
 behalf of American manufactures and American principles, were 
 unequivocally avowed in his first speech before the senate /on 
 being elected a second time to that body as far back as April, 
 1810. A bill was under discussion appropriating a sum of mon 
 ey for procuring munitions of war, and for other purposes ; and 
 an amendment had been proposed, instructing the secretary of 
 the navy, to provide supplies of cordage, sail-cloth, hemp, &c., 
 and to give a preference to those of American growth and manu 
 facture. Mr. Lloyd of Massachusetts moved to strike out this 
 part of the amendment ; and a discussion arose concerning the 
 general policy of promoting domestic manufactures, in which 
 Mr. Clay boldly declared himself its advocate.) 
 
 The fallacious course of reasoning urged by many against do 
 mestic manufactures, namely, the distress and servitude produced 
 by those of England, he said would equally indicate the propriety 
 of abandoning agriculture itself. Were we to cast our eyes upon 
 the miserable peasantry of Poland, and revert to the days of feu 
 dal vassalage, we might thence draw numerous arguments against 
 the pursuits of the husbandman. In short, take the black side 
 of the picture, and every human occupation wall be found preg 
 nant with fatal objections. 
 
 The sentiments avowed thus early in our legislative history 
 by Mr. Clay are now current throughout our vast community ; 
 and the ** American System," as it has been called, is generally 
 admitted to be not only a patriotic, but a politic system. But let 
 it not be forgotten, that it is to the persevering and unremitted 
 exertions of Henry Clay, that we are indebted for the planting 
 and the cherishing of that goodly tree, under the far-spreading 
 branches of which so many find protection and plenty at the pres 
 ent day. 
 
 The amendments advocated by Mr. Clay on this occasion were 
 adopted, and the bill was passed. The first step toward the 
 establishment of his magnificent " system" was taken. 
 
 Another speech in which he distinguished himself during the 
 session, is that upon the question of the right of the United 
 
SPEECH ON THE LINE OF THE PERDIDO. S3 
 
 States to the territory lying between the rivers Mississippi and 
 Perdido, comprising the greater part of Western Florida. This 
 important region, out of which the states of Alabama and Missis 
 sippi have since been formed, was claimed oy Spain as a part 
 of her Florida domain. The president, Mr. Madison, had issued 
 a proclamation declaring this region annexed to the Orleans ter 
 ritory, and subject to the laws of the United States. The fed 
 eralists maintained that we had no claim to the territory that 
 it belonged to Spain and that Great Britain, as her ally, would 
 not consent to see her robbed. 
 
 Mr. Clay stepped forth as the champion of the democracy and 
 the president, and eloquently vindicated the title of the United 
 States to the land.j His arguments evince much research, ingenuity 
 and logical skill ; and on this, as on all occasions, he manifested 
 that irrepressible sympathy with the people the mass his 
 eloquent expressions of which had gained him in Kentucky the 
 appellation of the GREAT COMMONER. Mr. Horsey, one of the 
 senators from Delaware, had bemoaned the fate of the Spanish 
 king. Mr. Clay said in reply : u I shall leave the honorable gen 
 tleman from Delaware to mourn over the fortunes of the fallen 
 Charles. I have no commiseration for princes. MY SYMPATHIES 
 ARE RESERVED FOR THE GREAT MASS of mankind ; and I own 
 that the people of Spain have them most sincerely." 
 
 With regard to the deprecated wrath of Great Britain, Mr 
 Clay said, with a burst of indignant eloquence, which is but in 
 adequately conveyed in the reported speech : 
 
 "Sir, is the time never to arrive, when we may manage our own affairs, 
 without the fear of insulting his Britannic majesty? Is the rod of British 
 power to be for ever suspended over our heads ? Does Congress put on an 
 Embargo to shelter our rightful commerce against the piratical depredations 
 committed upon it on the ocean ? We are immediately warned of the in 
 dignation of England. Is a law of Non-Intercourse proposed? The whole 
 navy of the haughty mistress of the seas is made to thunder in our ears. 
 Does the president refuse to continue his correspondence with a minister, 
 who violates the decorum belonging to his diplomatic character, by giving, 
 and deliberately repeating an affront to the whole nation? We are instantly 
 menaced with the chastisement which English pride will not fail to inflict. 
 Whether we assert our rights by sea, or attempt their maintenance by land 
 whithersoever we turn ourselves, this phantom incessantly pursues us 1" 
 
 The strong American feeling, the genuine democratic dignity 
 which pervade this speech are characteristic of the man and of 
 the principles, which, throughout a long and trying public career 
 
34 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 ne has steadfastly maintained. And yet we find new-fledged 
 politicians and dainty demagogues of modern fashionable manu 
 facture charging this early and consistent leader of the democracy 
 this friend and supporter of Jefferson and of Madison this 
 main pillar of the party, who originated and conducted to a glorious 
 termination the last war charging him with federalism and 
 aristocracy! Every act of his life every recorded word that 
 ever fell from his lips gives the lie to the imputation. 
 
 Mr. Clay s labors during the session appear to have been ar 
 duous and diversified showing on his part unusual versatility, 
 industry, and powers of application. He was placed on several 
 important committees, and seems to have taken part in all dis 
 cussions of moment. On the 26th of March, 1810, from the 
 committee to whom was recommitted a bill granting a right of 
 preemption to purchasers of public lands in certain cases, he re 
 ported it with amendments, which were read ; and, after under 
 going some alterations, it was again recommitted, reported, and 
 finally passed by the senate. Mr. Clay was the early friend of 
 the poor settler on the public lands, and he has always advocated 
 a policy which, while it is extremely liberal toward that class, is 
 consistent with perfect justice to the people at large, who are the 
 legitimate owners of the public domain. 
 
 On the 29th of March, Mr. Clay brought in a bill supplement 
 ary to an act entitled "An Act to Regulate Trade and Intercourse 
 with the Indian Tribes, and to preserve Peace on the Frontier." 
 The bill was referred to a committee, of which he was appointed 
 chairman ; and to his intelligent labors in their behalf, the people 
 of the west were indebted for measures of protection of the most 
 efficient character. 
 
 The 20th of April succeeding, on motion of Mr. Clay, the bill 
 to enable the people of the Orleans territory, now Louisiana, to 
 form a constitution and government was amended by a provision 
 requiring that the laws, records, and legislative proceedings of 
 the state should be in the English language. On the 27th 
 of the same month, he had leave of absence for the rest of the 
 session, after accomplishing an amount of public business that 
 few men could have despatched with so much promptitude, abil 
 1y, and advantage to the country. 
 
RECHARTER OF THE UNITED STATES BANK. 35 
 
 third session of the eleventh Congress commenced on the 
 3d of December, 1810. Mr. Clay was once more in his seat 
 in the senate. 
 
 The subject of renewing the charter of the United States bank, 
 was now the great topic before Congress. Mr. Clay had been 
 instructed by the legislature of Kentucky to oppose a recharter 
 ancf his own convictions at the time accorded with theirs. He 
 addressed the senate at some length in opposition to the proposed 
 measure^) He lived to rectify his opinions on this important 
 question ; and his reasons for the change must be satisfactory to 
 every candid mind. They are given in an address to his con 
 stituents in Lexington, dated the 3d of June, 1816. 
 
 In a speech to the same constituents, delivered the 9th of June, 
 1842, he alludes to the subject in these terms : 
 
 " I never but once changed my opinion on any great measure of national 
 policy, or any great principle of construction of the national constitution. 
 In early life, on deliberate consideration, I adopted the principles of inter 
 preting the federal constitution, which had been so ably developed and 
 enforced by Mr. Madison in his memorable report to the Virginia legis 
 lature ; and to them, as I understood them, I have constantly adhered. Upon 
 the question coming up in the senate of the United States, to recharter the 
 first Bank of the United States, thirty years ago, I opposed the recharter 
 upon convictions which I honestly entertained. The experience of the war 
 which shortly followed, the condition into which the currency of the country 
 was thrown, without a bank, and, I may now add, later and more disastrous 
 experience, convinced me I was wrong. I publicly stated to my constituents, 
 in a. speech at Lexington (that which I had made in the house of representa 
 tives not having been reported) my reasons for the change ; and they are 
 preserved in the archives of the country. I appeal to that record ; and I 
 urn willing to be judged now and hereafter by their validity. 
 
 " I do not advert to the fact of this solitary instance of change of opinion, 
 es implying any personal merit, but because it is a fact. I will, however, say 
 that I think it very perilous to the utility of any public man, to make fre 
 quent changes of opinion, or any change, but upon grounds so sufficient and 
 palpable, that the public can clearly" see and approve them." 
 
 Many important subjects were discussed by the senate during 
 the session of 1810- ll ; and Mr. Clay was in all of them con 
 spicuous. His zeal and efficiency in the public service began to 
 attract the eyes of the whole country. He was not the repre 
 sentative of Kentucky alone. His capacious heart and active 
 mind, uncontracted by sectional jealousies or local bigotry, com 
 prehended the entire union in their embrace. 
 
 At the expiration of his second fractional term of service in 
 
36 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 the senate of the United States, having returned to Kentucky, he 
 was elected a member of the federal house of representatives. 
 Congress convened on the day designated by proclamation, the 
 fourth day of November, 1811 ; and, on the first ballot for speaker, 
 128 members being present, he was chosen by a majority of 31, 
 over all opposition. 
 
 QThe affairs of the nation were never in a more critical position 
 than at this juncture. The honor of the republic was at stake. 
 A long series of outrages perpetrated against our commerce by 
 England and by France, had reached a height at which farther 
 toleration would have been pusillanimous. Under the Berlin and 
 Milan decrees of Napoleon, our ships were seized, and our prop 
 erty confiscated by the French, in a manner to provoke the 
 warmest indignation of a free people. Great Britain vied with 
 France, and finally far surpassed her in her acts of violence and 
 rapine toward us. Each of the belligerent nations sought a pre 
 text in the conduct of the other for her own injustice. 
 
 At length France, in answer to our remonstrances, repealed 
 her odious decrees so far as we were concerned, and practically 
 abandoned her system of seizure and oppression. Great Britain 
 did not follow her example. 
 
 A year had elapsed since the French decrees were rescinded ; 
 but Great Britain persisted in her course, affecting to deny their 
 extinction. The ships of the United States, laden with the prod 
 uce of our soil and labor, navigated by our own citizens, and 
 peaceably pursuing a lawful trade, were seized on our coasts, and, 
 at the very mouth of our own harbors, condemned and confiscated. 
 But it was the ruffianly system of impressment by which Amer 
 ican freemen, pursuing a lawful life of hardship and daring on 
 the ocean, were liable to be seized, in violation of the rights of 
 our flag, forced into the naval service of a foreign power] and 
 made, perhaps, the instruments of similar oppression toward their 
 own countrymen -fit was this despotic and barbarous system, 
 that principally roused the warlike spirit of Congress and the 
 nation. >And posterity will admit, that this cause of itself was 
 an all-sufficient justification for hostile measures. The spirit of 
 that people must have been debased, indeed, which could have 
 tamely submitted to such aggressions. 
 
BRITISH AGGRESSION. 37 
 
 The feelings of Mr. Clay on this subject, seem to l*-?e been 
 of the iritensest description. Though coming from a state dis 
 tant from the seaboard, the wrongs and indignities practised 
 against our mariners by British arrogance and oppression, fired 
 his soul and stirred his whole nature to resistance. To him, the 
 idea of succumbing a moment to such degrading outrages was 
 intolerable. The nation had been injured and insulted. England 
 persisted in her injuries and insults. It was useless to temporize 
 longer, ^fle was for war, prompt, open, and determined war. He 
 communicated to others the electric feelings that animated his 
 own breast. He wreaked all his energies on this great causey 
 
 In appointing the committee on foreign relations, to whom the 
 important question was to be referred, he was careful to select a 
 majority of such members as partook of his own decided views. 
 Peter B. Porter, of New York, was the chairman ; and, on the 
 29th of November, he made a report, in which the committee 
 earnestly recommended, in the words of the president, "that the 
 United States be immediately put into an armor and attitude de 
 manded by the crisis, and corresponding with the national spirit 
 and expectations." They submitted appropriate resolutions for 
 the-carrying out of this great object. 
 
 \0n the 3 1st of December, the house resolved itself into a com 
 mittee of the whole, Mr. Breckenridge in the chair, on a bill from 
 the senate, providing for the raising of twenty-five thousand 
 troops. Of this measure, Mr. Clay was the warmest, and at the 
 same time most judicious advocate. He addressed the house 
 eloquently in its behalf, and urged it forward, on all occasions, 
 with his best energies,/ 
 
 He contended that the real cause of British aggression was 
 not to distress France, as many maintained, but to destroy a rival. 
 " She saw," continued he, " in your numberless ships, which 
 whitened every sea in your hundred and twenty thousand gal 
 lant tars the seeds of a naval force, which, in thirty years, 
 would rival her on her own element. She, therefore, commenced 
 the odious system of impressment, of which no language can paint 
 my execration ! She DARED to attempt the subversion of the per 
 sonal freedom of your mariners- /" 
 
 In concluding, Mr. Clay said he trusted that he had fully estab- 
 
38 LIFE OF HENRY CLAT. 
 
 lished these three positions : That the quantum of the force pro 
 posed by the bill was not too great ; that its nature was such as 
 the contemplated war called for ; and that the object of the war 
 was justified by every consideration of justice, of interest, of 
 honor, and love of country. Unless that object were at once at 
 tained by peaceful means, he hoped that war would be waged 
 before the close of the session. 
 
 ^The bill passed the house on the 4th of January succeeding ; 
 and, on the 22 d of the same month, the report of the committee, 
 to whom that part of the president s message, relating to a naval 
 establishment, was referred, being under discussion, Mr. Clay 
 spoke in favor of an increase of the navy, advocating the building 
 of ten frigates.) 
 
 In his remarks, on this occasion, he contended that a descrip 
 tion of naval force entirely within our means, was that which 
 would be sufficient to prevent any single vessel, of whatever 
 metal, from endangering our whole coasting trade blocking up 
 our harbors, and laying under contributions our cities a force 
 competent to punish the insolence of the commander of any single 
 ship, and to preserve in our own jurisdiction, the inviolability of 
 our peace and our laws. 
 
 "Is there," ho asked, "a reflecting man in the nation, who would not 
 charge Congress with a culpable neglect of its duty, if, for the want of such 
 a force, a single ship were to bombard one of our cities ? Would not every 
 honorable member of the committee inflict on himself the bitterest re 
 proaches, if, by failing to make an inconsiderable addition to our little 
 gallant navy, a single British vessel should place New York under contri 
 bution." 
 
 On the 29th of January, 1812, the bill to increase the navy 
 passed the house by a handsome majority. To Mr. Clay s elo 
 quent advocacy of the measure, the country is largely indebted 
 for the glorious naval successes which afterward shed a new and 
 undying lustre upon our history. But for the gallant and effective 
 navy, which sprang up under such auspices, the main arm of cur 
 defence would have been crippled. While we contemplate with 
 pride .our achievements upon the sea the memorable deed.3 of 
 our Lawrences, Decaturs, Hulls, Bainbridges, and Perrys- let 
 us not forget the statesman, but for whose provident sagacity and 
 intrepid spirit, the opportunity of performing those exploits might 
 never have been afforded. 
 
ELECTED SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE. 39 
 
 III. 
 
 THE WAR OF 1812 MR. CLAY S EFFORTS. 
 
 THE cause of Mr. Clay s transference from the senate to the 
 Qouse of representatives, was his own preference, at the time, of 
 a seat in the popular branch. His immediate appointment as 
 speaker was, under the circumstances, a rare honor, and one 
 never, before or since, conferred on a new member. Among the 
 qualifications which led to his selection for that high station, was 
 his known firmness, which would check any attempt to domineer 
 over the house ; and many members had a special view to a 
 proper restraint upon Mr. John Randolph, of Virginia, who, 
 through the fears of Mr. Varnum, and the partiality entertained 
 for him by Mr. Macon, the two preceding speakers, had exercised 
 a control which, it was believed, was injurious to the deliberations 
 of the body. 
 
 (Oil the first of April, 1812, the following confidential commu 
 nication from the president to Congress was received: 
 
 Considering it as expedient, under existing circumstances and prospects, 
 that a general embargo be laid on all vessels now in port, or hereafter arri 
 ving, for the period of sixty days, I recommend the immediate passage of a 
 law to that effect. "JAMES MADISON." 
 
 This proposition was immediately discussed in the house in 
 secret session. \ Mr. Clay took an active part in the debate. He 
 gave to the measure recommended by the president, his ardent 
 and unqualified support^] " I APPROVE OF IT," said he, " BECAUSE 
 
 IT IS TO BE VIEWED AS A DIRECT PRECURSOR TO WAR." 
 
 Among the vehement opponents of the measure were John 
 Randolph, of Virginia, and Josiah Quincy, of Massachusetts. 
 Mr. Randolph said that the honorable speaker was mistaken when 
 he said the message was for war. Mr. R. had " too much reli 
 ance on the wisdom and virtue of the president, to believe that 
 he would be guilty of such gross and unparalleled treason." He 
 maintained that the proposed embargo was not to be regarded as 
 an initial step to war but as a subterfuge a retreat from battle. 
 " What new cause of war," he asked, " or of an embargo, has 
 
40 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 arisen within the last twelve months ? The affair of the Chesa 
 peake is settled : no new principles of blockade have been inter 
 polated in the laws of nations. Every man of candor would ask 
 why we did not, then, go to war twelve months ago." 
 
 ""What new cause of war has been avowed!" said Mr. Clay in reply 
 " The affair of the Chesapeake is settled, to be sure, but only to paralyze the 
 spirit of the country. Has Great Britain abstained from impressing our 
 seamen -from depredating upon our property ? We have complete proof, in 
 her capture of our ships, in her exciting our frontier Indians to hostility, and 
 in her sending an emissary to our cities to excite civil war, that she will do 
 everything to destroy us: our resolution and spirit are our only dependence. 
 Although I feel warmly upon this subject," continued he, " I pride myself 
 upon those feelings, and should despise myself if I were destitute of them." 
 
 Mr. Quincy expressed in strong terms his abhorrence of the 
 proposed measure. He said that his objections were, that it was 
 not what it pretended to be ; and was what it pretended not to 
 be. That it was not embargo preparatory to war ; but that it 
 was embargo as a substitute for the question of declaring war. 
 " I object to it," said he, " because it is no efficient preparation ; 
 because it is not a progress toward honorable war, but a subter 
 fuge from the question. If we must perish, let us perish by any 
 hand except our own. Any fate is better than self-slaughter." 
 
 Against this storm of opposition Henry Clay presented an un 
 daunted front. As the debate was carried on with closed doors, 
 no ample record of it is in existence. But a member of Con 
 gress, who was present, says : " On this occasion Mr. Clay was 
 a flame of fire. He had now brought Congress to the verge of 
 what he conceived to be a war for liberty and honor, and his 
 voice rang through the capitol like a trumpet-tone sounding for 
 the onset. On the subject of the policy of the embargo, his elo 
 quence, like a Roman phalanx, bore down all opposition, and he 
 put to shame those of his opponents, who flouted the government 
 as being unprepared for war." 
 
 The message recommending an embargo was referred to the 
 committee on foreign relations, who reported a bill for carrying 
 it into effect, which was adopted by the house. In the senate it 
 underwent a slight alteration in the substitution of ninety for 
 sixty days as the term of the embargo. This amendment was 
 concurred in ; and on the fourth of April, Mr. Crawford reported 
 
HIS INTERCOURSE WITH JOHN RANDOLPH. 41 
 
 the presentation of the bill to the president, and that it had re 
 ceived his signature. 
 
 Through the indefatigable exertions of Mr. Clay and his asso 
 ciates, the attitude of resistance to aggression was now boldly 
 assumed the first step was taken toward a definite declaration 
 of war. 
 
 On assuming the duties of the speakership, Mr. Clay had fore 
 seen, from the peculiar character and constitution of mind of that 
 remarkable and distinguished man, John Randolph, that it would 
 be extremely difficult to maintain with him relations of civility 
 and friendship. He, therefore, resolved to act on the principle 
 of never giving and never receding an insult without immediate 
 notice, if he were in a place where it could be noticed. Their 
 mode of intercourse or non-intercourse was most singular. Some 
 times weeks, months would pass without their speaking to each, 
 other. Then, for an equal space of time, no two gentlemen 
 could treat each other with more courtesy and attention. Mr. 
 Randolph, on entering the house in the morning, while these 
 better feelings prevailed, would frequently approach the chair, 
 bow respectfully to the speaker, and inquire after his health. 
 
 But Mr. Randolph was impatient of all restraints, and could 
 not bruok those which were sometimes applied to himself by the 
 speaker in the discharge of the duties of the chair. On one oc 
 casion he appealed to his constituents, and was answered by Mr. 
 Clay. The case was this : Mr. Clay, in one of his morning 
 rides, passed through Georgetown, where Mr. Randolph, the 
 late Mr. J. Lewis, of Virginia, and other members of Congress, 
 boarded. Meeting with Mr. Lewis, that gentleman inquired of 
 him, if there were any news. Mr. Clay informed him, that on 
 the Monday following, President Madison would send a message 
 to Congress, recommending a declaration of war against Great 
 Britain. 
 
 The day after this meeting, Mr. Randolph came to the house, 
 and having addressed the speaker in a very rambling, desultory 
 speech for about an hour, he was reminded from the chair, that 
 there was no question pending before the house. Mr. Randolph 
 said he would present one. He was requested to state it. He 
 stated that ho " meant to move a resolution, that it was not ex- 
 
42 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 pedient to declare war against Great Britain." The speaker, 
 according to a rule of the house, desired him to reduce his reso 
 lution to writing, and to send it to the chair ; which he accord 
 ingly did. And thereupon the speaker informed him, that before 
 he could proceed in his speech, the house must decide that it 
 would now consider his resolution. Upon putting that question 
 to the house, it was decided by a large majority, that it would 
 not consider the resolution ; and thus Mr. Randolph was pre 
 vented from haranguing the house farther in its support. Of this 
 he complained, and published an address to his constituents. 
 
 Some expressions in this address seeming to require notice, 
 Mr. Clay addressed a communication under his own name, to 
 the editor of the National Intelligencer, in which he reviews the 
 questions at issue between him and Mr. Randolph, and vindicates 
 the justice of his recent decisions in the chair, 
 
 "Two principles," he says, "are settled by these decisions; the first is, 
 [hat the house has a right to know, through its organ, the specific motion 
 which a member intends making, before he undertakes to argue it at large ; 
 and in the second place, that it reserves to itself the exercise of the power 
 of determining whether it will consider it at the particular time when of 
 fered, prior to his thus proceeding to argue it." 
 
 Every succeeding Congress has acknowledged the validity of 
 the principles thus established by Mr. Clay. They seem es 
 sential to the proper regulation of debate in a large legislative 
 body. * 
 
 A bill from the committee on foreign relations was reported to 
 the house on the third of June, 1812, declaring war between Great 
 Britain and her dependencies and the United States. On the 
 eighteenth it had passed both houses of Congress ; and the next 
 day the president s proclamation was issued, declaring the actual 
 existence of war. On the sixth of July, Congress adjourned to 
 the first Monday in November. 
 
 Mr. Clay, Mr. Lowndes, Mr. Cheves, and Mr. Calhoun, were 
 the leaders, who sustained and carried through the declaration 
 of war. MX. Clay, fully impressed with the conviction that the 
 honor and the highest interests of the country demanded the dec 
 laration, was ardent, active, and enthusiastic in its support. To 
 him was assigned the responsible duty of appointing all the com 
 mittees. Mr. Madison s cabinet was not unanimous on the sub- 
 
MR. CKEVES ND MR. GALLATIN. 43 
 
 ject of war. Mr. Madison himself was in favor of it, but seemed 
 to go into it with much repugnance and great apprehension. The 
 character sf his mind was one of extreme caution, bordering on tim 
 idity, although he acted with vigor and firmness when his reso- 
 fution was once taken. Mr. Gallatin, the secretary of the treas 
 ury, was adverse to the war. 
 
 It was the opinion and wish of Mr. Clay, Mr. Cheves, and 
 their friends, that financial as well as military and naval prepara 
 tions should be made for the conduct of the war, and previous to 
 its declaration. Accordingly, Mr. Gallatin was called upon to 
 report a system of finance appropriate to the occasion. He had 
 enjoyed a high reputation for financial ability : and it was hoped 
 and anticipated that he would display it when he made his re 
 quired report. But the disappointment was great when his re 
 port appeared. Instead of indicating any new source of revenue 
 instead of suggesting any great plan calling forth the resources 
 of the nation, he reported in favor of all the old odious taxes 
 excise, stamp duties, &c., which had been laid during previous 
 administrations. It was believed from the offensive nature of the 
 taxes, that his object was to repress the war spirit. But far 
 from being discouraged, Mr. Clay and his friends resolved to 
 impose the duties recommended. 
 
 Mr. Cheves was at the head of the committee of ways and 
 means, and went laboriously to work to prepare numerous bills 
 for the collection of taxes as suggested by the secretary. After 
 they were prepared and reported, it was for the first time dis 
 covered that the executive, and more especially Mr. Gallatin, 
 were opposed to the imposition of taxes at the same session dur 
 ing which war was declared. This was ascertained by the ac 
 tive exertions of Mr. Smiley, a leading and influential member 
 from Pennsylvania, and the confidential friend of Mr, Gallatin. In 
 circles of the members, he would urge in conversation the ex 
 pediency of postponing the taxes to another session, saying that 
 the people would not take both war and taxes together. 
 
 Mr. Clay and his friends were aware that the levying of taxes, 
 always a difficult and up-hill business, could not be effected with 
 out the hearty concurrence of the executive, and therefore reluc 
 tantly submitted to the postponement a most unfortunate delay. 
 
44 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 the ill effects of which were felt throughout the whole war. M> 
 Cheves, who had plied the laboring oar, in preparing the various 
 revenue bills, was highly indignant, and especially at the conduct 
 jf Mr. Gallatin, of whom he ever afterward thought unfavorably, 
 
 The negotiations with Mr. Foster, the British charge d affaires 
 at Washington, were protracted up to the period of the declara 
 tion of war. The republican party became impatient of the de 
 lay. It was determined that an informal deputation should wait 
 upon Mr. Madison to expostulate against longer procrastination ; 
 and it was agreed that Mr. Clay should be the spokesman. The 
 gentlemen of the deputation accordingly called on the president, 
 and Mr. Clay stated to him that Congress was impatient for ac 
 tion ; that further efforts at negotiation were vain ; that an ac 
 commodation was impracticable ; that the haughty spirit of Britain 
 was unbending and unyielding ; that submission to her arrogant 
 pretensions, especially that of a right to impress our seamen, was 
 impossible ; that enough had been done by us with a view to 
 conciliation ; that the time for decisive action had arrived, and 
 war was inevitable. 
 
 By way of illustrating the difference between speaking and 
 writing, and acting, Mr. Clay related to Mr. Madison an anec 
 dote of two Kentucky judges. One talked incessantly from the 
 bench. He reasoned everybody to death. He would deliver 
 an opinion, and first try to convince the party that agreed with 
 him, and then the opposite party. The consequence was, that 
 business lagged, the docket accumulated, litigants complained, 
 and the community were dissatisfied. He was succeeded by a 
 judge, who never gave any reasons for his opinion, but decided 
 the case simply, for the plaintiff or the defendant. His decisions 
 were rarely reversed by the appellate court the docket melted 
 away litigants were no longer exposed to ruinous delay and 
 the community were contented. " Surely," said Mr. Clay, " we 
 have exhausted the argument with Great Britain." 
 
 Mr. Madison enjoyed the joke, but, in his good-natured, sly 
 way, said, he also had heard an anecdote of a French judge, wno 
 after the argument of the cause was over, put the papers of the 
 contending parties into opposite scales, and decided according to 
 the preponderance of weight. 
 
HIS CONFERENCE WITH MR. MADISON, 45 
 
 Speaking of the opposition of the federal party, Mr. Clay re 
 marked that they Avere neither to be conciliated nor silenced 
 " Let us do what we sincerely believe to be right, and trust to 
 God and the goodness of our cause." 
 
 Mr. Madison said, that our institutions were founded upon the 
 principle of the competency of man for self-government, and that 
 we should never be tired of appealing to the reason and judg 
 ment of the people. 
 
 Such deference did Mr. Madison have, however, for the opin 
 ion and advice of his friends, that shortly after this conference, 
 he transmitted his war-message to Congress. 
 
 The second session of the twelfth Congress took place at the 
 appointed time. Events of an important character had occurred 
 since it last met. The war had been prosecuted ; and we had sus 
 tained some reverses. General Hull, to whom had been assign 
 ed the defence of the Michigan frontier, had, after an unsuccess 
 ful incursion into the neighboring territory of the enemy, sur 
 rendered ingloriously the town and fort of Detroit. 
 
 An attack was made on the post of the enemy near Niagara, 
 by a detachment of regular and other forces under Major-General 
 Van Rensselaer, and after displaying much gallantry had been 
 compelled to yield, with considerable loss, to reinforcements of 
 savages and British regulars. 
 
 But though partially unsuccessful on the land, the Americans 
 had won imperishable trophies on the sea. Our public ships 
 and private cruisers had made the enemy sensible of the differ 
 ence between a reciprocity of captures, and the long confinement 
 of them to their side. The frigate Constitution, commanded by 
 Captain Hull, after a close and short engagement, had completely 
 disabled the British frigate Guerriere. A vast amount of prop 
 erty had been saved to the country by the course pursued by a 
 squadron of our frigates under the command of Commodore 
 Rodgers. 
 
 A strong disposition to adjust existing difficulties with Great 
 Britain had, in the meantime, been manifested by our government. 
 Our charge d affaires at London had been authorized to accede 
 to certain terms, by which the war might be arrested, without 
 awaiting the delays of a formal and final pacification. 
 
46 LIFE OF H ENTRY CLAY. 
 
 These terms required substantially, that the British orders ir 
 council should be repealed as they affected the United States, 
 without a revival of blockades violating acknowledged rules ; that 
 tiiere should be an immediate discharge of American seamen 
 from British ships. On such terms an armistice was proposed 
 by our government. 
 
 These advances were declined by Great Britain, from an avow 
 ed repugnance to a suspension of the practice of impressment during 
 theMrmistice. 
 
 (Early in January, 1813, a bill from the military committee of 
 the house, for the raising of an additional force, not exceeding 
 twenty thousand men, underwent a long and animated discussion 
 in committee of the whole. The opposition, on this occasion, 
 rallied all their strength to denounce the measure. Mr. Quincy, 
 to whom we have before alluded, made a most bitter harangue 
 against it and its supporters. " Since the invasion of the bucca 
 neers," said Mr. Q., " there is nothing in history like this war." 
 Alluding to some of the friends of the administration, he stigma 
 tized them as " household troops, who longed for what they could 
 pick up about the government-house toad-eaters, who lived on 
 eleemosynary, ill-purchased courtesy, upon the palace, who swal 
 lowed great men s spittle, got judgeships, and wondered at the 
 fine sights, fine rooms, and fine company, and, most of all, won 
 dered how they themselves got there." 
 
 Napoleon Bonaparte and Thomas Jefferson, came in for no 
 small share of the same gentleman s abuse. 
 
 0n the 8th of January, Mr. Clay rose in defence of the new 
 army bill, and in reply to the violent and personal remarks, which 
 had fallen from the opposition. His effort, op this occasion, was 
 one of the most brilliant in his whole career* 1 It is imperfectly 
 reported ; for Mr. Clay has been always too inattentive to the prep 
 aration of his speeches for the press. To form an adequate idea 
 of his eloquence we must look to the effect it produced to the 
 legislation which it swayed. 
 
 That portion of Mr. Clay s speech, in which he vindicated his 
 illustrious friend, Thomas Jefferson, from the aspersions of the 
 leader of the federalists, has been deservedly admired as a speci- 
 
HIS VINDICATION OF MR. JEFFERSON. 47 
 
 men of energetic and indignant eloquence. It must have fallen 
 with crushing effect upon him who called it forth : 
 
 " Next to the notice which the opposition has found itself called upon to 
 bestow upon the French emperor, a distinguished citizen of Virginia, formerly 
 president of the United States, has never, for a moment, failed to receive 
 their kindest and most respectful attention. An honorable gentleman from 
 Massachusetts (of whom, I am sorry to say, it becomes necessary for me, in 
 the course of my remarks, to take some notice) has alluded to him in a re 
 markable manner. Neither his retirement from the public office, his emi 
 nent services, nor his advanced age, can exempt this patriot from the coarse 
 assaults of party malevolence. No, sir ; in 1801, he snatched from the rude 
 hands of usurpation the violated constitution of the country, and that is his 
 crime. He preserved that instrument in form, and substance, and spirit, a 
 precious inheritance for generations to come, and for this he can never be 
 forgiven. 
 
 " How vain and impotent is party rage, directed against such a man ! He 
 is not more elevated by his lofty residence upon the summit of his own 
 favorite mountain, than he is lifted by the serenity of his mind, and the con 
 sciousness of a well-spent life, above the indignant passions and feelings of 
 the day. No ! his own beloved Monticello is not less moved by the storms 
 that beat against its sides, than is this illustrious man by the howlings of the 
 whole British pack let loose from the Essex kennel ! 
 
 " When the gentleman, to whom I have been compelled to allude, shall 
 have mingled his dust with that of his abused ancestors when he shall have 
 been consigned to oblivion, or, if he live at all, shall live only in the treason 
 able annals of a certain junto, the name of Jefferson will be hailed with 
 gratitude, his memory honored and cherished as the second founder of the 
 liberties of the people, and the period of his administration will be looked 
 back to as one of the happiest and brightest epochs in American history. 
 
 But I beg the gentleman s pardon. He has indeed secured to himself a 
 more imperishable fame than I had supposed. I think it was about four 
 years ago, that he submitted to the house of representatives, an initiative 
 proposition for an impeachment of Mr. Jefferson. The house condescended 
 to consider it. The gentleman debated it with his usual temper, moderation, 
 and urbanity. The house decided upon it in the most solemn manner ; and, 
 although the gentleman had somehow obtained a second, the final vote stood, 
 one for, and one hundred and seventeen against the proposition I The same 
 historic page that transmitted to posterity the virtue and glory of Henry the 
 Great of France, for their admiration and example, has preserved the in 
 famous name of the fanatic assassin of the excellent monarch. The same 
 sacred pen that portrayed the sufferings and crucifixion of the Savior of 
 mankind, has recorded for universal execration, the name of him who was 
 guilty not of betraying his country but a kindred crime of betray 
 ing his God !"* 
 
 In other parts of his speech, Mr. Clay electrified the house by 
 his impassioned eloquence. The day was intensely cold, and, 
 for the cnly time in his life, he found it difficult to keep himself 
 warm by the exercise of speaking. But the members crowded 
 
 * When the proposition was made to impeach Thomaa Jefferson, Mr. Clay is said to have 
 risen, and exclaimed in reference to the mover, " Sir, the gentleman soils the spot he stands 
 upon." 
 
48 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 around him in hushed admiration ; and there were few among 
 them who did not testify by their streaming tears his mastery 
 over the passions. The subject of impressment was touched 
 upon ; and the matchless pathos with which he depicted the con 
 sequences of that infernal system portraying the situation of a 
 supposed victim to its tyrannic outrages thrilled through every 
 heart. The reported passage can but feebly convey a conception 
 of the impression produced. As well might we attempt to form 
 an adequate idea of one of Raphael s pictures from a written de 
 scription, as to transcribe the eloquence of Clay on this occasion. 
 Even were his glowing words fully and correctly given, how 
 much of the effect would be lost in the absence of that sweet 
 and silvery voice that graceful and expressive action those 
 flashing eyes which gave life, and potency, axid victory to his 
 language ! In conclusion, Mr. Clay said : 
 
 " My plan would be to call out the ample resources of the country, give 
 them a judicious direction, prosecute the war with the utmost vigor, strike 
 wherever we can reach the enemy, at sea oron land, and negotiate the terms 
 of a peace at Quebec or at Halifax. We are told that England is a proud 
 and lofty nation, which, disdaining to wait for danger, meets it half way 
 Haughty as she is, we once triumphed over her, and, if we do not listen to 
 the counsels of timidity and despair, we shall again prevail. In such a 
 cause, with the aid of Providence, we must come out crowned with success 
 but if we fail, let us fail like men lash ourselves to our gallant tars, and 
 expire together in one common struggle FIGHTING FOR FREE TRADE AND SEA- 
 WEN S RIGHTS!" 
 
 frhe army bill, thus advocated by Mr. Clay, passed the house 
 on the 14th of January, 1813, by a vote of seventy-seven to 
 forty-two^ 
 
 On the 10th of February, the president of the senate, in the 
 presence of both houses of Congress, proceeded to open the cer 
 tificates of the votes of the electors of the several states for 
 president and vice president of the United States. The vote 
 stood : For president, James Madison, 128 : De Witt Clinton, 89. 
 For vice-president, Elbridge Gerry, 131 : Jared Ingersoll, 86. 
 James Madison and Elbridge Gerry were accordingly elected 
 *he former for a second term. The war policy of the adminis 
 tration was triumphantly sustained by the people. 
 
 /The first session of the thirteenth Congress, commenced the 
 twenty-fo irth of May, 1813. Mr. Clay was again chosen speaker 
 
AMERICAN VICTORIES. 49 
 
 by a large majority, and his voice of exhortation arid encourage 
 ment continued to be raised in committee of the whole in vindi 
 cation of the honor of the country and the conduct of the warT) 
 The president, in his message, alluded to the spirit in which the 
 war had been waged by the British, who " were adding to the 
 savage fury of it on one frontier, a system of plunder and con 
 flagration on the other, equally forbidden by respect for national 
 character, and by the established rules of civilized warfare." 
 
 Mr. Clay eloquently called attention to this portion of the mes 
 sage, and declared that if the outrages said to have been committed 
 by the British armies and their savage allies, should be found to 
 be as public report had stated them, they called for the indignation 
 of all Christendom, and ought to be embodied in an authentic 
 iocument, which might perpetuate them on the page of history. 
 Upon this motion, a resolution was adopted, referring this portion 
 of the president s message to a select committee, of which Mr. 
 Maconwas chairman. A report was subsequently submitted from 
 this committee, in which an abundance of testimony was brought 
 forward, showing that the most inhuman outrages had been re 
 peatedly perpetrated upon American prisoners by the Indian allies 
 of British troops, and often under the eye of British officers. 
 The report closed with a resolution requesting the president to 
 lay before the house, during the progress of the war, all the in 
 stances of departure, by the British, from the ordinary mode of 
 conducting war among civilized nations. 
 
 The new Congress had commenced its session at a period of 
 general exultation among all patriotic Americans. Several honor 
 able victories, by sea and land, had shed lustre on our annals. 
 Captain Lawrence, of the Hornet, with but eighteen guns, had 
 captured, after a brisk and gallant action of fifteen minutes, the 
 British sloop-of-war Peacock, Captain Peake, carrying twenty- 
 two guns and one hundred and thirty men the latter losing her 
 captain and nine men, with thirty wounded, while our loss was 
 but one killed and two wounded. York, the capital of Upper 
 Canada, had been captured by the army of the centre, in con 
 nection with a naval force on Lake Ontario, under Gen. Dear 
 born ; while the issue of the siege of Fort Meigs, under Gen 
 4 
 
50 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 Harrison, had won for that officer an imperishable renown as a 
 brave and skilful soldier. 
 
 In September of the preceding year, the emperor Alexander, 
 of Russia, had intimated to Mr. Adams, our minister at St. Peters- 
 burgh, his intention of tendering his services as mediator between 
 the United States and Great Britain. The proposition had been 
 favorably received, and assurances had been given to the em 
 peror of the earnest desire of our government that the interest 
 of Russia might remain entirely unaffected by the existing war 
 between us and England, and that no more intimate connections 
 with France would be formed by the United States. With these 
 assurances the emperor had been highly gratified ; and in the 
 early part of March, 1813, the Russian minister at Washington, 
 M. Daschkoff, had formally proffered the mediation of his govern 
 ment, which was readily accepted by the president. It. was reject 
 ed, however, by the British government, to the great surprise of 
 our own, on the ground that their commercial and maritime rights 
 would not thereby be as effectually secured as they deemed 
 necessary ; but, accompanying the rejection, was an expression 
 of willingness to treat directly with the United States, either at 
 Gottenburg or at London ; and the interposition of the emperoi 
 was requested in favor of such an arrangement. 
 
 In consequence of the friendly offer of the Russian govern 
 ment, Messrs. Albert Gallatin and James A. Bayard, had been 
 sent to join our resident minister, Mr. Adams, as envoys-extra 
 ordinary at St. Petersburgh. The proposal of the British min 
 istry, to treat with us at Gottenburg, was soon after accepted, and 
 Messrs. Clay and Jonathan Russell were appointed, in conjunction 
 with the three plenipotentiaries then in Russia, to conduct the 
 negotiations. On the 19th of January, 1814, Mr. Clay, in an ap 
 propriate address, accordingly resigned his station as speaker of 
 the house. The same day a resolution was passed by that body 
 thanking him for the ability and impartiality with which he had 
 presided. The resolution was adopted almost unanimously- 
 only nine members voting in opposition. / 
 
 Mr. Clay had always asserted that an honorable peace was 
 attainable only by an efficient war. In Congress, he had been 
 the originator and most ardent supporter of nearly all those meas- 
 
HIS SERVICES DURING THE WAR. 51 
 
 ures which had for their object the vigorous prosecution of hos 
 tilities against Great Britainy On every occasion, his trumpet- 
 voice was heard, cheering on the house and the country to 
 confidence and victory. No auguries of evil no croakings of 
 despondency no suggestions of timidity no violence of fed 
 eral opposition could for a moment, shake his patriotic purposes, 
 diminish his reliance on the justice of our cause, or induce him 
 to hesitate in that policy, which he believed the honor and 
 what was inseparable from the honor the interests of the 
 country demanded. 
 
 The measure of gratitude due him from his fellow-citizens, for 
 his exertions in this cause alone, is not to be calculated or paid. 
 But on the scroll where Freedom inscribes the names of her 
 worthiest champions, destined to an immortal renown in her an 
 nals, the name of HENRY CLAY will be found with those of 
 WASHINGTON, JEFFERSON, and MADISON. 
 
 Having been the most efficient leader in directing the legisla 
 tive action which originated and directed to a prosperous termi 
 nation the war with Great Britain a war which the voice of 
 an impartial posterity must admit to have elevated and strength 
 ened us as a nation Mr. Clay was now appropriately selected 
 as one of the commissioners to arrange a treaty of peace. 
 
&2 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 IV. 
 
 TREATY OF GHENT MR. CLAY S RETURN. 
 
 THE commissioners met first at Gottingen, but their meetings 
 were afterward transferred to Ghent. \ The conferences occu 
 pied a space of time of about five months. The American com 
 missioners were in reality negotiating with the whole British 
 ministry ; for, whenever they addressed a diplomatic note of any 
 importance to the British commissioners, it was by them trans 
 mitted to London, from which place the substance of an answer 
 was returned in the form of instructions. The consequence was 
 that the American commissioners, after having delivered a diplo 
 matic note, had to wait about a week before they received a 
 reply. 
 
 In one of these pauses of the negotiation, Mr. Clay made a 
 little excursion to Brussels, and Mr. Goulbourne went there at 
 the same time. The British commissioners had been in the 
 habit of sending their English newspapers to the American com 
 missioners, through which the latter often derived the first intel 
 ligence of events occurring in America. 
 
 The morning after Mr. Clay s arrival in Brussels, upon his 
 coming down to breakfast, his servant, Frederick Cara, whom he 
 had taken with him from the city of Washington, threw some 
 papers upon the breakfast table, and burst into tears. " What s 
 the matter, Frederick ?" " The British have taken Washington, 
 sir, and Mr. Goulbourne has sent you those papers, which con 
 tain the account." " Is it possible ?" exclaimed Mr. Clay. " It 
 is too true, sir," returned Frederick, whining piteously. 
 
 The news was by no means agreeable to Mr. Clay ; nor was 
 his concern diminished when he thought of the channel through 
 which it had been conveyed to him, although fully persuaded 
 that Mr. Goulbourne had not been actuated by any uncourteous 
 spirit of exultation. Mr. Clay nevertheless resolved to avail 
 himself of the first favorable opportunity for friendly retaliation ; 
 and one fortunately soon occurred. A point in the negotiation, 
 which had been very much pressed, was pacification with the 
 
THE COMMISSIONERS AT GHENT. 53 
 
 Indians, which the American commissioners assured the British 
 would necessarily follow pacification with Great Britain. The 
 former received some recent American newspapers contain 
 ing an account of the actual conclusion of peace with some of 
 the Indian tribes, but containing also an account of the splendid 
 naval victory won on Lake Champlain. Mr. Clay proposed to 
 the American commissioners that these newspapers should be 
 sent to the British, ostensibly for the purpose of showing that 
 peace was made with some of the Indians, but in reality to afford 
 them an opportunity of perusing the account of that victory. 
 With the concurrence of his colleagues, he accordingly addressed 
 an official note to the British commissioners transmitting the 
 newspapers. 
 
 The mode of transacting business among the American com 
 missioners was, upon the reception of an official note from the 
 other party, to deliberate fully upon its contents, and to discuss 
 them at a board. After that, the paper was placed in the hands 
 of one of the commissioners to prepare an answer. Upon the 
 preparation of that answer, it was carefully examined and con 
 sidered by the board, every member of which took it to his lodg 
 ings to suggest in pencil such alterations as appeared to him, 
 proper ; and these were again considered and finally adopted or 
 rejected, and the paper handed to the secretary to be copied and 
 recorded. 
 
 In the composition of the official notes sent by the American 
 to the British commissioners, the pen of Mr. Gallatin was, per 
 haps, most frequently employed ; then that of Mr. Adams ; then 
 that of Mr. Clay. Messrs. Bayard and Russell wrote the least. 
 
 During the progress of the negotiation and at a very critical 
 period of it, the official despatches of the American commissioners, 
 giving a full account of the prospects of the negotiation, and ex 
 pressing very little hope of its successful termination, having 
 been published by the order of the American government, came 
 back to the commissioners at Ghent in the newspapers. They 
 arrived in the evening, just as the American commissioners were 
 dressed to go to a ball given to the commissioners by the author 
 ities of Ghent. The unexpected publication of these despatches 
 excited the surprise and regret of the American commissioners. 
 
54 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 Some of them thought that a rupture of the negotiation would be 
 the consequence. Mr. Clay, on account of his open and frank 
 manner, was on terms of more unreserved and free intercourse 
 with the British commissioners than any of his colleagues, and 
 he resolved that evening to sound the former as to the effect of 
 this publication of the despatches. He accordingly addressed 
 himself to the three commissioners severally in succession at the 
 ball, beginning with Lord Gambier, who was the most distin 
 guished for amenity and benevolence of character, and saying : 
 " You perceive, my lord, that our government had published our 
 despatches, and that now the whole world knows what we are 
 doing here." " Yes," replied his lordship, " I have seen it with 
 infinite surprise, and the proceeding is without example in the 
 civilized world." To which Mr. Clay mildly rejoined : " Why 
 my lord, you must recollect that, at the time of the publication of 
 these despatches, our government had every reason to suppose, 
 from the nature of the pretensions and demands which yours 
 brought forward, that our negotiation would not terminate suc 
 cessfully, and that the publication would not find us here together. 
 I am quite sure, that if our government had anticipated the pres 
 ent favorable aspect of our deliberations, the publication of the 
 despatches would not have been ordered. Then, your lordship 
 must also recollect, that if, as you truly asserted, the publication 
 of despatches pending a negotiation is not according to the cus 
 tom of European diplomacy, our government itself is organized 
 upon principles totally different from those on which European 
 governments are constituted. With us, the business in which 
 we were here engaged, is the people s business. We are their 
 servants, and they have a right to know how their business is 
 going on. The publication, therefore, was to give the people in 
 formation of what intimately affected them." 
 
 Lord Gambier did not appear to be satisfied with this explana 
 tion, although he was silenced by it. Mr. Clay had a similar 
 interview with the two other British commissioners ; and their 
 feelings, in consequence of the publication, were marked by the 
 degree of excitability of their respective characters. But the 
 fears which were entertained by some of the American commis 
 sioners were not realized. The publication was never spoken 
 
NAVIGATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 53 
 
 of in conference, and the negotiation proceeded to a successful 
 issue as if it had not happened. 
 
 Between the American commissioners, in the conduct of the 
 negotiation at Ghent, no serious difficulty arose, except on one 
 point, and that related to the subject of the fisheries and naviga 
 tion of the Mississippi. By the third article of the definitive 
 treaty of peace with Great Britain concluded in September, 1783, 
 certain rights of fishing, and of drying and curing fish within the 
 limits of British jurisdiction, and upon British soil, were secured 
 to the citizens of the United States. And by the eighth article 
 of the same treaty, it was stipulated that the right to the naviga 
 tion of the river Mississippi, from its source to the ocean, should 
 remain for ever free and open to the subjects of Great Britain 
 and the citizens of the United States. The same mutual right 
 of navigation was recognised by Mr. Jay s treaty of 1794. 
 
 When the American commissioners were in consultation as to 
 the project of a treaty to be presented to the consideration of the 
 British commissioners, it was proposed that an article should be 
 inserted renewing those rights of taking and curing and drying 
 fish, and of the navigation of the Mississippi. To such a pro 
 posal, Mr. Clay was decidedly opposed, and Mr. Russell con 
 curred with him. The other three commissioners were for 
 making the proposal. The argument on that question was long, 
 earnest and ardent. Mr. Clay contended, that the right of catch 
 ing fish in the open seas and bays, being incontestable, the privi 
 lege of taking them and curing and drying them within the 
 exclusive jurisdiction of Great Britain was of little or no impor 
 tance, especially as it was limited to the time that the British 
 territory should remain unsettled. With respect to the navigation 
 of the Mississippi, he contended, that at the dates both of the de 
 finitive treaty of peace of 1783, and of Mr. Jay s treaty of 1794, 
 Spain owned the whole of the right bank of the Mississippi, in all 
 its extent, and both banks of it from the Mexican gulf up to the 
 boundary of the United States ; that at both those periods, it was 
 supposed that the British dominions touched on the Upper Mis 
 sissippi, but it was now known that they did not border at all on 
 that river ; that now the whole Mississippi, from its uppermost 
 source to the gulf, was incontestably within the limits of the 
 
56 LIFE OF HENRY CLA?. 
 
 United States. He could not, therefore, conceive the propriety 
 of stipulating with Great Britain for a mutual right to the navi 
 gation of that river. It was the largest river in the United States ; 
 so large as to have acquired the denomination of the Father of 
 rivers. Why select it from among all the rivers of the United 
 States, and subject it to a foreign vassalage ? Why do that in 
 respect to the Mississippi which would not be tolerated as re 
 spects the North river, the James, or the Potomac ? What would 
 Great Britain herself think if a proposal were made that the citi 
 zens of the United States and the subjects of Great Britain should 
 have a mutual right to navigate the Thames 1 To make the 
 proposed concession, was to admit of a British partnership with 
 the United States in the sovereignity of the Mississippi, so far 
 as its navigation was concerned. Then there might be a doubt 
 and a dispute whether the concession did not comprehend the 
 tributaries as well as the principal stream. If the grant of the 
 right to navigate the Mississippi was to be regarded as an equiv 
 alent for the concession of the fishing privilege, Mr. Clay denied 
 hat there was any affinity between the two subjects. They 
 were as distant in their nature as they were remote from each 
 other in their localities. 
 
 On the other side, it was contended that it would occasion re 
 gret and dissatisfaction in the United States, if any of the fishing 
 privileges, or other privileges, which had been enjoyed before 
 the breaking out of the war, should not be secured by the treaty 
 of peace ; that those fishing privileges were very important and 
 dear to a section of the Union, which had been adverse to the 
 war ; that the British right to the navigation of the Mississippi 
 was merely a nominal concession, which would not result in any 
 practical injury to the United States ; that foreigners now enjoyed 
 the right to navigate all the rivers up to the ports of entry estab 
 lished upon them, without any prejudice to our interests ; that 
 Great Britain had been entitled to this right of navigating the 
 Mississippi from the period of the acquisition of Louisiana to the 
 declaration of war in 1812, without any mischief or inconvenience 
 to the United States. 
 
 To all this, Mr. Clay replied that if we lost the fishing privi- 
 ?eges within the exclusive jurisdiction, we gained the total ex- 
 
NAVIGATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 57 
 
 emption of the Mississippi from this foreign participation with us 
 in the right to its navigation ; that the uncertainty as to the extent 
 of privileges which the British right to navigate the Mississippi 
 comprised, far from recommending the concession to him, formed 
 an additional objection to it ; that the period of about eight years 
 between the acquisition of Louisiana and the declaration of war, 
 was too short for us to ascertain by experience what practical 
 use Great Britain was capable of making of that right of naviga 
 tion, which might be injurious to us. We knew that a great 
 many of the Indian tribes were situated upon the sources of the 
 Mississippi. The British right to navigate that river might bring 
 her into direct contact with them, and we had sufficient experi 
 ence of the pernicious use she might make of those Indians. 
 He was as anxious as any of his colleagues to secure all the rights 
 of fishing, and curing and drying fish, which had hitherto been 
 enjoyed ; but he could not consent to the purchase of temporary 
 and uncertain privileges within the British limits, at the expense 
 of putting a foreign and degrading mark upon the noblest of all our 
 rivers. 
 
 After the argument, which was extended to several sessions 
 of the consultation meetings of the American commissioners, 
 was exhausted, it appeared that the same three commissioners 
 were inclined to make the proposal. In that stage of the pro 
 ceedings, Mr. Clay said, he felt it due to his colleagues to state 
 to them that he would affix his signature to no treaty which shoula 
 make to Great Britain the contemplated concession. After the an 
 nouncement of this determination, Mr. Bayard united with Messrs. 
 Clay and Russell, and then formed a majority against tendering 
 the proposal and it was not made. 
 
 But, at a subsequent period of the negotiation, when the Brit 
 ish commissioners made their proposition for a treaty, on of the 
 propositions was to renew the British right to navigate the Mis 
 sissippi simply, without including the fishing privileges in ques 
 tion. On examining this proposal, the American commissioners 
 considered, first, whether they should accept the proposals with 
 or without conditions. All united in agreeing that it ought not 
 to be unconditionally accepted. But the same three commission 
 ers who had been originally in favor of an article which should 
 
58 LIFE OF KENRY CLAY. 
 
 include both the Mississippi and the fishing privileges within the 
 British limits, appeared to be now in favor of accepting the Brit 
 ish proposal, upon the condition that it should comprehend those 
 fishing privileges. Mr. Clay did not renew the expression of 
 his determination to sign no treaty which should concede to the 
 British the right to the navigation of the Mississippi, although he 
 remained fixed in that purpose ; for he apprehended that a repe 
 tition of the expression of his determination might be miscon 
 ceived by his colleagues. 
 
 It was accordingly proposed to the British commissioners to 
 accept the proposal with the condition just stated. In a subse 
 quent conference between the two commissions, the British de 
 clined accepting the proposed conditions, and it was mutually 
 agreed to leave both subjects out of the treaty. And thus, as 
 Mr. Clay wished from the first, the Mississippi river became lib 
 erated from all British pretensions of a right to navigate it from 
 the ocean to its source. 
 
 A controversy having arisen between Messrs. Adams and 
 Russell, about the year 1823, in respect to some points in the 
 negotiations at Ghent, an embittered correspondence took place 
 between those two gentlemen. In the course of it, Mr. Clay 
 thought that Mr. Adams had unintentionally fallen into some er 
 rors, which Mr. Clay, in a note addressed to the public, stated 
 he would at some future day correct. About the year 1828 or 
 1829, Mr. Russell, without the previous consent of Mr. Clay, 
 published a confidential letter addressed by Mr. Clay to him, in 
 which he expresses his condemnation of Mr. Russell s course in 
 the alteration of some of his letters, which had been charged and 
 proved upon him by Mr. Adams. In that same letter, Mr. Clay 
 gives his explanation of some of the transactions at Ghent, re 
 specting which he thought Mr. Adams was mistaken. The pub 
 lication of the confidential letters superseded tfye necessity of 
 making the corrections which Mr. Clay had intended. In this 
 letter, Mr. Clay in no instance impugns the motives of Mr. Adams, 
 nor does it contain a line from which an unfriendly state of feel 
 ing on the part of the writer toward Mr.* Adams could be in - 
 ferred. 
 
 Such was Mr, Clay s pride of country that he had resolved not 
 
VISITS PARIS MADAME DB STAEL. 59 
 
 to go to England until he had heard of the ratification of the 
 treaty of Ghent. After the termination of the negotiations he 
 went to Paris, and accepted the invitation of Mr. Crawford, our 
 minister, to take apartments in his hotel. Mr. Clay remained in 
 Paris during upward of two months. On the night of his .arrival 
 in that brilliant metropolis, he found at Mr. Crawford s an invita 
 tion to a ball given by the American banker, Mr. Hottinguer, on 
 the occasion of the pacification between the United States and 
 Great Britain. There he met for the first time the celebrated 
 Madame de Stael was introduced to her, and had with her a 
 long and animated conversation. 
 
 " Ah !" said she, " Mr. Clay, I have been in England, and 
 have been battling your cause for you there." " I know it, ma- 
 dame ; we heard of your powerful interposition, and we are 
 grateful and thankful for it." " They were very much enraged 
 against you," said she : " so much so, that they at one time 
 thought seriously of sending the duke of Wellington to command 
 their armies against you !" " I am very sorry, madame," replied 
 Mr. Clay, " that they did not send his grace." " Why ? asked 
 she, surprised. " Because, madame, if he had beaten us, we 
 should have been in the condition of Europe, without disgrace. 
 But, if we had been so fortunate as to defeat him, we should 
 have greatly added to the renown of our arms." 
 
 The next time he met Madame de Stael was at a party at her 
 own house, which was attended by the marshals of France, the 
 duke of Wellington, and other distinguished persons. She in 
 troduced Mr. Clay to the duke, and at the same time related the 
 above anecdote. He replied with promptness and politeness, 
 that if he had been sent on that service, and had been so fortu 
 nate as to have been successful over a foe so gallant as the 
 Americans, he would have regarded it as the proudest feather in 
 his cap. 
 
 During his stay in Paris, Mr. Clay heard of the issue of the 
 battle of New Orleans. " Now," said he to his informant, " I can 
 go to England without mortification." But he expressed himself 
 greatly mortified at the inglorious flight attributed, in the de 
 spatches of the American general, to a portion of the Kentucky 
 militia, which Mr. Clay pronounced must be a mistake. 
 
60 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 Having heard of the ratification of the treaty of Ghent, Mr 
 Clay left Paris for England in March, 1815, just before the ar 
 rival of Bonaparte in the French capital. He thus missed the 
 opportunity of seeing the great Corsican. He would have re 
 mained in Paris for the purpose, had he supposed the emperor 
 would arrive so soon. It was about this time that Louis XVIII. 
 eft Paris, and took up his residence in Ghent, near the hotel 
 which the American commissioners had recently occupied. 
 
 On his arrival in England before any of the other American 
 commissioners, Mr. Clay had an interview with Lord Castle- 
 reagh, who contracted for him a high esteem, which was fre 
 quently manifested during his sojourn in England. Lord Castle- 
 reagh offered to present him to the prince-regent. Mr. Clay 
 said he would go through the ceremony, if it were deemed ne 
 cessary or respectful. Lord Castlereagh said, that, having been 
 recognised in his public character by the British government, it 
 was not necessary, and that he might omit it or not, as he pleased. 
 Mr. Clay s repugnance to the parade of courts prevented his pres 
 entation, and he never saw the prince. He met, however, with 
 most of the other members of the royal family. 
 
 A few days after his interview with Lord Castlereagh, the 
 keeper of the house at which Mr. Clay lodged, announced a per 
 son who wished to speak with him. Mr. Clay directed him to 
 be admitted ; and, on his entrance, he perceived an individual, 
 dressed apparently in great splendor, come forward, whom he 
 took to be a peer of the realm. He rose and asked his visiter to 
 be seated, but the latter declined, and observed that he was the 
 first waiter of my Lord Castlereagh ! " The first waiter of my 
 Lord Castlereagh !" exclaimed Mr. Clay; "well, what is your 
 pleasure with me?" "Why, if your excellency pleases," said 
 the man, " it is usual for a foreign minister, when presented to 
 Lord Castlereagh, to make to his first waiter a present, or pay him 
 the customary stipend ;" at the same time handing to Mr. Clay 
 a long list of names of foreign ministers, with the sum which 
 every one had paid affixed to his name. 
 
 Mr. Clay thinking it a vile extortion, took the paper, and, 
 while reading it, thought how he should repel so exceptionable 
 a demand. He returned it to the servant, telling him that, as it 
 
HE VISITS ENGLAND. 61 
 
 was the custom of the country, he presumed it was all right ; but 
 that he was not the minister to England ; Mr. Adams was the 
 minister, and was daily expected from Paris, and, he had no 
 doubt, would do whatever was right. " But," said the servant, 
 very promptly, " if your excellency pleases, it makes no differ 
 ence whether the minister presented be the resident minister or 
 a special minister, as I understand your excellency to be; it is 
 always paid." Mr. Clay, who had come to England to argue 
 with the master, finding himself in danger of being beaten in 
 argument by the man, concluded it was best to conform to the 
 usage, objectionable as he thought it ; and, looking over the 
 paper for the smallest sum paid by any other minister, handed 
 the fellow five guineas, and dismissed him. 
 
 Mr. Clay was in London when the battle of Waterloo was 
 fought, and witnessed the illuminations, bonfires, and rejoicings, 
 to which it gave rise. For a day or two, it was a matter of great 
 uncertainty what had become of Napoleon. During this interval 
 of anxious suspense, Mr. Clay dined at Lord Castlereagh s with 
 the American ministers, Messrs. Adams and Gallatin, and the 
 British ministry. Bonaparte s flight and probable place of refuge 
 became the topics of conversation. Among other conjectures, it 
 was suggested that he might have gone to the United States ; 
 and Lord Liverpool, addressing Mr. Clay, asked : " If he goes 
 there, will he not give you a good deal of trouble ?" " Not the 
 least, my lord," replied Mr. Clay, with his habitual promptitude 
 "we shall be very glad to receive him ; we would treat him 
 with all hospitality, and very soon make of him a good democrat." 11 
 
 The reply produced a very hearty peal of laughter from the 
 whole company. 
 
 Mr. Clay was received in the British circles, both of the minis 
 try and the opposition, with the most friendly consideration. The 
 late Sir James Mackintosh was one of his first acquaintances in 
 London ; and of the lamented Sir Samuel Romilly and his beau 
 tiful and accomplished lady, Mr. Clay has been heard to remark, 
 that they presented one of the most beautiful examples of a hap 
 py man and wife that he had ever seen. He passed a most 
 agreeable week with his Ghent friend, Lord Gambier, at Iver 
 Grove, near Windsor Castle. Of this pious and excellent noble- 
 
62 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 man, Mr. Clay has ever retained a lively and friendly recollec 
 tion. He visited with him Windsor Castle, Frogmore Lodge, 
 the residence of the descendant of William Penn, and saw the 
 wife of George III and some of the daughters. 
 
 In September, 1815, Mr. Clay returned to his own country, 
 arriving in New York, which port he had left in March, 1814. 
 A public dinner was given to him and Mr. Gallatin, soon after 
 their disembarkation. Everywhere, on his route homeward to 
 his adopted state, he was received with continual demonstrations 
 of public gratitude and approbation. In Kentucky he was hailed 
 with every token of affection and respect. The board of trustees 
 of Lexington waited upon him and presented their thanks for his 
 eminent services in behalf of his country. 
 
 On the seventh of October, the citizens of the same town gave 
 him a public dinner. In reply to a toast complimentary to the 
 American negotiators, he made some brief and eloquent remarks 
 concerning the circumstances under which the treaty had been 
 concluded, and the general condition of the country, both at the 
 commencement and the close of the war. At the same festival, 
 in reply to a toast highly complimentary to himself, he thanked 
 the company for their kind and affectionate attention. His re 
 ception, he said, had been more like that of a brother than a 
 common friend or acquaintance, and he was utterly incapable of 
 finding words to express his gratitude. He compared his situa 
 tion to that of a Swedish gentleman, at a festival in England; 
 given by the Society for the Relief of Foreigners in Distress. 
 A toast having been given, complimentary to his country, it was 
 expected that he should address the company in reply. Not un 
 derstanding the English language, he was greatly embarrassed, 
 and said to the chairman : " Sir, I wish you and this society to 
 consider me a foreigner in distress. 11 " So," said Mr. Clay, evi 
 dently much affected, " I wish you to consider me a friend in 
 distress." 
 
 In anticipation of his return home, Mr. Clay had been unani 
 mously re-elected a member of Congress from the district he 
 formerly represented. Doubts arising as to the legality of this 
 election, a new one was ordered, and the result was the same. 
 
 On the fourth of December, 1815, the fourteenth Congress 
 
HIS SPEECH ON THE TREATY. 63 
 
 met, in its first session. Mr. Clay was again elected speaker of the 
 house of representatives, almost unanimously receiving, upon 
 the first balloting, eighty-seven out of one hundred and twenty- 
 two votes cast thirteen being the highest number given for any 
 one of the five opposing candidates. He was, at this time, just 
 recovering from a serious indisposition, but accepted the office 
 in a brief and appropriate speech, acknowledging the honor con 
 ferred upon him, and pledging his best efforts for the proper dis 
 charge of its duties. 
 
 Among the important subjects which came up, that of the new 
 treaty was, of course, among the foremost. John Randolph and 
 the federalists, after having resisted the war, now took frequent 
 occasion to sneer at the mode of its termination. On the 29th 
 of January, 1816, Mr. Clay addressed the committee of the house 
 most eloquently in reply to these cavilers. 
 
 " I gave a vote," said lie, " for the declaration of war. I exerted all the 
 little influence and talents I could command to make the war. The war was 
 made. It is terminated. And I declare, with perfect sincerity, if it had 
 been permitted to me to lift the veil of futurity, and to have foreseen the 
 precise series of events which has occurred, my vote would have been un 
 changed. We had been insulted, and outraged, and spoliated upon by al 
 most all Europe by Great Britain, by France, Spain, Denmark, Naples, and, 
 to cap the climax, by the little contemptible power of Algiers. We had sub 
 mitted too long and too much. We had become the scorn of foreign powers, 
 and the derision of our own citizens." 
 
 It had been objected by the opposition, that no provision had 
 been made in the treaty in regard to the impressment of our sea 
 men by the British. On this subject, Mr. Clay said and his 
 argument is as conclusive as it is lofty : 
 
 " One of the great causes of the war, and of its continuance, was the prac 
 tice of impressment exercised by Great Britain and -if this claim had been 
 admitted by necessary implication or express stipulation, the rights of our sea 
 men would have been abandoned ! It is with utter astonishment that I hear 
 it has been contended in this country, that because our right of exemption 
 from the practice had not been expressly secured in the treaty, it was, there 
 fore, given up ! It is impossible that such an argument can be advanced on 
 this floor. No member, who regarded his reputation, would venture to ad 
 vance such a doctrine !" 
 
 In conclusion, Mr. Clay declared, on this occasion, that his 
 policy, in regard to the attitude in which the country should now 
 be placed, was to preserve the present force, naval and military 
 to provide for the augmentation of the navy to fortify the weak 
 
64 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 and vulnerable points indicated by experience to construe 
 military roads and canals and, in short, " TO COMMENCE THE 
 
 GREAT WORK OF INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT." 
 
 "I would see," he said, " a chain of turnpike roads and canals from Passa- 
 maquoddy to New Orleans ; and other similar roads intersecting^ mountains, 
 to facilitate intercourse between all parts of the country, and to bind and con 
 nect us together. I WOULD ALSO EFFECTUALLY PROTECT OUR MANUFACTORIES. I 
 would afford them protection, not so much for the sake of the manufacturers 
 themselves, as for the general interest." 
 
 It was in this patriotic spirit, and impelled by this far-sighted, 
 liberal, and truly American policy, that Mr. Clay resumed his leg 
 islative labors in the national counsels. He has lived to carry out 
 those truly great and statesman-like measures of protection and 
 internal improvement, Avhich even then began to gather shape and 
 power in a mind ever active in the cause of his country. May he 
 live to receive a testimonial of that country s gratitude and admira 
 tion, in the bestowal upon him of the highest honor in her gift ! 
 
 V. 
 
 THE UNITED STATES BANK SOUTH AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 THE financial condition of the United States, at the close of 
 the war, was extremely depressed. The currency was deranged, 
 public credit impaired, and a heavy debt impending. In his mes 
 sage, at. the opening of the session of 1815- ! 6, President Madi 
 son stated the condition of public affairs, and indicated the estab 
 lishment of a national bank, and of a protective tariff, as the two 
 great measures of relief. 
 
 On the 8th of January, 1816, Mr. Calhoun, from the committee 
 on that part of the president s message relating to the currency, 
 reported a bill to incorporate the subscribers to a Bank of the 
 United States. 
 
 It will be remembered that Mr. Clay, in 1811, while a membe* 
 of the senate, had opposed the rechartering of the old bank. 
 His reasons for now advocating, the bill before the house have 
 been fully and freely communicated to the public. 
 
RECHARTER OF THE UNITED STATES BANK. 65 
 
 When the application was made to renew the old charter of 
 the Bank of the United States, such an institution did not appear 
 to him to be so necessary to the fulfilment of any of the objects 
 specifically enumerated in the constitution, as to justify C /rgress 
 in assuming, by construction, power to establish it. It w w sup 
 ported mainly upon the ground that it was indispensable to the 
 treasury operations. But the local institutions in the several 
 states, were at that time in prosperous existence, confide i in by 
 the community, having confidence in one another, and maintain 
 ing an intercourse and connection the most intimate. Many of 
 them were actually employed by the treasury, to aid that depart 
 ment in a part of its fiscal arrangements ; and they appeared to 
 him to be fully capable of affording to it all the facilities that i 
 ought to desire in all of them. They superseded, in his judgment., 
 the necessity of a national institution. 
 
 But how stood the case in 1816, when he was called upon, 
 again to examine the power of the general government to incor 
 porate a national bank ? A total change of circumstances was 
 presented. Events of the utmost magnitude had intervened. A 
 suspension of specie payments had taken place. The currency 
 of the country was completely vitiated. The government issued 
 paper bearing an interest of six per cent., which it pledged the 
 faith of the country to redeem. For this paper, guarantied by 
 the honor and faith of the government, there was obtained for 
 every one hundred dollars, eighty dollars from those banks which 
 suspended specie payments. The experience of the war, there 
 fore, showed the necessity of a bank. The country could not 
 get along without it. Mr. Clay had then changed his opinion on 
 the subject, and he had never attempted to disguise the fact. In 
 his position as speaker of the house, he might have locked up his 
 opinion in his own breast. But with that candor and fearlessness 
 which have ever distinguished him, he had come forward, as 
 honest men ought to come forward, and expressed his change of 
 opinion, at the time when President Madison, and other eminent 
 men, changed their course in relation to the bank. 
 
 The constitution confers on Congress the power to com money 
 and to regulate the value of foreign coins : and the states are for 
 bidden to coin money, to emit bills of credit, or to make anything 
 
 5 
 
66 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 but gold or silver coin a tender in payment of debts. The plain 
 inference was, that the subject of the general currency was in 
 tended to be submitted exclusively to the general government. 
 In point of fact, however, the regulation of the general currency 
 was in the hands of the state governments, or, what was the same 
 thing, of the banks created by them. Their paper had every 
 quality of money, except that of being made a tender, and even 
 this was imparted to it by some states, in the law by which a 
 creditor must receive it, or submit to a ruinous suspension of the 
 payment of his debt. 
 
 It was incumbent upon Congress to recover the control which 
 it had lost over the general currency. The remedy called for 
 was one of caution and moderation, but of firmness. Whether a 
 remedy, directly acting upon the banks and their paper thrown 
 into circulation, was in the power of the general government or 
 not, neither Congress nor the community were prepared for the 
 application of such a remedy. 
 
 An indirect remedy of a milder character, seemed to be fur 
 nished by a national bank. Going into operation with the power 
 ful aid of the treasury of the United States, Mr. Clay believed it 
 would be highly instrumental in the renewal of specie payments. 
 Coupled with the other measure adopted by Congress for that 
 object, he believed the remedy effectual. The local banks must 
 follow the example which the national bank would set them, of 
 redeeming their notes by the payment of specie, or their notes 
 would be discredited and put down. 
 
 If the constitution, then, warranted the establishment of a bank, 
 other considerations, besides those already mentioned, strongly 
 urged it. The want of a general medium was everywhere felt. 
 Exchange varied continually, not only between different parts of 
 the union, but between different parts of the same city. If the 
 paper of a national bank were not redeemed in specie, it would 
 be much better than the current paper, since though its value, in 
 comparison with specie, might fluctuate, it would afford a uniform 
 standard. 
 
 During this discussion of 1816, on the bank charter, a collision 
 arose between Messrs. Clay and Randolph, which produced great 
 sensation for the moment, and which, it was apprehended, might 
 
RECHARTER OF THE UNITED STATES PANK. 67 
 
 lead to serious consequences. Although Mr. Clay had changed 
 his own opinion in regard to a bank, he did not feel authorized to 
 seek, in private intercourse, to influence that of others, and ob 
 served a silence and reserve not usual to him, on the subject. 
 Mr. Randolph commented on this fact, and used language which 
 might bear an offensive interpretation. When he was done, Mr. 
 Clay rose with perfect coolness, but evidently with a firm deter 
 mination, and adverting to the offensive language, observed that 
 it required explanation, and that he should forbear saying what it 
 became him to say, until he heard the explanation, if any, which 
 the member from Virginia had to make. He sat down. Mr. 
 Randolph rose and made an explanation. Mr. Clay again rose, 
 and said that the explanation was not satisfactory. Whereupon 
 Mr. R. again got up, and disclaimed expressly all intentional 
 offence. 
 
 During the transaction of this scene, the most intense anxiety 
 and the most perfect stillness pervaded the house. You might 
 have heard a pin fall in any part of it. 
 
 The bill to recharter the bank, was discussed for several weeks 
 in the house. The vote was taken, on its third reading, on the 
 14th of March, 1816, when it was passed : 80 ayes to 71 nays : 
 and was sent to the senate for concurrence. On the 2d of April, 
 after the bill reported by the financial committee had received a 
 full and thorough discussion, it was finally passed in that body, 
 by a vote of 22 to 12 two members only being absent. The 
 amendments of the senate were speedily adopted by the house, 
 and on the 10th of April, the bill became a law, by the signature 
 of the president. The wisdom of the supporters of the measure 
 was soon made manifest in the fact that the institution more than 
 realized the most sanguine hopes of its friends. During the 
 period of its existence, the United States enjoyed a currency of 
 unexampled purity and uniformity ; and the bills of the bank were 
 as acceptable as silver in every quarter of the globe. In another 
 part of this memoir, will be found an outline of such a fiscal in 
 stitution as Mr. Clay would be in favor of, whenever the majority 
 of l\e people of the United States might demand the establishment 
 of a national bank. 
 
 On the 6th of March, 1816, Col. Richard M. Johnson, from a 
 
68 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 committee appointed for the purpose, reported a bill changing the 
 mode of compensation to members of Congress. The pay of 
 members, at that time, was six dollars a day an amount which, 
 from its inadequacy, threatened to place the legislation of the 
 country in the hands of the wealthy. The new bill gave mem 
 bers a salary of fifteeen hundred dollars a year to the presiding 
 officer twice that amount. It passed both houses without oppo 
 sition. Mr. Clay preferred the increase of the daily compensa 
 tion to the institution of a salary, but the majority were against 
 him, and he acquiesced in their decision. 
 
 He never canvassed for a seat in the house of representatives 
 but on one occasion, and that was after the passage of this un 
 palatable bill. It produced very great dissatisfaction throughout 
 the United States, and extended to the district which he repre 
 sented. Mr. Pope, a gentleman of great abilities, was his com 
 petitor. They had several skirmishes at popular meetings, with 
 various success ; but having agreed upon a general action, they 
 met at Higbie, a central place, and convenient of access to the 
 three counties composing the district. A vast multitude assem 
 bled ; and the rival candidates occupied in their addresses the 
 greater part of the day. 
 
 Instead of confining himself to a defence of the compensation 
 bill, which he never heartily approved in the form of an annual 
 salary to members of Congress, Mr. Clay carried the war into 
 the enemy s country. He attacked Mr. Pope s vote against the 
 declaration of war with Great Britain, dwelt on the wrongs and 
 injuries which that power had inflicted on the United States, 
 pointed out his inconsistency in opposing the war upon the 
 ground of a want of preparation to prosecute it, and yet having 
 been willing to declare Avar against both France and Great Britain. 
 Thus he put his competitor on the defensive. The effect of 
 the discussion was powerful and triumphant on the side of Mi. 
 Clay. From that day his success was no longer doubtful, and . 
 accordingly, at the election, which shortly after ensued, he was 
 chosen by a majority of six or seven hilndred votes. 
 
 During the canvass, Mr. Clay encountered an old hunter, 
 who had always before been his warm friend, but now was 
 opposed to his election on account of the compensation bill. 
 
THE OLD HUNTER AND HIS RIFLE. 69 
 
 " Have you a good rifle, my friend ?" asked Mr. Clay. " Yes." 
 " Does it ever flash !" " Once only," he replied. " What did 
 you do with it throw it away ?" " No, I picked the flint, tried 
 it again, and brought down the game," " Have I ever flashed 
 but upon the compensation bill ?" " No." " Will you throw me 
 away ?" " No, no !" exclaimed the hunter, with enthusiasm, 
 nearly overpowered by his feelings ; " I will pick the flint, and 
 try you again !" He was afterward a warm supporter of Mr. Clay. 
 
 This anecdote reminds us of another, which is illustrative of 
 that trait of boldness and self-possession, in the manifestation 
 of which Mr. Clay has never been known to fail during his public 
 career. At the time that he was a candidate for election to the 
 legislature of Kentucky, in 1803, while passing a few weeks at 
 the Olympian springs, a number of huntsmen, old and young, 
 assembled to hear him make a " stump speech." When he had 
 finished, one of the audience, an ancient Nimrod, who had stood 
 leaning upon his rifle for some time, regarding the young orator 
 with keen attention, commenced a conversation with him. 
 
 " Young man," said he, " you want to go to the legislature, I 
 see ?" 
 
 " Why, yes," replied Mr. Clay, " since I have consented to be 
 a candidate, I would prefer not to be defeated." 
 
 " Are you a good shot ?" 
 
 " Try me." 
 
 " Very well ; I would like to see a specimen of your qualifi 
 cations for the legislature. Come : we must see you shoot." 
 
 " But I have no rifle here." 
 
 " No matter : here is old Bess ; and she never fails in the 
 hands of a marksman ; she has often sent death through a squir 
 rel s head at one hundred yards, and daylight through many a red 
 skin twice that distance ; if you can shoot with any gun, you can 
 shoot with old Bess." 
 
 " Well, well : put up your mark, put up your mark," said Mr. 
 Clay. 
 
 The target was placed at the distance of about eighty yards, 
 when, with all the coolness and steadiness of an experienced 
 marksman, he lifted " old Bess" to his shoulder, fired, and pierced 
 the very centre of the target. 
 
70 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 " Oh, a chance shot ! a chance shot !" exclaimed several of his 
 political opponents. "He might shoot all day, and not hit the 
 mark again. Let him try it over let him try it over." 
 
 " No ; beat that, and then I will," retorted Mr. Clay. But as 
 no one seemed disposed to make the attempt, it was considered 
 that he had given satisfactory proof of his superiority as a marks 
 man ; and this felicitous accident gained him the vote of every 
 hunter in the assembly. The most remarkable feature in the 
 transaction remains to be told. " I had never," said Mr. Clay, 
 " fired a rifle before, and never have since." It is needless to 
 add that the election resulted in his favor. 
 
 An Irish barber, residing in Lexington, had supported Mr. 
 Clay with great zeal at all elections, when he was a candidate, 
 prior to the passage of the compensation bill. The fellow s un 
 restrained passions had frequently involved him in scrapes and 
 difficulties, on which occasions Mr. Clay generally defended him 
 and got him out of them. During the canvass, after the com 
 pensation bill, the barber was very reserved, took no part in the 
 election, and seemed indifferent to its fate. He was often im 
 portuned to state for whom he meant to vote, but declined. At 
 length, a few days before the election, he was addressed by Dr. 
 W , a gentleman for whom he entertained the highest re 
 spect, and pressed to say to whom he meant to give his suffrage. 
 Looking at the inquirer with great earnestness and shrewdness, 
 he said : " I tell you what, docthur, I mane to vote for the man 
 that can put but one hand into the treasury." Mr. Pope had the 
 misfortune to lose, in early life, one of his arms, and here lay the 
 point of the Irishman s reply. 
 
 It- is due to the memory of Jeremiah Murphy, the barber, to 
 state that he repented of his ingratitude to Mr. Clay, whom he 
 met one day in the streets of Lexington, and, accosting him, 
 burst into tears, and told him that he had wronged him ; and that 
 his poor wife had got round him, crying and reproaching him for 
 his conduct, saying : " Don t you remember, Jerry, when you 
 were in jail, Mr. Clay came to you, and made that beast, William 
 B , the jailer, let you out?" 
 
 Having found that the sentiments of his constituents were de 
 cidedly opposed to the compensation bill, Mr. Clay, at the ensuing 
 
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 71 
 
 session, voted for its repeal. A daily allowance of eight dollars 
 to every member, was substituted for the salary of fifteen hundred 
 dollars. 
 
 During the month of February, a bill was introduced, setting 
 apart and pledging as a fund fo* internal improvement, the bonus 
 of the United States share of the dividends of the national bank. 
 As may be presumed, this measure received the hearty support 
 of Mr. Clay. Without entering at length into a discussion of 
 the subject, he expressed a wish only to say that he " Had long 
 thought there were no two subjects which could engage the atten 
 tion of the national legislature, more worthy of its deliberate con 
 sideration, than those of internal improvement and domestic 
 manufactures." For constitutional reasons, President Madison 
 withheld his signature from this bill, much to the surprise of his 
 friends. 
 
 During the administration of Mr. Madison, Mr. Clay was, on 
 two separate occasions, offered a seat in his cabinet, or the mis 
 sion to Russia, by that distinguished chief magistrate. He 
 declined them both. Mr. Madison appears to have had the 
 highest estimate of his talents and worth. Indeed, so impressed 
 was he with the eminent and versatile abilities of Mr. Clay, that 
 he had selected him, at the commencement of the war, to be com 
 mander -in-chief of the army. The nomination was not made, 
 solely because Mr. Clay could not be spared from Congress, 
 where his powerful mind and paramount influence, enabled him 
 to render services superior to any that could have been rendered 
 in any other position. 
 
 On the 4th of March, 1817, James Monroe took the oath pre 
 scribed by the constitution, and entered upon the duties of the 
 presidency of the United States. The first session of the fifteenth 
 Congress commenced the ensuing December. Mr. Clay was 
 again chosen speaker. 
 
 It would be impossible, in the brief space we have allotted to 
 ourselves, to present even a brief abstract of his remarks upon 
 the many important topics which now claimed the attention of 
 Congress. We must content ourselves with a succinct account 
 of the leading measures with which his name and his fame have 
 bacome identified. 
 
72 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 In his speech on the state of the union, in January, in 1816 
 he had expressed his sympathies in behalf of the South American 
 colonists, who were then struggling to throw off the yoke of the 
 mother-country. The supreme Congress of the Mexican republic 
 afterward voted him their thanks " for the disinterested, manly, 
 and generous sentiments he expressed on the floor of the house, 
 for the welfare of the infant republic." 
 
 In the debate on the proposition to reduce the direct taxation 
 of the country, he had alluded to the existing peaceful condition 
 of the United States, and had hinted the possibility of hostilities 
 with Spain. He had heard that the minister of that nation had de 
 manded the surrender of a portion of our soil that part of 
 Florida lying west of the Perdido. Without speaking of it as it de 
 served of the impudence of such a demand he alluded to it 
 as indicative of the disposition of the Spanish government. 
 " Besides," said he, " who can tell with certainty how far it may 
 be proper to aid the people of South America in the establish 
 ment of their independence ?" The subject, he avowed, had made 
 a deep impression on his mind ; and he was not in favor of ex 
 hausting, by direct taxes, the country of those funds which might 
 be needed to vindicate its rights at home, or, if necessary, to aid 
 the cause of liberty in South America. 
 
 These remarks aroused all the spleen of Mr. Randolph. " As 
 for South America," said he, in his reply to Mr. Clay, " I am 
 not going a-tilting for the liberties of her people ; they came not 
 to our aid ; let us mind our own business, and not tax our people 
 for the liberties of the people of Spanish America. He went 
 on to ridicule the notion that the people of Caraccas and Mexico 
 were capable either of enjoying or of understanding liberty, and 
 insinuated that Mr. Clay was influenced by a desire of conquest. 
 " The honorable gentleman," he said, " had been sent, on a late 
 occasion, to Europe ; he had been near the field of Waterloo, 
 and, he feared, had snuffed the carnage and caught the infection." 
 " What !" said he, " increase our standing army in time of peace, 
 on the suggestion that we are to go on a crusade to South Amer 
 ica ?" Mr. Clay intimated that he had advocated no such meas 
 ure. " Do I not understand the gentleman ?" said Mr. Randolph , 
 " I am sorry I do not ; I labor under two great misfortunes one 
 
SOUTH AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. 73 
 
 is that I can never understand the honorable speaker the other 
 is that he can never understand me : on such terms, an argument 
 can never be maintained between us, and 1 shall, therefore, put 
 an end to it." Mr. Clay simply expressed his surprise that Mr. 
 R. could so have misunderstood his remarks, and deferred the 
 general argument to another occasion. 
 
 Soon after, on a proposition to " prevent our citizens from sel 
 ling vessels-of-war to a foreign power," Mr. Clay opposed the 
 bill, on account of its evident bearing upon the question of South 
 American independence ; it would everywhere be understood as 
 a law framed expressly to prevent the offer of the slightest aid 
 to those republics by our citizens. " With respect to the nature 
 of their struggle," he said, " I have not now, for the first time, to 
 express my opinion and wishes. I wish them independence. It 
 is the first step toward improving their condition." 
 
 During the summer of 1816, the president had appointed 
 Messrs. Rodney, Graham, and Bland, commissioners to proceed 
 to South America, to ascertain the condition of the country. In 
 March, 1818, the appropriation bill being before the house, Mr. 
 Clay objected to the clause appropriating $30,000 for their com 
 pensation, as unconstitutional. He then offered an amendment^ 
 appropriating eighteen thousand dollars as the outfit and one 
 year s salary of a minister, to be deputed from the United States 
 to the independent provinces of the River La Plata, in South 
 America. The amendment was lost ; but Mr. Clay s speech in 
 support of it was one of his most memorable efforts. Both Con 
 gress and the president were opposed to any recognition of the 
 independence of the South American colonists. In rising to pro 
 mulgate views hostile to theirs, Mr. Clay said that, much as he 
 valued those friends, in and out of the house, from whom he 
 differed, he could not hesitate when reduced to the distressing 
 alternative of conforming his judgment to theirs, or pursuing the 
 deliberate and matured dictates of his own mind. 
 
 He maintained that an oppressed people were authorized, 
 whenever they could, to rise and break their fetters. This was 
 the great principle of the English revolution. It was the great 
 principle of our own. Vattel, if authority were wanting, ex 
 pressly supports this right. 
 
74 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 Mr. Clay said he was no propagandist. He would not seek 
 to force upon other nations our principles and our liberty, if they 
 did not want them. He would not disturb the repose even of a 
 detestable despotism. But, if an abused and oppressed people 
 willed their freedom ; if they sought to establish it ; if, in truth, 
 th.3y had established it, we had a right, as a sovereign power, to 
 notice the fact, and to act as circumstances and our interest re 
 quired. 
 
 The opposition had argued that the people of Spanish America 
 were too ignorant and superstitious to appreciate and conduct an 
 independent and free system of government. We believe it is 
 Macaulay, who says of this plea of ignorance as an argument 
 against emancipation, that with just as much propriety might you 
 argue against a person s going into the water until he knew how 
 to swim. Mr. Clay denied the alleged fact of the ignorance of 
 the colonists. 
 
 With regard to their superstition, he said : " They worship 
 the same God with us. Their prayers are offered up in their 
 temples to the same Redeemer, whose intercession we expect 
 to save us. Nor is there anything in the Catholic religion unfa 
 vorable to freedom. All religions united with government are 
 more or less inimical to liberty. All separated from government 
 are compatible with liberty." 
 
 Having shown that the cause of the South American patriots 
 was just, Mr. Clay proceeded to inquire what course of policy it 
 Decame us to adopt. He maintained that a recognition of their 
 independence was compatible with perfect neutrality and with 
 the most pacific relations toward old Spain. Recognition alone, 
 without aid, was no just cause of war. With aid, it was ; not 
 because of the recognition, but because of the aid ; as aid, with 
 out recognition, was cause of war. 
 
 After demonstrating that the United States were bound, on 
 their own principles, to acknowledge the independence of the 
 United Provinces of the river Plate, he alluded to the improbabil 
 ity that any of the European monarchies would set the example 
 of recognition. " Are we not bound," he asked, " upor our own 
 principles, to acknowledge this new republic ? If WE do not, 
 who will ?" 
 
SOUTH AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 75 
 
 The simple words, " who will ?" are said, by an intelligent ob 
 server, who was present, to have been uttered in a tone of such 
 thrilling pathos, as to stir up the deepest sensibilities of the audi 
 ence. It is by such apparent simple appeals that Mr. Clay, with 
 the aid of his exquisitely modulated voice, often produces the 
 most powerful and lasting effects. 
 
 We shall not attempt to present a summary of this magnificent 
 address. " No abstract," says one who heard it, " can furnish 
 an adequate idea of a speech, which, as an example of argumen 
 tative oratory, may be safely tried by the test of the most ap 
 proved models of any age or country. Rich in all the learning 
 connected with the subject ; methodized in an order which kept 
 that subject constantly before the hearer, and enabled the mean 
 est capacity to follow the speaker without effort, through a long 
 series of topics, principal and subsidiary ; at once breathing sen 
 timents of generous philanthropy and teaching lessons of wis 
 dom ; presenting a variety of illustrations which strengthened 
 the doctrines that they embellished ; and uttering prophecies, on 
 which, though rejected by the infidelity of the day, time has 
 stamped the seal of truth : this, speech will descend to the latest 
 posterity and remain embalmed in the praises of mankind, long 
 after tumults of military ambition and the plots of political profli 
 gacy have passed into oblivion." 
 
 After repeated efforts and repeated failures to carry his gen 
 erous measures in behalf of South American liberty, Mr. Clay, 
 on the tenth of February, 1821, submitted for consideration a 
 resolution declaring that the house of representatives partici 
 pated with the people of the United States, in the deep interest 
 which they felt for the success of the Spanish provinces of South 
 America, which were struggling to establish their liberty and in 
 dependence ; and that it would give its constitutional support to 
 the president of the United States, whenever he might deem it 
 expedient to recognise the sovereignty and independence of those 
 provinces. 
 
 On this resolution a debate of nearly four hours ensued, in 
 which Mr. Clay sustained the principal part. Only twelve mem 
 bers vot6d against the first clause of it ; and on the second, the 
 votes were eighty-seven for, and sixty-eight against it. The 
 
76 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 question was then taken on the resolution as a whole, and car 
 ried in the affirmative ; and Mr. Clay immediately moved that a 
 committee of two members should be appointed, to present it to 
 President Monroe. Although such a course was not very usual, 
 a committee was accordingly ordered, and Mr. Clay was ap 
 pointed its chairman. It was a great triumph. He had been 
 long and ardently engaged in the cause, and, during a greater 
 part of the time, opposed by the whole weight of Mr. Monroe s 
 administration. And when he was appointed chairman of the 
 committee, to present the resolution, Mr. Monroe s friends re 
 garded it as a personal insult, and Mr. Nelson, of Virginia, one 
 of the warmest of them, retired from the capitol, after the ad 
 journment of the house, denouncing the act in the loudest tones 
 of his remarkable voice, on his way down Pennsylvania avenue, 
 as an unprecedented indignity to the chief magistrate. 
 
 On the 8th day of March, 1822, the president sent a message 
 to the house of representatives, recommending the recognition 
 of South American independence. The recommendation was 
 referred to the committee on foreign relations, which, on the 19th 
 of the same month, reported in favor of the recommendation, and 
 of an appropriation to carry it into effect. The vote of recogni 
 tion was finally passed on the 28th, with but a single dissenting 
 voice. 
 
 Such is a brief sketch of Mr. Clay s magnanimous efforts in 
 behalf of South American independence. His zeal in the cause 
 was unalloyed by one selfish impulse, or one personal aim. He 
 could hope to gain no political capital by his course. He ap 
 pealed to no sectional interest ; sustained no party policy ; labor 
 ed for no wealthy client ; secured the influence of no man, or 
 set of men, in his championship of a remote, unfriended, and 
 powerless people. Congress and the president were vehemently 
 opposed to his proposition. But in the face of discomfiture, he 
 persevered, till he succeeded in making converts of his oppo 
 nents, and in effecting the triumph of his measure. Almost sin 
 gle-handed, he sustained it through discouragement and hostility 
 till it was crowned with success. 
 
 The effect of his spirit-stirring appeals in cheering the patriots 
 of South America, was most gratifying and decided. His mem 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH BOLIVAR. 77 
 
 orable plea of March, 1818, was, as one of his most embittered 
 adversaries has told us, read at the head of the South American 
 armies, to exalt the.r enthusiasm in battle, and quicken the con 
 summation of their triumphs. 
 
 The following letter from Bolivar, with Mr. Clay s reply, be 
 longs to this period of his history : 
 
 "BOGOTA, 2lst November, 1827. 
 
 " Sni : I can not omit availing myself of the opportunity offered me bv the 
 departure of Col. "Watts, charge d affaires of the United States, of taking the 
 liberty of addressing your excellency. This desire has long been entertained 
 by me for the purpose of expressing my admiration of your excellency s bril 
 liant talents and ardent love of liberty. All America, Colombia, and my 
 self, owe your excellency our purest gratitude for the incomparable services 
 you have rendered to us, by sustaining our course with a sublime enthusiasm. 
 Accept, therefore, this sincere and cordial testimony which I hasten to offer 
 to your excellency, and to the government of the United States, who have 
 so greatly contributed to the emancipation of your southern brethren. 
 
 " I have the honor to offer to your excellency my distinguished consider 
 ation. 
 
 " Your excellency s obedient servant, 
 
 "BOLIYAE." 
 
 The following is a characteristic extract from Mr. Clay s re- 
 
 pty: 
 
 ""WASHINGTON, Nth October, 1828. 
 
 "SiR: It is very gratifying to me to be assured directly by your excel 
 lency, that the course which the government of the United States took on 
 this memorable occasion, and my humble efforts, have excited the gratitude 
 and commanded the approbation of your excellency. I am persuaded that 
 I do not misinterpret the feelings of the people of the United States, as I 
 certainly express my own, in saying, that the interest which was inspired 
 in this country by the arduous struggles of South America, arose principally 
 from the hope, that, along with its independence, would be established free in 
 stitutions, insuring all the blessings of civil liberty. To the accomplishment 
 of that object we still anxiously look. We are aware that great difficulties 
 oppose it, among which, not the least is that which arises out of the exist 
 ence of a large military force, raised for the purpose of resisting the power 
 of Spain. Standing armies, organized with the most patriotic intentions, 
 are dangerous instruments. They devour the substance, debauch the morals, 
 and too often destroy the liberties of the people. Nothing can be more 
 perilous or unwise than to retain them after the necessity has ceased which 
 led to their formation, especially if their numbers are disproportionate to 
 the revenues of the state. 
 
 "But, notwithstanding all these difficulties, we had fondly cherished, and 
 still indulge the hope, that South America would add a new triumph to the 
 cause of human liberty: and, that Providence would bless her, as he had 
 her northern sister, with the genius of some great and virtuous man, to con 
 duct her securely through all" her trials. We had even flattered ourselves 
 that we beheld that genius in your excellency. But I should be unworthy 
 of the consideration with which your excellency honors me, and deviate 
 
78 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 from the frankness which I have ever endeavored to practise, if I did not, 
 on this occasion, state, that ambitious designs have been attributed by your 
 enemies to your excellency, which have created in my mind great solicitude. 
 They have cited late events in Colombia as. proofs of these designs. But 
 slow in the withdrawal of confidence which I have once given, I have been 
 most unwilling to credit the unfavorable accounts which have from time to 
 time reached me. I can not allow myself to believe, that your excellency 
 will abandon the bright and glorious path which lies plainly before you, for 
 the bloody road, passing over the liberties of the human race, on which the 
 vulgar crowds of tyrants and military despots have so often trodden. I 
 will not doubt, that your excellency will, in due time, render a satisfactory 
 explanation to Colombia and the world, of the parts of your public conduct 
 which have excited any distrust ; and that, preferring the true glory of our im 
 mortal Washington to the ignoble fame of the destroyers of liberty, you have 
 formed the patriotic resolution of ultimately placing the freedom of Colom 
 bia upon a firm and sure foundation. That your efforts to that end may 
 be crowned with complete success, I most fervently pray. 
 
 " I request that your excellency will accept assurances of my sincere 
 wishes for your happiness and prosperity. 
 
 "H. CLAY." 
 
 The disinterestedness of Mr. Clay s motives, in his course to 
 ward the South American republics, was forcibly displayed in 
 his frank and open appeal to Bolivar. Had his object been to 
 acquire influence and popularity among the people of those coun 
 tries, he would hardly have addressed such plain reproaches and 
 unpalatable truths to a chief who was all-powerful with them at 
 the time. But in a cause where the freedom of any portion of 
 mankind was implicated, Mr. Clay was never known to hesitate, 
 to reckon his own interests, or to weigh the consequences to 
 himself from an avowal of his own opinions. On all subjects, 
 indeed, he is far above disguise ; and though he may sometimes 
 incur the charge of indiscretion by his uncalculating candor and 
 fearless translucency of sentiment, the trait is one which claims 
 for him our affection and confidence. Independent in his opin 
 ions as in his actions, no suggestion of self-interest could ever 
 interpose an obstacle to the bold and magnanimous utterance of 
 the former or to the conscientious discharge of the latter. 
 
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 79 
 
 VI. 
 INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT PROTECTION. 
 
 WE have seen that from an early period Mr. Clay was an ad 
 vocate of the doctrine of internal improvement. His speech in 
 Congress in 1806, had been in vindication of the policy author 
 izing the erection of a bridge across the Potomac river. In the 
 passages we have quoted from his speech of January, 1816, he 
 declared himself in favor not only of a system of internal im 
 provement, but of protection to our manufactures. 
 
 It will be remembered that the bill appropriating for purposes 
 of internal improvement the bonus which was to be paid by the 
 Bank of the United States to the general government, after hav 
 ing been passed by Congress, had been returned by President 
 Madison without his signature, in consequence of constitutional 
 objections to the bill. Mr. Clay had been much surprised at this 
 act ; for Mr. Madison, in one of his messages, had said : " I par 
 ticularly invite again the attention of Congress to the expediency 
 of exercising their existing powers, and, where necessary, of re 
 sorting to the prescribed mode of enlarging them, in order to 
 effectuate a comprehensive system of roads and canals, such as 
 will have the effect of drawing more closely together every part 
 of our country, by promoting intercourse and improvements, and 
 by increasing the share of every part in the common stock of 
 national prosperity." 
 
 Mr. Monroe, in anticipation of the action of Congress, had ex 
 pressed an opinion in his message opposed to the right of Con 
 gress to establish a system of internal improvement. Mr Jeffer 
 son s authority was also cited to show that, under the constitution, 
 roads and canals could not be constructed by the general govern 
 ment without the consent of the state or states through which 
 they were to pass. Thus three successive presidents had op 
 posed the proposition. 
 
 Against this weight of precedent, Mr. Clay undertook to per- 
 uade Congress of their power under the constitution to appro- 
 
80 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 priate money for the construction of military roads, post-roads 
 and canals. A resolution, embodying a clause to this effect, came 
 before the house in March, 1818 ; and he lent to it his unremit 
 ting advocacy. 
 
 In regard to the constitutionality of the proposed measure, he 
 contended that the power to construct post-roads is expressly 
 granted in the power to ESTABLISH post-roads. With respect to 
 military roads, the concession that they might be made when 
 called for by the emergency, was admitting that the constitution 
 conveyed the power. " And we may safely appeal," said Mr. 
 Clay, " to the judgment of the candid and enlightened to decide 
 between the wisdom of those two constructions, of which one re 
 quires you to wait for the exercise of your power until the ar 
 rival of an emergency which may not allow you to exert it ; and 
 the other, without denying you the power, if you can exercise it 
 during the emergency, claims the right of providing beforehand 
 against the emergency." 
 
 Mr. Clay s motion, recognising in Congress the constitutional 
 power to make appropriations for internal improvements, was 
 finally carried by a vote of ninety to seventy-five. The victory 
 was a most signal one, obtained, as it was, over the transmitted 
 prejudices of two previous administrations, and the active oppo 
 sition of the one in power. 
 
 From that period to his final retirement from the senate he was 
 the ever-vigilant and persevering advocate of internal improve 
 ments. He was the father of the system, and has ever been its 
 most efficient upholder. On the 16th of January, 1824, he ad 
 dressed the house upon a bill authorizing the president to effect 
 certain surveys and estimates of roads and canals. 
 
 The opponents of the system, including President Monroe, had 
 claimed that, in respect to post-roads, the general government 
 had no other authority than to use such as had been previously 
 established by the states. They asserted that to repair such 
 roads was not within the constitutional power of government. 
 Mr. Monroe gave his direct sanction to this doctrine, maintaining 
 that the states were at full liberty to alter, and of course to shut 
 up, post-roads at pleasure. 
 
 " Is it possible," asked Mr. Clay, " that this construction of 
 
THE CUMBERLAND ROAD. 81 
 
 the constitution can be correct a construction which allows a 
 law of the United States, enacted for the good of the whole, to 
 be obstructed or defeated in its operation by a county court in 
 any one of the twenty-four sovereignties ?" 
 
 To Mr. Clay s strenuous and persevering exertions for the con 
 tinuance of the great Cumberland road across the Alleghenies, 
 the records of Congress will bear ample and constantly-recurring 
 testimony. He himself has said : " We have had to beg, entreat, 
 supplicate you, session after session, to grant the necessary ap 
 propriations to complete the road. I have myself toiled until my 
 powers have been exhausted and prostrated, to prevail on you to 
 make the grant." His courageous efforts* were at .length re 
 warded ; and to him we are indebted for the most magnificent 
 carriage-road in the United States. 
 
 At a dinner given to him a few years since by the mechanics 
 of Wheeling, Mr. Clay spoke warmly, and with something like 
 a parental feeling, of this road expressing a wish that it might 
 be retained, improved, and extended, by the nation. He illustra 
 ted its importance by observing that, before it was made, he and 
 his family had expended a whole day of toilsome and fatiguing 
 travel to pass the distance of about nine miles, from Uniontown 
 to Freeman s, on the summit of Laurel hill ; adding that eighty 
 miles over that and other mountains were now made in one day 
 by the public stage. He said that the road was the only com 
 fortable pass across the mountains, and that he would not consent 
 to give it up to the keeping of the states through which it hap 
 pened to run. The people of nine states might thus be interfered 
 with in their communication with the rest of the Union. 
 
 The country has not been wholly unmindful of Mr. Clay s pre 
 eminent services in behalf of this beneficent measure. On the 
 Cumberland road stands a monument of stone, surmounted by the 
 genius of liberty, and bearing as an inscription the name cf 
 " HENRY CLAY." 
 
 During the second session of Uie fifteenth Congress, in Janu 
 ary, 1819, the subject of General Andrew Jackson s conduct in 
 his celebrated Florida campaign came up for discussion. That 
 chieftain, after subjecting the vanquished Indians to conditions 
 the most cruel and impracticable, had hung two prisoners-of-war, 
 D* 6 
 
82 
 
 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 Arbuthnot and Ambrister, and concluded his series of outrages 
 by lawlessly seizing the Spanish posts of St. Marks and Pensa- 
 cola. 
 
 Committees of the senate and the house made reports reproba- 
 tory of his conduct ; and resolutions were presented, containing 
 four propositions. The first asserted the disapprobation of the 
 house of the proceedings in the trial and execution of Arbuthnot 
 and Ambrister. The second contemplated the passage of a law 
 to prevent the execution hereafter of any captive taken by the 
 army, without the approbation of the president. The third prop 
 osition was e-xpressive of the disapproval of the forcible seizure 
 of the Spanish posts, as contrary to orders, and in violation of 
 the constitution. The fourth proposition was that a law should 
 pass to prohibit the march of the army of the United States, or 
 any corps of it, into any foreign territory, without the previous 
 authorization of Congress, except it were in fresh pursuit of a 
 defeated enemy. 
 
 We will not attempt an abstract of Mr. Clay s eloquent and 
 argumentative speech in support of these propositions. Far less 
 disposed are we to repeat the discreditable history of the wrongs 
 and usurpations perpetrated by General Jackson. It may be 
 proper to state, however, that Mr. Clay, grateful for the public 
 services of the general, treated him with a forbearance and kind 
 ness which rendered the sincerity of his animadversions the 
 more obvious. With respect to the purity of his intentions," 
 said Mr. Clay, " I am disposed to allow it in the most extensive 
 degree. Of his acts it is my duty to speak with the freedom 
 which belongs to my station." 
 
 The speaker then proceeded to expose, in a most forcible 
 point of view, the dangerous and arbitrary character of those acts, 
 and the constitutional violations of which General Jackson had 
 been guilty. There are many passages in this speech which, 
 when we regard thdii in connection with the subsequent presi 
 dential usurpation of the same military chieftain, seem truly like 
 prophetic glimpses. Take, for example, the concluding para 
 graph : 
 
 "Gentlemen maj- bear down all opposition; they may even vote the 
 general the public thanks; they may carry him triumphantly through this 
 
GENERAL JACKSON*S CONDUCT IN FLORIDA. 83 
 
 house. But, if they do, in my humble judgment, it will be a triumph of th 
 principle of insubordination a triumph of the military over the civil 
 authority a triumph over the powers of this house a triumph over the 
 constitution of the land. And I pray most devoutly to Heaven that it may 
 not prove, in its ultimate effects, a triumph over the liberties of the people." 
 
 Even at that distant day, Mr. Clay saw in the conduct of 
 General Jackson, the indications of that imperious will of that 
 spirit of insubordination which, dangerous as they were in a 
 military commander, were not less pernicious and alarming in a 
 civil chief magistrate. With his keen, instinctive faculty of 
 penetration, he discovered the despotic and impulsive character 
 of the man. Every page of his speech on the Seminole cam 
 paign, furnishes evidence of this fact. 
 
 How, then, when the question was presented to him of de 
 ciding between the qualifications of John Quincy Adams and 
 Andrew Jackson for the presidency of the United States how 
 could Henry Clay, as a consistent and honorable man, hesitate 
 for a moment in his choice ? And yet an amount of obloquy and 
 vituperation, such as never before was heaped upon a public 
 servant, has been lavished on him because of his refusing to vote 
 for General Jackson, on that occasion! Had he done so, he 
 would have been false to his past professions and convictions 
 false to conscience, to patriotism, and the plainest dictates of 
 duty. 
 
 The resolutions of censure, being strenuously opposed by Mr. 
 Monroe and his cabinet, were lost in the house by a small ma 
 jority. The dispassionate judgment of posterity will inevitably 
 accord with the views so eloquently expressed by Mr. Clay in 
 regard to General Jackson s conduct in Florida. 
 
 We come now to one of the most important epochs in Mr. 
 Clay s public history. In the opinion of a large portion of the 
 people of the United States, it is to his long-continued, arduous, 
 and triumphant efforts in the cause of protection to American in 
 dustry and skill, that he will be indebted for his highest and most 
 enduring fame. We have seen that, as far back as 1810, he laid 
 the foundation-stone of that great and beneficent American system, 
 of which he was the originator and the architect. 
 
 To specify and describe all his labors in the establishment 
 and advancement of his noble policy, from that time to the period 
 
84 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 of his retirement from the senate, would alone fill more space 
 than we can give to his whole life. The journals of Congress, and 
 the political newspapers of the country, for the last thirty years, 
 will be found to be occupied, to no inconsiderable extent, with 
 the record of his efforts, and arguments, and untiring appeals. 
 We can present but a very imperfect outline of his glorious 
 though peaceful achievements in the cause of human industry, 
 labor, and prosperity. 
 
 On the 12th of March, 1816, Mr. Lowndes, of South Carolina, 
 from the committee of ways and means, introduced before the 
 house, a bill " to regulate the duties on imports and tonnage, 
 &c." The bill was avowedly favorable to a tariff of protection ; 
 and, strange as the record may seem, one of its most ardent sup 
 porters was John C. Calhoun. The whole question was debated 
 with reference to the protective policy. It was thoroughly dis 
 cussed in committee of the whole ; and, through thg exertions 
 of Mr. Clay, a higher duty was adopted for the important article 
 of woollens. The amendment, however, was unfortunately lost 
 in the house ; but the bill, such as it was, passed. 
 \ In the spring of 1820, the subject, of a tariff again came before 
 Congress ; and Mr. Clay made a most interesting and impressive 
 speech in favor of protective duties. 
 
 "I frankly own," said he, on this occasion, "that I feel great solicitude 
 for the success of this bill. The entire independence of my country on all 
 foreign states, as it respects the supply of our essential wants, has ever been 
 with me a favorite object. The war of our revolution effected our political 
 emancipation. The last war contributed greatly toward accomplishing our 
 commercial freedom. But our complete independence will only be consum 
 mated after the policy of this bill shall be recognised and adopted. We have, 
 indeed, great difficulties to contend with old habits colonial usages the 
 enormous profits of a foreign trade, prosecuted under favorable circum 
 stances, which no longer continue. I will not despair. The cause, I verily 
 believe, is the cause of the country. It may be postponed ; it may be frus 
 trated for the moment, but it finally must prevail." 
 
 And it was postponed ; it was frustrated for the moment ; but it 
 finally did prevail. 
 
 The tariff was remodeled by the house, but their bill was re 
 jected by the senate. 
 
 In 1823, the health of Mr. Clay was very poor so much so, 
 that his life was despaired of by both his friends and himself 
 He had attended the Olympian springs in Kentucky, in the sum 
 
SUPPORT OF THE AMERICAN. SYSTEM. 
 
 mer, had been placed under a strict regimen, and subjected to &. 
 long course of medicine. In spite of all remedies, he felt a 
 gradual decline, and looked forward to a speedy dissolution. In 
 November he was to start for Washington, and fully anticipated, 
 that after reaching that city, if he reached it at all, he should be 
 obliged to hasten to the south as a last resort. He procured a 
 small travelling carriage and a saddle-horse threw aside all the 
 prescriptions of the physician, and commenced his journey. 
 Daily he walked on foot, drove in his carriage, and rode on horse 
 back. He arrived at Washington quite well, was elected speaker 
 and went through more labor than he ever performed in any other 
 session, excepting, perhaps, the extra session of 1841. 
 
 The condition of the country, in 1824, was far from prosperous. 
 The amount of our exports had diminished to an alarming degree, 
 while our imports of foreign goods had greatly increased. The 
 country was thus drained of its currency ; and its commerce was 
 crippled. Nor was there any home-market for the staple pro 
 ductions of our soil. Both cotton-planters and wool-growers 
 shared in the general prostration ; and even the farmer had to 
 sell his produce at a loss, or keep it on hand till it was ruined. 
 Labor could with difficulty find employment ; and its wages were 
 hardly sufficient to supply the bare necessities of life. Money 
 could only be procured at enormous sacrifices. Distress and 
 bankruptcy pervaded every class of the community. 
 
 In January, 1824, a tariff bill was reported by the committee 
 on manufactures of the house ; and in March following, Mr. Clay 
 made his great and ever-memorable speech in the house, in sup 
 port of American industry. Many of our readers will vividly 
 remember the deplorable state of the country at that time. It is 
 impressively portrayed in his exordium on this occasion. 
 
 The CAUSE of the wide-spread distress which existed, he main 
 tained, was to be found in the fact that, during almost the whole 
 existence of this government, we had shaped our industry, our 
 navigation, and our commerce, in reference to an extraordinary 
 market in Europe, and to foreign markets, which no longer ex 
 isted ; in the fact that we had depended too much upon foreign 
 sources of supply, and excited too little the native. 
 
 On this occasion, Mr. Webster, whose v ews upon the subject 
 
86 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 afterward underwent an entire change, opposed the bill with the 
 whole powerful weight of his talents and legal profundity. Mr. 
 Clay took up, one by one, the objections of the opposition, labori 
 ously examined and confuted them. For specimens of pure and 
 strongly-linked argument, the annals of Congress exhibit no 
 speech superior to that of March, 1824. In amplitude and 
 variety of facts, in force and earnestness of language, and 
 cogency of appeal to the reason and patriotism of Congress 
 and the people, it has rarely been equalled. It would have been 
 surprising indeed, if, notwithstanding the strongly-arrayed oppo 
 sition, such a speech had failed in overcoming it. Experience 
 has amply proved the validity and justice of its arguments. Its 
 prophecies have been all fulfilled. 
 
 The tariff bill finally passed the house, the L6th of April, 1824, 
 by a vote of 107 to 102. It soon afterward became a law. 
 
 We will leave it to Mr. Clay himself to describe the results of 
 * his policy, eight years after it had been adopted as the policy 
 of the country. After recalling the gloomy picture he had pre 
 sented in 1824, he said : 
 
 " I have now to perform the more pleasing task of exhibiting an imperfect 
 sketch of the existing state of the unparalleled prosperity of the country. 
 On a general survey, we behold cultivation extending, the arts flourishing, 
 the face of the country improved, our people fully and profitably employed, 
 and the public countenances exhibiting tranquillity, contentment, and hap 
 piness. And, if we descend into particulars, we have the agreeable con 
 templation of a people out of debt ; land rising slowly in value, but in a 
 secure and salutary degree ; a ready, though not extravagant market, for all 
 the surplus productions of our industry ; innumerable flocks and herds 
 browsing and gamboling on ten thousand hills and plains, covered with rich 
 and verdant grasses ; our cities expanded, and whole villages springing up, 
 as it were, by enchantment ; our exports and imports increased and in 
 creasing ; our tonnage, foreign and coastwise, swelling and fully occupied ; 
 the rivers of our interior animated by the thunder and lightning of count 
 less steamboats ; the currency sound and abundant ; the public debt of two 
 wars nearly redeemed ; and, to crown all, the public treasury overflowing, 
 embarrassing Congress, not to find subjects of taxation, but to select the ob 
 jects which shall be relieved from the impost. If the term of seven years 
 were to be selected of the greatest prosperity which this people have en 
 joyed since the establishment of their present constitution, it would be 
 itxactly that period of seven years which immediately followed the passage 
 f the tariff of 1824." 
 
 Such were the consequences of the benign legislation intro- 
 luced and carried into operation by Henry Clay. And thougn 
 he reverse of the picture was soon presented to us, through the 
 
RANDOLPH S SARCASMS ANECDOTE. 87 
 
 violent executive measures of General Jackson, inflating and then 
 prostrating the currency, and the course Afterward pursued, we 
 have the satisfaction of knowing that Mr. Clay has never wavered 
 in his course ; and that, had his warnings been regarded, and his 
 counsels taken, a far different state of things would, in all proba 
 bility, have existed. 
 
 The unanimous voice of the country has accorded to Mr. Clay 
 the merit of having been the father of the system, which has 
 been justly called the American system. To his personal his 
 tory belong the testimonials of the various state legislatures and 
 conventions, and of the innumerable public meetings, in all parts 
 of the country, which awarded him the praise, and tendered him 
 the grateful acknowledgments of the community. To his indi 
 vidual exertions, the manufacturing industry of the United States 
 is indebted to a degree which it is now difficult to realize. By 
 the magic power of his eloquence, the country was raised from a 
 state of prostration and distress ; cities, were called into exist 
 ence, and the wilderness was truly made to blossom like the rose 
 
 Mr. Clay s zealous and laborious efforts in behalf of the tariff, 
 can only be appreciated by a reference to the journal of the house 
 of that period. It seems as if he had been called upon to battle 
 for every item of the bill, inch by inch. The whole power of a 
 large and able opposition was arrayed against him ; and every 
 weapon that argument, rhetoric, and ridicule, could supply, was 
 employed. John Randolph was, as on former occasions, an active 
 and bitter antagonist. Once or twice, he provoked Mr. Clay into 
 replying to his personal taunts. 
 
 "Sir," said Mr. C., on one occasion, "the gentleman from Virginia was 
 pleased to say, that in one point, at least, he coincided with me in an 
 humble estimate of my grammatical and philological acquirements. I know 
 my deficiencies. I was born to no proud patrimonial estate ; from my father 
 I inherited only infancy, ignorance, and indigence. I feel my defects ; but, 
 BO far as my situation in early life is concerned, I may, without presumption, 
 say they are more my misfortune than my fault. But, however I deplore 
 my want of ability to furnish to the gentleman a better specimen of powers 
 of verbal criticism, I will venture to say, my regret is not greater than the 
 disappointment of this committee, as to the strength of his argument." 
 
 The following is in a different vein. After the passage of the 
 tariff bill, on the 16th of April, 1824, when the house had ad 
 journed, and the speaker was stepping down >rom his seat, I 
 
88 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 gentleman who had voted with the majority, said to him, " "Wo 
 have done pretty well to-day." " Yes," returned Mr. Clay, " we 
 made a good stand, considering we lost both our Feet" alluding 
 to Mr. Foot of Connecticut, and Mr. Foote of New York, who 
 both voted against the bill, though it was thought, some time 
 before, that they would give it their support. 
 
 VII. 
 
 MISSOURI GREECE LAFAYETTE. 
 
 DURING the session of 1820- 21, the "distracting question," 
 as it was termed, of admitting Missouri into the Union, which 
 had been the subject of many angry and tedious debates, was dis 
 cussed in both branches of Congress. The controverted point 
 was, whether she should be admitted as a slave state. 
 
 Slavery had been expressly excluded from Ohio, Indiana, and 
 Illinois, by acts of Congress, on their admission into the Union. 
 Bu1 that restriction was by virtue of an ordinance of the former 
 Congress, under the confederation, prohibiting the introduction of 
 slavery into the northwest territory, out of which these states 
 were formed. Missouri was part of the Louisiana territory, pur 
 chased of France, in 1803. And in various parts of that exten 
 sive territory, slavery then existed, and had long been established. 
 
 Louisiana had been admitted into the Union without restriction 
 of the kind proposed for Missouri. The states of Kentucky, 
 Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama, had also been admitted as 
 separate states previous to this period ; and, as they were taken 
 from states in which slavery existed, they had been made subject 
 to no such restriction. It was contended that, on the same prin 
 ciple, Missouri should also be received, without requiring, as a 
 condition of admission, the exclusion of slavery. And it was 
 also insisted that it would be interfering with the independent 
 character of a state, to enforce any such restriction, which was 
 manifestly a subject of regulation by the state authority. 
 
 On the contrary, it was urged that in the old states the subject 
 
I HE MISSOURI QUESTION. 89 
 
 was expressly settled by the constitution, and Congress could not 
 justly interfere in those states ; but that it was otherwise with 
 new states received into the Union ; in which case Congress had 
 the right to impose such restrictions and conditions as it might 
 choose ; that it was evidently the intention of the old Congress 
 not to extend slavery, having prohibited its introduction or exist 
 ence in new states to be formed out of the northwest territory ; 
 and that slavery was so great an evil, and so abhorrent to the 
 principles of a free government, that it should be abolished or 
 prohibited wherever it could be constitutionally affected. 
 
 The discussion went on from month to month, and from session 
 to session, increasing in fierceness, and diverging farther and 
 farther from the prospect of an amicable settlement. Among the 
 prominent advocates for excluding slavery from Missouri, were 
 Rufus King from New York, Otis of Massachusetts, Dana of 
 Connecticut, Sergeant and Hemphill of Pennsylvania. Of those 
 opposed to restriction, were Holmes of Massachusetts, Vandyke 
 and M Lane of Delaware, Pinckney of Maryland, Randolph and 
 Barbour of Virginia, Lowndes of South Carolina, Clay and John 
 son of Kentucky. 
 
 A bill for the admission of Missouri had been defeated during 
 the session of 1818- ! 9 ; and the inflammatory subject had, 
 during the vacation of Congress, given rise to incessant conten 
 tion. The press entered warmly into the controversy. The most 
 violent pamphlets were published on both sides. Public meetings 
 thundered forth their resolutions ; and the Union seemed to be 
 fearfully shaken to its centre. It may be imagined, then, with 
 what interest the next session of Congress was looked to by the 
 people. 
 
 Many eloquent speeches were made in the house upon the 
 question. Mr. Clay spoke, at one time, nearly four hours against 
 the restriction ; but there remains no published sketch of his re 
 marks. The vote in the house of representatives was several 
 times given for excluding slavery ; but the senate disagreed, and 
 would not yield to the house. 
 
 In 1820, the people of the territory of Missouri, proceeded to 
 ordain and establish a constitution of government for the contem 
 plated state. Among other provisions, it was ordained, in the 
 
90 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 twenty-sixth section of the third article, that it should be the duty 
 of the general assembly, as soon as might be, to pass suck laws 
 as were necessary to prevent free negroes and mulattoes from coming 
 to and settling in the state, under any pretext whatever" Under 
 this constitution a state government was organized and went into 
 operation. 
 
 This clause, for the exclusion of free negroes and mulattoes, 
 fanned into fresh life the flame of excitement which had been par 
 tially allayed. The whole country was now thrown into com 
 motion upon the question of admitting Missouri. 
 
 In the autumn of 1820, Mr. Clay, who had experienced heavy 
 pecuniary losses by endorsing for a friend, resolved to retire from 
 Congress, and, in the practice of the law, devote himself to the 
 reparation of his private affairs. Accordingly, at the meeting of 
 Congress, the 13th of November, 1820, the clerk, having an 
 nounced that a quorum was present, said that he had received a 
 letter from the Hon. Henry Clay, which, with the leave of the 
 house, he read as follows : 
 
 "LEXINGTON, Ky., October 28, 1820. 
 
 " SIK : I will thank you to communicate to the house of representatives, 
 that owing to imperious circumstances, I shall not be able to attend upon it 
 until after the Christmas holydays ; and to respectfully ask it to allow me to 
 resign the office of its speaker, which I have the honor to hold, and to con 
 sider this as the act of my resignation. I beg the house also to permit m* 
 to reiterate the expression of my sincere acknowledgments and unaffected 
 gratitude for the distinguished consideration which it has uniformly mani 
 fested for me. I have the honor to be, <fcc., "H. CLAY. 
 
 " THOS. DOUGHERTY, Esq., Clerk H. of E." 
 
 In view of the agitating question before Congress, Mr. Clay 
 consented, however, to retain his seat as a member of the house 
 till his term of service expired, although no longer its presiding 
 officer. Early in the session the Missouri question came up. 
 Those who now opposed its admission contended, that free citi 
 zens and mulattoes were citizens of the states of their residence ; 
 that as such, they had a right under the constitution, to remove 
 to Missouri, or any other state of the Union, and there enjoy all 
 the privileges and immunities of other citizens of the United 
 States emigrating to the same place ; and, therefore, that the 
 clause in the constitution of Missouri, quoted above, was repug 
 nant to that of the United States, and she ought not to be receiv 
 ed into the Union . 
 
THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 91 
 
 On the other hand, it was maintained that the African race 
 whether bond or free, were not parties to our political institu 
 tions ; that, therefore, free negroes and mulattoes were not citi 
 zens, within the meaning of the constitution of the United States ; 
 and even if the constitution of Missouri were repugnant to that 
 of the United States, the latter was paramount, and would over 
 rule the conflicting provision of the former, without the interfer 
 ence of Congress. 
 
 Such was the perilous and portentous question which now 
 threatened a disruption of the Union. In some shape or other, it 
 was presented almost daily and hourly to Congress ; and became, 
 at length, a perfect incubus upon legislation. In this state of 
 things, Mr. Clay arrived in Washington, and took his seat in the 
 house on the sixteenth of January, 1821. On the second of Feb 
 ruary, he submitted a motion to refer a resolution of the senate 
 on the Missouri question to a committee of thirteen a number 
 suggested by that of the original states of the Union. The mo 
 tion was agreed to, and the following gentlemen were appointed 
 a committee accordingly : 
 
 Messrs. Clay of Ky., Eustis of Mass., Smith of Md., Sergeant 
 of Pa., Lowndes of S. C., Ford of N. Y., Campbell of Ohio, 
 Archer of Va., Hackley of N. Y., S. Moore, of Pa., Cobb of 
 Ga., Tomlinson of Ct., and Butler of N. H. 
 
 On the tenth of the same month, Mr. Clay made a report, con 
 cluding with an amendment to the senate s resolution, by which 
 amendment Missouri was admitted upon the following fundamen 
 tal condition : 
 
 " It is provided that the said state shall never pass any law preventing 
 any description of persons from coming to and settling in the said state, 
 who now are or hereafter may become citizens of any of the states of this 
 Union ; and provided also, that the legislature of the said state, by a solemn 
 public act, shall declare the assent of the said state to the said fundamental 
 condition, and shall transmit to the president of the United States, on or 
 before the fourth Monday in November next, an authentic copy of the said 
 act ; upon the receipt whereof, the president, by proclamation, shall announce 
 the fact ; whereupon, and without any further proceedings on the part of 
 Congress, the admission of the said state into the Union shall be considered 
 as complete : And provided, further, that nothing herein contained shall 
 be construed to take from the state of Missouri, when admitted into the 
 Union, the exercise of any right or power which can now be constitutionally 
 exercised by any of the original states." 
 
 In defence of his report, Mr. Clay said that, although those 
 
92 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 favorable to the admission of Missouri could not succeed entirely 
 in their particular views, yet he was of opinion that they had, as 
 regarded the report of the committee, nothing to complain of. 
 At the same time, the report was calculated to obviate the objec 
 tions of those who had opposed the admission of Missouri on the 
 ground of the objection to her constitution which had been avow 
 ed. Thus consulting the opinions of both sides of the house, in 
 that spirit of compromise which is occasionally necessary to the 
 existence of all societies, he hoped it would receive the counte- 
 
 nance of the house ; and he earnestly invoked the spirit of har 
 mony and kindred feeling to preside over the deliberations of the 
 house on the subject. 
 
 The question being taken in committee of the whole on the 
 f amendment proposed by Mr. Clay, it was decided in the negative 
 I by a vote of 73 to 64. This decision was afterward overruled 
 in the house. On the question, however, of the third reading of 
 the resolution, it was rejected by a vote of 83 to 80, in conse 
 quence of the defection of Mr. Randolph of Virginia, who dread 
 ed the increase of popularity which would accrue to Mr. Clay 
 by the success of his proposition. A reconsideration was moved 
 and carried the next day, and the question of the third reading 
 was again brought before the house. Another protracted and 
 bitter debate followed, and was concluded by a speech of an 
 hour s duration from Mr. Clay, who is represented by the cotem- 
 porary journals as having " reasoned, remonstrated, and entreated 
 that the house would settle the question." 
 
 On the fourteenth of February, the two houses of Congress 
 met in the hall of the house of representatives, to perform the 
 ceremony of counting the votes for president and vice-president 
 of the United States. A scene of great confusion occurred when 
 the votes of the electors for Missouri were announced by the 
 president of the senate, and handed to the tellers. The mem 
 bers of the senate withdrew, and a violent discussion sprang up. 
 By the exertions of Mr. Clay order was at length restored, and, 
 on his motion, a message was sent to the senate that the house 
 was ready to proceed to the completion of the business of count 
 ing the votes. 
 
 The senate again came in. The votes of Missouri were read, 
 
ADOPTION OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 93 
 
 and the result of all the votes having been read, it was announced 
 by the president of the senate, that the total number of votes for 
 James Monroe as President of the United States, was 231, and, 
 if the votes of Missouri were not counted, was 228 ; that, in 
 either event, James Monroe had a majority of the whole number 
 of votes given. James Monroe was accordingly re-elected pres 
 ident for four years, commencing on the ensuing fourth of March. 
 
 While the proclamation was being made, two members of the 
 house claimed the floor to inquire whether the votes of Missouri 
 were or were not counted. Another scene of confusion here 
 upon ensued, and the house were finally obliged to adjourn in 
 order to put an end to it. 
 
 The rejection of Mr. Clay s report seemed to shut out all pros 
 pect of an amicable compromise. He was not disheartened, how 
 ever. He never despaired of the republic. On the twenty- 
 second of February, he submitted the following resolution : 
 
 " Resolved, That a committee be appointed, on the part of this house, 
 jointly with such committee as may be appointed on the part of the senate, 
 to consider and report to the senate and to the house, respectively, whether 
 it be expedient or not to make provision for the admission of Missouri into 
 the Union on the same footing as the original states, and for the due execu 
 tion of the laws of the United States within Missouri ; and if not, whether 
 any other, and what provision, adapted to her actual condition, ought to be 
 made by law." 
 
 This resolution was adopted in the house by a vote of 103 to 
 55. The senate acceded to it by a large majority. 
 
 The joint committees of the two houses met on the twenty-fifth 
 of February, 1821 ; and a plan of accommodation, proposed by 
 Mr. Clay, was adopted, unanimously on the part of the commit 
 tee of the senate, and nearly so by that of the house. The next 
 day he reported to the house from the committee a resolution, 
 which was the same in effect as that which we have already 
 quoted as having been reported by the former committee of thir 
 teen members. A short discussion ensued, which was checked 
 by a call for the previous question. The resolution was then 
 adopted by a vote of eighty-seven to eighty-one. The senate 
 concurred, and the momentous question, which for three ses 
 sions had agitated Congress, was, at length, through the labors 
 of Henry Clay, peaceably settled. 
 
94 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 The achievement of this vital compromise must have been one 
 of the most gratifying triumphs of his political career. By his 
 personal influence and abilities, he had saved the republic. He 
 deservedly won on this occasion the appropriate title of " the 
 Great Pacificator ;" for to his individual exertions do we owe it, 
 that we were saved from the prospect of a dissolution of the 
 Union. His efforts in and out of Congress were unceasing in 
 accomplishing his object. He made direct personal appeals to 
 those whom he could not influence in public debate, and left no 
 means untried for bringing Congress to that harmonious state, 
 which was essential to the safety of the country. 
 
 While the Missouri question was pending, and the excitement 
 of the contending parties was running to a great and alarming 
 height, Mr. Randolph, and perhaps some other gentlemen of the 
 south, conceived the project of the whole delegation from the 
 slaveholding states, in a body, abandoning the house, and leaving 
 its business to be carried on, if at all, by the representatives 
 from the other states. At that time, one of those conditions of 
 non-intercourse, which we have described, existed between hin 
 and Mr. Clay ; but notwithstanding that, one night when the 
 house was in session by candlelight, Mr. Clay being out of the 
 chair, Mr. Randolph approached him in the most courteous man 
 ner, and said : " Mr. Speaker, I wish you would leave the chair. 
 I will follow you to Kentucky, or anywhere else in the world." 
 
 Mr. Clay replied : " That is a very serious proposition, Mr. 
 Randolph ; we have not time now to discuss it ; but if you will 
 come into the speaker s room to-morrow morning, before the 
 house assembles, we will consider it together." 
 
 He accordingly attended there with punctuality. They re 
 mained in earnest conversation about an hour, Mr. Clay contending 
 that it was wisest to compromise the question, if it could be done 
 without any sacrifice of principle, and Mr. Randolph insisting 
 that the slave states had the right on their side ; that matters 
 must come to an extremity ; and that there could be no more 
 suitable occasion to bring them to that issue. They maintained 
 their respective opinions firmly but amicably, without coming to 
 any agreement. 
 
 When they were about separating, Mr. Clay observed to Mr 
 
INTERVIEW WITH RANDOLPH. 95 
 
 Randolph, that he would take that opportunity of saying to him, 
 that he (Mr. Randolph) had used exceptionable language some 
 times when the speaker was in the chair and had no opportunity 
 of replying ; and that he was often provoked thereat. " Well. 
 Mr. Speaker," said Mr. Randolph, " I think you sometimes neg 
 iect me ; you won t listen to me when I am addressing the 
 chair, but turn your head away, and ask for a pinch of snuff." 
 
 Mr. Clay rejoined : " You are mistaken. I am listening when 
 I may not seem to be ; and I can repeat as much of any one of 
 your late speeches as you yourself can, good as I know your 
 memory to be." 
 
 " Well," replied Mr. Randolph, " perhaps I am mistaken ; and 
 suppose we shake hands and be good friends hereafter." 
 
 " Agreed !" said Mr. Clay. 
 
 They shook hands accordingly, and never spoke with each 
 other during the residue of the session. It was about the period 
 of Commodore Decatur s death. That, event greatly excited Mr. 
 Randolph, and Mr. Clay was informed by two different gentle 
 men (the late Governor Edwards and Gen. C. F. Mercer) about 
 the same time, without concert, and shortly after the interview 
 described above, that they knew that Mr. Randolph desired a 
 duel, and with him (Mr. Clay). He thanked them for the com 
 munication ; which was made from friendly motives. It natur 
 ally put him upon his guard, and on first meeting Mr. Randolph, 
 thinking that he saw something unfriendly in his deportment, 
 they passed each other without speaking. 
 
 Shortly before the interview above-mentioned, Mr. Randolph 
 came to Mr. Clay with an insulting letter containing a threat to 
 horsewhip him (Mr. Randolph), and asked what he should do 
 with it should he communicate it to the house as a breach 
 of privilege. " How came the writer to address such a letter 
 to you ?" asked Mr. Clay. " Why, sir," said he, " I was in the 
 vestibule of the house, the other day, and he brought up a man 
 and introduced him to me. I asked him what right he had to 
 introduce that man to me, and told him that the man had just as 
 much right to introduce him to me. And he said he thought 
 it was an act of great impertinence. It \as for that cause 
 he has written me this threatening letter." Mr. Clay asked 
 
96 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 him if he thought the man s mind was perfectly sound. " Why," 
 replied Mr. Randolph, " I have some doubts about that." " If 
 that be the case, said Mr. Clay, " would you not better avoid 
 troubling the house about the affair ? And I will give orders to 
 the officers of the house to keep an eye on the man, and if he 
 should attempt to do anything improper to arrest him." Mr. 
 Randolph said, it was perhaps the best course, and nothing more 
 was heard of the matter. 
 
 On one occasion, during the agitation of this same Missouri 
 question, Mr. Randolph told Mr. Clay, that he had resolved, by 
 the advice of Chief- Justice Marshall, to abstain from the use of 
 those powerful instruments of irony, sarcasm, and invective, which 
 he used with such cutting effect, and to confine himself to the 
 employment of pure argument, whenever he spoke. He at 
 tempted it. He failed. His speech possessed no attraction 
 commanded no attention. He was mortified, and resumed his an 
 cient style ; and listening and admiring audiences returned to him. 
 
 When the house sat in what has been called the old capitol 
 (the brick building at the northeast corner of the capitol-square), 
 Mr. Randolph one day came in collision with an able colleague 
 from Virginia, Mr. Sheffey, in argument, in course of which Mr. 
 Sheffey had indulged in some playful remark. Mr. R. replied, 
 and concluded by offering him some advice, which, he said, he 
 hoped would be kindly received : and that was, that logic being his 
 (Mr. Sheffey s) forte, he ought to confine himself to it, and never 
 attempt wit, for which he possessed no talent. Mr. Sheffey re 
 joined, answered the argument of Mr. Randolph, and thanked him 
 for his advice, but said he did not like to be in debt, and, by way 
 of acquitting himself of it, he begged leave to offer some advice 
 in return. Nature, he said, had been bountiful to Mr. R. in be 
 stowing on him extraordinary wit, but had denied him any powers 
 of argument. Mr. S. would advise him, therefore, to confine 
 himself to the regions of wit, and never attempt to soar into those 
 of logic. Mr. R. immediately followed, and handsomely re 
 marked, that he took back what he had said of his colleague ; for 
 he had shown himself to be a man of wit as well as of logic. 
 
 It was a pleasant* and enlivening incident, and the whole house 
 and both parties appeared to enjoy the joke But Mr. Randolph 
 
KENTUCKY LAND CLAIMS. 97 
 
 returned to the house the next day, and renewed the attack with 
 great bitterness. The parties had various and long passes at each 
 other. Mr. R. was repeatedly called to order by Mr. Clay, and 
 finally stopped. It was on that occasion that, Mr. Sheffey being 
 called to order, Mr. Clay said that he would be out of order in 
 replying, as he was, to any other member but Mr. Randolph. 
 
 During the interval of his retirement from Congress, in 1822, 
 Mr. Clay was delegated, in conjunction with Mr. Bibb, to attend 
 the Virginia legislature, for the adjustment of certain land claims 
 in Kentucky. The house of representatives of Virginia ap 
 pointed a day to receive and hear them at the bar of the house. 
 The subject to be discussed, was what were called the " occupy 
 ing claimant laws" of Kentucky ; in other words, laws passed in 
 behalf of the early settlers, the pioneers of the new state. The 
 vicious system which Virginia had adopted, of disposing of her 
 waste and unappropriated lands, had led to the most frightful con 
 fusion and uncertainty of title. No man was sure of his home 
 and lands, no matter how long he had occupied, or how greatly 
 he had improved them. Some dormant adverse title might spring 
 up and evict him from his residence. Those " occupying claim 
 ant laws" were passed to secure to him the fruits of his toil and 
 labor, by compelling the successful claimant to pay the value of 
 all permanent improvements. In principle, these laws were 
 right, although they were liable to great abuse, through a sympa 
 thy with the actual settler, which often led the assessor to place 
 an extravagant estimate upon the improvements. 
 
 The validity of these laws was contested, and the supreme 
 court of the United States had pronounced a decision against 
 them. Whether they were valid or not, depended upon the true 
 interpretation of a compact between the states of Virginia and 
 Kentucky, made at the time the latter was erected into a separate 
 commonwealth. The object of the mission of Messrs. Clay and 
 Bibb, was to prevail on the parent state to consent to the estab 
 lishment of some impartial tribunal other than the supreme court 
 to be constituted by the joint consent of the two states, to decide 
 the question of validity. It was to accomplish this object, that 
 the negotiators appeared before the legislature. 
 
 Their mission had excited much sensation and curiosity. The 
 E 7 
 
98 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 city of Richmond was crowded by persons attracted to it by th 
 novelty of the scene. Mr. Clay, who had left it, some twenty 
 five years before, a poor orphan boy, and now found himself amid 
 the remnant of his early associates, trembled lest he should not 
 appear to advantage. The day for his presenting himself before 
 the house at length arrived. The hall was crowded. The judges 
 of the court of appeals, among whom was the eminent Spencer 
 Roane, who, in 1797, had signed Mr. Clay s license the mem 
 bers of the bar generally, and of the senate, with many distin 
 guished citizens, composed the audience. In the presence of this 
 intellectual multitude, Mr. Clay rose to address the house of 
 delegates. He described the hardships and sufferings of the 
 early adventurers and settlers in Kentucky : how they had en 
 countered and subdued the savages, felled the forests, built for 
 themselves habitations, and, amid the greatest privations, culti 
 vated the earth, with the rifle as near at hand as the spade and 
 the plough. He painted in glowing and pathetic terms the sacri 
 fices they had made in abandoning the homes of their fathers, 
 the tombs of their ancestors, the friends of their youth. Mr. 
 Clay had himself recently been in the neighborhood of the place 
 which gave him birth, and the visit and his early recollections, 
 probably imparted a deeper and more solemn intensity to his feel 
 ings and language. The whole assembly was gazing on him 
 with fixed attention. You could have heard a pin drop in the 
 pauses of his speech, such was the stillness. Nearly all his 
 hearers were in tears. At this interesting juncture, Mr. Clay 
 attempted the quotation of a passage from the poems of Sir 
 Walter Scott, now familiar to every schoolboy, but then new to 
 most of his audience. The words had fled from his memory ! 
 He stood filled with emotion, and at the same time transfixed 
 with deep, though imperceptible embarrassment, at the treacherous 
 trick which his memory was serving him. He threw his right 
 hand upon his forehead, as if overwhelmed by his feelings, and 
 remained in that posture so long, that he has been heard to say 
 that he was actually meditating upon some mode of escape from 
 his dilemma. Fortunately, however, the words came to his 
 relief, and in his full-toned, melodious voice, he gave them 
 forth: 
 
AGAIN ELECTED SPEAKER. 99 
 
 Breathes there a man with soul so dead, 
 That never to himself has said, 
 1 This is my own, my native land ! " 
 
 The effect upon the audience was electrical and transporting 
 far transcending what it would have been if his memory had not 
 balked at all. 
 
 The mission of Messrs. Clay and Bibb, led to the appointment 
 of the Hon. B. W. Leigh on the part of Virginia ; and Mr. Clay 
 was subsequently appointed to conduct the negotiation with the 
 latter on the part of Kentucky. They concluded at Ashland a 
 convention, which, though it was ratified by the legislature of 
 Kentucky and the house of delegates of Virginia, was finally re 
 jected in the senate of the latter state. 
 
 By an absence of nearly three years from Congress, Mr. Clay 
 was enabled, through his professional labors, to retrieve his pri 
 vate affairs ; and, in the summer of 1823, at the earnest and re 
 peated solicitations of his fellow-citizens, he accepted a renomi- 
 nation, and was again chosen, without opposition, to represent his 
 district in the lower house at Washington. 
 
 The first session of the eighteenth Congress opened the first 
 Monday in December, 1823. At the first ballot for speaker, in 
 the house of representatives, Mr. Clay was elected. Mr. Barbour, 
 of Virginia, the late speaker, had forty-two votes Mr. Clay had 
 one hundred and thirty -nine. The following neat jeu d* esprit 
 appeared in the National Intelligencer shortly after the election 
 
 " As near the Potomac s broad stream, t other day, 
 
 Fair LIBERTY strolled in solicitous mood, 
 Deep pondering the future unheeding her way 
 
 She met goddess NATURE beside a green wood. 
 Good mother, she cried, deign to help me at need! 
 I must make for my guardians a speaker to day : 
 The first in the world I would give them. Indeed ! 
 When I made the first speaker, I made him of CLAY ! " 
 
 On taking the speaker s chair, Mr. Clay made a brief and ap 
 propriate address, in which he returned his acknowledgments for 
 the honor conferred. The duties of a speaker are happily 
 enumerated in his remarks on this occasion. 
 
 On the 5th of December, Mr. Webster, of Massachusetts, sub- 
 
100 
 
 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 mitted a resolution providing by law for defraying the expense 
 incident to the appointment of an agent or commissioner to Greece, 
 whenever the president should deem it expedient to make such 
 appointment. He supported this proposition in a most able speech, 
 on the 19th of the ensuing January. Mr. Clay stood side by side 
 ivith him in defence of the measure. Notwithstanding the advo 
 cacy of these gigantic champions, however, it failed in the 
 louse. 
 
 Mr. Clay s speech on the subject, though brief, was full of fire 
 md point. 
 
 " Are we," he exclaimed, " so humbled, so low, so debased, that we dare 
 lot express our sympathy for suffering Greece, that we dare not articulate 
 >ur detestation of the brutal excesses of which she has been the bleeding 
 victim, lest we might offend some one or more of their imperial and royal 
 majesties ?" 
 
 Although Mr. Clay failed at the moment in procuring the rec 
 ognition of Greece, he afterward, when secretary of state, 
 accomplished his object. The United States was the first inde 
 pendent power by whom she was recognised. 
 
 Mr. Clay s labors, during the session of 1824, would alone 
 have been sufficient to make his name memorable, to the latest 
 posterity, in the annals of the country. The session is signalized 
 by the passage of the tariff bill, and of his measure in behalf of 
 South American independence. In reference to the former, it 
 should not be forgotten that it was through his vigilant and per 
 severing efforts, that the SUGAR DUTY was saved. A member 
 from Louisiana, by his constant and bitter opposition to the pro 
 tective policy, had greatly incensed its friends. They were 
 provoked by his pertinacity, and, in committee of the whole, struck 
 out the item of sugar from the list of protected articles. Mr. 
 Clay remonstrated with them. He urged that the state ought not 
 to be injured, and that it would be cruel to punish it for the sup 
 posed misconduct of one of its representatives. He entreated 
 them, therefore, to restore the protective duty on sugar, and finally 
 prevailed on them, by personal appeals to individual members, to 
 restore it accordingly in the house. 
 
 On the 15th of August, 1824, General Lafayette, the nation s 
 guest, arrived at New York, in the Cadmus, accompanied by his 
 son George Washington Lafayette. The following 10th of 
 
FRIENDSHIP OF LAFAYETTE. tOl 
 
 December, he was introduced to the house of representatives by 
 a select committee, appointed for the purpose. Mr. Clay, as 
 speaker, received him with a pertinent and elegant address. La 
 fayette was deeply affected by this address, uttered, as it was, 
 in the speaker s clear, musical, and genial tones ; and the hero 
 of two hemispheres replied to it in a manner that betokened much 
 emotion. 
 
 This distinguished friend of America and of liberty, main 
 tained, to the end of his days, an unwavering attachment for Mr. 
 Clay ; and when the miserable cry of " bargain and corruption" 
 was raised against the latter, at the time of his acceptance of the 
 office of secretary of state, Lafayette gave his conclusive testi 
 mony in favor of the integrity, ingenuousness, and public virtue 
 of his friend, and in vindication of him from the charges which 
 partisan hacks had originated. 
 
 " THAT is THE MAN WHOM I HOPE TO SEE PRESIDENT OF THE 
 UNITED STATES," said Lafayette, in 1832, pointing to a portrait 
 of Mr. Clay, in presence of an officer of the United States navy, 
 who was entertained by the great and good Frenchman at his 
 country-seat. The anecdote here given, may be found in the 
 " Commonwealth" newspaper published at Frankfort, Kentucky. 
 
 We have seen that Mr. Clay was at variance with President 
 Monroe upon the subject of internal improvements, as well as in 
 regard to the mode of recognising the independence of the South 
 American patriots. Notwithstanding these differences of opinion, 
 the personal relations of the speaker and the chief magistrate 
 were friendly. Mr. Clay was offered a seat in the cabinet, and 
 a carte blanche of all the foreign missions. JHad place been his 
 ambition and his object, he might have attained it without any 
 sacrifice of independence without any loss of position as the 
 acknowledged head of the great republican party. He saw, 
 however, that he could be more useful to his country in Con- 
 g^ess. Measures of vital importance were to be carried. The 
 tariff was to be adjusted the Missouri business to be settled 
 the constitutionality of internal improvements was to be ad 
 mitted South American independence was to be acknowledged 
 how could he conscientiously quit a post where he wielded 
 an influence more potent than the president s, while such mo 
 
102 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 mentous questions remained open ? These being disposed of, he 
 would be at liberty to pursue any course which his inclinations 
 might indicate, or which the public interests might sanction. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1824. 
 
 As Mr. Monroe s second presidential term drew to a close, the 
 juestion of the next presidency began to be busily agitated. 
 Four prominent candidates were presented by their friends for 
 *he suffrages of the people : being John Quincy Adams of Mas 
 sachusetts, Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, Henry Clay of Ken- 
 ucky, and William H. Crawford of Georgia. 
 
 In November, 1822, Mr. Clay had been nominated as a suit 
 able successor to James Monroe, at a meeting of the members 
 <>f the legislature of Kentucky. The nomination soon after met 
 with a response from similar meetings in Louisiana, Missouri, 
 and Ohio ; and, as the period of the election approached, he was 
 failed by large bodies of his fellow-citizens in all parts of the 
 country as their favorite candidate. 
 
 The campaign of 1824 was one of the most warmly-contested 
 in our annals. Some of the more unscrupulous of the friends of 
 the various candidates resorted to manoeuvres unworthy of their 
 cause to advance their ends. Just as the election was commen 
 cing, a report was industriously circulated in different quarters 
 of the country that Mr. Clay had withdrawn from the presiden 
 tial contest. In consequence of this report, General William 
 H. Harrison, and other of Mr. Clay s friends in Ohio, pub 
 lished a declaration, in which it was asserted that he (Mr. Clay) 
 " would not be withdrawn from the contest but by the fiat of his 
 Maker." Our late lamented chief magistrate was at that time, 
 and ever after, his devoted political, as well as personal friend ; 
 and he has often been heard to declare his preference for him 
 over all other candidates. 
 
THE KREMER CALUMNY. 103 
 
 Early in the campaign it was discovered that there would be 
 no election of president by the people. By the constitution, the 
 house of representatives would, therefore, be called upon to 
 choose from the three highest cadidates. In December, 1824, 
 soon after the meeting of Congress, it was known that the three 
 highest candidates were Jackson, Adams, and Crawford, and that 
 Mr. Clay and his friends would have it in their power, when the 
 question came before the house, of turning the balance in favor 
 of any one of the three. 
 
 Mr. Clay s position was now an extremely important one. Sev 
 eral weeks were to intervene before the election ; and, in the mean 
 time, the partisans of the three candidates looked with intense 
 anxiety to the speaker s course. His preferences were distinctly 
 known to his personal friends, for he had expressed them in his 
 letters and his conversations ; but it would have been indelicate 
 and superfluous for him to have electioneered in behalf of any 
 one of the rival candidates to have given occasion for intrigues 
 and coalitions by deciding the question in advance. 
 
 While all parties were in this state of suspense, a gross and 
 unprincipled attempt was made to browbeat Mr. Clay, and drive 
 him from what was rightly supposed to be his position of pref 
 erence for Mr. Adams. A letter, the authorship of which was 
 afterward avowed by George Kremer, a member of the house 
 from Pennsylvania, appeared in a Philadelphia newspaper called 
 the " Columbian Observer," charging Mr. Clay and his friends 
 with the most flagitious intentions in short with the design of 
 selling their vote to the highest bidder. 
 
 Monstrous as were these intimations, they were calculated to 
 carry some weight with the ignorant and unreflecting. By such 
 persons, it would not be taken into consideration that Mr. Clay 
 had already declined offices of the highest grade under Madison 
 and Monroe that, if either Jackson or Crawford had been 
 elected through his agency, the first office in the gift of either 
 would indubitably have been offered to him that, in accepting 
 office under Mr. Adams, it was universally understood at Wash- 
 r ngton, he was conferring rather than receiving a favor that he 
 might not inaptly have been accused of acting an ungenerous 
 if, after bringing the Adams administration into power, ha 
 
]04 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 had refused it the countenance so essential to its success th-,1 
 he would have neglected the solicitations of all who acted with 
 him from the west had he refused the secretaryship and, in 
 short, that in order to justify his vote it was incumbent on him. 
 to submit to the united voice of the friends of the new adminis 
 tration, and bring to it as much of his western strength as he 
 could lend. 
 
 The " Columbian Observer," in which the precious epistle we 
 have alluded to appeared, was a print sustained by Mr. Eaton, the 
 friend, biographer, and colleague in the senate of General Jackson. 
 The position of the writer of the letter, as a member of Congress, 
 gave it a consequence which, utterly contemptible as it is, it would 
 not otherwise, in any degree, have possessed. Mr. Clay deem 
 ed it incumbent upon him to notice it ; and he published a card 
 in the National Intelligencer, pronouncing the author of the let 
 ter, whoever he might be, " a base and infamous calumniator." 
 This was answered by a card from Mr. George Kremer, in 
 which the writer said he held himself ready to prove, to the sat 
 isfaction of unprejudiced minds, enough to satisfy them of the 
 accuracy of the statements in the letter, so far as Mr. Clay was 
 concerned. 
 
 The calumny having been thus fathered, Mr. Clay rose in his 
 place in the house, and demanded an investigation into the affair 
 
 A committee was accordingly appointed by ballot on the 5th 
 of February, 1835. It was composed of some of the leading 
 members of the house, not one of whom was Mr. Clay s political 
 friend. Although Mr. Kremer had declared to the house and to 
 the public his willingness to bring forward his proofs, and his 
 readiness to abide the issue of the inquiry, his fears, or other 
 counsels than his own, prevailed upon him to resort finally to & 
 miserable subterfuge. The committee reported that Mr. Kremer 
 declined appearing before them, alleging that he could not do so 
 without appearing either as an accuser or a witness, both of which 
 he protested against /" 
 
 And yet, this same Mr. Kremer, a day or two before, when 
 the subject of appointing an investigating committee came up, 
 had risen in his seat in the house, and said : " If, upon an in 
 vestigation being instituted, it should appear that he had not suf- 
 
CANVASS OF THE ELECTORAL VOTES. 105 
 
 ficient reasons to justify the statements he had made, he trusted 
 he should receive the marked reprobation which had been sug 
 gested by the speaker. Let it fall where it might, Mr. Kremer 
 said, he was willing to meet the inquiry, and abide the result. 1 
 
 But it is not on Mr. Kremer alone that our indignation should 
 be expended for this miserable attempt to bolster up a profligate 
 calumny just long enough for it to operate on the approaching 
 election. He was merely a tool in the hands of deeper knaves. 
 A thick-headed, illiterate, foolish, good-natured man, he was 
 ready, in his blind attachment to General Jackson, to do any 
 servile deed that might propitiate his idol. He seems to have 
 inwardly repented of the act as soon as it had been committed. 
 He frequently declared his determination to offer an explanation 
 and apology to Mr. Clay ; and had gone so far as to draw up a 
 paper for that purpose, which was submitted to the latter. But 
 Mr. Clay replied that the affair had passed from his control into 
 that of the house ; and the rogues, who had taken Mr. Kremer 
 into their keeping, were careful not to allow him to repeat his 
 offer of an apology subsequently when the house chose to let the 
 matter drop. 
 
 In 1827- 28, Mr. Clay, in an address to his constituents, gave 
 a full and interesting history of this affair, together with the 
 sequel, at which we shall glance in our next chapter, and in which 
 General Jackson figured conspicuously. 
 
 On the 9th of February, 1825, in the presence of both houses 
 of Congress, Mr. Tazewell, from the committee of tellers, re 
 ported the votes of the different states for president and vice- 
 president of the United States. The aggregate was as follows : 
 John Quincy Adams had eighty-four votes ; William H. Craw 
 ford, forty-one ; Andrew Jackson, ninety-nine ; and Henry Clay, 
 thirty-seven* the latter having been deprived, by party intrigue 
 
 * The vote of Mr. Clay in the primary colleges stood : Ohio, 16 ; Kentucky, 14 ; New 
 York, 4 ; Missouri, 3. It will be seen that Missouri gave her entire vote to Mr. Clay, in 
 1824, at which time THOMAS H. BENTON took the lead in his support, as the candidate most 
 favorable to Internal Improvements and the Protection of American Industry. 
 
 Mr. Crawford, it must be remembered, was the regular nominee of the Democratic Con 
 gressional caucus, which, though composed of a decided minority of the members belong 
 ing to that party, claimed the support of all its adherents as a matter of precedent and prin 
 ciple. The " regular ticket" (electoral) was therefore in most states for Crawford ; while 
 Mr. Adams s name in the east and General Jackson s in the south and southwest were gen 
 erally pitched upon by the eontemners of caucus pretensions to form a rallying cry against 
 E* 
 
106 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 and chicanery, of votes in New York and Louisiana which 
 would have carried him into the house, where he would undoubt 
 edly have been elected president over all other candidates. 
 
 The president of the senate rose, and declared that no person 
 had received a majority of the votes given for president of the 
 United States; that Andrew Jackson, John Q. Adams, and 
 William H. Crawford, were the three persons who had received 
 the highest number of votes, and that the remaining duties in the 
 choice of a president now devolved on the house of representa 
 tives. He farther declared, that John C. Calhoun, of South 
 Carolina, having received one hundred and eighty-two votes, was 
 duly elected vice-president of the United States, to serve for 
 four years from the ensuing fourth day of March. The members 
 of the senate then retired. 
 
 The constitution provides, that " from the persons having the 
 highest numbers, not exceeding three, on the list voted for as 
 president, the house of representatives shall CHOOSE immediately, 
 by ballot, a president." 
 
 The friends of General Jackson now, as a matter of course, 
 eagerly advanced the doctrine that a plurality of votes for any 
 one candidate should be considered as decisive of the will of 
 the people, and should influence the members of the house in 
 their votes. As if a mere plurality, forsooth, ought to swallow 
 up a majority ! A more dangerous doctrine, and one more di 
 rectly opposed to the spirit of the constitution, could not well be 
 imagined. It can not be called democratic, for it does not admit 
 the prevalence of the will of the majority in the election. It 
 was, in fact, a dogma engendered for the occasion by the friends 
 of the candidate who happened to come into the house with a 
 plurality of votes. 
 
 Mr. Clay was not to be dragooned into the admission of any 
 such principle. He resolved to be guided by what was plainly 
 the letter and spirit of the constitution, and to give his vote to 
 
 those pretensions. Mr. Clay was successful in nearly every state where an electoral ticket 
 was run in his favor ; and in New York where the members of the legislature hostile to the 
 caucus candidate finally united on a ticket composed of twenty-Jive Adams and eleven Clay 
 electors, a majority of the latter were defeated through bad faith, whereby Mr. Clay was 
 thrown out of the House, and Mr. Crawford sent there in his stead. But for this treachery, 
 Mr. Clay would almost certainly have been elected, as his popularity in the House was ua> 
 bounded. 
 
HIS PREFERENCE OF MR. ADAMS. 107 
 
 that man of the three now eligible, whom he believed to be the 
 most competent to preside over the destinies of the republic. By 
 a personal visit to Mr. Crawford, he had satisfied himself that 
 that gentleman was too broke .1 down in health to discharge with 
 fitting energy the duties of the chief magistracy. His option 
 lay, therefore, between Messrs. Adams and Jackson. 
 
 We have seen what were Mr. Clay s views of the character 
 of General Jackson so far back as 1819, when the Seminole 
 question was before the house. Was it possible that he should 
 regard those traits which, in the soldier, had led to conduct at 
 war with the constitution, as qualifications in the president? 
 General Jackson was, furthermore, understood to be hostile to 
 those great systems of internal improvement and protection to 
 home manufactures, which Mr. Clay had spent the best part of 
 his public life in establishing. At least the general s views were 
 vacillating and undecided on these points. Could Mr. Clay be 
 called upon to sacrifice those important interests on the shrine 
 of merely sectional partiality for the sake of having a western 
 rather than an eastern man to preside over the Union ? 
 
 No ! Henry Clay was not to be influenced by such narrow and 
 unworthy considerations. He has himself said : " Had I voted 
 for General Jackson in opposition to the well-known opinions 
 which I entertained of him, one-tenth part of the ingenuity and 
 zeal which have been employed to excite prejudices against me, 
 would have held me up to universal contempt ; and, what would 
 have been worse, I should have felt that I really deserved it. 11 
 According to the testimony of his friend, General Call, General 
 Jackson himself never * ;pected that he vvould receive the vote 
 of Mr. Clay. 
 
 With Mr. Adanu, Mr. Clay had always been on amicable if 
 not on intimate terms. At Ghent, they had differed on a ques 
 tion of public policy, but they both had too much liberality of 
 soul to make their dissimilarity of opinion a cause of personal 
 displeasure and variance. The speaker saw in Mr. Adams, a 
 statesman highly gifted, profoundly learned, and long and greatly 
 experienced in public affairs at home and abroad. 
 
 How could he in conscience hesitate when the choice lay be* 
 wreen two such men ? He did not hesitate. He had never 
 
108 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 itated. Long before he left Kentucky, according to the testimony 
 of the Hon. John J. Crittenden, six of the Kentucky delegation 
 in Congress, and some hundreds of respectable citizens, Mr. Clay 
 declared that he could not imagine the contingency in which he 
 would vote for General Jackson. A still more important witness, 
 in the person of the great and good LAFAYETTE, came forward 
 to testify in Mr. Clay s behalf, as the following extract from his 
 letter to Mr. Clay will show : 
 
 "My remembrance concurs with your own on this point : that in the lat 
 ter end of December, either before or after my visit to Annapolis, you being 
 out of the presidential candidature, and after having expressed my above- 
 mentioned motives of forbearance, I by way of confidential exception, al 
 lowed myself to put a simple, unqualified question, respecting your election 
 eering guess, and your intended vote. Your answer was, that in your opin 
 ion, the actual state of health of Mr. Crawford had limited the contest to a 
 choice between Mr. Adams and General Jackson ; that a claim founded on 
 military achievements did not meet your preference, AND THAT you HAD CON 
 CLUDED TO VOTE FOR MR. ADAMS." 
 
 Notwithstanding the flagitious attempt to influence his vote, 
 Mr. Clay unhesitatingly gave it for Mr. Adams, and decided the 
 election in his favor. He went further. When, after he was 
 seated in the presidential chair, Mr. Adams offered him the sec 
 retaryship of state, he had the moral courage to accept it in de 
 fiance of the storm of calumny, exasperation, and malignant oppo 
 sition, which he knew that act would bring down upon him. 
 
 T]jis was a critical period in Mr. Clay s public life a bold, 
 intrepid, and magnanimous movement. We know that he now 
 thinks it was a mistaken one. In his speech of the 9th of June, 
 1842, at Lexington, he says : 
 
 " My error in accept;*^ the office arose out of my underrating the power 
 of detraction and the force of ignorance, and ding with too sure a confi 
 dence in the conscious integrity and uprightnes. of my own motives. Of 
 that ignorance, I had a remarkable and laughabi example on an occasion 
 which I will relate. I was travelling, in 1828, thi "gh, I believe it was, 
 Spottsylvania in Virginia, on my return to Washington, in company with 
 some young friends. We halted at night at a tavern, kept by an aged gen 
 tleman, who, I quickly perceived, from the disorder and confusion which 
 reigned, had not the happiness to have a wife. After a hurried and bad 
 Bupper, the old gentleman sat down by me, and, without hearing my name, 
 but understanding that I was from Kentucky, remarked that he had four 
 Bons in that state, and that he was very sorry they were divided in politics, 
 two being for Adams and two for Jackson; he wished they were all for 
 Jackson. Why? I asked him. Because, he said, that fellow Clay, and 
 Adams, had cheated Jackson out of the presidency. Have you ever seen 
 any evidence, my old friend, said I, of that? No, he replied, none, and h 
 
REVIVAL OF THE SLANDER. 109 
 
 wanted to see none, But, I observed, looking him directly and steadily in 
 the face, suppose Mr. Clay was to come here and assure you, upon his honor, 
 that it was ail a vile calumny, and not a word of truth in it, would you be- 
 lievo him? No, replied the old gentleman promptly and emphatically. I 
 said to him, in conclusion, will you be good enough to show me to bed, and 
 bade him good night. The next morning, having in the interval learned my 
 name, he came to me full of apologies, but I at once put him at his ease by 
 assuring him that I did not feel in the slightest degree hurt or offended with 
 him." 
 
 With deference, we must express our dissent from Mr. Clay 
 in regarding his acceptance of office under Mr. Adams as an 
 " error." It may have been, so far as his personal interests were 
 concerned, erroneous, and impolitic ; but, in reference to his pub 
 lic duties, it was right ; it was honest ; it was courageous. Both 
 Madison and Monroe had offered him the highest offices in their 
 gift ; but the country was at those times in such a state, that he 
 thought he could make himself more useful in Congress ; and he 
 refused them. None but the ignorant and base-minded could 
 credit the monstrous assertion, that he had made the promise of 
 the secretaryship the condition of giving his vote for Mr. Adams. 
 Mr. Clay may have been temporarily injured by the wretched 
 slander ; and it will be seen, as we advance in his biography, that 
 after it had been dropped by Kremer, it was revived by General 
 Jackson. But we do not believe that there is at this time a sin 
 gle person of moderate intelligence in the country, who attaches 
 the least credit to the story, thoroughly exploded as it has been 
 by the most abundant and triumphant testimony. 
 
 It is, therefore, because we have faith in the ultimate preva 
 lence of truth, that we do not think Mr. Clay was in erroi, when 
 he so far defied his traducers as to accept the very office which 
 they had previously accused him of bargaining for. The clouds 
 which for the moment hide Truth from our sight only make her 
 shine the brighter when they are dissipated. In the words of 
 Spenser : 
 
 "It often falls in course of common life, 
 That right long time is overborne of wrong, 
 Thro avarice, or power, or guile, or strife : 
 But Justice, though her doom she do prolong, 
 Yet at the last she will her own cause right." 
 
 Mr. Clay may still abide, " with a sure confidence, in the con 
 scious integrity and uprightness of his own motives." Slander 
 
110 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 has done her worst. Never before, in the history of our gov 
 ernment, was a public man so bitterly assailed by every weapon 
 and engine that unprincipled detraction and malignant party hos 
 tility could invent. For years, the opposition, in the face of the 
 most decided and complete refutations of the calumny and not 
 withstanding the original inventors had themselves confessed its 
 falsity continued to thrust it before the public, until at length, 
 they could find none so mean and ignorant as to credit it. The 
 natural reaction has taken place ; and every honest heart now 
 visits with indignation any attempt to resuscitate the crushed and 
 obscene lie. Mr. Clay s reputation has come forth whiter and 
 purer from the ordeal. The " most fine gold" is all the more 
 bright because of those who would have dimmed its lustre. The 
 stream of time is fast bearing down to oblivion the frail and un 
 founded falsehoods of his enemies ; but the pillars of his renown 
 based as they are upon inestimable public services, remain un 
 shaken and unimpaired. 
 
 Mr. Clay entered upon the duties of his new post in March, 
 1825. In him the house of representatives lost the ablest and 
 most efficient speaker that had ever graced the chair. The best 
 proof of his popularity may be found in the eloquent fact, that 
 from the time of his first entry into the house in 1811 to 1825, 
 with the exception of two years when he was voluntarily absent, 
 he was chosen to preside over their deliberations almost without 
 opposition. The period of his speakership will always be re 
 garded as an epoch in the history of our federal legislature. 
 Perhaps the most remarkable characteristic of his presidency 
 over the house, was his perfect his unimpeachable impartiality. 
 Both foes and friends bore testimony to this trait without a dis 
 senting voice. Strong as were his party feelings, they never 
 could induce him, even in the very tempest and whirlwind of de 
 bate, to treat an opponent with unfairness or undue neglect. His 
 decisions were always prompt, yet never so hasty as to be re 
 versed by the house. Notwithstanding the many momentous and 
 agitating questions which were discussed while he occupied the 
 chair, he was never known to lose his self-possession, or to fail 
 in preserving the dignity of his position. 
 
 During the long period of his service (some twelve or thirteen 
 
HIS CHARACTER AS SPEAKER. Ill 
 
 years) in the chair, such was the confidence reposed in his im 
 partiality and the rectitude of his judgment, that appeals were 
 rarely taken from his decision during the last years of his in 
 cumbency, scarcely one. 
 
 It was under Mr. Clay s administration of the duties of the 
 chair, that the present use of the previous questions in termina 
 ting debate was established. In England it is employed to put 
 by or postpone a subject which it is deemed improper to debate , 
 and then, when the house of commons do not choose to hear an 
 unacceptable debater, he is silenced by being shuffled or coughed 
 down. Certainly it is more orderly, and less invidious, for the 
 house itself to determine when a subject shall be put to the ques 
 tion and all debate upon it stopped. And every deliberative body 
 ought necessarily to possess the power of deciding when it will 
 express its judgment or opinion upon any proposition before it, 
 and, consequently, when debate shall close. 
 
 It has been seen that Mr. Clay s presiding in the chair did not 
 prevent his taking an active and leading part in all the great 
 measures that came before the house in committee of the whole. 
 His spirits were always buoyant, and his manner in debate gen 
 erally animated, and sometimes vehement. But he never carried 
 from the floor to the chair the excited feelings arising in debate. 
 There he was still composed, dignified, authoritative, but perfectly 
 impartial. His administration of its duties commanded the undi 
 vided praise of all parties. 
 
 Uniformly cheerful when on the floor, he sometimes indulged 
 in repartee. The late General Alexander Smyth of Virginia, a 
 man of ability and research, was an excessively tedious speaker, 
 worrying the house and prolonging his speeches by numerous 
 quotations. On one of these occasions, when he had been more 
 than ordinarily tiresome, while hunting up an authority, he ob 
 served to Mr. Clay, who was sitting near him, " You, sir, speak 
 for the present generation ; but I speak for posterity." - Yes," 
 said Mr. Clay, " and you seem resolved to speak until the arrival 
 of your audience !" 
 
 The late Governor Lincoln of Maine was a gentleman of fine 
 feelings, eloquent, but declamatory. On one occasion, when ad 
 dressing the house of representatives, of which he was a member 
 
112 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 on the revolutionary pension bill, in answer to an argument that 
 it would be a serious charge upon the treasury of long continu 
 ance, as many of the officers and soldiers would live a great while, 
 he burst out into the patriotic exclamation, " Soldiers of the rev 
 olution, live for ever !" Mr. Clay followed him, inculcating mod 
 eration, and concluded by turning to Mr. Lincoln, with an arch 
 smile, and observing, " I hope my worthy friend will not insist 
 upon the very great duration of these pensions, which he has 
 suggested. Will he not consent, by way of a compromise, to a 
 term of nine hundred and ninety-nine years instead of eternity ?" 
 
 IX. 
 
 THE BARGAIN CALUMNY MR. CLAY AS SECRETARY OF STATE. 
 
 MR. CLAY has himself given to the public a history of his in 
 tercourse with General Jackson. It may be found in his speech 
 of 1838, in the senate, on the sub-treasury scheme. 
 
 "My acquaintance," he says, "with that extraordinary man commenced 
 in this city, in the fall of 1815 or 1816. It was short, but highly respectful 
 and mutually cordial. I beheld in him the gallant and successful general, 
 who, by the glorious victory of Kew Orleans, had honorably closed the sec 
 ond war of our independence, and I paid him the homage due for that 
 eminent service. A few years after, it became my painful duty to animad 
 vert, in the house of representatives, with the independence which belongs 
 to the representative character, upon some of his proceedings in the conduct 
 of the Seminole war, which I thought illegal, and contrary to the constitu 
 tion and the law of nations. A non-intercourse between us ensued, which 
 continued until the fall of 1824, when, he being a member of the senate, an 
 accommodation between us was sought to be brought about by the principal 
 part of the delegation from his own state. For that purpose, we were in 
 vited to dine with them at Claxton s boarding-house, on Capitol hill, where 
 my venerable friend from Tennessee (Mr. White) and his colleague on the 
 Spanish commission, were both present. I retired early from dinner, and 
 was followed to the door by General Jackson, arid the present minister of the 
 United States at the court of Madrid (Mr. Eaton). They pressed me earnestly 
 to take a seat with them in their carriage. My faithful servant and friend, 
 Charles, was standing at the door waiting for me with my own. I yielded 
 to their urgent politeness, directed Charles to follow with my carriage, and 
 they sat me down by my own door. "We afterward frequently met, with 
 mutual respect and cordiality; dined several times together, and recipro 
 cated the hospitality of our respective quarters. This friendly intercourse 
 continued until the election, in the house of representatives, of a president 
 
CARTER BEVERLEYS LETTER. 113 
 
 of the United States, came on in. February, 1825. I gave the vote which, in 
 the contingency that happened, I told my colleague (Mr. Oittenden), who 
 sits before me, prior to my departure from Kentucky, in November, 1824, 
 and told others, that I should give. All intercourse ceased between General 
 Jackson and myself. "We have never since, except once accidentally, ex 
 changed salutations, nor met, except on occasions when we were performing 
 the last offices toward deceased members of Congress, or other officers of 
 government. Immediately after my vote, a rancorous war was commenced 
 against me, and all the barking dogs let loose upon me. I shall not trace it 
 during its ten years bitter continuance. But I thank my God that I stand 
 here, firm and erect, unbent, unbroken, unsubdued, unawed, and ready to 
 denounce the mischievous measures of this administration, and ready to de 
 nounce this, its legitimate offspring, the most pernicious of all." 
 
 Directly after the adjournment of the 19th Congress, a letter, 
 dated March 8, 1825, appeared in the newspapers, purporting to 
 relate a conversation of the writer with General Jackson, in 
 which the latter said that Mr. Clay s friends in Congress proposed 
 to his friends (Gen. J. s) that if they would promise for him that 
 Mr. Adams should not be continued as secretary of state, Mr. 
 Clay and his friends would at once elect General Jackson presi 
 dent ; and that he (General Jackson) indignantly rejected the pro 
 position. Mr. Carter Beverley, the author of this letter, wrote to 
 General Jackson, soon after its appearance, for a confirmation of 
 its statements. 
 
 General Jackson replied, in a letter dated June t>, 1827 more 
 than two years after the charge was first made, but just in season 
 to operate upon approaching elections ; and, in his reply, directly 
 charged the friends of Mr. Clay with having proposed to him, 
 (Jackson) through a distinguished member of Congress, to vote for 
 him, in case he would declare that Mr. Adams should not be con 
 tinued as secretary of state ; and insinuated that this proposition 
 was made by authority of Mr. Clay ; and, to strengthen that in 
 sinuation, asserted that immediately after the rejection of the 
 proposition, Mr. Clay came out openly for Mr. Adams. 
 
 To this proposition, according to his own account, General 
 Jackson returned for answer, that before he would reach the 
 presidential chair by such means of bargain and corruption, " he 
 would see the earth open, and swallow both Mr. Clay and his 
 friends and himself with them !" a reply which was, no doubt, 
 literally true, inasmuch as " such means" could never have been 
 used to elevate the hero of New Orleans to the presidency. 
 
 8 
 
M4 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 General Jackson gave up the name of Mr. Buchanan of Penn* 
 sylvania, as " the distinguished member of Congress," to whom 
 he had alluded in his letter to Mr. Beverley. Mr. Buchanan, being 
 thus involved in the controversy, although a personal and political 
 friend of General "Jackson, made a statement which entirely ex 
 culpated Mr. Clay and his friends from all participation in the 
 alleged proposition. He stated, that in the month of December, 
 a rumor was in circulation at Washington, that General Jackson 
 intended, if elected, to keep Mr. Adams in as secretary of state. 
 Believing that such a belief would cool his friends and inspire 
 his opponents with confidence, and being a supporter of General 
 Jackson himself, he thought that the general ought to contradict 
 the report. He accordingly called on him, and made known his 
 views ; to which General Jackson replied, that though he thought 
 well of Mr. Adams, he had never said or intimated that he would 
 or would not, appoint him secretary of state. Mr. Buchanan then 
 asked permission to repeat this answer to any person he thought 
 proper, which was granted, and here the conversation ended. 
 And out of such flimsy materials had General Jackson constructed 
 his rancorous charge against Mr. Clay ! 
 
 Mr. Buchanan further stated, that he called on General Jackson 
 solely as his friend, and upon his own responsibility, and not as 
 an agent for Mr. Clay, or any other person ; that he had never 
 been a friend of Mr. Clay during the presidential contest ; and 
 that he had not the most distant idea that General Jackson believed, 
 or suspected, that he came on behalf of Mr. Clay, or of his friends, 
 until the publication of the letter, making that accusation. 
 
 Notwithstanding all grounds for the charge were thus annihi 
 lated by the testimony of the " distinguished member of Con 
 gress" himself a warm partisan of General Jackson the 
 asinine cry of bargain and corruption was still kept up by the op 
 ponents of the administration ; and the most audacious assertions 
 were substituted for proofs. 
 
 At length, although not the slightest shadow of anything re 
 sembling evidence had been produced in support of the calumny 
 a body of testimony perfectly overwhelming was produced against 
 it. A circular letter was addressed to the western members (for 
 they alone were accused of being implicated in the alleged trans 
 
FINAL REFUTATION OF THE SLANDER. 115 
 
 action) who voted for Mr. Adams in the election by Congress, in 
 1825, requesting to know whether there was any foundation for 
 the charge in the letter of General Jackson. 
 
 They all (with the exception of Mr. Cook, who was dead), 
 utterly disclaimed the knowledge of any proposition made by Mr. 
 Clay, or his friends, to General Jackson, or to any other person ; 
 and also explicitly disclaimed any negotiation with respect to 
 their votes on that occasion. On the contrary, the members from 
 Ohio stated that they had determined upon voting for Mr. Adams 
 previous to their being informed of Mr. Clay s intention, and with 
 out having ascertained his views. 
 
 The members from Kentucky, who voted with Mr. Clay, ex 
 pressed their ignorance of conditions of any sort having been 
 offered by his friends to any person, on compliance with which 
 their vote was to depend. 
 
 The members from Louisiana and Missouri, coincided in these 
 declarations, and they all professed their belief in the falsehood 
 of the charges against Mr. Clay, on account of his conduct on 
 that occasion. 
 
 In addition to this testimony, letters were produced from well- 
 known individuals, satisfactorily establishing the fact that Mr. 
 Clay, previous to his leaving his residence in Kentucky for Wash 
 ington, in the fall of 1824, repeatedly made declarations of his 
 preference for Mr. Adams over General Jackson, through the 
 months of October, November, December, and January, following, 
 until he executed that intention on the 9th of February, 1825, in 
 the house of representatives. We have already quoted from 
 General Lafayette s letter to Mr. Clay, a passage confirming this 
 ample testimony. 
 
 Such a mass of evidence effectually crushed the accusation 
 respecting a bargain, and convinced the public, that in voting for 
 Mr. Adams, Mr. Clay and his friends conscientiously discharged 
 their duty ; and that they could not have voted otherwise without 
 palpable inconsistency. 
 
 When, on the occasion of his speech of June, 1842, at Lex 
 ington, Mr. Clay alluded to this calumny, of which we have given 
 a brief history, somebody cried out, that Mr. Carter Beverley, who 
 had been made the organ of announcing it, had recently borne 
 
116 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 testimony to its being unfounded. Mr. Clay said it was true tha 
 he had voluntarily borne such testimony. But, with great earnest 
 ness and emphasis, Mr. Clay said, " I want no testimony ; here- 
 j iere HERE" (repeatedly touching his heart, amid tremendous 
 cheers) "here is the best of all witnesses of my innocence." 
 
 Soon after the close of his administration, Mr. Adams, in reply 
 to an address from a committee of gentlemen in New Jersey, 
 spoke in the following terms of Mr. Clay : 
 
 " Upon him [Mr. Clay] the foulest slanders have been showered. Long 
 known and appreciated, as successively a member of both houses of your 
 national legislature, as the unrivaled speaker, and, at the same time, most 
 efficient leader of debates in one of them ; as an able and successful negotia 
 tor for your interests in war and peace with foreign powers, and as a power 
 ful candidate for the highest of your trusts the department of state itself 
 was a station, which, by its bestowal, could confer neither profit nor honor 
 upon him, but upon which he has shed unfading honor, by the manner in 
 which he has discharged its duties. Prejudice and passion have charged him 
 with obtaining that office by bargain and corruption. Before you, my fellow- 
 citizens, in the presence of our country and Heaven, I pronounce that charge 
 totally unfounded. This tribute of justice is due from me to him, and I seize, 
 with pleasure, the opportunity afforded me by your letter, of discharging the 
 obligation. 
 
 "As to my motives for tendering to him the department of state when I 
 did, let that man who questions them come forward. Let him look around 
 among statesmen and legislators of this nation and of that day. Let him 
 then select and name the man whom, by his pre-eminent talents, by his 
 splendid services, by his ardent patriotism, by his all-embracing public spirit, 
 by his fervid eloquence in behalf of the rights and liberties of mankind, by 
 his long experience in the affairs of the Union, foreign arid domestic, a pres 
 ident of the United States, intent only upon the honor and welfare of his 
 country, ought to have preferred to HENRY CLAY. Let him name that man, 
 and then judge you, my fellow-citizens, of my motives." 
 
 During his visit to the West, in the fall of 1843, Mr. Adams 
 confirmed this denial in the strongest terms, which it is possible 
 for the human tongue to employ. 
 
 " I thank you, sir," said he, in his speech at Maysville, Ky., " for the op 
 portunity you have given me of speaking of the great statesman who was 
 associated with me in the administration of the general government, at my 
 earnest solicitation who belongs not to Kentucky alone, but to the whole 
 Union; and is not only an honor to this state and this nation, but to man 
 kind. The charges to which you refer, I have, after my term of service had 
 expired and it was proper for me to speak denied before the whole 
 country ; and I here reiterate and reaffirm that denial ; and as I expect shortly 
 to appear before my God, to answer for the conduct of my whole life, should 
 those charges have found their way to the Throne of Eternal Justice, I WILL, 
 
 IN THE PRESENCE OF OMNIPOTENCE, PRONOUNCE THEM FALSE." 
 
OPPOSITION TO MR. ADAMS S ADMINISTRATION. 117 
 
 Tn his address at Covington, Ky., Mr. Adams said, in allusion 
 to the hospitalities which he had met with : 
 
 " Not only have I received invitations from public bodies and cities, but 
 also from individuals, among the first of whom was that grea<. man, your 
 own citizen, who, during a very large portion of my public life, and in various 
 public capacities, and, in several instances, in matters relating to your inter 
 ests, has been my associate and friend, and the recollection of whom brings 
 me to the acknowledgment, before this whole assembly, that in all the various 
 capacities in which I have known him to act, whether as associate, as 
 assistant, or acting independently of me, in his own individual character and 
 capacity, I have ever found him not only one of the ablest men with whom 
 I have ever co-operated, but also one of the most amiable and worthy." * 
 
 We have but imperfectly sketched the history of the flagitious 
 measures which were adopted to blast the political reputation of 
 Mr. Clay, and break down the administration, of which he was 
 the main ornament and support. To the future historian, we 
 leave the task of commenting, in adequate terms of reprobation, 
 upon the conduct of those unprincipled men who originated the 
 slander, and continued to circulate it long after it had been proved 
 to be utterly ungrounded. That it answered the purpose for 
 which it was intended ; that it was the most efficient instrument 
 employed to trammel and defeat Mr. Adams s administration, there 
 can now be little doubt. The recklessness and audacity with 
 which it was persisted in until it had served its end the con 
 duct of Mr. Kremer, as he vacillated between his good impulses 
 and the party ties by which he was fettered and subsequent 
 developments, still fresh in the remembrance of many of our 
 readers, showed that the promulgation of the calumny was the 
 result of a regularly-planned conspiracy. 
 
 * Mr. Adams, of whom it could be said, " age can not mar, nor custom stale his infinite 
 variety," always retained his exalted estimate of Mr. Clay s patriotism and statesmanship, 
 and was his ardent supporter for the presidency in 1844. A Washington correspondent of 
 that year wrote : 
 
 " I have frequently observed ladies albums circulating through the house and senate 
 chamber, with the view of collecting the autographs of the members. One, this morning, 
 
 belonging to a young lady of , attracted considerable attention. Upon examination, 
 
 I found it contained a page of well-written poetry, dated 23d July, 1842, in the tremulous 
 hand-writing of John Q. Adams. This piece was descriptive of the wild chaos at present 
 epread over cur political affairs, and anticipated coming events which would bring order out 
 of disorder. The closing verse was follows : 
 
 Say, for whose brow this laurel crown ? 
 For whom this web of life is spinning ? 
 Turn this, thy Album, upside down, 
 And take the end for the beginning. 
 
 " TJhe meaning of this was somewhat mystical, but by turning to the back of the book, and 
 inverting it, on its last page a piece was found with the signature of H. CLAY I" 
 
18 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 We refer those who would satisfy themselves of this fact, as 
 well as of the sufficiency of the proofs by which this " measure 
 less lie" was overwhelmed, to the proceedings in the house of 
 representatives, instituted at Mr. Clay s instance, in February, 
 1825 to the subsequent letter of Carter Beverley, detailing a 
 conversation at General Jackson s to Mr. Clay s letter to the 
 public, challenging his enemy to produce his testimony to 
 General Jackson s surrender of the name of Mr. Buchanan as 
 the " distinguished member of Congress" upon whose authority 
 the charge of corruption was reiterated against. Mr. Clay to 
 Mr. Buchanan s complete and decided disclaimer of any intention, 
 on his part, of ever giving countenance to the charge to Mr. 
 Clay s pamphlets, published in 1827- 8, embodying a mass of 
 testimony disproving the charge to Mr. Buchanan s statements 
 on the floor of the house of representatives and the senate, avow 
 ing his disbelief of the charge and finally to Carter Beverley s 
 letter, published in 1841, repudiating the calumny as destitute of 
 the slightest foundation in truth, and making such atonement as 
 he could for having given currency to it in his letter of 1825.* 
 
 We might refer farther to Thomas H. Benton s declaration, 
 who, in a letter dated December 7, 1827, proves not only that 
 Mr. Clay s bitterest opponents considered him innocent of the 
 charge, but that before Congress had convened before the pres 
 idential election took place in that body Mr. Clay had disclosed 
 his intention to vote for Mr. Adams, not only to Mr. B., but to 
 others. See National Intelligencer, April 25, 1844. 
 
 Rarely has an administration been subjected to an opposition 
 so unrelenting, so vindictive, and so determined as that which 
 assailed the presidency of John Quincy Adams. The motives 
 of that opposition appear to have been purely selfish and mer 
 cenary ; for the policy of Mr. Adams resembled that of his pred 
 ecessor, whose secretary of state he had been, and it was little 
 calculated to call down a virulent hostility. In his views of the 
 powers of the general government, he was more liberal than Mr, 
 Monroe. He was friendly to the American system of internal 
 
 * All these documents may be found in Niles Register. We regret that our limits will 
 not permit us to expose, in its full deformity, the whole of this nefarious plot against Mr. 
 Clay. That man must presume greatly upon the ignorance of the public, however, who 
 would, at this day, venture to revive the extinct lie. 
 
DUE/ WITH RANDOLPH. 119 
 
 improvement and protection, which had been so ably vindicated 
 by Mr. Clay ; and all his measures were conceived in a truly 
 generous, republican, and patriotic spirit. 
 
 A great clamor was most unjustly raised about the expenses ol 
 his administration. At this day, the iniquity of this charge is so 
 apparent, as to render it unworthy a serious confutation. It be 
 comes indeed laughable when placed side by side with the list 
 of presidential expenditures under Mr. Van Buren. In the dis 
 tribution of his official patronage, Mr. Adams appears to have 
 been actuated by the purest and most honorable motives. Not a 
 single removal from office, on political grounds, was made by his 
 authority ; and in no one instance does he seem to have been 
 impelled by considerations of self-interest, or with a view to ulti 
 mate personal advantage. 
 
 The circumstances under which he came into office, however, 
 were a continual source of uneasiness to the friends of Jackson 
 and Crawford ; and his administration, able and honorable to the 
 country as it was, was constantly assailed. John Randolph, who 
 had now a seat in the senate, was especially bitter and personal 
 in his denunciations. The eccentricities of that extraordinary 
 man, induced many persons to believe that he was partially de 
 ranged in his intellect. His long, desultory, and immethodical 
 harangues were a serious impediment to legislative business ; 
 while his elfish taunts and reckless assaults upon individuals 
 were so frequent, that he seemed at length to have arrived at the 
 conclusion that he enjoyed superior immunities in debate that 
 he was, in fact, " a chartered libertine." In one of the numerous 
 discussions upon the Panama question, he took occasion to ani 
 madvert in the most offensive manner upon the conduct of Mr, 
 Clay, and denounced the harmony existing between the secretary 
 of state and the president, as a " coalition of Blifil and black 
 George ;" a combination of " the puritan with the black-leg." 
 
 When called upon by Mr. Clay to explain or retract these ex 
 pressions, he refused. A hostile meeting consequently ensued 
 between them, oh the 8th of April, 1826. After two ineffectual 
 fires, it resulted in the reconciliation of the parties John Ran 
 dolph having given additional evidence, by his conduct and ap- 
 
120 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY 
 
 pearance on the occasion, that his eccentricity, if it did not 
 border on insanity, was separated from it by a very slight 
 partition. 
 
 The last interview between Mr. Clay and Mr. Randolph, was 
 on the second or third of March, 1833, a few weeks before Mr. 
 R. s death, when he was on his way to Philadelphia, where he 
 died. He came to the senate-chamber, unable to stand or walk 
 without assistance. The senate was in session by candle-light, 
 and Mr. Clay had risen to make some observations on the compro 
 mise act. " Help me up," said Mr. Randolph, sitting in a chair, 
 and addressing his half-brother, Mr. B. Tucker ; " / have come 
 here to hear that voice" As soon as Mr. Clay had concluded his 
 remarks, he went to Mr. Randolph, and they cordially shook 
 hands and exchanged salutations. 
 
 The health of Mr. Clay, during the whole period of his resi 
 dence at Washington, as secretary of state, was exceedingly 
 unfavorable so much so, that at one time he had fully determined 
 to resign the office. He was persuaded, however, to remain ; and, 
 notwithstanding the depressing influence upon mental and physi 
 cal exertion of bodily infirmity, he discharged the complicated 
 and laborious duties of the secretaryship with a fidelity and effi 
 ciency that have never been surpassed. In the records of his 
 labors, in his instructions to ministers, and his numerous letters 
 upon subjects of foreign and domestic concern, the archives of 
 the state department contain a lasting monument to his trans 
 cendent abilities as a statesman, arid his indefatigable industry as 
 a public officer. 
 
 One of the ablest state papers in the diplomatic annals of the 
 United States, is the letter of instructions of Mr. Clay to the 
 delegation to Panama. The story of this mission may be briefly 
 told. A congress was proposed to be held at Panama or Tacu- 
 baya, to be composed of delegates from the republics of Mexico, 
 Colombia, and Central America, to deliberate on subjects of im 
 portance to all, and in which the welfare ana 1 interest of all might 
 be involved. The threatening aspect of the holy alliance toward 
 the free governments of the new world, had induced the late 
 president Monroe to declare that the United States would not 
 view with indifference any interference on their part in the con- 
 
THE PANAMA CONGRESS. 121 
 
 test between Spain and her former colonies ; and the governments 
 of the new republics were naturally led to suppose that our own 
 was friendly to the objects proposed in the contemplated congress. 
 In the spring of 1825, invitations were given the part of Colom 
 bia, Mexico, and Central America, to the United States, to send 
 commissioners to Panama. 
 
 In reply to this proposition, coming from the ministers of those 
 powers at Washington, Mr. Clay said, that before such a congress 
 met, it appeared to him expedient to adjust, as preliminary matters, 
 the precise objects to which the attention of the congress would 
 be directed, and the substance and the form of the powers of the 
 ministers representing the several republics. This suggestion 
 called forth answers which were not considered as sufficiently 
 precise ; but still, to manifest the sensibility of the United States 
 to what concerned the welfare of America, and to the friendly 
 feelings of the Spanish- American states, the president determined 
 to accept their invitations and to send ministers, with the consent 
 of the senate. 
 
 In March, 1829, a call having been made in the senate for 
 copies of the instructions given to our ministers at Panama, Mr. 
 Adams transmitted them, and they were soon afterward pub 
 lished, notwithstanding a rancorous attempt on the part of the 
 opposition, to prevent their appearance ; so creditable were they 
 to the administration that was going out of power, and to Mr. 
 Clay, their author ; and so completely did they refute the slanders 
 which had been propagated in connection with the mission. Few 
 state papers in the archives of the government will compare, in 
 point of ability, with this letter of instructions of Mr. Clay. It 
 was, perhaps, the most elaborate paper prepared by him while 
 in the department of state. The liberal principles of commerce 
 and navigation which it proposed ; the securities for neutral and 
 maritime rights which it sought ; the whole system of interna 
 tional and American policy which it aimed to establish ; and the 
 preparatory measures which it recommended for uniting the two 
 oceans by a canal, constitute it one of the boldest, most original, 
 comprehensive, and statesman-like documents on record. 
 
 Another masterly paper from the pen of Mr. Clay, is his letter 
 of May, 1825, to our minister at St. Petersburgh, Mr. Middleton 
 
123 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 Instructing him to engage the Russian government to contr bute 
 its best exertions toward terminating the contest then existing 
 between Spain and her colonies. The appeal was not in vain. 
 Through Mr. Clay s exertions, the policy of recognising the in- 
 lependence of Greece, and sending a minister to that country 
 was also at length acquiesced in ; and the effect of that recog 
 nition the first she had experienced in rousing the spirit of 
 the struggling nation, is a matter of history. 
 
 The number of treaties negotiated by Mr. Clay at the seat of 
 the general government, is greater than that of all which had ever 
 been previously concluded there from the first adoption of the 
 constitution. His diplomatic experience his attractive man 
 ners his facile and unceremonious mode of transacting business, 
 rendered him a favorite with the foreign ministers at Washington, 
 and enabled him to procure from them terms the most advantage 
 ous to the country. During his incumbency as secretary, he 
 concluded and signed treaties with Colombia, Central America, 
 Denmark, Prussia, and the Hanseatic republic ; and effected a 
 negotiation with Russia for the settlement of the claims of Amer 
 ican citizens. He also concluded a treaty with Austria, but did 
 not remain in office to see it signed. 
 
 His letters to Mr. Gallatin, our minister at London, in relation 
 to the trade between the United States and the British colonies, 
 are documents of extraordinary interest and value, which ably 
 advocate a durable and obligatory arrangement by treaty, in pref 
 erence to other modes of settlement. His letters to the same 
 functionary, on the navigation of the St. Lawrence, and to our 
 charge at London, relative to the northeastern boundary, exhibit 
 much research, and a sagacious, enlightened, and truly American 
 spirit. Never was the diplomacy of the country so efficiently 
 and creditably conducted, as when under the charge of Henry 
 Clay. 
 
 It has been justly said that no policy could be more thoroughly 
 anti-European, and more completely American, than that of Mr. 
 Adams s administration. He would exclude all farther European 
 colonization from the American continent ; all interference of 
 European monarchs, especially those of the miscalled holy alli 
 ance, in American politics ; he would render his own country 
 
123 
 
 essentially independent of European work-shops, by fostering 
 American arts, manufactures, and science, and would strengthen 
 her power, by rendering her force more available through the in 
 strumentality of internal improvements. To these objects his 
 efforts were directed. 
 
 Mr. Clay had long been the acknowledged head of the demo 
 cratic party ; the most vigorous, eloquent, and consistent cham 
 pion of their principles ; and we may add, that such he has ever 
 continued. In giving his vote for Mr. Adams, he believed 
 and events justified his belief that he would secure to the 
 country an administration attached to the same leading policy 
 that had characterized the administrations of Madison and Mon 
 roe, with this additional advantage : that it would be decidedly 
 friendly to those great measures of protection and internal improvto 
 ment, of which he had been the early and persevering advocate. 
 But the elements of opposition, which had remained inactive 
 during the eight years of Mr. Monroe s presidency, began to 
 form and combine against his successor almost before he was 
 " warm in his chair." The character of these elements was 
 somewhat heterogeneous ; and the partisan managers were long 
 puzzled to find some principles of cohesion in their opposition. 
 The policy of Mr. Adams upon all important questions coincided 
 with that of the majority, and was sanctioned by the example of 
 his great democratic predecessors. At the commencement of 
 his term of office, he had declared his intention to follow that 
 example in the general outlines. He made it a rule to remove 
 no man from office, except for official misconduct, and to regard 
 m the selection of candidates for vacancies, only their moral and 
 intellectual qualifications. He thus voluntarily relinquished the 
 support which he might have derived from executive patronage, 
 and placed the success of his administration simply upon the 
 merit of its principles and its measures. What possible ground 
 of opposition, therefore, could be discovered or invented ? " No 
 matter : his administration must be put down ;" for an army of 
 aspirants and office-seekers were in the field. In the words of 
 one of the most distinguished of General Jackson s supporters, 
 the administration must be put down, " though as pure as the 
 angels at the right hand of God" 
 
124 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 Such being the tone of feeling among the opposition, it is not 
 a matter of surprise that the weapons employed against Mr. 
 Adams and his friends were of a character directly the opposite 
 of " angelic." In the first place, a gross and utterly unfounded 
 charge of corruption was brought against the president and the 
 secretary of state. We have seen how utterly exploded, by the 
 most positive and overwhelming testimony, that miserable slan 
 der has been. Charges of extravagance were then made against 
 the government ; and a paltry bill for crockery and furniture for 
 the White-House was magnified into an accusation against the 
 plain, frugal, and unassuming Mr. Adams of an intention to ape 
 the extravagance and splendor of European potentates. The or 
 dinary and established expenditures of the government were ex- 
 ^tmined with new and unexampled rigor, for the purpose of pro 
 ducing the belief that they originated with the administration ; 
 and an assertion on his part of the president s constitutional right 
 to appoint, in the vacation of Congress, diplomatic agents to 
 transact the foreign business of the country was construed into a 
 new and unconstitutional power. 
 
 It having been discovered that the secretary of state had, in 
 some ten or dozen cases, transferred the employment of publish 
 ing the laws from one printing establishment to another, a great 
 clamor was raised about an attempt to corrupt the press. The 
 secretary was charged with selecting the papers for political and 
 personal objects ; and a .resolution was offered, in the house of 
 representatives, requiring him to communicate the changes which 
 had been made, and his reasons therefor. But, on its being dis 
 covered that the house had no jurisdiction of the case, the inquiry 
 was dropped. By way of showing the consistency of the opposi 
 tion, at the very time the detachment in the house were arraign 
 ing Mr. Clay for changing the publication of the laws from one 
 newspaper to another, their brethren in the senate, under the 
 guidance of Mr. Van Buren, were engaged in an attempt to de 
 prive the National Intelligencer of the printing of that body ! 
 
 Shortly before the termination of the second session of the 
 nineteenth Congress, Mr. Floyd of Virginia announced to the 
 public that the " combinations" for effecting the elevation of Gen 
 eral Jackson were nearly complete. During the session, symp 
 
THE COLONIAL BILL. 125 
 
 toms of the coalition began to appear ; and on several questions 
 an organized opposition was made manifest. Of these, we need 
 only enumerate the bankrupt act, the bills for the gradual im 
 provement of the navy, authorizing dry docks and a naval school, 
 the appropriations for surveys and internal improvement, the con 
 troversy between Georgia and the general government respecting 
 the Creek treaty, the bills to augment the duty on imported wool 
 lens, and closing the ports of the United States against British 
 vessels from the colonies, after a limited period. 
 
 With regard to the colonial bill, the conduct of the succeeding 
 administration upon the subject of the West India trade may 
 make a brief outline of facts not inappropriate in this place. At 
 the first session of the nineteenth Congress, a bill was introduced 
 into the senate to accept, so far as practicable, the terms prcr- 
 posed by the British acts of 1 825, regulating the intercourse of 
 foreign powers with her West India islands. Owing to the long 
 and interminable debates for political effect in that body at that 
 session, the bill was not passed, and in the vacation the British 
 government interdicted the trade. The next session, measures 
 of retaliation were proposed, but no definite steps were taken 
 until the close of the session ; and by a disagreement between 
 the two houses, the bill was lost, and the executive was com 
 pelled to close our ports abruptly without any conditions. The 
 manner in which Mr. Van Buren afterward, when secretary of 
 state, availed himself of this fact, to disparage the administration 
 of Mr. Adams before the British ministry and nation, is well 
 known : and the mendicant appeals which, in his instructions 
 to our minister at the court of St. James s, he directed to be 
 made to the English negotiators, remain a stigma on the diplom 
 acy of the United States. The West India trade was a fair and 
 proper subject of convention between the two countries, to be 
 settled on the basis of mutual rights and reciprocal interests, 
 The honor of our country forbade any other course. If England 
 would not deign to treat on this subject, it was not for us to coax 
 her haughty ministers into concession by legislative enactments 
 Such was the elevated and patriotic view of the subject taken by 
 Mr. Clay. Directly opposite were the views afterward taken 
 and the course adopted by Mr. Van Buren. 
 
126 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 As Mr. Adams s administration drew to a close, it began to 
 De apparent that it was not destined to a second term. The 
 strongest appeals were made to the sectional feelings of the 
 western states in behalf of the candidate of the opposition ; and 
 these appeals were but too successful. In the various sections 
 f the Union, opposite reasons were urged with effect against the 
 administration. New York and Pennsylvania were operated 
 upon by an assertion, industriously circulated, that General Jack 
 son was the candidate of the democracy of the country, and this 
 impression contributed to create a strong party in the states of 
 Maine and New Hampshire. Nothing could be more untrue than 
 the assertion. Many of the leaders of the old federal party were 
 the most ardent personal opponents of Mr. Adams, and became the 
 most effective enemies of his administration. These men might 
 afterward be heard claiming to be the orthodox democratic party, 
 and denouncing Henry Clay the early opponent of the alien 
 and sedition laws the friend and supporter of Jefferson s ad 
 ministration the main pillar of Madison s and the most active 
 originator and advocate of the last war as a federalist ! 
 
 The truth is that it has fared with the principles of federalism 
 as with its men. In the time of Mr. Monroe there was a gen 
 eral blending of parties. A new and distinct formation, on 
 grounds at first purely personal, was made during the adminis 
 tration of General Jackson. As soon as there was a division on 
 principles, the worst part of the old federalists some of the 
 most bitter and envenomed the black-cockade gentry, who had 
 passed their younger years in writing pasquinades on Mr. Jef 
 ferson s breeches, and had been in the habit of thanking Heaven 
 that they had " no democratic blood in their veins" went over 
 to General Jackson, and carried with them a spirit of ultraism, 
 ay, and of ultra-federalism, which was developed in the protest, 
 and proclamation, and many of the leading measures of his ad 
 ministration. The more moderate, prudent, and patriotic, joined 
 with the democratic party, and formed the great whig party of 
 the country. The ultras of the old party coalesced, and the 
 combination was naturally tory* 
 
 * In one of the skirmishes between Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun, during the sub-treasury 
 discussion, Mr. Clay took up, among other topics, this question of federalism. Mr. Calhoun 
 had alluded to the friends of his opponent as members of the federal party. 
 
 " Sir." said Mr. Clay, " I am ready to go into an examination with the honorable senator 
 
ANDREW JACKSON ELECTED PRESIDENT. 127 
 
 Upon the assembling of the twentieth Congress, it was ascer 
 tained, by the election of the speaker, that a majority of the 
 house was opposed to the administration ; and this victory was 
 soon followed by such an accession from those who were uncom 
 mitted in the senate as to give a majority to the same party in 
 that body. Thenceforward the administration was not allowed, 
 of course, a fair trial ; and every question was discussed with a 
 view to political effect. 
 
 At length, in the autumn of 1 828, the presidential election 
 took place, and resulted in the choice of Andrew Jackson, by 
 one hundred and seventy-eight votes in the primary electoral 
 colleges, given by sixteen states, including Virginia and Georgia, 
 which, in the previous election, had cast their votes for Mr. 
 Crawford. Mr. Adams was supported by the six New England 
 states ; by _New Jersey, which had previously voted against 
 him ; by Delaware, and sixteen votes from New York, and six 
 from Maryland. Mr. Calhoun obtained the same vote for vice- 
 president, that General Jackson did for president, except seven 
 votes in Georgia, which were thrown away upon William Smith 
 of South Carolina. Mr. Rush received the whole vote of the 
 administration party for vice-president. 
 
 Thus ended the administration of John Quincy Adams, during 
 which our domestic and foreign affairs were never more ably 
 and prosperously conducted. The foreign policy of the govern 
 ment had only in view the maintenance of the dignity of the 
 national character, the extension of our commercial relations, and 
 the successful prosecution of the claims of American citizens 
 upon foreign governments. 
 
 The domestic policy was no less liberal, active, and decided ; 
 and never was there a more groundless political libel than that 
 which impeached the integrity and economy of that administra- 
 
 at any time, and then we shall see if there are not more members of that same old federal 
 party among those whom the senator has so recently joined than on our side of the house. 
 The plain truth is, that it is the old federal party with whom he is now acting. For all the 
 former grounds of difference which distinguished that party, and were the subjects of con 
 tention between them and the republicans, have ceased, from lapse of time and change of 
 circumstances, with the exception of one, and that is the maintenance and increase of executive 
 power. This was a leading policy of the federal party. A strong, powerful, and energetic 
 executive was its favorite tenet." * * * " I can tell the gen leman, that he will find the 
 true old democratic party, who were for resisting the encroachments of power, and limiting 
 executive patronage, on this side of the senate, and not with his new allies, the Jackson-Van- 
 Even- Democratic party, whose leading principle is to sustain the executive, and deny att 
 power to the legislature . and which does not hold a, solitary principle in common with the r+ 
 yublioan party of 1793 
 
128 LIFE OF HENRY CLA1. 
 
 tion. As the charge of extravagance was the argument mos 
 vehemently urged against Mr. Adams s administration, it may be 
 well in this place to glance at its plausibility. The aggregate 
 expenditures of the several administrations from 1789 to 1838, 
 exclusive of the public debt, and payments under treaty stipula 
 tions, including the expenses and arrearages of the last war with 
 Great Britain, were : 
 
 "Washington s administration, 8 years, $15,890,698 55 
 
 John Adams s " 4 " 21,348,356 19 
 
 Jefferson s 8 
 
 Madison s " 8 
 
 Monroe s " 8 
 
 J. Q. Adams s " 4 
 
 Jackson s " 8 
 
 41,100,788 88 
 
 144,684,944 86 
 
 99,363,509 64 
 
 49,725,721 26 
 
 144,579,847 72 
 
 Total $516,693,867 10 
 
 From this statement it appears that the reforming, retrenching, 
 economical, democratic administration of General Jackson, that 
 expressed such a holy horror at Mr. Adams s extravagance, cost 
 the country as much as the administration of Mr. Madison, in 
 cluding the outlays of an expensive war with Great Britain. 
 Mr. Van Buren retrenched in the same ratio with his prede 
 cessor. The first year of his administration cost the people 
 $33,554,341 about three times the average annual expenditure 
 of Mr. Adams ! During the remainder of his term, the public 
 expenses were in a like proportion. What measure of condem 
 nation should be bestowed upon the political hypocrites whose 
 promised reforms and retrenchments resulted in such gross profli 
 gacy and neglect of the public interests ! 
 
 In March, 1829, General Jackson entered upon the discharge 
 of his official duties as president. On the 1 4th of the same 
 month, Mr. Clay left Washington for his residence in Kentucky. 
 Before quitting that city, some of the principal residents, as a 
 parting tribute of respect, gave him a public dinner. In his 
 speech on the occasion, he briefly reviewed the events in which 
 he had been an actor, during the preceding four years. He al 
 luded to the serious charge against him, which had been brought 
 by General Jackson, who, after summoning his friend and only 
 witness (Mr. Buchanan) to establish it ; and hearing that witness 
 promptly and unequivocally deny aL knowledge whatever of any 
 
ATTEMPT TO INJURE HIS PRIVATE CREDIT. 129 
 
 transaction that could throw the slightest shade upon the charac 
 ter of the accused, maintained a stubborn and persevering silence 
 upon the subject, instead of magnanimously acknowledging his 
 error, and atoning for the gross injustice of which he had been 
 guilty. " But," said Mr. Clay, " my relations to that citizen, by 
 a recent event, are now changed. He is the chief magistrate of 
 my country, invested with large and extensive powers, the ad 
 ministration of which may conduce to its prosperity, or occasion 
 its adversity. Patriotism enjoins, as a duty, that while he is in 
 that exalted station, he should be treated with decorum, and his* 
 official acts be judged in a spirit of candor." 
 
 Such was the patriotic spirit with which Mr. Clay regarded 
 the elevation of General Jackson, and in which he was prepared 
 to judge of the acts of the new administration. 
 
 The political enemies of Mr. Clay were not, however, content 
 with misrepresenting his public course. They lifted, with a rude 
 and ruffianly hand, the veil from his private affairs, and attempted 
 to destroy his private credit, by charging him with bankruptcy. 
 The consequence was the publication of a letter from Mr. Clay 
 to Robert Wickliffe, Esq., dated May 24, 1828, in which the 
 falsehoods of his assailants were fully confuted. He admitted 
 that he had incurred a heavy responsibility, about ten years before, 
 as endorser for his friends, to which cause his temporary retire 
 ment from public life, and the renewal of his professional labors, 
 were to be attributed. The mortgages upon his estate did not 
 amount to ten thousand dollars, and, before the expiration of the 
 year, he hoped there would not remain one fifth of that sum. 
 
 "I have hitherto," says Mr. Clay, in this letter, "met all my engagements 
 by the simplest of processes: that of living within my income, punctually 
 paying interest when I could not pay principal, and carefully preserving my 
 credit. I am not free absolutely from debt. I am not rich. I never coveted 
 riches. But my estate would, even now, be estimated at not much less than 
 one hundred thousand dollars. Whatever it may be worth, it is a gratifica 
 tion for me to know that it is the produce of my own honest labor no part 
 of it being hereditary, except one slave, who would oblige me very much if 
 he would accept his freedom. It is sufficient, after paying all my debts, to 
 leive my family above want, if I should be separated from them. It is a 
 matter also of consolation to me to know, that this wanton exposure of my 
 private affairs can do me no pecuniary prejudice. My few creditors will not 
 allow their confidence in me to be shaken by it. It has, indeed, led to one 
 incident, which was at the same time a source of pleasure and of pain. A 
 friend lately called on me, at the instance of other friends, and informed rue 
 F* 9 
 
130 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 that they were apprehensive that my private affairs were embarrassed, and 
 that I allowed their embarrassment to prey upon my mind. He came, there 
 fore, with their authority, to tell me that they would contribute any sum 
 that I might want to relieve me. The emotions which such a proposition 
 excited, can be conceived only by honorable men. I felt most happy to be 
 able to undeceive them, and to decline their benevolent proposition." 
 
 X. 
 
 RETURN TO KENTUCKY AGAIN UNITED STATES SENATOR. 
 
 THERE are few men who can bear defeat more gracefully, or 
 with more unaffected good humor, than Mr. Clay. Relieved from 
 his official toils as secretary of state, his health rapidly improved, 
 and his fine spirits expanded unchecked. On his journey from the 
 seat of government, previous to his arrival at Uniontown in Penn 
 sylvania, the roads being extremely bad, he sent his private vehicle 
 ahead, and took the stage-coach. Finding it disagreeable within, 
 however, he removed to an outside seat, next the driver, and, in 
 that situation, entered Uniontown. The good people of the place 
 expressed a great deal of surprise at seeing the ex-secretary in 
 that lofty and yet humble position. " Gentlemen," replied Mr. 
 Clay, " although I am with the outs, yet I can assure you that the 
 ins behind me have much the worst of it." 
 
 On his way to Kentucky, Mr. Clay received continual testi 
 monials of the attachment and esteem of the people. He was 
 invited to innumerable public dinners, but was able to appear only 
 at a few. At Frederick in Maryland, he made an admirable 
 speech at one of these complimentary festivals, on the 18th of 
 March, 1829. On the 31 st of the same month, he dined with the 
 mechanics at Wheeling, whom he addressed principally in re 
 lation to the American system manufactures and internal im 
 provements. He reached his home at Ashland, with his family, 
 the 6th of April, having been met at some distance from Lexing 
 ton by a large number of friends, by whom he was most affec 
 tionately received. 
 
 On the 16th of May, a great public dinner was given to him at 
 Fowler s garden, by his fellow-townsmen. Three thousand sat 
 
RETURN TO KENTUCKY TRIUMPHANT RECEPTION. 131 
 
 down at the table ; and Mr. Clay spoke for the space of one hour 
 and thirty-five minutes ; the following appropriate toast having 
 been previously given : " Our distinguished guest, friend, and 
 neighbor, HENRY CLAY with increased proofs of his worth, we 
 delight to renew the assurance of our confidence in his patriotism, 
 talents, and incorruptibility may health and happiness attend 
 him in retirement, and a grateful nation do justice to his virtues." 
 
 Mr. Clay s speech, on this occasion, is one of the choicest 
 specimens of his eloquence, being pervaded by some of the finest 
 characteristics of his style, although there is, of course, an 
 absence of those impassioned appeals, which would have been 
 out of place. The exordium is full of pathos and beauty. He 
 had been separated for four years from his friends and neighbors. 
 After devoting the best energies of his prime to the service of his 
 country, he had been grossly traduced and injured, and his most 
 conspicuous traducer had been elevated to the presidency. He 
 had returned home once more ; and now saw before him, gathered 
 together to do him honor, to renew their assurances of attachment 
 and confidence, sires with whom, for more than thirty years, he 
 had interchanged friendly offices their sons, grown up during 
 his absence in the public councils, accompanying them and all 
 prompted by ardent attachment, surrounding and saluting him as 
 if he belonged to their own household. 
 
 After alluding, in the happiest manner, to some of these cir 
 cumstances, Mr. Clay reviewed briefly the course of the past ad 
 ministration referred to the clamor which had been raised 
 against Mr. Adams for proscription when the fact was, that not 
 a solitary officer of the government, from Maine to Louisiana, 
 was dismissed on account of his political opinions, during the 
 whole of Mr. Adams s administration contrasted this course 
 with that which President Jackson commenced so soon after his 
 installation and eloquently pointed out the evil consequences of 
 the introduction of a tenure of public office, which depended upon 
 personal attachment to the chief magistrate. 
 
 In concluding his remarks, Mr. Clay touchingly expressed his 
 gratitude to his fellow-citizens of Kentucky, who had " constantly 
 poured upon him a bold and unabated stream of innumerable 
 favors." The closing sentences of the speech are in the genuine 
 
i32 LIFE OF HENRY CLA.Y. 
 
 language ot the heart which can not be counterfeited, and which 
 none can so eloquently employ as Henry Clay. 
 
 "When," said he, "I felt as if I should sink beneath the storm of abuse 
 and detraction, which was violently raging around me, I have found myself 
 upheld and sustained by your encouraging voice and your approving smiles. 
 I have, doubtless, committed many faults and indiscretions, over which you 
 have thrown the broad mantle of your charity. But I can say, and in the 
 presence of my God and of this assembled multitude I will say, that I have 
 honestly and faithfully served my country ; that I have never wronged it ; 
 and that, however unprepared I lament that I am to appear in the Divine 
 Presence on other accounts, I invoke the stern justice of his judgment on 
 my public conduct, without the smallest apprehension of his displeasure." 
 
 During the summer and autumn of 1829, Mr. Clay visited 
 several parts of the state of his adoption, and everywhere he was 
 hailed as a friend and public benefactor. On the 17th of De 
 cember, he addressed the Kentucky Colonization Society, at 
 Frankfort in a speech, in which he eloquently vindicated the 
 policy and character of that benevolent institution. He had been 
 an early and constant advocate of the system of colonization. In 
 his speech before the American Colonization Society, delivered 
 the 20th of January, 1827, in the hall of the house of representa 
 tives at Washington, we find the following impressive passage : 
 
 " It is now a little upward of ten years, since a religious, amiable, and 
 benevolent resident of this city (Mr. Caldwell) first conceived the idea of 
 planting a colony, from the United States, of free people of color, on the 
 western shores of Africa. He is no more, and the noblest eulogy which 
 could be pronounced on him, would be to inscribe upon his tomb the merited 
 epitaph Here lies the projector of the American Colonization Society. 
 Among others, to whom he communicated the project, was the person who 
 now has the honor of addressing you. My first impressions, like those of all 
 who have not fully investigated the subject, were against it. They yielded 
 to his earnest persuasions and my own reflections, and I finally agreed with 
 him that the experiment was worthy a fair trial." 
 
 After presenting, in a clear and forcible light, the project of the 
 society for the gradual extinction of slavery, Mr. Clay remarked 
 in regard to it : 
 
 " All, or any one of the states which tolerate slavery may adopt and exe 
 cute ;t, by co-operation or separate exertion. If I could be instrumental in 
 eradicating this deepest stain upon the character of our country, and removing 
 all cause of reproach on account of it by foreign nations If 1 could only be 
 instrumental in ridding of this foul blot that revered state that gave me birth, 
 or that not less beloved state which kindly adopted me as her son, I would not 
 exchange the proud satisfaction which I should enjoy, for the honor of all thi 
 triumphs ever decreed to the most successful conqueror" 
 
VISITS NEW ORLEANS. 133 
 
 To the system of colonization, we believe, Mr. Clay yet looks . 
 as a means for diminishing the proportion of the black population 
 to the white in the slave states, until emancipation would be com 
 patible with the security and interests of the latter. 
 
 In January, 1 830, Mr. Clay made a visit to one of his married 
 daughters at New Orleans. Although appearing there as a 
 private citizen, he found it impossible to escape those attentions 
 which the public gratitude suggested. He was daily visited by 
 crowds of persons, including members of the legislature and 
 judges of the different courts. The ship-masters, who were in 
 port, waited in a body upon him as the champion of free trade 
 and sailors rights. Declining an invitation to a public dinner, 
 he left New Orleans for Natchez, on his way home, the 9th of 
 March. As the boat in which he had embarked, quitted the pier, 
 the scene was of the most animated description. The levee and 
 the tops of the steamboats, a great number of which were in port, 
 exhibited a crowded and almost unbroken mass of spectators, col 
 lected to see him and do him honor. The shouting multitude, 
 the elevation of flags, and the roar of cannons, which burst from 
 the crowd of surrounding vessels, as the boat moved off, pre 
 sented altogether one of the most imposing spectacles that could 
 be imagined. It was a grand civic ovation, as honorable to the 
 subject of it as any triumph which ever greeted a military con 
 queror. 
 
 At Natchez, persons from all parts of Mississippi wer^ waiting 
 to meet him. The press of the crowd into the steamboat con 
 taining the illustrious visiter was so great as to excite alarm ; and 
 the mass collected on the wharf was so dense, that much time 
 and exertion were required to make way through it. Soon after 
 his arrival, he accepted a pressing invitation to a public dinner. 
 A vast concourse assembled on the occasion. His speech is 
 described as unusually felicitous. He was several times obliged 
 to stop speaking for some minutes while the enthusiasm of his 
 hearers exhausted itself in repeated rounds of applause. In the 
 course of his remarks, having occasion to allude to the battle of 
 New Orleans, he paid a generous tribute to Gen. Jackson. 
 Henry Clay never was the man to detract from the merits o* even 
 his most unrelenting opponents. 
 
 -- 
 
134 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 On the 27th of March, Mr. Clay reached Lexington, having 
 declined numerous invitations to public dinners on his route. He 
 had stopped on his way, unpremeditatedly, at Donaldsonville 
 the new seat of government of Louisiana, to see the public build 
 ings, and pay his respects to some of his old friends and ac 
 quaintances. Unexpectedly entering the hall of the house of 
 representatives, he was immediately recognised, and the whole 
 body, including the speaker and members of all parties, simulta 
 neously rose to receive him. 
 
 In the summer of 1830, having business in the circuit and dis 
 trict courts of Ohio, he visited Columbus, where he was cordially 
 welcomed by the mechanics, at whose celebration the following 
 appropriate toast was given : 
 
 "Our inestimable guest, HENRY CLAY. An efficient laborer in support of 
 the industry of the country. Farmers and mechanics know how to appre 
 ciate his services." 
 
 His entry into Cincinnati was quite imposing. All classes 
 assembled to welcome his approach. He here dined with the 
 mechanics, and his speech upon the occasion is an eloquent vin 
 dication of the American system, and a just rebuke of the odious 
 doctrine of nullification, which was then beginning to be preach 
 ed in South Carolina and Georgia. 
 
 In the autumn of 1831, Mr. Clay was elected to the senate ot 
 the United States by the legislature of Kentucky, by the follow 
 ing vote : In the senate, Henry Clay, 1 8 ; Richard M. John 
 son, 19 ; Warden Pope, 1. In the house of delegates, Clay, 55; 
 Johnson, 45. At the first session of the twenty-second Con 
 gress, he presented his credentials, and took his seat once more 
 in a body where, twenty-five years before, he had made his in 
 fluence felt, and his talents respected. 
 
 Contemporaneous with his reappearance in the senate, was 
 the meeting of the National Republican Convention, which as 
 sembled at Baltimore, on the twelfth of December, 1831, and 
 unanimously nominated HENRY CLAY to the office of president 
 of the United States, and JOHN SERGEANT to that of vice-presi 
 dent. 
 
 The subject of the tariff began to be vehemently agitated in 
 Congress early in the session of 1831 - 32. The discontent ot 
 
AGAIN IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 135 
 
 the south was assuming an alarming aspect ; and the system of 
 protection, which Mr. Clay had labored so long and incessantly 
 to establish, was threatened with material qualifications, if not a 
 complete overthrow. In that conciliatory spirit, which he had 
 manifested on many critical occasions, he now approached this 
 exciting topic. On the ninth of January, 1832, he introduced a 
 resolution, providing that the existing duties upon articles im 
 ported from foreign countries, and not coming into competition 
 with similar articles made or produced within the United States, 
 ought to be forthwith abolished, except the duties upon wines or 
 silks, and that they ought to be reduced ; and that the committee 
 on finance be instructed to report a bill accordingly. This reso 
 lution he sustained in an admirable speech of about two hours 
 duration, in which he spoke warmly in favor of the maintenance 
 of the protective policy and that of internal improvement. 
 
 Mr. Hayne followed in reply ; and on the second of February, 
 the subject being still under discussion before the senate, Mr. 
 Clay commenced his ever-memorable speech in defence of the 
 American system against the* British colonial system. It was con 
 tinued on the next day, and finally completed on the sixth of the 
 same month. Such a chain of irrefragable argument as it pre 
 sents, with facts the most cogent and appropriate, has rarely been 
 forged by human ingenuity. It will be referred to by future 
 statesmen as their political text-book, when the protective policy 
 \ is called in question. 
 
 After an impressive exordium, he alludea to the distress of the 
 country after the war. The period of greatest distress was seven 
 years previous to the year 1824 : the period of greatest prosper 
 ity the seven years following that act. He then gave a picture 
 of the flourishing condition of the country. He maintained thai 
 all the predictions of the enemies of the tariff, in 1824, had 
 been falsified by experience that all the benefits which he 
 had anticipated had been realized. He alluded to all the in 
 terests now protected all mechanic arts navigation agri 
 culture and manufactures. He argued that the tariff began 
 in 1789, which established the great principle of protection. It 
 was the second act of the first Congress sanctioned by the 
 Father of his country, and most of the eminent statesmen of thai 
 
136 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 day. Mr. Clay then traced the history of the subject down t<- 
 1816; commented on the tariff of that year, its object, extent, 
 and policy ; then the tariff of 1 824 ; the amendment of the sys 
 tem in 1828 the bill of which year was framed on principles di 
 rectly adverse to the declared wishes of the friends of the policy of 
 protection, although the error then perpetrated was corrected by 
 subsequent legislation. 
 
 After a graphic description of the beneficial effects of the pol 
 icy which they were now called upon to subvert, Mr. Clay asked 
 what was the substitute proposed by those whose design was the 
 immediate or gradual destruction of the American system ? The 
 reply is as appropriate to the enemies of the system now as it 
 was ten years ago. 
 
 "Free Trade! Free Trade!* The call for free trade is as unavailing as 
 the cry of a spoiled child, in his nurse s arms, for the moon or the stars that 
 glitter in the firmament of heaven. It never has existed. It never will ex 
 ist. Trade implies at least two parties. To be free, it should be fair, equal, 
 and reciprocal. But if we throw our ports wide open to the admission of 
 foreign productions, free of all duty, what ports, of any other foreign nations, 
 shall we find open to the free admission of our surplus produce? We may 
 break down all barriers to free trade, on our part, but they will not be com 
 plete until foreign powers shall have removed theirs. There would be free 
 dom on one side, and restrictions, prohibitions, and exclusions, on the other. 
 The bolts, and the bars, and the chains of all other nations will remain un 
 disturbed." ****< Gentlemen deceive themselves. It is not free 
 trade tfiat they are recommending to our acceptance. It is, in effect, the 
 British colonial system that we are invited to adopt ; and if their policy pre 
 vail, it will lead substantially to the recolonization of these states, under the 
 commercial dominion of Great Britain" 
 
 In the course of his speech, Mr. Clay had occasion to intro 
 duce the following remarks upon the Irish character. They 
 show his high appreciation of the worth of an important class of 
 our adopted fellow-citizens : 
 
 " Of all foreigners, none amalgamate themselves so quickly with our peo 
 ple as the natives of the Emerald Isle. In some of the visions which have 
 passed through my imagination, I have supposed that Ireland was, origin 
 ally, part and parcel of this continent, and that, by some extraordinary con 
 vulsion of nature, it was torn from America, and, drifting across the ocean, 
 was placed in the unfortunate vicinity of Great Britain. The same open- 
 heartedness, the same generous hospitality, the same careless and uncalcu- 
 
 * " Fair Trade and Sailors Rights," was the toast given by the late Mr. Gilmer, the day 
 of the fatal accident on board the Princeton. The substitution of a single word illuminates 
 the whole subject A " fair trade" is what Mr. Clay has always aimed to secure for hi* 
 country. 
 
LETTER OF THOMAS H. BENTON. 13? 
 
 lating indifference about human life, characterize the inhabitants of both 
 countries. Kentucky has been sometimes called the Ireland of America. 
 And I have no doubt that, if the current of emigration were reversed, and 
 set from America upon the shores of Europe, instead of bearing from Europe 
 to America, every American emigrant to Ireland would there find, as every 
 Irish emigrant here finds, a hearty welcome and a happy home !" 
 
 On the 13th of March, Mr. Dickerson, from the committee on 
 manufactures, reported, in conformity with Mr. Clay s resolution, 
 a bill for repealing the duties upon certain specified articles of 
 import. The bill was opposed at the threshold because it did 
 not embrace the whole subject of the tariff; because it made no 
 reduction of duties upon protected articles. An animated debate 
 ensued, and the bill was laid upon the table. After undergoing 
 numerous modifications in both houses, it was finally passed by 
 Congress in July, 1832. By this new law, the principles for 
 which Mr. Clay and the rest of the friends of domestic industry 
 had contended, were preserved. The revenue was greatly re 
 duced, but the protective system remained unimpaired. Of Mr. 
 Clay s efforts, in the establishment of that system, no one has 
 more impressively spoken than Thomas Hart Benton, senator in 
 Congress from Missouri, who, in a circular signed by him, and 
 first published in the "Missouri Intelligencer," October 22, 1824, 
 gives utterance to these just and eloquent sentiments : 
 
 " The principles which would govern Mr. Clay s administration, if elected, 
 are well-known to the nation. They have been displayed upon the floor 
 of Congress for the last seventeen years. They constitute a system of AMER 
 ICAN POLICY, based on the agriculture and manufactures of his own country 
 upon interior as well as foreign commerce upon internal as well as sea 
 board improvement upon the independence of the new world, and close 
 commercial alliances with Mexico and South America. It is said that others 
 would pursue the same system ; we answer that the founder of a system is 
 the natural executor of his own work ; that the most efficient protector of 
 American iron, lead, hemp, wool, and cotton wonld be the triumphant cham 
 pion of the new tariff; the safest friend to interior commerce would be the 
 statesman who has proclaimed the Mississippi to be the sea of the west ; the 
 most zealous promoter of internal improvements would be the president 
 who has triumphed over the president who opposed the construction of na 
 tional roads and canals; the most successful applicant for treaties with 
 Mexico and South America would be the eloquent advocate of their own in 
 dependence, 
 
 "THOMAS HART BENTON " 
 
138 LIFE OF HENR1T CLAY. 
 
 XI. 
 
 NULLIFICATION THE TARIFF COMPROMISE. 
 
 THE amended tariff was received with little favor, by the 
 south. Nullification grew daily bolder in its denunciation and 
 menaces ; and the Union seemed to be greatly in danger. On 
 the 24th of November, 1832, the South Carolina convention 
 passed their ordinance, declaring the revenue laws of the United 
 States null and void ; and soon afterward the legislature of the 
 state met, ratified the proceedings of the convention, and passed 
 laws for the organization of the militia and the purchase of mu 
 nitions and ordnance. 
 
 In the midst of these troubles, the presidential contest took 
 place, and resulted in the reelection of General Jackson over the 
 opposing candidates, Henry Clay, John Floyd of Virginia, and 
 William Wirt. 
 
 On the 10th of December, 1832, soon after the meeting of 
 Congress, President Jackson issued his proclamation, announcing 
 his determination to enforce the revenue laws, and exhorting the 
 citizens of South Carolina to pause in their disorganizing career, 
 This remonstrance produced little effect. It was followed, on 
 the 20th of the same month, by a counter-proclamation from 
 Governor Hayne, warning the citizens of South Carolina against 
 the attempt of the president to seduce them from their allegiance, 
 and exhorting them t in disregard of his threats, to be prepared 
 to sustain the state against the arbitrary measures of the federal 
 executive. 
 
 The protective system was at this moment in imminent hazard 
 of being destroyed. General Jackson s administration was al 
 ways inimical to that policy, originated and principally supported 
 as it had been by a hated rival. The tariff became the great 
 question of the session. It was referred to the committee of 
 ways and means, where it was remodelled ; and on the 27th of 
 December, a bill was reported, which was understood to embody 
 the views of the administration. It proposed a diminution of the 
 duties on all the protected articles, to take effect immediately, 
 
PROGRESS OF NULLIFICATION. 139 
 
 and a further diminution on the 2d of March, 1834. The subject 
 was discussed from the 8th to the 16th of January, 1833, when 
 a message was received from the president, communicating the 
 South Carolina ordinance and nullifying laws, together with his 
 own views as to what should be done under the existing state 
 of affairs. On the twenty-first of the same month, the judiciary 
 committee of the senate reported a bill to enforce the collection 
 of the revenue, where any obstructions were offered to the officers 
 employed in that duty. 
 
 The aspect of affairs was now alarming in the extreme. The 
 administration party in the house had shown itself utterly inca 
 pable of devising a tariff likely to be accepted by a majority of 
 that body. The session was rapidly drawing to a close. South 
 Carolina had deferred the period of its collision with the general 
 government in the hope that some measure of adjustment would 
 be adopted by Congress. This hope seemed to be daily grow 
 ing fainter. Should the enforcing bill not be carried into effect 
 against the nullifiers, the tariff was still menaced by the federal 
 administration, insidiously hostile to the protective system. 
 
 At this juncture, Henry Clay, deeply impressed with the im 
 portance of the crisis, stepped forward to reconcile conflicting 
 interests and to avert the dire consequences which would result 
 from the further delay of an adjustment. On the eleventh of 
 February, he introduced his celebrated COMPROMISE BILL, pro 
 viding for a gradual reduction of duties until 1842, when twenty 
 per cent, at a home valuation should be the rate, " until otherwise 
 regulated by law." 
 
 Mr. Clay introduced this bill with some pertinent and impres 
 sive remarks, in which he deplored the distracted and portentous 
 condition of the country, and appealed strongly to the patriotism 
 and good sense of Congress to apply a remedy. The bill under 
 went a long and vehement discussion. None could deny the 
 purity and loftiness of the motives which had led to its presenta 
 tion ; but it was vehemently opposed by many. Mr. Smith, of 
 Maryland, opposed it, because " it contained nothing but protec 
 tion from beginning to end." Mr. Forsyth exulted over the ad 
 mission, which had been made by Mr. Clay, that " the tariff was 
 in danger." " It is," said Mr. F., " at its last gasp no helle- 
 
140 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 bore can cure it." The southern members opposed the bill 
 mainly because it provided for a home valuation. 
 
 Toward the close of the debate, a personal difficulty arose be 
 tween Mr. Poindexter, of Mississippi, and Mr. Webster. The 
 former, in the course of his reply to a very powerful attack from 
 Mr. Webster upon the compromise bill of Mr. Clay, made refer 
 ence to the course of Mr. W., during the war of 1812. Mr. 
 Webster declined all explanation, and Mr. Poindexter immedi 
 ately declared that he " felt the most perfect contempt for the 
 senator from Massachusetts." Mr. Clay interfered, with his 
 usual generosity, and in a few remarks, complimentary alike to 
 both senators, effected a mutually satisfactory explanation. 
 
 Mr. Clay had conceived the idea of the compromise in Phila 
 delphia in December, 1 832, when he was passing a few weeks 
 with his brother-in-law, the late James Brown, Esq., who had 
 fixed his residence in that city, after his mission to France. The 
 re-election of General Jackson to the presidency had been made 
 known the month before, and Mr. Clay had commenced his jour 
 ney from Ashland to Washington not in the best spirits but re 
 solved to do his duty. Jackson s power was then at its zenith. 
 He had vetoed the charter of the bank of the United States. He 
 was triumphantly re-elected. His power seemed resistless. 
 Nevertheless, Mr. Clay was resolved to fight on, and to fight to 
 the last. 
 
 He believed the president insincere in his profession of attach 
 ment to the protective policy ; that, under the delusive name of 
 a judicious tariff, he concealed the most deadly and determined 
 hostility to the protection of American industry. Mr. Clay saw 
 the partisans of " free trade" supporting General Jackson, with 
 the greatest zeal ; and knew that some of them counted upon sub 
 verting the whole system through the power and influence of that 
 arbitrary chief magistrate. He saw many of the members of 
 Congress from states known to be friendly to the preservation 
 of that policy, yet willing to go secretly, if not openly, as far as 
 they dared go in asserting the overthrow of that policy. 
 
 In the meantime, nullification had assumed a threatening as 
 pect. The supporters of that heresy had gone so far that, if no 
 change in the tariff took place, they must fight or be for ever dis- 
 
THE COMPROMISE ACT. 141 
 
 graced. Mr. Clay thought that if a civil wai? were once begun 
 it might extend itself to all the southern states, which, although 
 they did not approve of nullification, would probably not be wil 
 ling to stand by and see South Carolina crushed for extreme zeal 
 in a cause, which was common to them all. 
 
 Such were the circumstances, under which, during the leisure 
 Mr. Clay enjoyed with his friend, Mr. Brown, in Philadelphia, 
 he directed his mind to the consideration of some healing scheme 
 for the existing public troubles. 
 
 The terms of the compromise act substantially as it passed, 
 were the result of Mr. Clay s reflections at that time. He com 
 municated them to his friend, the lamented Senator Johnston, 
 from Lousiana, who concurred with him heartily. A committee 
 of manufactures, consisting of Messrs. Bovie, Dupont, Richards, 
 and others, waited on Mr. Clay in Philadelphia, to consult with 
 him on the impending dangers to the protective policy. To them 
 he broached his scheme, and they approved it. He mentioned 
 it to Mr. Webster in Philadelphia, but that distinguished senator 
 did not agree with him. On reaching Washington, Mr. Clay 
 communicated it to many practical manufacturers, to Hezekiah 
 Niles, Mr Simmons of the senate, from Rhode Island, and others. 
 
 They agreed with him, and every practical manufacturer of 
 that day with whom he conversed (except Mr. Ellicott, of Mary 
 land), assented to the project. Most of their friends in Congress, 
 especially in the senate, followed their example. The chief op 
 position, it was thought, was to be traced to Mr. Webster and 
 gentlemen who had a great deference for the opinion of the Mas 
 sachusetts senator. 
 
 Mr. Clay s own convictions being thus strengthened by the 
 opinions of practical men, he resolved to proceed. He had no 
 interviews with southern members on the subject of the contem 
 plated proposal, until he had prepared and was about to submit 
 the bill ; at which time, he had one or two interviews with Mr. 
 Calhoun, at Mr. Clay s lodgings. But through his friend, Gov 
 ernor Letcher of Kentucky, who was intimate with Mr. Mc- 
 Duffie and other southern gentlemen, Mr. Clay ascertained 
 their views. He found one highly favorable state of feeling 
 that they were so indignant with General Jackson for his procla- 
 
142 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 mation, and his determination to put down the nullifiers by force 
 if necessary, that they greatly preferred the difficulty should beset" 
 tied by Mr. Clay rather than by the administration. 
 
 Mr. J. M. Clayton of Delaware entered with great zeal into 
 the views of Mr. Clay, and seconded his exertions with untiring 
 able, constant, and strenuous endeavors. Often he would say to 
 him, looking at Mr. Calhoun and other members from South Car 
 olina, " Well, Clay, these are clever fellows, and it won t do to 
 let old Jackson hang them. We must save them if possible." 
 Mr. Clayton belonged to a mess of seven or eight senators, every 
 one of whom was interested in the preservation of the protective 
 policy. Without their votes, it was impossible that the compro 
 mise should pass. They, through Mr. Clayton, insisted upon the 
 home valuation, as a sine qua non, from which they would never 
 depart. Mr. Clay told them that he would not give it up ; and 
 the compromise bill never could have passed without that feature 
 of it. 
 
 The southern senators had declared that they would be con 
 tent with whatever would satisfy the South Carolina senators. 
 Mr. Calhoun had manifested strong objections to the home valu 
 ation. Mr. Clay told him that he must concur in it, or the meas 
 ure would be defeated. Mr. Calhoun appeared very reluctant to 
 do so ; and Mr. Clay went to the senate on the day when the 
 bill was to be decided, uncertain as to what its fate would be 
 When the bill was taken up, Mr. Calhoun rose in his place 
 and agreed to the home valuation, evidently, however, with re 
 luctance. 
 
 Two great leading motives operated with Mr. Clay in bring 
 ing forward and supporting his measure of compromise. The 
 first was, that he believed the whole protective policy to be in 
 the most imminent peril from the influence of General Jackson 
 and the dominion of his party. He believed that it could nol 
 possibly survive that session of Congress or the next, which would 
 open with a vast increase of that influence and power. He had 
 seen the gradual but insidious efforts to undermine the policy, 
 sometimes openly avowed, frequently craftily concealed. He 
 had seen that a bill was actually introduced by Mr. Verplanck, 
 and then pending in the house of representatives, which would 
 
HIS MOTIVES FOR THE COMPROMISE. 143 
 
 have utterly subverted the whole policy. He knew, or believed, 
 that there was a majority in the house, willing, though afraid, to 
 pass the bill. Witnessing the progress of that party, he did not 
 doubt that at the next session at least, they would acquire strength 
 and courage sufficient to pass the bill. He could not contem 
 plate the ruin, distress, destruction, which would ensue from its 
 passage, without feelings of horror. He believed that the com 
 promise would avert these disasters, and secure adequate protec 
 tion until the 30th June, 1842. And he hoped, that in the mean 
 time the public mind would become enlightened, and reconciled 
 ,o a policy, which he had ever believed essential to the national 
 prosperity. But for the partial experiments, which were made upon 
 the currency of the country, leading to the utmost disorder in the 
 exchanges, and the business of society, it is yet the belief of Mr. 
 Clay and his friends, that the measure of protection secured by the 
 compromise act up to the 3\st December, 1841, would have enabled 
 our manufactures to have flourished and prospered. 
 
 Another leading motive with Mr. Clay, in proposing the com 
 promise, was to restore harmony, and preserve the Union from dan 
 ger ; to arrest a civil war, which beginning with South Carolina, 
 he feared might spread throughout all the southern states. 
 
 It may be added, that a third and powerful motive, which he 
 felt intensely, although he did not always avow it, was an invin 
 cible repugnance to placing under the command of General Jackson 
 such a vast military power as might be necessary to enforce the laws 
 and put down any resistance to them in South Carolina, and which 
 might extend he knew not where. He could not think, without the 
 most serious apprehensions, of intrusting a man of his vehement 
 passions with such an immense power. He could not think 
 without feelings of indescribable dread, of the effusion of blood, 
 the danger to the Union, and the danger to the liberties of all of 
 us, which might arise from the application of such a force in the 
 hands of a man already too powerful, and flushed with recent 
 victory. 
 
 It may be farther added, that Mr. Clay thought he perceived, 
 with some, a desire to push matters to extremity. He thought he 
 beheld a disposition to see South Carolina and the south pun 
 ished. Indeed, the sentiment was more than once expressed to 
 
144 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 Aim: " Let them put down the tariff let them bring ruin, em 
 barrassment, and distress, on the country the country will rise 
 with renewed vigor. We shall have the policy, which we wish 
 to prevail, firmly and inviolably fixed." He thought even that 
 he perceived a willingness that the effect produced by the mem 
 orable Hartford convention at the north, should be neutralized 
 by the effect, which might arise out of putting down by force the 
 nullification of South Carolina. He could not sympathize in 
 these feelings and sentiments. He was for peace, for harmony, 
 for union, and for the preservation too of the protective system. 
 He no more believed then than now, that government was insti 
 tuted to make great and perilous experiments upon the happiness 
 of a free people still less experiments of blood and civil war. 
 
 After the introduction of the bill of compromise and its refer 
 ence to the committee, predictions of the failure of the measure 
 were confidently put forth. Even in the committee-room it was as 
 serted, that there was no chance for its passage ; and members 
 rose from their places with the intention of leaving the room, 
 without agreeing upon any report. Mr. Clay said to them, with 
 decision and firmness : " Gentlemen, this bill has been referred 
 to us, and it is our duty to report it, in some form or other, to the 
 senate and it shall be reported." Some slight amendments 
 were agreed upon, and the bill was reported. Its subsequent 
 tate is known. 
 
 In bringing about the adoption of the measure, Messrs. Clayton 
 and Letcher are entitled to the most liberal praise, as the efficient 
 coadjutors of its author. 
 
 The private history of the compromise act remains yet to be 
 written. Should it ever be given to the world, it will throw new 
 lustre upon the patriotic and self-sacrificing character of Mr. 
 Clay. It will exhibit, in a still stronger light, his disinterested 
 ness his devotion to country his elevation above all selfish 
 impulses and personal ends his magnanimity, and his generous 
 intrepidity of spirit. 
 
 The compromise bill passed the house February 26, 1833, by 
 a vote of 120 to 84. It passed the senate, the ensuing 1st of 
 March, by a vote of 29 to 16 Mr. Webster voting against it. 
 Mr. Clay was now once more hailed as the preserver of the re- 
 
HIS PUBLIC CAREER. 145 
 
 public as the great pacificator. The dark, portentous cloud 
 big with civil discord and disunion, which had been hanging over 
 the country, rolled away and was scattered. The south and the 
 north were reconciled ; and confidence and prosperity were re 
 stored. Is not such a civic triumph worth all the paeans ever 
 shouted in the ears of a military conqueror ? It placed Mr. Clay 
 in a commanding and elevated position and drew upon him the 
 eyes of the whole nation, as a liberal, sound, and true-hearted 
 statesman, in whose hands the interests of all sections would be 
 safe. 
 
 The act was characteristic of his whole public career. The 
 only horizon which bounds his political vision is the horizon of 
 his country. There is nothing small, narrow, sectional, in his 
 views, interests, or hopes. North, south, east, and west they 
 are all equally dear to him. Kentucky .noble Kentucky 
 where he is cherished and honored as such a statesman and 
 patriot ought to be cherished and honored by such a gallant and 
 generous constituency he regards with the attachment and de 
 votion with which no generous nature can fail to be inspired for 
 the soil where his first honors were won, the early theatre of 
 his fame and its fruition the home of his hopes and his 
 heart. Bat he looks abroad from the state of his adoption, and 
 down from the pinnacle of his elevation and there lie Massa 
 chusetts, and New York, and the Old Dominion, proud of the 
 blended honors of their Lexington, Saratoga, and Yorktown, 
 radiant with the common glories of their Adamses, Hamiltons, 
 and Washingtons and he feels that in these glories and honors 
 in those traditions and records of achievements in the fame 
 of those illustrious men, he has himself an equal inheritance with 
 any of their children. The influence of this noble, national 
 spirit, pervades the whole of Mr. Clay s public career, and is 
 stamped upon all those great measures by which, in moments of 
 exigency and darkness, he has revived the desponding hopes and 
 retrieved the sinking fortunes of the Union." * 
 
 * The following passage is an extract from a speech delivered by John Tyler, in the Vir 
 ginia house of delegates, in 1839, in favor of the distribution of the proceeds of the public 
 lands, as recommended by the Kentucky statesman : 
 
 " In my deliberate opinion, there was but one man who could have arrested the then 
 touree of things the tendency of nullification to dissolve the Union and that man was 
 
 Cr 10 
 
146 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 In the autumn of 1833, Mr. Clay, accompanied by his lady 
 fulfilled a design which he had long contemplated, of visiting the 
 eastern cities. His journey was one continued ovation. Arriving 
 at Baltimore, early in October, he was waited upon by thousands 
 of citizens, who came to pay their tribute of gratitude and respect. 
 At Philadelphia, he was received at the Chestnut-street wharf 
 by an immense concourse of people with enthusiastic huzzas, and 
 conducted to the United States hotel by his friend, John Sergeant. 
 Arriving at New York, he was escorted to his lodgings by a large 
 procession of gentlemen on horseback ; and all parties seemed 
 to unite in their testimonials of welcome. A special meeting of 
 the board of aldermen was held, and the governor s room, in the 
 city-hall, appropriated to his use, where he was visited by a con 
 stant succession of citizens. At Newport and Providence, he 
 was greeted with every possible demonstration of welcome and 
 admiration ; and, on reaching Boston, he was met and conducted 
 to the Tremont house by a very numerous cavalcade. 
 
 At all these cities, and many others on his route, he received 
 pressing invitations to public dinners ; but, being accompanied by 
 his family, he had, on leaving Kentucky, prescribed to himself 
 the rule, to which he rigidly adhered, of declining all such invi 
 tations. By all classes in New England, and particularly by the 
 manufacturing population, Mr. Clay was received as a friend and 
 benefactor. The cordiality of his welcome, showed that his 
 motives in originating the compromise act, had been duly appre 
 ciated by those most deeply interested in the preservation of the 
 American system. He visited many of the manufacturing towns, 
 and, on all occasions, met with a reception which indicated how 
 strongly the affections of the people were enlisted in his favor. 
 At Faneuil hall, and on Bunker hill, he received addresses from 
 committees, to which he replied in his usual felicitous manner. 
 While at Boston, a pair of elegant silver pitchers, weighing nine 
 
 HENRY CLAY. It rarely happens, Mr. Speaker, to the most gifted, and talented, and patriotic, 
 to record their names upon the page of history, in characters indelible and enduring. But, 
 eir, if to have rescued his country from civil war if to have preserved the constitution and 
 Union from hazard, and total wreck, constitute any ground for an immortal and undying 
 name amon? men, then I do believe that he has won for himself that high renown. I speak 
 what I do know, for I was an actor in the scenes of that perilous period. When he rose in 
 that senate-chamber, and held in his hand the olive-branch of peace, I, who had not known 
 what envy was before, envied him. I was proud of him as my fellow-countryman, and stiK 
 prouder that the tlathu of Hanover, within the limits of my old district gave him birth." 
 
VISIT TO THE EASTERN CITIES. 147 
 
 and a half pounds, were presented to him by the young men. A 
 great crowd was present ; and Mr. Clay, though taken by surprise, 
 spoke for about half an hour, in a manner to enchant his hearers. 
 The following apposite toast was offered by one of the young 
 men on the occasion : " Our Guest and Gift our Friend and 
 Pitcher !" 
 
 While at Salem, Mr. Clay attended a lecture at the Lyceum, 
 when the audience, numbering about twelve hundred persons, 
 spontaneously rose, and loudly greeted him on his entrance. On 
 the 4th of November, he left Boston with his family on his return 
 journey. He took the route through Massachusetts to Albany, 
 passing through Worcester, Hartford, Springfield, Northampton, 
 Pittsfield, &c., and being everywhere hailed by a grateful people 
 with every demonstration of heartfelt attachment and reverence. 
 
 At Troy and Albany, the manifestations of popular attachment 
 were not less marked than in Massachusetts. In both places the 
 people rose up, as one man, to do him honor ; and at both places 
 he made replies to the addresses presented to him, which are 
 excellent specimens of his familiar style of eloquence. The 
 multitudes of citizens who met, followed, and waited upon him 
 at every point, in rapid succession, indicated how large a space 
 he occupied in the public heart. As he said in one of the numer 
 ous speeches which he was called upon to make, during his tour, 
 " he had been taken into custody, made captive of, but placed 
 withal in such delightful bondage, that he could find no strength 
 and no desire to break away from it." 
 
 The popular enthusiasm did not seem to have abated as he re 
 turned through those cities which he had but recently visited. 
 On his way to Washington, he was met at New York, Newark, 
 Trenton, Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore, by delegations 
 of citizens, whose attentions rendered his progress one of 
 triumphal interest. He reached the seat of government in season 
 to be present at the opening of Congress. 
 
148 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 XII. 
 
 THE PUBLIC LANDS REJECTION OF MR. VAN BUREN. 
 
 MR. CLAY S course in regard to the public lands, presents a 
 striking illustration of his patriotic disinterestedness, and self- 
 sacrificing devotion to the cause of justice. The characteristic 
 traits which he displayed upon this question, remind us of an 
 anecdote of him, related, a few years since, by that eminent 
 statesman and high-minded whig, William C. Preston, in a speech 
 at Philadelphia. " On one occasion," said Mr. P., " he did me 
 the honor to send for and consult with me. It was in reference 
 to a step* he was about to take, and which will, perhaps, come 
 to your minds without more direct allusions. After stating what 
 he proposed, I suggested whether there would not be danger in 
 it whether such a course would not injure his own prospects, 
 as well as those of the whig party in general ? His reply was 
 * I did not send for you to ask what might be the effects of the 
 proposed movement on my prospects, but whether it is right. I 
 
 WOULD RATHER BE RIGHT THAN BE PRESIDENT. " 
 
 On March 22, 1832, Mr. Bibb, of Kentucky moved an inquiry 
 into the expediency of reducing the price of the public lands. Mr. 
 Robinson of Illinois, moved a further inquiry into the expediency 
 of transferring the public territory to the states within which it lies, 
 upon reasonable terms. With the view of embarrassing Mr. Clay, 
 these topics were inappropriately referred, by the administration 
 party, to the committee on manufactures, of which he was a mem 
 ber. It was supposed by his enemies, that he would make a " bid 
 for the presidency," by favoring the interested states at the expense 
 of justice and sound policy. But he did not stop to calculate the 
 consequences to himself. He did not attempt to evade or defer 
 the question. He met it promptly. He expressed his opinions 
 firmly and boldly : and those opinions, thus expressed, wise, 
 equitable, conclusive, were immediately seized upon for the pur 
 pose of breaking him down in the new states. The design had 
 been to embarrass him, by holding out the alternative of baffling 
 
 * His speech on slavery and the reception of abolition petitions. 
 
THE LAND BILL. 149 
 
 the cupidity of a portion of the people of the west, or shocking 
 the sense of justice and invading the rights of the old states 
 to injuriously affect his popularity either with the old or new 
 states, or with both. But when was Henry Clay known to shrink 
 from the responsibility of an avowal of opinion upon a question 
 of public moment ? In about three weeks after the matter was 
 referred to the committee, he presented to Congress a most 
 luminous, able, and conclusive report, and in the bill appended to 
 it, arranged the details of a wise and equitable plan, which no 
 subsequent legislation was able to improve. 
 
 Mr. Clay regarded the national domain in the light of a " com 
 mon fund," to be managed and disposed of for the " common 
 benefit of all the states." This property, he thought, should be 
 prudently and providently administered ; that it should not be 
 wantonly sacrificed at inadequate prices, and that it should not be 
 unjustly abandoned, in violation of the trust under which it was 
 held, to a favored section of the country. These principles were 
 the basis of his bill, which provided 
 
 I. That after the thirty-first day of December, 1832, twelve and a half 
 per cent, of the net proceeds of the public lands, sold within their limits, 
 should be paid to Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri, and Mississippi, 
 over and above what these states were severally entitled to by the compacts 
 of their admission into the Union ; to be applied to internal improvements 
 and purposes of education within those states, under the direction of their 
 legislatures independently of the provisions for the construction and main 
 tenance of the Cumberland road. 
 
 II. After this deduction, the net proceeds were to be distributed among 
 the (then) twenty-four states, according to their respective federal represent 
 ative population ; to be applied to such objects of internal improvement, 
 education, or colonization, as might be designated by their respective legis 
 latures, or the reimbursement of any previous debt contracted for internal 
 improvements. 
 
 III. The act to continue in force for five years, except in the event of a 
 war with any foreign power ; and additional provisions to be made for any 
 new state that might be meanwhile admitted to the Union. 
 
 IV. The minimum price of the public lands not to be increased ; and not 
 less than $80,000 per annum to be applied to complete the public surveys. 
 
 V. Land offices to be discontinued in districts where, for two successive 
 years, the proceeds of sales should be insufficient to pay the salaries of the 
 officers employed. 
 
 VI. That certain designated quantities of land should be granted to six 
 of the new states, not to be sold at a less price than the minimum price of 
 lands sold by the United States, to be applied to internal improvements. 
 
 Such were the simple and just provisions of the land bill of 
 Mr. Clay. To the new states they were abundantly libeial, 
 
150 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 without violating the erms of the original cession by the old 
 states ; for the money laid out in the new states for internal im 
 provements, subject to the use of the United States, may be 
 justly regarded as for the " common benefit" of the Union. 
 
 The introduction of the report and bill, created no little surprise 
 and excitement Li the senate. It was hardly expected of a can 
 didate for the presidency, that he should have so promptly and 
 peremptorily rejected the opportunity, thus temptingly presented, 
 of bidding for the votes of the new states, by holding out the 
 prospect, at least, of aggrandizement. But on this subject, as on 
 all others, Mr. Clay tock the broad national ground. He looked 
 at the question as a statesman, not as a politician. He suffered 
 no individual inducements to influence his opinions or his policy. 
 His paramount sense of duty ; his habitual sense of the sacred- 
 ness of compacts ; his superiority to local, sectional, and personal 
 considerations, were never more conspicuously and more honor 
 ably manifested than on this occasion. 
 
 The land bill was made the special order for the 20th of June, 
 when it was taken up by Mr. Clay, and advocated with his usual 
 eloquence and ability. Mr. Benton replied. His policy was to 
 reduce the price of a portion of the public lands, and to surrender 
 the residue to the states in which they lie. It would have given 
 to the state of Missouri 25,000,000 of acres, or about 160 acres 
 to every individual in the state, black and white ; while the state 
 of New York, by whose blood and treasure, in part, this great 
 domain was acquired, would have been cut off without an acre ! 
 Various motions were made in the senate for the postponement 
 and amendment of Mr. Clay s bill. The policy of reducing the 
 price, was urged with great pertinacity by the friends., of the ad 
 ministration ; but the objections of the report to this policy, were 
 justly regarded as unanswerable and insurmountable ; and, on the 
 3d of July, the bill, essentially in the same form as reported 
 received its final passage in the senate, by a vote of 20 yeas to 
 18 nays. The late period of the session at which it was sent to 
 the house, and the conflict of opinion in that body, in respect to 
 some of its provisions, enabled the administration to effect its 
 postponement to the first Monday of the following December, by 
 a vote of 91 yeas to 88 nays. 
 
VETO Or THE LAND BILL. 51 
 
 This, of course, was equivalent to its rejection. But such 
 were the wisdom and obvious equity of its provisions, and so 
 highly did it commend itself to the good sense of the people, that 
 the administration party were compelled to yield to the uncon 
 trollable force of public opinion. At the next session, therefore, 
 of Congress, the bill was again taken up, and passed the senate 
 by a vote of 24 to 20, and the popular branch by a vote of 96 to 
 40. It was sent to the president for his approval. 
 
 Notwithstanding the unprecedented favor which it had found 
 among the immediate representatives of the people, it was 
 " trampled," as Mr. Benton subsequently boasted, under the " big 
 foot of President Jackson." The dissolution of Congress, be 
 fore the expiration of the constitutional term for which he was 
 authorized to retain the bill, enabled that self-willed and despotic 
 chief magistrate to defeat the obvious will of the people. If it 
 had been returned to Congress at the session of its passage, it 
 would have become a law by a two-third vote. It was therefore 
 withheld, and, at the next session, on the 5th of December, 1833, 
 was sent back with the veto of the president ; and the veto, as 
 we have every reason to believe, sprang from the personal hos 
 tility of General Jackson toward the author of the land bill, and 
 an apprehension that it would augment the popularity of a rival, 
 whom he feared and hated. 
 
 The principles of the veto message accorded with those which 
 had been already promulgated by Mr. Benton. General Jackson 
 declared himself in favor of reducing the price of a portion of the 
 public lands, and of surrendering the residue to the states in 
 which they lie ; and withdrawing the machinery of our land sys 
 tem. He objected to Mr. Clay s plan of giving an extra 12^ per 
 cent, of the proceeds of the sales within their own limits to the 
 new states, as an " indirect and undisguised violation of the 
 pledge given by Congress to the states before a single cession 
 was made ; abrogating the condition on which some of the states 
 came into the Union ; and setting at naught the terms of cession 
 spread upon the face of every grant under which the title of that 
 portion of the public lands are held by the federal government." 
 Such were the shocking violations of principle and compact, in 
 volved in the limited and equitable grant to the new states, con- 
 
152 LIFE OF HENRY CLAk 
 
 templated by the bill of Mr. Clay ; and yet we were gravely told 
 by General Jackson, in the same breath, that to sell the lands for 
 a nominal price to withdraw the land machinery of the gov 
 ernment altogether to abandon the lands to surrender the 
 lands to give them to the states in which they lie " impaired 
 no principle and violated no compact." It was a gross violation 
 of compact it was a flagrant outrage upon principle, to surren 
 der a part but the outrage was repaired, and the compact kept 
 inviolate by an abandonment of the whole ! Such was the rea 
 soning of the veto message ! 
 
 General Jackson had been obliged to change his grounds on 
 this question, in order to thwart the views of Mr. Clay. In his 
 annual message of December 4, 1832, he had recommended a 
 measure fundamentally similar. But the measure now presented 
 to him, though it had passed Congress by triumphant majorities, 
 had been suggested, although not voluntarily, by an individual 
 who shared no part in his counsels or his affections by one, 
 whom he had ungenerously injured, and whom he therefore dis 
 liked. He preferred the gratification of his malevolence to the 
 preservation of his consistency. The consequence was his arbi 
 trary retention of the bill, by an irregular and unprecedented pro 
 ceeding, and his subsequent veto. 
 
 The right of the old states to the public domain is the right 
 of conquest and of compact. Those lands were won by the 
 blood and treasure of the thirteen provinces. Their title-deeds 
 were signed, sealed, and delivered on the plains of Yorktown. 
 When the clouds of the revolution had rolled away, and the dis 
 cordant elements of the confederation were taking the shape and 
 system of our present glorious constitution the sages and sol 
 diers of liberty assembled for the establishment of a more perfect 
 union. To realize this grand end of their labors, they recom 
 mended to the thirteen states to make a common cession of their 
 territories to the federal government ; that they might be admin 
 istered for their common benefit, and stand as a pledge for the 
 redemption of the public debt. Patriotic Virginia, following the 
 wise counsels of her Washington, Henrys, and Jeffersons, sur 
 rendered without a murmur her bloodless domain now the seat 
 of numerous new states, and still stretching hundreds of leagues 
 
MR. VAN BUREN NOMINATED AS MINISTER TO ENGLAND. 153 
 
 into the unsurveyed and uninhabited wilderness. Her sistei 
 states, though they had less to surrender, surrendered all they 
 possessed ; and in return for this liberal and patriotic abandon 
 ment of local advantages for the common good, the Congress of 
 the United States pledged itself by the most solemn compact to 
 administer this vast domain for the common benefit of its original 
 proprietors, and of such new states as should thereafter be ad 
 mitted into the Union. 
 
 The second of May, ] 834, Mr. Clay made a report from the 
 committee on public lands, in relation to the president s return 
 of the land bill. In this paper he exposes with great ability the 
 inconclusiveness of the president s reasons. For some ten years 
 Mr. Clay was the vigilant, laborious, and finally successful op 
 ponent of the monstrous project of the administration for squan 
 dering the public domain and robbing the old states. To his un- 
 remitted exertions we shall have been indebted for the succes 
 sive defeats of the advocates of the plunder system, and for the 
 final adjustment of the question according to his own equitable 
 propositions. By this adjustment, all sections of the country are 
 treated with rigid impartiality. The interest of no one state is 
 sacrificed to that of the others. The west, the north, the south, 
 and east, all fare alike. A more wise and provident system 
 could not have been devised. It will stand as a perpetual mon 
 ument of the enlarged patriotism, unerring sagacity, and uncom 
 promising justice of its author. 
 
 The question of confirming Mr. Van Buren s nomination as 
 minister to England, came before the senate during the session 
 of 1831- 32. The conduct of that gentleman while secretary of 
 state, in his instructions to Mr. M Lane, had excited general 
 displeasure. Not content with exerting his ingenuity to put his 
 own country in the wrong and the British government in the 
 right, Mr. Van Buren had endeavored to attach to Mr. Adams s 
 administration the discredit of bringing forward unfounded " pre 
 tensions," and by himself disclaiming those pretensions, to pro 
 pitiate the favor of the British king. Upon the subject of the 
 colonial trade, he said : " To set up the acts of the late adminis 
 tration, as the cause of a forfeiture of privileges which would other 
 wise be extended to the people of the United States, would, under 
 
 or* 
 
J54 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 existing circumstances, be unjust in itself, and could not fail to 
 excite their deepest SENSIBILITY." 
 
 The parasitical, anti-American spirit displayed throughout 
 these celebrated instructions constituted a sufficient ground for 
 the rejection of Mr. Van Buren s nomination. Mr. Clay s per 
 sonal relation toward that gentleman had always been of a friendly 
 character, but he did not allow them to influence his sense of 
 public justice. He addressed the senate emphatically against 
 the nomination, declaring that his main objection arose out of 
 the instructions ; the offensive passages in which he quoted. 
 
 "On our side," said he, "according to Mr. Van Buren, all was wrong; on 
 the British side, all was right. We brought forward nothing but claims and 
 pretensions ; the British government asserted on the other hand a clear and 
 incontestable right. We erred in too tenaciously and too long insisting upon 
 our pretensions, and not yielding at once to their just demands. And Mr. 
 M Lane was commanded to avail himself of all the circumstances in his 
 power to mitigate our offence, and to dissuade the British government from 
 allowing their feelings justly incurred by the past conduct of the party driv 
 en from power to have an adverse influence toward the American party 
 now in power. Sir, was this becoming language from one independent na 
 tion to another? Was it proper in the mouth of an American minister? 
 Was it in conformity with the high, unsullied, and dignified character of 
 our previous diplomacy? Was it not, on the contrary, the language of an 
 humble vassal to a proud and haughty lord? Was it not prostrating and 
 degrading the American eagle before the British lion ?" 
 
 The nomination of Mr. Van Buren was rejected in the senate 
 by the casting vote of the vice-president, Mr. Calhoun. It has 
 been said that this act was a blunder in policy on the part of the 
 opposition in the senate that it made apolitical martyr of a wily 
 and intriguing antagonist, and commended him to the sympathy 
 and vindicatory favor of his party. All this may be true ; but it 
 does not affect the principle of the measure. Mr. Clay did not 
 lack the sagacity to foresee its probable consequences ; but, 
 where the honor of his country was concerned, expediency was 
 with, him always an inferior consideration. 
 
THE CURRENCY QUESTION. 155 
 
 XIII. 
 THE BANK STRUGGLE. 
 
 I* on. -welve years, the country was kept in a fever of perpetual 
 o^citement, or in a state of alternate paralysis and convulsion, 
 by tne agitation of the currency question. General Jackson 
 found us in 1829 in a condition of general prosperity. The gov 
 ernment was administered with republican economy. The legis 
 lature, the judiciary, and the executive, every one wielding its 
 constitutional powers, moved on harmoniously in their respective 
 spheres ; and the result was a system that secured the happi 
 ness of the people and challenged the admiration of the civilized 
 world. Commerce, agriculture, manufactures, and the mechanic 
 arts, flourished ; lending mutual aid, and enjoying a common 
 prosperity, fostered by the government, and diffusing blessings 
 among the community. The banking system was sound through 
 out the states. Our currency was uniform in value, and the 
 local banks were compelled to restrict their issues to their ability 
 of redemption in specie. There was no wild speculation. In 
 dustrious enterprise was the only source of fortune. Labor was 
 amply employed, abundantly compensated, and safe in the enjoy 
 ment of its wages. The habits of the people were simple and 
 democratic. Our foreign credit was without a stain, and the 
 whole machinery of government, trade, and currency, had been 
 brought to a state approaching the utmost limit to be attained by 
 human ingenuity and human wisdom. 
 
 In 1830, General Jackson commenced his * humble efforts" 
 for improving our condition. He advised, in his message of 
 that year, the establishment of a treasury-bank, with the view, 
 among other things, of " strengthening the states," by leaving in 
 their hands " the means of furnishing the local paper currency 
 through their own banks." This was his original plan, and in 
 this message we hear nothing of a better currency, or the substi 
 tution of the precious metals for bank paper. In the following 
 year he again brought the subject before Congress, and left it to 
 the " investigation of an enlightened people and their represen- 
 
156 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 tatives." TLe investigation took place ; and Congress passed a 
 bill for the recharter of the United States Bank. This bill was 
 peremptorily vetoed by General Jackson, who condemned it as 
 premature, and modestly remarked in regard to a bank, " Had 
 the executive been called upon to furnish the project of such an 
 institution as would be constitutional, the duty would have been 
 cheerfully performed." 
 
 Mr. Clay was one of the foremost in denouncing the extra 
 ordinary doctrines of this veto message. On the 12th of July, 
 1832, he addressed the senate upon the subject. We have 
 already given an exposition of his views upon the question of a 
 bank. They are too well-known to the country to require reit 
 eration in this place. They have been frankly avowed on ah 
 fitting occasions. Touching the veto power, that monarchical 
 feature in our constitution, his opinions were such as might have 
 been expected from the leader of the democratic party of 1815. 
 He considered it irreconcilable with the genius of a representa 
 tive government; and cited the constitution of Kentucky, by 
 which, if after the rejection of a bill by the governor, it shall be 
 passed by a majority of all the members elected to both houses, 
 it becomes a law notwithstanding the governor s objection. 
 
 The abuses to which this power has been subjected under the 
 administrations of Jackson and Tyler, call loudly for an amend 
 ment of the federal constitution. The veto of a single magistrate 
 on a bill passed by a numerous body of popular representatives, 
 immediately expressing the opinion of all classes of the commu 
 nity, and all sections of the country, indicates obviously an 
 enormous prerogative. It must so strike every one who has ever 
 reasoned on government. When the people of Paris called upon 
 Mirabeau to save them from the grant of such a power, telling 
 him that, if granted, all was lost, they spoke a sentiment that is 
 as universal as the sense and spirit of liberty. When we reflect 
 that no king of England has dared to exercise this power since 
 the year 1692, we can not but feel that there must have been 
 good reason in the jealousy of the people, and in the apprehen 
 sion of the crown. Mr. Burke, in his celebrated letter to the 
 sheriff Of Bristol, observes, in reference to the exercise of this 
 power by the king, that it is " wisely forborne. Its Depose may 
 
REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITES. 13* 
 
 be the preservation of its existence, and its existence may be the 
 means of saving the constitution itself, on an occasion worthy of 
 bringing it forth" So high a power was it considered by Mr. 
 Jefferson, that he was at one time decidedly in favor of associating 
 the judiciary with the executive in its exercise. 
 
 It is in this light that the veto power should be considered 
 as a most serious and sacred one, to be exercised only on emer 
 gencies worthy to call it forth. On all questions of mere opinion, 
 mere expediency, the representatives of the people are the best, 
 as they are the legitimate judges. 
 
 The monstrous doctrine had been advanced by General Jack 
 son, in his veto message, that every public officer may interpret 
 the constitution as he pleases. On this point Mr. Clay said, with 
 great cogency : 
 
 " I conceive, with great deference, that the president has mistaken the pur 
 port of the oath to support the constitution of the United States. No one 
 swears to support it as he understands it, but to support it simply as it is in 
 truth. All men are bound to obey the laws, of which the constitution is the 
 supreme ; but must they obey them as they are, or as they understand them ? 
 If the obligation of obedience is limited and controlled by the measure of 
 information ; in other words, if the party is bound to obey the constitution 
 only as he understands it, what would be the consequence ? There would 
 be general disorder and confusion throughout every branch of administra 
 tion, from the highest to the lowest officers universal nullification." 
 
 During the session of 1832- 33, General Jackson declared that 
 the public deposites were not safe in the vaults of the United States 
 bank, and called upon Congress to look into the subject, and to 
 augment what he then considered the " limited powers" of the 
 secretary of the treasury over the public money. Congress made 
 die desired investigation, and the house of representatives, by a 
 vote of 109 to 46, declared the deposites to be perfectly safe. 
 Resolved on gratifying his feelings of personal animosity toward 
 the friends of the bank, General Jackson did not allow this ex 
 plicit declaration on the part of the immediate agents of the 
 people, to shake his despotic purpose. During the autumn of 
 1833, he resolved upon that most arbitrary of arbitrary measures, 
 the removal of the deposites. The cabinet council, to whom he 
 originally proposed this measure, are said to have disapproved of 
 it in the most decided terms. Mr. McLane, the secretary of the 
 treasury, refused to lend it his assistance. He was accordingly 
 
158 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 translated to the office of secretary of state, made vacant by the 
 appointment of Mr. Livingston to the French mission ; and 
 William J. Duane, of Philadelphia, took his place at the head of 
 the treasury department. Mr. Duane, however, did not turn out 
 to be the pliable tool which the president had expected to find 
 him. On the 20th of September, 1833, it was authoritatively 
 announced to the public that the deposites would be removed. The 
 next day, Mr. Duane made known to the president his resolution, 
 neither voluntarily to withdraw from his post, nor to be made the 
 instrument of illegally removing the public treasures. The con 
 sequence was, the rude dismission of the independent secretary 
 from office, on the 23d of September. Mr. Taney, who had sus 
 tained the views of the president, was made his successor ; and 
 the people s money was removed from the depository where the 
 law had placed it, and scattered among irresponsible state insti 
 tutions under the control of greedy partisans. 
 
 The congressional session of 1833- 34, was one of extraordi 
 nary interest, in consequence of the discussion of this high-handed 
 measure. 
 
 In his message to Congress, the president said : " Since the 
 adjournment of Congress, the secretary of the treasury has 
 directed the money of the United States to be deposited in certain 
 state banks designated by him ; and he will immediately lay 
 before you his reasons for this direction. I concur with him en 
 tirely in the view he has taken of the subject ; and, some months 
 before the removal, I urged upon the department the propriety of 
 taking the step." The " reasons 5 adduced by Mr. Taney for 
 lending his aid to the seizure of tho public money, were such as 
 might have been expected from an adroit lawyer. However 
 satisfactory they might have been to General Jackson and his 
 party, they were utterly insufficient to justify the act in the eyes 
 of dispassionate and clear-minded men. Mr. Taney undertook 
 to sustain his position by a precedent which he assumed to find 
 in a letter addressed by Mr. Crawford, when secretary of the 
 treasury, to the president of the Mechanics bank of New York. 
 On the 19th of December, Mr. Clay introduced resolutions into 
 the senate, calling upon Mr. Taney for a copy of the letter an 
 extract from w hich he had cited in his report. 
 
HIS CONNECTION WITH THE BANK. 159 
 
 In his remarks upon the occasion of presenting these resolu 
 tions, Mr. Clay made some observations in regard to his own 
 personal relations toward the bank. An individual high in office, 
 had allowed himself to assert that a dishonorable connection had 
 subsisted between him (Mr. C.) and that institution. Mr. Clay 
 said that when the charter, then existing, was granted, he voted 
 for it ; and, having done so, he did not feel himself at liberty to 
 subscribe, and he did not subscribe, for a single share in the stock 
 of the bank, although he confidently anticipated a great rke in 
 its value. A few years afterward, during the presidency of Mr. 
 Jones, it was thought by some of his friends at Philadelphia, ex 
 pedient to make him (Mr. C.) a director of the Bank of the United 
 States ; and he was made a director, without any consultation 
 with him. For that purpose, five shares were purchased for him 
 by a friend, for which he (Mr. C.) afterward paid. When he 
 ceased to be a director, a short time subsequently, he disposed of 
 those shares ; since which time he has never been proprietoi 
 of a single share. 
 
 When Mr. Cheves was appointed president of the bank, its 
 affairs, in the states of Kentucky and Ohio, were in great dis 
 order ; and Mr. Clay s professional services were engaged during 
 several years for the bank in those states. He brought a vast 
 number of suits, and transacted a great amount of professional 
 business for the bank. Among other suits, v/as one for the re 
 covery of $100,000, seized under the authority of a law in Ohio 
 which he carried through the inferior and supreme courts. He 
 was paid by the bank the usual compensation for these services 
 and no more. No professional fees were ever more honestly and 
 fairly earned. For upward of eight years past, however, he had 
 not been the counsel for the bank. He did not owe the bank, or 
 any of its branches, a solitary cent. Some twelve or fifteen years 
 before, owing to the failure of a friend, a large amount of debt 
 had been thrown upon Mr. Clay, as his endorser ; and it was 
 principally due to the Bank of the United States. Mr. Clay com 
 menced a system of rigid economy established for himself a 
 sinking fund worked hard, and paid off the debt without re 
 ceiving from the bank the slightest favor. 
 
 The resolutions, of Mr. Clay, calling upon the secretary of tlxo 
 
160 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 treasury for a copy of the letter said to have been written by Mr 
 Crawford, passed the senate ; and on the 13th of December, a 
 communication was received from Mr. Taney, the character of 
 which was evasive and unsatisfactory. The senate had asked 
 for documents, and he gave them arguments. In reference to 
 Mr. Crawford s opinions, Mr. Clay said, that although there was 
 plausibility in the construction which the secretary had given to 
 them, yet he (Mr. Clay) would undertake to show that the 
 opinions ascribed to Mr. Crawford in reference to the bank 
 charter, were never asserted by him. 
 
 On the 26th of December, 1833, Mr. Clay laid the following 
 resolutions before the senate : 
 
 " 1. Resolved, That, by dismissing the late secretary of the treasury, be 
 cause he would not, contrary to his sense of his own duty, remove the money 
 of the United States in deposite with the Bank of the United States and 
 brandies, in conformity with the president s opinion, and by appointing his 
 successor to effect such removal, which has been done, the president haa 
 assumed the exercise of a power over the treasury of the United States, not 
 granted by the constitution and laws, and dangerous to the liberties of the 
 people. 
 
 " 2. Resolved, That the reasons assigned by the secretary of the treasury, 
 for the removal of the money of the United States from the United States 
 bank and its brandies, communicated to Congress on the third day of De 
 cember, 1833, are unsatisfactory and insufficient." 
 
 Mr. Clay s speech in support of the resolutions, was delivered 
 partly on the 26th, and partly on the 30th of December ; and it 
 is one of the most masterly efforts of eloquence ever heard within 
 the walls of the capitol. In force and amplitude of argument, 
 variety and appropriateness of illustration, and energy of diction, 
 it is equalled by few oratorical productions in the English lan 
 guage. During its delivery, the lower house was almost deserted ; 
 and the galleries of the senate-chamber were filled by a mutely 
 attentive audience, whose enthusiasm occasionally broke forth in 
 unparliamentary bursts of applause a demonstration, which is 
 rarely elicited except when the feelings are aroused to an extra 
 ordinary degree. 
 
 In his exordium, Mr. Clay briefly glanced at some of the 
 principal usurpations and abuses of the administration. 
 
 "We are," said he, "in the midst of a revolution, hitherto bloodless, but 
 rapidly tending toward a total change of the pure republican character of 
 the government, and to the concentration of all power in the hands of on 
 
THE VETO POWER. 161 
 
 man. The powers of Congress are paralyzed, except wnen exerted in con* 
 formity with his will, by a frequent and extraordinary exercise of the exe 
 cutive veto, not anticipated by the founders of the constitution, and not 
 practised by any of the predecessors of the present chief magistrate. And, 
 to cramp them still more, a new expedient is springing into use, of with 
 holding altogether bills which have received the sanction of both houses of 
 Congress, thereby cutting off all opportunity of passing them, even if, after 
 their return, the members should be unanimous in their favor. The consti 
 tutional participation of the senate in the appointing power, is virtually 
 abolished by the constant use of the power of removal from office, without 
 any known cause, and by the appointment of the same individual to the 
 same office, after his rejection by the senate. How often have we, senators, 
 felt tli it the check of the senate, instead of being, as the constitution in- 
 tendo ."!, a salutary control, was an idle ceremony ? * 
 
 "The judiciary has not been exempted from the prevailing rage for inno 
 vation. Decisions of the tribunals deliberately pronounced, have been con 
 temptuously disregarded, and the sanctity of numerous treaties openly 
 violated. Our Indian relations, coeval with the existence of the government, 
 and recognised and established by numerous laws and treaties, have been 
 subverted ; the rights of the helpless and unfortunate aborigines trampled in 
 the dust, and they brought under subjection to unknown laws, in which they 
 have no voice, promulgated in an unknown language. The most extensive 
 and most valuable public domain that ever fell to the lot of one nation, is 
 threatened with a total sacrifice. The general currency of the country 
 the life-blood of all its business is in the most imminent danger of universal 
 disorder and confusion. The power of internal improvement lies crushed 
 beneath the veto. The system of protection to American industry was 
 snatched from impending destruction at the last session ; but we are now 
 coolly told by the secretary of the treasury, without a blush, that it is un 
 derstood to be conceded on all hands, that a tariff for protection merely is to 
 be finally abandoned. By the 3d of March, 1837, if the progress of inno 
 vation continue, there will be scarcely a vestige remaining of the government 
 and its policy, as it existed prior to the 3d of March, 1829." 
 
 In the paper read to his cabinet on the 18th of September, 
 1833, and afterward published in the newspapers, but which he 
 refused to communicate to the senate, when called upon by them 
 so to do, President Jackson is made to employ terms of blandish 
 ment toward his new secretary of the treasury, as if to gild the 
 shackles of dictation imposed by executive power in regard to 
 the removal of the deposites. He says, he trusts that the secre 
 tary will see in his remarks, " only the frank and respectful dec 
 larations of the opinions which the president has formed on a 
 measure of great national interest, deeply affecting the character 
 and usefulness of his administration, and not a spirit of dictation, 
 which the president would be as careful to avoid, as ready to 
 resist." 
 
 Mr. Clay very happily illustrates the hypocrisy of this defei 
 
 11 
 
62 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY 
 
 ential language. " Sir, it reminds me of an historical anecdote 
 related of one of the most remarkable characters which our spe 
 cies has ever produced. When Oliver Cromwell was contend 
 ing for the mastery of Great Britain or Ireland (I do not now 
 remember which), he besieged a certain catholic town. The 
 place made a stout resistance ; but at length the town being 
 likely to be taken, the poor catholics proposed terms of capitu 
 lation, stipulating therein for the toleration of their religion. The 
 paper containing the terms was brought to Oliver, who, putting 
 on his spectacles to read it, cried out : Oh, granted, granted ! 
 certainly ! He, however, added but if one of them shall dare 
 be found attending mass, he shall be hanged! (under which 
 section is not mentioned whether under a second, or any othet 
 section of any particular law, we are not told.") 
 
 After proving, what is now notorious to the whole country, 
 that the removal of the deposites was the act of General Jackson 
 and of him alone, and that the secretary of the treasury was 
 merely the caCs-paw in the accomplishment of the seizure, Mr. 
 Clay proceeded to show that it was in violation of the constitu 
 tion and laws of the United States. His argument on this point 
 is faithful and conclusive. 
 
 We regret that our limited space prevents us from quoting 
 freely from this interesting speech. It contains a succinct his 
 tory of all the financial exploits of General Jackson and his sub 
 servient secretary up to the period of its delivery ; and is as 
 valuable for its documentary facts as it is interesting for the vigor 
 and animation of its style and the impregnability of its arguments. 
 
 The resolution declaring the insufficiency of the reasons as 
 signed by the secretary of the treasury for the removal of the 
 deposites, having been referred to the committee on finance, at 
 the head of which was Mr. Webster, was reported with a rec 
 ommendation that it be adopted. The question upon the reso 
 lution was not taken till the 28th of March, when it was passed 
 by the senate, 28 to 18. At the instance of some of his friends, 
 Mr. Clay then modified his other resolution, so as to read as 
 follows : 
 
 " Resolved, That the president in the late executive proceedings in rela 
 tion to the public revenue, has assumed upon himself authority and power 
 not conferred by the constitution and laws, but in derogation of both." 
 
GENERAL JACKSON S PROTEST. 163 
 
 The resolution was adopted by the following vote : 
 
 YEAS. Messrs. Bibb, Black, Calhoun, Clay, Clayton, Ewing, Frelinghuy- 
 een, Kent, Knight, Leigh, Mangum, Naudain, Poindexter, Porter, Prentiss, 
 Preston, Bobbins, Silsbee, Smith, Southard, Sprague, Swift> Tomlinson, Ty 
 ler, Waggaman, Webster 26. 
 
 NAYS. Messrs. Benton, Brown, Forsyth, Grundy, Hendricks, Hill, Kane, 
 King of Alabama, King of Georgia, Linn, M Kean, Moore, Morris, Robin 
 son, Shepley, Tallmadge, Tipton, White, Wilkins, Wright 20. 
 
 The passage of Mr. Clay s resolution drew forth from the 
 president the celebrated protest, which was communicated to the 
 senate, the 17th of April, 1833. This document was of a most 
 novel and unprecedented character, and gave rise to debates, 
 which will always be memorable in our legislative annals. The 
 assumptions of the president were truly of a kind to excite alarm 
 among the friends of our republican system. In this extraordi 
 nary paper he maintains, that he is responsible for the acts of 
 every executive officer, and that all the powers given by law are 
 vested in him as the head and fountain of all. He alludes to the 
 secretary of the treasury as his secretary, and says that Congress 
 can not take from the executive the control of the public money. 
 His doctrine is, that the president should, under his oath of office, 
 sustain the constitution as he understands it ; not as the judiciary 
 may expound, or Congress declare it. From these principles, 
 he infers that all subordinate officers are merely the executors 
 of his supreme will, and that he has the right to discharge them 
 whenever he may please. 
 
 These monstrous and despotic assumptions, transcending as 
 they do the prerogatives claimed by most of the monarchs of 
 Europe, afforded a theme for eloquent discussion, which was not 
 neglected by the opposition, who then constituted the majority 
 in the senate. Mr. Poindexter, of Mississippi, protested against 
 the reception of such a paper from the president ; and moved 
 that i\ be not received. Mr. Sprague, of Maine, exposed its fal 
 lacies, and denounced its doctrines in spirited and indignant 
 terms. The senators from New Jersey, Messrs. Frelinghuysen 
 and Southard, expressed their astonishment and indignation in 
 strong and decided language. Mr. Benton, " solitary and alone," 
 stood forth as the champion of the president and the protest. 
 
 The next day (April 18th) the consideration of Mr. Polndex- 
 
164 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 ter s motion was resumed ; and Mr. Leigh, of Virginia, addressed 
 the senate for about two hours in a speech of rare ability. To 
 ward its conclusion an unusual incident occurred. Mr. King, 
 of Alabama, had ciaimed for the president the merit of adjusting 
 the tariff question. He might, with quite as much truth, have 
 claimed for him the merit of writing the Declaration of Indepen 
 dence. Mr. Leigh, in reply to this assumption, spoke as fol 
 lows : 
 
 "Sir, I can not but remember that, during the anxious winter of 1832- 33, 
 when South Carolina, under a deep sense of injustice and oppression (whether 
 well or ill-founded, it is immaterial now to inquire), was exerting her utmost 
 efforts (no matter now whether wisely or not) to bring about a relaxation 
 of the system when all men were trembling under the apprehension of 
 civil war trembling from the conviction, that if such a contest should arise, 
 let it terminate how it might, it would put our present institutions in jeopardy, 
 and end either in consolidation or disunion for, I am persuaded that the first 
 drop of blood which shall be shed in a civil strife between the federal govern 
 ment and any state, will fiow from an immedicable wound, that none may hope 
 ever to see healed I can not but remember that the president, though wield 
 ing such vast power and influence, never contributed the least aid to bring 
 about the compromise that saved us from the evils which all men, I believe, 
 and I certainly, so much dreaded. The men are not present to whom we 
 are chiefly indebted for that compromise ; and I am glad they are absent, 
 since it enables me to speak of their conduct as I feel, without restraint 
 from a sense of delicacy I raise my humble voice in gratitude for that 
 service to Henry Clay of the senate, and Ilobert P. Letcher of the house 
 of representatives " 
 
 Here Mr. Leigh was interrupted by loud and prolonged plau 
 dits in the gallery. The vice-president suspended the discus 
 sion, and ordered the galleries to be cleared. While the ser- 
 geant-at-arms was in the act of fulfilling this order, the applause 
 was repeated. Mr. Benton moved that the persons applauding 
 should be taken into custody ; but, before the motion could be 
 considered, the galleries were vacated and order was restored. 
 
 On the 2 1st of April, another message was received from the 
 president, being a sort of codicil to the protest, in which he un 
 dertook to explain certain passages, which he feared had been 
 misapprehended. Mr. Poindexter withdrew his original motion, 
 and substituted four resolutions in which it wa& embodied. 
 These resolutions were modified by Mr. Clay, and an amend 
 ment suggested by Mr. Calhoun was adopted. Messrs. Clayton, 
 Webster, Preston, Ewing, Mangum, and others, addressed the 
 senate eloquently on various occasions upon the subject of tho 
 
THE PROTEST EXCLUDED FROM THE JOURNALS. 165 
 
 protest ; and, on the 30th of April, Mr. Clay, the resolution of 
 Mr. Poindexter still pending, made his well-known speech. 
 Although the subject seemed to have been exhausted by the ac 
 complished speakers who had preceded him, it was at once re 
 invested with the charms of novelty in his hands. The speech 
 contains the most complete and faithful picture of Jacksonism 
 ever presented to the country. 
 
 The resolutions of Mr. Poindexter passed the senate by a 
 vote of 27 to 16 on the 7th of May. They exclude the protest 
 from the journals, and declare that the president of the United 
 States has no right to send a protest to the senate against any 
 of its proceedings. 
 
 On the 28th of May, 1834, Mr. Clay introduced two joint 
 resolutions, reasserting what had been already declared by reso 
 lutions of the senate, that the reasons assigned by the secretary 
 of the treasury to Congress, for the removal of the public depos- 
 ites, were insufficient and unsatisfactory ; and providing that, from 
 and after the first day of July ensuing, all deposites which might 
 accrue from the public revenue, subsequent to that period, should 
 be placed in the Bank of the United States and its branches, pur 
 suant to the 16th section of the act to incorporate the subscribers 
 to the United States bank. 
 
 In presenting these resolutions, Mr. Clay remarked that, what 
 ever might be their fate at the other end of the capitol, or in an 
 other building, that consideration ought to have no influence on 
 the course of the senate. The resolutions were adopted and 
 sent to the house, where they were laid upon the table, and, as 
 was anticipated, never acted upon. 
 
 The labors of Mr. Clay during the celebrated session of 1833 
 34, appear to have been arduous and incessant. On every im 
 portant question that came before the senate, he spoke, showing 
 himself the ever-vigilant and active opponent of executive usur 
 pation. Immediately after the withdrawal of the public money 
 from the United States bank, and before the "pet banks," to 
 which the treasure had been transferred, had created an un 
 healthy plethora in the currency by their consequent expansions, 
 the distress among the people began to manifest itself in numer 
 ous memorials to Congress, protesting against the president** 
 
166 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 financial experiments, and calling for relief. Many of the?, 
 memorials were communicated to the senate through Mr. Clay, 
 and he generally accompanied their presentation with a brief but 
 pertinent speech. His remarks, on presenting a memorial from 
 Kentucky, on the 26th of February, 1834 and from Troy, the 
 fourteenth of April are eloquent expositions of the financial 
 condition of the country at those periods. In his speech of the 
 5th of February, on a motion to print additional copies of the 
 report of the committee on finance, to which had been referred 
 the report of the secretary of the treasury in regard to the re 
 moval of the deposites, we find the following just and forcible 
 image : 
 
 "The idea of uniting thirty or forty local banks for the establishment and 
 security of an equal currency could never be realized. As well might the 
 crew of a national vessel be put on board thirty or forty bark canoes, tied 
 together by a grape-vine, and sent out upon the troubled ocean, while the 
 billows were rising mountain-high, and the tempest was exhausting its rage 
 on the foaming element, in the hope that they might weather the storm, 
 and reach their distant destination in safety. The people would be con 
 tented with no such fleet of bark canoes, with Admiral Taney in their com 
 mand. They would be heard again calling out for old Ironsides, which had 
 never failed them in the hour of trial, whether amidst the ocean s storm, or 
 in the hour of battle." 
 
 This session, generally known as the " panic session," was 
 one of the most remarkable that have ever occurred in the prog 
 ress of our government. Never was there collected in the sen 
 ate a greater amount of eminent ability. For weeks together the 
 whigs poured forth a torrent of eloquent denunciations, in every 
 form, against that high-handed measure, the removal of the de 
 posites. This was most generally done on the occasion of pre 
 senting petitions or memorials from the people against it. Go 
 into the senate-chamber any morning during this interesting 
 period, and you would find some whig on his feet, expatiating 
 on the pernicious consequences of that most disastrous proceed 
 ing. It was then that they predicted the evil effects of it, since 
 so fatally and exactly realized. 
 
 Mr. Clay was among the most active and eloquent of these 
 distinguished champions of the people. No one exhibited so 
 great a variety of weapons of attack upon the administration^ or 
 so consummate a skill in the use of them. Early in March 
 
APPEAL TO THE VICE-PRESIDENT. 167 
 
 1834, a committee from Philadelphia arrived in Washington with 
 a memorial from a large body of mechanics, depicting the state 
 of prostration and distress produced among all the laboring 
 classes, by the high-handed and pernicious measures of the admin 
 istration. In presenting this memorial, Mr. Clay took occasion 
 o deviate somewhat from the beaten track of debate. He made 
 a direct appeal to the vice-president, Mr. Van Buren, charging 
 him with the delivery of a message to the executive. After 
 glancing at the gloomy condition of the country, he remarked 
 that it was in the power of the chief magistrate to adopt a meas 
 ure which, in twenty-four hours, would afford an efficacious and 
 substantial remedy, and reestablish confidence ; and those who, 
 in that chamber, supported the administration, could not render 
 a better service than to repair to the executive mansion, and, 
 placing before the chief magistrate the naked and undisguised 
 truth, prevail upon him to retrace his steps and abandon his fatal 
 experiment. 
 
 "No one, sir," continued Mr. Clay, tu/ning to the vice-president, "can 
 perform that duty with more propriety than yourself. You can, if you 
 will, induce him to change his course. To you, then, sir, in no unfriendly 
 "spirit, but with feelings softened and subdued by the deep distress which 
 pervades every class of our countrymen, I make the appeal. By your offi 
 cial and personal relations with the president, you maintain with him an 
 intercourse which I neither enjoy nor covet. Go to him and tell him with 
 out exaggeration, but in the language of truth and sincerity, the actual con 
 dition of his bleeding country. Tell him it is nearly ruined and undone by 
 the measures which he has been induced to 
 his experiment is operating on the nation 111 
 upon a convulsed animal in an exhausted receiver; 
 in agony if he does not pause, give it fresh and sound circulation, and suffer 
 the energies of the people to be revived and restored. Tell him that in a 
 single city, more than sixty bankruptcies, involving a loss of more than 
 fifteen millions of dollars, have occurred. Depict to him, if you can find 
 language for the task, the heart-rending wretchedness of thousands of the 
 working classes. Tell him him how much more true glory is to be won by 
 retracing false steps than by blindly rushing on until the country is over 
 whelmed in bankruptcy and ruin. Entreat him to pause." 
 
 In this strain, Mr. Clay proceeded for nearly twenty minutes. 
 Nothing could be more eloquent, touching, and unanswerable, 
 than the appeal, although, of course, it failed of effect. " Well, 
 Mr. Van Buren, did you deliver the message I charged you 
 with ?" asked Mr. Clay, as he met the vice-president in the sen 
 ate-chamber the next morning before the day s session had com 
 menced. 
 
168 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 The reply of Mr. Van Buren is not recorded. That gentle 
 man, however, was never celebrated for his powers of repartee 
 During the period of his vice-presidency, Mr. Clay dined with 
 him on one occasion in company with the judges of the United 
 States court, the heads of departments, and others. Conversa 
 tion at dinner glanced at the fact, that tory ministers, both in 
 England and in France, were more disposed than whig minis 
 ters to do justice to the United States, and deal liberally with 
 them in all international negotiations. All the parties present 
 agreed as to the fact ; and turning suddenly to Mr. Van Buren, 
 Mr. Clay said : " If you will permit me, I will propose a toast." 
 " With great pleasure," returned the vice-president. " 1 propose," 
 said Mr. Clay, " Tory ministers in England and France, and a 
 whig ministry in the United Stales." The toast was drunk with 
 great cordiality by the company, Mr. Van Buren affecting to 
 laugh, but blushing at the same time up to the eyes, and evi 
 dently nonplused for a retort. 
 
 The message addressed by Mr. Clay to the vice-president re 
 calls to mind another, which he requested the late Mr. Grundy 
 to deliver to President Jackson. It was the last of February * 
 1833, when the land bill was pending. " Tell General Jackson," 
 said Mr. Clay, " that if he will sign that bill, I will pledge my 
 self to retire from Congress, and never enter public life again." 
 Mr. Grundy, who was an amiable and remarkably good-natured 
 person, said : " No, I can t deliver that message ; for we may 
 have use for you hereafter." This was, it will be remembered, 
 at the session when the compromise passed. 
 
 The first session of the twenty-third Congress terminated the 
 30th of June, 1834, and Mr. Clay, after his prolonged and labor 
 ious exertions in behalf of the constitution and the laws, set out 
 immediately on his journey home. As the stage-coach, in which 
 he was proceeding from Charlestown toward Winchester, in 
 Virginia, was descending a hill, it was overturned, and a worthy 
 young gentleman, Mr. Humrickhouse, son of the contractor, was 
 instantly killed by being crushed by the vehicle. He was seated 
 by the side of the driver. Mr. Clay was slightly injured. The 
 accident happened in consequence of a defect in the breast- 
 chain, which gave way. On his arrival at Winchester, Mr. Clay 
 
OUR CLAIMS ON FRANCE 169 
 
 was invited to a public dinner, which he declined, as well on 
 account of his desire to reach home, as because of this melan 
 choly accident, which disqualified him for immediate enjoyment 
 at the festive board. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 DIFFICULTY WITH FRANCE INDIAN WRONGS. 
 
 THE most important question which came before Congress at 
 its second session, in 1834 35, was that of our relations with 
 France. The claims of our citizens upon that government for 
 aggressions upon our commerce between the years 1800 and 
 1817, had been repeatedly admitted ; but no decided steps toward 
 a settlement had been taken until the 4th of July, 1831, when a 
 treaty was ratified, by which it was agreed, on the part of the 
 French, that the sum of twenty-five millions of francs should be 
 paid to the United States as an indemnity. By the terms of the 
 treaty, the first instalment was to be paid at the expiration of one 
 year after the exchange of the ratifications. 
 
 The French government having failed in the performance of 
 this stipulation the draft of the United States for the first in 
 stalment having been dishonored by the minister of finance 
 President Jackson, in his message of December, 1834, to Con 
 gress, recommended that, in case provision should not be made 
 for the payment of the debt at the approaching session of the 
 French chambers, a law should be passed authorizing reprisals 
 upon French property. This was a step not to be precipitately 
 taken ; and, to insure its patriotic, dispassionate, and stateman- 
 like consideration, the senate placed Mr. Clay at the head of the 
 committee on foreign relations, to which committee that part of 
 the president s message relating to our affairs with France was 
 referred. 
 
 On the 6th of January, 1835, Mr. Clay made his celebrated 
 report to the senate. It was read by him from his seat, its read 
 ing occupying an hour and a half; the senate-chamber being 
 H 
 
170 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 thronged during its delivery by members of the house, and the 
 galleries filled to overflowing. The ability displayed in this ex 
 traordinary document, the firmness and moderation of its tone, 
 the perspicuous arrangements of facts which it presents, the 
 lucidity and strength of its style, and the inevitable weight of 
 its conclusions, called forth the admiration and concurrence of 
 all parties. It would seem to have been, under Providence, the 
 means of averting a war with France. In the preparation of it, 
 Mr. Clay had a difficult and delicate task to perform ; and it was 
 accomplished with great ingenuity and success. Not a word that 
 could lower the national tone and spirit was indulged in. He 
 eloquently maintained that the right lay on our side, but admitted 
 that the French king had not been so far in the wrong that all 
 hopes of the execution of the treaty were extinct, nor did he 
 consider that hostile measures were yet justifiable. This tem 
 perate, judicious, firm, and statesman-like language, while it re 
 moved all cause of offence on the part of the French, imparted 
 new renown to our own diplomacy. While it was all that the 
 most chivalrous champions of their country s honor could ask, it 
 breathed a spirit which called forth the full approbation of the 
 friends of peace. 
 
 As soon as Mr. Clay had finished the reading of his report, a 
 discussion arose in the senate as to the number which should be 
 printed. Mr. Poindexter moved the printing of twenty thousand 
 extra copies. Mr. Clay thought that number too large, and sug 
 gested five thousand, Mr. Calhoun said he should vote for the 
 largest number proposed. He had heard the report read with 
 the greatest pleasure. It contained the whole grounds which 
 ought to be laid before the people. Of all the calamities that 
 could befall the country, he most deplored a French war at that 
 time. Under these considerations he should vote for twenty 
 thousand copies. 
 
 Mr. Ewing and Mr. Porter would vote for the largest number, 
 and the latter would have preferred thirty or forty thousand. 
 
 Mr. Preston said he was strongly impressed by the views 
 taken by the committee, and considered them sufficient to satisfy 
 the people that we could honorably and justly avoid war with 
 France. Concurring in the sentiments of the committee, and 
 
THE FRENCH INDEMNITY QUESTION. 171 
 
 entertaining a profound respect for the wisdom exhibited in the 
 report, he was anxious that the document should be spread through 
 the country as widely as possible. 
 
 The senate finally ordered twenty thousand copies of this ad 
 mirable report to be printed, and it was soon scattered to the re 
 motest corners of the Union. Its effect in reviving the confi 
 dence and allaying the fears of our mercantile community must 
 be fresh in the remembrance of many. The rates of insurance 
 were at once diminished, Commerce spread her white wings 
 to the gale, and swept the ocean once more unchecked by the 
 liabilities of a hostile encounter. The depression in business 
 produced by the president s belligerent recommendation was at 
 once removed. 
 
 The report showed conclusively that the president s recom 
 mendation in regard to reprisals was premature, and unauthorized 
 by the circumstances of the case ; and that there had been a con 
 stant manifestation on the part of the executive branch of the 
 French government of a disposition to carry the treaty of indem 
 nification into effect. The committee expressed their agreement 
 with the president, that the fulfilment of the treaty should be in 
 sisted upon at all hazards ; but they considered that a rash and 
 precipitate course on our part should be seduously avoided. 
 They would not anticipate the possibility of a final breach by 
 France of her solemn engagements. They limited themselves 
 to a consideration of the posture of things as they then existed. 
 At the same time, they observed that it could not be doubted that 
 the United States were abundantly able to sustain themselves in 
 any vicissitudes to which they might be exposed. The patriot 
 ism of the people had been, hitherto, equal to all emergencies, 
 and if their courage and constancy, when they were young and 
 comparatively weak, bore them safely through all past struggles, 
 the hope might be confidently entertained now, when their num 
 bers, their strength, and their resources, were greatly increased, 
 that they would, whenever the occasion might arise, triumphantly 
 maintain the honor, the rights, and the interests of their country. 
 The committee concluded by recommending to the senate the 
 adoption of the following resolution : 
 
 " Resolved, That it is inexpedient at this time to pass any law vesting in the 
 
172 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 president authority- for making reprisals upon French property, in the con 
 tingency of provision not being made for paying to the United States the in 
 demnity stipulated by the treaty of 1831, during the present sessions of the 
 French chambers." 
 
 On the 14th of January, Mr. Clay, pursuant to previous notice 
 called for the consideration of the report of the committee on for 
 eign relations, and its accompanying resolution. It being ex 
 pected that he would address the senate, a large audience was in 
 attendance, and, as soon as he was up, the other house was with 
 out a quorum. The question being upon agreeing to the resolution 
 as reported, he spoke for nearly an hour, and his remarks were 
 in the same moderate, magnanimous and truly American strain, 
 which characterized his report. 
 
 Mr. King, of Georgia, one of the administration members of 
 the committee on foreign relations, after bearing the strongest 
 testimony to the candid and temperate character of Mr. Clay s 
 report, moved to give the resolution such a modification as, with 
 out changing its substance, would obtain for it a unanimous vote. 
 Mr. Clay accepted in part Mr. King s amendment, and also one 
 that was offered by Mr. Webster ; and the following resolution 
 was at length UNANIMOUSLY PASSED by the senate. 
 
 "Resolved, That it is inexpedient at present to adopt any legislative meas 
 ure in regard to the state of affairs between the United States and France." 
 
 The unanimous passage of this resolution, was a result as 
 gratifying as it was unexpected ; and its effect upon the French 
 chambers, in neutralizing the harsh language of the president 
 and hastening the execution of the treaty, was most auspicious. 
 The praises of Congress and of the country, were liberany 
 awarded to Mr. Clay, for his judicious and conclusive report in 
 behalf of a pacific course. 
 
 The effect of the president s message recommending reprisals 
 and conveying an imputation upon the good faith of Louis Philippe, 
 was such as might have been anticipated. The French king was 
 justly offended. The French minister was at once recalled from 
 Washington, and a charge d affaires substituted. Passports were 
 tendered to our minister at Paris. In consequence of these de- 
 Jrelopments, Mr. Clay, on the last day of the session, made 
 another and a briefer report from the committee on foreign rela- 
 
THE CHEROKEE MEMORIAL. 173 
 
 lions, in which the committee expressed the opinion that the 
 senate ought to adhere to the resolution, adopted the 14th of 
 January, to await the result of another appeal to the French 
 chambers ; and, in the meantime, to intimate no ulterior purpose, 
 but to hold itself in reserve for whatever exigencies might arise. 
 The senate concurred in the advice of the committee, who were 
 then discharged from the further consideration of the subject. 
 
 On the 4th of February, 1835, Mr. Clay made a brilliant and 
 impressive speech in the senate, upon the subject of a memorial, 
 which he presented from certain Indians of the Cherokee tribe. 
 The memorial set forth, in eloquent and becoming terms, the con 
 dition of the tribe, their grievances and their wants. It seemed 
 that of the remnant of this people then in Georgia, one portion 
 were desirous of being aided to remove beyond the Mississippi, 
 and the other wished to remain where they were, and to be re 
 moved from the rigid restrictions which the state of Georgia had 
 imposed upon them. In his remarks, Mr. Clay eloquently alluded 
 to the solemn treaties by which the possession of their lands had 
 been secured to these Indians by our government. The faith of 
 the United States had been pledged that they should continue 
 unmolested in the enjoyment of their hunting-grounds. In defi 
 ance of these sacred stipulations, Georgia had claimed jurisdic 
 tion over the tribe had parcelled out their lands, and disposed of 
 them by lottery degraded the Cherokees to the condition of serfs 
 denied them all the privileges of freedom, and rendered their 
 condition infinitely worse than that of the African slave. It was 
 the interest, as well as the pride of the master, to provide for the 
 health and comfort of his slave ; but what human being was there 
 to care for these unfortunate Indians ? 
 
 As Mr. Clay warmed in his remarks, and dwelt, more in sorrow 
 than in anger, upon the wrongs and outrages perpetrated in 
 Georgia upon the unoffending aborigines within her borders, 
 many of his hearers were affected to tears, and he himself was 
 obviously deeply moved. The occasion was rendered still more 
 Interesting by the presence of a Cherokee chief and a female of 
 the tribe, who seemed to listen to the orator with a painfully eager 
 attention. In conclusion, Mr. Clay submitted a resolution, direct 
 ing the committee on the judiciary to inquire into the expediency 
 
174 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 of making farther provision by law to enable Indian tribes, to 
 whom lands had been secured by treaty, to defend and maintain 
 their rights to such lands in the courts of the United States ; 
 also, a resolution directing the committee on Indian affairs to 
 inquire into the expediency of setting apart a district of country, 
 west of the Mississippi, for such of the Cherokee nation as were 
 disposed to emigrate, and for securing in perpetuity their peaceful 
 enjoyment thereof to themselves and their descendants. 
 
 The oppressed aboriginal tribes have always found in Mr. Clay 
 a friend and a champion. Although coming from a state which, 
 in consequence of the numerous Indian massacres of which it 
 nas been the theatre, has received the appellation of " the dark 
 and bloody ground," he has never suffered any unphilosophical 
 prejudice against the unfortunate red men, to blind his sense of 
 justice or check the promptings of humanity. He has constantly 
 been among the most active vindicators of their cause the most 
 efficient advocates of a liberal policy toward them. 
 
 To General Jackson s administration, we are indebted for the 
 system which makes the offices of the federal government the 
 rewards of political partisanship, and proscribes all incumbents 
 who may entertain opinions at variance with those of the execu 
 tive. The government of the United States disposes of an annual 
 patronage of nearly forty millions of dollars. By the corrupt use 
 of this immense fund, the Jackson dynasty sustained and per 
 petuated itself in spite of the people. Here was the secret of its 
 strength. Commit what violence, outrage what principle, assail 
 what interests he might, President Jackson threw himself back 
 upon his patronage and found protection. The patronage of the 
 press, the patronage of the postoffice, the patronage of the 
 customhouse, with its salaries, commissions, and fees the pa 
 tronage of the land-office, with its opportunities of successful 
 speculation these formed the stronghold and citadel of corrupt 
 power. 
 
 On the eighteenth of February, 1835, Mr. Clay addressed the 
 senate in support of the bill for the abatement of executive pa 
 tronage. His speech contains a striking exposition of the evils 
 resulting from the selfish and despotic exercise, on the part of 
 the chief magistrate, of the appointing and removing power ; and 
 
OFfER OF BRITISH MEDIATION. 173 
 
 is pervaded by that truly democratic spirit which has character 
 ized all the public acts of the author. 
 
 A bill making an appropriation for the Cumberland road, was 
 discussed m the senate early in February. Mr. Clay spoke in 
 favor of the appropriation, but adversely to the policy of surren 
 dering the road to the states through which it runs. 
 
 XV. 
 
 PUBLIC LANDS SPECIE CIRCULAR EXPUNGING RESOLVE. 
 
 OUR affairs with France, occupied a considerable portion of 
 President Jackson s message to the 24th Congress at its first 
 session. Mr. Clay was again placed at the head of the commit 
 tee on foreign relations ; and, on the llth of January, 1836, he 
 introduced a resolution to the senate, calling upon the president 
 for information with regard to our affairs with France, and for the 
 communication of certain overtures made by the French govern 
 ment. An additional resolution was presented by him two or 
 three weeks afterward, calling for the communication of the ex 
 pose which accompanied the French bill of indemnity of the 27th 
 of April, 1835 ; and also, copies of certain notes which passed 
 between the Due de Broglie and our charge, Mr. Barton ; together 
 with those addressed by our minister, Mr. Livingston, to the 
 French minister of foreign affairs, or to the secretary of state 
 of the United States. These resolutions were adopted, with 
 amendments. 
 
 On the 8th of February, 1836, a message from the president 
 was received, announcing that the government of Great Britain 
 had offered its mediation for the adjustment of the dispute between 
 the United States and France. The message was referred to 
 the committee on foreign affairs ; and on the 22d of February, a 
 correspondence between the secretary of state and Mr. Bankhead, 
 on the subject of British mediation, was submitted. This gave 
 occasion for some remarks from Mr. Clay, who said that he could 
 not withhold the expression of his congratulation to the senate, 
 
176 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 foi* the agency it had in producing the happy termination of oil* 
 difficulties with France. If the senate had not, by its unanimous 
 vote of last September, declared that it was inexpedient to adopt 
 any legislative action upon the subject of our relations with 
 France ; if it had yielded to the recommendations of the execu 
 tive in ordering reprisals against that power, it could not be 
 doubted but that war would have existed at that moment in its 
 most serious state. 
 
 Mr. Clay renewed his exertions in behalf of his land bill, 
 during this session. On the 14th of April, it was taken up in the 
 senate as the special order, and discussed nearly every day for a 
 period of two weeks, during which he was frequently called upon 
 to defend and explain its provisions. His speech of April 26^ 
 is remarkable for the vigor of its arguments and the force of its 
 appeals. Of this effort, the National Intelligencer said : " We 
 thought, after hearing the able and comprehensive arguments of 
 Messrs. Ewing, Southard, and White, in favor of this beneficent 
 measure, that the subject was exhausted ; that, at any rate, but 
 little new could be urged in its defence. Mr. Clay, however, in 
 one of the most luminous and forcible arguments which we have 
 ever heard him deliver, placed the subject in new lights, and gave 
 to it new claims to favor. The whole train of his reasoning ap 
 peared to us a series of demonstrations." 
 
 The land bill, essentially the same as that vetoed by General 
 Jackson, passed the senate the 4th of May, 1836, by a vote of 
 twenty-five to twenty, and was sent to the house. But the in 
 fluence of the executive was too potent here yet to admit of the 
 passage of a measure which, though approved by the majority, 
 was opposed by the president because of its having originated 
 with Mr. Clay. 
 
 The question of the right of petition came before the senate 
 early in the session. On the llth of January, Mr. Buchanan 
 presented a memorial from a religious society of friends in Penn 
 sylvania, requesting Congress to abolish slavery and the slave- 
 trade in the District of Columbia. He moved that the memorial 
 should be read, and the prayer of the memorialists be rejected. 
 Mr. Calhoun demanded that the question should be first taken 
 whether the petition be received or not ; and a debate, which was 
 
THE RIGHT OF PETITION. 177 
 
 prolonged at various intervals till the 9th of March, sprang up on 
 this preliminary question. Before the question was taken, Mr. 
 Clay briefly explained his views. On the subject of the right of 
 Congress to abolish slavery in the disjj^, he was inclined to 
 think, and candor required the avowal, mat the right did exist ; 
 though he should take a future opportunity of expressing his views 
 in opposition to the expediency of the exercise of that power. 
 He expressed his disapprobation of the motion to receive and im 
 mediately reject, made by the senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. 
 Buchanan). He thought that the right of petition required of the 
 servants of the people to examine, deliberate, and decide, either 
 to grant or refuse the prayer of a petition, giving the reasons for 
 such decision ; and that such was the best mode of putting an 
 end to the agitation of the public on the subject. 
 
 The question " Shall the petition be received ?" being taken, 
 was decided in the affirmative yeas 36 ; nays 10. 
 
 Mr. Clay then offered an amendment to Mr. Buchanan s motion 
 to reject, in which amendment the principal reasons why the 
 prayer of the memorialists could not be granted, are succinctly 
 given. The amendment, not meeting the views of some of his 
 southern friends, was subsequently withdrawn by Mr. Clay, who 
 maintained, however, that he could not assent that Congress had 
 no constitutional power to legislate on the prayer of the petition. 
 The subject was at length laid on the table by a vote of twenty- 
 four to_ twenty ; but the friends of the sacred, unqualified right of 
 petition, should not forget that Mr. Clay has ever upheld their 
 cause with his best energies and his warmest zeal. 
 
 A report from the secretary of the treasury, showing the con- , 
 ditiori of the deposite banks, came before the senate for consider* - 
 ation, the 17th of March, 1836. Mr. Clay forcibly depicted, on I 
 this occasion, the total insecurity of the vast public treasure in 
 the keeping of these banks. What was then prophecy became 
 history soon afterward. " Suppose," said he, " a great deficiency 
 of southern crops, or any other crisis creating a necessity for the 
 exportation of specie to Europe, instead of the ordinary ship 
 ments. These banks would be compelled to call in their issues. 
 This would compel other banks to call in, in like manner, and a 
 panic and general want of confidence would ensue. Then what 
 H* 12 
 
178 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 /would become of the public money ?" It is unnecessary to point 
 to the fulfilment of these predictions. Soon after the deposites 
 were removed to the pet banks, they became the basis of vast 
 land speculations, into which all who could obtain a share of the 
 government money, plunged at once heeis over head ; postmasters, 
 custom-house officers, navy agents, pet-bank directors, cashiers 
 and presidents, district attorneys, government printers, secretaries 
 of state, postmasters-general, attorneys-general, president s sec 
 retaries, and all the innumerable stipendiaries of the administra 
 tion. It was this wild speculation, fostered and conducted by 
 the facilities of the deposite banks, that filled the treasury with 
 unavailable funds. The experiment terminated, as Mr. Clay 
 prophesied it would terminate, in universal bankruptcy. 
 
 On the 8th of June, Mr. Clay, from the committee on foreign 
 relations, introduced a report with a resolution, for recognising 
 the independence of Texas whenever satisfactory information 
 should be received that it had a civil government in successful 
 operation. Mr. Preston expressed a hope that the executive was 
 by that time in possession of such information as would enable 
 the senate to adopt stronger measures than that recommended by 
 the committee ; and he submitted a resolution calling on the 
 president for such information. Mr. Clay wished that the reso 
 lution might be taken up and acted on, as he would be extremely 
 glad to receive information that would authorize stronger meas 
 ures in favor of Texas. The report of the committee was con 
 curred in ; and Mr. Preston s resolution ^was adopted. The 
 result of the call upon the president, and of the discussion that 
 ensued, was the unanimous adoption, by the senate, on the 1st 
 of July, of the resolution reported by Mr. Clay with an amend 
 ment by Mr. Preston, adding a clause expressing the satisfaction 
 of the senate at. the president s having taken measures for ob 
 taining accurate information as to the civil, military, and political 
 condition of Texas Similar resolutions passed the house July 4th 
 
 Mr. Clay spoke on a variety of questions in addition to those 
 we have alluded to, during the session of 1834- 35 ; on the 
 motion to admit the senators from Michigan on the floor, and the 
 recognition of that clause in the constitution of Michigan, which 
 he conceived to give to aliens the right to vote ; on the resolution 
 
NARROW ESCAPE FROM A VIOLENT DEATH. 179 
 
 of Mr. Calhoun to inquire into the expediency of such a reduction 
 of duties as would not affect the manufacturing interest ; on the 
 fortification bill, &c. Congress adjourned the 4th of July, 1836. 
 
 On his return to Kentucky, a dinner was given to Mr. Clay by 
 his fellow-citizens of Woodford county. During his absence 
 from home, he had experienced heavy afflictions in the death of 
 a beloved daughter and of his only sister. On rising to speak, 
 he was so overcome by the recollection of these losses, added to 
 an allusion which had been made to the remains of his mother 
 being buried in Woodford, that he was obliged to resume his seat. 
 He soon rallied, however, and addressed the company for about 
 two hours, in an animated and powerful strain. He reviewed 
 the recent acts of the administration their constant tampering 
 with the currency the treasury order, directing that all pay 
 ments for lands should be made in specie the injustice prac 
 tised toward the Indian tribes and the disgracefully protracted 
 Seminole war. In conclusion, Mr. Clay alluded to his intended 
 retirement from the senate of the United States an intention 
 which, at that time, he fondly cherished. 
 
 So fixed was his wish to withdraw from public life, that he 
 had, at one period, in ] 836, made up his mind to resign. It is 
 certain, that he looked forward with confidence to declining a re 
 election ; and he expressed a hope at the Woodford dinner that 
 the state would turn its attention to some other citizen. 
 
 In the autumn of 1836, Mr. Clay narrowly escaped a violent 
 death. He was riding on horseback in one of his fields, survey 
 ing his cattle, when a furious bull, maddened from some cause or 
 other, rushed toward him, and plunging his horns with tremen 
 dous force into the horse on which Mr. Clay was seated, killed 
 the poor animal on the spot. The distinguished rider was thrown 
 to the distance of several feet from his horse, but, though some 
 what hurt by the fall, escaped without material injury. 
 
 We have already given an exposition of Mr. Clay s views in. 
 behalf of colonization. In 1836, he was unanimously elected 
 president of the American Colonization Society, in the room of 
 the illustrious ex-president Madison, deceased. He accepted 
 the appointment. 
 
 During the winter of 1636, Mr. Clay was re-elected a senator 
 
180 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 from Kentucky for six years from the ensuing 4th of March. 
 The vote stood ; for Henry Clay, 76 ; for James Guthrie, the ad 
 ministration candidate, 54. Eight members were absent, four of 
 whom, it is said, would have voted for Mr. Clay. 
 
 The state of the republic, toward the termination of General 
 Jackson s second presidential term, is yet vividly in the recol 
 lection of all our citizens. He had found the country, in 1829, 
 in a condition of unexampled prosperity. The government was 
 administered with economy strictly republican. Congress was 
 the dominant power in the land. Commerce, manufactures, 
 agriculture, flourished. The banking system was in a state of 
 remarkable soundness. There was no disposition to multiply 
 local banks. There was neither temptation nor ability for these 
 banks to expand their issues. The failure of a bank was an oc 
 currence as unusual as an earthquake. Labor was sure of 
 employment, and sure of its reward. There were few brokers, 
 usurers, and money-lenders, by profession. There were no 
 speculators by profession. There were no immense operations 
 in fancy stocks and land schemes. There was but one way of 
 growing rich hard labor assiduous industry early rising 
 late retiring and anxious, devoted, and persevering attention to 
 business. Our habits, as a people, were simple and democratic. 
 Our FOREIGN CREDIT WAS WITHOUT A STAIN. The debts which 
 we contracted abroad were such as we could pay and paid they 
 were, with scrupulous and honorable punctuality. OUR CUR 
 RENCY WAS, WITHOUT EXCEPTION, THE MOST PERFECT ON THE 
 
 FACE OF THE GLOBE. No man ever lost a cent by it. It was 
 abundant, safe, and well accredited in every part of the world 
 All pecuniary operations of trade and commerce were conducted 
 with the most wonderful facility and regularity. Gold and silver 
 were in free circulation, and there was, at all times, an abundant 
 supply of the smaller coins. Millions on millions of exchanges 
 were negotiated in every quarter of the country, and at an average 
 rate of one half of one per cent. a charge merely nominal in 
 comparison with the subsequent rates. The whole machinery of 
 society, government, trade, and currency, was in a state as nearly 
 approaching perfection as human wisdom and ingenuity could 
 compass. 
 
A CONTRAST. 181 
 
 Such was the condition of the republic in 1829. Then the 
 destroyer came and all was blasted. For eight years he 
 managed the affairs of the country in his own way ; and HIS WILL 
 
 WAS THE LAW OF THE LAND. 
 
 During those eight years, what a change came over our affairs ! 
 The whole machinery of currency, trade, and government, was 
 deranged. The land was flooded with three or four hundred 
 millions of irredeemable paper. The smaller coins disappeared. 
 Specie payments were universally suspended ; and gold and 
 silver were no more a currency than amethysts and diamonds. 
 In trade, everything ran into speculation. Banks sprang up like 
 mushrooms on every side. Any two men who could write their 
 names so as to sign and endorse a piece of paper, were enabled 
 io procure " facilities," which generally turned out to be facilities 
 for their own destruction. Brokers, usurers, money-lenders, 
 speculators, multiplied till their name was legion. Everything 
 was unnaturally distended, until, at length, trade came to a dead 
 stand. No one wanted to buy, and everybody was afraid to sell. 
 There was an utter stagnation, paralysis, extinction, of business. 
 Thousands on thousands declared themselves individually bank 
 rupt. Asa nation, we were notoriously and miserably bankrupt 
 and we had hardly foreign credit enough to make it either safe or 
 decent for any American to cross the Atlantic. 
 
 In government, a revolution no less pernicious was accom 
 plished. Congress became a mere stepping-stone to lucrative 
 appointments, and the session was merely a convenient reunion 
 of its members for the better arrangement of their land specu 
 lations, and the more convenient distribution of the government 
 deposites among the most accommodating banks. The heart ot 
 our government was rotten to the core and, like our currency 
 and our trade, it presented but a miserable contrast to the condi 
 tion of 1829. And all these revolutions were brought about by 
 the uncontrolled ascendency of Jacksonism, and by no ?ther 
 agency under heaven ! 
 
 Notwithstanding these deplorable issues, the end was not yet. 
 The Jackson dynasty was to be perpetuated still another term in 
 the hands of him who was proud to follow in the footsteps of his 
 "illustrious predecessor." The presidential e ection of 1836, 
 
182 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 terminated in the choice of Martin Van Buren. But we are an 
 ticipating matters. We have yet the short session of Congress 
 of 1836- 37 to review, before we take leave of the " Hero of New 
 Orleans." 
 
 The administration had now a majority in the senate. That 
 noble phalanx of whigs, who had so undauntedly withstood the 
 usurpations of the executive, could now only operate as a minority, 
 One of the first acts of Mr. Clay, was to reintroduce his land 
 bill. On the 19th of December, in pursuance of previous notice, 
 he presented it with modifications suited to the changes in public 
 affairs. It was read twice, and referred to the committee on 
 public lands, at the head of which was Mr. Walker of Missis 
 sippi, who, on the 3d of January, gave notice that he was in 
 structed by the committee to move for the indefinite postponement 
 of the bill, when it should come up for consideration. Some 
 days afterward, Mr. Walker introduced his bill to limit the sales 
 of the public lands, except to actual settlers, and in limited 
 quantities ; and on the 9th of February, 1837, Mr. Calhoun s 
 extraordinary bill, nominally selling, but in reality giving to the 
 new states all the public domain, came before the senate. 
 
 Mr. Clay took ground at once against this scheme. He said 
 that four or five years before, contrary to his earnest desire, this 
 subject of the public lands was forced upon him, and he had, 
 with great labor, devised a plan fraught with equity to all the 
 states. It received the votes of a majority of both houses, and 
 was rejected by the president. He had always considered the 
 public domain a sacred trust for the country and for posterity. 
 He was opposed to any measure giving away this property for 
 the benefit of speculators ; and he was therefore opposed to this 
 bill, as well as to the other (Mr. Walker s) before the senate. 
 He had hitherto labored in vain but he should continue to op 
 pose all these schemes for robbing the old states of their rightful 
 possessions. He besought the senate to abstain from these ap 
 peals to the cupidity of the new states from party inducements ; 
 and he appealed to the senator from South Carolina whether, if 
 he offered them higher and better boons than the party in power, 
 he did not risk the imputation of being actuated by such induce 
 ments. 
 
MR. CALHOUN S LAND-BILL. 183 
 
 Fortunately for the country, the rash project of Mr Calhoun 
 did not reach the maturity of a third reading. 
 
 On the 25th of February, the bill from the committee on finance, 
 to alter and amend the several acts imposing duties on imports, 
 being before the senate, Mr. Clay spoke against the measure at 
 some length. His principal objection arose from what he con 
 ceived to be the interference of some of the provisions of the 
 bill with the compromise act of 1833. In the course of his re 
 marks, he gave an interesting account of his own connection with 
 that important measure. 
 
 He then went on to draw a striking parallel between the coin- 
 promise act of 1833 as to the protective system, and that other 
 compromise act which settled the much-agitated Missouri question, 
 and by which the latitude of 36 degrees 30 minutes, was estab 
 lished as the extreme boundary for the existence of slavery 
 in that state. Had not Congress a right to repeal that law? 
 But what would those southern gentlemen, who now so strenu 
 ously urged a violation of our implied faith in regard to the act 
 of 1833, say if a measure like that should be attempted ? 
 
 ^Mr. Clay concluded with a motion to re-commit the bill for the 
 reduction of duties to the committee on finance, with instructions 
 to strike out all those articles comprised in the bill, which then 
 paid a duty of 20 per cent, and upward, embraced in the com 
 promise act. The motion was lost 25 nays to 24 yeas ; and 
 the bill was the same day passed by a vote 27 to 18. 
 
 Early in the session, Mr. Ewing had introduced a joint reso 
 lution rescinding the treasury order by which all payments for 
 public lands were to be made in specie. On the llth of Jan 
 uary, Mr. Clay addressed the senate in a speech replete with 
 arguments and facts in support of the resolution, and in opposi 
 tion to an amendment, which had been offered by Mr. Rives. 
 The resolution was referred to the committee on public lands, 
 who instructed their chairman to lay it on the table when it 
 should come up. On the 18th of January, a bill rescinding the 
 specie circular was reported by Mr. Walker. It subsequently- 
 passed the senate, with some slight amendments, by a vote of 41 
 to 5; and he received the sanction of the other house ; but not 
 withstanding thi? fact, and the additional well-known fact, that 
 
184 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 the order had been originally promulgated in defiance of the 
 opinion of Congress and the wishes of the people, the bill, " in 
 stead of being returned to the house in which it originated, ac 
 cording to the requirement of the constitution, was sent to one 
 of the pigeon-holes of the department of state, to be filed away 
 with an opinion of a convenient attorney-general, always ready 
 to prepare one in support of executive encroachment." 
 
 Mr. Van Buren manifested the same contempt for the will of 
 the people, expressed by Congress, as had been shown by his 
 " illustrious predecessor," and refused to interfere until the specie 
 circular repealed itself in the catastrophe of a universal suspen 
 sion. 
 
 On the 12th of January, a resolution, offered by Mr. Benton 
 to expunge from the journals of the senate for 1833- 34, Mr. 
 Clay s resolution censuring President Jackson for his unau 
 thorized removal of the public deposites, came before the sen 
 ate for consideration; and on the 16th Mr. Clay discussed the 
 question at considerable length. His speech was in a strain of 
 mingled sarcasm and indignant invective, which made the sub 
 servient majority writhe under its scorching power. Never was 
 a measure placed in a more contemptible light than was the ex- 
 punging proposal by Mr. Clay. Those who heard him, can 
 never forget the look and tone, varying from an expression of 
 majestic scorn to one of good-humored satire, with which he 
 gave utterance to the following eloquent passages : 
 
 " What patriotic purpose is to be accomplished by this expunging resolu 
 tion? Can you make that not to be which has been? Can you eradicate 
 from memory and from history the fact that in March, 1834, a majority of 
 the senate of the United States passed a resolution which excites your en 
 mity ? Is it your vain and wicked object to arrogate to yourself the power 
 of annihilating the past which has been denied to Omnipotence itself? Do 
 you intend to thrust your hands into our hearts, and pluck out the deeply 
 rooted convictions which are there? Or is it your design merely to stig 
 matize us? You cannot stigmatize us : 
 
 " Ne er yet did base dishonor blur our name. 
 
 "Standing securely upon our conscious rectitude, and bearing aloft the 
 shield of the constitution of our country, your puny efforts are impotent, 
 and we defy all your power. Put the majority of 1834 in one scale, and 
 that by which this expunging resolution is to be carried in the other, and 
 let truth and justice, in heaven above, and on earth below, and liberty and 
 patriotism, decide the preponderance. 
 
 " What patriotric purpose is to be accomplished by this expunging resolu- 
 
PASSAGE OF THE EXPUNGING RESOLUTION. 185 
 
 tion? Is it to appease the wrath and to heal the wounded pride of the 
 chief magistrate ? If he be really the hero that his friends represent him, 
 he must despise all mean condescension, all grovelling sycophancy, all self 
 degradation, and self-abasement. He would reject, with scorn and con 
 tempt, as unworthy of his fame, your black scratches, and your baby lines 
 iif the fair records of his country. 
 
 This expunging resolution was passed ; but no one will envy 
 the immorality to which the " knights of the black lines" have 
 beer consigned. 
 
 Mr. Clay addressed the senate upon several other important 
 questions during the session of 1836- 37. Among them were 
 that upon the fortification bill, which were returned to the senate 
 after the house had insisted on the clause for a second distribu 
 tion of the surplus revenue ; and the resolution from the com 
 mittee on foreign relations, on the subject of our affairs with 
 Mexico. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 THE SUB-TREASURY NORTHERN TOUR. 
 
 MR. CLAY had uniformly discouraged the attempts of his 
 friends to induce him to become a candidate for the presidency 
 in the campaign of 1836. He saw the unhappy diversity in the 
 ranks of the opposition ; and he saw, perhaps, the inevitable 
 ability of the Jackson dynasty to perpetuate itself in the elevation 
 of Mr. Van Buren. So potent had the executive become, through 
 usurpation and the abuse of patronage ! 
 
 On the 8th of February, that being the day appointed by stat 
 ute for opening the electoral returns for the presidency and 
 vice-presidency of the United States, the result was proclaimed 
 in the presence of both houses of Congress. The following was 
 ascertained to be the state of the vote : 
 
 For President. Vice-President, 
 
 Van Buren 170 
 
 Harrison 73 
 
 White 26 
 
 Webster 14 
 
 Mangum 11 
 
 294 
 
 Johnson 147 
 
 Granger 77 
 
 Tyler . 47 
 
 Smith 28 
 
 294 
 
186 Lit Hi OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 It was then declared that it appeared that Martin Van Buren 
 had been duly elected president of the United States, for four 
 years from the 4th of March, 1837; and that no person had a 
 majority of all the votes for the vice-presidency, and that IVJjr.. 
 Johnson and Mr. Granger had the largest number of votes of all 
 the candidates. Mr. Johnson was afterward duly chosen. 
 
 It had been hoped by many that under Mr. Van Buren a less 
 destructive policy would be adopted than that which had signal 
 ized the reign of the "hero of New Orleans." For the last 
 eight years the country had been governed by executive edicts. 
 Congress had always been disposed to do right, but it had been 
 thwarted by a domineering and usurping executive. The will 
 of the people, constitutionally avowed, had been constantly de 
 feated by the imperious and impetuous objections of one fallible 
 and passionate old man. 
 
 Congress passed Mr. Clay s land bill ; but the executive de 
 stroyed it. 
 
 Congress said that the deposites were safe in the Bank of the 
 United States ; the executive removed them. 
 
 Congress refused to issue a specie circular ; it was issued by 
 the executive. 
 
 Congress rescinded the specie circular ; and the executive 
 defeated that rescission. 
 
 Now the doctrine of Thomas Jefferson, as adopted and always 
 acted upon by Henry Clay, is, that THE WILL OF THE MAJORITY 
 
 HONESTLY EXPRESSED, SHALL GIVE LAW. But Congress had ttO 
 
 influence in the government during the pernicious ascendency 
 of Jacksonism. It came together to pass appropriation bills, and 
 register the decrees of the chief magistrate. The noble major 
 ity in the sena>.% for a while, prevented much mischief, but they 
 could originate and prosecute no settled policy, in consequence 
 of the administration majority in the other branch. We lived 
 literally under executive legislation. Where the president could 
 not vote, he could do some act of violence, and compel Congress 
 either to leave the country without law, or to adapt its legislation 
 to the existing exigencies. Thus he could not prevail on Con 
 gress to remove the deposites but when they were removed, to 
 " furnish an instrument of power to himself and of plunder to his 
 
THE EXTRA SESSION. 187 
 
 partisans" Congress was compelled either to leave them with 
 out law, or to pass laws for the regulation of the new depositories. 
 
 The hopes that had been entertained of a reform under Mr, 
 Van Buren had proved fallacious ; but his attempt to march in. 
 the " seven-leagued boots" of his predecessor speedily resulted 
 in a ridiculous failure. He was tripped up at the very start. 
 
 The disastrous condition in which the country was left by the 
 " hero of New Orleans," whose " humble efforts to improve the 
 currency had resulted in the universal prostration of business, 
 and a suspension of specie payments, called upon his successor 
 in the presidential chair for some immediate measure of relief. 
 On the 15th of May, 1837, Mr. Van Buren issued his proclama 
 tion ordering an extraordinary session of Congress, to commence 
 the first Monday in September. In accordance with that proc 
 lamation, both houses of Congress met at the capitol on the day 
 appointed ; and the message recommending the SUB-TREASURY 
 SYSTEM for the deposite, transfer, and disbursement of the public 
 revenue, was transmitted by the president. The consequence 
 was an instantaneous loss of his majority in the house of repre 
 sentatives. 
 
 In the election of speaker, at the commencement of the extra 
 session, 224 members voted, making 113 necessary to a choice. 
 Mr. Polk received 116 votes, and was elected. Then came the 
 sub-treasury message, and the vote on the election of printer in 
 dicated a sudden disaffection in the ranks, and a general break 
 ing up of the administration party. On the twelfth and final 
 balloting, Thomas Allen, editor of the Madisonian, was elected 
 over the Van Buren candidates, Blair and Rives. A decided 
 majority of the house had been elected as friends of Mr. Van 
 Buren : but so alarming seemed his sub-treasury plan, which 
 was, in other words, a scheme for placing the public purse under 
 the control of the president, that he was defeated in the very 
 first party vote after the election of speaker. 
 
 The leading topic of the session was of course the new sub 
 treasury project ; and it was discussed in the senate with grea. 
 ability on both sides. By this bill, the treasury of the United 
 States, the treasures of the mint and its branches, collectors, re 
 ceivers, postmasters, and other office-holders, were commissioned 
 
188 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 to receive in specie, and keep, subject to the draft of the proper 
 department, all public moneys, coming into their hands, instead 
 of depositing them, as heretofore, in banks. Among the earliest 
 and most prominent advocates of this measure was Mr. Calhoun, 
 who suddenly found himself one of the leaders of a party, which 
 for the last five or six years he had been denouncing as the most 
 corrupt that had ever cursed a country. 
 
 The bill was taken up in the senate, the 20th of September ; 
 and on the 25th, Mr. Clay spoke in opposition to this audacious 
 and anti-republican scheme. In this admirable speech he went 
 at length into an examination of the causes that had led to the 
 existing disastrous state of public affairs. To the financial ex 
 periments of General Jackson, he traced back unerringly the 
 consequent inflation of the currency the wild speculations, 
 which had risen to their height when they began to be checked 
 by the preparations of the local banks, necessary to meet the 
 deposite law of June, 1836 the final suspension of specie pay 
 ments and all the disorders in the currency, commerce, and 
 general business of the country, that ensued. He then gave his 
 objections to the scheme before the senate. It proposed one 
 currency for the government and another for the people. As 
 well might it be attempted to make the government breathe a 
 different air, be lit and warmed by a different sun, from the peo 
 ple ! A hard-money government, and a paper-money people ! 
 A government, an official corps the servants of the people 
 glittering in gold, and the people themselves their masters 
 buried in ruin, and surrounded by rags ! By the proposed sub 
 stitution of an exclusive metallic currency for the mixed medi 
 um, all property would be reduced in value to one third of its 
 present nominal amount ; and every debtor would in effect have 
 to pay three times as much as he had contracted for. Then 
 there was the security of the system the liability to favoritism 
 in the fiscal negotiations the fearful increase of executive pat 
 ronage the absolute and complete union of the purse and the 
 sword in the hands of the president ! All these objections were 
 most powerfully elucidated and enforced by Mr. Clay. 
 
 He then proceeded to declare what he believed to be the only 
 efficient measure for restoring a sound and uniform currency, 
 
DEFEAT OF THE SUB-TREASURY BILL. 189 
 
 which was a United States bank, established under such restric 
 tions, as me lights of recent experience might suggest. " But," 
 said Mr. Clay, " if a national bank be established, its stability 
 and its utility will depend upon the general conviction which is felt 
 of its necessity. And until such a conviction is deeply impressed 
 upon the people, and clearly manifested by them, it would, in my 
 judgment, be unwise even to propose a bank" 
 
 On the 4th of October, the sub-treasury bill, after undergoing 
 various amendments, was read a third time and passed by the 
 senate by a vote of 25 to 20. It was taken up in the house on 
 the 10th of October, and, on the 14th, laid on the table by a vote 
 of 120 to 107. 
 
 The defeat of this measure, in the teeth of the executive rec 
 ommendation, in spite of executive blandishment and terrors 
 the triumph of the majority without doors over the majority within, 
 and of both over patronage and power revived the dying hopes 
 of the patriot, and infused new life into our constitution. The 
 sceptre of misrule had crumbled. The dynasty, which for nearly 
 nine years had misruled the country, received, on that occasion, 
 its immedicable wound. 
 
 A resolution, reported by Mr. Wright from the committee on 
 finance, in relation to the petitions for a national bank, was called 
 up in the senate, the 26th of September. The resolution declared 
 that the prayer of the memorialists ought not to be granted. In 
 his remarks upon this subject, Mr. Clay alluded to the case in 
 which Mr. Randolph moved, in the house of representatives, a 
 similiar negative resolution " That it is inexpedient to declare 
 war against Great Britain." Mr. Clay said, that if Mr. W. per 
 sisted in his resolution, he should move to strike out all after the 
 word Resolved, and substitute : " That it will be expedient to 
 establish a bank of the United States whenever it shall be manifest 
 that a clear majority of the people of the United States desire such 
 an institution." The motion was subsequently made and lost ; 
 and Mr. Wright s resolution was adopted. The party then in 
 power seem to have had but little reverence for the wishes of a 
 " clear majority of the people of the United States." 
 
 The extra-session lasted six weeks Congress adjournirg on 
 the morning of the 16th of October. The measure, on \vhich 
 
190 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 the hopes and fate of the administration were staked, had been 
 defeated. 
 
 The sub-treasury project came again before the 25th Congress 
 at their second session. The 19th of February, 1838, Mr. Clay 
 once more addressed the senate in opposition to the measure. 
 This speech is one of the longest and ablest ever delivered by 
 him. At the commencement, he stated certain propositions, 
 which he would proceed to demonstrate. He contended 
 
 1st. That it was the deliberate purpose and fixed design of the late 
 Administration to establish a government a treasury bank to be adminis 
 tered and controlled by the executive department. 
 
 2d. That, with that view, and to that end, it was its aim and intention to 
 overthrow the whole banking system, as existing in the United States when 
 the administration came into power, beginning with the bank of the United 
 States, and ending with the state banks. 
 
 3d. That the attack was first confined, from considerations of .policy, to 
 the bank of the United States ; but that, after its overthrow was accom 
 plished, it was then directed, and had since been continued, against the state 
 banks. 
 
 4th. That the present administration, by its acknowledgments, emanating 
 from the highest and most authentic source, had succeeded to the principles, 
 plans and policy of the preceding administration, and stood solemnly pledged 
 to complete and perfect them. And, 
 
 5th. That the bill under consideration was intended to execute the pledge, 
 by establishing, upon the ruins of the late bank of the United States, and 
 the state banks, a government bank, to be managed and controlled by the 
 treasury department, acting under the commands of the president of the 
 United States. 
 
 The manner in which Mr. Clay proceeded to sustain these 
 charges against the administration, was extremely impressive. 
 That he made out his case satisfactorily to the people, subsequent 
 events fully demonstrated. 
 
 Mr. Clay appears to have addressed the senate on every ques 
 tion of moment that claimed its attention during the session of 
 1 837- 38 ; on the reception of petitions for the abolition of slavery 
 in the district of Columbia the bill to restrain the issuing of 
 small notes in the district the disturbances on the northern 
 frontier, and the attack on the Caroline, an act which he de 
 nounced in the most unmeasured terms ;he bill to grant pre 
 emption rights to settlers on the public lands the bill to estab 
 lish the Oregon territory in favor of the bill to prohibit tho 
 giving or accepting a challenge to fight a duel in the district of 
 Columbia against the bill providing for the graduation and re- 
 
OUTLINE OF A NATIONAL BANK. 191 
 
 duction of the price of the public lands and on many other 
 subjects of hardly inferior interest. 
 
 A joint resolution, offered by him on the 30th of April, pro 
 viding for the reception of the notes of sound banks in the 
 collection of the revenue, was adopted by the senate, with some 
 amendments, the 29th of May. It was in effect a repeal of the 
 pecie circular. 
 
 In the course of the session, Mr. Clay took occasion, in pre-J 
 senting a petition for the establishment of a United States bank, 
 to make known his own views in regard to such an institution. 
 Some of the conditions and restrictions under which it seemed 
 to him suitable to establish such a bank, were briefly given in the 
 following sketch : 
 
 1. The capital not to be extravagantly large, but, at the same time, am 
 ply sufficient to enable it to perform the needful financial duties for the 
 government ; to supply a general currency of uniform value throughout the 
 Union ; and to facilitate, as nigh as practicable, the equalization of domestic 
 exchange. He supposed that about fifty millions would answer all those 
 purposes. The stock might be divided between the general government, 
 the states, according to their federal population, and individual subscribers; 
 the portion assigned to the latter to be distributed at auction or by private 
 subscription. 
 
 2. The corporation to receive such an organization as to blend, in fair 
 proportions, public and private control, and combining public and private 
 interests ; and, in order to exclude the possibility of the exercise of any for 
 eign influence, non-resident foreigners to be prohibited not only from any 
 share in the administration of the corporation, but from holding, directly 01 
 indirectly, any portion of its stock. The bank would thus be in its origin, 
 and continue throughout its whole existence, a genuine American institu 
 tion. 
 
 3. An adequate portion of the capital to be set apart in productive stocks, 
 and placed in permanent security, beyond the reach of the corporation 
 (with the exception of the accruing profits on those stocks) sufficient to pay 
 promptly, in any contingency, the amount of all such paper, under what 
 ever form, that the bank shall put forth as a part of the general circulation. 
 The bill or note holders, in other words, the mass of the community, ought 
 to be protected against the possibility of the failure or the suspension of the 
 bank. The supply of the circulating medium of a country is that faculty of 
 a bank, the propriety of the exercise of which may be most controverted. 
 The dealings with a bank of those who obtain discounts, or make deposites, 
 are voluntary and mutually advantageous; and they are comparatively few 
 in number. But the reception of what is issued and used as a part of the 
 circulating medium of the country, is scarcely a voluntary act; and thou 
 sands take it who have no other concern whatever with the bank. The 
 mann ought to be guarded and secured by the care of the legislative au 
 thority; the vigilance of the few will secure themselves against loss. 
 
 4. Perfect publicity as to the state of the bank at all times, including, be 
 sides the usual heads of information, the names of every debtor to the bank, 
 
192 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 whether as drawer, endorser, or surety, periodically exhibited, and open to 
 public inspection; or, if that should be found inconvenient, the right to be 
 (secured to any citizen to ascertain at the bank the nature and extent of the 
 responsibility of any of its customers. There is no necessity to throw any 
 veil of secresy around the ordinary transactions of a bank. Publicity will 
 increase responsibility, repress favoritism, insure the negotiation of good 
 paper, and, when individual insolvency unfortunately occurs, will deprive 
 (he bank of undue advantages now enjoyed by banks practically in the dis 
 tribution of the effects of the insolvent 
 
 5. A limitation of the dividends so as not to authorize more than per 
 Sent, to be struck. This will check undue expansions in the medium, and 
 estrain improper extension of business in the administration of the bank. 
 
 6. A prospective reduction in the rate of interest, so as to restrict the 
 Dank to six per cent, simply, or, if practicable, to only five per cent. The 
 reduction may be effected by forbearing to exact any bonus, or, when the 
 profits are likely to exceed the prescribed limit of the dividends, by requir 
 ing the rates of interest shall be so lowered as that they shall not pass that 
 limit. 
 
 7. A restriction upon the premium demanded upon post-notes and checks 
 used for remittances, so that the maximum should not be more than, say one 
 and a half per cent, between any two of the remotest points in the Union. 
 Although it may not be practicable to regulate foreign exchange, depending 
 as it does upon commercial causes not within the control of any one govern 
 ment, it is otherwise with regard to domestic exchange. 
 
 8. Every practicable provision against the exercise of improper influence, 
 on the part of the executive, upon the bank, and, on the part of the bank, 
 upon the elections of the country. The people entertain a just jealousy 
 against the danger of any interference of a bank with the elections of a 
 country, and every precaution ought to be taken strictly to guard against it. 
 
 This was a brief outline of such a bank as Mr. Clay thought 
 would, if established, conduce greatly to the prosperity of the 
 country. Its wise and provident restrictions would seem to pre 
 clude all those popular objections which generally apply to banks. 
 With regard to the constitutionality of a national bank, Mr. Clay 
 said that forty years of acquiescence by the people the main 
 tenance of the power by Washington, the father of his country ; 
 by Madison, the father of the constitution ; and by Marshall, the 
 father of the judiciary, ought to be precedents sufficient in its 
 favor. 
 
 The abolition question was agitated in the senate during the last 
 session of the 25th Congress. Mr. Clay had been urged by many 
 of his friends to refrain from speaking on the subject. It was 
 represented to him as impolitic, superfluous, and likely to inter 
 fere with his presidential prospects. Such arguments could have 
 no weight with him. 
 
 His whole course upon this perilous question, has been that of 
 
VISIT TO THE NORTH. 193 
 
 lbs Lonest, upright, practical, and consistent statesman, the true 
 philanthropist, the sagacious and devoted patriot. When Mr. 
 Oathoun introduced, in the session of 1835-36, his bill to give 
 postmasters and the. r deputies a power of inspection and espionage 
 over the mails the bill which was passed to its third reading by 
 the casting vote of Martin Van Buren it met with the prompt 
 and decided condemnation of Mr. Clay. No man has more 
 vigilantly watched the sacred right of petition than Mr. Clay. 
 He has condemned, on all occasions, the refusal of the senate to 
 receive petitions. His speech of February, 1839, yields to the 
 abolitionists all that they have a right to demand, and is at the 
 same time so liberal in its doctrines, as to disarm the ultraism of 
 southern hostility. Mr. Calhoun himself was compelled to admit 
 his acquiescence in the soundness of its doctrines, and the secu 
 rity which their adoption would promise to the Union. The 
 enemies of Mr. Clay denounced this movement on the abolition 
 question as an effort + o achieve popularity. They reasoned from 
 the inevitable resuU, to an unworthy inducement. To impute un 
 worthy motives to Mi. CUy because of such a result, was to 
 impeach the purity of al! public action, and to confine the states 
 man, who would preserve his political reputation, to the advocacy 
 of unwise and unpopular measures. Popularity did follow the 
 promulgation of such sentiments as are contained in the speech 
 of Mr. Clay the popularity which all good men desire the 
 popularity of which all great men may be proud the popularity 
 based upon gratitude for distinguished service, admiration for com 
 manding eloquence, and the eternal sympathies of the PEOPLE 
 with the PATRIOT. 
 
 In the summer of 1839, Mr. Clay visited Buffalo, and passing 
 into Canada, made an excursion to Montreal and Quebec. Re 
 turning, he visited the city of New York. He had the previous 
 summer been invited, at an enthusiastic meeting of his friends at 
 Masonic hall, to visit the city, but had then been unable to com 
 ply with their invitation. His reception, at the period to which 
 we now refer, was one of the most brilliant ever extended to a 
 public man. Early in the afternoon, he was landed at the foot of 
 Hammond street, Greenwich, from the steamboat James Madi 
 son, attended by a large number of citizens. An immense multi- 
 I 13 
 
194 LIFE OF HENRY CLAi. 
 
 tude was assembled to greet his arrival, and, as he stepped on the 
 wharf, the air was rent with acclamations from a myriad of voices. 
 The day was most propitious. At Greenwich, a procession was 
 formed, headed by marshals, after whom came a numerous caval 
 cade. A band of music preceded the open barouche of Mr. Clay 
 and a vast concourse of citizens followed in carriages. Every 
 thing in the city, in the shape of a four-wheeled vehicle, was in 
 attendance, and tens of thousands of citizens followed on foot. 
 When the head of the procession reached the Astor house, the 
 rear had not yet formed in line. Through the whole extent from 
 the point of landing, through Hudson street, up Fourteenth street 
 to Union place, and down Broadway to the park, a distance of 
 nearly four miles, it was at one and the same time a dense 
 moving mass of horsemen, carriages, carmen, and citizens. 
 Every window on either side of the way was occupied, and ac 
 clamations from every house, and the waving of handkerchiefs, 
 and cordial salutations, greeted the illustrious statesman as he 
 passed. At Constitution hall, at Masonic hall, and at every place 
 of public resort and amusement, flags were displayed, and bands 
 of music were stationed to hail his approach. 
 
 As he reached the park, the tens of thousands who thronged 
 the grounds, the windows, and roofs of the surrounding edifices, 
 the adjacent streets, and the large open space at the junction of 
 Chatham street and Broadway, thundered out the mighty welcome 
 of a grateful people to the gallant, generous, warm-hearted, and 
 noble-minded citizen, whose life had been devoted to their 
 service. 
 
 The reception was purely a civic one. It was not a got-up, 
 official pageant, where the populace exhibit their gratitude by an 
 invitation of the common council, and display a certain amount 
 of enthusiasm duly provided for by the resolves and ordinances 
 of the corporation. It was the voluntary, unbought, unbidden, 
 movement of the people, to greet the arrival among them of one, 
 who had ever been eminently the MAN OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
APPROACHING PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 195 
 
 XVII. 
 THE HARRISBURG CONVENTION 
 
 
 
 As the period of another presidential election drew near, tha, 
 vast portion of the democracy of the land, opposed to the admin 
 istration of Mr. Van Buren, began to turn their eyes toward the 
 most able, renowned and consistent of their leaders, Henry Clay, 
 as a fitting candidate for the chief magistracy of the United 
 States. The champion of the people, their interests, and their 
 honor, during the last war the preserver of the Union on two 
 momentous occasions, when it was threatened with dissolution 
 and civil war ; the founder and vigilant protector of the Ameri 
 can system ; the friend of internal improvements ; the intelligent 
 advocate of a sound, uniform, republican currency, and of a judi 
 cious tariff; the experienced statesman, who, at Ghent, and in 
 the department of state, had displayed the highest order of talents 
 in the service of his country ; the active foe of executive usurpa 
 tion ; the chivalrous defender of the constitution and the laws, 
 who, in his public career, had ever manifested his obedience to 
 the principle that THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE, faithfully expressed, 
 should give law ; the vindicator of human liberty throughout the 
 world WHO could present claims so numerous, so powerful, so 
 overwhelming, upon the gratitude, confidence, and suffrages of the 
 people of the United States ? 
 
 The fact of his having been in two instances an unsuccessful 
 candidate for the presidency, was the only objection worthy of 
 .notice, which was brought forward by those who, while they 
 professed to admit his claims, and to accord with him in his 
 political creed, were doubtful of the expediency of his nomination. 
 But what were the facts in regard to those two instances ? In 
 the election of 1824, he failed in being elected by the primary 
 colleges, in company with John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, 
 and William H. Crawford. So that the argument in this case 
 would have been as valid against any one of these candidates as 
 it can be against Mr. Clay. He was excluded from being one 
 of the three highest candidates, who were returned to the housa 
 
196 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 on this occasion, by being unfairly deprived of electoral votes in 
 New York and Louisiana. It was, moreover, well known that, 
 if the election were carried to the house, Mr. Clay would, as the 
 natural result of his great popularity, be elected. The friends 
 of all the other candidates, consequently, had a united interest in 
 excluding him. 
 
 With regard to the contest of 1832, the re-election of General 
 Jackson at that time could not be construed into an indication of 
 popular feeling toward Mr. Clay. The " hero of New-Orleans," 
 had, during his first term, just entered upon his novel experi 
 ments in the currency ; and a great part of the people were dis 
 posed to give them a fair trial, and afford him an opportunity to 
 carry out the policy he had commenced. The patronage of the 
 executive was directed, to an extent wholly unparalleled, toward 
 the continuance of the sceptre in his hands. Nullification had 
 begun to show its menacing face, and there were many, even 
 among those who were hostile to the general policy of the ad 
 ministration, and friendly to Mr. Clay, who yet unwisely thought 
 that strenuous measures toward South Carolina would be re 
 quired, and that the Union would be safest under the direction 
 of a military chief magistrate. 
 
 In addition to these circumstances, the party opposed to Gen 
 eral Jackson was distracted by anti-masonry, which presented an 
 excellent and popular candidate for president in William Wirt. 
 
 These two elections are all in which Mr. Clay has been a candi 
 date for the presidency, and in neither did he have a fair field. 
 He had been nearly twenty times a candidate for the suffrages 
 of the people, and only on these two occasions defeated. Mr. 
 Van Buren, with a clear field and the whole patronage of the 
 government in his own hands, failed in the election of 1840. 
 
 The democratic whig convention for the nomination of a pres 
 idential candidate, met at Harrisburgh, on the 4th of December, 
 1839. A decided plurality of the delegates who attended, were 
 in favor of the nomination of Mr. Clay, but a larger number were 
 divided in their preferences between General William Henry 
 Harrison, who had been the candidate of the northern whigs in 
 the previous canvass, and General Winfield Scott, whose name 
 was now for the first time presented. Yet all, or nearly all, 
 
NOMINATION OF GENERAL HARRISON. 197 
 
 fully admitted Mr. Clay s pre-eminent fitness and worth ; they 
 opposed his nomination avowedly on the ground that he could 
 not probably be elected, while another could be. Very many 
 of these bitterly regretted, after the country had fallen into the 
 hands of John Tyler, that they had not taken the risk, if risk 
 there were, of nominating the great Kentuckian. 
 
 The convention was organized on the 5th December, by the 
 appointment of Hon. James Barbour as president, with thirteen 
 vice-presidents and four secretaries. A committee of one from 
 each state represented, was appointed to collect the votes of the 
 several delegations and report the nomination of a candidate, and, 
 after a session of nearly two days, it reported in favor of William 
 Henry Harrison. The friends of Mr. Clay those -who had 
 adhered to him to the last disappointed as they were in this 
 unlooked-for result, were too well aware of the generous senti 
 ments of their candidate, not to acquiesce in it cheerfully and 
 with a good grace. At the meeting of the convention, on the 9th 
 of December, Mr. Banks of Kentucky was the first to rise and 
 announce the hearty concurrence of the delegation from that 
 state in the nomination indicated by the informal ballot announced 
 by the committee. Mr. Preston, from the same state, followed 
 in the same strain, and asked that a letter from Mr. Clay, which 
 had for several days been in possession of a delegate, but which 
 had not been shown, lest it should seem intended to be used to 
 excite sympthy for Mr. Clay, should now be read. Permission 
 being unanimously given, the letter was read by General Leslie 
 Combs of Kentucky. 
 
 In this letter Mr. Clay says : " With a just and proper sense 
 of the high honor of being voluntarily called to the office of pres 
 ident of the United States by a great, free, and enlightened peo 
 ple, and profoundly grateful to those of my fellow-citizens who 
 are desirous to see me placed in that exalted and responsible 
 station, I must nevertheless say in entire truth and sincerity, that 
 if the deliberations of the convention shall lead them to the choice 
 of another as the candidate of the opposition, far from feeling any 
 discontent, the nomination will have my best wishes and receive my 
 cordial support" He then calls upon his friends from Kentucky, 
 discarding all attachments or partiality for himself, and guided 
 
198 LIFE OF HENRY CL1Y. 
 
 solely by the motive of rescuing our country from the dangers 
 which environed it, to heartily unite in the selection of that citi 
 zen, although it should not be Henry Clay, who might appear the 
 most likely by his election to bring about a salutary change in 
 the administration. 
 
 The reading of this letter excited great emotion in the conven 
 tion. It was the saying of a patriot of antiquity, that he would 
 rather have it asked by posterity why a monument was not erected 
 to him than why it was. A similar spirit would seem to actuate 
 Mr. Clay ; for never has he been known to manifest any personal 
 disappointment at the failure or betrayal of his presidential pros- 
 r>ects. 
 
 Governor Barbour, of Virginia, after expressing his concur 
 rence in the will of the convention, said he had known Mr. Clay 
 for thirty years, and had been intimately associated with him in 
 public and private life, and that a more devoted patriot or purer 
 statesman never breathed. In the course of that thirty years he 
 had nevor heard him utter one sentiment unworthy this character. 
 There was no place in his heart for one petty or selfish emotion. 
 
 Benjamin Watkins Leigh anticipated the concurrence of Vir 
 ginia in the nomination. He had felt it his duty to support his 
 more intimate and endeared friend, Henry Clay, but he acknowl 
 edged the worth of General Harrison. He had supported the 
 former to the last from the firmest conviction that no other man 
 was so fitted to the crisis so transcendently qualified for the 
 highest office in the gift of the American people as Henry Clay. 
 He never thought that Mr. Clay needed the office, but the coun 
 try needed him. That office could confer no dignity or honor 
 on Henry Clay. The measure of his fame was full ; and when 
 ever the tomb should close over him it would cover the loftiest 
 intellect and the noblest heart that this age had produced car 
 known. 
 
 The venerable Peter R. Livingston, of New York, an able and 
 ardent supporter of Mr. Clay, said in regard to him " I envy 
 Kentucky, for when he dies, she will have his ashes !" 
 
 A candidate for the vice-presidency remained to be nominated 
 by the convention. He was found in the person of John Tyler, 
 of Virginia. By what unfortunate chance this selection 
 
JOHN TYLER. 199 
 
 made, it is unnecessary now to inquire. It must be said in ex 
 culpation of those, however, who acquiesced in it, that there was 
 no good reason for doubting Mr. Tyler s political fidelity and 
 attachment to Whig principles. On all the great questions of 
 public policy he was considered as pledged to the support of 
 those measures for which the whig party had been battling du 
 ring the last ten years. On the subject of the public lands, he 
 had, as a member of the Virginia legislature, in 1839, declared 
 himself, both in a report and a speech, an advocate of the meas 
 ure of distribution. In a speech before the United States sen 
 ate, he had condemned, in unequivocal terms, the abuse of the 
 veto power. He went to Harrisburg, as he himself has said, in 
 favor of Henry Clay he voted for him in his own delegation up 
 to the seventh and last ballot and, if his own words are to be 
 believed, he was affected even to tears, when the nomination was 
 given by the convention to another. Surely, it can not be said 
 that he might have been in favor Mr. Clay s nomination to the 
 presidency, and yet opposed to the most important public meas- 
 sures to which that distinguished statesman had ever rendered 
 his support. 
 
 On the question of a bank, it was, with reason, believed that 
 Mr. Tyler s views were similar to those maintained by the great 
 Whig party of the country. While a member of the convention 
 at Harrisburg, he had made to Governor Owen, of North Caro 
 lina, chairman of the committee, through whom all nominations 
 must reach the convention, the following communication : * 
 
 "That his views on the bank question had undergone an entire change, 
 that he believed the establishment of a national bank to be alike indispen 
 sable as a fiscal agent of the government, and to the restoration of the cur 
 rency and exchanges of the country; and he thought that all constitutional 
 objections ougnt to yield to the various executive, legislative, and judicial 
 decisions of the question." 
 
 In addition to all these circumstances, the simple fact of Mr 
 Tyler s presence in the convention of his silent approval of all 
 those important measures which were regarded as consequent 
 upon the election of a whig president was, in the minds of 
 honorable men, equivalent to a pledge that those measures would, 
 in any event, continue to meet his ready and earnest support. 
 
 * See the address of the delegates from Maryland, in the Harrisburg convention, to their 
 constituent* These facts will be found eloquently set forth in that able paper. 
 
200 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 Under the influence of considerations like these, the conven 
 tion unanimously nominated John Tyler, of Virginia, for the vice^ 
 presidency ; and, having taken this step, adjourned. 
 
 A deep disappointment was felt throughout the Whig ranks at 
 the failure of the convention to nominate Mr. Clay for the presi 
 dency ; but the magnanimous sentiments expressed in his letter, 
 read at the convention, soon began to animate his friends ; and 
 they manifested their devotion to principles rather than to men, 
 by rallying vigorously in support of the selected candidates. 
 
 With regard to John Tyler, he was very imperfectly known 
 out of Virginia ; and if little could be said in his favor, still less 
 could be said to his prejudice. The office of vice-president was 
 generally regarded as one of comparatively slight consequence ; 
 and there seemed to be an utter absence of all apprehension of 
 the contingency, by which its importance was so fearfully mag 
 nified. Future conventions will never forget the lesson which 
 Mr. Tyler has given to his countrymen and their posterity. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF 1840. 
 
 MR. CLAY S efforts in the democratic whig cause appear not 
 to have been less ardent, incessant, and faithful, during the con 
 gressional session of 1839- 40, than at any previous period of 
 his career. The just expectations of his friends had been 
 thwarted at Harrisburg ; but that circumstance did not seem 
 either to effect his spirits, or to damp the ardor of his opposition 
 to that policy which he believed injurious to the best interests of 
 his country. He acquiesced promptly /heartily, and nobly, in 
 the nomination of General Harrison, and did not manifest, on 
 any occasion, a lurking feeling of disappointment. He took an 
 early occasion in the senate to reiterate the sentiments expressed 
 in his letter, read at the convention ; and he showed himself 
 prepared to do vigorous battle in behalf of the principles which 
 he and his associates had been struggling, for the last twelve 
 years, to maintain- . 
 
RELATIONS WITH MR. CALHOUN. 201 
 
 In the senate, on the 3d of January, 1840, Mr. Southard moved 
 the reconsideration of an order of reference of Mr. Calhoun s 
 land bill to the committee on public lands. The proposition gave 
 rise to a passage between Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Clay, in which 
 severe language was employed on both sides. Allusions being 
 made to their respective political careers at the time of the force 
 bill and the compromise act, Mr. Calhoun said that the gentleman 
 from Kentucky was flat on his back at that time, and was com 
 pelled to the compromise and that he (Mr. Calhoun) was then 
 his master. 
 
 In reply, Mr. Clay, in the ardor of his feelings, remarked : 
 " The gentleman has said that I was flat on my back that he 
 was my master on that occasion. He my master I Sir, I would 
 not own him for my slave !"* 
 
 The principal questions on which he spoke during the session 
 were : on the abolition of slavery ; on the bankrupt bill ; the 
 Maine boundary line ; Mr. Calhoun s bill to cede the public 
 lands to the states in which they lie ; the navy appropriation 
 bill ; the independent treasury bill ; the branch mints ; the ex 
 penditures of government ; the Cumberland road ; repeal of the 
 salt tax ; and the bankrupt bill. His opinions on nearly all these 
 subjects are so well-known as to render a recapitulation unne 
 cessary. 
 
 Notwithstanding the indications of public hostility, and " in 
 spite of the lamentations" in Congress " and elsewhere," Mr. 
 Van Buren and his friends continued to press their odious sub- 
 treasury project, now newly christened under the name of the 
 " independent treasury bill." Against this measure Mr. Clay 
 battled with undiminished vigor and zeal. On the 20th of Janu 
 ary, 1 840, he addressed the senate in one of his most spirited 
 speeches, in opposition to the bill, which he truly designated as 
 
 * Mr. Clay is not the man to harbor the harsh feelings sometimes engendered in animated 
 debate. After his farewell speech, on resigning his seat in the senate, as he was about to 
 leave the chamber, he encountered Mr. Calhoun. They had not spoken to each other for 
 five years ; but they now simultaneously extended their hands, and cordially greeted each 
 other, while the tears sprang to their eyes. They had almost spent their lives together in 
 Congress ; and during the war, and at various tunes subsequently had stood shoulder to 
 shoulder, animated by the same patriotic impulses and aspirations. Time had passed over 
 both, and the young men had become old. For a minute or more, they could not speak, so 
 overcome were both with emotion. At length Mr. Clay said, on parting, " Give my best 
 regards to Mrs. Calhoun," and they bade each other farewell 
 
202 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 a government bank in disguise, demonstrating the assertion by 
 proofs the most convincing. 
 
 "A government bank," said Mr. Clay, "may not suddenly burst upon us, 
 but there it is embodied in this bill. Let the re-election of the present chief 
 magistrate be secured, and you will soon see the bank disclosing its genuine 
 character. But, thanks be to God ! there is a day of reckoning at hand. 
 All the signs of the times clearly indicate its approach. And on the 4th day 
 of March, in the year of our Lord 1841, I trust that the long account of the 
 abuses and corruptions of this administration, in which this measure will be 
 a conspicuous item, will be finally and for ever adjusted." 
 
 He introduced, on this occasion, a bill for the repeal of the 
 sub-treasury system, but it was not acted upon until the will of 
 the people was so peremptorily spoken, that longer resistance to 
 it, on the part of Mr. Van Buren and his friends, was impossi 
 ble. 
 
 During the summer of 1840, Mr. Clay, visited his native coun 
 ty of Hanover, and was everywhere hailed with enthusiasm and 
 reverence. At a public dinner given to him at Taylorsville, 
 June 27th, 1840, he addressed a vast assemblage of his friends 
 in a speech, which may be referred to as a text-book of his po 
 litical faith. It is probably in the hands of too many of our 
 readers to render an abstract of it useful in this place. Although 
 his opinions on all public questions of importance have been 
 always frankly avowed, he defines his position in this speech 
 with unusual minuteness and precision. With a view to the 
 fundamental character of the government itself, and especially 
 of the executive branch, he maintains that there should be 
 either by amendments of the constitution, when they were neces 
 sary, or by remedial legislation, when the object fell within the 
 scope of the powers of Congress : 
 
 1st. A provision to render a person ineligible to the office of president of 
 the United States after a service of one term. 
 
 2d. That the veto power should be more precisely defined, and be sub 
 jected to further limitations and qualifications. 
 
 3d. That the power of dismission from office should be restricted, and the 
 exercise of it rendered responsible. 
 
 4th. That the control over the treasury of the United States should be 
 confided, and confined exclusively, to Congress; and all authority of the 
 president over it, by means of dismissing the secretary of the treasury, or 
 other persons having the immediate charge of it. be rigorously precluded. 
 
 5th. That the appointment of any members of Congress to any office, or 
 any but a few specific offices, during their continuance in office, and fo* ona 
 year thereafter, be prohibited. 
 
ELECTION OF GENERAL HARRISOX. 203 
 
 Mr. Clay was among the most active of those who took part 
 in the campaign of 1 840 which terminated in the complete triumph 
 of the whigs. On the 17th of August, 1840, he addressed the 
 Harrison convention at Nashville, Tennessee, in an interesting 
 and eloquent speech. In allusion to the professions of the Van 
 Buren party to be democrats par excellence, he very happily said : 
 " Of all their usurpations, I know of none more absurd than 
 the usurpation of this name." 
 
 " I WAS BORN A DEMOCRAT," said he, subsequently in a speech 
 delivered in Indiana "rocked in the cradle of the Revolution 
 and at the darkest period of that ever-memorable struggle 
 for freedom. I recollect, in 178] or 1782, a visit made by 
 Tarleton s troops to the house of my mother, and of their running 
 their swords into the new-made graves of my father and grandfather, 
 thinking they contained hidden treasures. Though then not more 
 than four or five years of age, the circumstance of that visit is 
 vividly remembered, and it will be to the last moment of my life. 
 I was born a democrat was raised and nurtured a republican 
 and shall die a republican in the faith and principles of my 
 fathers." 
 
 XIX. 
 
 THE XXVIITH CONGRESS TYLERISM. 
 
 THE election of General Harrison to the presidency in the 
 autumn of 1840, by an immense majority, was hailed by the 
 whigs as the triumphant consummation of their long and arduous 
 twelve years struggle against the destructive principles and 
 measures which had prevailed during the ascendency of Jackson 
 and Van Buren. A majority of the people had at length passed 
 their solemn verdict against those measures, and in favor of the 
 legislation for which Mr. Clay and the whigs in Congress had 
 been so unanimously contending. Before commencing his jour 
 ney to the seat of government, General Harrison visited Mr. 
 Clay, and personally tendered him any office in the president s 
 gift. Mr. Clay respectfully declined all invitations of this kind, 
 
204 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 and announced his intention of retiring from the senate as soon 
 as the objects for which he and his friends had been laboring so 
 strenuously, were placed in a train of accomplishment. 
 
 The session of Congress preceding the new president s instal 
 lation, found Mr. Clay at his post, still prompt and active in the 
 service of his country. On the land bill the repeal of the sub- 
 treasury the bill to establish a uniform system of bankruptcy 
 the treasury-note bill the pre-emption and distribution project 
 and other important questions, on which his views are familiar 
 to our readers, he addressed the senate with his accustomed elo 
 quence and energy. In his speech of the 28th of January, 1841, 
 on the land bill, he entered into an able vindication of whig 
 principles and measures, as contrasted with those of the expiring 
 administration. There being still a Van Buren majority, Mr. 
 Clay s resolutions, repealing the sub-treasury, after affording oc 
 casion for some eloquent debates, were laid on the table, the 19th 
 of February. Some remarks being made in the senate by Mr. 
 Cuthbert, toward the close of the session, of a character preju 
 dicial to Mr. Webster, Mr. Clay eloquently vindicated that dis 
 tinguished senator, and bore testimony to his exalted merits. 
 
 The second session of the 26th Congress terminated on the 
 night of the 3d of March the Van Buren men having refused 
 to pass a bankrupt bill, and other important measures. The day 
 after the adjournment, General Harrison was inaugurated Presi 
 dent of the United States ; and, on the 18th of March, he issued 
 his proclamation for an extra session of Congress, to commence 
 on the last Monday in May. Before that period arrived, and pre 
 cisely a month after his inauguration, the venerable president de 
 parted this life ; and, by a provision of the constitution, John 
 Tyler of Virginia, the vice-president, was invested with the 
 authority of president of the United States. 
 
 The extraordinary session of Congress, convened by the proc 
 lamation of the lamented Harrison, took place at the appointed 
 time, the last Monday in May, 1841. Never was there a body 
 of representatives who came together with a more patriotic and 
 honorable desire faithfully to execute the will of their constituents 
 the majority of the people of the United States, than the whigs, 
 who composed the 27th Congress. Mr. Clay at once took active 
 
205 
 
 and decided measures for the prompt despatch of the public busi 
 ness. The subjects which he proposed to the senate, as proper 
 exclusively to engage their deliberations during the extra session, 
 were : 
 
 1st. The repeal of the sub-treasury law. 
 
 2d. The incorporation of a bank adapted to the wants of the people and 
 the government. 
 
 3d. The provision of an adequate revenue by the imposition of duties, and 
 including an authority to contract a temporary loan to cover the public debt 
 created by the last administration. 
 
 4th. The prospective distribution of the proceeds of the public lands. 
 
 5th. The passage of necessary appropriation bills. 
 
 6th. Some modifications in the banking system of the District of Columbia 
 for the benefit of the people of the district. 
 
 In the formation of committees, Mr. Clay was placed at the 
 head of that on finance ; and, on his motion, a select committee 
 on the currency, for the consideration of the bank question, was 
 appointed. Of this committee he was made chairman. Early 
 in June, he presented his admirable report of a plan for a national 
 bank ; and, after a thorough discussion, the bill was passed, which, 
 on the 1 6th of August, called forth a veto from President Tyler. 
 On the 19th of the same month, Mr. Clay addressed the senate 
 on the subject of this veto. His remarks, although apparently 
 made " more in sorrow than in anger," are pervaded by the spirit 
 of unanswerable truth ; and, in his rejoinder to Mr. Rives, on the 
 same day, he rises to a height of eloquence never surpassed on 
 the floor of Congress. In the opinion of many of his hearers, it 
 was one of the most brilliant speeches of his whole senatorial 
 career. On this occasion, he showed, by irresistible proofs, that 
 the question of a bank was the great issue made before the peo 
 ple at the late election. " Wherever I was," said he " in the 
 great valley of the Mississippi in Kentucky in Tennessee 
 in Maryland in all the circles in which I moved, everywhere, 
 bank or no bank was the great, the leading, the vital question." 
 
 Not long after the veto, as Mr. Clay, with two or three friends, 
 was passing the treasury buildings, along the road leading to 
 Pennsylvania avenue, he noticed a procession of gentlemen, walk 
 ing two by two, toward the White House. " In the name of 
 wonder, what have W3 here ?" exclaimed Mr. Clay, whil^ his 
 features lighted up witl one of those mischievous smiles, which 
 
206 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 are so contagious, seen on his countenance. It was a procession 
 of the T in Buren members of Congress, going personally to con 
 gratulate John Tyler on his veto ! 
 
 The incident was not forgotten by Mr. Clay. The scene was 
 too rich and piquant to pass unnoticed. On the 2d of September, 
 a suitable opportunity presented itself in the senate, for a com 
 mentary on the occurrence ; and he availed himself of it in a 
 manner which entirely overcame the gravity of all parties present. 
 He gave an imaginary description of the scene at the White 
 House, and the congratulations lavished upon the president by his 
 new friends. He pictured to the senate the honorable member 
 from Pennsylvania (Mr. Buchanan) approaching the throne, and 
 contributing his words of encouragement and praise to those 
 which had been offered by the rest. The imaginary speech 
 which he put into the lips of this gentleman, on this occasion, 
 was so characteristic, that Mr. Buchanan subsequently complain 
 ed in the senate, that it had been gravely attributed to him by 
 several journals, as having been actually delivered, and that he 
 could not divest many of his worthy constituents in Pennsylvania 
 of the idea. 
 
 The figure of Mr. Benton, was one of too much importance not 
 to be introduced by Mr. Clay into this fancy sketch. 
 
 " I can tell the gentleman from Kentucky, that I was not at the 
 White House on the occasion to which he alludes," said the Mis 
 souri senator, interrupting him. 
 
 " Then I will suppose what the gentleman would have said if 
 he had been present," continued Mr. Clay, without suffering his 
 imagination to be checked in its flight. And he then represented 
 he wordy and pompous Missourian bowing at the executive foot 
 stool, and tendering his congratulations. 
 
 The space to which we have been restricted, will not allow us 
 to present even an imperfect sketch of the whole scene. We 
 can only refer the reader to it as one of the most felicitous of 
 lose legitimate presentations of the ludicrous, made to illustrate 
 le true, which some times occur to enliven the barrenness of 
 jgislative debate. 
 
 The events which succeeded the veto, are too recent in the 
 finds of the pe >ple to render a minute enumeration necessary 
 
BILLS PASSED AT THE EXTRA SESSION. 20*1 
 
 here. They are forcibly summed up in Mr. Adams s excellent 
 report on the president s veto of the revenue bill. A second bank 
 bill, shaped to meet the avowed views of the president, was pre 
 pared, passed, and then vetoed. The cabinet, with the exception 
 of Mr. Webster, resigned ; and the great purposes for which the 
 special session of Congress had been called, was defeated by the 
 will of one man, who owed his influential position to his professed 
 attachment to whig principles, and his declared preference foi 
 Mr. Clay as a candidate for the presidency. 
 
 Mr. Clay was unremitted in his application to the public busi 
 ness during the extra session. He spoke on a great variety of 
 questions, and, being at the head of two important committees, 
 performed a great amount of hard work. Although his principal 
 measure for the public relief was defeated by the unlooked-for 
 defection of John Tyler, he had the satisfaction of aiding in the 
 repeal of the odious sub-treasury system in the passage of the 
 bankrupt law arid in the final triumph of his favorite measure, 
 often baflled, but still persevered in, the distribution of the sales 
 of the public lands. By a provision fastened upon this act by 
 the amendment of another, distribution was to cease whenever 
 the average rate of duties on imports should exceed 20 per cent, 
 
 A revision of the tariff, rendered necessary by the expiration 
 of the compromise act, was also undertaken. This was the most 
 important subject which engaged the attention of the 27th Con 
 gress, at its first regular session. To meet the exigency of the 
 occasion, a provisional bill, suspending the operation of the dis 
 tribution bill for one month, as well in consequence of a lack of 
 funds in the treasury, as of a desire on the part of Congress to 
 give more mature consideration to the subject of a tariff, was 
 passed. But it encountered still another and another veto from 
 the president. 
 
 It has been asserted that Mr. Clay and his friends did not de 
 sire an adjustment of the tariff question, during the session of 
 1841- 42. Nothing could be more unfounded than this charge. 
 In spite of discomfiture and mortification, they persevered in their 
 efforts for the relief of the country, and evently surrendered the 
 distribution clause to meet the views of the president ; and the 
 .ariff bill finally became a law, through the patriotic endeavors 
 
208 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 of the friends of Mr. Clay, notwithstanding the attempt of Mi 
 Tyler to crush their energies and arouse their opposition. 
 
 On the 31st of March, 1842, after one of the longest congres 
 sional careers known in our annals, Mr. Clay resigned his seat 
 in the senate of the United States. It having been previously 
 understood that he would take occasion, in presenting the creden* 
 tials of his successor, Mr. Crittenden, to make some valedictory 
 remarks, the senate-chamber was, at an early hour, crowded to 
 its utmost capacity, by members of the other house, and by a large 
 assemblage of citizens and ladies. Some of Mr. Clay s best 
 friends had looked forward with apprehension to this event 
 wearing the aspect, as it did, of a formal and appointed leave- 
 taking. . They remembered that there was but one step from the 
 sublime to the ridiculcvus, and they dreaded lest the truly im 
 pressive character of the occasion might be marred, or divested 
 of its dignity, by any farewell words. But Mr. Clay had hardly 
 risen to speak before their apprehensions were lost and forgotten 
 in a deep and absorbing interest in the language that flowed 
 calmly, smoothly, and majestically from his lips. He referred to 
 the period of his first entrance into the senate, in 1 806. He paid 
 a merited compliment to the high character of that body, and to 
 the ability of its individual members ; but added that, full of at 
 traction as was a seat in that chamber, to fill the aspirations oi 
 the most ambitious heart, he had long determined to forego it, and 
 to seek repose among the calm pleasures of " home." 
 
 It had been his purpose, he said, to terminate his connection 
 with the senate in November, 1840. Had President Harrison 
 lived, and the measures devised at the extra session been fully 
 carried out, he would have then resigned his seat. But the hope 
 that at the regular session the measures left undone might be still 
 perfected, induced him to postpone his determination ; and events, 
 which arose after the extra session, resulting from the failure of 
 those measures which had been proposed at that session, and 
 which appeared to throw on his political friends a temporary 
 show of defeat, confirmed him in the resolution to attend the 
 present session also and, whether in prosperity or adversity, to 
 share the fortune of his friends. But he resolved, at the same 
 
FAREWELL SPEECH TO THE SENATE. 209 
 
 time, to retire as soon as he could do so with propriety and de 
 cency. Mr. Clay then continued as follows : 
 
 " From 1 806, the period of my entry on this noble theatre, with short in 
 tervals, to the present time, I have been engaged in the public councils, at 
 home and abroad. Of the nature or the value of the services rendered during 
 that long and arduous period of my life, it does not become me to speak ; 
 history, if she deigns to notice me, or posterity, if the recollections of my 
 humble actions shall be transmitted to posterity, are the best, the truest, the 
 most impartial judges. When death has closed the scene, their sentence 
 will be pronounced, and to that I appeal and refer myself. My acts and 
 public conduct are a fair subject for the criticism and judgment of my fellow- 
 men; but the private motives by which they have been prompted they are 
 known only to the great Searcher of the human heart and to myself; and I 
 trust I may be pardoned for repeating a declaration made some thirteen 
 years ago, that whatever errors and, doubtless, they have been many may 
 be discovered in a review of my public service to the country, I can, with 
 unshaken confidence, appeal to the Divine Arbiter for the truth of the dec 
 laration, that I have been influenced by no impure purposes, no personal 
 motive have sought no personal aggrandizement ; but that in all my public 
 acts, I have had a sole and single eye, and a warm and devoted heart, direct 
 ed and dedicated to what, in my judgment, I believed to be the true interest 
 of my country." 
 
 Mr. Clay then alluded to the fact that, in common with other 
 public men, he had not enjoyed an immunity from censure and 
 detraction. But he had not been unsustained. And here the 
 allusion to the persecutions of his assailants, led to the mention 
 of Kentucky, the state of his adoption noble Kentucky who, 
 when the storm of calumny raged the fiercest, and he seemed to 
 be forsaken by all the rest of the world, threw her broad and im 
 penetrable shield around him, and bearing him up aloft in her 
 courageous arms, repelled the poisoned shafts aimed for his de 
 struction. As Mr. Clay uttered the name of Kentucky, his feel 
 ings overpowered him the strong man was bowed with emotion 
 he passed his fingers before his eyes for a moment then 
 rallied, and proceeded with his remarks. To the charge of dic 
 tatorship, which was so often in the mouths of his opponents at 
 that time, Mr. Clay replied temperately and happily. We can 
 quote but a fragment of this portion of his valedictory ad* 
 dress : 
 
 " That my nature is warm, my temper ardent, my disposition, especially 
 in relation to the public service, enthusiastic, I am fully ready to own; and 
 those who supposed that I have been assuming the dictatorship, have onlv 
 mistaken for arrogance or assumption, that fervent ardor and devotion whick 
 
 14 
 
210 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 is nal.ural to my constitution and which I may have displayed with little re 
 gard to cold, calculating, and cautious prudence, in sustaining and zealously 
 supporting important national measures of policy which I have presented 
 and proposed." 
 
 The truly generous qualities of Mr. Clay s nature, shine forth 
 from every line of the following passage : 
 
 "During a long and arduous career of service in the public councils of my 
 country, especially during the last eleven years I have held a seat in the 
 senate, from the same ardor and enthusiasm of character, I have, no doubt, in 
 the heat of debate, and in an honest endeavor to maintain my opinions against 
 adverse opinions equally honestly entertained, as to the best course to be 
 adopted for the public welfare, I may have often inadvertently or uninten 
 tionally, in moments of excited debate, made use of language that has been 
 offensive, and susceptible of injurious interpretation toward mv brother 
 senators. If there be any here who retain wounded feelings of injury or 
 dissatisfaction produced on such occasions, I beg to assure them that I now 
 offer the amplest apology for any departure on my part from the established 
 rules of parliamentary decorum and courtesy. On the other hand, I assure 
 the senators, one and all, without exception, and without reserve, that I re 
 tire from this senate-chamber without carrying with me a single feeling of 
 resentment or dissatisfaction toward the senate or any of its members." 
 
 Mr. Clay concluded this memorable address by invoking, in a 
 tone which thrilled through every heart, the blessings of Heaven 
 upon the whole senate and every member of it. The hushed 
 suspense of intense feeling and attention, pervaded the crowded 
 assemblage as he sat down. For nearly half a minute after he 
 had finished, no one spoke no one moved. There was not a 
 dry eye in the senate-chamber. Men of all parties seemed 
 equally overcome by the pathos and majesty of that farewell. At 
 length, Mr. Preston of South Carolina, rose and remarked, that 
 what had just taken place was an epoch in their legislative his 
 tory ; and, from the feeling which was evinced, he plainly saw 
 that there was little disposition to attend to business. He would, 
 therefore, move that the senate adjourn. 
 
 The motion was unanimously agreed to ; but even then the 
 whole audience seemed to remain spell-bound by the effect of 
 those parting tones of Mr. Clay. For several seconds no one 
 stirred. " In all probability, we should have remained there to 
 this hour," said an honorable senator to us recently, in describing 
 the scene, " had not Mr. Clay himself risen, and moved toward 
 <he area." And then, at length, slowly and reluctantly, the as- 
 emblage dispersed. 
 
RETURN TO KENTUCKY. 
 
 Shortly after the adjournment, as Mr. Calhoun was crossing 
 the senate-chamber, he and Mr. Clay encountered. For five 
 years they had been estranged ; and the only words which had 
 passed between them had been those harshly spoken in debate. 
 But now, as they thus inadvertently met, the old times came over 
 them. They remembered only their political companionship of 
 twenty years standing. The intervening differences which had 
 chilled their hearts toward each other, were forgotten. The 
 tears sprang to their eyes. They shook each other cordially by 
 the hand interchanged a " God bless you !" and parted. We 
 have alluded elsewhere briefly to this scene. It was a happy 
 sequel to the leading events of the day. 
 
 XX. 
 
 MR. CLAY A PRIVATE CITIZEN HIS VIEWS. 
 
 ON his return to Kentucky, after retiring from public life, Mr. 
 Clay was received with all those manifestations of enthusiastic 
 affection which it is possible for a grateful constituency to exhibit. 
 On the 9th of June, 1842, he partook of a public entertainment, 
 or barbecue, given in his honor near Lexington. 
 
 The speecn which he delivered on this occasion, is probably 
 fresh in the recollection of many of our readers. Containing, as 
 it does, many personal reminiscences of his past career, and a 
 revie^v of those leading questions of policy upon which we have 
 already given his opinions, it is one of the most interesting of his 
 numerous addresses to popular assemblies. 
 
 Early in October, 1842, being on a visit to Richmond, in the 
 state of Indiana, the occasion of his meeting a large concourse 
 of his fellow-citizens, was seized upon by a number of his politi 
 cal opponents to present him with a petition praying him to 
 emancipate his slaves in Kentucky. It was thought that even 
 Henry Clay would be nonplused and embarrassed by so inop 
 portune and unexpected an appeal. A Mr. Mendenhall was 
 selected to present him with the petition, and expectation was 
 
212 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 raised to the highest pitch among the few who were in the secret, 
 and who were far from being Mr. Clay s well-wishers, to hear 
 what he would say. Never did he acquit himself moro felici 
 tously than on this occasion. 
 
 The indignation was great among the assembly, when they 
 learned the object with which Mr. Mendenhall had made his way 
 through their midst to the spot where Mr. Clay stood. They re 
 garded it as an insult to him and his friends ; and the probability 
 is, that Mr. Mendenhall would have had some palpable proof of 
 their sense of his impertinence, had not Mr. Clay instantly ap 
 pealed to the assembly in the following terms : 
 
 " I hope that Mr. Mendenhall may be treated with the greatest forbear 
 ance and respect. I assure my fellow-citizens, here collected, that the pres 
 entation of the petition has not occasioned the slightest pain, nor excited one 
 solitary disagreeable emotion. If it were to be presented to me, I prefer 
 that it should be done in the face of this vast assemblage. I think I can 
 give it such an answer as becomes me and the subject of which it treats. 
 At all events, I entreat and beseech my fellow-citizens, for their sake, for my 
 sake, to offer no disrepect, no indignity, no violence, in word or deed, to Mr. 
 Mendenhall." Then, turning to Mr. Mendenhall : " Allow me to say, that 
 I think you have not conformed to the independent character of an American 
 citizen in presenting a petition to me. A petition, as the term implies, gener 
 ally proceeds from an inferior in power or station to a superior ; but between 
 us there is entire equality." 
 
 Mr. Clay remarked, in continuation, that he desired no con 
 cealment of his opinions in regard to the institution of slavery. 
 He looked upon it as a great evil, and deeply lamented that we 
 had derived it from the parental government and from our ances 
 tors. But, without any knowledge of the relation in which he 
 stood to his slaves, or their individual condition, Mr. Mendenhall 
 and his associates had presented a petition calling upon him forth 
 with to liberate the whole of them. 
 
 " Now let me tell you," said Mr. C., " that some half a dozen of them, from 
 age, decrepitude, or infirmity, are wholly unable to gain a livelihood for 
 themselves, and are a heavy charge upon me. Do you think that I should 
 conform to the dictates of humanity by ridding myself of that charge, and 
 Bending them forth into the world, wish the boon of liberty, to end a wretch 
 ed existence in starvation ?" 
 
 In conclusion, Mr. Clay admirably exposed the hypocrisy of 
 the petitioners by the following proposition, in regard to which 
 they have never taken any steps : 
 
 " I shall, Mr. Mendenhall, take your petition into respectful aud deliberate 
 consideration; but before I come to a final decision, / should like to knwi 
 
WHIG CONVENTION AT DAYTON. 213 
 
 what you and your associates are willing to do for the slaves in my possession, 
 if I shoidd think proper to liberate them, I own about fifty, who are proba 
 \]j worth fifteen thousand dollars. To turn them loose upon society, with 
 out any means of subsistence or support, would be an act of cruelty. Are 
 you willing to raise and secure the payment of fifteen thousand dollars for 
 their benefit, if I should be induced to free them ? The security of the pay 
 ment of that sum, would materially lessen* the obstacle in the way of their 
 emancipation." 
 
 Mr. Clay finished his remarks with some friendly advice to 
 Mr. Mendenhall, which it is probable that individual will never 
 forget. The tables were completely turned upon those who had 
 thought to annoy and embarrass the great Kentuckian. The 
 bearer of the petition and his associates were suffered to slink 
 away unnoticed and unheeded by the crowd. 
 
 There has never been any concealment on Mr. Clay s part, of 
 his opinions on the subject of slavery. Through the whole 
 course of this memoir, they will be found scattered from the 
 period when he first advocated the gradual eradication of slavery 
 from Kentucky, in 1797, to the present moment. In his speech 
 before the Colonization society, in 1827 [see Chapter X. of the 
 present work], nothing can be more explicit than the language he 
 employs. We refer those who would be enlightened further in 
 regard to his views, to that eloquent address. 
 
 On the 29th of September, 1842, Mr. Clay attended the great 
 whig convention at Dayton, Ohio, where ONE HUNDRED THOU 
 SAND WHIGS are believed to have been assembled. 
 
 " At 8 o clock," says one of the actors in the scene, " when every street in 
 the city was filled, and there seemed no resting-place for any, the procession 
 was formed. This occupied a long time. When done, the order, March ! 
 was given ; and, in solid mass, we moved to welcome the great statesman, 
 Henry Clay, into the city. He was met near the city, and, at half-past 9 
 o clock, reached the neighborhood of the National hotel. Here a beautiful 
 sight was witnessed. One hundred and twenty-five children, as the honest 
 patriot approached, welcomed him with songs! Their sweet voices rang out 
 in merry peals, and the multitude responded to it with the heartiest enthu 
 siasm. After this, Mr. Clay occupied a stand for some time, as the procession 
 passed by, welcoming him to Ohio, and, in return, receiving his salutations. 
 
 " When the procession had passed, Mr. Clay retired into the hotel. Gov 
 ernor Metcalf then appeared at the window, and delivered a speech return 
 ing the thanks of Kentucky for the warm-hearted reception they had met 
 with, and bidding all who loved the name of America, to rally together in 
 defence of American liberty and American labor. 
 
 "Mr. Schenck read resolutions, prepared by the committee, nominating 
 Henry Clay and John Davis for the whig candidates for 1844. At this time 
 Mr. Clay was seen in the crowd, and then, as if there had been one voice 
 only, the shout went forth for the statesman of the nation. lie answered it; 
 
214 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 and, in a speech of two hours, plain, yet eloquent, he spoke, concealing no 
 opinion, disguising no wish, the multitude all the while listening with eager 
 attention and breathless silence. And such a speech ! It was a master-effort 
 of a master-spirit. 
 
 Of this tremendous meeting Mr. Clay afterward remarked, that 
 of all the crowds in Europe or elsewhere, he never saw one so 
 great. A vast sea of human heads surrounded the platform, cov 
 ering many acres. 
 
 In the month of December, 1842, Mr. Clay, having private 
 business in New Orleans, where some of his near relations reside, 
 visited that city, stopping at Natchez, and other places on his 
 route. He was everywhere received by the people with such 
 enthusiastic demonstrations of popular affection as had never be 
 fore been bestowed upon any American except Washington. 
 
 On his return homeward from Louisiana, about the middle of 
 February, 1843, his progress was continually impeded by vast 
 assemblages of the people to meet and welcome him. At Mo 
 bile, on the 2d of February, and at Vicksburg, on the 20th of 
 February, an immense concourse of citizens collected to offer the 
 tribute of their gratitude and respect. The honorable S. S. 
 Prentiss addressed him, on the latter occasion, in that strain of 
 fluent and impassioned eloquence for which that young and gifted 
 orator is distinguished. 
 
 At Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, Mr.. Clay was met and 
 welcomed by the largest concourse ever assembled in the state. 
 At Memphis, Tennessee, crowds of citizens from the surround 
 ing region assembled to tender him their affectionate respects, to 
 look on and listen to the greatest living champion of their coun 
 try s honor and interests. Thus felicitated and welcomed on his 
 route, Mr. Clay, with more than a conqueror s trophies, returned, 
 in fine health arid spirits, to Ashland, just as spring was begin 
 ning to fringe with green the old oaks that waved around his 
 homestead. 
 
 Early in April, he addressed a large body of his fellow-citi 
 zens in the courthouse yard at Lexington ; and, in the course 
 of his remarks, acknowledged, in appropriate language, the atten- 
 t ons which had been paid to him, and the honors which had 
 been showered upon him by all parties during his late trip to he 
 southwest. 
 
LETTER TO S. F. BRONSON. 213 
 
 It having been understood that Mr. Clay would make a tour to 
 the southeast during the autumn of 1843, innumerable letters 
 from committees in all sections of the country were poured in 
 upon him, requesting him to visit a multitude of places, both on 
 his route and aside from it. The task of replying to these letters 
 must alone have been exceedingly laborious. North Carolina 
 was, we believe, the first to claim from him a visit. In his re 
 ply to a committee of citizens of Raleigh, dated 10th July, 1843, 
 he consents to pay a visit, some time in the course of the next 
 spring to that state, which was " the first to declare the inde 
 pendence of the colonies, and will be among the last to abandon 
 the support of the Union." 
 
 Several letters from Mr. Clay, on the subject of the tariff, ap 
 peared during the summer of 1843. Nothing could be more ex 
 plicit and undisguised than the expression of his views. In his 
 reply, dated 13th September, 1843, to a letter from S. F. Bron- 
 son, Esq., of Georgia, asking his opinions in regard to the pro 
 tective policy of 1832, he writes : 
 
 "The sum and substance of what I conceive to be the true policy of the 
 United States, in respect to a tariff, may be briefly stated. In conformity 
 with the principle announced in the compromise act, I think, that whatever 
 revenue is necessary to an economical and honest administration of the gen 
 eral government, ought to be derived from duties imposed on foreign im 
 ports. And I believe that> in establishing a tariff of those duties, such a 
 discrimination ought to be made, as will incidentally afford reasonable pro 
 tection to our national interests. 
 
 " I think there is no danger of a high tariff being ever established ; that 
 of 1828 was eminently deserving that denomination. I was not in Congress 
 when it passed, and did not vote for it ; but with its history and with the 
 circumstances which gave birth to it, I am well acquainted. They were 
 highly discreditable to American legislation, and I hope, for its honor, will 
 never be again repeated. 
 
 "After my return to Congress, in 1831, my efforts were directed to the 
 modification and reduction of the rates of duty contained in the act of 1828. 
 The act of 1832 greatly reduced and modified them; and the act of 1833, 
 commonly called the compromise act, still farther reduced and modified 
 them. The act which passed at the extra session of 1841, which I support 
 ed, was confined to the free articles. I had resigned my seat in the senate 
 when the act of 1842 passed. Generally the duties which it imposes are 
 lower than those in the act of 1832. And, without intending to express my 
 opinion upon every item of this last tariff, I would say that I think the pro 
 visions, in the main, are wise and proper. If there be any excesses or de 
 fects in it (of which I have not the means here of judging), they ought to be 
 corrected. 
 
 " My opinion, that there is no danger hereafter of a high tariff, is founded 
 on the gratifying fact that our manufactures have now taken a deep root. In 
 
216 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 their infancy, they needed a greater measure of protection; "but, as they 
 grow and advance, they acquire strength and stability, and, consequently, 
 will require less protection. Even now, some branches of them are able 
 to maintain, in distant markets, successful competition with rival foreign 
 manufactures." 
 
 By this it will be seen that Mr. Clay, so far from contempla 
 ting the expediency of higher and higher duties, believes that the 
 rapid and constant progress of our manufactures tends ever to 
 diminish, instead of to increase, the necessity of decidedly pro 
 tective duties. He never was in favor of a high tariff. In his 
 own language, he believes that " the revenue from the general 
 government should be derived from the foreign imports, to the 
 exclusion of direct taxes, and the proceeds of the sales of public 
 lands ; and that no more revenue should be levied than is neces 
 sary to an economical administration of the government: but that, 
 in levying it, such discriminations ought to be made as will af 
 ford moderate and reasonable protection to American interests 
 against the rivalry and prohibitory policy of foreign powers. 5 
 
 Notwithstanding these clear and unequivocal declarations, the 
 attempt is frequently made to misrepresent Mr. Clay s views in 
 regard to the tariff. Surely there is no longer any excuse for 
 ignorance upon this subject among persons claiming to be intel 
 ligent. 
 
 In December, 1843, Mr. Clay s private affairs again required 
 his presence in New Orleans. He was welcomed on his route 
 to that city by the same testimonials of popular attachment that 
 had signalized his journey of the preceding year ; and, during 
 his residence in the great southern metropolis, citizens of all 
 parties seemed to unite in doing him honor. Before his depart 
 ure, the state convention of the democratic whigs of Louisiana, 
 which was holding its session at the time, formed in procession, 
 the 23d of February, 1844, and marched to the St. Charles hotel, 
 where he was staying, to tender their respects. On the 25th of 
 February, he reached Mobile, on his way to North Carolina 
 Although it was the sabbath, and of course no civic ceremonies 
 denoted the welcome which was swelling in every bosom, yet 
 the wharves were lined with a dense and innumerable throng, 
 eager to catch a glimpse of him as he disembarked. On the 5th 
 of March he left Mobile for Montgomery, Columbus (Georgia), 
 
SPEECH AT CHARLESTON, S. C. 217 
 
 Macon, and other intermediate cities on his route, followed by 
 the best hopes of the people. 
 
 A letter from him to the whigs of Philadelphia, bearing date 
 the 10th of February, 1844, is worthy of mention in this place 
 for the sentiments it expressed in regard to Washii gton. Mr 
 Clay had been invited to unite in the celebration of the anni 
 versary of the birth of the hero of Mount Vernon. Distance and 
 unavoidable engagements prevented his acceptance of the invita 
 tion. In his reply, he says : 
 
 "The birth of no man that ever lived is so well entitled to perpetual 
 commemoration as a rare blessing bestowed on mankind by the goodness of 
 Providence. In contemplating his career and character, we behold display- 
 ,ed and concentrated in him, calmness, dignity, moderation, firmness, fidelity, 
 disinterestedness, wisdom all the virtues that adorn the warrior, the pa 
 triot, the statesman, and the honest man. Most justly has he acquired the 
 title of the Father of his country. During the Revolution, and since, many 
 good men have arisen in the United States ; but WASHINGTON stands at an 
 immeasurable height, elevated far above them all." 
 
 On the 1st of April, 1844, Mr. Clay reached Columbia, South 
 Carolina, where he was the guest of the honorable William C. 
 Preston. On the 6th, he visited Charleston; and here all sorts 
 of honors and gratulations were heaped upon him by the enthu 
 siastic whigs of that hospitable city. He was received by an 
 immense concourse of citizens in the theatre, and being addressed 
 by the venerable Dr. Wm. Read, one of the few surviving officers 
 of the revolution, he replied in a speech of nearly two hours du 
 ration, which commanded and repaid the closest attention. As 
 the tariff was the subject which most intimately affected the in 
 terests of his hearers, he reiterated, with his accustomed frank 
 ness, his views in regard to it. He declared himself in favor 
 of a system of protection, moderate, reasonable, certain, and du 
 rable yielding no more revenue than is necessary for an honest 
 and economical administration of the government, and, within that 
 limit, discriminating in the imposition of duties between those 
 articles which do and those which do not enter into competition 
 with domestic industry throwing the heavier duty on the former, 
 and the lighter duty on the latter. Peace could only be found 
 by taking the middle path. Neither interest nor section c^uld 
 expect to have it all its own way. The matter must be adjusted 
 by concession, compromise, conciliation such concession, com- 
 J 
 
218 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 promise, and conciliation, as led to the adoption of the federal 
 constitution, and under the influence of which our political union 
 would continue to fulfil its sacred trust, and move forward in its 
 high career a blessing to our race. 
 
 At Raleigh, on the 12th, Mr. Clay met with a reception every 
 way worthy the " Old North state." His friend and former 
 fellow-laborer, B. W. Leigh, of Virginia, made the journey to 
 Raleigh to meet him, and addressed the multitude from the porch 
 of the capitol with great animation and effect. Mr. Clay was 
 escorted by an immense throng of citizens to the residence of 
 the governor of the state, Mr. Morehead, where he remained 
 during his stay in Raleigh. 
 
 At Wilmington he addressed the people, and one paragraph of 
 his speech commends him to the confidence of his countrymen 
 of all parties. He said : " I am a whig : I am so because I be 
 lieve the principles of the whig party are best adapted to pro 
 mote the prosperity of the country. I seek to change no man s 
 allegiance to his party, be it what it way. A life of great length 
 and experience has satisfied me that all parties aim at the com 
 mon good of the country. The great body of the democrats, as 
 well as the whigs, are so from a conviction that their policy is 
 patriotic. I take the hand of one as cordially as that of another, 
 for all are Americans. / place COUNTRY far above all parties. 
 Look aside from that, and parties are no longer worthy of being 
 cherished." 
 
 On the 18th of April, he passed on to Petersburg, Virginia 
 and, the Saturday following, embarked for Norfolk, where he 
 did not arrive till Sunday morning, owing to the detention of tho 
 boat by fog. His progress was a series of ovations. On the 
 26th, he arrived in Washington. He was now approaching one 
 of the most interesting epochs of his eventful life. By acclama 
 tion the whigs of the country seemed to call upon him to stand 
 forth once more, the worthiest embodiment of their principles, 
 the candidate of their choice and affections. In every state there 
 were spontaneous movements of the people, which precluded all 
 doubt as to the result of the deliberations of a whig national con 
 vention for the nomination of president. We must here indulge 
 in a brief retrospect of public events connected with Mr. Clay s 
 
HIS RELATIONS WITH GENERAL HARRISON. 219 
 
 recent career ; and it is with no wish to revive old griefs that we 
 shall touch upon topics, in their views upon which good whigs 
 may differ. Our object is to present such facts as should guard 
 us for the future against errors, which all experience calls out 
 upon us to shun. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 CLAY HARRISON TYLER. 
 
 DURING the whole canvass of 1840, and up to the time^oj! 
 General Harrison s death, he and Mr. Clay were upon terms of 
 the most confidential intimacy. All were sensible of the noble 
 disinterestedness of Mr. Clay s course, but no one appreciated 
 it more highly, or felt more grateful for it toward him, than Gen 
 eral Harrison himself. On the 15th of January, 1840, the gen 
 eral addressed a letter from North Bend to Mr. Clay at Wash 
 ington city, from which we have been permitted to make the 
 following extract : 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR : The generosity of your nature will not permit you to 
 doubt that my feelings of gratitude toward you for the magnanimity of your 
 conduct toward me, in relation to the nomination for the presidency, are 
 such as they ought to be, although I have so long delayed to express them 
 directly to you. I must beg you also to believe that if the claims derived 
 from your superior talents and experience (so universally acknowledged by 
 my supporters), had prevailed over those which accidental circumstances 
 had conferred upon me, and enabled the convention to name you as the can 
 didate, that you would hare had no more zealous supporter in the Union 
 than I should have been." 
 
 The first time they met after the election was at the house of 
 Governor Letcher in Frankfort, Kentucky ; and Mr. Clay after 
 ward entertained the president elect at Ashland. During their 
 interviews on those occasions, they had long, full, and interesting 
 conversations, on the state of public affairs. In their first inter 
 view, General Harrison offered, and Mr. Clay promptly declined, 
 any place in the new administration. He was then resolved to 
 retire from the senate to private life. Both of them concurred 
 in the expediency of a call of an extra session cf Congress, 
 
220 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 agreeing that the benefit of those measures of public policy which 
 the people, in the great event that had just transpired, had signi 
 fied their wish to bring about, ought not to be deferred to the 
 ordinary period for the assembling of Congress. Indeed, the 
 bankrupt condition in which Mr. Van Buren had left the treasury 
 was of itself an evil which rendered an early convening of Con 
 gress indispensable. It was at their first interview at the gov 
 ernor s, that Mr. Clay, after having declined the offer of any 
 official station, suggested to General Harrison that he ought not, 
 in his official arrangements, to overlook Mr. Webster, and that 
 if he had himself been elected, he should have felt bound, from 
 the high estimation in which that gentleman was then held by 
 the whig party, to tender him some distinguished place. He 
 did not designate any particular station to which he thought Mr. 
 Webster ought to be appointed. Mr. Clay was induced to make 
 this suggestion, because the ground had been taken in several 
 leading whig journals that if he did not go into the cabinet, Mr. 
 Webster ought. The suggestion of Mr. Clay appeared to re 
 move a burden from the mind of General Harrison ; and the next 
 day, the latter, in conversation with several gentlemen at Frank 
 fort, indulged in excessive praise of Mr. Clay for his great dis 
 interestedness and magnanimity. 
 
 After the return of General Harrison from Kentucky to North 
 Bend, he and Mr. Clay did not meet until the arrival of the former 
 at Washington to enter upon the duties of the high office to which 
 he had been elected. Their friendly intimacy was again re 
 newed. General Harrison placed his inaugural address in the 
 hands of Mr. Clay, with the request that he would examine it, 
 and intimate any alterations that might occur to him as being 
 necessary. He at the same time informed him that a member 
 of his projected cabinet had prepared an inaugural for him, which 
 he wished him to adopt, but that he would not substitute it for 
 his own for fifty thousand dollars. Several of the intended mem 
 bers of the cabinet apprehended that General Harrison s compo 
 sition would not be well received by the public, and they applied 
 to Mr. Clay to induce him to modify it. In compliance with 
 their request, Mr. Clay carefully examined the document, and 
 proposed a number of inconsiderable alterations, some having 
 
GENERAL HARRISON ANECDOTE. 221 
 
 reference to the phraseology, and some to the sentiment ; and 
 most of these the new president promptly and thankfully adopted. 
 But there was one alteration, longer than any of the others, which 
 he proposed, and against this the general set his face. The 
 proposed alteration was, to expunge the clauses relating to the 
 Greeks and Romans, which may now be seen in the early part 
 of his address. This was touching the general on a tender point ; 
 and, in declining to adopt it, he remarked that he was particu 
 larly attached to allusions and illustrations drawn from Greek 
 and Roman history ; and apropos to this remark he related the 
 following anecdote of himself : 
 
 When a member of the house of representatives, he was one 
 day addressing the speaker in a speech of considerable vehe 
 mence and length. During its delivery, he made frequent citations 
 from Greek and Roman history. The galleries were excessively 
 thronged, and a man was endeavoring to push his way through 
 the crowd to a position where he could see as well as hear. He 
 could not reach one ; but hearing the references to the Greeks 
 and the Romans, he exclaimed, with the most emphatic of oaths, 
 " That s General Harrison ! Though I can t see him, I know 
 him by what he says of the Greeks and Romans !" 
 
 Mr. Clay s great anxiety, after General Harrison s entrance 
 upon his official duties, was to secure the adoption of those pub 
 lic measures which, by his election, and through his administra 
 tion, the people wished to establish. This was the absorbing 
 desire of Mr. Clay s heart. He knew that if he interfered in the 
 disposal of the patronage of the government, he would excite 
 jealousies against himself, to which he was aware there existed 
 a predisposition, and impair his just influence in the establish 
 ment of wise systems of policy. Painful, therefore, as it was for 
 him to abstain from promoting the wishes of friends, whom he 
 would gladly have served, he abstained from all interference in 
 public appointments further than to endeavor to prevent the adop 
 tion of one or two, which he regarded as injudicious and bad. 
 
 If General Harrison had lived, there is reason to believe that 
 all the great and leading measures of the whig party would have 
 been successfully carried out. But it pleased Providence to de 
 cree otherwise. The nation had to deplore the untimely death 
 
222 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 of General Harrison in one short month after his installation, and 
 John Tyler, as the vice-president, succeeded him. 
 
 Mr. Clay had known this latter gentleman a number of years, 
 although he had had no hand in his nomination to the office from 
 which he was transferred to the presidency. Mr. Tyler was 
 affable, polite, and agreeable, in company and conversation. He 
 had made no great figure in any of the various offices which he 
 had filled, was not considered firm of purpose, yet always 
 acquitted himself respectably, and was supposed to be at least 
 honest. His inaugural address, through the medium of the press 
 at Washington, created hopes but hopes, which, in the sequel, 
 were sadly disappointed. Shortly after the death of General 
 Harrison, Mr. Clay received two remarkable letters from Virginia, 
 which deserve a passing notice. One of them was from a dis 
 tinguished citizen of the city of Richmond, and bears date the 
 4th of April, 1841, the very day on which President Harrison 
 expired. To the letter, the greater part of which was on business, 
 was appended a postscript to the following effect : " We have 
 very bad accounts from Washington as to the state of General 
 Harrison s health. His death is seriously apprehended. Your 
 friend, Judge B , was just now with me, and says that Har 
 rison will certainly die ; that Tyler luck will kill him. Should that 
 event happen, and Tyler come in, he will play the devil ; how, I 
 don t know : but I am sure he will play the devil /" 
 
 The other letter, also from an eminent citizen, was dated the 
 7th of April, 1841, at Williamsburgh, the place of Mr. Tyler s 
 residence, and to it was appended a postscript, substantially as 
 follows : " We have just heard of the death of President Harrison, 
 and I have just seen Mr. Tyler, who is to succeed him. I told 
 him that it was a great event, and shifted on him an immense re 
 sponsibility ; but that if, upon going to Washington, he would 
 embrace some suitable occasion to announce to the public that he 
 did not mean to be a candidate for the succession, he would have 
 an easy, and, probably a successful administration. He remarked, 
 in reply, that he had just been thinking of that : but," adds the 
 writer, " it was manifest to me that he had not been thinking favor 
 ably of it." 
 
 Notwithstanding these predictions and expressions of distrust, 
 
HIS RELATIONS WITH JOHN TYLER. 223 
 
 Mr. Clay, in May, 1841, proceeded to Washington to attend the 
 extra session, with a firm determination faithfully to perform his 
 own duty, and to conciliate Vice- President Tyler as far as he 
 cotld, and engage him to concur and co-operate in the adoption 
 of the public measures demanded by the public welfare, and of 
 "/hich an expectation was authorized by the ascendency of the 
 yhigs in the national councils. 
 
 Upon Mr. Clay s arrival at the seat of government, he promptly 
 called on Mr. Tyler, dined with him, frequently visited him at 
 tea in the evening, and, on these occasions, conversed with him 
 in the most frank, friendly, and confidential manner. During 
 those visits, the subject of a bank of the United States frequently 
 formed the topic of conversation ; and Mr. Tyler declared that 
 he had formed no opinion against one ; that he would form none 
 on the subject till a bill should be matured, passed, and presented 
 to him ; and that no mortal, in the meantime, should know what 
 was to be his final determination. And yet, notwithstanding 
 these positive declarations, Mr. Clay had abundant reasons after 
 ward to believe that Mr. Tyler, before the passage of the bank- 
 bill, had stated to others that he would approve no bank-bill that 
 could be presented to him ! 
 
 In his evening visits at the White-House, Mr. Clay often met 
 suspicious persons, who created in his mind some apprehension 
 and alarm. He, however, continued his visits until the levee of 
 the 4th of July, which was the last time he ever entered the 
 presidential mansion while it was occupied by Mr. Tyler. While 
 the bank-bill was pending in the senate, he reluctantly consented 
 to the introduction into it of the clause relating to the branches 
 of the bank, providing for the contingency of the assent or dissent 
 of the states in which it might be proposed to establish them. 
 He yielded to it from two considerations : the first was, that he 
 had reason to believe, from communications received from mem 
 bers of the cabinet of Mr. Tyler, that he would certainly approve 
 the bill with that clause inserted ; the second was, that without 
 it, the votes of two senators could not be obtained, which were 
 indispensable to the passage of the bill through the senate. 
 
 The measures which Mr. Clay regarded as important to occupy 
 the attention of the extra session, were indicated by him m a 
 
224 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 series of resolutions proposed in the early part of the session 
 It will be seen, upon an examination of them, that the bankrupt 
 bill was not one of those measures. He thought that the con 
 sideration of it ought to be postponed to the ordinary session. 
 But, owing to the perseverance of Senator Tallmadge, of New 
 York, it was finally agreed to act upon it. But it can not be re 
 garded as one of Mr. Clay s measures, although he cheerfully 
 shares the responsibility of its passage, believes that it was 
 rendered necessary to individuals by the ruinous measures of the 
 two previous administrations, and that its operation, upon the 
 whole, was beneficial to the public. 
 
 Never did Mr. Clay, and never, perhaps, did any other man 
 perform the same amount of hard labor in the same space of time, 
 that he did during that extra session. His whole soul seemed 
 engrossed with the duty of fulfilling the promises which the whig 
 party had made to the country. He declined almost all invitations 
 to dinners and entertainments. His habit was to rise as early as 
 five o clock every morning, dash on horseback into the country 
 six or seven miles, and return to an early breakfast. From that 
 time until ten or eleven o clock at night, he was constantly en 
 gaged, either in the preparation of business for the senate, in 
 attendance upon committees, or the senate itself, or in consulta 
 tion with his political friends. During the arduous debate on the 
 bank-bill, which was continued several weeks, he was left almost 
 alone to struggle with a host of opponents. On one occasion, he 
 had to rise and answer seven of them, who had assailed the bill. 
 He sometimes felt as if he were deserted by his friends, not being 
 aware of what he afterward learned, that they had, upon a con 
 ference among themselves, deemed it best to leave the subject to 
 his exclusive management. 
 
 We have alluded to the visit of Mr. Clay, in the summer of 
 1840, to the humble spot in Hanover county, Virginia, which 
 gave him birth. On this occasion, he was surprised to find the 
 total change which all the scenes of his boyhood had undergone. 
 He had not been there for upward of forty-five years, and every 
 thing was so altered, that he would not have recognised the spot 
 had he not been told it was the same. Small pine-trees, not 
 higher than his head when he left it, in which the * ?ld fields." 
 
VISIT TO HIS BIRTHPLACE. 225 
 
 as they are called in that part of Virginia, abound, had grown up 
 into tall forest-trees. Orchards had disappeared, and others been 
 planted in their places. The graves of his father, grandfather 
 and grandmother, had been levelled and obliterated by the plough, 
 and the only guide to the spot where they reposed, was an old 
 stump of a pear-tree, whose position he recollected. Peace to 
 their spirits ! It matters little to them whether the ploughshare 
 cut the turf above their poor mortal dust, or a stately monument 
 mark the place of its interment. 
 
 The dwelling-house alone remained without any essential 
 change ; and tradition had carefully preserved a recollection of 
 the room in which Mr. Clay was born. He was anxious to find 
 a hickory-tree, remarkable for the excellence of its fruit, which 
 stood near by the spring that supplied his father s family with 
 water. It no longer stood there it was gone ! Upon inquiry 
 after it of a friend in the neighborhood, who was possessed of a 
 somewhat poetical imagination, he replied, that when General 
 Jackson was elected president, the tree withered ; and when he 
 removed the deposites from the Bank of the United States, it fell 
 decayed to the earth. Mr. Clay, of course, laughed heartily at 
 this fanciful account of the fate of his favorite tree. 
 
 We turn from these desultory retrospections to the stirring 
 political events which preceded and attended the presidential 
 canvass of 1844. 
 
 J* 15 
 
226 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 THE TEXAS QUESTION THE CONTEST OF 1844. 
 
 MR. CLAY S sojourn in Washington, during the spring of 1844, 
 was one of respite from the fatigues of travel and public recep 
 tions. On the 1st of May, he was nominated for the presidency 
 by the whig national convention at Baltimore, and on the 13th of 
 the same month, he set out for Ashland, attended only by his son, 
 and arrived at Lexington the evening of Saturday, the 18th, in 
 fine health and spirits. Here he was enthusiastically welcomed 
 by an immense collection of his fellow-citizens. In vain did he 
 attempt to escape from the pageant of a public reception. He 
 was compelled to listen to an address of salutation and compli 
 ment. His reply was candid, good-humored, and to the point. 
 He told the multitude that he was happy to see them happy to 
 see every one of them " but there was an excellent old lady in 
 the neighborhood, whom he would rather see than any one 
 else " so, begging them to allow him to return to Ashland, he 
 bade them good-night ! This irresistible appeal was received in 
 the spirit in which it was made ; and amid the blaze of torches, 
 and the cheers of the people, he was escorted to his home. 
 
 Events of interest to the country and to himself, had transpired 
 during the interval of his absence. The question of the annex 
 ation of Texas, that fertile source of many woes, had come up ; 
 and he had written a most statesmanlike letter on the subject. 
 Discussions in regard to him had been started in Congress, with 
 the view of affecting his political prospects ; and a whig conven 
 tion, assembled at Baltimore, had, on the 1st of May, 1844, 
 nominated Henry Clay for president of the United States, and 
 Theodore Frelinghuysen for vice-president. 
 
 Mr. Clay s letter on the Texas question, was written while he 
 was partaking the hospitalities of Governor Morehead, at Raleigh, 
 the 17th of April. In this letter, he states the fact that, during 
 his sojourn in New Orleans, he had been greatly surprised by in 
 formation received from Texas, that in the course of the autumn 
 of 1843, a voluntary overture had proceeded from the executive 
 
ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 227 
 
 of the United States to the authorities of Texas, to conclude a 
 treaty of annexation. To the astonishment of the whole nation, 
 we were now informed that a treaty of annexation had been 
 actually concluded, and was to be submitted to the senate for its 
 consideration. If, without the loss of national character, without 
 the hazard of foreign war, with the general concurrence of the 
 nation, without any danger to the integrity of the Union, and 
 without an unreasonable price, the question of annexation were 
 presented, it would appear in quite a different light. Mr. Clay 
 then enters upon a review of our past negotiations in regard to 
 the territory of Texas, and of the relations of Texas toward 
 Mexico. And the conclusion at which he arrives is, that if the 
 government of the United States were to acquire Texas, it would 
 acquire along with it all the incumbrances which Texas is under, 
 and among them the actual or suspended war between Mexico 
 and Texas. 
 
 And here the language of Mr. Clay has the emphasis of proph 
 ecy : " Of that conseqnence," he says, " there can not be a 
 doubt. Annexation and war with Mexico are identical." In con 
 clusion, he remarks : " I consider the annexafion of Texas, at 
 this time, without the assent of Mexico, as a measure compro 
 mising the national character, involving us certainly in war with 
 Mexico, probably with other foreign powers, dangerous to the 
 integrity of the Union, inexpedient in the present financial con 
 dition of the country, and not called for by any general expres 
 sion of public opinion." In a subsequent letter, dated Ashland, 
 July 27, 1844, and addressed to two gentlemen of Alabama, Mr. 
 Clay says, unhesitatingly, that, far from having any personal objec 
 tion to the annexation of Texas, he should be glad to see it, without 
 dishonor; but, at the same time, he expresses the conviction that 
 annexation at that time, and under existing circumstances, would 
 compromit the honor of the country ; involve us in a war, in 
 which the sympathies of all Christendom would be against us ; 
 and endanger the integrity of the Union. National dishonor, 
 foreign war, and distraction and division at home, were too great 
 sacrifices to make for the acquisition of Texas. He remarks in 
 this letter : " I do not think that the subject of slavery ought to 
 affect the question one way or the other. Whether Texas fcn 
 
228 IJFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 independent or incorporated in the United States, I do not be 
 lieve it Avill prolong or shorten the duration of that institution. 
 It is destined to become extinct at some distant day, in my opin 
 ion, by the operation of the inevitable laws of population." 
 
 As the period for the nomination of presidential candidates 
 approached, it became more and more apparent that the Texas 
 question was destined to override all others in the coming con 
 test. The bank, the tariff, and all subordinate matters, were 
 merged in the one great issue of the immediate annexation of 
 Texas. Among the whigs there was a general acquiescence in 
 the views of Mr. Clay on the subject. Some persons, who en 
 tertained extreme opinions as to the feasibility of the immediate 
 abolition of slavery, thought him too tolerant ; and others, whose 
 interests inclined them a different way, saw, in his opposition to 
 annexation, hostility to the extension of an institution which, it 
 was well-known, was always regarded as an evil. But the great 
 body of the whigs of the Union responded heartily to his senti 
 ments, and recognised the wisdom of his policy and the patriot 
 ism of his motives. 
 
 Soon after the withdrawal of Mr. Webster from the cabinet, 
 it began to be rumored that our government had made overtures 
 inviting application from the authorities of Texas for its annexa 
 tion to the United States. These overtures, it was said, were 
 at first coolly received by President Houston ; but " beir r; again 
 approached, not to say importuned, by the executive of th , (Jnited 
 States, he coyly assented to listen to proposals." In i!iv mean 
 time, sedulous efforts were made to bring about that ?$late of 
 public opinion in this country that should favor the increments 
 of the friends of annexation. Insidious appeals were multiplied 
 throughout nearly all the democratic journals, intended to arouse 
 the jealousy of our people in regard to the designs of foreign 
 powers. It was boldly asserted that England was intriguing 
 with a view of establishing a commercial ascendency over Tex 
 as, and that there was great danger that the young republic 
 would yield to the allurements which were held out The slave 
 holding states were called upon to protect themselves *g&ir,st the 
 danger of so formidable a rival as Texas would be tender the 
 protection of Great Britain. And then there was the pet phrase 
 
TEXAN DIPLOMACY. 229 
 
 to which, we believe, Mr. Bancroft first gave currency, of " ex 
 tending the area of freedom !" 
 
 It now appears, from the confessions of "President Houston 
 and his secretary of state, Mr. Anson Jones, that our government 
 was not a match for that of Texas in diplomacy. Mr. Tyler and 
 his advisers were completely duped by the finesse of Messrs. 
 Houston and Jones. The bugbear of English interference was 
 the most unsubstantial of chimeras, and the arguments and asser 
 tions based upon it and used for operating on the minds of the 
 people of the United States, were false and empty. Mr. Anson 
 Jones, in a series of letters recently published in the Galveston 
 Civilian, claims that it was his diplomacy in bringing about the 
 needful state of feeling in this country, which precipitated the 
 annexation movement; that it was the adroitness of Texas policy 
 which accomplished an object that might have been delayed for 
 years. He at the same time denies that there was any intrigue 
 with foreign powers injurious to the interests of the United 
 States, or really adverse to ultimate annexation. He also makes 
 a declaration which throws light upon the effect which the mode 
 of annexation had upon the origin of the war. He is of opinion 
 that the selection by Messrs. Tyler and Calhoun of the house 
 resolutions instead of the senate amendment was extremely in 
 judicious, and he expresses his surprise that that alternative 
 should have been presented to Texas instead of the other and 
 more peaceful mode presented in the proposition for negotiation. 
 He says that this decision of the government of the United 
 States produced surprise in that of Texas, from the belief that 
 war would immediately follow ; whereas, by the senate s mode of 
 proceeding, annexation could have been effected without war : 
 but he says that Texas had no option but to accept the mode 
 selected by President Tyler. The joint resolution of the house 
 provided for the admission of Texas into the Union on certain 
 conditions. The amendment of the senate, which Mr. Tyler 
 chose to set aside, provided for missions and negotiations, for 
 the arrangement of terms of admission and cession. 
 
 The appeals and misrepresentations of the pro-annexation 
 party undoubtedly had a great effect upon that large portion of 
 the people who had neither leisure nor opportunity to look be- 
 
230 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 hind the curtain and witness the questionable means and motives 
 at work for the accomplishment of a measure big with portents 
 of war, of death, and slavery. Could they have seen the springs 
 which set the pageant in motion, they might have been disei 
 chanted. The personal ambition of Mr. John Tyler to associate 
 his name with an important movement, and to place himself as 
 a prominent candidate for a second presidential term before the 
 people, was the insignificant origin of that train of national sins 
 and evils which led to the war with Mexico. The democratic 
 convention and Mr. Polk did but steal Mr. Tyler s thunder, and 
 take up the thread of his policy. The issue which he chose to 
 make with the opposite party and the people was one for which 
 Mr. Tyler had provided for his own ends, but which was now 
 remorselessly adopted by those who saw in it an instrument for 
 operating upon the cupidity, the prejudices, and the fears, of a 
 large number of their countrymen. 
 
 The Mexican authorities had emphatically declared that an 
 nexation would be regarded as an act of war on our part. Mr. 
 Clay had expressed his belief that war would inevitably follow 
 the measure. Mr. Van Buren, escaping for once from the tram 
 mels of non-committalism, had written a long letter in decided 
 opposition to the project of immediate annexation ; and for this 
 he was thrown overboard by the democratic convention of May, 
 
 1844, who in their resolutions recommended the "re-annexation 
 of Texas, at the earliest practicable period, to the cordial support 
 of the democracy of the Union." The soundness of Mr. Clay s 
 riews on this question has been abundantly verified in the course 
 of events, though his predictions were decried as chimerical at 
 the time. Annexation was the primary, if not the immediate 
 cause, of the war with Mexico. 
 
 It was while this annexation scheme was maturing, and all 
 the arts and devices which chicanery could invent to reconcile 
 public opinion were being actively employed, that the conven 
 tions of the two great parties of the Union for the nomination 
 of candidates for the presidential term commencing in March, 
 
 1845, met at Baltimore. The whig convention met first. On 
 the 1st of May, 1844, the city of Baltimore presented an extra 
 ordinary spectacle. The whole population seemed astir, while 
 
WHIG NATIONAL CONVENTION. 231 
 
 a new one, that was almost to outnumber it, was pouring in on 
 all sides. At every avenue, railroad-depot, and wharf, wherever 
 coaches, cars, and steamboats, could disengage their passengers, 
 there was a scene of animation exhibited that bespoke the anti 
 cipation of some great event. There were to be three conven 
 tions during the week : the national convention for the nomina 
 tion of a president and vice-president; the ratification convention 
 of whig young men from all parts of the Union ; and the Mary 
 land gubernatorial convention. 
 
 The hospitality of Baltimore was satisfactorily tested on this 
 occasion. An eye-witness of the scene which the city pre 
 sented described it thus : 
 
 "The whole place resembles a fair. Every street is alive with people, 
 hurrving to and fro from the depots, crowding the sidewalks, clustering 
 round the hotels, chattering, laughing, huzzaing. From time to time, as 
 new delegations arrive, music sounds, banners wave, and the whigs, with 
 .Mger looks and hope, and triumph in their eyes, continue to pour in 
 by thousands from the remotest quarters of the Union. Clay badges hang 
 conspicuously at all button-holes; Clay portraits, Clay banners, Clay rib 
 ands, Clay songs, Clay quicksteps, Clay marches, Clay caricatures, meet the 
 eye in all directions. Oh, the rushing, the driving, the noise, the excite- 
 mep ! To see, and hear, and feel, is glory enough for one day. Not only 
 r.re c.jtels and boarding-houses of all grades and calibres already filled and 
 overflowing, but private dwellings are thrown open with that warm-hearted 
 hospitality which has ever characterized this ardent and excitable popula 
 tion. Everybody is talking: some about who is to be vice-president, but 
 more in anticipation of Thursday s gala. The procession will surpass any 
 thing witnessed in this country." 
 
 On Wednesday, the 1st of May, 1844, the whig national con 
 vention for the nomination of president and vice-president of the 
 United States was held in the universalist church in Calvert 
 street. On calling the list of delegates, it was found that there 
 were only two who did not answer to their names, and they 
 were from the state of Mississippi. The promptitude and una 
 nimity shown in this full attendance was regarded as a happy 
 augury. The honorable Ambrose Spencer, of New York, was 
 appointed president of the convention, assisted by vice-presidents 
 from ail the states of the Union. 
 
 For months there had been no doubt or difference among tho 
 whigs as to the nominee. The task of the convention was not, 
 therefore, an embarrassing one. Mr. Leigh, of Virginia, rose 
 and remarked that the voice of the whig party of the country 
 
232 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 was so decidedly in favor of a certain individual for the presi 
 dency, that it would be unnecessary to go through the usual 
 forms of a nomination. He then offered a resolution, declaring 
 HENRY CLAY, of Kentucky, to be unanimously chosen as the 
 whig candidate for the presidency of the United States, and that 
 f^ J ->e recommended to the people as such. This resolution was 
 adopted by acclamation amid loud and prolonged tokens of en 
 thusiasm and appla.use. A committee, composed of Messrs. 
 Berrien of Georgia, Barnett of Ohio, Archer of Virginia, Law 
 rence of Massachusetts, and Erastus Root of New York, was 
 appointed to wait on Mr. Clay and inform him of his nomination. 
 On a proposition being made that Mr. Clay, who was in Wash 
 ington, should appear in Baltimore the next day, " before the 
 countless thousands who would then be assembled to ratify the 
 nomination," a letter was read from Mr. Clay, in which he briefly 
 said, that he could not reconcile it w r ith his sense of delicacy 
 and propriety to attend either of the whig conventions that week 
 in Baltimore. 
 
 The choice of the convention for vice-president fell upon the 
 honorable THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN, of New Jersey. The 
 result of the first ballot taken, showed 275 votes, of which 138 
 were necessary to a choice. John Sergeant, of Pennsylvania. 
 had 38 ; Millard Fillmore, of New York, 53 ; John Davis, of 
 Massachusetts, 83 ; Theodore Frelinghuysen, 101. The result 
 of the second vote was : for John Sergeant, 32 ; Millard Fill- 
 more, 57; John Davis, 74; Theodore Frelinghuysen, 118. 
 The result of the third vote was : for John Davis, 76 ; for Mil 
 lard Fillmore, 40; for Theodore Frelinghuysen, 155. So it 
 was announced that THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN, having re 
 ceived a majority of all the votes given, was the candidate of 
 the convention for the office of vice-president of the United 
 States. 
 
 Mr. Frelinghuysen had been in the senate of the United States 
 and he deservedly possessed the esteem and confidence of the 
 whigs to the fullest extent. He had, however, become identified 
 with an important religious sect, at whose Bible anniversaries 
 and missionary meetings he was frequently an act : ve and in 
 fluential attendant He was known to belong to the presbyterian 
 
RATIFICATION CONVENTION. 233 
 
 denomination of Christians ; and this circumstance, while it 
 brought over few additions to the whig ranks, was destined to 
 be used with great effect in prejudicing the minds of Roman 
 catholics and adopted citizens generally against the whig pres 
 idential ticket. 
 
 On the 2d of May, the day after the whig nominations had 
 been made the " ratification convention," composed principally 
 of whig young men from all parts of the country, had their pro 
 cession and their meetings. " This was, beyond doubt," says an 
 eyewitness, "the largest and most imposing political assemblage 
 that over convened in the United States. Every state of the 
 Union was represented, and several of them by thousands of 
 delegates ; an assemblage of distinguished statesmen from one 
 extreme of the Union to the other, was congregated, not of young 
 men only, but veterans in their country s service. The vener 
 able Ambrose Spencer, the associate of Jefferson in his most 
 ardent political struggle, was greeted by others of the same school 
 from the east, west, north, and south. Webster and Berrien 
 were there ; Crittenden and Clayton, George Evans from Maine, 
 Thomas Ewing from Ohio, Morehead from Kentucky. Eleven 
 ex-governers of the states attended the convention." 
 
 We must refer the curious reader to the newspapers of the 
 period for a full description of the great political pageant of the 
 ratification. The procession through the principal streets of 
 Baltimore, was as remarkable for its numbers as for the en 
 thusiasm of which it was the index. " It would be in vain," 
 writes one who witnessed it, " to attempt an enumeration of the 
 banners or their devices : this, I suppose, will all be minutely 
 recorded by some modern Froissart. Some of them were splen 
 did in the highest degree, especially the grand national prize 
 banner, which was placed upon a high, tasteful car, drawn by four 
 white horses. There were numerous likenesses of Henry Clay, 
 some of them very exquisitely painted, and in various degrees 
 approximating a resemblance of the original, whose true face, 
 however, has never yet been presented, save to those who have 
 looked upon the living original. The truth is, that Mr. Clay s 
 countenance varies so exceedingly in its expression, according to 
 the circumstances in which he is placed, that could it be struck 
 
234 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 into marble at any one moment, those who had seen him only 
 when in a different mood, would find fault with it as no likeness. 
 The favorite was here shown up in various phases : sometimes 
 as a statesman, seated, and surrounded by books and papers : 
 sometimes as the farmer of Ashland, in a rural scene, with cattle, 
 plough, and implements of husbandry ; again, as father of the 
 American system, with emblems of home industry round him ; 
 often under the protection of the eagle of his country ; and oftener 
 between allegorical figures of wisdom, justice, and all manner 
 of virtues ; and in several cases as the favored of his country 
 men, who lean upon his portrait with smiles, or point to him as 
 their benefactor. Had Mr. Clay been present, he might be said, 
 parodying the line of Gray, to read his history in a nation s 
 banners." 
 
 At this second convention, the Hon. John M. Clayton of Dela 
 ware, presided. Judge Berrien, from the committee appointed 
 at the nominating convention to communicate to Mr. Clay the in 
 telligence of their choice, read the letter of the committee, and 
 Mr. Clay s reply. " Confidently believing," says Mr. Clay, " that 
 this nomination is in conformity with the desire of a majority of 
 the people of the United States, I accept it, from a high sense 
 of duty, and with feelings of profound gratitude." Mr. Webster, 
 having been called for, addressed the meeting eloquently in be 
 half of the nominations, remarking that all the indications of 
 public sentiment, in all quarters, had proclaimed that Mr. Clay, 
 of all the rest, was the man on whom, upon this occasion, the 
 voice of the country had concentrated. The ratification conven 
 tion, after the adoption of appropriate resolutions, adjourned 
 sine die. 
 
 The day after their adjournment, a letter from Mr. Clay, dated 
 Washington, May 3, 1844, was addressed to the National Intelli 
 gencer, in which, by way of reply to the numerous invitations 
 poured in upon him to visit his fellow-citizens at various points 
 of the Union, he says : " Hereafter, and until the pending presi 
 dential election is decided, I can not accept nor attend any public 
 meeting of my fellow-citizens, assembled in reference to that ob 
 ject, to which I may have been or shall be invited. It is my 
 wish and intention, when I leave this city, to return home as 
 
NOMINATION OF JAMES K. POLK. 235 
 
 quietly and quickly as possible, and, employing myself in my 
 private business and affairs, there to await the decision of the 
 presidential election, acquiescing in it, whatever it may be, with 
 the most perfect submission." 
 
 Twenty-six days after the adjournment of the convention which 
 nominated Mr. Clay, there were two more political conventions 
 in Baltimore, for the purpose of nominating presidential candi 
 dates. One of these met on the 27th of May, in the Odd- 
 Fellows hall, north Gay street ; and, after a rather stormy 
 session of three days, nominated, to the surprise of everybody, 
 Mr. James K. Polk of Tennessee, for the presidency. The next 
 day, Mr. George M. Dallas of Pennsylvania, was nominated by 
 the same body for the vice-presidency ; Silas Wright, of New 
 York, having declined the nomination. The other presidential 
 convention to which we have referred, met in another part of the 
 city, also on the 27th, and, with extraordinary unanimity, nomi 
 nated Mr. John Tyler for the presidency. 
 
 At an early stage in the proceedings of the democratic con 
 vention, a proposition was brought forward by Mr. Saunders, of 
 North Carolina, requiring a two-third vote to make a nomination. 
 This was a fatal blow at the prospects of Mr. Van Buren, and 
 his friends vehemently opposed the proposition. Mr. Benjamin 
 F. Butler of New York, the most active of Mr. Van Buren s ad 
 herents, declared that he knew well that in voting by simple 
 majority, the friend he was pledged to support would receive a 
 majority of from ten to fifteen, and consequently the nomination. 
 If two thirds should be required to make a choice, that friend 
 must inevitably be defeated, and that defeat caused by the action 
 of states that could not be claimed as democratic. But, notwith 
 standing the remonstrances of Mr. Butler and others, the two- 
 third rule was agreed upon by a vote of 148 to 118. After seven 
 ballotings, in which Messrs. Van Buren and Cass received the 
 greater number of votes out of seven candidates, it began to be 
 apparent that the friends of the annexation policy were destined 
 to carry the day. Mr. Young, of New York, remarked that " a 
 firebrand had been thrown into their camp by the mongrel ad 
 ministration at Washington, and this was the motive seized upon 
 as a pretext for a change on the part of some gentlemen. That 
 
236 LIFE OF HENRY CLAT. 
 
 firebrand was the abominable Texas question but that question, 
 like a fever, would wear itself out, or kill the patient ." 
 
 In his letter of April 23, 1844, to a committee in Cincinnati, 
 Mr. Polk had remarked : " I have no hesitation in declaring that 
 I am in favor of the immediate re-annexation of Texas to the ter 
 ritory and government of the United States." There could not 
 be a doubt that it was for their views on this question, henceforth 
 to be made the predominant one, that Mr. Martin Van Buren was 
 abandoned and Mr. Polk adopted as the candidate. " Let Texas 
 be the watchword," said General Jackson, subsequently, in his 
 letter of June 14, 1844, "and victory is certain." 
 
 As for the Tyler convention, it was never regarded in any other 
 light than as a joke by the intelligent. The democratic party, 
 thinking they could use Mr. Tyler for their own peculiar ends, 
 tried to preserve their gravity upon the subject and look serious ; 
 they succeeded pretty well in this until they had no further use 
 for the renegade, and then their laughter, long suppressed, burst 
 forth : and they have ever since extended no other notice than 
 that of derision to Mr. Tyler and his friends. This convention 
 was composed, in a great measure, of men with little political or 
 any other character to boast of. Its results were impotent and 
 abortive. After affording amusement to paragraphists and news 
 paper readers ; after Mr. Tyler had been nominated, and had 
 accepted the nomination, the farce ended with the formal with 
 drawal of his name from the list of candidates before the people. 
 
 And now the war of calumny, misrepresentation, and abuse, 
 which had been waged in years past against Mr. Clay, was re 
 vived in all its virulence. That staple article of electioneering 
 slander, the old coalition story, was manufactured anew for the mar 
 ket, with variations to suit the taste of a new generation. Shortly 
 before the meeting of the whig convention, Mr. Linn Boyd of 
 Kentucky, had introduced the subject on the floor of the house 
 of representatives. It would be tedious to quote his citations of 
 exploded calumnies, and show how and when their utter false 
 hood was proved. The conclusion at which Mr. Boyd arrives, 
 after taking for granted that all the nailed slanders against Mr 
 Clay are established verities, is simply this : " Although," h 
 %ays, " impartial men may believe, as I do myself, that thers was 
 
OLD SLANDERS REVIVED. 237 
 
 no technical bargain entered into between Mr. Adams and Mr. 
 Clay in their own proper persons, yet it does seem to me that no 
 one, free from prejudice, can carefully examine the circumstances 
 and evidences in the case, without the most thorough conviction 
 that it was understood by the parties that Mr. Clay s appointment 
 to the office of secretary of state, would result from the election 
 of Mr. Adams." Truly, a lame and impotent conclusion! As 
 lame and impotent if we may borrow an illustration applied to 
 a different case as it would be should some political adversary 
 accuse Mr. Boyd of murder, and, on being called on for an ex 
 planation, should say : " Although impartial men may believe, as 
 I do myself, that there was no technical murder committed by Mr. 
 Boyd in his own proper person, yet it does seem to me that he 
 has made a slaughterous attempt upon the king s English." By 
 his own admission, Mr. Boyd fully exculpates Mr. Clay. 
 
 "Sir," said Mr. "Webster, in his speech of Jairaary, 1830, on Mr. Foot s 
 resolution, " this charge of a coalition in reference to the late administration, 
 is not original with the honorable member. It did not spring up in the 
 senate. Whether as a fact, as an argument, or as an embellishment, it is all 
 borrowed. He adopts it, indeed, from a very low origin, and a still lower 
 present condition. It is one of the thousand calumnies with which the press 
 teemed during an excited political canvass. It was a charge, of which there 
 was not only no proof or probability, but which was, in itself, wholly im 
 possible to be true. No man of common information ever believed a syllable 
 of it. Yet it was of that class of falsehoods which, by continued repetition, 
 through all the organs of detraction and abuse, are capable of misleading 
 those who are already far misled; and of further fanning passions already 
 kindled into flame. Doubtless it served in its day, and in a greater or less 
 degree, the end designed by it. Having done that, it has sunk into the mass 
 of stale and loathsome calumnies. It is the very cast-off slough of a polluted 
 and shameless press. Incapable of further mischief, it lies in the sewer, life 
 less and despised. It is not now, sir, in the power of the honorable member 
 to give it dignity or decency, by attempting to elevate it, and to introduce 
 it into the senate. He can not change it from what it is an object of gen 
 eral disgust and scorn. On the contrary, the contact, if he choose to touch 
 it, is more likely to drag him down, down to the place where it lies itself." 
 
 In the autumn of 1844, an interesting communication was made 
 to the public by Mr. B. W. Leigh, of Virginia, on the subject of 
 this old galvanized slander. For some twenty years, the traducers 
 of Mr. Clay in that state, had made frequent mysterious allusions 
 to a correspondence, the publication of which they loudly de 
 manded. Mr. Clay s reluctance to consent to the publication, 
 originating solely in motives of delicacy the most honorable, was 
 
238 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 publicly attributed by those who well knew every syllable of tha 
 correspondence, to fears of exposure, and referred to as an ad 
 mission of guilt. The very men who dreaded the publication 
 lest it should expose the hollowness and insincerity of their ac 
 cusations, clamored for it in the reliance, which for many year 
 proved not unfounded, that Mr. Clay would never consent to vin 
 dicate himself by the simple means which they defied him t< 
 adopt. 
 
 Sometime during the summer of 1844, Mr. Clay sent copie 
 of these letters, which his enemies made the basis of their vagu< 
 and unprincipled charges, to Mr. Leigh ; and, in giving them t 
 the world, that gentleman remarks : 
 
 "If I am rightly informed, no application has ever been made directly t 
 Mr. Clay by Mr. Blair or Mr. Linn Boyd, or by any other of that party, t 
 
 consent to the publication of these letters Overcome by the earnes 
 
 entreaties of his friends in Virginia, Mr. Clay has reluctantly consented t 
 the publication (if they think it proper) of these letters, private and confi 
 dential as they are, and even playful and sportive in their charactei 
 
 Knowing, as he must have known, that the publication couL 
 
 only be beneficial to him, he has yet patiently endured all the calumnie 
 which have been founded on the letters. I now publish them, in order t 
 put down, effectually and for ever, a vile charge, which has been revived afte 
 having been completely refuted, and which has been revived here in Vii 
 ginia, in the hope that the letters, after so long a delay, would not be put 
 lished." 
 
 From one of these letters, dated January 29, 1825, we quote ; 
 few passages, to show that even in the informal freedom oi 
 familiar correspondence, Mr. Clay s objections to the elevatior 
 of a military chieftain, with purely military claims, to the chiel 
 magistracy, would break forth with spontaneous earnestness ant 
 force : 
 
 * -x- * "The knaves can not comprehend how a man can be honest 
 They can not conceive that I should have solemnly interrogated my conscience 
 and asked it to tell me seriously what I ought to do! that it should hav 
 enjoined me not to establish the dangerous precedent of elevating, in thi 
 early stage of the republic, a military chieftain merely because he has won < 
 great victory ! I am afraid that you will think me moved by these abuses 
 Be not deceived. I assure you that I never, in my whole life, felt more per 
 feet composure, more entire confidence in the resolutions of my judgment 
 and a more unshaken determination to march up to my duty. And, mj 
 dear sir, is there an intelligent and unbiased man, who must not, sooner 01 
 later, concur with me? Mr. Adams, you know well, I should never hav< 
 selected, if at liberty to draw from the whole mass of our citizens for a pres 
 ident Bat there is no danger in his elevation now, or in time to come 
 Kot so of his competitor, of whom I can not believe that killing twenty-fiv< 
 
POLITICAL CHIFFONIERS. 239 
 
 hundred Englishmen at New Orleans qualifies him for the various, difficult, 
 and complicated duties of the chief magistracy. I perceive that I am un 
 consciously writing a sort of defence, which you may probably think im 
 plies guilt. What will be the result? you will ask with curiosity, if not 
 anxiety. I think Mr. Adams must be elected ; such is the prevailing opin 
 ion. Still I shall not consider the matter as certain, until the election is 
 over." 
 
 In a card, which bears date the 3d of May, 1844, General 
 Jackson reaffirmed the charge of " bargain and corruption" in a 
 ."manner which showed that age had not blunted the vindictive 
 asperities of his nature. General James Hamilton, in a letter 
 growing out of this card, dated the 26th of the same month, re 
 marks : " It would, in my humble opinion, have been an act of 
 supererogation on the part of Mr. Clay to have made a bargain 
 for what, by the force and gravity of political causes and geo 
 graphical considerations, was inevitable without either his crime 
 or his participation an offer of a seat in Mr. Adams s cabinet. 
 * * * * I sincerely believe that Mr. Clay s acceptance of 
 the office that subjected him to such obloquy was the result of a 
 sense of the duty which he owed to the country, to aid by his 
 counsels him whom he had assisted to place in power." 
 
 The pertinacious industry with which this putrid calumny has 
 been raked up by political chiffoniers from the kennel where it 
 has been repeatedly cast, " like a dead dog despised," can only 
 be accounted for by the fact, that Mr. Clay s whole career, pub 
 lic and private, will bear the strictest scrutiny of honor and 
 patriotism. He was never one of those accommodating states 
 men, who, starting with the assumption that " all is fair in poli 
 tics," have one conscience for their public and another for their 
 private acts ; who look upon deceptions and intrigues that would 
 be contemptible in the man of business or of society as very 
 venial in the politician. In the lack of other points, therefore, 
 for attack in his public history, this miserable suspicion for, in 
 its most specious state, the slander could never rise above the 
 dignity of a suspicion was selected as the one vulnerable spot. 
 
 It has been truly remarked that " there is no example in the 
 records of detraction and calumny of such persevering, rancor 
 ous, and malignant attacks, as those which have been directed 
 against Mr. Clay during the last twenty years, because of the 
 fact that he did not deem it his duty, acting either upon his own 
 
240 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 judgment, or in conformity with the wishes of his constituents, 
 whom he represented in the house of representatives, to cast his 
 vote for General Jackson as president of the United States." 
 Nor were these attacks confined to his public character and life. 
 The domestic fireside was invaded. The social circle was not 
 held sacred. Mr. Clay was denounced as a gambler, a sabbath- 
 breaker, and a profane swearer. Stories the most unfounded, 
 charges the most imaginary, were busily circulated by the oppo 
 sition, in newspapers and pamphlets, holding him up as a man 
 to be distrusted by the religious portion of the community. It 
 is unnecessary to recapitulate and refute these libels. They 
 served their purpose, doubtless ; and any exposure of their utter 
 falsehood, however thorough and irresistible it might be, would 
 not prevent their revival, whenever it might answer the ends of 
 the profligate and the designing to give them currency. " False 
 hood," said Mr. Clayton, of Delaware, in a speech delivered 
 some six weeks before the presidential election "falsehood is 
 now the order of the day. Perhaps the world before never ex 
 hibited more disgraceful spectacles of reckless mendacity for 
 political purposes." 
 
 Mr. Clay s professional labors were not interrupted in conse 
 quence of his nomination. Soon after his return to Kentucky he 
 engaged in an important law case, in which he displayed as 
 much zeal and watchfulness in behalf of the interests of his 
 client as if he had just entered upon the practice of the law, and 
 was struggling to gain his first suit. 
 
 But now the eventful moment that was to influence the fate of 
 the country for years perhaps for centuries was at hand. 
 Never before were vast bodies of the American people so in 
 tensely interested in a political result as in that of the presiden 
 tial election of November, 1844. It came at last, and with 
 crushing effect, to thousands and hundreds of thousands, who 
 had hoped and wished well for the republic. Mr. Clay was 
 defeated but defeated under circumstances far less mortifying 
 to him than such a triumph as that achieved by his opponent, 
 Mr. Polk, would have been. He was defeated by the grossest 
 and most reckless frauds that were ever perpetrated by the prac 
 tical enemies of republican liberty. These frauds were alone 
 
RESULT OF THE ELECTION. 5*41 
 
 sufficient to prevent the true verdict of the people from being 
 rendered : but, conjoined with other impositions, they lead us 
 irresistibly to the conclusion that, could an honest expression of 
 the public will hare been obtained, it would have been in favor 
 of Mr. Clay by a vast preponderance, not only of the intelli 
 gence, but of the legal voters of the country. Indeed, had the 
 illegal votes that were polled in the state of New York alone 
 been cast aside, Mr. Clay would have been the president of the 
 United States. We shall have more to say hereafter of the 
 means by which the legitimate expression of the popular will 
 was rendered null and void. 
 
 The effect of this great defeat upon the whig party was dis 
 heartening in the extreme. You would have thought some stu 
 pendous public calamity had occurred, to have seen the signs of 
 deep, sincere grief written upon the majority of honest, intelli 
 gent faces. Manifestations of sorrow and of attachment the most 
 touching were offered to Mr. Clay. A profound sigh seemed to 
 be wrung from the nation s heart. Tears, such as Cato might 
 have wept, were shed from manly eyes ; and many of its truest 
 friends began to despair of the republic. Innumerable were the 
 letters from all parts of the country, filled with patriotic regrets, 
 that found their way to Ashland. Most of these were from per 
 sonal strangers ; some from acquaintances. 
 
 " I have sustained many severe losses of dear friends," writes 
 one; "but nothing has hurt me like this. Oh, God! is there 
 no constitutional provision by which illegal votes can be purged 
 out, and the legally elected president restored to this nation ?" 
 
 " I have thought for three or four days," says another corre 
 spondent, " that I would write you ; but, really, I am unmanned. 
 All is gone ! I see nothing but despair depicted on every coun 
 tenance. I confess that nothing has happened to shake my con 
 fidence in our ability to sustain a free government so much as 
 this. A cloud of gloom hangs over the future. May God save 
 the country !" 
 
 Another writes : " What a wound has been inflicted upon the 
 honor and interests of the country ! I pray God that truth may 
 yet prevail, and our republican institutions be saved." 
 K 16 
 
242 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 " I write with an aching heart," is the language of another 
 letter, " and ache it must. God Almighty save us ! Although 
 our hearts are broken and bleeding, and our bright hopes are 
 crushed, we feel proud of our candidate. God bless you! Your 
 countrymen do bless you. All know how to appreciate the mai 
 who has stood in the first rank of American patriots. Thougl 
 unknown to you, you are by no means a stranger to me." 
 
 An American in London writes, under date of November 27, 
 1844 : " I will not lose a moment in conveying to you the heart 
 felt emotion, amazement, and grief, with which I received the 
 news, just arrived, of the result of the presidential election. 
 Great God ! is it possible ? Have our people given this aston 
 ishing, this alarming proof, of the madness to which party frenzy 
 can carry them ? The hopes of the wise and the good, in the 
 New and the Old World, rested upon you. But my heart is 
 sick. May God for ever bless you !" 
 
 These extracts will convey to the future reader but a feeble 
 impression of that general feeling of chagrin and despondency 
 which was maniifested throughout the United States at the re 
 sult of the election of 1844. It was not a feeling, the offspring 
 of selfish disappointment, of wounded pride, or defeated partisan 
 ship ; but one arising from regrets the most purely patriotic and 
 disinterested that our fallible nature can cherish regrets spring 
 ing from the most devoted love of country, the most single-hearted 
 attachment to our system of government, the most entire faith in 
 the goodness and worth of republican liberty. Letters without 
 number from the mothers and daughters of the land were also 
 addressed to Mr. Clay, indicative of the wide-spread affliction 
 which had been produced by his defeat. Numerous testimonials 
 of the unabated affection and admiration with which he was re 
 garded were presented. The ladies of Virginia held meetings 
 and formed an association, at the head of which was Mrs. Lucy 
 Barbour, for procuring by voluntary subscription a statue to his 
 honor. Their efforts were crowned with the most complete suc 
 cess. Addresses from large bodies of his fellow-citizens in 
 evcrv state of the Union bore to him the fullest assurance that 
 he was still first in their esteem, and that the untoward result of 
 the contest had not affected their convictions of the fact that a 
 
ADDRESS OF THE KENTUCKY ELECTORS. 243 
 
 large majority of the legal voters of the United States were in 
 favor of him and his policy. 
 
 The presidential electors of Kentucky, having discharged the 
 duty intrusted to them by the people, determined, before separa 
 ting, to wait upon Mr. Clay in a body, and tender him a declara 
 tion of their high esteem for him as a private citizen, and their 
 undiminished confidence in his exalted patriotism and superior 
 statesmanship. No public notice had been given of their inten 
 tion to visit Ashland, and Mr. Clay himself was not made ac 
 quainted with it until a few hours before their arrival. He met 
 them at his door, and, after an exchange of greetings, Judge 
 Underwood, on behalf of the electors, addressed him in a brief 
 and eloquent speech, to which Mr. Clay responded. Both the 
 address and the reply possess such intrinsic and enduring inter 
 est, that we copy them entire : 
 
 "Ms, CLAY : I have been selected by the members of our electoral college 
 to say to you for each one of us, that we have come to offer you the homage 
 of our personal regard and profound respect. In this work of the heart, 
 many of your neighbors have likewise come to unite with us. On yester 
 day, at Frankfort, we performed our official duty in obedience to the will 
 of the people of Kentucky, by voting unanimously for yourself and Theodore 
 Frelinghuysen to fill the offices of president and vice-president of the United 
 States. 
 
 "The machinations of your enemies, their frauds upon the elective fran 
 chise, and their duplicity with the people, in promulgating opposite prmci 
 pies in different sections, have defeated your election. 
 
 " We have no hope of preferment at your hands, which can tempt us to 
 flatter, nor can the pen of proscription intimidate us in speaking the truth. 
 Under existing circumstances it gratifies us to take you by the hand, and tc 
 unite, as we do most cordially, in expressing the sentiments of our hearta 
 and of those we represent in regard to your personal character and political 
 principles. 
 
 "Your past services are so interwoven with the history of our country 
 for the last forty years, that malice and envy can not prevent succeeding 
 generations from dwelling on your name with admiration and gratitude. 
 Your example will illuminate the path of future statesmen, when those who 
 hate and revile you are forgotten, or are only remembered, like the incen 
 diary who burnt the temple, for the evil they have done. 
 
 "To you the election has terminated without personal loss; but to the 
 nation, in our judgment, the injury is incalculable. God grant that the 
 confederacy may not hereafter mourn over the result in dismembered frag 
 ments! 
 
 " While your enemies have not attempted to detract from your intellect 
 ual character, they have with xintiring malice attacked your moral reputa 
 tion and endeavored to destroy it. The verbal slanders and printed libels 
 employed as means to accomplish political objects, have stained the charac 
 ter of our country and its institutions more than they have injured yours. 
 
244 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 " In your high personal character, in your political principles, and unri 
 valled zeal and ability to carry them out, may be found the strong motives 
 for our anxious efforts to secure your election. The protection of American 
 labor, a national currency connected with a fiscal agent for the government, 
 the distribution among the states of the proceeds of the public lands, further 
 constitutional restrictions upon executive power and patronage, and a limi 
 tation upon the eligibility of the president for a second term, were meas 
 ures which, under your administration, we hoped to mature and bring into 
 practical operation. By your defeat they have been endangered, if not for 
 ever lost. 
 
 " But we will not speculate on coming events. If things work well, we 
 
 shall find consolation 
 we are not 
 
 solation in the general prosperity. If apprehended evils come, 
 responsible ; and, retaining our principles, we shall enjoy the 
 
 happy reflection of having done our duty. 
 
 "In the shades of Ashland may you long continue to enjoy peace, quiet, 
 and the possession of those great faculties which have rendered you the ad 
 miration of your friends and the benefactor of your country. And when at 
 last death shall demand its victim, while Kentucky will contain your ashes, 
 rest assured that old and faithful friends those who knowing you longest, 
 loved you best will cherish your memory and defend your reputation." 
 
 The reply of Mr. Clay, as it appears in the Lexington Ob 
 server of December 10, 1844, was as follows : 
 
 " I am greatly obliged, gentlemen, by the kindness toward me, which has 
 prompted this visit from the governor, the presidential electors of Ken 
 tucky, and some of my fellow-citizens in private life. And I thank you, sir 
 (Mr. Underwood), their organ on this occasion, for the feeling and eloquent 
 address which you have just done me the honor to deliver. I am under 
 the greatest obligations to the people of Kentucky. During more than forty 
 years of my life they have demonstrated their confidence and affection toward 
 me in every variety of form. This last and crowning evidence of their long 
 and faithful attachment, exhibited in the vote which, in their behalf, you gave 
 yesterday at the seat of the state government, as the electoral college of 
 Kentucky, fills me with overflowing gratitude. But I should fail to express 
 the feelings of my heart if I did not also offer my profound and grateful 
 acknowledgments to the other states which have united with Kentucky in 
 the endeavor to elect me to the chief magistracy of the Union, and to the 
 million and a quarter of freemen, embracing so much virtue, intelligence, and 
 patriotism, who, wherever residing, have directed strenuous and enthusias 
 tic exertions to the same object. 
 
 "Their effort has been unavailing, and the issue of the election has not 
 corresponded with their anxious hopes and Confident expectations. You 
 have, sir, assigned some of the causes which you suppose have occasioned 
 the result. I will not trust myself to speak of them. My duty is that of 
 perfect submission to an event which is now irrevocable. 
 
 " I will not affect indifference to the personal concern I had in the politi 
 cal contest just terminated: but, unless I am greatly self-deceived, the prin 
 cipal attraction to me of the office of president of the United States arose 
 out of the cherished hope that I might be an h amble instrument in the 
 hands of Providence to accomplish public good. I desired to see the former 
 purity of the general government restored, and to see dangers and evils 
 which I sincerely believed encompassed it averted and remedied. I was 
 anxious that the policy. of the country, especially in the great department 
 
HIS REPLY TO THE ELECTORS. 245 
 
 of domestic labor and industry, should be fixed and stable, that all might 
 know how to regulate and accommodate their conduct. And, fully con 
 vinced of the wisdom of the public measures which you have enumerated, I 
 hoped to live to witness, and to contribute to, their adoption and estab 
 lishment. 
 
 "So far as respects any official agency of mine, it has been otherwise dfr 
 creed, and I bow respectfully to the decree. The future course of the gov 
 ernment is altogether unknown, an \ wrapped in painful uncertainty. \ 
 shall not do the new administration the injustice of condemning it in ad 
 vance. On the contrary, I earnestly desire that, enlightened by its owi 
 reflections, and by a deliberate review of all the great interests of the coun 
 try, and prompted by public opinion, the benefit may yet be secured of th< 
 practical execution of those principles and measures for which we hav 
 honestly contended; that peace and honor may be preserved ; and that this 
 young but great nation may be rendered harmonious, prosperous, and pow 
 erful. 
 
 "We are not without consolations under the event which has happened. 
 The whig party has fully and fairly exhibited to the country the principle* 
 and measures which it believed best adapted to secure our liberties an^ 
 promote the common welfare. It has made, in their support, constant and 
 urgent appeals to the reason and judgment of the people. For myself, 1 
 have the satisfaction to know that I have escaped a great and fearful re 
 sponsibility ; and that, during the whole canvass, I have done nothing incon 
 sistent with the dictates of the purest honor. No mortal man is authorized 
 to say that I held out to him the promise of any office or appointment what 
 ever. 
 
 "What now is the duty of the whig party? I venture to express an 
 opinion with the greatest diffidence. The future is enveloped in a veil im 
 penetrable by human eyes. I can not contemplate it without feelings of 
 great discouragement But I know of only one safe rule in all the vicissi 
 tudes of human life, public and private, and that is, conscientiously to satisfy 
 ourselves of what is right, and firmly and undeviatingly to pursue it under 
 all trials and circumstances, confiding in the Great Ruler of the Universe for 
 ultimate success. The whigs are deliberately convinced of the truth and 
 wisdom of the principles and measures which they have espoused. It 
 seems, therefore, to me that they should persevere in contending for them ; 
 and that, adhering to their separate and distinct organization, they should 
 treat all who have the good of their country in view with respect and sym 
 pathy, and invite their co-operation in securing the patriotic objects which 
 it has been their aim and purpose to accomplish. 
 
 "I heartily thank you, sir, for your friendly wishes for my happiness, in 
 the retirement which henceforward best becomes me. Here I hope to en 
 joy peace and tranquillity, seeking faithfully to perform, in the walks of 
 private life, whatever duties may yet appertain to me. And I shall never 
 cease, while life remains, to look with lively interest and deep solicitude, 
 upon the movement and operations of our tree system of government, and 
 to hope that under the smiles of an all-wise Providence, our republic may 
 be ever just, honorable, prosperous, and great." 
 
 We learn from an eyewitness that the scene, during the deliv 
 ery of these remarks was at once painful and interesting. While 
 Mr. Clay was expressing his grateful regards for his friends, 
 whc had stood up to shield him from the malignant calumnies of 
 
246 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 his enemies, and the patriotic hope that the result of the election, 
 in the hands of an all-wise Providence, might be overruled for 
 good to the country, every eye was suffused with manly tears. 
 The old men who had known him in his earlier career, and had 
 seen him come forth unharmed from amid the arrows of calumny 
 and detraction which had been unsparingly aimed at him, and 
 the unceasing though puerile efforts which had been made to ar 
 rest his progress the young men who had been taught in in 
 fancy to lisp his name, and to revere him as his country s benefac 
 tor wept together. " During Mr. Clay s remarks we occupied 
 a position immediately in front of him ; and as we watched his 
 expressive countenance, and saw the deep emotion which at 
 times almost overpowered him, and well nigh choked his utter 
 ance as he gave expression to the sentiments which have ever 
 filled his bosom to the exclusion of every selfish feeling, we felt 
 a conviction of his greatness, which, with all our former admi 
 ration of the man, we had never before realized." 
 
 The following was the numerical result of the election of 
 1844: For CLAY Massachusetts, 12 ; Rhode Island, 4 ; Con 
 necticut, 6 ; Vermont, 6 ; New Jersey, 7 ; Delaware, 3 ; Mary 
 land, 8; North Carolina, 11; Tennessee, 13; Kentucky, 12; 
 Ohio, 23. Total, 105. 
 
 For POLK Maine, 9 ; New Hampshire, 6 ; New York, 36 ; 
 Pennsylvania, 26; Virginia, 17; South Carolina, 9 ; Georgia, 
 10; Alabama, 9; Mississippi, 6; Louisiana, 6; Indiana, 12; 
 Illinois, 9; Missouri, 7; Michigan, 5; Arkansas, 3. Total, 
 170. 
 
 The official popular vote showed for CLAY, 1,297,912; for 
 POLK, 1,336,196; for BIRNEY, the candidate of the "liberal 
 party" (sad misnomer!) as they called themselves, 62,127. Mr. 
 Folk s majority over Mr. Clay, exclusive of South Carolina, 
 where the presidential electors were chosen by the legislature, 
 was 38,284. If to this be added 20,000 as the majority of Mr. 
 Polk in South Carolina, his aggregate majority over Mr. Clay 
 was 58,284. Place the Birneyvote (62,127) by the side of this, 
 and it will be seen that Mr. Polk did not receive the votes of a 
 majority of the people. Mr. Clay received more votes by up 
 ward of twenty thousand than General Harrison, with all his 
 
CAUSES OF THE WHIGS* DEFEAT. 247 
 
 popularity and the immense efforts of the whigs, received in 
 1840. Take into account the large abstraction from the whig 
 ranks in the state of New York by Birney, the alienations pro 
 duced by the " Native" party, and other causes, to which we 
 shall more particularly allude, and it will be seen that the whigs 
 had abundant cause to confide in the strength of their candidate 
 with the people, and to feel assured that, but for the frauds, 
 treacheries, and deceits .hat were practised, their triumph would 
 have been as complete sis their cause was just. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 THE FRAUDS AND FOLLIES OF 1844. 
 
 THE causes of the defeat of the whigs in the j residential elec 
 tion of 1844, can be distinctly traced without tho aid of hypoth 
 esis and speculation. Foremost among them we may cite the 
 foreign influence which, operating principally in the state of 
 New-York, was also powerfully felt in Pennsylvania and other 
 states. Early in the canvass, Mr. Brownson, a recent convert 
 to the Roman catholic religion, the editor of a quarterly review 
 published in Boston, and a writer of no mean abilities, gave the 
 key-note f<>r misrepresentations, which were echoed, with most 
 malignant effect, from Maine to Louisiana. Of Mr. Frelinghuy- 
 sen he wrote in the following terms : 
 
 " Mr. Frelinghuysen is not only a whig in the worst sense of the term, 
 but he is also the very impersonation of narrow-minded, ignorant, conceited 
 bigotry a man who attacks religious liberty, demands the unhallowed 
 union of chnrch and state, and contends that the government should legally 
 recognise the religion of the majority, and declare whatever goes counter to 
 that to be contra bonos mores. He concentrates in himself the whole spirit 
 of Native Americanism/ and No Popery, which displayed itself so bril 
 liantly in the recent burnings of the catholic dwellings, seminaries, and 
 churches, in the city of Philadelphia." 
 
 Invective like this, false and flagrant, carried with them still 
 some speciousness. Mr. Frelinghuysen was well understood to 
 be identified with a sect more earnest, perhaps, than any othei 
 i* their denunciations of popery and its dangers. We all know 
 
248 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 the potency of religious prejudices, and how high above mere 
 secular interests a believer will place the interests of the church. 
 The Roman catholics, embracing probably nine tenths of our adopt 
 ed citizens and foreign immigrants, were jealously alive to suspi 
 cions and apprehensions such as Mr. Brownsonand others, who had 
 their confidence, saw fit to instill. The recollection of Gen. Har 
 rison s death, a month after his installation, and the consequent 
 elevation of the vice-president to his seat, were fresh in every 
 body s mind. " Why may not Mr. Frelinghuysen become your 
 president, and, in his presbyterian zeal, burn your churches and 
 drive away your priests ?" was the question asked of thousands 
 of foreigners, legal and illegal voters, with irresistible effect. 
 
 A native-American party, too, had suddenly sprung into con 
 sequence about this time. The assiduous attempts of the loco- 
 focos to secure by any means, however disorganizing, the foreign 
 vote the repeated frauds perpetrated by foreigners, falsely 
 claiming to be naturalized, at the polls the gregarious and anti- 
 American attitude assumed by bodies of them, here and there 
 the consideration that hordes of immigrants, utterly ignorant of 
 our political system, its workings, and its wants, unable, perhaps, 
 even to read and write, had it in their power, after a brief resi 
 dence, to vote, while the intelligent American, with sympathies all 
 awake to his country s interests, well versed in her history, and 
 having a deep stake in her welfare, but who had not passed the 
 age of twenty-one, was debarred from the same privilege facts 
 and considerations like these, had produced a powerful reaction 
 in the minds of native citizens ; and, in the states of New York 
 and Pennsylvania, had given rise to a party, undisciplined, badly 
 organized, and deficient in influential leaders, but exercising great 
 capacities for mischief. All the odium produced in the minds of 
 adopted citizens and foreign illegal voters, by the acts and de 
 nunciations of this party, was transferred, most unjustly, to the 
 whigs and Mr. Clay, while, at the same time, no measure of sup 
 port was rendered to them by the new organization. Mr. Clay 
 had never identified himself in any degree with the principles 
 of this party. His course toward foreigners and adopted citizens, 
 had always been one of extreme liberality. The Irish and Ger 
 mans had always found in him a ready champion and a true 
 
NATIVE-AMERICANISM. 249 
 
 friend. In his speeches in regard to the recognition of South 
 American independence, he had manifested a spirit the most 
 magnanimous and tolerant toward the professors of the Roman 
 catholic belief ; and yet now, through the insidious manoeuvres 
 of his opponents, were all the errors and all the prospective acts, 
 threatened and imaginary, of " nativism," converted to his injury ! 
 
 The apprehension was studiously inculcated by the partisans 
 of Mr. Polk, that the success of this faction was involved in that 
 of Mr. Clay ; that the consequence would be an immediate 
 abolition or modification of the naturalization laws, greatly re 
 stricting the facilities of aliens for becoming voters. This ap 
 prehension had its effect even upon goodly numbers of adopted 
 citizens who had heretofore voted the whig ticket. It also pre- 
 cipated the naturalizing of thousands with the express purpose 
 of opposing nativism, and sent other thousands to the polls whose 
 votes were in direct violation of the laws of the land. 
 
 These facts, it may be said, prove that a reform in our natural 
 ization laws is much needed. But in regard to the question of 
 remedying the evil, Mr. Clay and the whig party stood, and con 
 tinue to stand, no more committed than their opponents. The 
 native-American faction was composed of members of both 
 parties ; and the attempt to make the whigs responsible for their 
 crude policy, their abortive intrigues, and their spasmodic move 
 ments, was the basest injustice, while at the same time it was but 
 too effectual in spreading alarm and misconception among our 
 foreign population. Everywhere pains were taken by the op 
 posite party to produce the impression that the whig and native- 
 American parties were identical. 
 
 Another obvious cause of the disastrous result of the election, 
 was the conduct of the abolition or liberty party, which derived 
 nine tenths of its strength from the whig ranks. There was a 
 time when Mr. James G. Birney might have secured the election 
 of Mr. Clay, and prevented the long train of predicted calamities 
 and crimes, accompanied by bloodshed and affliction, which suc 
 ceeded the annexation of Texas. But Mr. Birney, the friend of 
 " liberty" and enemy of annexation, threw his influence in the 
 scale of Mr. Polk, and persisted in running for the presidency, 
 well knowing that he was thereby aiding the election of Polk. 
 
 K* 
 
250 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 It seemed to be, by a fatal perversity, that while at the north 
 Mr. Clay was represented as an ultra supporter of the institution 
 of slavery, at the south he should be described as an abolitionist 
 although, to use his own language, he was " neither one nor the 
 other." In a private letter, which was purloined and published, 
 bearing date September 18th, 1844, and addressed to Cassius M. 
 Clay, he says : 
 
 " As we have the same surname, and are, moreover, related, great use is 
 made at the south against me, of whatever falls from you. There, you are 
 even represented as being my son ; hence the necessity of the greatest cir 
 cumspection, and especially that you avoid committing me. You are watched 
 wherever you go, and every word you publicly express will be tortured and 
 perverted as my own are. After all, I am afraid you are too sanguine in 
 supposing that any considerable number of the liberty men can be induced 
 to support me." 
 
 The event proved that Mr. Clay s sagacity was not at fault in 
 this apprehension. We have already shown that the whig votes 
 thrown away upon Mr. Birney, were more than sufficient to have 
 prevented the election of Mr. Polk. There is a class of im 
 practicable theorists, who, while they are ready enough to claim 
 and partake all the benefits of our confederate system of govern 
 ment, would yet trample upon those principles of compromise 
 on which it was established and must rest. There is some con 
 sistency in the conduct of the disorganizers who advocate the 
 dissolution of this noble confederacy because they can not 
 at once remould to their taste the character of our people and 
 our institutions ; but the men who profess a love of the Union, 
 and a desire for its perpetuity, and at the same time pursue a 
 course practically fatal to its honor and its interests, because their 
 own political ideal is unattainable, are the most dangerous foes 
 of the republic. It was by the recreancy of such men, that Mr. 
 Clay s elevation to the presidency was prevented. Alas ! they 
 can not give us back the gallant lives and the untarnished honor 
 which their error has cost the country. 
 
 Calumny did its worst in regard to the private and public 
 character of Mr. Clay, as we have already seen ;* but the politi 
 cal duplicity resorted to by the partisans of Mr. Polk, was pro- 
 
 * The course of the whigs toward Mr. Polk, presented a most remarkable contrast to that 
 practised by their opponents toward Mr. Clay. The public acts of the former were alone 
 criticised and canvassed. There was no attempt to hunt up small personalities and scurril 
 ous slanders against him. 
 
POLITICAL DUPLICITY. 251 
 
 ductive of far greater mischief. Everywhere at the south, Mr. 
 Folk s claims were based upon the ground of his opposition to a 
 protective tariff, and his pledges in favor of the immediate annex 
 ation of Texas. At the north, he was represented as a better 
 friend to the tariff than Mr. Clay ; while the issue of annexation 
 was repudiated wherever its unpopularity rendered such a course 
 expedient. Silas Wright, a decided opponent of the Texas 
 project in the senate of the United States, was made a locofoco 
 candidate for governor of New York, by which the people were 
 blinded, and the friends and enemies of annexation in the party, 
 driven to unite in support of Mr. Polk. Thus, while annexation 
 was the party cry in some sections, and, in fact, the great ques 
 tion of the election, care was taken to disclaim it so far in other 
 sections, that the people should be utterly deceived as to the im 
 minence of the measure. 
 
 In the resolutions of the convention which nominated Mr. Polk, 
 there was no allusion, save a very equivocal one, to the tariff. 
 This simply declared, that "justice and sound policy forbid the 
 federal government to foster one branch of industry to the detri 
 ment of another, or to cherish the interests of one portion to the 
 injury of another portion of our common country" one of those 
 axiomatic declarations, which, it is obvious, any party might safely 
 adopt. The example of disingenuousness thus given at the con 
 vention, was faithfully copied and improved upon by political 
 managers everywhere. At the south, the declaration was made 
 to mean everything ; at the north, nothing. Mr. Polk was quoted 
 as the most strenuous free-trade philosopher in one place, while 
 in another, he was depicted on banners and in wood-cuts, sur 
 rounded by emblems of domestic industry, and extending a most 
 paternal measure of protection to American products and manu 
 factures. In the slaveholding states, he was represented as the 
 enemy of all tariffs ; while, in the wool-growing and manufdC- 
 turing states, it was promised that he would favor the protective 
 policy, and, if he did not extend still more protection to domestic 
 industry, would at least leave the existing tariff untouched. The 
 success of these contrary manoeuvres fully answered the expecta 
 tions of their authors. In Pennsylvania, they were especially 
 effectual in deceiving the people. Mr. Polk received large ma* 
 
252 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 jorities in counties the most extensively opposed to any disturb 
 ance of the tariff. Indeed, throughout the states of Pennsylvania,* 
 New York, and New Jersey, wherever the majority was supposed 
 to be favorable to the policy, the locofoco banner bore the in 
 scription of " protection." By such acts of chicanery were the 
 people swindled out of their voles ! 
 
 / The great and sufficient cause, however, of the defeat of Mi 
 iulay, were the gross, the undeniable frauds practised by agents 
 - /of the opposite party at the polls. We have spoken of the as- 
 / siduous attempts made to excite the alarm and the prejudices of 
 I foreigners against the whigs. The effect was to enlist them 
 almost to a man in opposition to Mr. Clay. The month before 
 the presidential election, there was an election for governor and 
 other state officers in Maryland. The result in the city of Balti 
 more, showed an increase of votes far beyond any previous ratio. 
 W ; thin a few weeks of the election, not fewer than a thousond 
 naturalization ^ pers had been issued. And it was ascertained 
 that not over forty of the whole number of persons for whom they 
 were procured would vote the whig ticket ! Several convictions 
 for frauds upon the ballot-box took place in the courts, all the cul 
 prits being of one political complexion. A poor woman confessed 
 that she had loaned the naturalization papers of her deceased 
 husband to seventeen different persons, receiving a dollar in every 
 instance for the use of them. Here were seventeen fraudulent 
 votes accounted for ! What a farce seems the elective franchise 
 where such profanations of the freeman s right can be practised 
 by persons, too, just landed on our shores, having no patriotic 
 associations with the past history of the country, no knowledge 
 of our public men and public interests, and hardly able to explain 
 
 * When certain documents, proving Mr. Folk s opposition to the tariff of 1842, were about 
 being circulated in Pennsylvania, the Lycoming Gazette of October 19, 1844, published at 
 Williamsport, Lycoming county, denounced them in these terms : " Burn the vile slanders, 
 the product of British gold. Warn your neighbors of the imposition ; and, when the day 
 of election arrives, teach these hirelings that the democracy of Lycoming are too intelligent 
 to be gulled, and too independent to be bought. By voting for James K. Polk and George 
 M. Dallas, you oppose the creation of another national bank, and insure the continuance of 
 the present tariff." Mr. Polk himself set a most anti-democratic example of disingenuous- 
 ness. When waited upon, shortly before the election, by a committee, who wished to know 
 whether he was in favor of modifying the tariff, he declined making any reply. In a letter 
 dated June 19, 1844, to J. K. Kane, of Philadelphia, he hnd favored the opinion that he was, 
 in the words of the Harrisburg Union (locofoco), " in favor of a judicious revenue tariff 
 affording the amplest incidental protection to American industry." 
 
FRAUDULENT VOTES. 253 
 
 the difference between a monarchical and republican form of 
 government ! 
 
 A salutary restraint was put upon these fraudulent voters by 
 the conviction and punishment of a few of the offenders ; and 
 there was consequently the remarkable falling off of 722 votes in 
 the locofoco vote at the municipal election, which immediately 
 followed, while the whig vote exhibited a diminution of only 
 three. The whig vote at the gubernatorial election was 7,968 ; 
 the locofoco vote, 9,190 : the latter showing an increase of 1,892 
 over the election for mayor of the preceding year, when the 
 largest vote ever thrown was polled, while the whig increase was 
 only 368 ! 
 
 In Pennsylvania, there were evidences of fraud no less con 
 clusive. At Pittsburg, after the presidential election, twenty-four 
 bills of indictment for perjury and subornation of perjury in taking 
 out naturalization papers, to be used for the benefit of Mr. Polk, 
 were found. There were twenty-five prosecutions, in only one 
 of which was there deficiency of proofs. A number of counties 
 polled more votes than they contained male adult inhabitants, ac 
 cording to the census of 1840. If that census was correct, Pike 
 county had but 748 male adult inhabitants : it polled 920 votes ; 
 Monroe county, with 2,034, polled 2,220 ; Tioga, with 3,342, 
 polled 3,367 ; Perry, with 3,500, polled 3,671 ; Columbia, with 
 5,033, polled 5,108 ; and Potter, with 732, polled 794 votes. It 
 is a little remarkable, that in no one of the strong whig counties 
 of the state, was any such ratio of increase exhibited. This 
 marvellous multiplication of voters excited naturally no little sur 
 prise ; for it seemed quite unaccountable that in some of the loco 
 foco counties there should be more voters than adult males, while 
 in all the whig counties the reverse should be invariably the 
 case ! 
 
 In Georgia, from the tax-list and the census, it was estimated 
 that the number of legal voters at the election of 1844, was 
 78,611. What was the result ? The number of votes cast was 
 86,247, leaving 7,636 which can only be accounted for by the 
 supposition of fraud. An examination of details, will show that 
 this presumptive unlawful increase is, in every instance, on the 
 side of the locofocos. The lawful vote of Forsyth, Lumpkin. 
 
254 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 Habersliam, and Franklin counties, was estimated at 3,202 ; but 
 they actually returned 1,821 for Clay, and 4,014 for Polk in 
 all, 5,835 ! In the four whig counties of Madison, Elbert, Lin 
 coln, and Columbia, the lawful vote was 3,105 : the votes returned 
 were 3,123 of which Clay received 2, 124, and Polk 999. The 
 locofocos directed all their efforts to throwing an overwhelming 
 vote in those counties where they already had the ascendency 
 Elbert, the strongest whig county in the state, gave five votes lesr 
 than it was entitled to, according to the estimate to which we 
 have referred. 
 
 The total vote of Louisiana, in the exciting contest of 1840, 
 was 18,912. In that of 1844, it was 26,295 ! The frauds here 
 were monstrous and palpable. In the single parish of Plaque- 
 mines, the vote for Mr. Polk exceeded the whole number of 
 white males of all ages in tLe parish, in 1840, notwithstanding 
 the property qualification exacted of voters. At the investigations 
 afterward instituted, the steward of the steamboat Agnes, John 
 Gibney, swore that the boat went down from New Orleans with 
 a full load of passengers, under the charge of Judge Leonard 
 (the great man of Plaquemines) ; that he himself, a minor, not 
 residing in Plaquemines, being persuaded by the captain, voted 
 three times at different polls in that parish every time for Polk 
 and Dallas. Dr. J. B. Wilkinson, a voter of Plaquemines, swore 
 that he noticed that the polls were opened before the legal hour, 
 and were then surrounded by a crowd of strangers, one of whom 
 he ventured to challenge ; but, as the clerk reached out the book 
 the sheriff pulled it away, declaring that nobody should be sworn ! 
 After this, the foreign votes went in pell-mell. Alfred Vail, a 
 passenger, and E. Seymour Austin, pilot of the Agnes, swore to 
 a state of facts within their knowledge, similar to that sworn to 
 by John Gibney. Albert Savage, engineer of the steamboat 
 Planter, swore that his boat went down with one hundred and 
 forty locofocos from New Orleans, who voted after the fashion 
 above described ; but when he offered a vote it being a Clay 
 one it was refused, the sheriff saying he would swear him! 
 Paul Gormen testified that he went with other whigs to vote, but 
 they were deterred by seeing Charles Bruland driven out of the 
 voting-room, wounded, bloody, and without his hat, having been 
 
NATURALIZATION IN NEW YORK. 255 
 
 beaten by the sheriff for offering a whig vote. There being a 
 large locofoco mob about the polls, threatening the few whigs 
 who approached, the latter were obliged to leave, save in a few 
 instances, without voting, so that the recorded vote of Plaque- 
 mines stood for Clay, 37; for Polk, 1,007! The locofoco 
 majority in the state was 699 ; and if the vote of the Plaque- 
 mines precinct had been admitted to be as at the election of 1843, 
 Mr. Clay would have carried the state. 
 
 In his remarks at Faneuil Hall, on the result of the election 
 Mr. Webster said : 
 
 "I believe it to be an unquestionable fact, that masters of vessels, having 
 brought over emigrants from Europe, have, within thirty days of their 
 arrival, seen those very persons carried up to the polls, and give their votes 
 for the highest offices in the national and state governments. Such voters 
 of course exercise no intelligence, and, indeed, no volition of their own. 
 They can know nothing, either of the question at issue, or of the candidates 
 proposed. They are mere instruments, used by unprincipled men and made 
 competent instruments only by the accumulation of crime upon crime. Now 
 it seems to me impossible that every honest man, and everv good citizen, 
 every true lover of liberty and the constitution, every real friend of the 
 country, would not desire to see an end put to these enormous abuses." 
 
 A reform, Mr. Webster added, was just as important to the 
 rights of foreigners, regularly and fairly naturalized among us, as 
 it is to the rights of native-born American citizens. 
 
 The total vote in tho state of New York, in the presidential 
 election of 1844, was for Clay, 232,473 ; for Polk, 237,588 ; 
 for Birney, 15,812 : in all, 485,808. The majority for Polk over 
 Clay was 5,115 ; the majority for Clay and Birney over Polk, 
 10,632. In the city of New York, and the counties of Erie and 
 St. Lawrence, the most remarkable increase in the locofoco vote 
 was exhibited, and here the largest amount of fraud was perpe 
 trated. For weeks before the election, the courts in the city of 
 New York were crowded by the applicants for naturalization, 
 sent there by the industrious locofoco committees. One of the 
 daily papers gave the following account of a scene presented the 
 day before the election : " Yesterday noon, more than three 
 hundred aliens had crowded about the doors of the common pleas 
 in the city-hall, when, the room having been emptied through the 
 windows, and the doors reopened for fresh admissions, such a 
 scene was witnessed as has .rarely been exhibited in an American 
 
256 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 court-room. The doors were violently thrust in, and the avalanche 
 of human beings came onward with such impetuosity, as to 
 overthrow everything in its course. Coats were torn off, hats 
 were trodden under foot, men were crowded and jammed until 
 almost lifeless, and, in two or three cases, half an hour elapsed 
 before they had recovered themselves sufficiently to speak. Out 
 side of the court-room, the crowd of foreigners was clamorous 
 for admission, and it required the physical force of six officers to 
 make an opening for one of the judges. The court-room was 
 filled and emptied not less than four times during the day, and 
 among the crowd were a number of Irish women." In the city 
 of New York, notwithstanding an admitted defection from the 
 locofoco ranks to the whig, the locofoco increase from 1840, was 
 6,361 ; in St. Lawrence county, it was 1,126, while the whig 
 vote was diminished 131 ; in Erie, it was 1,359, while the whig 
 increase was only 122. 
 
 All the convictions for fraud at the polls in this election were 
 upon one political side, as was all the presumptive evidence of 
 fraud. In the city of New York, the conspiracy for swindling 
 the people bore the marks of deliberate trickery and systematic 
 corruption. There is one plain fact which is a conclusive answer 
 to those who, in their ignorance, might question the assertion 
 that the locofocos are the party which alone avails itself of these 
 infamous outrages on the elective franchise. There is a simple 
 remedy for the evil a registry law. In the cities of Massa 
 chusetts, this law is found to operate as an efficient check to all 
 illegal voting ; and in Massachusetts, we see none of that inordi 
 nate increase in the locofoco vote, that was exhibited in other 
 places, where no such restrictions are established. The facilities 
 for illegal voting in the city of New York, are enormous. A 
 single individual, by dint of hard-swearing and adroit manage 
 ment, can vote at all the voting-booths in the city, numbering up 
 ward of sixty ! A well-drilled band of a hundred men, might 
 easily cast upward of a thousand votes in one day ! A registry 
 law is the only sufficient means of preventing the evil. Compel 
 every legal voter in every ward to have his name enrolled on a 
 printed list of voters some days previous to the election, so that 
 time may be given to the ward officers to compare the lists, and 
 
OPPOSITION TO A REGISTRY LAW. 257 
 
 satisfy themselves of their correctness, and you provide a safe 
 guard against the profanation of the ballot-box. Which party 
 has solicitously asked for such a safeguard, and which has re 
 pudiated it ? Which party, after repeated exertions, procured a 
 registry law, and which party, the moment they came into power, 
 abrogated it with an indecent haste ? The replies to these ques 
 tions fix the stigma of fraud and corruption where it belongs. 
 The locofoco party of New York, have ever shown themselves 
 the reckless and inveterate opponents of a registry law. They 
 denounce it as anti-democratic. And why ? Because it takes 
 the p;x>r man from his work to go and register his name, and pre 
 supposes a certain amount of information on his part as to the 
 requisitions of the law, for the absenpe of which information he 
 ought not to be disfranchized. This is the sum and substance 
 of locofoco argument against a registry law ; as if it were un 
 democratic to secure the majority, by the only efficient safeguard, 
 from being cheated, by requiring voters to go through the simple 
 form of registering their names a fitting time before the opening 
 of the polls ! Although locofocoism may arrive at its conclusions 
 by logic like this, it is obviously at war with sound democracy. 
 The opposition which the party has always maintained in New 
 York to a registry law, is proof presumptive that the charges of 
 fraud brought by the whigs are not unfounded. 
 
 The system of betting on elections, always objectionable, in 
 variably operates in favor of the least scrupulous party. The 
 money wagered is forestalled and parceled out among political 
 hacks, whose pay depending on the successful result of their ser 
 vices, they are incited to exertions the most reckless to compass 
 their ends. Let the whigs always beware of betting with their 
 antagonists. " It is naught, and it can not come to good." The 
 money foolishly lost in this way by whigs at the election of 1844, 
 went to requite the services of thousands of those mercenary 
 politicians who are ever ready to attach themselves to the party 
 which pays the best. 
 
 In the state of New York alone, there wer^ cast spurious votes 
 enough to defeat the election of Mr. Clay. In Louisiana, Georgia, 
 and Pennsylvania, similar frauds were perpetrated on a smaller 
 scale. Had the true voice of the majority of legal voters in 
 
 17 
 
258 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 those states been heard, the result would have been favorable tC 
 the whigs. But misrepresentation, brute force, and political im 
 morality, prevailed. The subject is an ungracious one to dwell 
 upon. The history of the frauds of 1844 is a dark chapter in 
 our annals. Party profligacy then exhausted its resources in the 
 attainment of its ends. 
 
 We have already described with what renewed confidence and 
 attachment the country turned to Mr. Clay after that defeat. 
 
 "I have b>en," he writes, the 25th of April, 1845, "in spite of unexpected 
 discomfitures, the object of honors and of compliments usually rendered 
 only to those who are successful and victorious in the great enterprises of 
 mankind. To say nothing of other demonstrations, the addresses and com 
 munications which I have received since the election from every^ quarter, 
 from collective bodies and individuals, and from both sexes, conveying senti 
 ments and feelings of the warmest regard and strongest friendship, and de 
 ploring the issue of the election, would fill a volume. I have been quite as 
 much, if not more, affected by them than I was by any disappointment of 
 personal interest of my own in the event of the contest" 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 THE WAR ON MEXICO FINANCIAL POLICY. 
 
 THE public acts of Mr. Clay exhibit unequivocally the princi 
 ples by which he would have been guided and the policy he 
 would have pursued in the event of his election. They are the 
 principles and the policy to which the whig party owed, and con 
 tinues to owe, all its cohesion and all its power. A triumph 
 without them would not be a whig triumph. It might benefit a 
 few office-seekers and professional politicians here and there, but 
 it would be barren of all good to the people at large. 
 
 In the opinion of Mr. Clay, the policy of the country in regard 
 to the protection of American industry seemed, previous to the 
 election of 1844, to be rapidly acquiring a permament and fixed 
 character. Yielding to the joint influence of their own reflec 
 tions and experience, the slave states were fast subscribing to the 
 justice and expediency of a tariff for revenue, with discrimina 
 tions for protection. At such an auspicious moment, beguiled by 
 the misrepresentations which proclaimed Mr. Polk as equally a 
 
CONSEQUENCES OF THE ELECTION. 259 
 
 friend to the tariff with Mr. Clay, the great states of Pennsyl 
 vania and New York, both friendly to the protective policy, 
 allowed it to be perilled and impaired by the ascendency of a 
 hostile administration. 
 
 The distribution of the proceeds of the sales of the public 
 lands, was another measure which the triumph of the whigs would 
 have secured ; and if the great national inheritance of those lands 
 is not wasted in a few years by graduation and other projects 
 of alienation, it must be through the adoption of a system kindred 
 to that which Mr. Clay has consistently advocated. Internal im 
 provements, the removal of obstructions from our rivers and 
 harbors, the enlargement of all those facilities which contribute 
 to the comfort, the prosperity, and the dignity of mankind, would 
 have been embraced in that comprehensive and generous policy 
 which has always found a ready champion in Mr. Clay. Instead 
 of a barren and unproductive war, the pernicious consequences 
 of which will be felt to a remote prosperity, we should have had 
 the money of the nation expended upon objects which would 
 have been permanently productive and beneficent. In return for 
 all the money and blood lavished in the unrighteous war with 
 Mexico, what can we show ? Territory, which we could have 
 acquired by peaceful means at a tenth part of the expenditure ! 
 But what amount of unrequired territory, or of opulent spoils, 
 could requite the desolation inflicted upon thousands of hearts by 
 the ravages of war ? 
 
 " Why praise we, prodigal of fame, 
 The rage that sets the world on flame? 
 The future Muse his brow shall bind, 
 Whose godlike bounty spares mankind. 
 For those whom bloody garlands crown, 
 The brass may breathe, the marble frown ; 
 To him, through every rescued land, 
 Ten thousand living trophies stand." 
 
 Had the true wish of the country prevailed, we should have had 
 no war with Mexico, no national debt, no repeal of the tariff of 
 1842, no sub-treasury, no imputation against us, by the united 
 voice of all the nations of the earth, of a spirit of aggression and 
 inordinate territorial aggrandizement. 
 
260 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 At the commencement of the second session of the twenty 
 eighth Congress (December, 1844), the acting president, Mr. Tyler, 
 officially announced to the two houses that " a controlling major- 
 *ty of the people, and a large majority of the states," had declared 
 in favor of the immediate annexation of Texas. " Instructions," 
 he added, " have thus come to both branches of Congress from 
 their respective constituents, in terms the most emphatic. It is 
 the will of both the people and the states, that Texas shall be 
 annexed to the Union, promptly and immediately." He remarked 
 further : " The two governments having already agreed, through 
 their respective organs, on the terms of annexation, I would rec 
 ommend their adoption by Congress, in the form of a joint 
 resolution, or act, to be perfected arid made binding on the two 
 countries, when adopted in like manner by the government of 
 Texas." 
 
 The subject of annexation was soon taken up in Congress and 
 discussed with great zeal on both sides ; and, finally, after the 
 public mind had been intensely agitated in regard to it, the rec 
 ommendation of Mr. Tyler was adopted ; and early in Maich, 
 1845, a joint resolution for annexing Texas was passed and ap 
 proved. The proposition was accepted by Texas, through her 
 Congress and a convention ; and the annexation project was 
 complete. The incidents which followed may be briefly sum 
 med up. Mr. Polk was no sooner seated in the presidential 
 chair, than the consequences, which Mr. Clay had predicted, 
 and Mexico had threatened, began to develop themselves. The 
 Texas we annexed was " revolutionary Texas." There was, 
 moreover, a disputed boundary between her and Mexico. In 
 anticipation of the refusal of Mexico to receive our minister, Mr. 
 Slidell, the administration gave directions to General TAYLOR to 
 take position on the west bank of the Rio Grande. Congress 
 was in session at the time ; but Mr. Polk did not see fit to con 
 sult Congress in regard to measures which must necessarily lead 
 to a collision between the two countries. It was only by rumors 
 and reports that our representatives knew that those measures 
 were maturing until the war burst forth, and the work of blood 
 commenced in earnest. The territory into which the president, 
 of his own caprice, had thus ordered our troops, was one to 
 
THE WAR WITH MEXICO. 261 
 
 which neither Texas nor the United States had any just claim 
 a territory in possession of a nation with which we were at 
 peace ! In the language of the octogenarian Albert Gallatin, 
 " the republic of Texas had not a shadow of right to the territory 
 idjacent to the left bank of the lower portion of the Rio del 
 Norte. Though she claimed, she never had actually exercised 
 urisdiction over any portion of it. The Mexicans were the sole 
 .nhabitants, and in actual possession of that district. Its forcible 
 occupation, therefore, by the army of the United States, was, 
 according to the acknowledged law of nations, as well as in fact, 
 in act of open hostility and war. The resistance of the Mexi 
 ;ans to that invasion was legitimate ; and therefore the war was 
 mprovoked by them, and commenced by the United States." 
 
 The story is lucidly told by Mr. Clay in his speech at Lexing- 
 kon, the 13th of November, 1847 a speech to which we shall 
 Uave occasion to allude again. In this he says : 
 
 "How did we unhappily get involved in this war? It was predicted as 
 the consequence of the annexation of Texas to the United States. If \ve 
 had not Texas, we should have no war. The people were told that if that 
 svent happened, war would ensue. They were told that the war between 
 Texas and Mexico had not been terminated by a treaty of peace; that Mex- 
 co still claimed Texas as a revolted province; and that, if we received 
 Texas into our Union, we took along with her the war existing between her 
 and Mexico. And the minister of Mexico formally announced to the gov 
 ernment at Washington that his nation would consider the annexation of 
 Texas to the United States as producing a state of war. But all this was 
 denied by the partisans of annexation. They insisted that we should have 
 no war, and even imputed to those who foretold it sinister motives for their 
 groundless prediction. 
 
 "But, notwithstanding a state of virtual war necessarily resulted from the 
 fact of annexation of one of the belligerents to the United States, actual hos 
 tilities might have been probably averted by prudence, moderation, and 
 wise statesmanship. If General Taylor had been permitted to remain, 
 where his own good sense prompted him to believe he ought to remain, at 
 the point of Corpus Christi; and if a negotiation had been opened with 
 Mexico, in a true spirit of amity and conciliation, war possibly might have 
 been prevented. But, instead of this pacific and moderate course, while 
 Mr. Slidell was bending his way to Mexico with his diplomatic credentials, 
 General Taylor was ordered to transport his cannon and plant them in a 
 warlike attitude opposite to Matamoras, on the east bank of the Rio Bravo, 
 within the very disputed territory the adjustment of which was to be the 
 object of Mr. Slidell s mission. What else could have transpired but a con 
 flict of arms? 
 
 "Thus the war commenced; and the president, after having produced it, 
 appealed to Congress. A bill was proposed to raise fifty thousand volun 
 teers, and, in order to commit all who should vote for if, a preamble was 
 inserted, falsely attributing the commencement of the war to the act of Mex- 
 
262 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 ico. I have no doubt of the patriotic motives of those who, after struggling 
 to divest the bill of that flagrant error, found themselves constrained to vote 
 for it. But I must say that no earthly consideration would have ever 
 tempted or provoked me to vote for a bill with a palpable falsehood stamp 
 ed on its face. Almost idolizing truth as I do, I never, never could have 
 voted for that bill." 
 
 Our last war with Great Britain Mr. Clay characterizes as 
 " u just war. Its great object, announced at the time, was free 
 trade and sailors rights against the intolerable arid oppressive 
 acts of British power on the ocean." He continues : 
 
 "How totally variant is the present war! This is no war of defence, but 
 one unnecessary and of offensive aggression. It is Mexico that is defending 
 her firesides, her castles, and her altars, not we. And how different also is 
 the conduct of the whig party of the present day from that of the major 
 part of the federal party during the war of 1812! Far from interposing 
 any obstacles to the prosecution of the war, if the whigs in office are re- 
 proachable at all, it is for having lent too ready a facility to it, without 
 careful examination into the objects of the war. And, out of office, who 
 have rushed to the prosecution of the war with more ardor and alacrity 
 than the whigs? Whose hearts have bled more freely than those of the 
 whigs? Who have more occasion to mourn the loss of sons, husbands, broth 
 ers, fathers, than whig parents, whig wives, and whig brothers, in this 
 deadly and unprofitable strife?" 
 
 The twenty-ninth Congress, the first which met under the ad 
 ministration of Mr. Polk, found the country prosperous and con 
 tented. Under the equitable tariff of 1842, domestic industry, in 
 all its branches, received a wholesome measure of protection and 
 encouragement. Our exports and imports exhibited neither an 
 undue expansion nor a contraction indicative of a public financial 
 decline. The revenue of the country was steady, ample, and 
 reliable ; and the public debt which Mr. Van Buren s adminis 
 tration had originated and fostered, was diminishing at the rate 
 of millions annually. At length it seemed that the fluctuations 
 to which the trade and industrial enterprise had been subjected, 
 in consequence of Locofoco assaults upon the tariff, were at an 
 end ; and that commerce and manufactures were about to be 
 established on a stable basis. The bitter hostility of the south 
 to the protective system was fast abating ; and ; n the states 
 of Georgia and Virginia factories were going up and new re 
 sources developing themselves, as if to strengthen, by the ties 
 of interest, the sympathies of different sections of the country 
 upon a subject which had been rife with portents of fraternal 
 discord and disunion. 
 
PHILOSOPHY OF THE PROTECTIVE PRINCIPLE. 263 
 
 Undeterred by this spectacle of prosperity and harmony, the 
 administration laid its profane hands upon the tarirfof 1842. In 
 its stead they gave us that of 1846. By this substitute, there is 
 actual discrimination against portions of the labor of the United 
 States, and in favor of that of foreign countries. Owing to ex- 
 raordinary causes, among which the famine in Europe and the 
 war with Mexico are prominent, we have not yet fully realized 
 the legitimate consequences of this disastrous retrograde move 
 ment in the policy of the country. 
 
 In a letter bearing date the 5th of June, 1846, Mr. Clay ex 
 plained the whole practical philosophy of the protective principle 
 in the following luminous remarks : 
 
 "The manufactures of Great Britain have reached a very high degree of 
 perfection by means of her great capital, her improving skill and machin 
 ery, her cheap labor, and under a system of protection long, perseveringly, 
 and vigorously enforced. She, moreover, possesses an immense advantage 
 for the sale and distribution of her numerous manufactures, in her vast 
 colonial possessions, from which those of foreign powers are either entirely 
 excluded, or admitted on terms very unequally with her own. I am not 
 therefore surprised, that, under these favorable circumstances, Great Britain 
 should herself be desirous to adopt, and to prevail on other nations to adopt, 
 the principle of free-trade. I shall be mistaken if any of the great nations 
 of the continent should follow an example the practical effects of which will 
 be so beneficial to her, and so injurious to them. The propriety of afford 
 ing protection to domestic manufactures, its degree, and its duration, de 
 pend upon the national condition and the actual progress they have made. 
 Each nation, of right, ought to judge for itself. I believe that history re 
 cords no instance of any great and prosperous nation, which did not draw 
 its essential supplies of food and raiment from within its own limits. If all 
 nations were just commencing their career, or if their manufactures had all 
 made equal progress, it might perhaps be wise to throw open the markets 
 of the world to the freest and most unrestricted competition. But it is 
 manifest that while the manufactures of some have acquired all the ma 
 turity and perfection of which they are susceptible, and those of others are 
 yet in their infancy, struggling hard for existence, a free competition be 
 tween them must redound to the advantage of the experienced and skilful, 
 and to the injury of those who are just beginning to naturalize and establish 
 the arts. 
 
 "No earthly gratification to the heart of a statesman can be greater than 
 that of having contributed to the adoption of a great system of national pol 
 icy, and of afterward witnessing its complete success in its practical opera 
 tion. That gratification can be enjoyed by those who were instrumental in 
 establishing the policy of protecting our domestic manufactures. Every 
 promise which they made has been fulfilled. Every prediction which they 
 hazarded as to the quality and quantity of the domestic supply, as to the 
 reduction of prices, as to the effect of competition at home, and as to the 
 abundance of the public revenue, has been fully realized. And it is no less 
 remarkable that every counter prediction without exception of the oppo 
 nents of the policy has, in the sequel, been entirely falsified. 
 
264 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 "Without tracing particularly the operation of our earlier tariffs, adjusted 
 both to the objects of revenue and protection, and coming down to the last, 
 it seems to me that if there were ever a beneficial effect from any publio 
 measure fully demonstrated, it is, that the tariff of 1842, beyond all contro 
 versy, relieved both the government and the people of the United State* 
 from a state of pecuniary embarrassment bordering on bankruptcy. Enter 
 taining these views and opinions, I should deeply regret any abandonment 
 of the policy of protection, or any material alteration of the tariff of 1842, 
 which has worked so well. If its operation had been even doubtful, would 
 it not be wiser to await further developments from experience before we 
 plunge into a new and unexplored theory? Scarcely any misfortune is so 
 great to the business and pursuits of a people as that of perpetual change.* 
 
 In a letter of September 10, 1846, written subsequent to the 
 abolition of the tariff of 42, Mr. Clay remarked : " I believe the 
 system of protection, notwithstanding the opposition which it 
 has often encountered, has pushed the nation forward half a cen 
 tury in advance of where it would have been if the doctrines of 
 free-trade had always prevailed in our public councils. Whether 
 it will be pushed back again to the same or any other extent by 
 the tariff recently established, which has sought to subvert the 
 previous system, and to embody those doctrines, remains to be 
 seen. I confess that I seriously apprehended great injury to the 
 general business of the country, arid ultimately to the revenue of 
 the government." 
 
 The sub-treasury system, adopted August, 1846, has been 
 found injurious to the public interests, unwieldy, expensive, and 
 liable to the grossest abuses. But the war and the tariff have 
 diverted public attention from its practical operation. In his 
 message of December, 1847, the president says : "The consti 
 tutional treasury created by this act went into operation on the 
 first of January last. Under the system established by it, the 
 public moneys have been collected, safely kept, and disbursed, 
 by the direct agency of officers of the government, in gold and 
 silver ; and transfers of large amounts have been made from 
 points of collection to points of disbursement, without loss to the 
 treasury, or injury or inconvenience to the trade of the country. 
 With treasury-notes below par, as they were about the time of 
 the promulgation of these assertions, it may easily be seen why 
 there should have been great facilities of transfer ; but there have 
 been repeated instances of great losses to the country in conse 
 quence of the defects and evils 01 the sub-treasury system. Tho 
 
FRUITS OF THE WAR. 265 
 
 only class benefited by its operation are the officeholders and the 
 favored financiers of the government. According to Mr; Folk s 
 own confession, " in some of its details, not involving its general 
 principles, the system is defective, and will require modification." 
 We have thus glanced briefly at some of the measures of Mr. Folk s 
 administration. To enumerate all that it has left undone, which il 
 ought to have done, had the best interests of the country been con 
 sulted, would be but to capitulate many of those objects of policy 
 which the public career of Mr. Clay exhibits him as contending for. 
 
 The consequences of his non-election to the presidency have 
 been an unrighteous and demoralizing war; the abrogation of 
 a tariff under which the country was thriving beyond all prece 
 dent ; and the establishment of a sub-treasury : for all which, in 
 the language of the " ancient mariner" of Coleridge, we 
 
 "Penance much have done, 
 And penance more must do." 
 
 " At the commencement of the war," says Mr. Hudson, in his 
 speech before the house, February 5th, 1848, " our finances were 
 in the most prosperous condition, there being a surplus of ten 
 millions of dollars in the treasury. And now, after the war had 
 been prosecuted twenty months, we are on the verge of bank - 
 ruptcy. We have consumed the ordinary revenue, exhausted the 
 ten millions surplus, together with a loan on treasury-notes to the 
 amount of thirty-three millions, and are now called upon for a 
 grant of sixteen millions more, to supply the wants of the gov 
 ernment during the present fiscal year ; and this sum, I am per 
 suaded, will be found too small by eight or ten millions. So 
 that, when the war shall have continued twenty-five months, we 
 shall have expended in addition to the accruing revenue, some 
 sixty-eight millions of dollars. This is but a part of the burdens 
 brought upon us by this unnecessary war. Our munitions of 
 war, have been accumulating for years in our arsenals, some fif 
 teen millions of dollars worth of our public domain given, or to 
 be given, in bounty to our soldiers, and long lists of pensions and 
 private claims growing out of the war- these should be taken into 
 the account, and will go far in increasing the sum. These are 
 some of the pecuniary burdens which a weak and wicked ad 
 ministration have wantonly brought upon the people." 
 L 
 
266 LIFE OF HENRY CLAF. 
 
 XXV. 
 
 PUBLIC TESTIMONIALS THE IRISH FAMINE. 
 
 WE have seen that neither the untoward issue of the presiden 
 tial contest of 1844, nor the shades of Ashland, could remove Mr 
 Clay from before the public eye. Though not president of the 
 United States, though dispensing no patronage, and holding no 
 power of promotion, he yet exercised a moral sway over his 
 countrymen which station could never give, nor the removal of it 
 take away. Though not chief magistrate, he was still chief cit 
 izen of the republic ; and though he could not bestow lucrative 
 posts and profitable jobs, he could communicate what was far 
 better high convictions of public duty, generous views of public 
 policy, and great truths, which his past acts and present opinions 
 commended to every patriotic mind. 
 
 Allusion has already been made to the testimony in his honor 
 which the whig ladies of Virginia resolved upon soon after his 
 defeat. Their proceedings were denounced by some loyal loco- 
 fcco as a " movement conceived in a spirit of rebellion to public 
 sentiment." Rather were they a token of sympathy with the 
 beatings of the public heart. These ladies determined to pro 
 cure a statue of Henry Clay to adorn the metropolis of his native 
 state, and liberally have they carried out their plan ; employing 
 a native artist, Mr. Joel T. Hart, to execute the work, and munif 
 icently providing the means for its accomplishment. Mr. Hart, 
 having modelled the statue, has gone to Europe to cut it in mar 
 ble. A competent critic thus describes the model : 
 
 "Mr. Hart has blended the idea and spirit of action with the actual pres 
 ence and exhibition of repose the latter always so essential to the highest 
 and most agreeable effect of the sculptor s art. Mr. Clay is represented rest 
 ing the weight of his body principally upon his right foot, the left being 
 thrown a little forward, and the toes turned out. The head is sufficiently 
 erect to give dignity and spirit to the general bearing, without approaching 
 the offensive and vulgar line of arrogance and self-esteem, and the face is 
 turned slightly to the right, in the direction of the corresponding arm. The 
 fingers of the left hand rest lightly and gracefully upon a pedestal, appro 
 priately placed, while his right arm, just fallen from an uplifted position, ia 
 sufficiently extended from the elbow to show, with the open and forward 
 looking palm, action just finished instead of continuous and habrtual repose 
 
TESTIMONIALS OF ESTEEM. 2i*7 
 
 The face is full of lofty animation, self-possession, and the repose of conscious 
 power. 
 
 " The costume is a simple citizen s dress, such as Mr. Clay usually wears. 
 The coat, unbuttoned, is loose enough not to be stiff and formal ; shoes are 
 worn instead of boots, according to Mr. Clay s invariable custom ; and the 
 shirt-collar is turned down, not according to his custom, but as a matter of 
 great convenience, if not necessity to the artist, in the exhibition of the neck 
 and throat" 
 
 During his visit to Washington in the winter of 1848, an ex 
 cellent full-length likeness of Mr. Clay was taken by Chester 
 Harding, of Massachusetts. It was procured by the voluntary 
 subscription of the people of Washington, in testimony of their 
 appreciation of the noble qualities and public services of one who 
 had spent so long a portion of his life in their midst, during which 
 he had so completely won their esteem and affection. 
 
 Few public men ever had such troops of devoted friends as 
 Mr. Clay. It is not by professions only that their devotion is 
 manifested. In the spring of 1845, he met with a substantial, and, 
 at the same time, a most touching and signal proof of the estima 
 tion in which he is held. A number of friends, residing in the 
 eastern states, having learned indirectly that a considerable por 
 tion of Mr. Clay s entire property was about to be swept away 
 to pay the notes of one of his family connection, on which he was 
 endorser, quietly raised the sum of fifty thousand dollars, and 
 paid the notes at the bank in which they were deposited. The 
 first intimation which he had of the movement was the reception 
 of his cancelled obligation ; and not a name was disclosed of the 
 individuals who had had any agency in the transaction. 
 
 The artisans and mechanics of the country have, in instances 
 too numerous to mention, shown their sense of the efficient sup 
 port which Mr. Clay has always rendered to the cause of Amer 
 ican industry and skill. In the autumn of 1845, the working 
 gold and silver artificers of the city of New York presented him 
 a silver vase three feet high, neatly and elaborately chased, and 
 bearing a complimentary inscription. Its value was a thousand 
 dollars. Mr. Clay has more reason than people are generally 
 aware of to feel a sympathy with the mechanic classes. His 
 only surviving full brother was once a very skilful cabinet-maker, 
 and several specimens of his handywork remain among the fur 
 niture a f u Ashland. 
 
268 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 In November, 1846, a magnificent vase was presented to Mr 
 Clay by the ladies of Tennessee. His address upon the occa 
 sion of receiving the donation contains so much of public inter 
 est, that we quote it entire : 
 
 "DR. M NAIRY: It is no ordinary occurrence, nor any common mission, 
 that honors me by your presence. To be deputed, as you have been, by a 
 large circle of Tennessee ladies, to bear the flattering sentiment toward me 
 which you have just so eloquently expressed, and to deliver to me the pre 
 cious testimonial of their inestimable respect and regard which you have 
 brought, is a proud incident in my life, ever to be remembered with feelings 
 of profound gratitude and delight. 
 
 " My obligation to those ladies is not the less, for the high opinion of me 
 which they do me the honor to entertain ; because I feel entirely conscious 
 that I owe it more to their generous partiality than to any merits I pos 
 sess, or to the value of any public services which I have ever been able to 
 render. 
 
 " If, indeed, their kind wishes in relation to the issue of the last presi 
 dential election had been gratified, I have no doubt that we should have 
 avoided some of those public measures, so pregnant with the evils to our 
 country, to which you have adverted. We should have preserved, undis 
 turbed, and without hazard, peace with all the world, have had no unhappy 
 war with a neighboring sister-republic, and, consequently, no deplorable 
 waste of human life, of which that which has been sacrificed or impaired in 
 an insalubrious climate, is far greater and more lamentable than what has 
 been lost in the glorious achievements of a brave army, commanded by a 
 skilful and gallant general. 
 
 " We should have saved the millions of treasure which that unnecessary 
 war has and will cost an immense amount sufficient to improve every use 
 ful harbor on the lakes, on the ocean, on the gulf of Mexico, and in the in 
 terior, and to remove obstructions to navigation in all the great rivers in the 
 United States. 
 
 "We should not have subverted a patriotic system of domestic protection, 
 fostering the industry of our own people and the interests of our own coun 
 try, the great benefits which have been practically demonstrated by experi 
 ence, for the visionary promises of an alien policy of free trade, fostering the 
 industry of foreign people and the interests of foreign countries, which has 
 brought in its train disaster and ruin to every nation that has had the temer 
 ity to try it. The beneficial tariff of 1842, which raised both the people 
 and the government of the United States out of a condition of distress and 
 embarrassment, bordering on bankruptcy, to a state of high financial and 
 general prosperity, would now be standing unimpaired, in the statute- 
 book, instead of the fatal tariff of 1846, whose calamitous effects will, I ap 
 prehend, sooner or later, be certainly realized. 
 
 "All this, and more of what has since occurred in the public councils, was 
 foretold prior to that election. It was denied, disbelieved, or unheeded ; and 
 we now realize the unfortunate consequences. But both philosophy and 
 patriotism enjoin that we should not indulge in unavailing regrets as to the 
 incurable past. As a part of history in which it is embodied, we may derive 
 from it instructive lessons for our future guidance, and we ought to redouble 
 our exertions to prevent their being unprofitably lost. 
 
 " I receive, with the greatest pleasure, the splendid and magnificent vase 
 of silver which the ladies of Tennessee, whom you represent, havj charged 
 
AT ASHLAND. 269 
 
 you to present to me. Wrought by American artists, tendered by my fair 
 countrywomen, and brought to me by an ever-faithful, ard-ant, and dis 
 tinguished friend, it comes with a triple title to my grateful acceptance. I 
 request you to convey to those ladies respectful and cordial assurances of my 
 warm and heartfelt thanks and acknowledgments. Tell them I will care 
 fully preserve, during life, and transmit to my descendants, an unfading rec 
 ollection of their signal and generous manifestations of attachment and 
 confidence. And tell them, also, that my fervent prayers shall be offered up 
 for their happiness and prosperity, and shall be united with theirs that they 
 may live to behold our country emerged from the dark clouds which encom 
 pass it, and once more, as in better times, standing out. a bright and cheer 
 ing example, the moral and political model and guide, the hope, and the 
 admiration, of the nations of the earth. 
 
 " I should entirely fail, Dr. M Nairy, on this interesting occasion, to give 
 utterance to my feelings, if I did not eagerly seize it to express to you, my 
 good friend, my great obligations for the faithful and uninterrupted friend 
 ship which, in prosperous and adverse fortune, and amid all the vicissitudes 
 of my chequered life, you have constantly, zealously, and fearlessly displayed. 
 May you yet long live, in health, happiness, and prosperity, and enjoy the 
 choicest blessings of a merciful and bountiful Providence." 
 
 Engaged in legal and agricultural pursuits, receiving continued 
 testimonials of the esteem and gratitude of his countrymen, and 
 making occasional excursions, Mr. Clay passed the greater por 
 tion of the two years which succeeded the contest of 1844. A 
 letter, which bears the date of Lexington, May 25, 1845, gives 
 a pleasing picture of the genial simplicity and hospitality to be 
 found at Ashland : 
 
 " I have at last realized one of my dearest wishes that of seeing Mr. Clay 
 at Ashland. I called on him with a friend, this morning, but he was absent 
 on his farm, and Charles, his freed slave, told us he would not be at home 
 till afternoon ; so we returned to Lexington, and, at five, P. M., retraced our 
 steps to Ashland. Mr. Clay had returned, and meeting us at the door, took 
 hold of our hands before I could even present a letter of introduction, and 
 made us welcome to his house. His manners completely overcame all the 
 ceremonies of speech I had prepared. We were soon perfectly at home, as 
 every one must be with Henry Clay, and, in a half-hour s time, we had talked 
 about the various sections of the country I had visited the past year, Mr. 
 Clay occasionally giving us incidents and recollections of his own life ; and 
 I felt as though I had known him personally for years. 
 
 " Mr. Clay has lived at Ashland forty years. The place bore the name 
 when he came to it, as he says, probably on account of the ash timber, with 
 which it abounds ; and he has made it the most delightful retreat in all the 
 west. The estate is about six hundred acres large, all under the highest cul 
 tivation, except some two hundred acres of park, which is entirely cleared 
 of underbrush and small trees, and is, to use the words of Lord Morpeth, 
 who stayed at Ashland nearly a week, the nearest approach to an English 
 park of any in this country. It serves also for a noble pasture, and here 1 
 saw some of Mr. Clay s fine horses and Durham catfle. He is said to have 
 eome of the finest stock in all Kentucky, which is to say, the finest in Amer 
 ica ; and, if I am able to judge, I confirm that report The larger part of 
 
270 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 his farm is devoted to wl.eat, rye, hemp, &c., and his crops look most 
 splendidly. He has also paid great attention to ornamenting his lands with 
 beautiful shade-trees, shrubs, flowers, and fruit orchards. From the road, 
 -yhich passes his place on the northwest side, a carriage-road leads up to the 
 house, lined with locust, cypress, cedar, and other rare trees, and the rose, 
 jasmine, and ivy, were clambering about them, and peeping through the 
 grass and the boughs like so many twinkling fairies, as we drove up. 
 
 " Ashland is about a mile from Lexington, easterly, on the road leading 
 out of Main street, and is one of the loveliest situations around this delight 
 ful town. Mr. Clay s mansion is nearly hidden from the road by the trees 
 surrounding it, and is as quiet and secluded, save to the throng of pilgrims 
 continually pouring up there to greet its more than royal possessor, as though 
 it were in the wilderness. Some parts of it are now undergoing repairs, and 
 Mr. Clay took us about to see his contemplated improvements. The houses 
 of his slaves are all very neat, and surrounded by better gardens, and more 
 flowers and shrubbery, than one half the farmhouses in the country, and all 
 the inmates aie as happy as human beings can be. Charles, of whom so 
 much has been said, is a kind of second master of the household of Mr. Clay, 
 and enjoys the greatest trust and confidence. To him can the keys of the 
 wine-cellar be given without fear, and on all occasions, when help was 
 needed, Mr. Clay would call for Charles. It was Charles who brought us 
 wine, Charles was at the door, at the carriage, at the gate, everywhere, in 
 fact, and as polite and civil as a man asking for office. He is a fine-looking, 
 middle-sized negro, about thirty years old, and I do not believe he could be 
 drawn from Mr. Clay except by absolute animal force, so great is his devotion 
 to him. As I said, Mr. Clay has lived at Ashland forty years. He said he 
 had seen Cincinnati grow from a small village to its present size, and had 
 witnessed the growth of much of the west at the same time. Beside the six 
 hundred acres, he has about two hundred acres at a distance, in the rear of 
 Ashland, and these two lots form his estate. 
 
 "As it was nearly night when we called on Mr. Clay, we had hardly time 
 to see things properly, and he urged me to come up again. I went up the 
 day following, in company with the Swiss Bell-Ringers, who were also on 
 a, visit to Ashland. Mr. Clay received the band and myself warmly at the 
 door, and, after a few civilities, put on his white hat and walked through the 
 grounds with us, talking freely and familiarly to all. He is the most easy 
 and affable man I have ever seen. He picked a rose for each of us: mine I 
 have most carefully pressed, and shall give it to my lady-love, when I find 
 one, and she may consider it a prize ! He told me, while we were walking, 
 about Lord Morpeth s early rising at Ashland, and said that his lordship used 
 to go on foot a mile down to the postoffice, and bring up the mail before he 
 was out of bed. Of Morpeth, Mr. Clay spoke in the highest terms. 
 
 After an hour spent in the park and garden, the bell-ringers proposed 
 giving Mr. Clay and his family a specimen of their music, and we of course 
 adjourned to the house. Here, for the first time, I saw Mrs. Clay, and a son, 
 Mr. John Clay. Mr. Clay was expecting the bell-ringers, and had invited for 
 the occasion a few friends. They performed before him to his very great 
 delight. On this occasion, Mr. Clay sent for some of his home-made wine 
 pressed at Ashland from the Catawba grape. It was most delicious ; some 
 thing like sparkling hock in flavor, but of a richer taste. After performing 
 everal pieces in the house, the bell-ringers went out into the park, and 
 rang the chimes on a peal of twelve bells, their auditors remaining in 
 the house. I never heard anything so bewitching as the sound of the bells 
 during that chime. Mr. Clay said he would be glad to have a chapel ia 
 
AT NEW ORLEANS. 271 
 
 She park, if he could always hear such voices from it. It was to me a rare 
 treat 
 
 " On Sunday, the day following my last visit to Ashland, I could not resist 
 the inclination to see once more a place to me so very hallowed. On my 
 way up I passed Mr. Clay, who, with his wife, had started for church. 
 Alas! thought I, as I looked upon his high, calm brow, for the last time, can 
 this be the gambler, sabbath-breaker, blasphemer, all these vile characters 
 combined, which have been ascribed to him, and cried abroad by men whose 
 lips were too foul to speak as great a name as he will bear when they and 
 iheir memories are less than ashes? One hour with Mr. Clay at home, 
 stamps libel on all these execrable lies, and he who enjoys that hour says in 
 bis heart, That is the simplest and noblest man I ever looked upon. " 
 
 Mr. Clay passed a good part of the winter and spring of 1 846 
 in New Orleans, whither he had been called by professional 
 business. It would be but a repetition of past scenes to describe 
 with what a warmth of welcome he was received. He took oc 
 casion, on his departure, to visit St. Louis, where he arrived on 
 the 4th of April, and met with a most enthusiastic reception. 
 He reached his residence at Ashland, on the 22d of that month, 
 with his health much benefite.l by the travel and relaxation he 
 had enjoyed. 
 
 An attempt was made, the succeeding winter, to induce Mr. 
 Clay to accept an election to the United States senate, to fill the 
 vacancy occasioned by the retirement of Mr. Morehead, whose 
 term was to expire the next 4th of March ; but Mr. Clay per 
 emptorily declined the honor. He was again in New Orleans 
 the succeeding winter. He was present at the celebration of the 
 anniversary of the landing of the pilgrims, the 22dof December; 
 and is reported by one of the newspapers of the day to have re 
 marked, on being called upon to reply to a complimentary 
 toast : 
 
 "Although leading a life of retirement, I am not wholly unobservant of 
 the proceedings relating to the condition, welfare, and prospects, of our 
 country. And when I saw around me to-night, General Brooke and other 
 old friends, I felt half inclined to ask for some nook or corner in the army, 
 in which I might serve, to avenge the wrongs done to my country. I have 
 thought that I might yet be able to capture or slay a Mexican. I shall not 
 be able to do so, however, this year, but hope that success will still crown 
 our gallant arms, and the war terminate in an honorable peace." 
 
 These remarks have been the subject of some ridiculously 
 severe animadversions. If they are correctly reported which 
 is very doubtful who that knows Mr. Clay, does not recognise 
 the half-sportive, ironical spirit, in which they were intended * 
 
272 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 At the social table, not dreaming, probably, that there were 
 " chiels" about him " takin notes," a ludicrous image starts into 
 his mind, and he gives it utterance. The idea that he would 
 be so far inflamed with martial ardor, and catch the warlike in 
 fection, as to shoulder a musket, presents itself to his mind and 
 drops from his lips in a purely jocose, conversational tone. But 
 it is at once taken up and misrepresented by his opponents. 
 
 While in New Orleans, early in 1847, the wail of famishing 
 Ireland fell on the ears of Mr. Clay, and at once aroused the 
 warmest sympathies of his heart. Being invited to attend a 
 meeting held in aid of the sufferers, he went ; and, being loudly 
 called for by those present, addressed them as follows : 
 
 "MR. PRESIDENT AND FELLOW-CITIZENS : 
 
 " I hesitated to accept the invitation which has brought me here. Being 
 a mere sojourner, and not a member of this community, I doubted the pro 
 priety of my presence and participation in the proceedings of this meeting, 
 and apprehended that my motive might be misunderstood. But on con 
 sulting my pillow, and considering that the humanity of the object of this 
 assembly is bounded by no latitude nor locality, and ought to be co-extensive 
 with the whole human family it seemed to me that all considerations of 
 fastidious delicacy and etiquette should be waived and merged into a gener 
 ous and magnanimous effort to contribute to the relief of the sufferings which 
 have excited our feelings. If I should be misconceived or misrepresented, 
 the experience of a long life has taught me that the best response to miscon 
 ception and misrepresentation, is the fearless and faithful discharge of duty, 
 in all the conditions of life in which we may be placed; and the answer to 
 traduction and calumny, is conscious rectitude and the approbation of one s 
 own heart. 
 
 " Mr. President If we were to hear that large numbers of the inhabitants 
 of Asia, or Africa, or Australia, or the remotest part of the globe, were daily 
 dying with hunger and famine no matter what their color, what their re 
 ligion, or what their civilization we should deeply lament their condition, 
 and be irresistibly prompted, if possible, to mitigate their sufferings. But 
 it is not the distresses of any such distant regions that have summoned ua 
 together on this occasion. The appalling and heart-rending distresses of 
 Ireland and Irishmen, form the object of our present consultation. That 
 Ireland, which has been in all the vicissitudes of our national existence our 
 friend, and has ever extended to us her warmest sympathy those Irishmen, 
 who, in every war in which we have been engaged, on every battle-field, 
 from Quebec to Monterey, have stood by us, shoulder to shoulder, and shared 
 in all the perils and fortunes of the conflict. 
 
 "The imploring appeal comes to us from the Irish nation, which is so 
 identified with our own as to be almost part and parcel of ours bone of 
 our bone and flesh of our flesh. Nor is it any ordinary case of human 
 misery, nor a few isolated cases of death by starvation, that we are called 
 upon to consider. Famine is stalking abroad throughout Ireland whole 
 towns, counties countless human beings, of every age and of both sexes, at 
 this very moment, are starving, or in danger of starving to death for bread. 
 Of all the forms of dissolution of human life, the pangs and agony of that 
 
SPEECH IN BEHALF OF FAMISHING IRELAND. 273 
 
 which proceeds from famine are the most dreadful. If one dies fighting 
 gloriously for his country, he is cheered in his expiring moments by the pa 
 triotic nature of his sacrifice. lie knows that his surviving relatives and 
 friends, while lamenting his loss, will be gratified and honored by his devo 
 tion to his country. Poets, painters, sculptors, historians will record hig 
 deeds of valor and perpetuate his renown. If he dies by the sudden ex 
 plosion of the boilers of a steamboat, or by a storm at sea, death is quiet 
 and easy, and soon performs his mission. A-few piercing shrieks are uttered, 
 he sinks beneath the surface, and all is still and silent. But a death by 
 starvation comes slow, lingering, and excruciating. From day to day, the 
 wretched victim feels his flesh dwindling, his speech sinking, his friends fall 
 ing around him, and he finally expires in horrible agony. 
 
 "Behold the wretched Irish mother with haggard looks and streaming 
 oyes her famished children clinging to her tattered garments, and gazing 
 piteously in her face, begging for food ! And see the distracted husband- 
 father, with pallid cheeks, standing by, horror and despair depicted in his 
 countenance tortured with the reflection that he can afford no succor or 
 relief to the dearest objects of his heart, about to be snatched for ever from 
 him by the most cruel of all deaths. 
 
 " This is no fancy picture ; but, if we are to credit the terrible accounts 
 which reach us from that theatre of misery and wretchedness, is one of daily 
 occurrence. Indeed, no imagination can conceive no tongue express no 
 pencil paint the horrors of the scenes which are there daily exhibited. 
 Ireland, in respect to food, is differently situated from all the countries of the 
 world. Asia has her abundant supply of rice ; Africa, her dates, yams, and 
 rice; Europe, her bread of wheat, rye, and oats; America, a double resource 
 in the small grains, and a never-failing and abundant supply of Indian corn 
 that great supporter of animal life, for which we are not half grateful 
 enough to a bountiful and merciful Providence. But the staple food of large 
 parts of poor Ireland is the potato, and when it fails, pinching want and 
 famine follow. It is among the inscrutable dispensations of Providence, that 
 the crop has been blighted these last two years ; and hence the privation of 
 food, and this appeal to the sympathy of American hearts. 
 
 " Shall it be in vain ? Shall starving Ireland the young and the old 
 dying women and children stretch out their hands to us for bread, and find 
 no relief? Will not this great city, the world s storehouse of an exhaustless 
 supply of all kinds of food, borne to its overflowing warehouses by tho 
 Father of Waters, act on this occasion in a manner worthy of its high destiny, 
 and obey the noble impulses of the generous hearts of its blessed inhabi 
 tants? We are commanded, by the common Savior of Ireland and of us, 
 to love one another as ourselves ; and on this, together with one higher 
 obligation, hang all the law and prophets of our holy religion. We know, 
 that of all the forms of humanity and benevolence, none is more acceptable, 
 in the sight of God, than the practice of charity. Let us demonstrate our 
 love, our duty, and our gratitude to him, by a liberal contribution to the 
 relief of his suffering Irish children. 
 
 "Fellow-citizens, no ordinary purpose has brought us together. This is 
 no political gathering. If it had been, you would not have seen me here, 
 I have not come to make a speech. When the heart is full, and agitated by 
 its own feeling emotions, the paralyzed tongue finds utterance difficult. It 
 is not fervid eloquence, nor gilded words, that Ireland needs but substan 
 tial food. Let us rise to the magnitude of the duty which is before us, and 
 by a generous supply from the magnitude of our means, evince the genuine 
 ness and cordiality of our sympathy and commiseration." 
 
 L* 18 
 
274 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 At the conclusion of this speech, one loud and unanimous shout 
 of approval was raised, in which officers and audience partici 
 pated. The effect of the speech is well told in a letter addressed 
 to Mr. Clay by two Irishmen of New York, and accompanied with 
 an elegant gift of cutlery. They say : 
 
 "It was the good fortune of one of us, to hear your speech in behalf of 
 the famishing millions of our native land, when in New Orleans on business 
 during that dreadful winter of 1846- 47 ; it has since been the fortune of the 
 other to hear and to witness in Ireland, and elsewhere in Europe, the admi 
 ration and gratitude which that speech has excited ; it is the pleasing duty 
 of both to thank God that your thrilling appeal to the best feelings of our 
 common humanity was the means, by stimulating the energies of ever- 
 blessed charity among the American people, of saving thousands of our 
 countrymen from a death of agony and horror. It must be an abiding joy 
 to your generous heart, to know that American benevolence is devoutly 
 blessed in parishes and cabins, where even your name, illustrious as it is, had 
 hardly been heard before the famine; and that thousands have been im 
 pelled, by their deliverance from the worst effects of that dire calamity, to 
 invoke blessings on the head of HENRY CLAY. 
 
 " You have often, and most appropriately, received at the hands of your 
 countrymen by birth, fitting acknowledgments of your services, in the shape 
 of rare products of their unsurpassed mechanical ingenuity and skill. Our 
 humble offering is the work of foreign artisans, in grateful acknowledgment 
 of your powerful aid to an oppressed and suffering race on the other side 
 of the Atlantic. We trust it may not, on that account, be unacceptable, but 
 that, among your many tokens of American esteem and thankfulness, a 
 single remembrance of the tears of gratitude which, at the mention of your 
 name, have bedewed the cheek of suffering Ireland may not be unwelcome." 
 
 " I must have had a heart colder than stone," says Mr. Clay in 
 reply, " if I had been capable of listening to the sad account of 
 Irish distress without the deepest emotions. My regret was, that 
 I could do little or nothing to mitigate the sufferings of a generous 
 and gallant people. Nor did my own countrymen, I am fully per 
 suaded, require any stimulus from me, to prompt them to extend 
 all practicable succors, to those with whom we are intimately con 
 nected by so many pleasing ties." 
 
DEATH OF HIS SON AT BUENA VISTA. 275 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 WAR IN MEXICO DEATH OF HENRY CLAY, JR. 
 
 / 
 
 THE war with Mexico was, in its results, as honorable to the 
 army of the United States, as, in its origin, it was disgraceful to 
 the administrations of Messrs. Tyler and Polk. The series of 
 brilliant successes achieved under Generals Taylor and Scott 
 the rapidly succeeding victories of Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, 
 Monterey, Buena Vista, Cerro Gordo, Churubusco, and Chepul- 
 tepec are unparalleled in the history of modern warfare, in the 
 numerical inferiority of the forces by which vast numbers were 
 overcome. 
 
 It was with heavy forebodings that Mr. Clay left New Orleans 
 Our gallant army under Taylor, was known to be in a situation 
 of great peril, surrounded by overwhelming numbers of the enemy, 
 and depending solely upon the personal courage of the officers 
 and men, united to the intrepidity and sagacity of their revered 
 general, for its safety. Mr. Clay s son Henry, had quitted the 
 practice of the law, and hastened to join the standa d of his 
 country in Mexico, early in the contest, and was now with Taylor 
 at Buena Vista. This generous-spirited young man was born in 
 1811. Having graduated with high honors at West Point acade 
 my, he had studied law, married, travelled a while in Europe, 
 and returned to Kentucky, to serve his country on the battle-field 
 when the occasion invited. 
 
 As Mr. Clay was leaving Frankfort for Ashland, he received 
 the melancholy intelligence of the death of his son. The paper 
 containing the news was handed to him by a friend, and he care 
 fully read it until he came to the sad announcement. Then he 
 trembled like an aspen, but uttered no word, save a command to 
 the driver to move on. " Amid all the clustering honors of his 
 elevated career," says a writer of the day, " Mr. Clay has been 
 a man of sorrows. The affections of his home have been great 
 as his own heart, and have yearned over his children with an in 
 tensity of love which only noble natures know. But 
 " Affliction seemed enamored of his parts ; 
 
276 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 death has been busy about his hearthstone ; and one by one he 
 has seen many of those who so proudly claimed him as father or 
 grandsire, taken from him. Their heritage of love devolved 
 upon the survivors ; and his son, who bore his name and shared 
 his virtues, was the pride and glory of his honored old age. But 
 his country demanded that son. The struggle of the father s 
 heart must have been a mighty one ; but he devoted him as he 
 had devoted his own lustrous life to his country. The heroism 
 of Colonel Clay, rendered it certain that his career would be 
 brilliant, but probable that it would also be brief. Mr. Clay 
 seemed to feel a parental presentiment that such would be tho 
 fact. We rejoice that the unhappy tidings found him at home 
 and among his kindred (though all the land is his home, and every 
 heart his kindred), where his tears could mingle with those of 
 the stricken partner of his afflictions. We dare not, even in 
 imagination, intrude upon the scene made sacred by sorrow : yet 
 we know enough of the hero-statesman to believe that, even in 
 his hour of desolation, the pride of the patriot and the parent may 
 afford some solace, and that the sentiment of Cato over his sacri 
 fice will rise from his heart : 
 
 I m satisfied ! 
 
 Thanks to the gods ! my son has done his duty. 
 How beautiful is death when earned by virtue ! 
 Who would not be that youth? What pity is it 
 That we can die but once to serve our country ! " 
 
 The following letter from General Taylor, communicating the 
 afflicting intelligence to Mr. Clay, is as honorable to the writer as 
 it is to the departed hero : 
 
 " HEADQUARTERS, ARMY OF OCCUPATION, I 
 " AGUA NEUVA, MEXICO, March 1, 1847. 3 
 
 "MY DEAR SIR: You will no doubt have received, before this can reach 
 you, the deeply distressing intelligence of the death of your son in the battle 
 of Buena Vista. It is with no wish of intruding upon the sanctuary of 
 parental sorrow, and with no hope of administering any consolation to your 
 wounded heart, that I have taken the liberty of addressing you these few 
 lines ; but I have felt it a duty which I owe to the memory of the dis 
 tinguished dead, to pay a willing tribute to his many excellent qualities, and 
 while my feelings are still fresh, to express the desolation which his untimely 
 loss, and that of other kindred spirits, have occasioned. 
 
 " I had but a casual acquaintance with your son, until he became for a 
 time a member of my military family, and I can truly say, that no one evei 
 won more rapidly up on my regard, or established a more lasting claim to 
 
LETTER FROM GENERAL TAYLOR. 277 
 
 my respect and esteem. Manly and honorable in every impulse, with no 
 feeling but for the honor of the service arid of the country, he gave every 
 assurance that in the hour of need, I could lean with confidence upon hi? 
 support. IS or was I disappointed. Under the guidance of himself and the 
 lamented M Kee, gallantly did the sons of Kentucky, in the thickest of the 
 strife, uphold the honor of the state and the country. 
 
 "A grateful people will do justice to the memory of those who fell on that 
 eventful day. But I may be permitted to express the bereavement which I 
 feel in the loss of valued friends. To your son, I felt bound by the strongest 
 ties of private regard, and when I mis s his familiar face and those of M Kee 
 and Hardin, I can say with truth that I feel no^ exultation in our success. 
 
 " With the expression of my deepest and most heartfelt sympathies for 
 your irreparable loss, I remain your friend, "Z. TAYLOR. 
 
 "Hon. HENRY CLAY, New Orleans, La." 
 
 General Taylor has always been forward to appreciate and 
 recognise the eminent public services and claims of Mr. Clay. 
 In a letter to Joseph R. Ingersoll, dated August 3, 1847, he 
 writes : " At the last presidential canvass, it was well-known to 
 all with whom I mixed, whigs and democrats for I had no con 
 cealments in the matter that I was decidedly in favor of Mr. 
 Clay s election ; and I would now prefer seeing him in that office 
 to any individual in the Union." This is sufficiently emphatic. 
 Lasting honor to the tried and honorable soldier, who can thus 
 yield the palm to civic worth and qualifications ! 
 
 " My life has been full of domestic afflictions, but this last is 
 one of the severest among them," wrote Mr. Clay to a friend soon 
 after the news of the fall of his son. The ensuing 8th of April, 
 in a letter to a committee of the whigs of Auburn, he alluded to 
 the Mexican war in the following terms : 
 
 " You express your regret on account of the unexpected issue of the last 
 presidential election. I ought to feel none for myself personally. Besides 
 being relieved from a vast responsibility, it furnished the occasion of the 
 exhibition of testimonials, and the outpouring of affection from the hearts 
 of my friends and countrymen, of which I had no previous conception 
 that I ever could be the honored object. Their spontaneous and disin 
 
 terested manifestations are worth far more than the presidency itself. 
 For our common country, I do regret the issue of the contest. Had it been 
 otherwise, we should have preserved the protective policy, under which 
 we had made such rapid and encouraging advances; the march of im 
 provement in our rivers and harbors, would not have been arrested ; and, 
 above all, we should have avoided this unnecessary war of aggression 
 with a neighbor, torn to pieces by internal dissensions. The brilliant achieve 
 ments, and the glorious laurels acquired, during its prosecution, gratifying 
 as they are to our national pride and character, can never compensate for 
 the exceptionable manner in which it was begun, the brave and patriotic 
 lives which have been sacrificed, and the fearful issues which, I tremble in 
 contemplating, may grow out of its termination. But I have not now B 
 
278 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 heart to dwell on this painful theme. I turn from it with hope and dutiful 
 submission to Him whose no doubt wise but inscrutable dispensation has per 
 mitted this awful calamity to visit our beloved country." 
 
 An interest! vg event transpired at Ashland, during the summer 
 of 1847. It can best be told in the language of an eyewitness, 
 under date of June 25th : 
 
 " A notice was very generally circulated through the public papers of the 
 country, some two or three years ago, to the effect that Mr. Clay had become 
 a member of the protestant episcopal church. The wish was doubtless 
 father to the thought, as Mr. Clay had not at that time taken any such step. 
 He has always been known to have the highest respect for the institutions 
 of Christianity, and to have been a decided believer in the Divine authen 
 ticity of the Christian religion his amiable and now deeply-afflicted wife 
 having, for many years, been an humble follower of its blessed Author. 
 When the weather permitted it, living as he does a mile and a half from 
 church, Mr. Clay has always been a regular attendant on its services ; and 
 for two or three years past, having had more leisure from public duty, his 
 attention had evidently been turned to the high considerations connected 
 with things spiritual and eternal his life having been devoted so intensely 
 to the good of others, as scarcely, until this period of retirement, to leave 
 him an opportunity to think of himself. But he has at length consecrated 
 his great powers to God. He was baptized in the little parlor at Ashland, 
 on Tuesday, the 22d instant, together with one of his daughters-in-law (the 
 other being already a member of the church) and her four children, by the 
 Rev. Edward F. Berkley, rector of Christ church, Lexington. The baptism 
 was administered privately, for the reason that the congregation of Christ 
 church are replacing their old church with a new edifice, now in rapid prog 
 ress of erection, and are not suitably situated for the most solemn and de 
 cent administration of this rite in public. 
 
 " When the minister entered the room, on this deeply solemn and interest 
 ing occasion, the small assembly, consisting of the immediate family, a few 
 family connexions, and the clergyman s wife, rose up. In the middle of the 
 room stood a large centre-table, on which was placed, filled with water, the 
 magnificent cut-glass vase presented to Mr. Clay by some gentlemen of Pitts- 
 burg. On one side of the room hung the large picture of the family of 
 Washington, himself an episcopalian by birth, by education, and a devout 
 communicant of the church ; and immediately opposite, on a side-table, 
 stood the bust of the lamented Harrison, with a chaplet of withered flowers 
 hung upon his head, who was to have been confirmed in the church the sab 
 bath after he died fit witnesses of such a scene. Around the room were 
 suspended a number of family pictures, and among them the portrait of a 
 beloved daughter, who died some years ago, in the triumphs of that faith 
 which her noble father was now about to embrace ; and the picture of the 
 late lost son, who fell at the battle of Buena- Vista. Could these silent 
 lookers-on at the scene about transpiring, have spoken from the marble and 
 the canvass, they would heartily have approved the act which dedicated the 
 great man to God. There was a deep emotion pervading that small assem 
 bly, at the recital, under such circumstances, of the sublime ordinal of the 
 church," 
 
 Early m the ensuing August, Mr. Clay left Kentucky to try the 
 benefit of sea-bathing at Cape May. On the 14th of that month 
 
VISIT Id CAPE MAY. 27S 
 
 he reached Philadelphia, having been greeted at every stopping- 
 place on his route, with the sympathizing respects and enthusi 
 astic cheers of the people. At Philadelphia, he became the 
 guest of Mr. Henry White. An immense multitude soon assem 
 bled before the house, anxious to catch sight of the venerated 
 statesman. When he appeared on the balcony, the manifestations 
 of enthusiasm and of welcome were indescribable ; every man 
 of the vast crowd seemed anxious to extend a personal token of 
 admiration and attachment. When silence was restored, Mr. 
 Clay remarked that he had come to the city without any intention 
 certainly without any desire of causing such a manifestation. 
 He had left his home for the purpose of escaping from afflicting 
 and perpetually recurring feelings ; in the hope of finding among 
 the friends whom he might meet during his travels, a portion of 
 consolation for the heaviest affliction Providence had ever visited 
 upon him : but under whatever circumstances he might have 
 come, he would be void of gratitude, he would be destitute of all 
 the finer feelings of nature, if he failed in thankfulness for the 
 kindness so manifested. The city of Philadelphia, he was proud 
 to say, had, during all the trials, difficulties, and vicissitudes of 
 his chequered career, been his warm and steadfast friend. 
 
 But if even the occasion were not unfit, the feelings under 
 which he labored would prevent him frem seizing upon it for the 
 purpose of making a set speech ; and in parting, he would only 
 add the expression of a wish as the day which ushers in the 
 sabbath, that all men should respect, was nearly spent that 
 they would unite with him in the sentiment, that to our country, 
 whether it is directed in its public measures by a good govern 
 ment or a bad one whether it is in prosperity or adversity in 
 peace or at war we should always give our hearts, our hands, 
 and our hopes. Mr. Clay then bade his fellow-citizens farewell, 
 and retired amid the stormy plaudits and affectionate " good- 
 nights" of the dispersing multitude. 
 
 At Cape May, Mr. Clay was the object of renewed testimo 
 nials of public love and regard. The country people for miles 
 around crowded to see him, while all the visiters to the island 
 vied with each other in demonstrations of honor and sympathy. 
 On the afternoon of the 18th, he experienced a somewhat narrow 
 
280 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 escape from serious injury. Riding out on the beach in company 
 with a young lady from Kentucky and two of his friends, in Mr 
 Brolaskey s coach, drawn by four spirited horses on their re 
 turn, the driver, in curbing one of the leaders rather suddenly, 
 caused him to commence kicking. Both leaders then kicked the 
 horses behind them, and these jumped and reared until they 
 broke the shaft, and ran the carriage into the fence. Just before 
 it struck, Mr. Clay seized the young lady in his arms, opened the 
 door, and leaped out of the carriage unhurt, before the driver or 
 any of the bystanders could render assistance. The carriage 
 rolled on, struck the fence, and was considerably damaged. 
 
 While sojourning at this pleasant watering-place, delegates 
 from New York and New Haven, made a trip to Cape May pur 
 posely to invite him to visit their cities. The scene of their in 
 terview with him, was one of the most interesting and animating 
 that had been experienced even in the career of one who had so 
 long been the subject of public honors the most grateful and 
 estimable. It took place in the great hall of the Mansion house, 
 which was crowded on the occasion with spectators, many of 
 whom were ladies. After appropriate music from a good band, 
 Mr. Clay made his appearance, and Mr. Nicholas Dean, who 
 had been commissioned as their spokesman by the New York 
 delegation, addressed him as follows : 
 
 "Through the unexpected kindness of friends, I am the honored instru 
 ment of expressing to you, sir, briefly, sentiments which are common to us 
 all. You are surrounded by a few of your fellow-citizens from the city of 
 New York not the result of political association, not the offspring of party 
 organization who had individually learned from the public press that you 
 were sojourning in their vicinity, and who, by one simultaneous impulse, 
 threw themselves on board a swift means of communication, and hastened 
 here to grasp you by the hand, and offer to you the homage of their warm 
 salutations. [Cheers and other manifestations of applause.] 
 
 "But, sir, we have another and more important duty to perform ; we 
 come in the names of four hundred thousand persons, to ask you once again 
 to visit our metropolis. [Applause.] Once again to permit us, within the 
 circle of our own corporate limits, to express to you our deep appreciation 
 of the eminent services which you, through a long series of years have ren 
 dered, not to us only, but to our whole country; [cheers of applause] once 
 again to furnish us the opportunity of expressing to you our undiminished 
 confidence and esteem, the love, the reverence with which we regard you. 
 [Continued applause.] 
 
 " These, sir, are no ordinary sentiments, nor are they felt in any ordinary 
 degree. They are the warm and hearty expressions of a generous and 
 grateful spirit; suffer them not to be chilled by deferred hope, or in any 
 
REPLY TO THE NEW YORK DELEGATION. 28* 
 
 degree repressed by present disappointment. Permit us, we pray you, sir 
 to announce to our fr.ends with the speed of lightning that [with emphasis], 
 Henry Clay will come to them. [Applause loud and long.] 
 
 A hundred thousand tongues are waiting to spread the glad intelligence, 
 and the great aggregate heart of our entire city is throbbing to bid you wel 
 come, thrice welcome, to its hospitalities." [Cheers, cheers, cheers.] 
 
 During the delivery of this address, Mr. Clay seemed grate 
 fully touched, and after a pause of a few moments, he replied in 
 the following language : 
 
 " Gentlemen of the committee from New York gentlemen of the com 
 mittee from Trenton gentlemen of the committee from New Haven > 
 gentlemen of the committee from Philadelphia for there are delegations 
 present from all these places fellow-citizens : the eloquent address, which 
 has just been delivered, has had the effect almost to induce me to adopt the 
 language which was used on a more solemn occasion. Thou almost per- 
 suadest me, to go. [Great applause.] But in all that uprightness of nature 
 which I have ever endeavored to practise, I must tell you the objects and 
 motives which have brought me to the shores of the Atlantic. I returned 
 to my residence, after passing the winter at New Orleans, on the twenty- 
 third or twenty-fourth of March last, and in a day or two afterward melan 
 choly intelligence reached me. [Here Mr. Clay evinced great emotion.] I 
 have been nervous ever since, and was induced to take this journey; for I 
 could not look upon the partner of my sorrows without experiencing deeper 
 anguish. [The speaker was here overcome by his feelings, and paused some 
 minutes, covering his face with his hands ; at length recovering himself, he 
 resumed.] Everything about Ashland was associated with the memory of 
 the lost one. The very trees which his hands had assisted me to plant served 
 to remind me of my loss. Had the stroke come alone, I could have borne 
 it, with his assistance, and sustained by the kindness of my friends and fellow- 
 citizens, with meekness and resignation ; but of eleven children, four only 
 remain [emotion] of six lovely and affectionate daughters, not one is left. 
 Finding myself in that theatre of sadness, I thought I would fly to the 
 mountain s top, and descend to the ocean s wave, and by meeting with the 
 sympathy of friends, obtain some relief for the sadness which surrounded 
 me. I came for private purposes, and from private motives alone. I have 
 not sought these public manifestations, nor have I desired to escape them. 
 My friend and travelling companion, Dr. Mercer, will tell you that in Vir 
 ginia in every section of the state of my birth I have been implored to 
 remain, if only for a few hours, to exchange congratulations with my friends, 
 but I invariably refused, and only remained in each place sufficiently long to 
 exchange one vehicle for another. You may imagine that I made a visit to 
 Philadelphia but I was accidentally thrown into Philadelphia. When I 
 arrived in Baltimore, I learned that the most direct route to this place was 
 by the Delaware. I had no public object in view. Indifferent I am not, 
 nor can I be, to the honor, welfare, and glory of my country. [Cheers.] 
 Gentlemen of the committee of New York, I have truly and sincerely dis 
 closed the purpose of my journey, but I can not but deeply feel this mani 
 festation of your respect and regard. It is received with thankfulness, and 
 reaches the warmest feelings of my heart that I, a private and humble 
 citizen, without an army, without a navy, without even a constable s staff, 
 should have been met, at every step of my progress, with the kindest mani 
 festations of feelings manifestations of which, at present, a monarch or an 
 
282 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 emperor might well be proud. [Tremendous applause.] No I am not in 
 sensible to these tokens of public affection and regard. I am thankful for 
 them all. [Cheers.] To you, gentlemen, of the committee of New York, 
 who, in behalf of four hundred thousand individuals whom you represent, 
 have taken so much trouble, I am deeply thankful for this manifestation of 
 your regard, but I must reluctantly decline the honor of your invitation. 
 To the citizens of Trenton, New Haven, and Philadelphia, I must beg [here 
 Mr. Clay addressed the committees from the other places] of you, to excuse 
 me ; and trust to their affection to do so ; for if I do not place myself on the 
 affections of my countrymen, whither should I go, and where should I be ? 
 On the wide ocean, without a compass, and without a guide. [Very great 
 applause.] I must beg of you, gentlemen of all these committees, to retrace 
 your steps, charged and surcharged with my warmest feelings of gratitude. 
 Go back, charged with warm thanks from me, and tell my friends that 
 nothing but the circumstances in which I am placed nothing else (for we 
 may as well mingle a laugh with our tears, and borrow the words of the Irish 
 ambassador), situated as I am, and I may say, circumstanced as I am de 
 prives me of the honor of meeting you. [Laughter.] Tell them, and I hope 
 this response will be considered as a specific answer to each of the commit 
 tees (for if you could see how my time is occupied here, you would know 
 it is impossible for me to waste it), that you are charged with the expression 
 of the best feelings of my heart. And you, gentlemen of New York, be as 
 sured that it will be long before this evidence of your regard will be for 
 gotten. Among the recollections of the incidents of this journey, this visit 
 will be paramount, and the circumstances which led to it. I wish you an 
 agreeable voyage on your return ; and make my apologies for being con 
 strained to decline your kind invitation." 
 
 After passing a few days at Newcastle with his friend the 
 Hon. John M. Clayton, and having been absent from home about 
 a month, Mr. Clay returned to Kentucky, reinvigorated in health 
 and spirits, and carrying with him new stores of recollections of 
 honors, and testimonials of attachment, with which his country* 
 men had everywhere marked his progress. 
 
SPEECH ON THE MEXICAN WAR. 283 
 
 XXVII. 
 SPEECH ON THE MEXICAN WAR. 
 
 IN every important engagement in Mexico our sffmies had 
 been successful. The victory of Buena- Vista had been a fitting 
 climax to the military operations of Taylor ; and Scott had 
 achieved a new conquest of Mexico hardly less marvellous than 
 that which Cortez had accomplished centuries before. The city 
 of the Montezumas was occupied by our troops. The fortresses 
 of the country and her principal port were in our possession. 
 Mexico was at our feet ; and the question was, " What is to be 
 done with our victory ?" 
 
 Some were for annexing the whole country. Others were for 
 drawing a line, and claiming all inside of it. Some were for 
 despoiling Mexico ; and others were for magnanimously aban 
 doning all the fruits of our conquest. At this juncture, the 13th 
 of November, 1847, Mr. Clay, whose views upon the subject had 
 been looked for with solicitude, lifted his voice in behalf of the 
 humane, the honorable, and the politic course. It was at Lex 
 ington that his speech on the Mexican war was delivered. An 
 immense concourse of citizens was present to hear him. Among 
 them were Senator Crittenden, Governor Letcher, the honorable 
 Garrett Davis, and a whole host of distinguished Kentuckians 
 and eminent strangers from other states, as well as many ladies, 
 who all listened with the deepest attention. Mr. Clay is repre 
 sented as having spoken with all the fervor and animation of his 
 younger life ; and, notwithstanding the length of the speech and 
 his energetic deliverance, and the fact that his voice had been 
 impaired by a speech of more than three hours duration, which 
 professional duty had required him to make only a few days be 
 fore, there was no lack of physical strength to the end, when he 
 seemed as fresh as at the commencement. His exordium on 
 this occasion is graceful and touching. The weather being un 
 favorable the circumstance was converted to his use in associa 
 ting it with his topics. He said : 
 
 " The day, is dark and gloomy, unsettled and uncertain, like the condi- 
 
284 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 tion of our country in regard to the unnatural war with Mexico. The pu) 
 lie mind is agitated and anxious, and is filled with serious apprehensions as 
 to its indefinite continuance, and especially as to the consequences which its 
 termination may bring forth, menacing the harmony, if not the existence, 
 of our Union. It is under these circumstances I present myself before you. 
 No ordinary occasion would have drawn me from the retirement in which I 
 live; but, Vhile a single pulsation of the human heart remains, it should, if 
 necessary, be dedicated to the service of one s country. And I have hoped 
 that, although I am a private and humble citizen, an expression of the views 
 and opinions I entertain might form some little addition to the general 
 stock of information, and afford a small assistance in delivering our country 
 from the perils and dangers which surround it." 
 
 There is a graceful melancholy in the following allusion to 
 the approach of old age : 
 
 " I have come here with no purpose to attempt to make a fine speech, or 
 any ambitious oratorical display. I have brought with me no rhetorical 
 bouquets to throw into this assemblage. In the circle of the year autumn 
 has come, and the season of flowers has passed away. In the progress of 
 years, my spring-time has gone by, and I too am in tbe autumn of life, and 
 feel the frost of age. My desire and aim are to address you earnestly, calmly, 
 seriously, and plainly, upon the grave and momentous subjects which have 
 brought us together. And I am most solicitous that not a solitary word 
 may fall from me offensive to any party or person in the who!* extent of 
 the Union." 
 
 Mr. Clay then took a review of those scourge? ?f mankind, of 
 which war is not the least : 
 
 "War, pestilence, famine, by the common consent of mankind, are the 
 three greatest calamities which can befall our species; and war, as the most 
 
 ^ direful, justly stands in front. Pestilence and famine, no doubt for wise 
 although inscrutable purposes, are inflictions of Providence, to which it is 
 our duty, therefore, to bow with obedience, humble submission, and resig 
 nation. Their duration is not long, and their ravages are limited. They 
 bring, indeed, great affliction while they last, but society soon recovers from 
 their effects. War is the voluntary work of our own hands, and whatever 
 reproaches it may deserve should be directed to ourselves. When it breaks 
 out, its duration is indefinite and unknown its vicissitudes are hidden 
 from our view. In the sacrifice of human life, and in the waste of human 
 treasure, in its losses and its burdens, it affects both belligerent nations; and 
 its sad effects of mangled bodies, of death, and of desolation, endure long 
 
 ^jifter its thunders are hushed in peace. War unhinges society, disturbs its 
 peaceful and regular industry, and scatters poisonoiis seeds of disease and 
 immorality, which continue to germinate and diffuse their baneful influence 
 long after it has ceased. Dazzling by its glitter, pomp, and pageantry, it; 
 begets a spirit of wild adventure and romantic enterprise, and often disqual 
 ifies those who embark in it, after their return from the bloody fields of 
 battle, from engaging in the industrious and peaceful vocations of life. 
 
 "We are informed by a statement, which is apparently correct, that the 
 number of our countrymen slain in this lamentable Mexican war, although 
 it has yet been of only eighteen months existence, is equal to one half of 
 the whole of the American loss during the seven years war of the Kevolu- 
 
SPEECH ON THE MEXICAN WAR. 285 
 
 tion And I venture to assert that the expenditure of treasure which it 
 has occasioned, when it shall come to be fairly ascertained and footed up, 
 will be found to be more than half of the pecuniary cost of the war of our 
 independence. And this is the condition of the party whose arms have 
 been everywhere constantly victorious 1" 
 
 After stating those views in regard to the origin and causes 
 of the war with which the reader of his life is already familiar, 
 Mr. Clay came to the consideration of the question, how was it 
 to be brought to a satisfactory close ? Tne mode which he in 
 dicated was, that Congress, inasmuch as it had the right, either 
 at the beginning or during the prosecution of any war, to decide 
 the objects and purposes for which it was proclaimed, or for 
 which it ought to be continued, should, by some deliberate and 
 authentic act, declare for what objects the existing war should 
 be prosecuted. He supposed the president would not hesitate 
 to regulate his conduct by the pronounced will of Congress, and 
 to employ the force and the diplomatic power of the nation to 
 execute that will. But, if the president should decline or refuse 
 to do so, and, in contempt of the supreme authority of Congress, 
 should persevere in waging the war, for other objects than those 
 proclaimed by Congress, then it would be the imperative duty 
 of that body to vindicate its authority by the most stringent, and 
 effectual, and appropriate measures. And if, on the contrary, 
 the enemy should refuse to conclude a treaty, containing stipula 
 tions securing the objects designated by Congress, it would be 
 come the duty of the whole government to prosecute the war 
 with all the national energy, until those objects were attained by 
 a treaty of peace. There could be no insuperable difficulty in 
 Congress making such an authoritative declaration. Let it re 
 solve, simply, that the war should or should not be a war of con 
 quest ; and, if a war of conquest, what was to be conquered. 
 
 To the project of annexation Mr. Clay expressed his decided 
 hostility : 
 
 "Does any considerate man," he asked, "believe it possible that two sucK" 
 immense countries, with territories of nearly equal extent, with populations 
 so incongruous, so different in race, in language, in religion, and in laws, 
 could be blended together in one harmonious mass, and happily governed^- 
 by one common authority? Murmurs, discontent, insurrections, rebellion, 
 would inevitably ensue, until the incompatible parts would be broken asun 
 der, and possibly, in the frightful struggle, our present glorious Union itself 
 would be dissevered or dissolved. We ought not to forget the warning 
 
LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 voice of all history, which teaches the difficulty of combining and coneolid 
 ating together, conquering and the conquered nations. After the lapse of 
 eight hundred years, during which the Moors held their conquest of Spain, 
 the indomitable courage, perseverance and obstinacy of the Spanish race 
 linally triumphed, and expelled the African invaders from the peninsula. 
 And, even within our own time, the colossal power of Napoleon, when at 
 its loftiest height, was incompetent to subdue and subjugate the proud Cas- 
 tilian. And here, in our own neighborhood, Lower Canada, which near 
 one hundred years ago, after the conclusion of the seven years war, was 
 ceded by France to Great Britain, remains a foreign land in the midst 
 of British provinces, foreign in feelings and attachment, and foreign in 
 laws, language, and religion. And what has been the fact with poor, gal 
 lant, generous, and oppressed Ireland? Centuries have passed since the 
 overbearing Saxon overrun and subjugated the Emerald Isle. Rivers of 
 Irish blood have flowed during the long and arduous contest. Insurrection 
 and rebellion have been the order of the day ; and yet, up to this time, Ire 
 land remains alien in feeling, affection, and sympathy, toward the power 
 which has so long borne her down. Every Irishman hates, with a mortal 
 hatred, his Saxon oppressor. Although there are great territorial differ- 
 ences between the condition of England and Ireland, as compared to that 
 of the United States, and Mexico, there are some points of striking resem 
 blance between them. Both the Irish and the Mexicans are probably of 
 the same Celtic race. Both the English and the Americans are of the same 
 Saxon origin. The catholic religion predominates in both the former, the 
 protestant among both the latter. Religion has been the fruitful cause of 
 dissatisfaction and discontent between the Irish and the English nations. 
 Is there no reason to apprehend that it would become so between the peo 
 ple of the United States and those of Mexico, if they were united together? 
 Why should we seek to interfere with them in their mode of worship of a 
 common Savior? We believe that they are wrong, especially in the ex 
 clusive character of their faith, and that we are right. They think that 
 they are right and we wrong. What other rule can there be than to leave 
 the followers of each religion to their own solemn convictions of conscien 
 tious duty toward God? Who, but the great Arbiter of the universe, can 
 judge in such a question ? For my own part, I do sincerely believe and 
 hope, that those who belong to all the departments of the great church of 
 Christ, if, in truth and purity, they conform to the doctrines which they 
 profess, will ultimately secure an abode in those regions of bliss, which all 
 aim finally to reach. I think that there is no potentate in Europe, what- 
 3ver his religion may be, more enlightened or at this moment so interesting 
 is the liberal head of the papal see? 
 
 "But I suppose it to be impossible that those who favor, if there be any 
 who favor the annexation of Mexico to the UnitedJStates, can think that it 
 ought to be perpetually governed by military sway. Certainly no votary 
 o.fhuman liberty could deem it right that a violation should be perpetrated 
 of the right principles of our own revolution, according to which, laws 
 ought not to enacted and taxes ought not to be levied, without representa 
 tion on the part of those who are to obey the one, and pay the other. Then, 
 Mexico is to participate in our councils and equally share in our legislation 
 and government. But, suppose she would not voluntarily choose represen 
 tatives to the national Congress, is our soldiery to follow the electors to the 
 ballot-box, and by force to compel them, at the point of the bayonet, to de- 
 posite their ballot? And how are the nine millions of Mexican people to 
 be represented in the Congress of the United States of America, and the 
 
HIS VIEWS ON ANNEXATION. 287 
 
 Congress of the United States of the republic of Mexico combined? la 
 every Mexican without regard to color or taste, per capitum, to exercise the 
 elective franchise ? How is the quota of representation between the two 
 republics to be fixed ? Where is the seat of common government to be 
 established ? And who can foresee or foretell, if Mexico, voluntarily or by 
 force, were to share in the common government what could be the conse 
 quences to her or to us? Unprepared, as I fear her population yet is, for 
 the practical enjoyment of self-government, and of habits, customs, language, 
 *vrs, and religion, so totally different from our own, we should present the 
 revolting spectacle of a confused, distracted, and motley government. We 
 should have a Mexican party, a Pacific ocean party, an Atlantic party, in 
 addition to the other parties, which exist, or with which we are threatened, 
 each striving to execute its own particular views and purposes, and reproach 
 ing the others with thwarting and disappointing them. The Mexican rep 
 resentation, in Congress, would probably form a separate and impenetrable 
 corps, always ready to throw itself into the scale of any other party, to 
 advance and promote Mexican interests. Such a state of things could not^ 
 long endure. Those whom God and geography have pronounced should live 
 asunder, could never be permanently and harmoniously united together. > . 
 "Do we want for our own happiness or greatness the addition of Mexico, 
 to the existing Union of our states? If our population were too dense for 
 our territory, and there was a difficulty in obtaining honorably the means 
 of subsistence, there might be some excuse for an attempt to enlarge our 
 dominions. But we have no such apology. We have already, in our glori 
 ous country, avast and almost boundless territory. Beginning at the north^-> 
 in the frozen regions of the British provinces, it stretches thousands of mileb 
 along the coasts of the Atlantic ocean and the Mexican gulf, until it almost 
 reaches the tropics. It extends to the Pacific ocean, borders on those great 
 inland seas, the lakes, which separate us from the possessions of Great Brit 
 ain, and it embraces the great father of rivers, from its uppermost source to 
 ti. i Balize, and the still longer Missouri, from its mouth to the gorges of the 
 Rocky Mountains. It comprehends the greatest variety of the richest soils, 
 capable of almost all the productions of the earth, except tea and coffee and 
 the spices, and it includes every variety of climate, which the heart could 
 wish or desire. We have more than ten thousand millions of acres of waste 
 and unsettled lands, enough for the subsistence of ten or twenty times our 
 present population. Ought we not to be satisfied with such a country ? 
 Ought we not to be profoundly thankful to the Giver of all good things for 
 such vast and bountiful land? Is it not the height of ingratitude to him to 
 seek, by war and conquest, indulging in a spirit of rapacity, to acquire other 
 lands, the homes and habitations of a large portion of his common children? 
 If we pursue the object of such a conquest, besides mortgaging the revenue 
 and resources of this country for ages to come, in the form of an onerous 
 national debt, we should have greatly to augment that debt, by an assump 
 tion of the sixty or seventy millions of the national debt of Mexico. For I 
 take it that nothing is more certain than that, if we obtain voluntarily or by 
 conquest a foreign nation, we acquire it with all the incumbrances attached 
 to it. In my humble opinion, we are now bound, in honor and morality, 
 to pay the just debt of Texas. And we should be equally bound, by the 
 eame obligations, to pay the debt of Mexico if it were annexed to the United 
 States." 
 
 Upon the ^uestiou of the extension of the system of negro 
 slavery over newly-acquired territory, Mr. Qlay spoke with that 
 
288 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 same ingenuousness which characterized his views on the slav 
 ery question, when, nearly fifty years ago in Kentucky, he de 
 clared his belief that the proportion of slaves in comparison with 
 the whites was so inconsiderable, that a system of gradual eman 
 cipation, that would ultimately eradicate the evil, might be safely 
 adopted. That sysiem differed from the plan of immediate abo 
 lition for which the abolition party of the present day contend. 
 That party had done incalculable mischief even to the very cause 
 which they espoused, to say nothing of the discord which they 
 had produced between different parts of the country. Mr. Clay 
 then alluded to the efforts of the American Colonization Society, 
 of which he had been one of the principal founders. He then 
 continued : 
 
 "It may be argued that, in admitting the injustice of slavery, I admit the . 
 necessity of an instantaneous reparation of that injustice. Unfortunately, 
 however, it is not always safe, practicable, or possible, in the great move 
 ments of states and public affairs of nations, to remedy or repair the inflic 
 tion of previous injustice. In the inception of it, we may oppose and de 
 nounce it, by our most strenuous exertions, but, after its conbmnmation, 
 there is often no other alternative left us but to deplore its perpetration, 
 and to acquiesce, as the only alternative, in its existence, as a less evil than 
 the frightful consequences which might ensue from the vain endeavor to^ 
 repair it. Slavery is one of those unfortunate instances. The evil of it 
 was inflicted upon us, by the parent-country of Great Britain, against all 
 the entreaties and remonstrances of the colonies. And here it is among and 
 amid us, and we must dispose of it as best we ftan under all the circum^ 
 stances which surround us. It continued, by the importation of slaves from 
 Africa, in spite of colonial resistance, for a period of more than a century 
 and a half, and it may require an equal or longer lapse of time before our 
 country is entirely rid of the evil. And, in the meantime, moderation, 
 prudence, and discretion, among ourselves, and the blessings of Providence, 
 may be all necessary to accomplish our ultimate deliverance from it. Ex 
 amples of similar infliction of irreparable national evil and injustice might 
 be multiplied to an indefinite extent. The case of the annexation of Texas 
 to the United States is a recent and an obvious one, which, if it were wrong, 
 can not now be repaired. Texas is now an integral part of our Union, with 
 its own voluntary consent. Many of us opposed the annexation with honest 
 zeal and most earnest exertions. But who would now think of perpetrating 
 the folly of casting Texas out of the confederacy, nml throwing her back 
 upon her own independence, or into the arms of Mexico? Who would now 
 Beek to divorce her from this Union ? The Creeks and the Cherokee Indiana 
 were, by the most exceptionable means, driven from their country, and 
 transported beyond the Mississippi river. Their lands have been fairly pur 
 chased and occupied by inhabitants of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and 
 Tennessee. Who would now conceive the flagrant injustice of expelling 
 those inhabitants and restoring the Indian country to the Cherokees and 
 Creeks, under color of repairing the original injustice? During the war of 
 our Revolution, millions of paper money were issued by our ancestors, as 
 
HIS RESOLUTIONS ON THE MEXICAN WAR. 289 
 
 the only currency with which they could achieve our liberties and inde 
 pendence. Thousands and hundreds of thousands of families were stripped 
 of their homes and their all, and brought to ruin, by giving credit and con 
 fidence to that spurious currency. Stern necessity has prevented the repa 
 ration of that great national injustice." 
 
 The sentiments and the policy recommended by Mr. Clay ir 
 tins practical and eloquent speech were embodied in the follow 
 ing resolutions, which he read and submitted to the judgment of 
 the meeting : 
 
 " 1. Resolved, as the opinion of this meeting, that the primary cause of 
 the present unhappy war, existing between the United States of America 
 and the United States of the republic of Mexico, was the annexation of 
 Texas to the former: and that the immediate occasion of hostilities between 
 the two republics arose out of the order of the president of the United 
 States for the removal of the army under the command of General Taylor, 
 from its position at Corpus Christi, to a point opposite Matamoras, on the 
 east bank of the Rio Bravo, within territory olaimed by both republics, but 
 vhen under the jurisdiction of that of Mexicn, and inhabited by its citizens ; 
 and that the order of the president for the removal of the army to that 
 point was improvident and unconstitutional, it being without the concur 
 rence of Congress, or even any consultation with it, although it was in ses 
 sion: but that Congress having, by subsequent acts, recognised the war thus 
 brought into existence, without its previous authority or consent, the prose 
 cution of it became thereby national. 
 
 " 2. Resolved, That in the absence of any formal and public declaration by 
 Congress of the objects for which the war ought to be prosecuted, the president 
 of the United States, as chief magistrate, and as commander-in-chief of the 
 army and navy of the United States, is left to the guidance of his own judg 
 ment to prosecute it for such purposes and objects as he may deem the honor 
 and interest of the nation to require. 
 
 " 3. Resolved, That by the constitution of the United States, Congress, be 
 ing invested with power to declare war, and grant letters of marque and 
 reprisal, to make rules concerning captures on land and water, to raise and 
 support armies, to provide and maintain a navy, and to make rules for the 
 government of the land and naval forces, has the full and complete war- 
 making power of the United States ; and, so possessing it, has a right to 
 determine upon the motives, causes, and objects, of any war, when it com 
 mences, or at any time during the progress of its existence. 
 
 " 4. Resolved, as the further opinion of this meeting, that it is the right, 
 and duty of Congress to declare by some authentic act, for what purposes 
 and objects the existing war ought to be further prosecuted ; that it is the 
 duty of the president in his official conduct to conform to such a declaration 
 of Congress ; and that if, after such declaration, the president should decline 
 or refuse to endeavor, by all the means, civil, diplomatic, and military, in 
 his power, to execute the announced will of Congress, and, in defiance of its 
 authority, should continue to prose_c_ute, the war for purposes and objects 
 other than those declared by that body, it would become the right and duty 
 of Congress to adoptthe most efficacious, measures to arrest the further 
 progress of the war, taking care to make ample provision for the honor, the 
 safety and security of our armies in Mexico, in every contingency. And, 
 if Mexico should decline or refuse to conclude a treaty with us, stipulating 
 M 19 
 
290 LIFB OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 for the purposes 0"d objects so declared by Congress, it would be ijie duty 
 of the government to prosecute the war, with the utmost vigor, until they 
 were attained 07 a treaty of peace. 
 
 "5. Resolved, That we view with serious alarm, and are utterly opposed 
 to any purpose of annexing Mexico to the United States, in any mode, and 
 especially by conquest; that we believe the two nations could not be hap 
 pily governed by one common authority, owing to their great difference of 
 race Jaw, language, and religion, and the vast extent of their respective 
 territories, and large amount of their respective populations: that such a 
 union, against the consent of the exasperated Mexican people, could only 
 be effected and preserved by large standing armies, and the constant -.appli 
 cation of military force ; in other words, by despotic sway, exercised over 
 the Mexican people in the first instance, but which there would be just* cause 
 to apprehend, might in process of time be extended over the people of the 
 United States. That we deprecate, therefore, such a union, as wholly in 
 compatible with the genius of our government, and with the character of 
 free and liberal institutions; and we anxiously hope Ihat each nation may 
 be left in the undisturbed possession of its own laws, language, cherished 
 religion, and territory, to pursue its own happiness according to what it 
 may deem best for itself. 
 
 "6. Resolved, That considering the series of splendid and brilliant victories 
 achieved by our brave armies and their gallant commanders, during the 
 war with Mexico, unattended by a single reverse, the United States without 
 any danger of their honor suffering the slightest tarnish, can practise the 
 yirtues of moderation and magnanimity toward their discomfited foe. "We 
 have no desire for the dismemberment by the United States of the republic 
 of Mexico, but wish only a just and proper fixation of the limits of Texas. 
 ^"7. Resolved, That we do positively and emphatically disclaim and dia* 
 avow any wish or desire on our part, to acquire any foreign territory what 
 ever, for the purpose of propagating slavery, or of introducing slaves from 
 the United States, into such foreign territory. 
 
 " 8. Resolved, That we invite our fellow-citizens of the United States, who 
 are anxious for the restoration of the blessings of peace, or, if the existing 
 war shall continue to be prosecuted, are desirous that its purposes and ob 
 jects shall be defined and known, who are anxious to avert present and 
 future perils and dangers, with which it may be fraught, and who are also 
 anxious to produce contentment and satisfaction at home, and to elevate 
 the national character abroad, to assemble together in their respective com 
 munities and to express their views, feelings, and opinions." 
 
 The speech was often interrupted by bursts of applause ; and 
 both at its commencement and its close Mr, Clay was heartily- 
 cheered. The promulgation of its sentiments were attended 
 with the happiest effects, not only at home in shaping public 
 opinion, but in Mexico in influencing her public men in the 
 adoption of temperate and pacific counsels. " It is hardly pos 
 sible," wrote one of the journalists of the day, " to over-estimate 
 the importance of this step." 
 
 From the intelligent and the right-thinking throughout the 
 country a response arose in favor of the sentiments thus boldly 
 
nESPONSE TO LEXINGTON RESOLUTIONS. 291 
 
 announced. The necessity for such a " voice potential" at the 
 critical time is well told in the language of the address of the 
 immense meeting which convened at the Tabernacle in New- 
 York, the 20th of December, 1847, to respond to the Lexington 
 resolutions : 
 
 "The spirit now dominant in the national councils, and rampant through 
 out the land, not only mocks at gray hairs and tramples on the lessons of 
 experience, but regards with impatience and ill-disguised contempt every 
 appeal to considerations of morality, philanthropy, or religion, in regard to 
 the prosecution or termination of the war. The fierce bay of the blood 
 hound on the warm track of his prey drowns the calm voice of reason and 
 the soft pleadings of humanity. Who that realizes the moral accountability 
 of nations can doubt that we have fallen upon evil days? 
 
 " In this crisis a voice from the west reaches the ear and fixes the regard 
 of the American people. A venerable patriot, illustrious by forty years of 
 eminent service in the national councils, emerges from his honored seclusion 
 to address words of wise admonition to his fellow-citizens. That voice, 
 which never counselled aught to dishonor or injure this Union, is lifted up, 
 probably for the last time, in exposure of the specious pretexts on which 
 this war was commenced, in reprehension of its character and objects, and 
 in remonstrance against its further prosecution. At the sound of that im 
 pressive voice, the scales of delusion fall from thousands of flashing eyes, the 
 false glitter of the conqueror s glory vanishes, revealing the hideous linea 
 ments of carnage; and the stern question which stung the first murderer is 
 broxight home essentially to every breast which enfolds a conscience: Where 
 is thy brother? To what end do we despoil and slay our fellow-men guilty 
 of being born two thousand miles southwest of us? By what divine law 
 are we authorized thus to deface and destroy the image of God? 
 
 "The great statesman of the west was too well acquainted with human 
 nature, and had too much experience of its worst developments, to hope 
 that such an appeal as he has made to the nation s moral sense would not 
 be resented and resisted. He knew that exposed depravity would pour 
 out its vials of wrath on his devoted head ; that fell rapacity would neglect 
 for a moment its prey to tear him with its fangs ; and that malice would 
 stimulate calumny to hunt and defame him through the length and breadth 
 of the land. Calmly he bared his breast to the storm ; unflinchingly he 
 contemplates its fiercest rage, its most dismal bowlings. Shielded in the 
 panoply of an approving conscience and of the commendation of the wise 
 and good throughout the world, he proffers no resistance, requires no sym 
 pathy, solicits no aid. For himself he desires nothing; for his imperilled 
 country he demands the services and the sacrifices of all her upright and 
 patriotic sons. 
 
 "And his appeal has not been fruitless. On every side the people, arous 
 ed as by a trumpet-blast, are awaking to a consciousness of their duty. N"o 
 longer sunk in apathy because they can perceive no mode in which exertion 
 can avail, they realize at last that every honorable means should be em 
 ployed to arrest the work of carnage ; and they feel that, in view of the 
 brilliant achievements of our armies, and. the utter prostration of their foes, 
 the honor of our country can best be preserved and exalted by the exercise 
 of magnanimity toward the vanquished, f The means of terminating the 
 war have been clearly pointed out by him who is emphatically first in the 
 affections and in the confidence of the American people, HENRY CLAY ; and 
 
292 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 it needs but that their representatives shall be faithful as he has been fear 
 less to insure a speedy restoration of peace." 
 
 The language subsequently adopted at the meeting at Castle- 
 Garden the krgest meeting ever gathered in this country 
 under one roof -was: 
 
 " Resolved, That we regard the late speech of Mr. Clay at Lexington, in 
 exposure of the causes, character, and objects, of the present war on Mexico, 
 as among the noblest and most patriotic efforts of the great and true man, 
 who would rather be right than be president " 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 COLONIZATION DEATH OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 
 
 EARLY in the congressional session of 1847 48, Mr. Clay 
 was carried by professional business to Washington. His re 
 ception there was brilliant and hearty beyond measure. He 
 had declined all public testimonials, but he could not evade the 
 greetings which the people rose as one man to extend. " Mr. 
 Clay s personal popularity suffers no abatement," writes one. 
 " He can not move without having a throng at his heels. He 
 lives in an atmosphere of hurrahs." The character of his jour 
 ney to the seat of government may be told in his own language 
 at the meeting of the American colonization society in January, 
 1848, in the hall of the house of representatives : 
 
 "I have just terminated, a journey of considerable length and arduous- 
 ness, performed in mid-winter, and surrounded at every place where I have 
 stopped by throngs of friends, leaving absolutely no leisure whatever for 
 that preparation which ought always to be made before a man presents 
 himself to address so respectable and intelligent an audience as this. I come 
 before you without a solitary note, and with very little mental preparation 
 of any sort, absolutely with no preparedness for an elaborate address." 
 
 We have already alluded to Mr. Clay s efforts in tne cause of 
 the Colonization society. The report that he was to speak at 
 their annual meeting called forth one of the largest assemblages 
 ever convened in the capitol. Every nook and corner in the 
 hall of the house was crowded, and hundreds of anxious atten 
 dants were disappointed in obtaiuing admission. Mr. Clay 
 
ADDRESS BEFORE THE COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 293 
 
 showed no abatement of intellectual vigor or patriotic ardor. 
 Experience had fully demonstrated the wisdom of those views 
 to which he had given utterance almost half a century before. 
 Time had shown that his colonization scheme, like his protective 
 policy, was founded in justice and benevolence, and bore in itself 
 the germ of future blessings. It had been opposed by the apa 
 hy of southern advocates of slavery, and by the perverse hostility 
 of northern professors of philanthropy ; in the words of Mr. Clay, 
 " it had been surrounded by difficulties, and beset by enemies in 
 front and in rear, and on both flanks. The abolitionists have 
 assailed it, as well as those of the opposite extreme." But in 
 spite of all obstacles, it has grown, as truth must ever grow, 
 though slowly, yet surely. 
 
 Mr. Clay alluded to the fact that about thirty years ago, the 
 Rev. Dr. Finney of New Jersey, and others with him, met in 
 that hall, and consulted and agreed upon the great principles of 
 the foundation of the society. Of that number Mr. Clay was 
 one. At first they did not intend to do more than to establish a 
 colony on the coast of Africa, to which the free people of color 
 in the United States might voluntarily and with their own free 
 consent without the least restraint, coercion, or compulsion, pro 
 ceed and enjoy untrammelled those social and political privileges 
 which under the circumstances of the case they could not enjoy 
 here. The founder saw, what is now manifest to the country, 
 that the people of color and the white race could not possibly 
 live together on terms of equality. They did not stop to inquire 
 whether this state of things was right or wrong. They took the 
 fact of impossibility for these two races to live together in equal 
 social conditions, and proceeded to operate upon that fact, without 
 regard to the question whether the fact arose from an unworthy 
 prejudice, that should be expelled from our breasts, or whether 
 it was an instinct for our guidance. The simple object was to 
 demonstrate before the world the practicability of establishing a 
 colony of free blacks in Africa. 
 
 Utopian and impracticable as the colonizationists believed the 
 purpose of the abolition movement to be to emancipate without 
 a moment s delay the whole of the black race in the United States 
 they did not interfere with it in any way. Their object was 
 
294 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 to demonstrate the practicability of colonization. That demon" 
 st ration has been made. 
 
 But it has been urged that this is the country of the black man 
 and therefore he should not be sent to Africa, which is not his 
 country. In some sense, those blacks who have been born upon 
 the soil may claim this for their country ; and so could the Israel 
 ites claim Egypt for their country, because during a long period 
 of time they were captives in Egypt. So could all the Israelites 
 born in the wilderness during their progress from Egypt to the 
 promised land, claim the wilderness for their country ; but still, 
 in contemplating the beam which guided the progress of that 
 most remarkable of all the families of man, neither Egypt nor 
 the wilderness, but Canaan, was their home, and to that home 
 they were finally led. Who, then, can doubt, in a solitary in 
 stance, that Africa is the real home of the blacks, though they 
 may have had a casual birth upon this continent ? And who can 
 fail to see that native missionaries will be the most effective for 
 the conversion of their African brethren, who are of the same 
 body with themselves, and with whom they can completely har 
 monize in all their interests, sympathies, and affections ? At 
 this moment there have been four or five thousand colonists sent 
 to Africa, and we have heard that there are in the republic of 
 Liberia twenty-five places of public worship dedicated to the 
 same Lord and Savior whom we worship, and that thousands of 
 the natives are rushing into the colonies in order to obtain the 
 benefits of Christian education and a knowledge of the arts. 
 
 With regard to the argument that it is impossible to transport 
 to Africa all the free people of color in the United States, Mr. 
 Clay remarked : 
 
 "Why, gentlemen, if I am not mistaken, there comes yearly into the 
 single port of New York an emigration amounting almost to the annual 
 increase of the population in that city, and perhaps exceeding the annual 
 increase of all the free people of color in the United States. And this is 
 done voluntarily, upon the great motives of all human action. Thus, the 
 German and Irish immigrants flock to our shores annually, with no con 
 siderable aid on the part of their governments and with no individual aid, 
 in numbers equal, perhaps, to the annual increase of all the Africans in the 
 United States, bond and free. These all come to our country in obedience 
 to one of the laws of our nature in pursuance of the great controlling 
 principle of human action, and which enters into all great enterprises: they 
 come here to better their condition ; and I hope they will better their con 
 
ADDRESS BEFORE THE COLONIZATOIN SOCIETY. 295 
 
 dition. And so it would be with all our free people of color. "Were they 
 to be transported from the United States to Africa, would not their condition 
 be physically, morally, socially, and politically, better and happier than any 
 thing which they could att ain to or hope for here ? It is vain to attempt to 
 eradicate the feeling which keeps a sunder these two classes. It is vain foe 
 the office of philosophy or humanity to attempt what is so utterly impracti 
 cable as joining together those whom God himself, by the difference of 
 color and various other distinctions, perhaps, has declared ought to be 
 separate. [Cheers.] Then, to send them to Africa not by violence, not by 
 coercion, not against their will, but with their own full consent let me say 
 to abolitionists and to those on the other extreme to all men why should 
 not the free colored race residing among us have the option to go to 
 Africa or remain in the United States ?" 
 
 Mr. Clay compared the growth of the colony of Liberia with 
 that of Jamestown and Plymouth. The ravages of disease had 
 been much less in the instance of the former. Its growth, too, 
 had been encouraging in comparison. It should be in this case 
 as in all other settlements in new countries. There should be 
 forerunners pioneers who will prepare the way, raise sub 
 sistence, build houses, make places of comfort and convenience 
 for those who are to follow them ; otherwise they may be thrown 
 upon the shores of the continent of Africa to suffer. Better to 
 proceed according to the laws of Nature herself slowly, surely, 
 and so carefully measuring every step that we take. 
 
 Mr. Clay related a case illustrative of the increased rigor of 
 the laws against the black population in some states of the south, 
 so that emancipation is prohibited. 
 
 " In the state of Alabama, a respectable and kind gentleman, whom I 
 never saw in my life, devised to me in his will some twenty-five or thirty 
 slaves, without any intimation as to the cause or motive of the bequest. I 
 was surprised at this, but had some reason to believe, in consequence of my 
 connection with this society, that the generous devisor had confidence in me, 
 and that I would send them to Liberia. Accordingly I took measures to 
 accomplish the object of their colonization, and have been happy to learn 
 since I came to this city that twenty-three of them have actually embarked 
 at the port of New Orleans for that colony, and the remainder will follow 
 as soon as they are ready. Now, what would have been the condition of 
 these poor creatures but for the existence of the colonization society ? They 
 could not have been freed in Alabama, for the laws of that state prohibit 
 emancipation in consequence, no doubt, of the imprudent agitation of this 
 eubject at the north. I had to take them to New Orleans as my slaves, and 
 they were regarded as my slaves until they got out of the jurisdiction of the 
 United States." 
 
 Here, then, appears the object of the Colonization society 
 that of affording individuals, as well as states, who may have the 
 control of free people rf color and slaves which they may wish 
 
296 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 to emancipate, the opportunity of gratifying their wishes, by of 
 fering them a transportation to the shores of Africa. The abo 
 litionists, by their opposition to colonization, have but riveted 
 more firmly the chains of slavery. 
 
 "I would now implore all parties," Said Mr. Clay in conclusion, "I would 
 beseech the abolitionists, and I would beseech all those who hold the doc* 
 trines of the opposite extreme, insisting upon the institution of slavery I 
 would beseech all men to look calmly and dispassionately at this great 
 project which commends itself to their friendly consideration I would 
 beseech them to discard their prejudices, and ask them in the name of that 
 God, under whose smiling providence I verily believe this society has thus 
 far been conducted, and will in future continue, to look and contemplate for 
 a moment this experiment of twenty-five years continuance, which, without 
 power, without revenue, without any aid except what has been furnished 
 by the charity of men, has carried on a war not an aggressive, but a 
 defensive war and transported to Africa between five and six thousand 
 emigrants from the United States. I would ask you to look at the territory 
 which we have acquired ; three hundred and twenty miles of coast on the 
 west of Africa, and in every port of which the slave-trade has been sup 
 pressed!" 
 
 Then there were the great objects of civilization the benefits 
 of the arts to be extended to the native Africans the propaga 
 tion of Christianity. " On, then, gentlemen go on," said Mr. 
 Clay, " in the name of the cause. I shall soon leave you and 
 this theatre of action for ever ; but I trust that the spirit which 
 led to the formation of this society will survive me, and that, in 
 other hands and under other auspices, this colonization society 
 of ours may be still found asserting its sufficiency, in co-operation 
 with the republic of Liberia, to transport to that region every free 
 person of color who may be disposed to go there, until, I trust, 
 the separation of the two races shall be at last completed, and 
 other generations shall have sprung up to invoke as in closing 
 I now do upon the noble cause of colonization the blessings of 
 that God whose smile, I think, has been hitherto extended to it." 
 
 Mr. Clay sat down amid peals of applause and the hearty ap 
 probation of his audience, if we may except a few ultraists of 
 both sides. Indeed, as Mr. Clay always takes the rational, the 
 practicable, the just, and the conservative view of affairs, ultra- 
 ism of all kinds is generally found ranged among his opponents. 
 
 The speech before the colonization society was followed, on 
 the llth of February, 1848, by his appearance ir the Supreme 
 court room as one of the counsel in the case of William Houston 
 
SPEECH IN THE SUPREME COURT. 297 
 
 and others versus the city bank of New Orleans. " At an early 
 hour," says a correspondent, " the avenues leading to the capitol 
 were thronged with crovds of the aged and young, the beautiful 
 and gay, all anxious to hear perhaps for the last time the 
 voice of the sage of Ashland. On no former occasion was the 
 uupreme court so densely packed every inch of space was oc 
 cupied, even to the lobbies leading to the senate. Mr. Clay rose 
 a few minutes after eleven o clock, the hour at which the court 
 is organized. It has been often said, and truly, that he never 
 was and never could be reported successfully. His magic man 
 ner, the captivating tones of his voice, and a natural grace, sin 
 gular in its influence and peculiarly his own, can never be trans 
 ferred to paper. To realize their charms, he must be seen and 
 heard. His exordium was in every way becoming and appropri 
 ate. He referred with feeling to the first time on which he ap 
 peared before that tribunal not one of those who then occupied 
 seats on the bench remained. But it was a grateful reflection, 
 that amid all the political shocks to which the country had been 
 subjected, the supreme court had maintained its elevated name, 
 its dignity, and its purity, untouched and unsuspected. He then 
 proceeded to the argument of the cause. By the common con 
 sent of the court and the immense and enlightened audience, 
 comprising some of the foremost minds of the nation, Mr. Clay 
 exhibited as much vigor of intellect, clearness of elucidation, 
 power of logic, and legal analysis and research, as he ever did 
 in his palmiest days. Much was expected from him, but he more 
 than realized every expectation. It was no display of oratorical 
 powers, but a sound and strict argument, adapted to the cause 
 and to the court." 
 
 " In his exordium," says another of his hearers, " we discern 
 a subjective beauty, and a fitness to the peculiarity of the occa 
 sion, which rendered it eminently impressive. Involving, as it 
 did. affecting recollections of the past, as contrasted with the 
 present, it had in it a quality of tenderness, rendered more intense 
 by the mellow tones of that wonderful and variable voice which 
 Mr. Clay possesses, and which, however firm for a septuagena 
 rian, is beginning to bo touched with the tremulousness of age. 
 The fact to which he alluded was, that he was now before an 
 M* 
 
I 
 
 298 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 entire new bench of judges, as compared with that in whose 
 presence he years ago made his first legal argument. A striking 
 fact . reminding the aged and venerable advocate of his own de 
 cline, and the judges of their hastening destiny." 
 
 Changing the tone of ns remarks, Mr. Clay replied to the 
 gentleman, the Hon. Johii Sergeant, of Philadelphia, who had 
 complained of the speed which had characterized the proceed 
 ings of counsel for the plaintiffs. Mr. Clay advocated the im 
 portance of making honorable haste in all legal matters, and, in 
 this connection, described the following scene : 
 
 " I happened, some years ago, in the performance of a public service, to 
 be abroad in England, and I occasionally attended both houses of Parlia 
 ment, and the courts in Westminster hall. Sir, if in contemplating those 
 great assemblies, and those learned tribunals, I had anything to regret, upon 
 a comparison between them and our own, of what I have witnessed when, 
 in that country, it was not that there was less eloquence or less ability 
 either displayed in parliament, when great and momentous subjects were 
 brought befoce that body, but that there was a greater economy of time. The 
 speakers there would begin with their subject, and would end when the 
 subject was exhausted. But, sir, when I went into either apartment of 
 Westminster hall, where I attended, as I did once or twice, the court sitting 
 in bank, I was there impressed still more with the economy of the despatch 
 of business. 
 
 " I entered the court-room, I remember, very early one morning. Their 
 lordships, the judges, were clothed with gowns like your honors, but that 
 was the only analogy between your honors and them, for they wore, also, 
 their flowing wigs, falling upon their shoulders. While there, there were 
 no sparkling eyes, no bewitching smiles, no female forms ; the whole room- 
 and I think, may it please your honors, it was not larger than the half of 
 this contained only the judges and officers of the court; and a host of 
 gentlemen of the legal profession. Upon the first seats the elder members 
 of the bar, the sergeants-at-law ; and upon the seats behind, the other 
 members of the bar, all clothed in black gowns. Well, after the tipstaff had 
 pronounced the introductory God save the king, his lordship asked the 
 oldest sergeant, Have yon any motion to make? Yes, please your lord 
 ship ; I have a case in which I wish to establish this point, naming the 
 point. Why, said his lordship, you can not maintain that. But," said 
 the sergeant, "I only wish to quote a few authorities. It is of no use, 
 said his lordship, turning to his notes, the proposition can not be main 
 tained; and the same observation was echoed along the line of judges, and 
 the case was dismissed in less time than it takes me to describe the incident." 
 
 Mr. Clay insisted upon the importance of speed in legal mat 
 ters, and created a laugh, even among the honorable judges, by 
 speaking of a certain tradition, illustrating the length of speeches 
 which are said to have been made by Philadelphia lawyers. He 
 did not mean to convey the idea that the lawyers of the brotherly 
 city were jot learned and highly honorable men, for he remem- 
 
APPROACHING NATIONAL CONVENTIONS. 299 
 
 bered with the greatest respect the leases, the Lewises, and 
 the Ingersolls, of that city ; but he did mean to say that they had 
 a passion for long speeches. With regard to the delays which 
 occurred in our courts of justice, he thought that the lawyers 
 themselves were generally at fault, though it was sometimes the 
 case that the judges were not quite as prompt as they might be. 
 He spoke of the one-hour rule which prevailed in another 
 chamber of the capitol, and suggested that the present court 
 might gather therefrom a salutary lesson. 
 
 At this stage of his remarks, Mr. Clay entered upon a state 
 ment of the case under consideration ; and his argument is rep 
 resented to have been " brilliant in the extreme, sound, graphic, 
 clear, and persuasive ; while his voice and manners were more 
 like those of a lawyer in the early prime of life than of a pa 
 triarch in his profession." 
 
 During his sojourn in Washington, Mr. Clay dined, on one oc 
 casion with Mr. Polk. " It is likely," writes a correspondent, 
 " you have heard of his remark to Mrs. Polk. He observed with 
 infinite grace, that he had never heard of anybody who com 
 plained in the least of her administration, though he had occa 
 sionally heard some complaint of her husband s. What a prim 
 rose path is Mr. Clay s ! Clothe him never with saddest cypress. 
 Let the almond and myrtle wave over his grave !" 
 
 The fourth Monday in May, and the 7th of June, having been 
 fixed upon by the administration party and the whigs respectively 
 for their conventions for the nomination of presidential candidates, 
 meetings began to be held throughout the country, at which strong 
 preferences for Mr. Clay were enthusiastically expressed. Many 
 good whigs thought it more expedient to put up General Taylor , 
 and discussions, which the future only could decide, were enter 
 ed upon, generally with candor and in a good sjaitit. New York 
 proclaimed herself for Clay in a mass meeting <t Castle-Garden, 
 believed to be not less than ten thousand vn:*ig. "But its 
 numbers," said the Tribune, " vast as they vme were but a 
 single element of this immense meeting. In ch&racter, intelli 
 gence, order, and dignity, we doubt whether an assemblage more 
 deserving of respect, was ever seen. Although the deep ancL 
 wdent enthusiasm for CLAY would frequently burst out in cheers 
 
300 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 like thunder-peals, especially at every allusion to our great leader s 
 came, yet no word (that we heard) was uttered, or sentiment 
 ev nced, disrespectful to his rivals, and when Mr. White spoke 
 r>f General Taylor as a gallant and able commander, the expres 
 sion was warmly responded to, despite the unanimous feeling that 
 HENRY CLAY was the man for president. Of course, when Mr 
 CLAY S name first occurred in the address, there were such 
 demonstrations of delight as only failed to bring down the roof 
 above us, and the allusion to his Lexington speech was received 
 with hardly less enthusiasm. The resolution pledging the whigs 
 of New York to abide and sustain the choice of the whig national 
 convention, was most heartily responded to. And when Mr. 
 Selden appealed to all present, and especially to the reporters, to 
 say whether they ever saw a larger, more unanimous, more en 
 thusiastic meeting, he called attention to a truth which not even 
 the most inveterate adversary could venture to gainsay." 
 
 We wish we could give at length the proceedings of this ani 
 mated meeting, but our limits forbid. Henry Grinnell, Esq. 
 presided, and N. B. Blunt, Esq., presented the address and reso 
 lutions. From the former, we make the following fragmentary 
 quotations : 
 
 "Mexico lies bleeding and prostrate at our feet Our national honor, if 
 ever assailed, has been fully A T indicated. Vengeance has been sated with 
 blood and carnage. We can at least afford to be magnanimous. For what 
 purpose to what end is the war to be further prosecuted ? If for con 
 quest : we deny the right to continue the war for such a purpose. If for in 
 demnity: it lias already been tendered. The truth is, stripped of all false 
 coloring, the war has assumed a new and distinct form. Territory the ex 
 tension of the so-called area of freedom a rapacious spirit of plunder 
 the spoliation of a weak and fallen enemy constitute the sole grounds for 
 a further continuance of the conflict. It can and must be terminated. 
 Human blood must cease to flow. The cause of humanity, the honor of the 
 country, the welfare of the people, justice and religion, imperatively demand 
 
 that the contest should end First and foremost among the 
 
 many true patriots and statesmen who have raised their voices and inter 
 posed their exertions to stem this flood of injustice, and to restore the current 
 of public opinion to its wonted channel, stands the name of HENRY CLAY of 
 Kentucky. He needs no eulogium at our hands his deeds are written iu 
 the chronicles of his country s glory. Pre-eminent as he has been in the 
 ChVinet, in the halls of legislation, and the field of diplomacy the moral 
 "ourage, the self-devotion, and the calm sagacity, displayed in his memorable 
 rneech at Lexington, form the crowning act in a life well spent in the service 
 t his country, and designate him as the MAN upon whose counsels and wis- 
 f, ,xf\ all may rely. "We, therefore, the whigs of New York, do hereby 
 
MEETING AT CASTLE-GARDEN, NEW YORK. 301 
 
 nominate, and do earnestly recommend to the whigs of the Union, HENRY 
 CLAY, as our CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES." 
 
 The Hon. Joseph L. White, the Hon. Dudley Selden, and 
 Horace Greeley, Esq., addressed the meeting in eloquent and 
 appropriate terms. " I believe," said Mr. Greeley, " that in the 
 last election we could not have been beaten but for the unfortunate 
 panic which broke out among our fellow-citizens of foreign birth, 
 who feared that if the whigs should succeed they would be dis 
 franchized, and even forbidden to live on this soil. The election 
 of James K. Polk was thus effected by fair votes and foul. Now, 
 fellow-citizens, one month before or after the election, Mr. Polk 
 could not have been elected, and he, or somebody not unlike him, 
 will be the candidate opposed to us again. Under these circum 
 stances, Mr. Clay is the proper exponent of our principles and 
 candidate of our party ; he is the man who would have pre 
 vented the annexation of Texas and the war with Mexico ; he is 
 the man who was defrauded out of his election before. Now let 
 the people have an opportunity to retrieve their error ; and I be 
 lieve they will rush to his standard with unexampled enthusiasm. 
 Let the whig banner float with the name of our tried and loved 
 leader inscribed upon it, and I am confident that it will be borne 
 onward to a signal and beneficent triumph." 
 
 A letter from the Hon. John M. Botts of Virginia, addressed 
 to the editor of the Richmond Whig, was read at this meeting, 
 and published with the proceedings. The following extracts, 
 illustrating as they do the conflict in sentiment among whigs pre 
 vious to the election of 1848, will be read with interest in con 
 nection with the political history of Mr. Clay : 
 
 "If General Taylor is a no party candidate which is the only position he 
 has yet assumed, then I am not of his party, for I am a party man, and that 
 party is the whig party. I have nothing to ask, and I want nothing, of Mr. 
 Clay or General Taylor, or any other executive, and I will not do, what I 
 would regard as a surrender of my principles, to make any man president ; 
 and, therefore, I can not advocate the nomination of a gentleman who has 
 never filled a political position, who comes fresh from the tented field, 
 heralded only by his military achievements, and whose political views are 
 carefully concealed as well from his friends as his opponents. 
 
 " Let me ask one question : if General Taylor is elected as a no-party 
 candidate, will he prove a no-party president? If he should, then he will 
 not suit me or any other whig. If not, would he not disappoint those who 
 elected him? If a majority of the people are so dissatisfied with the princi- 
 p^s and measures of both the great parties of this country, as to elect u 
 
302 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 president belonging to neither, could he select a whig cabinet and adopt 
 whig measures, without a betrayal of the trust confided to him by those who 
 elected him ? or, in other words, if he is elected upon the ground that he 
 will not avow himself a whig and commit himself to whig policy, would he 
 not be as fully justified in selecting a locofoco as a whig cabinet and in 
 adopting a locofoco as whig policy ? 
 
 " I have reason to believe Mr. Clay has lost no strength in those states 
 that he carried in 1844, and that he is greatly strengthened in many that he 
 then lost especially in New York, which our friends assure us is beyond the 
 possibility of a doubt to say nothing of New Hampshire (of which many 
 of our friends are confident), Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, together with 
 Pennsylvania, which may be carried by selecting a suitable man to place on 
 his ticket say either Scott or Clayton. With these views, I shall do as I 
 believe my constituents would do, not give him up for any man of doubtful 
 principles and of more doubtful success. 
 
 " When I say I feel confident that Mr. Clay can be elected, I know I shall 
 be answered So you thought in 44. True, I did so did we all ; but that 
 is no reason we should be deceived again it is, on the contrary, the best 
 reason why we should not be. I am only rendered the more cautious in my 
 calculations by that unexpected and disastrous defeat. 
 
 " He will not only not have the catholic excitement, the foreign influence, 
 the native American party, the annexation of Texas, <fec., <fcc., to operate 
 against him, but they will all work in his favor, and most of all, this wicked 
 and horrible war, and the ruinous condition of the country, which will be 
 plainly spread before every man s eyes before the election comes on, will 
 swell his triumph, in my belief, beyond all calculation that his most sanguine 
 friends have yet made and if the whig party are sincere in their expression 
 of preference for him, my advice to them is, to hold on to him as their only 
 sheet-anchor, for the conservative principles of whiggery. 
 
 "At all events, let us await the action of a national convention. It will 
 be time enough for us who prefer him, to give up Mr. Clay, when the whigs 
 of the nation, in grand council assembled, shall recommend General Taylor 
 to us as a proper and more available candidate." 
 
 What gave added interest to the great Castle- Garden meeting, 
 was the fact that it was held on the anniversary of the day when 
 the news of the treaty of Ghent was received at New York. 
 Thirty-three years before, the British sloop-of-war Bramble had 
 come into the bay, and "just as twilight was deepening into 
 darkness, a pilot-boat came up to Whitehall, announcing her 
 arrival with the tidings that PEACE had been made at Ghent by 
 HENRY CLAY and his associates in that memorable commission." 
 
 On Monday, the 22d of February, at half-past one o clock, the 
 venerable John Quincy Adams, then in his eighty-first year, while 
 in his seat in the house of representatives, was stricken down by 
 paralysis, and borne to the speaker s room in the capitol. It had 
 been the earnest wish of his heart to die like Chatham in the 
 midst 3f his Hbors, and that wish was accomplished literally. 
 
DEATH OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 303 
 
 " This is the last of earth I am content !" was the last memor 
 able sentence that he uttered. The expiring statesman was 
 placed on a cot-bed, with his head toward the west. In this con 
 dition, breathing calmly, except at intervals, and manifesting no 
 signs of pain, he lingered, for the most part insensible, for fiftv 
 four hours. While he lay in this state, Mr. Clay visited mm, and 
 for some minutes held the hand of his speechless and unconscious 
 friend in silent grief. Look at that spectacle, ye who still attach 
 any credit to the vile slander against those two noblest Americans, 
 that there was a huckstering bargain between them for the sale 
 of the presidency ! Clay takes the hand of the dying Adams 
 of the mighty man, and the ancient, the eloquent counsellor, the 
 incorruptible patriot, the laborious and brave-hearted statesman, 
 the truly honest man ! Who can doubt, that could he have spoken, 
 the " old man eloquent" would have said of those charges against 
 Mr. Clay, as he said of them in 1843 : " As I expect shortly to 
 appear before my God to answer for the conduct of my whole 
 life, should those charges have found their way to the throne of 
 eternal justice, I will, in the presence of Omnipotence, pronounce 
 them false !" 
 
 The physician had told Mr. Clay that Mr. Adams might linger 
 for a week or more. Mr. Clay had professional business in 
 Philadelphia, which claimed his early attention. His friends, 
 too, had made arrangements for his reception. Thousands, who 
 had been expecting him, would be awaiting him on his way. 
 Under these circumstances, he did not feel justified in disap 
 pointing public expectation. Two hours after his departure from 
 Washington, Mr. Adams died ; but it was not till he was on his 
 journey from Baltimore to Philadelphia, that Mr. Clay received 
 the sad intelligence. 
 
 He arrived at Baltimore the evening of the 24th, and was le- 
 ceived at the railroad-depot by an immense crowd. Arrived at 
 the residence of his friend, Christopher Hughes, the crowd, 
 which had followed, congregated in front of the dwelling, and, 
 amid constant and loud cheers, called for Mr. Clay to make his 
 appearance. After a short delay, an upper window was thrown 
 open, and Mr. Clay made his appearance, greeted by tremendous 
 cheering. When silence was with difficulty restored, he said 
 
304 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 " Gentlemen, I want to know what you are making all this 
 noise about ?" 
 
 " We wanted to see you," and loud cheers, was the response. 
 
 A voice in the crowd. " You are that same old coon yet !" 
 
 Mr. Clay. "Exactly: I am that same old coon." Loud 
 cheers again, and laughter. 
 
 Mr. Clay. " Gentlemen, now I will make a compromise with 
 you : if you will let me alone, I will let you alone !" 
 
 He here withdrew, amid the most vociferous cheering, the 
 window was closed, and the crowd withdrew. 
 
 Early the next morning, Mr. Clay started for Philadelphia, 
 where his reception was again as cordial and brilliant as the most 
 extensive popular enthusiasm could make it. He here became 
 the guest of the mayor, Mr. Swift. " You are the most unrea 
 sonable set of people I ever met !" said Mr. Clay to the immense 
 concourse which gathered in front of the house, in the hope of 
 getting a speech from him. " You want something to come out 
 of my mouth, and I want to put something into it. [Laughter.] 
 Will you agree with me on one point that is, to go home and 
 get your suppers, and let me get my dinner ?" [Cheers and 
 laughter.] The crowd then dispersed, after giving " three times 
 three" for Henry Clay ! 
 
 At a public reception meeting, the ensuing Saturday, at Inde 
 pendence hall, Mr. Clay remarked that, " but for the loss that the 
 country has just sustained in the decease of Mr. Adams, this 
 would have been one of the happiest occasions of his life. As 
 it was, the loss of the purest of patriots and best of men, had 
 caused a sensation of grief to pervade the whole country ; and 
 how much greater than those of others, must be the feelings of 
 one who had been closely connected with him, in both public and 
 private life who had ever found him, at all times, and under all 
 circumstances, the pure and elevated patriot the tried, the faith 
 ful friend, the wise and good man ! The loss was heavy to all, 
 but to none more so than the speaker. His heart was so sur 
 charged with the emotions natural to the loss, that he could make 
 no set speech ; yet he could not avoid referring to the sad event." 
 
 Mr. Clay s visit, to Philadelphia was connected with profes 
 sional business in the settlement of a large estate, of which he 
 
VISIT TO NEW YORK. 305 
 
 was left the executor by a former resident of that city, who died 
 some years before in Indiana. But being so near New York, he 
 could not well decline the pressing and unanimous invitation of 
 her common council to pay them a visit as the city s guest. He 
 left for New York the 7th of March, encountering there and 
 everywhere the same hearty reception which he had before so 
 often experienced. 
 
 The following account of Mr. Clay s reception by the corpora- 
 iion of New York, and of his visit in the city, was originally 
 published in the New York Daily Tribune, from which it is here 
 taken, with slight alterations. The reception took place on Tues 
 day, March 7, 1848. The Tribune says : 
 
 " A more brilliant day for the ceremonies attendant upon the visit of 
 Henry Clay to our city could not have been desired. The air was clear and 
 elastic, the skies bright, and the waters of the bay as smooth as in summer. 
 Nature seemed to have decked herself in holyday attire to welcome the 
 illustrious statesman to the commercial metropolis of the Union. 
 
 " The splendid and spacious steamer C. Vanderbilt, had been kindly placed 
 at the disp seal of the common council by Captain Vanderbilt for the occa 
 sion. She had been newly painted and refitted for the season just com 
 mencing, and, by her beauty and convenience of her arrangements, was well 
 adapted for the service to which she was now appropriated. 
 
 " The committee having in charge the duty of meeting Mr. Clay at Amboy 
 and conducting him to the city, had contemplated being accompanied by 
 some two hundred invited guests ; but so great was the desire to see the 
 city s illustrious visiter, that at least six hundred persons obtained tickets, 
 and only the impossibility of making room for a larger number, prevented 
 a much more crowded attendance. Among those present were the members 
 of the common council and many eminent citizens, in both public and pri 
 vate life. All seemed filled with that enthusiastic attachment to Mr. Clay 
 which he, of all men, has the power of calling forth and securing. As the 
 Vanderbilt put off, she was loudly cheered by the multitude assembled on 
 the wharf, and the passengers of one or two boats that she met in the pas 
 sage down the bay, manifested the same sympathy in the purpose of the ex 
 cursion. 
 
 The boat arrived at Amboy at about half-past eleven o clock, and, as soon 
 as the cars arrived, the committee proceeded on shore to receive Mr. Clay, 
 with the Philadelphia delegation, and escort him on board. When he ap 
 peared, the air was rent with shouts, which were repeated as he passed amid 
 the crowd, quietly bowing his response to the warm expressions of those 
 around him. He appeared in excellent health, and bore himself erect with 
 all the vigor of a young man. His form has lost little of its apparent 
 strength, and his features retain the same manly and noble graciousness 
 which so truly express the character of the man. He was conducted to the 
 upper saloon of the Vanderbilt, where Morton M Michael, Esq., on behalf of 
 the Philadelphia committee, resigned him into the care of our city council 
 in the following address : 
 
 " * MR. PRESIDENT : The committee which speaks through me, have coma 
 
 20 
 
306 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 hither in the behalf of the people of Philadelphia, to transfer to vo ir care 
 the illustrious citizen who, for some days past, has been our honored guest 
 He came among us in no public capacity and on no public mission, not ex 
 pecting any of the gratifications and enjoyments which there may be in loud 
 and earnest expressions of the general regard. He came, rather anxious to 
 avoid all ceremony and parade, and desiring only to meet his old familiar 
 friends in the old familiar way. In this desire, it is scarcely necessary for 
 me to say, it was impossible that he should be gratified. All hearts sponta 
 neously rebelled against such a purpose. The whole people of Philadelphia, 
 animated by one common impulse of affection, poured forth into the streets, 
 thronged the roofs and windows of the houses, till they presented such & 
 spectacle as was never seen before : 
 
 " You would have thought the very windows spoke 
 So many greedy looks of young and old 
 Darted through casements their desiring eyes 
 Upon his visage : and that all the walls, 
 Painted with imagery, had said aloud, 
 Jesu preserve thee welcome HENRY CLAY ! " 
 
 " So it was the next day, so it was all the days that he was among us. 
 So constant, so tireless, so enthusiastic, were the well-meant kindnesses of our 
 people, that I for one was afraid that the object of them would be totally 
 overwhelmed and exhausted. Those overflowing marks of love were such, 
 indeed, as few but Henry Clay could have elicited : nay, they were such as 
 hardly any, save himself, could have endured. They came, too, from deeper 
 feelings than party motives : they sprang from those beautiful instincts of 
 our spiritual nature, which prompt admiration for whatever is truly great, 
 and noble, and exalted in man ! They showed that men love and reverence 
 those who lift themselves above the meanness and narrowness to which less 
 gifted and elevated natures are prone, and showed that in so doing, all must 
 deeply and truly love and reverence Henry Clay. Yes, reverence him as 
 one whose tongue was never tainted with falsehood, nor his soul stained with 
 shame! 
 
 " Nor was it the members of his own party alone who thus arose to do 
 him honor, but the members of all parties. All looked to him all turned 
 to him all were irresistibly drawn to him, as to one before whom Nature 
 herself could stand up and say to all the world, This is a MAN ! 
 
 " "We should feel a deep pain in thus separating from one we so love ; 
 but under a view of the cordial invitation which you have extended to him, 
 and the general desire of all your citizens to have him among you, we feel 
 that you are entitled to some portion of that pleasure which his presence 
 everywhere bestows. We resign him to you in full confidence that you will 
 welcome him as no man could be welcomed but Henry Clay ! " 
 
 Mr. M Michael s speech was interrupted by frequent applause, 
 and was warmly responded to at the close. 
 
 When silence was restored, Hon. Morris Franklin, president 
 of the board of aldermen, turned to Mr. Clay and addressed him 
 as follows : 
 
 "On behalf of the common council of our city, and of the assembled 
 thousands, who are now awaiting your arrival in anxious expectation, I am 
 the honored instrument of tendering you a sincere and cordial welcome to 
 their hospitality, and to assure you of a warm and heartfelt reception in the 
 commercial metropolis of our country. For in the anticipation of this, your 
 
ADDRESS OP MORRIS FRANKLIN. 307 
 
 visit, every sectional prejudice has been forgotten, and we are united as the 
 heart of one man in extending the right hand of fellowship to so distinguished 
 and illustrious a stranger. You have come among us, sir, not with the gilded 
 trappings of military splendor, nor the bugle-notes of a victorious chieftain ; 
 with no public patronage with which to reward your followers, but merely as a 
 private citizen yet wearing upon your brow as proud a civic wreath as could 
 be entwined by the affections of the American people for one of their noblest 
 and most honored sons. It is, therefore, in the sincerity of our hearts, that 
 we anticipate with pleasure the opportunity which you have afforded us of 
 presenting to our constituents one whom all will delight to honor, who, in 
 the enthusiasm of their feelings will hail with pleasure that hour when you 
 shall have become their welcome and their honored guest, and they shall 
 have seen the person and heard the voice of him, ivho for so many years, 
 has been associated in their recollections with the darkest and brightest days 
 of our country s history. For whether at foreign courts, in the domestic 
 cabinet, or in the halls of legislation, your services will ever be appreciated 
 by a grateful and confiding people, and when this age, with all its partialities 
 and prejudices, shall have passed away, and the future historian shall sketch 
 a faithful picture of the past, your name will appear in bold relief among 
 its noblest and purest sons. 
 
 "We the more fully appreciate this visit, sir, because we know that you 
 have yielded to our invitation, not to gratify any ambition of your own, nor 
 to build up or establish present or posthumous fame, but to gratify the peo 
 ple of our own city, and to respond to the wish unanimously expressed, that 
 once again they might be permitted to welcome as their guest the statesman 
 whom they honor and the citizen whom they love. For had you consulted 
 only your own feelings, or the dictates of your own judgment, you would 
 have avoided the multitude which you are about to encounter. Sir, we are 
 an enthusiastic people, and while we shall endeavor to consult your wishes 
 so as to render your visit pleasant and agreeable, yet it would be too much 
 for us to promise, or you to expect, that quiet and repose which we know 
 you desire, and which threescore years and ten demand. As well might we 
 undertake to lull the raging tempest, and say to the winds, Be still! as to 
 control the excitement of our people when the Sage of Ashland treads upon 
 their soil and walks within their midst. But we can and do commend you 
 to Him who controls the destinies of nations, to protect you as in the hollow 
 of his hand while absent from your home, and again restore you to those 
 domestic associations within the family circle alas, so recently reduced I 
 In retrospecting upon the past, or looking forward to the future, you may 
 realize the fact, that however situated, whether upon the classic shores of 
 Greece or among the republics of South America, whether pleading the cause 
 of dismembered Poland, or oppressed and unhappy Ireland, the name of 
 Henry Clay will remain as a monument of devoted patriotism, from which 
 we and our children may derive lessons of instruction worthy of the philan 
 thropist and the scholar, the statesman and the man ! Again we welcome 
 you on board this noble steamer; the mayor will respond to it upon our 
 arrival, and all the people will join in one harmonious shout of Welcome ! 
 welcome to our homes ! " 
 
 When President Franklin had concluded, Mr. Clay replied as 
 follows : 
 
 " Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Council of New York : I thank you 
 most heartily for this interesting occasion, and thank you, sir, for the senti- 
 
308 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 ments which you have done me the honor of expressing. I wish that I could 
 find language to convey to you the feeling and the gratitude with which the 
 very cordial and flattering manner of this reception is received. But the 
 truth is, and I might as well own it, that if I ever had any great talent at 
 public speaking, elocution, or eloquence, it can not now be exerted, and for 
 two reasons : one is that my heart is full, and the other that I am myself the 
 subject. And if ever I have exerted any power of eloquence, it has not 
 been for myself, but for my country. [Loud applause.] * * * * 
 
 " And now, Mr. President, though I can not respond to your welcome in 
 the terms of eloquence, I can at least clasp your hand, and assure you how 
 happy I am to be once more among my fellow-citizens of New York, and to 
 meet those who are intrusted with the high duty of directing the destinies 
 of so great and important a city." 
 
 During the delivery of Mr. Clay s speech, the saloon deck yield 
 ed to the weight of the crowd, and gave way some three inches, 
 and the alarm was given that it was breaking through. Many 
 persons, in consequence, retreated to the lower deck. Mr. Clay, 
 looking around, as if to see what was about to happen, was 
 assured by the captain of the boat that there was no danger. 
 " Well," said he, " I like always to know the ground I stand on." 
 Through the whole trip he seemed in excellent spirits, and many 
 genial sallies from his lips were received with loud satisfaction 
 by those surrounding him. 
 
 After he had concluded speaking, there was a general rush to 
 take him by the hand, but he obtained silence by waving a 
 splendid bouquet, the gift doubtless of some fair Philadelphian, 
 and said, " Gentlemen, you know I am a good deal of a compro 
 mise man. I have a compromise to propose to you, which is, 
 that instead of your coming up to shake my hand, I shall go 
 around and shake yours." This was unanimously agreed to, of 
 course, and he descended upon the main deck, exchanging salu 
 tations with old friends or new ones by the way. Between High- 
 Constable Hays and himself, a very playful meeting took place ; 
 and to whatever quarter of the boat he went, he was greeted with 
 the same hearty cheers which welcomed him on board at first. 
 Finally, after partaking of a lunch, he went upon the hurricane 
 deck, whence, in the wheel-house, he had a fair view of the 
 scenery of the bay on the way up. 
 
 On arriving at the city, instead of landing at Castle-Garden, 
 as had been contemplated, the Vanderbilt was obliged, by the 
 state of the tide, to land at pier No. 2. From there Mr. Clay, 
 
RECEPTION AT CASTLE-GARDEN. 309 
 
 accompanied by the common council, the Philadelphia delegation, 
 and a large number of citizens, marched through the muddy 
 streets to Castle-Garden. The crowd in the streets and on the 
 Battery was immense, and so thick that it was difficult for the 
 police to make way for the procession to move. As Mr. Clay 
 passed along, he was greeted by such cheers as only the warm 
 enthusiasm of spontaneous hearts can produce. 
 
 On entering Castle-Garden, an impressive spectacle then pre 
 sented itself. The whole of that vast area was filled with people, 
 waiting with impatience for his arrival. As soon as he entered, 
 he was greeted by deafening cheers, which were repeated until 
 it seemed as if the people would not have done with these proofs 
 of their affection for their distinguished visiter. At last silence 
 was restored, when President Franklin spoke as follows to the 
 mayor : 
 
 " YOUR HONOR : I have pleasure, in behalf of the committee of the com 
 mon council, to commit to your charge, together with that of this vast as- 
 sembl.ige of our fellow-citizens, the body of Henry Clay of Kentucky." 
 
 Alter the cheering had again subsided, his honor the mayor 
 9 .ose and spoke in these terms : 
 
 "Me, CLAY: The pleasing duty has been assigned to me as the representa- 
 .ive of the constituted authorities of the city of New York, to tender to you 
 Its hospitalities to extend to you a cordial welcome. 
 
 " It is not necessary for me indeed, sir, it would not become me on an 
 occasion like the present to advert to your many and valued public services. 
 The whole country gratefully acknowledge the zeal, the devotion with which 
 a whole life his been passed in upholding her interests in defending her 
 honor in augmenting her prosperity and we, sir, citizens of the great com 
 mercial metropolis of this western world, rejoice that we are permitted to 
 testify to you personally our appreciation of the worth, the talents, the 
 statesmanship, and the pure patriotism, which have combined to surround 
 with a hale of imperishable glory the name of Henry Clay. 
 
 " Our welcome, sir, is not mere lip-service, but from the abundance of the 
 heart the mouth speaks. 
 
 " We receive you, sir, as the honored, the cherished guest of this great 
 city. Its inhabitants, without reference to creeds, or sects, or parties, have 
 come forth to greet you, and in their name, sir, with all the warmth which 
 words fresh from the heart can convey, I bid you WELCOME," 
 
 Mr. Clay then rose and replied as follows : 
 
 "MR, MAYOR: I wish I could find adequate language to express to you 
 aiid this audience the feelings of a grateful heart, the feelings excited by this 
 splendid and magnificent reception. ****** 
 
 " But, Mr. Mayor, the president of the councils has told you that he has 
 committed my body to your custody. Sir, that expression could not fail to 
 
310 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 excite some reflection in my mind, and to call up some thoughts and feeling* 
 there, an expression of which I feel bound to endeavor to make. 
 
 My arrival here to-day, has been signalized by the discharge of cannon, 
 by the display of flags, by the sound of gay and exulting music, and by the 
 ehouts and cheers of an affectionate multitude directed toward myself. I 
 am proud and thankful for those evidences of regard, and of value, for the 
 humble services of an individual whom you esteem far too highly. But, sir 
 these testimonies offered to the living, could not fail to remind me of the just 
 honors about to be paid to the dead. To-morrow s sun will rise upon another 
 and a different spectacle than thatw r hich it to-day beholds, as the venerable 
 remains of the illustrious ex-president of the United States reach this city. 
 Then, instead of the cheers of joy and gladness which have been uttered 
 upon this occasion, there will be the still expression of solemn and saddened 
 feeling. As I contemplate the scene which will be presented on that antici 
 pated arrival, as I recollect the signal services and glorious career of the 
 great departed, and the position to which he now has passed a position 
 which awaits us all I am moved to suppress the feelings of grateful joy 
 which would otherwise overflow within me on an occasion so honorable to my 
 self. Ought not the contrast between this day s performances between the 
 joy and gladness this day manifested on the arrival of an humble individual, 
 whose efforts in our country s behalf you much too highly appreciate, and 
 the ceremonies which will follow to-morrow, to make a deep impression on 
 our minds? Ought they not for the few days remaining to us to moderate 
 the unworthy impulses which most men bring into the strife of existence to 
 repress and diminish the violence of party contests, and the heat and acri 
 mony of party feeling, for the brief space which intervenes between the 
 present moment and that moment near at hand when we shall be all laid low 
 in the narrow house which our venerable and pure-hearted patriot now 
 occupies ? 
 
 " I hope, Mr. Mayor, that we may profit by this contrast, and hereafter 
 entertain less of that embittered feeling which too often urges us, that we may 
 restrain our ardor in the pursuit of cherished objects in the sense of responsi 
 bility which we ought to cherish toward the Governor of all, and in the 
 expectation of that moment which must sooner or later bring us all to the 
 dust. 
 
 "Mr. Mayor, I could not pass by this topic, thus suggested to me. And 
 now, sir, will you permit me to thank yourself and the public authorities 
 of the people of this city, for this splendid reception, and for the kindness 
 and liberal hospitality which you have authorized me to expect at your 
 hands ?" 
 
 Mr. Clay concluded, with loud applause from the assembled 
 multitude, by whom he had also been frequently interrupted in 
 the course of his remarks. 
 
 The procession was then formed at the Battery, and moved up 
 through Broadway in the appointed order, amid the cheers of the 
 almost impassable mass who had assembled from one end of the 
 street to the other, on this beautiful afternoon, to do honor to 
 Henry Clay. 
 
 On the next day after his arrival, the funeral procession in 
 tionor of Mr. Adams, took place, arid Mr Clay, who participated 
 
VISIT TO RUTGERS YOUNG LADIES 1 INSTITUTE. 311 
 
 in it, received no visits, and avoided those manifestations of at 
 tachment which the people seemed universally to be animated 
 with toward kirn. In the forenoon, however, he visited the 
 Rutgers Young Ladies institute, where a great number of ladies 
 were assembled to receive him. He was addressed in behalf of 
 the young ladies by the principal, who also read an address to 
 him composed by members of the institution. From this address, 
 we give one or two paragraphs, together with Mr. Clay s reply : 
 
 " We hail you as the advocate of peace the richest boon that can be con 
 ferred upon a nation. And while we admire the patriotism that would not 
 spare a well-beloved son in the hour of trial, but endured with calm resig 
 nation that the fond object of a father s deep affection should be sacrificed 
 upon the altar of his country s good ; still more would we honor that moral 
 courage that manfully maintains the right in the face of the greatest oppo 
 sition, and boldly condemns the spirit of war and aggression. To such a 
 spirit, cherished and regarded by the nation s rulers, must we be indebted 
 ,"or the blessings of peace in our own highly-favored land ; for the extended 
 commerce, and polished society of large and opulent cities, or the grateful 
 retirement, and refining pleasures of the country ; but most of all, for the 
 knowledge and understanding of those arts and sciences which more adorn 
 our country than stately edifices, or well-tilled grounds, and our institutions 
 of learning that shall rightly train the youthful mind, and fit the wom.en of 
 America for an elevated station in this great republic. And to you, and men 
 of your principles, we look for the diffusion of like mercies in a neighboring 
 nation, whose smiling valleys and fruitful fields have been laid waste by the 
 cruel spirit of rapine and bloodshed. 
 
 "And now, dear sir, in conclusion, we would tender our heartfelt ac 
 knowledgments for the great pleasure and honor which your visit has afford 
 ed us. The events of this day can never be forgotten by us; the remem 
 brance of Henry Clay will ever be indelibly engraved upon our hearts. 
 
 " God bless you, and preserve you, and may your path continue to be like 
 that of the revered one whom the nation now mourns shining more and 
 more unto the perfect day. " 
 
 Mr. Clay then replied briefly as follows : 
 
 " I thank you, sir, and the young ladies whom you represent, for this cor 
 dial welcome and distinguished reception. Among the agreeable incidents 
 *vnich attended my brief visit to this city, there is no one to which I shall 
 looi with more satisfaction and delight than upon my having had occasion 
 to mec,u in this place the future mothers and present daughters of my coun 
 try. I did not come here for the purpose of making a speech, but I will, 
 however, say that I trust that the noble objects which the founder of this in- 
 etitution had in view in its establishment, may be fully attained. I trust that 
 the opportunities which the young ladies possess of improving their minds, 
 cultivating their taste, expanding their understandings, by the advantages 
 here offered, may not be lost, but that they may fulfil their high destinies, 
 and render themselves a blessing to their parents, an ornament to their coun 
 try, and acceptable to lhat God to whose providence I shall always pray for 
 tbeir prosperity fame and happiness." 
 
312 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 Mr. Clay having concluded, withdrew, receiving at every step 
 on the passage out of the room, the smiles of that beautiful crowd 
 of girls, and shaking the hands and replying to the salutations 
 and good wishes of those who happened to be near enough to 
 speak to him. 
 
 On Thursday morning, March 9th, Mr. Clay, in company of 
 the common council, drove out to the Institution for the Blind 
 On arriving, he was received by the principal, who briefly ad 
 dressed him, and drew forth from Mr. Clay one of the most feli 
 citous and beautiful speeches that it was ever the fortune of those 
 uresent to listen to. It was full of pathos and the eloquence of 
 elevated sentiment. This was followed by poetical addresses to 
 Mr. Clay from two young ladies, pupils of the institute, with 
 which he was highly gratified. 
 
 The party then proceeded to the Institution for the Deaf and 
 Dumb, where addresses were also delivered. The distinguished 
 visiter was greatly interested in the modes and results of the in 
 struction administered at those admirable institutions. 
 
 It was intended to visit the High Bridge, but owing to the 
 severity of the rain, the party returned to the city. At six o clock, 
 Mr. Clay dined with the common council at the New York hotel, 
 and in the evening, appeared at the ball at the Broadway theatre. 
 This was a most brilliant festival. Even the violent rain, which 
 prevailed the whole evening, seemed to have made little diminu 
 tion in the crowds who were present. We refer especially to 
 the ladies, who were drawn there in large numbers by the desire 
 of seeing the honored statesman of Ashland, who had consented 
 to attend, principally with the desire of gratifying his fair coun 
 trywomen. 
 
 The theatre was splendidly illuminated, and the stage hung 
 with gorgeous drapery, representing the American colors. Mr 
 Clay entered about nine o clock, in company with Ex-President 
 Van Buren, and escorted by the common council. He was re 
 ceived with three cheers, and immediately the company formed 
 into double lines, extending the whole length of the stage, down 
 which the distinguished guests walked, greeted most enthusi 
 astically at every point, and finally took their station at the farther 
 end, where the ladies crowded at once to take them by the hand. 
 
LEVEE AT THE CIT1-HALL. 313 
 
 Mr. Clay seemed in excellent spirits ; his fine eye sparkled with 
 kindly feeling, and the dense throng which gathered around, dis 
 played the most marked reverence and attachment toward him. 
 
 The next morning, Friday, having been appointed for the citi 
 zens of New York to pay their personal respects to Mr. Clay, he 
 reached the city-hall with his honor the mayor and the members 
 of the committee of reception, at about eleven o clock. A great 
 number of gentlemen were there collected, waiting for his arrival ; 
 they received him with the usual manifestations. As soon as the 
 doors of the governor s room were thrown open, the crowd began 
 to pour through them : and a steady stream of persons, eager to 
 exchange salutations with the illustrious visiter, occupied all the 
 avenues to the place. It was impossible to obtain admission, ex 
 cept by taking a place in the mass and moving with it gradually 
 up the stairs toward the door ; and the number of persons was 
 so great, that it must have required nearly an hour for a single 
 individual to reach the governor s room. 
 
 In order that the thousands who had collected outside, finding 
 it utterly impossible to effect an entrance, might not be disap 
 pointed in their wish to see him, Mr. Clay appeared on the bal 
 cony at the close of his levee. After the enthusiastic cheering 
 with which he was received had subsided, Mr. Clay said he had 
 come here with the expectation of shaking all his friends by the 
 hand ; he had been undergoing that operation for the last three 
 hours indeed, ever since he had been in the city. Instead of 
 working twelve hours, even if he had worked twenty-four hours 
 a day, it would not have sufficed ; and as he had given all that 
 were in the inside of the building his hand, he now gave all on 
 the outside his heart ! 
 
 On Saturday morning, Mr. Clay received the ladies of New 
 York at the same place, and many thousands were present. Mr, 
 Clay arrived at the appointed hour, and was received with all the 
 honors by the mass of gentlemen and ladies assembled at the city- 
 hall. The business of reception commenced immediately, Mr. 
 Clay shaking hands and exchanging a pleasant word with all, re 
 ceiving warmer tributes from some, and now and then carrying 
 his politeness so far as to yield a lock of hair to the longing scis 
 sors of some patriotic matron. The ceremony was continued till 
 Bf 
 
314 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 after the appointed hour, when Mr. Clay was compelled to retire, 
 although many ladies had not yet enjoyed the pleasure of an in 
 terview. 
 
 On Saturday afternoon, Mr. Clay visited the High Bridge, in 
 company with several members of the common council, and was 
 highly gratified with that magnificent work. He returned to the 
 city, ana was entertained at dinner by J. Phillips Phcenix, Esq., 
 after which he attended the performance of the oratorio of the 
 " Creation," by the Sacred Music society. He was there much 
 more an object of attention to the audience than the music, and 
 in the course of the evening, briefly and felicitously replied to an 
 address from the ladies of the society. 
 
 On Sunday morning, Mr. Clay attended St. Bartholomew s 
 church, with his honor the mayor, where an unusually large con 
 gregation was assembled. On the way thither, he was met by a 
 large number of Irishmen, who thus sought the opportunity of 
 quietly expressing to him the warm feelings which his efforts in 
 behalf of Ireland have roused in the breasts of all her sons. 
 
 On Monday morning (says the Tribune) a large assemblage 
 was collected at the New Jersey railroad-office, foot of Liberty 
 street, to witness the departure of Mr. Clay. A little past nine 
 o clock, he arrived in a carriage with his honor the mayor and 
 the committee of reception, and was received with loud cheers 
 by the multitude, who not only occupied the street, but the roofs 
 of the buildings about the railroad-office, all eager to obtain a 
 view of him. Just before the ferry-boat arrived at the wharf, 
 Mr. Clay came forward, and bowed his farewell to the people, 
 who returned it with cheers, after which he took his seat again 
 in the carriage, and was driven on board the boat. As the boat 
 put off, the assemblage again cheered loudly, and so the visit of 
 the veteran and adored statesman to the commercial metropolis 
 was ended. 
 
 The committee accompanied Mr. Clay to Newark, where they 
 resigned him to the authorities of that place. He was welcomed 
 there with the utmost enthusiasm, and after spending a short time, 
 went on to Philadelphia, where he remained a day privately, and 
 then returned home by way of Baltimore. The Tribune, in speak 
 ing of his visit to New York, says : " Mr. Clay has been with us 
 
HIS PRIVATE AND PERSONAL HISTORY. 315 
 
 five days, and through the whole time has received such tokens 
 of deep respect and enthusiastic attachment, as no man but him 
 self could have elicited. We now see how firmly he stands in 
 the affections, not of a few persons, or of any particular class, 
 but of the whole people. If there were any doubt before, the 
 fact is now undeniable, that no man lives who is so truly beloved 
 revered, and trusted, by the people of this city, as Henry Clay/ ? 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 MR, CLAY AS A LAWYER AND AS A MAN. 
 
 OF such paramount interest have been the details of Mr. Clay s 
 public career, that we have but little room to bestow upon his 
 private and professional history, honorable as it has been to him. 
 We have alluded to his early successes at the bar, but space fails 
 us in the attempt to supply even an imperfect sketch of his 
 numerous triumphant efforts in the sphere of his profession 
 efforts which have not failed in brilliancy and success with the 
 arrival of his threescore and tenth year. 
 
 Owing to the more popular character of his political labors, he 
 has not enjoyed, out of the boundary of the supreme court, half 
 the reputation which was his due as a jurist of extensive attain 
 ments and profound ability. But the writer has been assured by 
 the late Mr. Justice Story, that Mr. Clay was regarded by Chief- 
 Justice Marshall as second in these respects to no lawyer in the 
 country. His arguments always evinced great reflection, and 
 oftentimes extensive legal erudition ; and his appeals were of that 
 generous and elevated character, which rejects every aid of a 
 narrow or pettifogging cast. We must content ourselves with a 
 mere reference to this department of Mr. Clay s history ; referring 
 the reader, for information in regard to it, to the reports and rec 
 ords of the United States courts and the courts of Kentucky. 
 
 Mr. Clay is now (1848) in his seventy-first year, and, notwith 
 standing his varied and arduous labors, tasking his mental and 
 physical powers to an extraordinary degree, and the several pe- 
 
316 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 nods of dangerous illness to which he has been subject, he bears 
 in his personal appearance the promise of a vigorous, healthful, 
 and protracted old age. In stature, he is tall, sinewy, erect, and 
 commanding, with finely-formed limbs, and a frame capable of 
 much endurance. From his features, you might at first infer that 
 he was a hardy backwoodsman, who had been accustomed rather 
 to the privations and trials of a frontier life, than to the arena of 
 debate and the diplomatic table. But when you meet his full, 
 clear gray eye, you see in its flashes the conscious power of a 
 well-trained and panoplied intellect, as well as the glance of an 
 intrepid soul. Its lustre gives animation to the whole counte 
 nance, and its varying expression faithfully interprets the emotions 
 and sentiments of the orator. Much of the charm of his speak 
 ing lies in his clear, rotund, and indescribably melodious voice, 
 which is of wide compass, and as distinct in its low as in its high 
 tones. The effect of it, when a passion is to be portrayed, or a 
 feeling of pathos aroused, is like that of a rich instrument upon 
 the ear. 
 
 Nothing could be more felicitous than Mr. Clay s personal 
 manners and address. They convey to every one the conviction 
 that he is a true man that there is no sham about him and his 
 professions. Frank, affable, natural, and communicative, he was, 
 without assumption, as much at home among European potentates 
 as among his own constituents at a barbecue. His perfect self- 
 possession and repose of manner spring, not so much from long 
 intercourse with the world and with society, as from that indi 
 genous democratic instinct, that true nobleness of character, 
 which looks unaffectedly to the inward man solely, and not to the 
 outside insignia with which he may be decorated. 
 
 Never was public man so personally popular in the United 
 States. " The true source of his extraordinary influence," says 
 a writer of the day, " is to be found in that most potent of all 
 human influences, a true and ready sympathy. There are no 
 barriers between his heart and the hearts of others. Bring them 
 tin contact, and the efflux of his kindly feeling is instantaneous 
 Instead of sullenly wrapping himself in the thoughts of self, he 
 thinks of others. His thoughts become their thoughts, and their 
 thoughts become his thoughts. An interchange of kindly feeling 
 
HIS INTEGRITY. 3l7 
 
 becomes spontaneous and immediate. Mr. Clay is not only a 
 strong man in himself, but he possesses the ability to command 
 and carry with him all human agencies and influences which 
 come within the sphere of his action." 
 
 In his integrity and uprightness of character, no one who was 
 ever brought in contact with him, could fail to place the most im 
 plicit reliance. " He is an honest man," says one, who knows 
 him well ; " he is a fair-dealing man ; he is a true man ; he is a 
 man who believes in his own principles, who follows his own 
 convictions, who avows his own sentiments and acts on them, 
 who never deserted a friend, who was never deterred from his 
 purpose, who was never seduced from what he undertook to do 
 He is a man of faith, in the largest sense of that word. No man 
 has ever been more severely tried in public life in this country ; 
 and no man ever exhibited a more sublime manhood in all his 
 great and repeated exhibitions of that noblest of all qualities in a 
 public man trustworthiness. The nation may rely on him that 
 he is what he is, and that he will do what he says he will do." 
 
 " In our opinion, the most remarkable mental endowment of 
 Mr. Clay is his common sense. He is the most sagacious public 
 man this country has produced, except Benjamin Franklin. His 
 knowledge of affairs seems rather intuitive than the result of ex 
 perience. We have heard him deliver some of his greatest 
 speeches. We have read them all. His fame as an orator is 
 world- wide. But what is the oratory of those great discourses 1 
 No flowers of rhetoric adorn them ; no vast fund of acquired 
 erudition enriches them. Mr. Clay hardly ever quotes from books. 
 No elaborate argumentation. What then ? The grandeur of an 
 intellect that seems to perceive truth intuitively, united to a pathos 
 as fervent as that of Demosthenes : this is the man, full of spirit, 
 full of sense." 
 
 Among the eminent persons who have borne testimony to those 
 qualities which qualify Mi. Clay so worthily for the highest office 
 in the gift of the American people, is the late Col. Richard M. 
 Johnson of Kentucky. We are indebted to the Richmond Whig 
 for the following anecdote : 
 
 " On the 30th of September last, Col. Johnson being in Staunton, Virginia, 
 a number of gentlemen paid him the respect of calling to see him. One cf 
 
318 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 the company remarked to him, Colonel, when you reach the railroad 
 junction, you will be near the Slashes of Hanover The honest old war 
 rior s face immediately lighted up with an expression of sincerity and pleas 
 ure, and he eloquently said: I shall be delighted to see that place. Every 
 spot of ground Henry Clay touches he immortalizes. I have been in public 
 life for forty years, and in that time have been associated with all the great 
 men of the country. Leaving out Madison and Gallatin, who were old men. 
 when I first stepped upon the theatre of politics, I will place Jefferson first, 
 hen HENRY CLAY. He is a perfect Hercules in all the qualities than can 
 adorn human nature. Some men may excel him in a single quality for in 
 stance, Webster may be a greater logician; or some may be more renowned 
 for deep research; but take Clay all in all, he has not an equal in the Union, 
 in either the north or south, the east or the west. In moral courage, in 
 physical courage, in oratory, in patriotism, and in every noble quality, he is 
 without a superior. I have been associated with him on committees in con 
 nection with Calhoun, Lowndes, Cheves, Webster, and other distinguished 
 individuals, but Clay was always the master-spirit. We looked up to him 
 as the Ajax Telamon ; and by his counsel we were guided in our delibera 
 tions. If the rest of the committee assembled before him, and were in doubt 
 how to proceed, when he made his appearance, all eyes were turned upon 
 him and we were certain to be right when we followed his opinion. He 
 is a great man a very great man ! " 
 
 As a writer, Mr. Clay will creditably compare with any of the 
 public men of the day. * His style is singularly perspicuous, 
 simple, forcible, and correct, evincing a preference for good old 
 Saxon words over those derived from the Latin and Greek lan 
 guages. In this respect it is perfectly Addisonian. His in 
 structions to the ministers sent to the Congress of Panama, his 
 land report of 1832, his report on the differences with France, 
 and numerous documents which emanated from his pen while he 
 was at the head of the department of state, may be referred to, 
 not only as papers evincing masterly statesmanship, but as ex 
 cellent specimens of English undefiled. 
 
 In his tastes and habits of life, Mr. Clay is remarkably simple 
 and unostentatious. He is an early riser, and methodical and in 
 dustrious in the disposition of his time. His punctuality is pro 
 verbial. He is quite ^as noted as Washington was for this good 
 quality ; which we generally find in the greatest perfection with 
 those who have the greatest consideration for others. 
 
 In April, 1799, about a year and a half after Mr. Clay removed 
 to Kentucky, he married Lucretia Hart, daughter of Colonel Hart, 
 a highly respectable gentleman of Lexington. Another daughter 
 was married to James Brown, Esq., afterward minister to France 
 under Messrs Mwiroe and J. Q. Adams. Mrs. Clay was born 
 
HIS FAMILY. 319 
 
 in 1781, at Hagerstown, Maryland, being four years younger than 
 her husband. They have had eleven children, six daughters and 
 five sons, and a larger number of grandchildren. Four of the 
 daughters died young. Susan Hart, then Mrs. Duralde, of New 
 Orleans, died at the age of twenty. Ann Brown Clay, born in 
 1807, married James Erwine, Esq., of New Orleans ; and is said 
 to have borne a great resemblance to her father in her captivating 
 social, and intellectual qualities. She died in 1835, the last of 
 the six. The news of her death so affected Mr. Clay, that he 
 fainted on receiving the communication. The affliction of the 
 bereavement was most bitter. 
 
 Theodore Wythe Clay, the eldest son, was born in 1802. In 
 consequence of an accidental injury, he became deranged, and 
 has been for many years the inmate of an insane retreat. Thomas 
 Hart Clay, the second son, born in 1803, is married and has 3 
 family. He is engaged chiefly in the manufacture of hemp 
 Henry Clay, Jr., born in 1811, fell at Buena- Vista, gallantly 
 leading his men, February, 1847. James B. Clay, born in 1817, 
 is married and in the practice of the law at Lexington. John 
 M. Clay, the youngest of the family, born in 1821, has also been 
 educated for the legal profession. 
 
 The virtues of Mrs. Clay, though of the unobtrusive kind, are 
 not the less admirable and deserving. Her benevolence, her in 
 dustry, her studious attention to her household and her guests, 
 have been the theme of eulogy with all who have visited Ashland. 
 When General Bertrand, the faithful friend of Napoleon, was 
 there, he was much astonished at the extent and variety of the 
 duties discharged with so much activity and system by Mrs. Clay. 
 Her dairy, garden, greenhouse, pleasure-grounds, and the opera 
 tions of a farm of between five and six hundred acres, were all 
 under her vigilant and comprehensive supervision. 
 
 In his domestic and social relations, no man could be more 
 strictly honorable and blameless than Mr. Clay. The charge 
 has been brought against him by his enemies, of having visited 
 the gaming-table. It is admitted that, in early life, Mr. Clay had 
 a fondness for play not for the sake of the money sported, but 
 for the company and the excitement. He has never played at 
 a public table or at gambling-houses. For upward of thirty years 
 
320 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 he has not played at any game of hazard. Never to his knowledge 
 has a pack of cards been seen at Ashland. We mention these 
 facts, not that we suppose that Mr. Clay objects to the recreation 
 of cards, where nothing is staked, but because the grossest mis 
 representations and the most exaggerated stories in regard to him, 
 in connection with this subject, have been made current by his 
 enemies. We have fairly stated the head and front of his offend 
 ing. Many instances of the justice and magnanimity which he 
 carries into all transactions of a pecuniary nature might be men 
 tioned ; but we forbear. 
 
 It is with Mr. Clay s public history that we have mainly to 
 deal. The legislative annals of the nation are the sources from 
 which it may be derived. There it stands amply and immutably 
 recorded, through a period of more than forty years. From those 
 magnificent quarries of the past, the materials will be drawn for 
 a monument more perennial than marble or brass. Never were 
 the views of a public man upon all questions of public policy 
 more ingenuously and unequivocally expressed more clearly 
 and broadly defined. On no one point is there an indication of 
 shuffling of a disposition to evade or defer the responsibility 
 of uttering an opinion. In contemplating his career, we are often 
 reminded of these lines by the author of " Philip Van Arte- 
 velde :" 
 
 "All my life long 
 
 I have beheld with most respect the man 
 "Who knew himself and knew the ways before him, 
 And from among them chose considerately, 
 With a clear foresight, not a blindfold courage, 
 And, having chosen, with a steadfast mind 
 Pursued his purposes." 
 
 Such a man is Henry Clay ! And in no one public act of his 
 life does he seem to have been actuated by other than pure and 
 patriotic motives. " I WOULD RATHER BE RIGHT THAN BE PRES 
 IDENT." In that expression we have a key to his conduct from 
 the moment he first entered the national councils ; and in that 
 expression, we have an earnest of the single-heartedness of pur 
 pose with which the affairs of the country would be conducted 
 under his administration. But the presidency could not add to 
 
HIS NAME AND HIS FAME. 331 
 
 his fame. The wonder of the wise and the good that he was not 
 president, would speak louder in his behalf, and be a proudei 
 iribute to his worth, than their exultation at his success. The 
 absence of his bust from the triumph, will be more noted than its 
 presence could ever be. 
 
 Whatever the I* uture may have in store, " the Past is secure 
 His name lives in the hearts of his countrymen. His fame is 
 incorporate with the history of the republic. May they both be 
 blended with the highest honor which a free people can bestow ! 
 
 NEW YORK, May, 1848. * 
 
 21 
 
322 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 t 
 
 XXX.* 
 
 THE PRESIDENTIAL CONTEST OF 1848. 
 
 MR. CLAY S name, in connection with the Presidency, was 
 again presented to the Whig National Convention which met at 
 Philadelphia, in June, 1848. It is due to his unchanging friends 
 that the grounds on which they urged his nomination at this 
 time should be fairly set forth. 
 
 There is a sense in which Mr. Clay was not, and for more 
 than twenty years had not been, a popular man. His name was 
 not calculated to draw to the standard on which it was inscribed 
 that large class who are habitually spoken of as " the floating 
 vote ;" and who incline to this party or that from no regard to the 
 principles it advocates, or the measures it supports, but simply 
 or mainly from personal admiration of its leading candidate or 
 exultation over his achievements. On the contrary, the Whig 
 party, in presenting Mr. Clay for President, must count on the 
 support of those only whose intelligent convictions had impelled 
 them to regard with favor its distinctive objects its leading 
 aims and aspirations. 
 
 But with all, or nearly all, those who did cherish this sym 
 pathy, Mr. Clay was not only popular, but decidedly the most 
 popular candidate that could be selected ; he was the very man, 
 confessedly, whom nine-tenths of the Whigs of the whole Union 
 preferred to all other men for President. His Genius, his 
 Talents, his Eloquence, his Patriotism, and, in the better sense, 
 his popularity, had for twenty years rendered him the practical 
 and conceded champion and master-spirit of the Whig party, of 
 which he might without extravagance have been termed the 
 creating life, the animating soul. If the question had been, 
 " Whom do the Whigs desire to elect President ?" it was already 
 most emphatically decided. No one pretended to doubt that the 
 first choice of an immense majority of the Whigs was Henry 
 Clay. 
 
 * For this chapter, and all that follows it, the reader wil. hold the Editor solely respon 
 sible 
 
ELECTION OF POLK, HOW EFFECTED. 323 
 
 The first question, then, for practical consideration waa this 
 Can Mr. Clay be elected ? Is the Whig party strong enough, 
 in and of itself, to nominate the man of its choice wi^i a reason 
 able probability of electing him ? 
 
 Mr. Clay, it was notorious, had been repeatedly beaten ; but 
 only once when he was sustained by the full strength of the 
 Whig party. The scrub race of 1824 had only demonstrated 
 one thing the hostility of the people to the abuses and corrup 
 tions of congressional caucuses. All beyond this was accidental 
 fortuitous. In 1832, the Anti- Jackson strength was divided 
 by Anti-Masonry, which abstracted from Mr. Clay the votes of 
 several States which he would otherwise have carried. And in 
 1844, Mr. Clay was barely beaten by the Kane Letter swindle 
 in Pennsylvania, whereby a large body of voters were carried 
 against him by the preposterously false and impudent, but never 
 theless successful, assumption that Mr. Polk was the better Pro 
 tectionist of the two, and were drawn to swell the vote of the 
 latter under banners inscribed " Polk, Dallas, and the Tariff 
 of 42" by the terrors of Nativism which had been infused 
 into the great body of our adopted citizens by the Church-burn 
 ing and other acts of violence committed in Philadelphia, in the 
 spring and early summer of that year by the audacious and 
 persistent assertion of Birney and Co. that the Annexation of 
 Texas was as much favored by Mr. Clay as by Mr. Polk, and 
 more likely to be effected by the former, because of his far greater 
 ability and influence and by the atrocious frauds and illegal 
 votings, whereof the Plaquemine canvass fa Louisiana afforded 
 the most conspicuous illustration. That a majority of the lega. 
 voters of New- York and Louisiana cast their ballots for Mr 
 Clay, in 1844, is morally, though not legally, demonstrable. That 
 a majority of those of Pennsylvania would have done so had they 
 not been deceived and misled, is also palpable. The votes of 
 these States, added to those actually thrown for Mr. Clay, would 
 have given him nearly two-thirds of the entire Electoral body, 
 and rendered his election more triumphant than was that of Mr. 
 Polk. Yet in no canvass were Whig principles ever more 
 plainly and thoroughly proclaimed, nor more absolutely relied 
 on, than in that of 1844, by the supporters of Mr. Glair 
 
324 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 The friends of Mr. Clay in 1848 argued thus New- York, 
 which alone defeated us in 44, is now for us heartily and relia 
 bly ; she ifeas been carried by the Whigs in the last two elec 
 tions in that of 47 by an overwhelming majority. She has 
 elected a delegation almost unanimously for Mr. Clay, and she 
 tells us officially and otherwise that her vote is more certain for 
 him than for any other Whig. Now admit that we may lose 
 some one or more of the Eleven States which voted for Mr. Clay 
 in 44, we insist that there is at least as much probability that 
 we shall carry Pennsylvania, Louisiana, and some other of the 
 States which then voted for Mr. Polk, leaving New-York as 
 clear and absolute gain, which is as much as we actually need. 
 Since, then, it is conceded that Mr. Clay is the first choice of 
 nearly all Whigs, and is demonstrable that he could pretty cer 
 tainly be elected, we insist that he and no other is the man who 
 ought to be nominated. 
 
 But the friends of Mr. Clay cherished serious objections, more 
 over, to the support of General Taylor, his leading competitor 
 for the nomination, in view of the circumstances under which 
 his name was presented. That General Taylor was an honest, 
 brave, humane patriot and soldier, they were not inclined to 
 doubt ; but his life had been mainly spent in camps and forts 
 on the frontier at or beyond the outskirts of civilization ; so that 
 he was confessedly ignorant, to a remarkable degree, of the 
 great questions of public policy which for a generation had con 
 vulsed the country. He had never voted at any election, and no 
 one could say when or where, prior to the suggestion of his 
 name for the Presidency, he had evinced any decided interest 
 in, or even familiarity with, those great beneficent principles and 
 measures for which the Whigs had so patiently and resolutely 
 struggled. To nominate him for President, therefore, in view 
 of his no-party professions and the corresponding impulses 
 which first designated him as a candidate, seemed to many of 
 fhe Old Guard like abandoning the great purposes of our organ 
 ization as a party, and advertising the world that we cared more 
 for grasping the offices than for advancing our principles. Such 
 considerations made the thought of surrendering Mr. Clay for 
 any other candidate, but especially General Taylor, exceedingly 
 
PHILADELPHIA NATIONAL CONVENTION. 325 
 
 distasteful to a large proportion of the most zealous, intelligent;, 
 and devoted Whigs. 
 
 On the other hand, it was urged True, General Taylor is 
 not a Statesman of the same grade with Mr. Clay ; but he is an 
 honest, patriotic Whig, who will hear and heed advice from all 
 those whom a Whig President should heed he is eminently a 
 man of strong common sense, of popular sympathies, of liberal 
 views, and immensely popular with all those who are but loosely 
 or not at all attached to any party. He is already the declared 
 and accepted candidate of these ; his nomination will be gener 
 ally hailed as an omen and forerunner of triumph ; and his elec 
 tion will do much to calm the effervescence and assuage the 
 bitterness of party spirit, restoring, in good degree, the golden 
 eras of Washington and Monroe. 
 
 These considerations ultimately prevailed. Indeed, it seems 
 probable, in view of all the facts, that a majority of all the dele 
 gates went to Philadelphia expecting, if not absolutely desiring, 
 General Taylor s nomination, though prevented by instructions 
 arid previous committals, if not by the strong repugnance of their 
 immediate constituents, from immediately voting to produce it. 
 
 It is not likely that anything within the scope of human effort 
 could have changed the result, yet the unwise and untimely ap 
 pearance in Philadelphia, just as the Whig Convention was 
 assembling, of General Cass, the antagonist nominee, with sev 
 eral of his leading advocates, did much to hasten it. The 
 speeches made from hotel steps and windows by these gentle 
 men were of a peculiarly acrimonious and exasperating charac 
 ter, and, being addressed mainly to Whig auditors, tended to 
 excite in their minds a most intense and overmastering desire 
 for success at all hazards in resentment of this insolent and irri 
 tating irruption. And,*as the local sentiment at Philadelphia, 
 corroborating the indications of the political barometer at Wash 
 ington, pointed strongly to General Taylor as the man with 
 whom success was most certain, their effect on the nomination 
 was very perceptible ; and when Kentucky had been called 
 through on the first ballot for President, and had given a major 
 ity of her votes for General Taylor over her own illustrious 
 Statesman, in whose support she had never before wavered, it 
 
326 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 was manifest to all but the most devoted and uncompromising 
 supporters of Mr. Clay that no hope of his nomination remained. 
 The Convention had been organized by the choice of Governor 
 John M. Morehead, of North Carolina, as President, with the 
 usual complement of Vice-Presidents and Secretaries, and the 
 following was the declared result of its several ballotings : 
 First Ballot. 
 
 States. Taylor. Clay. Scott. Webster. Clayton. M Lean, 
 
 Maine 5 1 3 
 
 New Hampshire 6 
 
 Vermont 1 6 
 
 Massachusetts 12 
 
 Rhode Island 4 
 
 Connecticut 6 
 
 New York 29 6 1 1 
 
 New Jersey 3 4 
 
 Pennsylvania 8 12 6 
 
 Delaware 3 
 
 Maryland 8 
 
 Virginia 15 2 
 
 North Carolina 6 5 
 
 South Carolina 1 1 
 
 Georgia 10 
 
 Alabama 6 1 
 
 Mississippi 6 
 
 Louisiana 5 1 
 
 Ohio 1 1 20 1 
 
 Kentucky 7 6 
 
 Tennessee 13 
 
 Indiana 1 2 9 
 
 Illinois, 4 3 
 
 Missouri 7 
 
 Arkansas 3 
 
 Michigan 3 2 
 
 Texas 3* _ 
 
 Florida 3 
 
 Wisconsin 1 3 1 
 
 Iowa 2 1 1 . 
 
 Total Ill 97 43 22 4 2 
 
 Total 279. No choice. 
 
 Second Ballot 
 
 Taylor.. 118 Clay.. 86 Scott. .49 Webster. .22 Clayton. .4. 
 No choice again. Adjourned to next morning. 
 
 Third Ballot. 
 Taylor.. 133 Clay. .74 Scott. .54 Webster.. 17 Clayton.. L 
 
 Fourth Ballot. 
 
 Taylor.. 171 Clay.. 32 Scott. .63 Webster.. 14 
 Taylor over all.. 52. 
 
 * Cast by the Louisiana delegation, under instruction*. 
 
NOMINATION OF GENERAL TAYLOR. 327 
 
 Whereupon General ZACHARY TAYLOR was declared the 
 Whig candidate for President. 
 
 It was made a subject of reproach to Mr. Clay, throughout the 
 earlier stages of the canvass which succeeded, that he did not 
 jput, forth and exert his great personal influence in behalf of 
 General Taylor, and especially to soothe the feeling of profound 
 dissatisfaction which the preference of the latter had excited. 
 
 ooking only to his own popularity and position, it would prob 
 ably have been well for him to do what had been desired of him 
 by the friends of General Taylor. Yet it is but fair to consider 
 that the nomination of General Taylor had been made on grounds 
 expressly and peculiarly derogatory to Mr. Clay s standing in 
 the party and grating to his feelings on the ground, namely, 
 that long and efficient service in the foremost ranks of the party 
 and a towering ascendency in the direction of its efforts, served 
 rather to unfit than to qualify one for the bearing of its standard 
 and the reception of its highest honors. Mr. Clay may well 
 have said " If General Taylor is so transcendently popular, as 
 his friends represent him, that his nomination is equivalent to an 
 election, why should / be required to take the laboring oar in 
 the canvass ? When it is notorious that his more ardent friends 
 avowed their determination to support him to the end, whether 
 nominated at Philadelphia or not, and when no word of his was 
 ever uttered to rebuke that determination, why may I not await 
 some authoritative and explicit avowal of his devotion to Whig 
 principles before denouncing repugnance to his support as rebel 
 lion against the Whig party ? Would it not seem officious and 
 superserviceable on my part if I were to step forward unasked 
 by General Taylor, as his champion when his especial friends 
 have so often declared that he only needed a free course and to 
 be let alone by the politicians to insure his enthusiastic and 
 overwhelming triumph at the hands of the people ?" 
 
 At length, however, about the 1st of September, the strong 
 feeling of discontent in many quarters at the equivocal position 
 still maintained by General Taylor \vas brought to a head by his 
 written acceptance of a nomination made by a public meeting in 
 Charleston, S. C., of himself for President in connection with 
 General Butler, the regular candidate of the antagonist party, for 
 
328 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 Vice-President. This, in the eyes of politicians more prac 
 ticed and familiar with party usages than General Taylor, was 
 a virtual repudiation of the Whig party as having any special 
 claim to his fidelity or favor in case of his election to the Presi 
 dency. 
 
 An impulsive and spontaneous movement. to repudiate the 
 nomination of General Taylor and substitute that of Mr. Clay, or 
 some other known and unflinching advocate of Whig principle 
 was commenced at Albany, and followed by meetings of similar 
 import in New York and othfcr places. These having resulted 
 in the formal presentation of Mr. Clay, especially in New York, 
 as a candidate for President in the pending contest, constrained 
 him to break the silence he had hitherto observed, and peremp 
 torily forbid the use of his name in any such connection. Still, 
 he made no public allusion to the nomination of General Taylor ; 
 took no active part in the canvass ; and, if he even voted at the 
 Presidential Election, the fact was not publicly noted. 
 
 The contest, though much closer than the more ardent friends 
 of General Taylor had predicted, resulted in his election. Penn 
 sylvania decided the question in his favor, casting an unprece 
 dented vote and giving him a handsome majority. Fifteen of 
 the thirty States gave 163 electoral votes for General Taylor, 
 while the other fifteen gave but 127 to General Cass, so that the 
 former was elected by a majority of 36 electoral votes. The 
 nomination of Mr. Van Buren for President by the National Free 
 Soil Convention at Buffalo, and his zealous support by the Barn 
 burner section of the Democratic party in New York, doubtless 
 contributed materially to this result. On the 4th of March, 1849, 
 ZACHARY TAYLOR, of Louisiana, was inaugurated as President, 
 and MILLAR D FILLMORE, of New York, as Vice-President for 
 the ensuing four years. 
 
 During 1849, the people of Kentucky elected and held a Con 
 vention to revise their State Constitution. In view of the elec 
 tion, Mr. Clay addressed them a long and able letter, temperately 
 setting forth his reasons for desiring that a plan of Gradual 
 Emancipation and Colonization should be adopted. His views 
 were overruled by a large majority ; but their utterance is none 
 the less creditable to their author. 
 
AGAIN A MEMBER OF THE SENATE, 329 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 REPLY TO CAe>S ON AUSTRIA ON FUNERAL HONORS. 
 
 THE struggle for the Annexation of Texas to our Union was 
 regarded by all discerners as marking a new era in the history 
 of this country. From the moment the project was adopted by 
 John Tyler as a last desperate expedient for the prolongation of 
 his power, a perilous sectional excitement was inevitable. His 
 Secretary of State, John C. Calhoun, in officially explaining and 
 justifying the course of the Executive in acceding to Annexa 
 tion, expressly based it on a lively apprehension that the exist 
 ence and perpetuity of slavery in the Union might be endangered 
 by its abolition in Texas, which he deemed likely to be brought 
 about by some arrangement between that country, should it re 
 main independent, and Great Britain. General James Hamilton, 
 of S.C., toasted Annexation as a measure calculated to give "a 
 Gibraltar to the South." Every vehement advocate of slavery 
 as "a corner-stone of our republican edifice," became instinctively 
 a champion oL Annexation ; every slave-trader at once prepared 
 to forget, or to sink, all party differences in its favor ; and, long 
 before the country had been fully aroused to the true nature and 
 magnitude of the issue, a very powerful interest, consisting in 
 part of the stocks, bonds, &c., of Texas, had been concentrated 
 upon the issue of Annexation, eager to make it override all 
 others. 
 
 At the North, on the other hand, a very general aversion to 
 the scheme was entertained. The unpopularity of Tyler, previ 
 ously emphatic, was increased by this project of Annexation, on 
 which it reflected discredit in turn. Annexation had no avowed 
 friends in the Free States, beyond the three or four hundred 
 persons whom the possession or the hope of spoils still attached 
 to the waning fortunes of Tyler, and the still smaller number 
 who were interested in Texas Stocks and Bonds. And when, 
 by the nomination of Polk and Dallas, the Democratic party 
 was inextricably committed to Annexation, the greater portion 
 of its members in New York and other Free States, under the 
 
330 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 on a resolution submitted by General Cass, directing the Com 
 mittee on Foreign Affairs to inquire into the expediency of sus 
 pending diplomatic intercourse with Austria because of her bar 
 barities inflicted on the betrayed and vanquished patriots of 
 Hungary. General Cass, in advocating this resolution, expressly 
 appealed to Mr. Clay for his support, intimating that his expec 
 tation was grounded on Mr. Clay s well-known sympathy with 
 those who struggle and sacrifice for Liberty, as evinced in his 
 eloquent and powerful efforts in behalf of South American inde 
 pendence. Mr. Clay was thus morally constrained to speak, 
 and he commenced his remarks by objecting to such a proposi 
 tion taking the form of a resolution of inquiry, when the facts 
 on which action was demanded were historical and known to 
 the whole world. He continued : 
 
 " Sir, I think that the question ought to be treated as if it were a direct 
 proposition to suspend diplomatic intercourse with the power indicated in the 
 original resolution. And, sir, I have been very much struck with the want 
 of sympathy between the premises and conclusion of the honorable senator 
 from Michigan. In his premises he depicted the enormities of Austrian 
 despotism. Who doubts the perpetration of those enormities? In the most 
 glowing strains of eloquence, he portrayed to us the wrongs of suffering 
 Hungary. Who doubts them ? He speaks of the atrocious executions com 
 mitted by her the disgrace of the age, and, above all, of Austria. Who 
 doubts it ? These were the premises of the honorable senator ; but what 
 was his conclusion ? It was requiring the recall of a little Charge" d Affaires 
 that we happen to have at Vienna ! Why, the natural conclusion would be to 
 declare war immediately against Austria, if she had committed such enor 
 mities ; though, from the impossibility of coming in contact with her, this 
 resource might be difficult of accomplishment. But, sir, there is another 
 mode that is much more congenial, much more compatible with the course 
 we ought to take. The exiles from suffering and bleeding Hungary are 
 now scattered through all quarters of the globe ; some have reached our 
 hospitable shores, some are now wending their way hither, and many are 
 scattered throughout Europe. Let the Hon. Senator bring forward some origi 
 nal plan for affording succor and relief to the exiles of Hungary something 
 that shall be worthy of their acceptance, and the bestowing of which, upon 
 a brave and generous people, shall do honor to a country rich in boundless 
 resources something that shall be worthy of a country which is the asylum 
 of the wretched and the oppressed from all quarters of the world some 
 thing that shall be worthy the acceptance of the gallantry and patriotism 
 with which those exiles fought in defence of their own country. When the 
 honorable senator shall have done this, then he may call on me, and call 
 not in vain, for succor and support in behalf of a proposition such as I have 
 
 indicated Sir, unfortunately, owing to causes upon which it is 
 
 not necessary for me now to dwell, some of them of a very painful nature 
 among which are charges against the commander-in-chief of the Hungarian 
 army, which, if well-founded, must cover him with infamy unfortunately, 
 
REMARKS ON INTERVENTION. 331 
 
 Hungary fell suddenly, and to the surprise of the American world. She is 
 subdued ; she is crushed. 
 
 Now, if we adopt this resolution, I have been curious to satisfy myself upon 
 what principle we can vindicate it. What principle does it involve ? It 
 involves the principle of assuming, on the part of this government, a right 
 to pass judgment upon the conduct of Foreign Powers a branch of the 
 subject that has been well treated of by the senator who sits before me 
 (Mr. Hale). Have we any such power ? The most extensive bearing of the 
 principle involved in the resolution proposed by the honorable senator from 
 Michigan, assumes the right, on the part of this nation, to pronounce upon 
 the conduct of all other nations, and to follow it up by some direct action, 
 such as the suspending of intercourse. We are directing, at present, the 
 exercise of that power toward a nation, on account of the manner in which 
 they have conducted a war, or of the manner in which they have treated 
 the unfortunate prisoners who were taken during the progress of that war. 
 But where is to be the limit? You begin with war. You may extend the 
 same principle of action to politics or religion to society or to social prin 
 ciples and habits. 
 
 The honorable senator before me (Mr. Hale) has spoken of the conduct 
 of Russia; and undoubtedly, as between Russia and Austria, I consider 
 Russia the more culpable. It is true, she had a pretext for her interference. 
 She was afraid of the contagion of liberty in Hungary, lest it might affect 
 her coterminous possessions. That was the pretext for her interference. 
 In the case, however, of Austria, though I think Hungary was right and 
 Austria wrong in respect to the cause and object of the war, still there were 
 relations existing between Hungary and Austria, which did not exist 
 between Hungary and Russia. Russia s interference, then, was voluntary, 
 spontaneous, uncalled for. She had no such pretext or ground for it as 
 Austria had, in endeavoring to subjugate those whom she was pleased to 
 call rebellious subjects ; and yet the honorable senator has permitted Russia 
 to pass and, by-the-by, allow me to say that, but for the interference of 
 Russia, Hungary would have succeeded. She had succeeded, and she 
 Would have eventually triumphed in the struggle with Austria. The 
 honorable senator, instead of directing his proposition against Russia, as I 
 would have done, directs it against Austria, the less offending power of the 
 two, and proposes to pass Russia by unnoticed. But if the principle con 
 tained in the proposition be true, we have a right to examine into the 
 conduct of Russia, and into that of other nations. Where, then, is the 
 limit ? You may extend it to Religion. You may extend it to the Inquisi 
 tion. Have we not an equal right to say to Spain, Unless you abolish the 
 inquisition, we will suspend diplomatic intercourse with you?" .... Sir, 
 if we are to become the defenders of nations, the censurers of other powers, 
 I again ask the honorable Senator where are we to stop ? and why does he 
 confine himself to Austria alone ? 
 
 "Mr. President, the honorable Senator admitted that he entertained an 
 apprehension tftat I was one of those stationary politicians who refuse to 
 advance as the age advances ; one of those politicians, I think his expression 
 was, that stand still ; that he was in favor of Progress in favor of going 
 ahead. Sir, I should like to understand the meaning of this word Prog 
 ress, of which the honorable Senator speaks. I should like to hear a 
 definition of it. Has not this nation progressed with most astonishing 
 rapidity in point of population ? Has it not by far exceeded, in this respect, 
 every other nation in the world ; Has it not progressed in commerce and 
 manufactures ? Has it not increased in power with a rapidity greater than 
 
LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 has ever been known before in the case of any nation under the sun ? "What 
 is the progress which the honorable Senator means ? I am afraid that it ia 
 not an internal progress he is in favor of; for, whatever his own peculiar 
 opinions may be, the school of which he is a distinguished disciple is op 
 posed, as I understand, to the improvement of our magnificent Harbors and 
 Rivers of our glorious water-courses throughout the country. That is not 
 the progress, I apprehend, which the honorable Senator is in favor of. And, 
 again, with respect to the manufactures of the country, I do not understand 
 the doctrines of the party to which the honorable Senator belongs to be 
 in favor of progress there. They are for arresting progress. Their progress 
 is backward in reference to these matters; not intentionally so, I admit, but 
 by the course of their policy, they carry us back to the colonial days, when 
 we depended upon Great Britain for everything in the way of supplies that 
 were necessary to existence. 
 
 "What, then, is the progress which the honorable Senator seems so desi 
 rous of making? Ah! I am afraid that it is progress in foreign wars. I am 
 afraid it is progress in foreign conquest in territorial aggrandizement. I 
 am afraid it is progress as the disturbers of the possessions of our neighbors 
 throughout this continent and throughout the islands adjacent to it. If that 
 be the progress which the honorable Senator wishes to effect, I trust that it 
 will be long before the country engages in any such object as that; at least, 
 at the expense of the peaceable portion of the world. 
 
 "Sir, the gentleman says what we all know that this is a great coun 
 try, a vast country ; great in fact, and will be still greater in future if we 
 conduct things with prudence, discretion, and wisdom ; but that very great 
 ness draws after it great responsibilities, and those responsibilities should 
 incline us to use the vast power with which we have been blessed by the 
 kindness of Providence, so as to promote justice, so as to avoid unnecessary 
 wars, maintaining our own rights witli firmness, but invading the rights of 
 no others. We should be content with the almost limitless extent of ter 
 ritory which we now possess, stretching from ocean to ocean, containing 
 millions upon millions of acres as yet inhabited. 
 
 "Sir, if the progress which the honorable Senator means is a progress to 
 be accomplished by foreign wars, and foreign conquest, and foreign terri 
 torial aggrandizement, I thank God that I belong to the party that is sta 
 tionary that is standing still. -If that is not his object, I should like to 
 know what he means by progress. I should like to meet with a definition 
 of the kind of progress which he thinks it is desirable for this country to 
 make. 
 
 "Mr. President, I have risen late in the evening, really intending to have 
 said much less than I have said ; and I must conclude by expressing the 
 hope that the Senate of the United States, when they come to deliberate 
 seriously upon the consequence of the adoption of such a resolution as this, 
 will pause; that they will not open a new field of collision terminating per 
 haps in war, and exposing ourselves to the reaction of Foreign Powers, 
 who, when they see us assuming to judge of their conduct, will undertake 
 in their turn to judge of our conduct. We ought to recollect, that, with the 
 sole exception of France, whose condition is yet somewhat obscured in doubt 
 and uncertainty as to the fate of a republic which she has established, we 
 stand the leading Republic amidst all the Powers of the earth, an example 
 of a free Government, and that we should not venture to give to other na 
 tions even a pretext, much less cause, to separate themselves from us, by 
 undertaking to judge of their conduct, and applying to them a rule by 
 which we might denationalize nation after nation, according as their con- 
 
FUNERAL HONORS IN CONGRESS. 333 
 
 duct may be .found to correspond with our notion and judgment of what is 
 right and proper in the administration of human affairs. Sir, it does not 
 become us to take such perilous and unnecessary grounds, and I trust that 
 we shall not adopt such a course. I see no necessity for referring this reso 
 lution to a committee. I think it would be unwise to adopt it, and I trust 
 the Senate will at once negative the resolution ; or, if it shoiild be referred, 
 confiding in the sound judgment of the Committee on Foreign Relations in 
 anticipation, I feel perfectly sure of the rejection of the resolution by the 
 committee." 
 
 The resolution of General Cass was not adopted in the Senate 
 and a proposition afterward made by him to strike out of the 
 general appropriation bill the item providing for the outfit of a 
 Charge d Affaires to Austria, was, on the 16th of April, nega 
 tived, by a vote of 28 to 17. 
 
 On the llth of February Mr. Clay proposed the following 
 resolution : 
 
 "Resolved, That in future, when a member of Congress dies and has been 
 buried in the vacation, the Senate will not feel itself called upon to extend 
 to the memory of the deceased the honors and ceremonies which have been 
 of late years usually awarded ; but will restrict itself hereafter in the ap 
 propriation of those honors and ceremonies to cases of the death of members 
 during the session of Congress." 
 
 This resolution coming up in order on the 28th of March, Mr. 
 Clay, in supporting it, said : 
 
 "There are but two causes which can justify the practice of Congress in 
 adjourning on account of the death of a member. One is, that a member 
 dying here, the rites of burial are due to him, and our religion and our 
 feelings both \mite in inducing us to cooperate in the performance of these 
 rites; the other is, when a man associating with us in our public duties 
 during the session mingling with us upon all occasions, private as well as 
 public falls before the great destroyer in our midst, sympathy with him 
 feeling for his family regret for the event render the body, or a portion 
 of the body, incompetent, for a day" at least, to discharge its public duties. 
 Both these considerations unite, when the death occurs among us; but 
 if the death happens at a great distance from us especially of an unknown 
 individual, long buried, with whom there has been no association none 
 of those considerations and motives induce us, it strikes me, to adjourn, and 
 discontinue the discharge of our public duties, in consequence of an event 
 exciting no more interest to most of us than the death of any other promi 
 nent individual in public life would do. These are the considerations 
 which I think prevailed in the Senate at the time when the subject was 
 first suggested to them. They appear to me to call on us and we have 
 most of us been in Congress a length of time, and felt the inconvenience 
 to adopt this resolution." 
 
 Mr. Clay s proposition was earnestly opposed by Jefferson 
 Davis, of Mississippi, but was adopted without a division. 
 
334 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 TEXAS ANNEXATION AND BOUNDARY SLAVERY EXTENSION. 
 
 GENERAL TAYLOR, having been elected President, in Novem 
 her, 1848, but not yet inaugurated, Mr. Clay, on the assembling 
 of the new Kentucky Legislature, in December, 1848, was again 
 chosen a Senator of the United States for a full term of six years 
 from the 4th of March, 1849. His election was unanimous. 
 
 A special session of the Senate was held at the opening of 
 General Taylor s Administration ; but Mr. Clay did not deem his 
 attendance thereon necessary. At the opening of the regular 
 session, however, on the 3d of December following, he took his 
 seat in the Senate, nearly forty-three years subsequent to his 
 first appearance as a member of that body. 
 
 The despatch of public business was for some time delayed by 
 the failure of the House to elect a speaker. The Whig candi 
 date was Robert C. Winthrop, of Massachusetts ; that of the 
 Opposition was Howell Cobb, of Georgia ; but there were five 
 Southern Whigs who obstinately refused to vote for Mr. Win 
 throp, because of the support given by him, with a majority of the 
 Whig members, to the Wilmot Proviso ; while an equal or largei 
 number of Free Soil Democrats withheld their support from Mr. 
 Cobb, because he was supported and electioneered for expressly 
 as an opponent of that Proviso. Beside these were some half 
 dozen members elected as distinctive Free-Soilers who would 
 vote for neither of the leading candidates ; while four Whigs, 
 two Democrats, and one Free-Soiler, were absent at the open 
 ing. The vote on the first ballot stood Cobb 103; Winthrop 96, 
 and 22 scattering ; and the contest was continued with like re 
 sults until the 22d, when the House voted, by 113 to 106, that, 
 if no choice should be effected on the first, second, or third 
 ballot ensuing, then the candidate having the highest vote on the 
 next following ballot should be declared the Speaker elect 
 Under this resolution, Mr. Cobb was, on the 63d ballot, chosen 
 Speaker, having 102 votes to 99 for Winthrop, and 20 scattering. 
 
 On the 7th of January, Mr. Clay rose to address the Senate 
 
ANNEXATION OF 
 
 lead of such men as Silas Wright and B. F. Butler, still pro 
 claimed their invincible hostility to any scheme of Annexation 
 which should enure to the benefit of slavery to any Annexation 
 which did not guaranty equal advantage to the Free with tVe 
 ftlave States. 
 
 These professions were not justified by their subsequent acta 
 if indeed they could have been without cutting loose from and 
 defying the bands of party. Mr. Polk having been elected as an 
 avowed and unconditional Annexationist, and thus clothed with 
 immense patronage and power, the triumph of Annexation was 
 inevitable, and the imposition of conditions unpalatable to the 
 great bulk of its supporters and patrons impossible. Feeble ef 
 forts to limit or qualify the victory of the Slave Power were 
 made in the House by Richard D. Davis, of New York, and 
 John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, but with no other effect than 
 that of silencing the former into subserviency, and driving the 
 latter out of the party. Annexation was decreed by joint resolu 
 tions of the two Houses, a day or two before Mr. Folk s formal 
 accession to power, upon conditions which secured its whole 
 territory to slavery, and imposed no effectual limitations on the 
 claim of Texas to extend her dominion to the Rio Grande, and 
 thus absorb one half of the Mexican department of Tamaulipas, 
 a portion of Chihuahua, Coahuila, and nearly the whole vast ex 
 tent of New Mexico, where the Spanish or Mexican Flag had 
 waved in undisputed supremacy from a period long anterior to the 
 settlement of the Cavaliers at Jamestown, or the landing of the 
 Pilgrims at Plymouth. And Mr. Polk, by ordering the march 
 of a strong detachment of troops to the banks of the Rio Grande 
 opposite Matamoros, evinced a determination to support the ut 
 most claims of Texas with the whole power of the Government, 
 and secure to Slavery the fullest measure of aggrandizement 
 from its triumph. 
 
 Thus was the War with Mexico provoked and commenced ; 
 such were the aspects under which it was prosecuted. But 
 when, after a year of unbroken success, the President applied to 
 Congress for Three Millions of Dollars to be used, if advisable, 
 in the negotiation of a peace, it became evident that large ac 
 quisitions of territory, even beyond the apocryphal limits of Tex- 
 
336 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 as, were meditated ; and now, the Northern Democracy, smart 
 ing under a sense of the justice of the Whig taunts that, in this 
 whole business of Texan Annexation and Mexican War, the 
 blood and treasure of the nation had been lavished for the exten 
 sion of Slavery, were stirred up to an assertion of independence. 
 When the $3,000,000 proposition aforesaid came up for decision 
 in the House, a hasty consultation was held between the leading 
 Democrats of the North, from which resulted a Proviso, moved 
 by Mr. Wilmot of Pennsylvania, and hence designated by his 
 name, declaring that no territory which might be acquired from 
 Mexico at the close of the war should be opened to the introduc 
 tion of Slaves. This Proviso was adopted by the House : nearly 
 all the members from the Free States, without distinction of 
 party, sustaining it ; but it failed in the Senate, where it was 
 left over unacted on, having been received from the House just 
 previous to the hour fixed for the close of the session of 1847. 
 And though the question was repeatedly revived during the three 
 following sessions, and the principle of the Wilmot Proviso 
 nearly as often reaffirmed by the House, yet it was never con 
 curred in by the Senate, but on several occasions negatived by 
 that body. The short session of 1848- 9 was rendered memor 
 able by an earnest and protracted struggle, respecting the organ 
 ization of the Territories acquired by conquest and treaty from 
 Mexico the House insisting on the interdiction of Slavery 
 therein, and the Senate rejecting any such condition. Ulti 
 mately, the session closed as it had begun, no Wilmot Proviso 
 having been passed, nor any legal provision made for the civil 
 organization of the Territories. 
 
 The question of prohibiting Slavery in the Territories neces 
 sarily blended with and embarrassed the settlement of the Bound 
 ary of Texas. The historical as well as actual Territory of 
 Texas, prior to her Annexation, stopped far short of the Rio 
 Grande, and in fact extended no farther West and South than 
 the valley of the Nueces ; and that, it did not extend beyond 
 34 North, is indisputable. Up to the day that General Taylor 
 received orders from the War Department to march down to and 
 take post on the Rio Grande, there had never been a settlement 
 nor settler in any part of the valley of that river under the flag 
 
THE WILMOT PROVISO. 337 
 
 of Texas. No dollar of tax had ever been collected by Texas 
 on territory watered by the Rio Grande, nor had one of her civil 
 officers ever served a process there. On two or three occasions, 
 during the desultory warfare which had for years been prose 
 cuted between Texas and Mexico, expeditions, half predatory, 
 half military, had borne the flagjof Texas to the banks of the 
 RiD Grande, and once or twice Jiad assailed and captured one 
 of the Mexican cities on the right bank of that river ; but they 
 were almost immediately routed or compelled to make a hasty 
 retreat to avoid an encounter with overwhelming force ; so that 
 the Texan flag had at no time floated for a month continuously 
 in the Rio Grande valley. The only expedition by which Tex 
 as ever attempted the subjugation of New Mexico was surprised, 
 defeated, and nearly every man in it made prisoner, before it had 
 advanced within sight of Sante Fe. Yet Texas asserted on paper 
 that her western boundary was the Rio Grande ; so that Con 
 gress was impelled, in view of this assertion, to stipulate in the 
 annexing resolutions for an express consent by Texas, that all 
 questions of boundary between her and Mexico should be subject 
 to settlement by the Federal Government a requirement which 
 was reluctantly but explicitly submitted to. 
 
 But when President Polk, by "marching our army down to the 
 Rio Grande while our Government still professed to maintain am 
 icable relations with Mexico, had clearly assumed that the terri 
 torial rights of Texas were coextensive with her utmost claims, 
 and Congress had formally asserted that in the conflicts which 
 followed within sight of Matamoros, " American blood" had been, 
 shed on " American soil," Texas very naturally insisted that all 
 cavil or hesitation by the Federal Government as to the rightful- 
 ness of her claim was^precluded, and that its validity was fully ad 
 mitted and established. Whatever objection to that claim Mexico 
 might have offered, the United States could interpose none without 
 an impeachment of their own integrity and veracity. When, there 
 fore, the whole of New Mexico and the left bank of the lower 
 R : .3 Grande became by conquest and treaty the territory of the 
 United States, Texas took possession of the latter, and asserted 
 her right to the former as one which the Federal Government 
 could with decency neither gainsay nor resist. And if the party 
 .0 22 
 
338 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 ~4| 
 
 which plunged the country into war on the assumption that 
 Texas extended to the Rio Grande had continued in power, it is 
 not probable that the claim would have been effectually resisted. 
 
 The election of General Taylor, however, changed materially 
 the aspects of the case. The Whigs, as a party, had always 
 scouted the territorial claims of Texas as preposterous, and 
 consequently regarded the war on Mexico as originated in fraud 
 and prosecuted in falsehood and iniquity. General Taylor him 
 self was thoroughly convinced that Texas had no more right to 
 New Mexico than to Oregon, and was ready as President to re 
 pel force by force, if needful, in resistance to her pretensions. 
 And as Texas, instigated by the propagandists of Slavery in 
 other States of the South, proclaimed and evinced a determina 
 tion to vindicate her claim by the sword, a collision between her 
 authority and that of the Union seemed, through a part of 1850, 
 imminent a collision in which the active support of Texas by 
 the whole force of the Slave States, and a consequent disruption 
 of the Union, were by many deemed inevitable. 
 
 The Democratic party of the Free States, though it had very 
 generally professed to acquiesce in the principle of the Wilmot 
 Proviso, and though many of its leaders in Congress and else 
 where affected great zeal for the preservation of Free Soil from 
 the blighting tread of Slavery, manifested no disposition to resist 
 the subjugation of New Mexico to the dominion of Slavery under 
 the pretense of organizing it as part of the rightful territory of 
 Texas. Having so recently and so vehemently asserted the jus 
 tice of the war on Mexico, and of course affirmed the rightful- 
 ness of the territorial claims of Texas, the party could not, without 
 palpable and glaring inconsistency, resist the acts of Texas in 
 farther assertion of those claims and in undeniable accordance 
 therewith. Thus, with nearly the entire South supporting the 
 pretensions of Texas for Slavery s sake, and the North divided 
 and paralyzed by the committal of one half its statesmen and 
 people to those pretensions through their justification of the war 
 on Mexico, there remained no hope of any direct action by Con* 
 gress looking to the preservation of New Mexico from the doom 
 that threatened her. The danger was great and obvious, that 
 while Congress daily effervesced with Free Soil professions and 
 
INTRODUCTION OF THE COMPROMISE. 339 
 
 speeches, and a majority of the House seemed engrossed with 
 anxiety to preserve California and Utah from the very remote 
 and contingent peril of an establishment of Slavery therein, New 
 Mexico might be absorbed by Texas, and thus converted into a 
 Slavery-sustaining region as large as France, carrying the pecu 
 liar institution up to 42 North or nearly the latitude of Boston. 
 All that General Taylor s administration could have done m re 
 sistance to this consummation must have been confined to the 
 offensive and forcible operations of Texas, for which a politic 
 and moderate expenditure of money upon the degraded and igno 
 rant population of New Mexico might have obviated all necessity. 
 Had $100,000 been skilfully dispersed in New Mexico, in 1849- 
 50, in support of the Texan pretensions, it is probable that " the 
 county of Santa Fe" might have been organized and the whole 
 territory of New Mexico thereby subjected henceforth to the 
 sovereignty and the institutions of Texas. 
 
 XXXIII. 
 
 THE SLAVERY COMPROMISE OF 1850. 
 
 SUCH were the circumstances under which Mr. Clay on the 
 29th of January, 1850, submitted to the Senate his plan for an 
 adjustment of the differences respecting the organization of the 
 Territories and the interdiction of Slavery therein. The subject 
 is so important in itself, and has so profoundly affected the sub 
 sequent politics of the country, that justice to Mr. Clay seems to 
 require that his original propositions and the explanations which 
 accompanied them should here be given in full. They are as 
 follows : 
 
 Mr. President, I hold in my hand a series of resolutions which I desire to 
 sabmit to the consideration of this body. Taken together, in combination, 
 they propose an amicable arrangement of all questions in controversy 
 between the free and the slave states, growing out of the subject of slavery. 
 It is not my intention, Mr. President, at this time, to enter into a full and 
 elaborate discussion of each of these resolutions, taken separately, or the 
 whole of them combined together, as composing a system of measures ; but 
 I desire to present a few observations upon each resolution, with the pur- 
 
540 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 pose chiefly of exposing it fairly and fully before the Senate and before the 
 3ouutry ; and I may add, with the indulgence of the Senate, toward the 
 3onclusion, some general observations upon the state of the country, and 
 ,he condition of the question to which the resolutions relate. Whether 
 hey shall or shall not meet with the approbation and concurrence of the 
 Senate, as I most ardently hope they may, as I most sincerely believe they 
 ought, I trust that at least some portion of the long time which I have de 
 voted with care and deliberation, to the preparation of these resolutions, 
 and to the presentation of this great national scheme of compromise and 
 harmony, will be employed by each senator before he pronounces against 
 the proposition embraced in these resolutions. The resolutions, sir, are all 
 preceded by a short preamble, to which, of course, I attach no very great 
 importance. The preamble and first resolution are as follows : 
 
 It being desirable for the peace, concord, and harmony of the union of these states to 
 settle and adjust amicably all existing questions of controversy between them arising out 
 of the institution of slavery, upon a fair, equitable, and just basis : Therefore 
 
 1st. Resolved, That California, with suitable boundaries, ought, upon her application, to be 
 admitted as one of the States of this Union, without the imposition by Congress of any 
 restriction in respect to the exclusion or introduction of slavery within those boundaries. 
 
 Mr. President, it must be acknowledged that there has been some irregu 
 larity in the movements which have terminated in the adoption of a consti 
 tution by California, and in the expression of her wish, not yet formally 
 communicated to Congress, it is true, but which may be anticipated in a 
 few days, to be admitted into the Union as a State. There has been some 
 irregularity in the manner in which they have framed that constitution. It 
 was not preceded by any act of Congress authorizing the convention, and 
 designating the boundaries of the proposed state, according to all the early 
 practice of this government, according to all the cases of the admission 
 of new States into this Union, which occurred, I think, yrior to that 
 of Michigan. Michigan, if I am not mistaken, was the first State which, un 
 bidden, unauthorized by any previous act of Congress, undertook to form for 
 herself a constitution, and to knock at the door of Congress, for admission 
 into the Union. I recollect that at the time when Michigan thus presented 
 herself, I was opposed, in consequence of that deviation from the early 
 practice of the government, to the admission. The majority determined 
 otherwise; and it must be in candor admitted by all men, that California 
 has much more reason to do what she has done, vinsanctioned and un 
 authorized by a previous act of Congress, than Michigan had to do what she 
 did. 
 
 Sir, notwithstanding the irregularity of the admission of Michigan into 
 the Union, it has been a happy event. She forms now one of the bright 
 stars of this glorious confederacy. She has sent here to mingle in our 
 councils senators and representatives men eminently distinguished, with 
 whom we may all associate with pride, with pleasure, and with satisfaction. 
 And I trust that if California, irregular as her previous action may have been 
 in the adoption of a constitution, but more justifiable than was the action 
 of Michigan if she also shall be admitted, as is proposed by this first resolu 
 tion, with suitable limits, that she, too, will make her contribution of wis 
 dom, of patriotism, and of good feeling to this body, in order to conduct the 
 affairs of this great and boundless empire. 
 
 The resolution proposes her admission when she applies for it. There ia 
 ro intention on niy part to anticipate such an application, but I thought it 
 right to present this resolution as a part of the general plan which I 
 propose for the adjustment of these unhappy difficulties. 
 
 The second resolution, sir, is as follows: 
 
INTRODUCTION OF THE COMPROMISE. 341 
 
 2d. Resolved, That as slavery does not exist by law, and is not likely to be introduced in- 
 to any of the territory acquired by the United States from the republic of Mexico, it is in 
 expedient for Congress to provide by law either for its introduction into or exclusion from 
 any part of the said territory; and that appropriate territorial governments ought to bo 
 established by Congress in all of the said territory, not assigned as the boundaries of tho 
 proposed state of California, without the adoption of any restriction or condition on the 
 eubject of slavery. 
 
 This resolution, sir, proposes, in the first instance, a declaration of two 
 truths, one of law and the other of fact. The truth of law which it declares 
 is, that there does not exist at this time, slavery within any portion of tho 
 territory acquired by the United States from Mexico. When I say, sir, it ia 
 a truth, I speak my own solemn and deliberate conviction. I am aware 
 that some gentlemen have held a different doctrine; but I persuade 
 myself that they themselves, when they come to review the whole ground, 
 will see sufficient reasons for a change, or at least a modification of their 
 opinions ; but that, at all events, if they adhere to that doctrine, they will 
 be found to compose a very small minority of the whole mass of the people 
 of the United States. 
 
 The next truth which the resolution asserts is, that slavery is not likely 
 to be introduced into any portion of that territory. That is a matter of fact; 
 and all the evidence upon which the fact rests, is, perhaps, as accessible to 
 other senators as it is to me ; but I must say that, from all I have heard or 
 read, from the testimony of all the witnesses I have seen and conversed with, 
 from all that has transpired and is transpiring, 1 do believe that not within, 
 one foot of the territory acquired by xis from Mexico will slavery ever be 
 planted, and I believe it could not be done even by the force and power 
 of public authority. 
 
 Sir, facts are daily occurring to justify me in this opinion. S r, what has 
 occurred? And upon that subject, and indeed upon this whole subject, I 
 invite senators from the free states especially to consider what has occurred 
 even since the last session even since the commencement of this session 
 since they left their respective constituencies, without an opportunity 
 of consulting with them upon that great and momentous fact the fact that 
 California herself, of which it was asserted and predicted that she never 
 would establish slavery within her limits when she came to be admitted as 
 a state ; that California herself, embracing, \>f all other portions of the country 
 acquired by us from Mexico, that country into which it would have been 
 most likely that slavery should have been introduced; that California 
 herself has met in convention, and by a unanimous vote, embracing in that 
 body slaveholders from the state of Mississippi, as well as from other parts, 
 who concurred in the resolution that California by a unanimous vote, has 
 declared against the introduction of slavery within her limits. I think, 
 then, that taking this leading fact in connection with all the evidence we 
 have from other sources on the subject, I am warranted in the conclusion 
 which constitutes the second truth which I have stated in this resolution, 
 that slavery is "not likely to be introduced into any of the territory 
 acquired by us from Mexico." 
 
 Sir, the latter part of the resolution asserts that it is the duty of Congress 
 
 to establish appropriate territorial governments within all the country 
 acquired from Mexico, exclusive of California, not embracing in the acts by 
 which these governments shall be constituted either a prohibition or an ad 
 
 mission of slavery. 
 
 Sir, much as I am disposed to defer to high authority, anxious as I really am 
 to find myself in a position that would enable me to co-operate heartily with 
 the other departments of the government in conducting the affairs of this great 
 people, I must say that I can not without a dereliction of duty consent to an 
 
342 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 abandonment of them without government, leaving t>\em to all those scenes 
 of disorder, confusion, and anarchy, which I apprehend, in respect of some 
 of them, there is too much reason to anticipate will arise. It is the duty, 
 the solemn I was going to add the most sacred duty of Congress to legis 
 late for their government if they can, and, at all events, to legislate for 
 them, and to give them the benefit of law, and order, and security. 
 
 The next resolutions are the third and fourth, which, having an immediate 
 connection with each other, should be raad and considered together. They 
 are as follows : 
 
 3d. Resolved, That the western boundary of (;he State of Texas ought to be fixed on the 
 Rio del Norte, commencing one marine league from its mouth, and running up that river 
 to the southern line of New Mexico ; thence \v .th that line eastwardly, and so continuing 
 in the same direction to the line established between the United States and Spain, excluding 
 any portion of New Mexico, whether lying on the east or west of that river. 
 
 4th. Resolved, That it be proposed to the State of Texas, that the United States will provide 
 for the payment of all that portion of the legitimate and bona Jide public debt of that state, 
 contracted prior to its annexation to the United States, and for which the duties on foreign 
 
 upon the condition also, that the said State of Texas shall, by some solemn and authentic act 
 of her legislature, or of a convention, relinquish to the United States any claim which it has to 
 any part of New Mexico. 
 
 Mr. President, I do not mean now, I do not know that I shall at any 
 time (it is a very complex subject, and one not free from difficulty) to go 
 into the question of what are the true limits of Texas. My own opinion is, 
 I must say, without intending by the remark to go into any argument, that 
 Texas has not a good title to any portion of what is called New Mexico. 
 And yet, sir, I am free to admit that, looking at the grounds which her rep 
 resentatives assumed, first in the war with Santa Anna in 1836, then at 
 what transpired between Mr. Trist and the Mexican negotiators when the 
 treaty of peace was negotiated, and then the fact that the United States 
 have acquired all the country which Texas claimed as constituting a por 
 tion of her territory ; looking at all these facts, but without attaching to 
 them, either together or separately, the same degree of force which gentle 
 men who think that Texas has a right to New Mexico do, I must say that 
 there is plausibility, to say the least of it, in the pretensions that she sets 
 up to New Mexico. I do not think that they constitute or demonstrate the 
 existence of a good title, but a plausible one. Well, then, sir, what do I 
 propose ? Without entering into any inquiry whether the Nueces or the 
 Rio Grande was the true boundary of Texas, I propose, by the first of these 
 two resolutions, that its western limits shall be fixed on the Rio del 
 Norte, extending west from the Sabine to the mouth of the Rio del Norte, 
 and that it shall follow up the Bravo or the Rio del Norte, to where it 
 strikes the southern line of New Mexico, and then, diverging from that 
 line, follow on in that direction until it reaches the line as fixed by the 
 United States and Spain, by their treaty of 1819; and thus embracing a 
 vast country, abundantly competent to form two or three States a country 
 which I think the highest ambition of her greatest men ought to be satisfied, 
 with as a State and member of this Union. 
 
 But, sir, the second of these resolutions makes a proposition to the State 
 of Texas upon which I desire to say a few words. It proposes that the 
 government of the United States will provide for the payment of all that 
 portion of the debt of Texas for which the duties received upon imports 
 from foreign countries was pledged by Texas at a time when she had 
 authority to make pledges. How much it will amount to I have endeavored 
 
THE PUBLIC DEBT OF TEXAS. 343 
 
 to ascertain, hut all the means requisite to the ascertainment of the sum 
 nave not been received, and it is not very essential at this time, because 
 it is the principle and not the amount that is most worthy of consideration. 
 Now, sir, the ground upon which I base this liability on the part of the 
 United States to pay a specified portion of the debt of Texas is not new to 
 me. It is one which I have again and again announced to be an opinion 
 entertained by me. I think it is founded upon principles of truth and 
 eternal justice. Texas, being an independent power, recognised as such by 
 all the great powers of the earth, invited loans to be made to her, to enable 
 her to prosecute the then existing war between her and Mexico. She told 
 those whom she invited to make these loans, that " if you make them, the 
 duties on foreign imports shall be sacredly pledged for the reimbursement 
 of the loans." The loans were made. The money was received, and ex 
 pended in the establishment of her liberty and her independence. After all 
 this, she annexed herself to the United States, who thenceforward acquired 
 the right to the identical pledge which she had made to the public creditor 
 to satisfy the loan of money which he had advanced to her. The United 
 States became the owners of that pledge, and the recipient of all the duties 
 payable in the ports of Texas. 
 
 Now, sir, I do say that, in my humble judgment, if there be honor, or 
 justice, or truth among men, we do owe to the creditors who thus advanced 
 their money upon that pledge, the reimbursement of the money, at all events 
 ^o the extent that the pledged fund would have reimbursed it, if it had never 
 i^een appropriated by us to our use. We must recollect, sir, that in relation 
 to that pledge, and to the loan made in virtue and on the. faith of it, there 
 were three parties bound I mean after Annexation the United States, 
 Texas, and the creditor of Texas, who had advanced his money on the faith 
 of a solemn pledge made by Texas. 
 
 Texas and the United States might do what they thought proper ; but in 
 justice they could do nothing to deprive the creditor of a full reliance upon 
 the pledge upon the faith of which he had advanced his money. Sir, it is 
 impossible now to ascertain how much would have been received from that 
 source of revenue by the State of Texas if she had remained independent. 
 It would be most unjust to go there now and examine at Galveston and her 
 other ports, to ascertain how much she now receives by her foreign imports; 
 because, by being incorporated into this Union, all her supplies, which for 
 merly were received from foreign countries, and subject many of them at 
 least to import duties, are now received by the coasting trade, instead of 
 being received from other countries, as they would have been if she had 
 remained independent. Considering the extent of her territory, and the 
 rapid manner in which her population is increasing, and is likely to in 
 crease, it is probable that in the course of a few years there might have been 
 such an amount received at the various ports of Texas she remaining in 
 dependent as would have been adequate to the extinction of the debt to 
 which I have referred. 
 
 But, sir, it is not merely in the discharge of what I consider to be a valid 
 and legitimate obligation resting upon the United States to discharge the 
 specified duty, it is not upon that condition alone that this payment is pro 
 posed to be made ; it is also upon the further condition that Texas shall re 
 linquish to the United States any claim that she has to any portion of New 
 Mexico. Now, sir, although, as I believe, she has not a valid title to any 
 portion of New Mexico, she has a claim ; and for the sake of that general quiet 
 and harmony, for the sake of that accommodation which ought to be as much 
 the object of legislation as it is of individuals in their transactions in private 
 
344 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 life, we may do now what an individual in analogous circumstances might 
 do, give something for the relinquishment of a claim, although it should not 
 be well founded, for the sake of peace. It is, therefore, proposed and this 
 resolution does propose that we shall pay the amount of the debt contracted 
 by Texas prior to its annexation to the United States, in consideration of our 
 reception of the duties applicable to the extinction of that debt ; and that 
 Texas shall also, in consideration of a sum to be advanced, relinquish any 
 claim which she has to any portion of New Mexico. 
 
 The fifth resolution, sir, and the sixth, like the third and fourth, are some* 
 what connected together. They are as follows : 
 
 5th. Resolved, That it is inexpedient to abolish Slavery in the District of Columbia, whilst 
 that institution continues to exist in the State of Maryland, without the consent of that State, 
 without the consent of the people of the District, and without just compensation to the 
 owners of slaves within the District. 
 
 6th. But Resolved, That it is expedient to prohibit within the District the slave-trade, in 
 slaves brought into it from States or places beyond the limits of the District, either to be 
 sold therein as merchandise, or to be transported to other markets, without the District 
 of Columbia. 
 
 The first of these resolutions, Mr. President, in somewhat different lan 
 guage, asserts substantially no other principle than that which was asserted 
 by the Senate of the United States twelve years ago, upon resolutions which 
 I then offered, and which passed at least the particular resolution passed 
 by a majority of four-fifths of the Senate. I allude to the resolution pre 
 sented by me in 1838. I shall not enlarge on that resolution; it speaks for 
 itself; it declares that the institution of slavery should not be abolished in 
 the District of Columbia without the concurrence of three conditions; first, 
 the assent of Maryland ; second, the assent of the people within the district; 
 and third, compensation to the owners of the slaves within the district for 
 their property. 
 
 The next resolution proposed deserves a passing remark. It is that the 
 slave-trade within the district ought to be abolished, prohibited. I do not 
 mean by that the alienation and transfer of slaves from the inhabitants 
 within this district the sale by one neighbor to another of a slave which 
 the one owns and the other wants, that a husband may perhaps be put along 
 with his wife, or a wife with her husband. I do not mean to touch at all 
 the question of the right of property in slaves among persons living within 
 the district ; but the slave-trade to which I refer was, I think, pronounced 
 an abomination more than forty years ago, by one of the most gifted and dis 
 tinguished sons of Virginia, the late Mr. Randolph. And who is there who 
 is not shocked at its enormity? Sir, it is a great mistake at the North, if 
 they suppose that gentlemen living in the slave States look upon one who is 
 a regular trader in slaves with any particular favor or kindness. They are 
 often sometimes unjustly, perhaps excluded from social intercourse. I 
 have known some memorable instances of this sort. But, then, what is this 
 trade ? It is a good deal limited since the retrocession of that portion of the 
 district formerly belonging to Virginia. There are Alexandria, Richmond, 
 Petersburg, and Norfolk, south of the Potomac, and Baltimore, Annapolis, 
 and perhaps other ports, north of the Potomac. Let the slave-dealer, who 
 chooses to collect his slaves in Virginia and Maryland, go to these places ; 
 let him not come here and establish his jails, and put on his chains, and 
 Bometimes shock the sensibilities of our nature by a long train of slaves 
 passing through that avenue leading from this Capitol to the house of the 
 Chief Magistrate of one of the most glorious Republics that ever existed. 
 Why should he not do it ? Sir, I am sure I speak the sentiments of every 
 Southern man, and every man coming from the slave States, when I say let 
 
SLAVERY MUTUAL FORBEARANCE. 345 
 
 it terminate, and that it is an abomination ; and there is no occasion for it ; 
 it ought no longer to be tolerated. 
 
 The seventh resolution relates to a subject embraced in a bill now under 
 consideration by the Senate. It is as follows : 
 
 7th, Resolved, That more effectual provision ought to be made by law, according to the 
 requirement of the constitution, for the restitution and delivery of persons bound to service 
 or labor in any State who may escape into any other State or Territory in the Union. 
 
 Sir, that is so evident, and has been so clearly shown by the debate which 
 has already taken place on the subject, that I have not now occasion to add 
 another word. 
 
 The last resolution of the series of eight is as follows : 
 
 And 8th. Resolved, That Congress has no power to prohibit or obstruct the trade in 
 slaves between the slaveholcling States ; but that the admission or exclusion of slaves 
 brought from one into another of them, depends exclusively upon their own particular 
 laws. 
 
 It is obvious that no legislation is necessary or intended to follow that res 
 olution. It merely asserts a truth, established by the highest authority 
 of law in this country, and, in conformity with that decision, I trust there 
 will be one universal acquiescence. 
 
 I should not have thought it necessary to embrace in that resolution the 
 declaration which is embraced in it, but that I thought it might be useful in 
 treating of the whole subject, and in accordance with the practice of our 
 British and American ancestors, occasionally to resort to great fundamental 
 principles, and bring them freshly and manifestly before our eyes, from time 
 to time, to avoid their being violated upon any occasion. 
 
 Mr. President, you have before you the whole series of resolutions, the 
 whole scheme of arrangement and accommodation of these distracting ques 
 tions, which I have to offer, after having bestowed on these subjects the most 
 anxious, intensely anxious, consideration ever since I have been in this body. 
 How far it may prove acceptable to both or either of the parties on these 
 great questions, it is not for me to say. I think it ought to be acceptable to 
 both. There is no sacrifice of any principle, proposed in any of them, by 
 either party. The plan is founded upon mutual forbearance, originating in 
 a spirit of conciliation and concession ; not of principles, but of matters of 
 feeling. At the North, sir, I know that from feeling, by many at least 
 cherished as being dictated by considerations of humanity and philanthropy, 
 there exists a sentiment adverse to the institution of slavery. 
 
 Sir, I might, I think although I believe this project contains about an 
 equal amount of concession and forbearance on both sides have asked from 
 the free States of the North a more liberal and extensive concession than 
 should be asked from the slave States. And why, sir ? With you, gentle 
 men Senators of the free States, what is it ? An abstraction, a sentiment 
 a sentiment, if you please, of humanity and philanthropy a noble sentiment, 
 when directed rightly, with no sinister or party purposes ; an atrocious 
 sentiment a detestable sentiment or rather the abuse of it when directed 
 to the accomplishment of unworthy purposes. I said that I might ask from 
 you larger and more expansive concessions than from the slave States. And 
 why ? You are numerically more powerful than the slave States. Not that 
 there is any difference for upon that subject I can not go along with the 
 ardent expression of feeling by some of my friends coming from the same 
 class of States from which I come not that there is any difference in valor, 
 in prowess, in noble and patriotic daring, whenever it is required for the 
 safety and salvation of the country, between the people of one class of 
 O* 
 
346 alFE OF HENRY CLAY 
 
 States an I those of the other. You are, in point of numbers, however, 
 greater ; and greatness and magnanimity should ever be allied. 
 
 But there are other reasons why concession upon such a subject as this 
 should be more liberal, more expansive, coming from the free than from the 
 slave States. It is, as I remarked, a sentiment, a sentiment of humanity and 
 philanthropy, on your side. Ay, sir, and when a sentiment of that kind is 
 honestly and earnestly cherished, with a disposition to make sacrifices to en 
 force it, it is a noble and beautiful sentiment ; but, sir, when the sacrifice is 
 not to be made by those who cherish that sentiment and inculcate it, but by 
 another people, in whose situation it is impossible, from their position, to 
 sympathize and to share all and everything that belongs to them, I must say 
 to you, Senators from the free States, it is a totally different question. On 
 your side it is a sentiment without sacrifice, a sentiment without danger, a 
 sentiment without hazard, without peril, without loss. But how is it on the 
 other side, to which, as I have said, a greater amount of concession ought to 
 be made in any scheme of compromise ? 
 
 In the first place, sir, there is a vast and incalculable amount of property 
 to be sacrificed, and to be sacrificed, not by your sharing in the common 
 burdens, but exclusive of you. And this is not all. The social intercourse, 
 habit, safety, property, life, everything, is at hazard, in a greater or less de 
 gree, in the slave States. 
 
 Sir, look at that storm which is now raging before you, beating in all its 
 fage pitilessly on your family. They are in the South. But where are your 
 families, where are your people, Senators from the free States? They are 
 safely housed, enjoying all the blessings of domestic comfort, peace, and 
 quiet, in the bosom of their own families. 
 
 Behold, Mr. President, that dwelling-house now wrapped in flames. 
 Listen, sir, to the rafters and beams which fall in succession, amid the crash; 
 and the flames ascending higher and higher as they tumble down. Behold 
 those women and children who are flying from the calamitous scene, and with 
 their shrieks and lamentations imploring the aid of high Heaven. Whose 
 house is that? Whose wives and children are they? Yours in the free 
 States ? No. You are looking on in safety and security, whilst the confla 
 gration which I have described is raging in the slave States, and produced, 
 not intentionally by you, but produced from the inevitable tendency of the 
 measures which you have adopted, and which others have carried far beyond 
 what you have wished. 
 
 In the one scale, then, we behold sentiment, sentiment, sentiment alone ; 
 in the other property, the social fabric, life, and all that makes life desirable 
 and happy. 
 
 But, sir, I find myself engaged much beyond what I intended, when I came 
 this morning from my lodgings, in the exposition with which I intended these 
 resolutions should go forth to the consideration of the world. I can not 
 omit, however, before I conclude, relating an incident, a thrilling incident, 
 which occurred prior to my leaving my lodgings this morning. 
 
 A man came to my room the same at whose instance, a few days ago, I 
 presented a memorial calling upon Congress for the purchase of Mount Ver- 
 non for the use of the public and, without being at all aware of what pur 
 pose I entertained in the discharge of my public duty to-day, he said to me : 
 "Mr. Clay, I heard you make a remark, the other day, which induces me to 
 suppose that a precious relic in my possession would be acceptable to you." 
 He then drew out of his pocket, and presented to me, the object which I 
 now hold in my hand. And what, Mr. President, do you suppose it is ? It 
 is a fragment of the coffin of Washington a fragment of that coffin in which 
 
EFFECT OF THE COMPROMISE. $47 
 
 now repose in silence, in sleep, and speechless, all the earthly remains of the 
 venerated Father of his Country. Was it portentous that it should have 
 been thus presented to me ? Was it a sad presage of what might happen to 
 that fabric which Washington s virtue, patriotism, and valor, established? 
 No, sir, no. It was a warning voice, coming from the grave to the Congress 
 now in session to beware, to pause, to reflect, before they lend themselves to 
 any purposes which shall destroy that Union which was cemented by his 
 exertions and example. Sir, I hope an impression may be made on your 
 mind such as that which was made on mine by the reception of this precious 
 relic. 
 
 And, in conclusion, I now ask every Senator, I entreat you, gentlemen, in 
 fairness and candor, to examine the plan of accommodation which this series 
 of resolutions proposes, and not to pronounce against them until convinced 
 after a thorough examination. I move that the resolutions be read and re 
 ceived. 
 
 The careful reader can not fail to perceive that Mr. Clay s 
 propositions, though couched in language inoffensive to the pride 
 of the South, were calculated and intended to exclude Slavery 
 from all the territory acquired from Mexico by treaty. In au 
 thoritatively affirming that the " peculiar institution" had no legal 
 foothold in that territory, it effectually precluded its establishment 
 therein ; since Slavery was very unlikely to be established by 
 others than slaveholders, and these could hardly increase and 
 multiply so as to obtain controlling power in a region where 
 slaves could not be legally held. In proposing the extinguish 
 ment of whatever claim Texas might be supposed to have to 
 New Mexico, he provided also for the almost certain exclusion 
 of Slavery from the latter ; since the danger was not that the 
 people of New Mexico, present or future, would legalize Slavery, 
 but that the extension of the jurisdiction and laws of Texas, so 
 as to cover this territory, would make New Mexico slavehold- 
 ing in its own despite, drawing thither slaveholders and slave- 
 breeders, and chaining that vast region evermore to the car of 
 the Slave-Power, as Western Virginia and the Mountain region 
 of North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, are now 
 chained in defiance of that natural un fitness for profitable slave- 
 culture, which Mr. Webster so forcibly indicated as " the law 
 of God," prohibiting Slavery, and needing no reenactment by 
 Man. 
 
 The existence of this law is undoubted ; but the fact that it is 
 often overruled by political ligaments is equally sure. When Mr. 
 Clay had concluded. Mr. Rusk of Texas, observed : 
 
348 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 " I do not intend, Mr. President, to enter into this discussion ; and I rise 
 simply for the purpose of saying that I regret extremely that the distinguish 
 ed Senator from Kentucky, in his laudable desire to settle a very trouble 
 some question, now agitating the people of the United States, should have 
 seen proper, rather unceremoniously, as I think, to take one-half of the ter 
 ritory of the State I have the honor in part here to represent, to make a 
 peace-offering to a spirit of encroachment on the constitutional rights of one- 
 half of this Union. I do not intend to enter into any discussion of that 
 grave and important question, nor do I intend, when the discussion of these 
 resolutions shall arise, to put myself in opposition to the powers of oratory 
 of the distinguished Senator from Kentucky ; but I do promise now to prove, 
 when that discussion shall arise, that the boundaries of Texas are to the Rio 
 Grande; that no power at all exists in Congress to take cognizance of that 
 question ; and that the Congress of the United States can not interfere with 
 the boundaries of the State of Texas, without inflicting a deeper stain on 
 the high reputation of the government of the United States for justice, than 
 would be done by appropriating the entire amount of territory which waa 
 acquired by all for the exclusive benefit of one-half of those who ac 
 quired it." 
 
 Mr. Foote, of Mississippi, rose to rebut the presumption of ac 
 quiescence, which the silence of Southern senators might justify, 
 and objected to the tenor of Mr. Clay s resolutions on these, 
 among other grounds : 
 
 1. That in asserting the inexpediency of the abolition of slavery 
 in the district of Columbia by Congress, they affirm by implica 
 tion, the power of Congress to legislate on that subject ; whereas, 
 he maintained, that Congress has no such legislative power at all. 
 
 "2. The resolutions of the honorable Senator, assert that slavery does not 
 now exist by law in the territories recently acquired from Mexico ; whereas, 
 I am of opinion that the treaty with the Mexican Republic carried the Con 
 stitution, with all its guaranties, to all the territory obtained by treaty, and 
 secured the privilege to every Southern slaveholder, to enter any part of it, 
 attended by his slave property, and to enjoy the same therein free from all 
 molestation or hinderance whatever." 
 
 3. He was unwilling to affirm that slavery would not be intro 
 duced into the territories. 
 
 "4. Considering, as I have several times heretofore formally declared, the 
 title of Texas to all the territory embraced in her boundaries as laid down 
 in her law of 1836, full, complete, and undeniable, I am unwilling to say 
 anything, by resolution or otherwise, which may in the least degree draw 
 that title into question, as I think is done by one of the resolutions of the 
 honorable Senator from Kentucky." 
 
 Mr. Mason, of Virginia, also objected to the general scope and 
 spirit of Mr. Clay s propositions, saying: 
 
 "There is another, which I deeply regret to see introduced into this Senate 
 by a Senator from a slaveholding State ; it is that which assumes that 
 
OBJECTIONS TO THE COMPROMISE. 349 
 
 slavery now does not exist by law in those countries That was 
 
 the very proposition advanced by the non-slaveholding States at the last ses 
 sion, combated and disproved, as I thought, by gentlemen from the slave- 
 holding States I deem it to be my duty to enter a decided 
 
 protest, on the part of Virginia, against such doctrines. They concede the 
 whole question at once, that our people shall not go into the new territories 
 and take their property with them ; a doctrine to which I never will assent, 
 and for which, sir, no law can be found." 
 
 To the same effect, Col. Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, fol 
 lowing, said : 
 
 "An honorable and distinguished Senator, to whom the country has been 
 induced to look for something that would heal the existing dissensions, in 
 stead of raising new barriers against encroachment, dashes down those here 
 tofore erected, and augments the existing danger. A representative from 
 one of the slaveholding States raises his voice for the first time in disregard 
 of this admitted right. Nor, Mr. President, did he stop here. The boundary 
 of a State, with which we have no more right to interfere than with the 
 boundary of the State of Kentucky, is encroached upon. The United States, 
 sir, as the agent for Texas, had a right to settle the question of boundary 
 between Texas and Mexico. Texas was not annexed as territory, but was 
 admitted as a State, and at the period of her admission, her boundaries were 
 established by her Congress. She, by the terms of annexation, gave to the 
 United States the right to define her boundary by treaty with Mexico ; but 
 the United States, in the treaty made with Mexico, subsequent to the war 
 with that country, received from Mexico, not merely a cession of the terri 
 tory that was claimed by Texas, but much which lay beyond the asserted 
 limits. Shall we, then, acting simply as the agent of Texas in the settlement 
 of this question of boundary, take from the principal for whom we act that 
 territory which belongs to her, to which we asserted her title against Mexico, 
 and appropriate it to ourselves? Why, sir, it would be a violation of 
 justice, and of a principle of law which is so plain that it does not require 
 one to have been bred to the profession of law to understand it. The prin 
 ciple I refer to is, that an agent can not take for his own benefit anything 
 resulting from the matter in controversy, after having acquired it as be 
 longing to the principal for whom he acts. The agent can not appropriate 
 to himself rights acquired for his client. The right of Texas, therefore, to 
 that boundary, was made complete by the treaty of peace, which silenced 
 the only rival claim to the territory. It was distinctly defined by the acts 
 of her congress before the time of annexation, and I have only to refer to 
 those acts, to show that the boundary of Texas was the Rio Bravo del Norte, 
 from its mouth to its source. What justice, or even decent regard for fair 
 ness, can there be, now that Texas has acceded to Annexation upon certain 
 terms, to propose a change of boundary in violation of those terms, and by 
 the power we hold over her as a part of the Union?" 
 
 The debate was still farther continued by Messrs. Jefferson 
 Davis of Mississippi, King of Alabama, Downs of Louisiana, 
 Berrien of Georgia, Butler of South Carolina, all deprecating 
 the spirit and drift of Mr. Clay s resolutions, or more mildly ob 
 jecting ^hat they conceded too much to the North; and by Mr 
 
350 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 Clay in reply, explaining and defending them. Not one Northern 
 senator objected thafc they conceded too much to the South. Mr. 
 Downs (afterward a Compromise man), said : 
 
 "I protest against this compromise, if so you please to call it, because in 
 not one single point, if I clearly understand its meaning, does it propose to 
 the benefit of the people of the South. Without attempting, in the slightest 
 degree, to question the motives that influenced the honorable Senator in the 
 presentation of these resolutions, I am sure the people of the South will not 
 consider it a compromise at all, inasmuch as it gives all to one side. I can 
 assure you, sir, that when the people of the South come to see this great 
 compromise, and consider that it concedes a State and two or three terri 
 tories to the North, and concedes the abolition of the slave-trade in the Dis 
 trict of Columbia to the North, without any concession whatever to the 
 South, they will not be satisfied with it. No gentleman can show me that 
 it contains a single concession to the South, and, therefore, I protest 
 against it." 
 
 Mr. Berrien objected to the averment that slavery has now no 
 legal existence in the territories acquired from Mexico. He 
 said : 
 
 "I would not, for a single moment, have it conceived by my constituents 
 that I could acquiesce in the propositions asserted in these resolutions. Be 
 fore they can receive my concurrence, there are provisions contained in them 
 which must be substantially modified, and there are important omissions which 
 must be supplied. . . . . Connected as I have been in the earlier stages 
 of this discussion I mean at the anterior session with the question of the 
 validity of those laws which are supposed to exclude slavery from the terri 
 tories acquired from Mexico, I may be permitted to say, to meet the declara 
 tion of opinion by the declaration of opinion, and the assertion of the readi 
 ness to maintain the opinion by argument, that the opinion which I have 
 expressed on this subject at an anterior period, is the opinion which, after 
 the most careful examination, the most anxious deliberation I could bestow 
 on the subject, I now entertain, and that, with such powers as God has given 
 me, I am ready to maintain it whenever the opportunity is offered." 
 
 In the same spirit, Mr. Butler, of South Carolina, asked : 
 
 " What is there in the nature of a Compromise here ; coupled as it is with 
 the proposition that, by the existing laws in the Territories, it is almost cer 
 tain that slaveholders can not, and have no right to, go there with their 
 
 property? I shall always think that, under a constitution 
 
 giving equal rights to all parties, the slaveholding people, as such, can go 
 to these Territories and retain their property there. But if we adopt this 
 proposition of the Senator from Kentucky, it is clearly on the basis that 
 
 slavery shall not go there We have only asked, and it is the 
 
 only Compromise to which we shall submit, that Congress shall withhold 
 the hand of violence from the Territories. The only way in which this 
 question can be settled, is for gentlemen at the North to withdraw all their 
 opposition to the territorial governments, and not insist on their slavery pro 
 hibition ; the Union is then safe enough." 
 
 We may n 3t hereafter find so good an opportunity to state that 
 
COMMITTEE ON THE COMPROMISE. 351 
 
 Mr. Foote of Mississippi (who afterward signalized himself as 
 a most devoted and zealous champion of Compromise), took oc 
 casion (February 14), to renewedly assail Mr. Clay s proposition 
 as conceding everything to the North, closing with the following 
 chaste and dignified simile : 
 
 "It is my opinion that the honorable Senator from Kentucky is at present 
 playing the game of political power with our neighbors of the North in a 
 manner decidedly unskillful. He is throwing into the hands of his adver 
 saries all the trump cards in the pack, and depriving his partners and him 
 self of the privilege both of holding honors and of winning the odd tricks 
 of legislation. He is doing more than this, even ; he generously gives his 
 enemies two bullets and a br agger with the ace superadded, whilst he rashly 
 stakes his all upon the imaginary potency of a mere broken hand! The 
 fate of such gaming as this, it is most easy to predict." 
 
 The resolutions were then made the special order for the fol 
 lowing Tuesday, when Mr. Clay addressed the Senate at length 
 in their favor till the adjournment, resuming and concluding his 
 argument on the following day. Having already given in full 
 his remarks on introducing the resolutions, we need not here re 
 state his general views. The debate was continued by Messrs. 
 Berrien, Jefferson Davis, Downs, Miller of New Jersey, Benton, 
 Rusk, Bell (who introduced a separate proposition), Calhoun 
 (whose speech was read by Mr. Mason of Virginia, Mr. C. being 
 then enfeebled by the disease of which he died a few days after 
 ward), Walker of Wisconsin, Webster, and several others, 
 evincing the greatest diversity of views on the general subject 
 involved. At length, on the llth of March, Mr. Foote of Mis 
 sissippi, asked unanimous consent to the taking up of Mr. Bell s 
 proposition, in order to refer it to a committee such as he had 
 already proposed, to consist of thirteen Senators ; six each from 
 the slaveholding and non-slaveholding States respectively, and 
 the thirteenth to be chosen by the twelve ; said committee to be 
 charged with the duty of maturing some scheme of Compromise 
 for the final settlement of all pending questions relating to slavery 
 and the territories. This was an essential modification of a 
 kindred resoive submitted by Mr. Foote, on the 14th of February, 
 and, though withdrawn at this time, was renewed by Mr. Foote, 
 a few days after, and ultimately adopted. Of this Committee, Mr. 
 Clay was unanimously chosen Chairman (April 19), Mr. Foote 
 having declined serving thereon. The remaining members 
 
352 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 elected by ballot, were Messrs. Cass, Dickinson, Bright, Webster, 
 Phelps, Cooper, King, Mason, Downs, Mangum, Bell, and Ber- 
 rien. The opponents of the projected compromise generally de 
 clined to vote. Mr. Clay, on the 8th of May, made an elaborate 
 report from a majority of this committee, affirming the propriety 
 and necessity of a Compromise, and indicating the bases on which 
 it should be effected. These bases were substantially as fol 
 lows : 
 
 1. The admission of any new State or States formed out of 
 Texas to be postponed until they shall hereafter present them 
 selves to be received into the Union, when it will be the duty 
 of Congress fairly and faithfully to execute the compact with 
 Texas by admitting such new State or States with or without 
 Slavery as they shall by their constitutions determine. 
 
 2. The admission forthwith of California into the Union, with 
 the boundaries which she has proposed. 
 
 "3. The establishment of territorial governments without the Wilmot 
 Proviso for New Mexico and Utah, embracing all the territory recently- 
 acquired by the United States from Mexico, not contained in the boundaries 
 of California. 
 
 "4. The combination of these two last-mentioned measures in the same 
 bill. 
 
 "5. The establishment of the western and northern boundary of Texas, 
 and the exclusion from her jurisdiction of all New Mexico, with the grant 
 to Texas of a pecuniary equivalent ; and the section for that purpose to be 
 incorporated into the bill admitting California, and establishing territorial 
 governments for Utah and New Mexico. 
 
 "6. More effectual enactments to secure the prompt delivery of persons 
 bound to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, who escape 
 into another State. And, 
 
 "7. Abstaining from abolishing Slavery; but, under a heavy penalty, 
 prohibiting the Slave-Trade in the District of Columbia." 
 
 The Committee s propositions differed, as will be seen, from 
 Mr. Clay s original resolutions ; first, in affirming the absolute 
 right of any new States which may be formed out of Texas to 
 admission into the Union on the usual terms without regard to 
 the existence or non-existence of Slavery therein; and, secondly, 
 in combining the admission of California in the same bill with 
 the organization of the new territories, and the settlement of the 
 boundary of Texas for this also was included in the Omnibus 
 Bill, though the fact does not appear in the committee s synopsis 
 above given The Fugitive Slave Law and that prohibiting the 
 
DEFEAT OF THE OMNIBUS BILL. 353 
 
 Slave-Trade in the District of Columbia were presei ^d in sep 
 arate bills. The former was substantially the bill submitted to 
 the Senate months before by Mr. Mason, of Virginia, as the 
 Omnibus Bill was in good part made up of the several bills pro 
 viding for the admission of California and the organization of the 
 territories which had already been reported by Mr. Douglas from 
 the Territorial Committee. The proposition to pay Texas a 
 sum not then specified, but afterward fixed by Mr. Clay at 
 $10,000,000, for the relinquishment of her claim to New Mexico, 
 was the only portion of the plan of Compromise absolutely ori 
 ginal with Mr. Clay. 
 
 The debate on this important Report and the leading bill ac 
 companying it immediately commenced, and engrossed the time, 
 of the Senate for nearly three months. More than half the Sen 
 ators made set speeches thereon. The bill was assailed with 
 equal vigor and resolution from each side of Mason and Dixon s 
 line by Messrs. Seward, Hale, Hamlin, Davis, Baldwin, Dayton, 
 &c., on the part of the North ; and by Messrs. Hunter, Mason, 
 Butler, Turney, Yulee, Soule, Borland, &c., on behalf of the 
 South. Mr. Benton was likewise among its most vigorous and 
 indefatigable opponents resisting it, however, not on any ground 
 of intrinsic objection to its material provisions, but mainly on 
 that of the incongruity of the various propositions composing it. 
 This was, indeed, the weak point of the measure, and the able 
 tacticians opposing it did not fail to perceive and profit by the 
 fact. The bill was finally killed by an amendment moved by 
 Mr. Dawson, of Georgia, and incautiously assented to by Mr. 
 Clay, providing, in effect, that until such time as the boundary 
 line between the State of Texas and the territory of the United 
 States be agreed to by the legislature of Texas, the territorial 
 government for New Mexico, authorized by this act, shall not 
 go into operation east of the Rio Grande, nor shajl any State be 
 established for New Mexico embracing any territory east of the 
 Rio Grande. This amendment was regarded by many friends 
 of New Mexico who were also friends of the Compromise as 
 exposing that territory to be overrun and swallowed up by Tex 
 as the very danger to avert which had been the chief induce 
 ment of thsir assent to the Compromise. This amendment hav- 
 
 23 
 
354 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY 
 
 ing oecn carried by a vote of 30 to 28, Mr. Pearce, of Maryland, 
 moved the striking out of all that portion of the bill which related 
 to New Mexico which prevailed Yeas, 33 ; Nays, 22 and this 
 proved the death-blow of the Omnibus. The several portions 
 of the bill were now successively stricken out, until there re 
 mained only the sections providing for the organization of the 
 Territory of Utah, in which shape it was ordered to a third 
 reading by a vote of 32 to 18. The bill in this shape passed on 
 the 1st of August, and was followed in the course of the session 
 by separate bills providing for the admission of California, the 
 organization of New Mexico with the settlement of the boundary 
 of Texas on a basis which gives Texas far more and secures to 
 New Mexico less territory than did the proposition of Mr. Clay 
 in the Committee of Thirteen, while providing equally with that 
 for the payment of the full $ 10,000,000 to Texas. The Fugitive 
 Slave Act and the abolition of the Slave-Trade in the District, 
 also passed both Houses, were approved by the President, and 
 thus became laws of the land. Mr. Clay, however, worn out 
 by his protracted labors and anxiety in leading the defence of 
 the Omnibus bill, left his seat and the city on the 2d of August 
 for a season of repose and medical treatment, and did not return 
 till near the close of the month. Of all the measures originally 
 included in the plan of Compromise, there remained to be 
 passed by the Senate only that providing for the abolition of the 
 Slave-Trade in the District of Columbia, which he heartily sup 
 ported. 
 
 Nothing further of moment occurred, so far as Mr. Clay was 
 concerned, during the Session, which was closed by adjourn 
 ment on the 30th of September, when Mr. Clay returned to his 
 home in Kentucky. 
 
 The limits and scope of this work would not justify a com 
 plete history of the origin, progress, and final triumph, of the so- 
 called Adjustment or Compromise of 1850. Our task in this place 
 is to set forth the agency of Mr. Clay in effecting that Compro 
 mise, the motives by which he was governed, and the objects for 
 which he struggled. The wisdom of his views, the beneficence 
 of his measures, we leave to time and the sober judgment of the 
 country and of mankind. There may be a far-reaching view of the 
 
DEVOTION TO THE COMPROMISE. 355 
 
 whole subject which condemns any compromise, however equable 
 as a purchase of present tranquillity at the expense of ultimate 
 and more important good. Mr. Clay, though never justifying 
 slavery in the abstract, nor desiring its perpetuation, much less 
 its extension, was yet a slaveholder and the representative of 
 slaveholders. He did not, therefore, and could not be expected 
 to, regard the general subject as it was regarded by determined 
 and uncompromising opponents of slavery, like Seward, Giddings. 
 and Horace Mann. But whoever believes that he was impelled 
 to devise and advocate the Compromise by devotion to slavery, or 
 a desire to extend its dominion and power, does him great ip 
 justice. His views maybe assailed as superficial and defective 
 but his aims were unselfish, patriotic, and national. He labored 
 beyond his failing strength for what he earnestly deemed the 
 preservation of the Union and the welfare of his beloved country. 
 
 XXXIV. 
 
 THE RIVER AND HARBOR BILL OF 1851. 
 
 THE thirty-first Congress commenced its second session on 
 he second day of December, 1850 ; but Mr. Clay, on whom the 
 weight of years began to press heavily, did not take his seat 
 until the sixteenth of that month. The session was mainly de 
 voted to routine business, in which he took little part, but evinced, 
 on every suitable occasion, a pervading anxiety that the Com 
 promise measures of the preceding session should remain undis 
 turbed. His name heads a list of forty-four members of Congress, 
 affixed to a public pledge not to support any opponent of those 
 measures, of whatever party, for any responsible station ; and he 
 voted uniformly against taking into consideration any memorials 
 or remonstrances requiring the repeal or modification of any of 
 those measures. It is hardly necessary to add, that a large ma 
 jority of both Houses stood with him on this point. 
 
 He also evinced, on various occasions, an anxious, though not 
 importunate, desire for a revision of the Tariff of 1846, to the 
 
356 LIFE OF HENRY CLAT. 
 
 end that more efficient Protection might be afforded to our lan 
 guishing Manufactures. In presenting some petitions for such 
 revision (December 23, 1850), he said: 
 
 "Mr. President, I will take occasion to say that I do hope that now, when 
 there is an apparent calmness upon the surface of public affairs which I 
 hope is real, and that it will remain without disturbing the deliberations of 
 Congress during the present session for one, I should be extremely delight 
 ed if the subject of the Tariff of 1846 could be taken up in a liberal, kind, 
 and national spirit; not with any purpose of reviving those high rates of 
 Protection which at former periods of our country were established for 
 various causes, sometimes from sinister causes, but to look deliberately at the 
 operations of the Tariff of 1846, and, without disturbing its essential pro 
 visions, I should like a consideration to be given to the question of the pre 
 vention of frauds and great abuses, of the existence of which there can be 
 no earthly doubt. Whether some suitable legislation can not take place for 
 that purpose, ought to be deliberately considered. We should see whether 
 we can not, without injury, without prejudice to the general interests of the 
 country, give some better Protection to the Manufacturing interests than is 
 now afforded. 
 
 "The fact is no longer doubtful that the fires are extinguished and ex 
 tinguishing daily in the furnaces of the country. The fact is no longer doubt 
 ful that the spindles and looms are daily stopping in the country. Whether 
 it is possible to arrest this downward course, and to throw a little spirit of 
 hope and encouragement into this great industrial interest without agitating 
 the country generally, and without any extravagance of legislation, are 
 questions, I think, very well worthy of serious consideration ; and I hope, 
 in the calm which we are at present allowed to enjoy in relation to other 
 great topics which have so long and so disastrously agitated the country, 
 that, at some early period during the present cession, this subject will be 
 taken up and dealt with in a spirit of kindness, and harmony, and nation 
 ality." 
 
 On the 19th of February, the bill " Making Appropriations for 
 the Improvement of certain Harbors and Rivers," was received 
 by the Senate from the House, where it had passed, the day pre 
 vious, by a vote of 103 to 87. This bill was reported by Hon. 
 R. M. M Lane, of Baltimore, from the Standing Committee on 
 Commerce, amended, on his motion, in Committee of the Whole 
 both Committees, as well as the House itself, having a * Demo 
 cratic majority, who had, of course, full powers to shape the bill 
 as they saw fit. On the final vote, however, about three-fourths 
 of the Yeas were given by Whigs, while all the Nays, but four cy 
 five, were Democrats. The bill, having thus reached the Senate, 
 was referred to its Committee of Commerce, by which (February 
 25) it was reported back without amendment. Mr. Davis of 
 Massachusetts, in reporting it, gave notice that he should, at an 
 early day, call it up for consideration. 
 
RIVER AND HARBOR IMPROVEMENTS. 357 
 
 On the 1st of March there being but three days of the 
 cssion remaining Mr. Badger, of North Carolina, moved the 
 postponement of the previous orders in favor of taking up the 
 River and Harbor Bill. This motion was resisted by Messrs. 
 Bradbury, Borland, Foote, Hunter, Rusk, Turr 3y, and Atchison, 
 all strenuously insisting on giving precedence to various other 
 measures. It was at once made manifest to the Senate, that the 
 current rumor of a Democratic caucus having determined that 
 all decisive action on this bill should be staved oft* for the session, 
 was well founded. Mr. Bradbury moved that Mr. Badger s 
 motion do lie on the table, which was defeated Yeas 23 ; Nays 
 30. After the discussion had proceeded long enough to unmask 
 the game of the Opposition, Mr. Clay interposed as follows : 
 
 " I wish to say one or two words only ; I hope the friends of the bill 
 the real friends of the bill will insist upon immediate action ; it is now or 
 never for the bill. If we should take up the Civil and Diplomatic Appro 
 priation bill, we would soon have the Navy bill up, then the Army bill, and 
 this bill will not be taken up. Sir, there is time enough for all, if we would 
 act more and talk less." 
 
 The motion to take up finally prevailed Yeas 31 ; Nays 25 
 and the debate thereon commenced. Mr. Davis of Massa 
 chusetts, in opening it, only said: 
 
 " I am requested by the Committee on Commerce, which reported this bill, 
 to say something in its support ; but, in the present state of business, and the 
 extreme pressure of time, I do not feel at liberty to go into details of this 
 measure with any particular explanation. If we had time and opportunity, 
 I should do it witli very great pleasure, and give the Senate all the informa 
 tion in my power. But I can say, generally, that these appropriations are 
 spread, I believe, over the entire country, and they amount to about two 
 millions three hundred thousand dollars. This amount is to be applied to 
 the harbors on the sea-coast and on the lakes, and to the rivers of the in 
 terior ; and I may add that by far the great majority of them apply to 
 works that have been long since commenced by the government, and from 
 time to time carried forward by appropriations. Many of these works are 
 now out of repair, and the country expects them to be put in a proper con 
 dition. "With these remarks, I leave the subject to the Senate." 
 
 Mr. Clemens, of Alabama, commenced the Opposition game of 
 moving amendments, proposing to restrict the application of the 
 fifty thousand dollars proposed for the improvement of the Ten 
 nessee to a certain part of that river. Hereupon Messrs. Foote, 
 Bright, and Hamlin, made speeches against the bill generally, 
 or against particular features of it. Mr. Clay, in reply, went 
 straight to the heart of the matter, as follows : 
 
358 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 " There are three modes of killing a bill. One is by meeting it boldly 
 straightforward, coming up to the mark, and rejecting it. Another is by 
 amendments upon amendments, trying to make it better than it was. Of 
 course I do not speak of the motives of Senators in offering the present 
 amendments. I speak of the effect, which is just as certain, if these amend 
 ments are adopted, as if the bill were rejected by a vote against its passage. 
 A third mode is to speak against time when there is very little time left. 
 
 "Sir, I have risen to say to the friends of this bill, that if they desire it to 
 pass, I trust they will vote with me against all amendments, and come to as 
 speedy and rapid action as possible. Under the idea of an amendment, you 
 will gain nothing. I think it likely there are some items that should not be 
 in the bill ; and can you expect in any human work, where there are forty 
 or fifty items to be passed upon, to find perfection ? If you do, you expect 
 what never was done, and what you will never see. I shall vote for the 
 bill for the sake of the good that is in it, and not against it on account of 
 the bad it happens to contain. I am willing to take it as a man takes his 
 wife, for better, for worse, believing we shall be much more happy with 
 it than without it. 
 
 " An honorable Senator has gotten up arid told us that here is an appropria 
 tion of $2,300,000. Do you not recollect that for the last four or five years 
 there have been no appropriations at all upon this subject? Look at the 
 ordinary appropriation in 1837 of $1,307,000; for it is a most remarkable 
 fact that those Administrations most hostile to the doctrine of Internal Im 
 provements have been precisely those in which the most lavish expenditures 
 have been made. Thus we are told, this morning, that there were five, six, 
 or eight hundred thousand dollars during Gen. Jackson s administration, and 
 $1,300,00 during the first year of Mr. Van Buren s. ISTow, there has been 
 no appropriation during the last three or four years, and, in consequence of 
 this delinquency and neglect on the part of Congress heretofore, because 
 some $2,300,000 are to be appropriated by this bill, we are to be startled by 
 the financial horrors and difficulties which have been presented, and driven 
 from the duty which we ought to pursue. With regard to the appropria 
 tions made for that portion of the country from which I come the great 
 Valley of the Mississippi I will say that we are a reasoning people, a feel 
 ing people, and a contrasting people ; and how long will it be before the 
 people of this vast valley will rise en masse and trample down your little 
 hair-splitting distinctions about what is national, and demand what is 
 just and fair, on the part of this Government, in relation to their great in 
 terests ? The Mississippi, with all its tributaries the Red, Wabash, Arkansas, 
 Tennessee, and Ohio rivers constitute a part of a great system, and if that 
 system be not national, I should like to know one that is national. We are 
 told here that a little work, great in its value, one for which I shall vote 
 with great pleasure the breakwater in the little State of Delaware is a great 
 national work, while a work which has for its object the improvement of that 
 vast system of rivers which constitute the Valley of the Mississippi, which 
 is to save millions and millions of property and many human lives, is not a 
 work to be done, because it is not national ! Why, look at the appropria 
 tions. Here was our young sister, California, admitted but the other day ; 
 $1,500,000 for a basin there to improve her facilities, and how much more 
 for Custom-houses? Four or five hundred thousand dollars more in that 
 single State for two objects than the totality of the sum proposed to be ap 
 propriated here. Around the margin of the coast of the Atlantic, the 
 Mexican Gulf, and the Pacific coast, everywhere we pour out, in boundless 
 *nd unmeasured streams, the treasure of the United States, but none to the 
 
RIVER AND HARBOR BILL. 359 
 
 interior of the West, the Valley of the Mississippi every cent is contested 
 and denied for that object. Will not our people draw the contrast? Talk 
 about commerce! we have all sorts of commerce. I have no hesitation in 
 saying that the domestic commerce of the Lakes and the Valley of the Mis* 
 sissippi, is greatly superior in magnitude and importance to all the foreign 
 commerce of the country, for which these vast expenditures are made. Sir, 
 I call upon the Northwestern Senators, upon Western Senators, upon Eastern 
 Senators, upon Senators from all quarters of the Union, to recollect that we 
 are parts of one common country, and that we can not endure to see, from 
 month to month, from day to day, in consequence of the existence of snags 
 in the Mississippi, which can be removed at a trifling expense, hundreds of 
 lives and millions of property destroyed, in consequence of the destruction 
 of the boats navigating these rivers, for the want of some little application 
 of the means of our common government. 
 
 " I do not say that these people will be driven to any great and important 
 action, threatening the integrity of the Union. No, sir ; they will stand by 
 this Union under all circumstances; they will support it, they will defend 
 it, they will fly anywhere and everywhere to support it ; but they will not 
 endure much longer this partial, limited, exclusive appropriation of the pub 
 lic revenue of the country to this mere margin of the country, without doing 
 anything for that interior which equals nearly, if it does not entirely con 
 stitute a moiety, of the population of the country. 
 
 "Mr. President, I have been drawn into these remarks very irregularly, 
 I admit. I am delighted to see some of my Democratic friends breaking the 
 miserable trammels of party. Nationality ! Is not that a national improve 
 ment which contributes to the national power, whether the improvement 
 be in the little State of Delaware, or in the great Valley of the Mississippi 
 river ? What makes it harder, especially in regard to the Mississippi river, 
 is, that from the vast body of water it is impossible to make any great 
 national improvement. All that can be done is to make small annual 
 improvements, by clearing out trees from that great national highway, to 
 take up the annual snags which form themselves in the river. It requires 
 constant and incessant application of means in order to keep the stream 
 clear. I have been drawn into these observations contrary to any purpose 
 I had. Here is the measure before us. If gentlemen choose to exhaust the 
 remainder of the session in useless amendments, the effect of which is to 
 destroy the bill ; if they choose to exhaust the session in speeches made from 
 time to time, let them not charge us with defeating the appropriation bill. 
 We are ready for one, I am ready to pass upon it item by item, and 
 then take up the appropriation bill and do the same thing with regard 
 to it." 
 
 The debate was continued, almost entirely by opponents of the 
 bill, throughout the day and evening. Mr. Clemens s amendment 
 was adopted in committee, by a vote of 27 to 23, but afterward 
 stricken out upon consideration that any amendment to the bill, 
 which would send it back to the House at that late hour of the 
 session, would inevitably defeat it. Gen. Cass made a long 
 speech in exposition of his views on the general subject ; but, 
 though there was very little " noise and confusion" prevailing in 
 the Senate, the obscurity previously shrouding his ideas of River 
 
360 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 and Harbor ^improvement was not dispelled by it. Mr. Downs, 
 of Louisiana, moved that the bill be laid on the table ; which 
 motion was rejected Yeas 23 ; Nays 34. Various motions to 
 amend, to adjourn, &c., were voted down; but finally, it being 
 late on Saturday night, the majority were wearied into an ad 
 journment Mr. Cass making the motion on the ground that it 
 was now the Sabbath. The motion prevailed, by a vote of 
 twenty-nine to twenty-five. 
 
 Monday was the last day of the session, and the Senate met 
 at 10 A. M., at the earliest moment. Mr. Clay said: 
 
 "Mr. President, I rise to make a motion to dispense with the morning 
 business, and previous orders, in order to proceed with the unfinished busi 
 ness which was left in that state on Saturday last ; and, while I am up, I 
 beg leave, not to make a speech for I should consider him worthy of almost 
 any punishment who should make a speech on this day but to say it is 
 manifest to the Senate, and to the country, that there is a majority in this 
 body in favor of the passage of that bill ; and I wish to appeal to the justice, 
 to the generosity, to the fairness of the minority, to say whether they will, 
 if they have the power as I know they have the power defeat the bill by 
 measures of delay, and procrastination ? If they are determined to do it, 
 although such a determination is incompatible with the genius of all free 
 governments, and I should hope, also, incompatible with the sense of pro 
 priety which each individual member must feel if there is a determination 
 upon the part of the minority to defeat the bill, by measures to which they 
 have the power to resort, but I am loth to believe they would use if there 
 is such a determination, and they will avow it, for one, as I think it of the 
 utmost importance that great measures connected with the operations and 
 continuance of the Government measures of appropriation should be 
 adopted, notwithstanding the pain which I should feel in being obliged to 
 Bubmit to the action of a minority, intending to defeat the will of a majority 
 if such is the avowed purpose, I will myself vote for the laying this bill 
 upon the table. I hope there will be no such purpose. I trust that we 
 shall take up the bill and vote upon it; and I implore its friends, if they 
 desire to pass it, to say not one word, but come to the vote upon it." 
 
 Mr. Clay paused, but no member of the minority would avow 
 the conspiracy which had really been formed to defeat the bill 
 by talking against time, insidious propositions of amendment, 
 and all manner of side-blows. Although that minority had 
 already wasted many hours in reading old reports and discussing 
 irrelevant propositions with no other purpose than that of pre 
 venting any decisive action on the bill, yet they did not scruple 
 to complain of a want of time for properly considering this sub 
 ject, and on that ground demanded that the bill be given up by 
 its friends. Mr. Hunter, of Virginia, opened by urging the ne- 
 
RUSK AGAINST DODGING. 361 
 
 oessity of action on the general appropriation bills and arguing 
 that it was not fair for a majority to press bills of this nature just 
 at the close of the session. The fact that the Senate had wasted 
 time in the discussion of other measures was cited by him to 
 prove that no time remained for the consideration of this. Mr. 
 Focte, of Mississippi, declaimed against reckless legislation, 
 saying: 
 
 "I should deem myself criminal in the highest degree, if I did not use all 
 the means within my reach, of preventing hasty legislation upon such a 
 subject." 
 
 Messrs. Butler, Gwin, and Bradbury, also evinced a determi 
 nation to persist in the tactics whereby the passage of the bill 
 had hitherto been impeded. Mr. Rusk, of Texas, however, took 
 a different view, which we will present in his own words : 
 
 " Mr. President, I desire to say only a very few words, and not with & 
 view of delaying action on this bill. If we were within the last hour of the 
 session, instead of within the last twenty-four, believing, as I do, that there 
 is a majority of the Senate in favor of this bill, I would not obstruct its 
 passage. Four years ago, I laid down the principles upon which I intend 
 to act. When I find that there is a clear and express majority in favor of 
 any measure, however much I may condemn it and, by the way, the 
 objects of this bill I do not condemn I will not vote to do indirectly what 
 I cannot constitutionally do directly. If the majority choose to assume the 
 responsibility of passing what I conceive to be a mischievous measure, upon 
 them let it rest But I must say, with great deference to older Senators who 
 have moved in this matter, that I think they have taken the wrong course. 
 
 Having listened to the objections of Senators, Mr. Clay 
 said : 
 
 " I at least will not be guilty of losing this or any other measure by 
 speaking to-day. I have risen simply to call for the Yeas and Nays on the 
 motion, and if there be really a majority against the bill in its present shape, 
 hope they will lay it on the table." 
 
 The Yeas and Nays were ordered : the River and Harbor bill 
 was again taken up Yeas 30, Nays 25 and the fire of oppo 
 sition, under the guise of propositions of amendment, recom 
 menced. All were voted down, as was a proposition by Mr. 
 Foote to lay the bill on the table. A proviso moved by Mr. 
 Bradbury, modified by Mr. Cass, which would have virtually 
 nullified the bill, was offered in the following words : 
 
 "And it is hereby expressly provided that the appropriations in this bill 
 entained shall take effect upon, and authorize the expenditure of only such 
 P 
 
362 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 surplus or excess, as shall remain in the Treasury of the United States, after 
 deducting from the public revenues the sums necessary to meet the appro 
 priations that have been or shall be made by Congress, to execute existing 
 laws, and liquidate private claims." 
 
 This proposition was defeated by a tie vote, as follows : 
 
 YEAS Messrs. Atchison, Berrien, Bradbury, Bright, Butler, Cass, Clemens, 
 Jefferson Davis of Miss., Dawson, Dickinson, Douglas, Downs, Felch, Foote, 
 Gwin, Hamlin, Houston, Hunter, Wm. R. King, Mason, Morton, Norris, 
 Ilhett, Rusk, Soulo, Sturgeon, Turney, Whitcomb and Yulee 29. 
 
 NAYS Messrs. Badger, Baldwin, Bell, Borland, Chase, Clarke, Clay, 
 Cooper, John Davis of Mass., Dodge of Wis., Dodge of Iowa, Ewing, Greene, 
 Hale, Jones, Mangum, Miller, Pearce, Pratt, Rantoul, Sebastian, Seward, 
 Shields, Smith, Spruance, Underwood, Upham, Wales, and "Walker 29. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that while a decided majority of the Sen 
 ate were professedly favorable to the bill, some of them through 
 a salutary fear of their constituents, yet one-half of all the mem 
 bers present were ready to paralyze its operation by voting in a 
 proviso which would have precluded any action under it during 
 the ensuing fiscal year ; since it could not possibly be determined, 
 until the close of the year, whether there would, or would not 
 be the requisite surplus in the Treasury. 
 
 But the bill just escaped this side-blow, and the game of pro 
 posing amendments to hang speeches upon and waste time, was 
 resumed. An attempt to take a recess for dinner was made and 
 defeated ; a clause in the bill appropriating $25,700 " for the 
 removal of the obstructions in the Rio Grande river, Texas," was 
 desperately assailed as an encroachment on the joint sovereignty 
 of Mexico over the snags, reefs, and sandbanks, to be found in 
 ihat river. But the Senate refused to amend. About 8 P. M. 
 of this last night of the session, Mr. Soule, of Louisiana, moved 
 to insert as follows : 
 
 "For deepening the passes of the mouth of the Mississippi river, $130,000 ;" 
 
 And on this, after making a speech, he sent to the clerk s 
 desk an elaborate report of a survey of the mouths of the Missis 
 sippi, which he insisted on having read ; and on this an hour 
 of precious time was consumed with a manifest intent of wearing 
 out the patience of the Senate. Finally, Mr. Phelps, of Ver 
 mont, moved to dispense with the further reading, and on this 
 an hour more was wasted, in the course of which Mr. Clay 
 said: 
 
RIVER AND HARBOR BILL LOST. 363 
 
 " I came to the Senate this morning, and I said that I would move to take 
 up the bill now under consideration ; but that if the minority who oppose 
 the bill would say that, in the exercise of their parliamentary rights, they 
 intended to resist to the utmost its passage, I would not insist upon it. I 
 wanted an avowal ; no such avowal was made. We have gone on to this 
 time, and in what manner, the journal of our proceedings will show. The 
 question which this day s proceedings presents is, whether the majority or 
 the minority shall govern. JSTo one has attempted to deprive the minority 
 of any rights appertaining to them. I hope the other portion of this body, 
 the majority, have their rights also, and the great question, that question 
 which lies at the bottom of all free institutions is, whether the majority or 
 the minority shall govern ? Upon the issue of that question, I, for one, am 
 ready to go before the country and abide their decision." 
 
 The debate still went on, another motion to lay the bill on the 
 table was defeated by a vote of 33 to 23 ; and finally the question 
 of stopping the farther reading of Mr. Soule s report was reached 
 and decided in the affirmative Yeas 27, Nays 19. Then more 
 speeches, and another proposition to postpone, which was voted 
 down ; and more speeches again, of which the burthen was the 
 tyranny of the majority in not allowing any amendments to pre 
 vail, though every Senator knew that any amendment, however 
 trifling, would defeat the bill ; as its adoption would send it back 
 to the House, where one-third could arrest it by objecting to a 
 suspension of the rules in favor of taking it up. 
 
 Thus, with more speeches and more amendments, the time was 
 worried away until midnight. That hour afforded a pretext for 
 a new discussion as to the right of the Senate to sit longer, and 
 the validity of its acts in case it should do so, in which another 
 hour was consumed. This interlude closed, as every one knew 
 it must, by the Senate resolving that each Congress has a right 
 to sit and act until noon on the 4th of March, or for two full 
 years from the commencement of its legal powers ; but by this 
 time Mr. Clay, bending beneath the weight of years, and worn 
 out with severe and protracted labor, perceiving that the bill was 
 inevitably lost, had left the Senate for the night. Finally, after 
 dragging on till four o clock in the morning, and the minority 
 successfully resisting every effort to reach a decisive vote, the 
 bill was postponed (Yeas 29, Nays 19) to 8 o clock, in order to 
 take up and pass the appropriation bills. 
 
 At the hour of eight, Mr. Clay was in his seat, ready for ac 
 tion, though many younger and stronger men were absent. But 
 so much time was consumed in the passage of the appropriation 
 
364 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 bills that the River and Harbor bill could not be taken ;.p. It 
 lay dead on the table, having been defeated by the most unscru 
 pulous exercise of the power granted to minorities in legislative 
 bodies for the protection of their right of discussion, with no 
 intent that the will of a majority should thereby be frustrated. 
 And yet, in this case, for the sake of screening three or four 
 Democratic aspirants to the Presidency from voting on a meas 
 ure with regard to which the dogmas of the South and the in- 
 erests of the West came in direct collision ; the precious time 
 of the Senate was recklessly wasted, and other measures of vital 
 importance either wholly defeated, or driven through with a haste 
 which precluded even their reading in the Senate, though mil 
 lions were voted away by them. 
 
 The effort to pass the River and Harbor bill was the last earn 
 est Legislative struggle in which Mr. Clay was ever engaged. 
 Though seventy-four years of age and not a member of the Com 
 mittee by which the bill was reported, he took his place natur 
 ally, and by sheer force of character, at the head of the majority 
 in that memorable though fruitless struggle. His eye was not 
 dim, neither was his natural force abated ; and the spectator 
 could not fail to admire the chivalry of nature and gallantry of 
 bearing wherewith he led the charge against the strong abattis 
 of parliamentary privilege wherewith the minority had so for 
 midably entrenched themselves. Though the Whig party num 
 bered far less than half the Senate, yet on this question a clear 
 majority were constrained to range themselves under his ban 
 ner ; and there was something impressive in the manner where 
 with Mr. Clay spoke of " We of the majority" desiring such and 
 such action, and exhorted " you of the minority" to desist from 
 unmanly bush-fighting, and allow the majority to pass the bill. I 
 doubt whether there ever was an intelligent and independent 
 legislative assembly whereof Mr. Clay, being a member, would 
 not in time have won a majority to his side not, perhaps, in party 
 designation, but in substance and practice. He led because he 
 instinctively perceived and chose the right path, in which the 
 greater number could not choose but follow. And it was well 
 that the last determined effort of the Great Commoner should be 
 made in behalf of that cause which had so warmly enlisted his 
 
 JHP 
 
CONSTRUCTIVG MILEAGE. 365 
 
 youthful energies, and in whose advocacy he had first become 
 known to the Nation. More than forty years had now elapsed 
 since the then youthful Senator from Kentucky had proposed a 
 deliberate, persistent, and systematic devotion of a portion of the 
 Federal Revenues to the beneficent work of internal improve 
 ment ; and it was fit that the last echo of his trumpet voice 
 should resound through that same chamber in unwavering, un 
 dying devotion to that same great and good cause. The stag, 
 long hunted, had returned to his native heath to die ; and the 
 baying hounds cowered before the glance of his flashing eye 
 until it closed In death. 
 
 XXXV. 
 
 RESPONSE TO KOSSUTH ILLNESS AND DEATH. 
 
 A BRIEF Called Session of the Senate was held from and after 
 the close of the regular Session of Congress to dispose of a large 
 amount of executive business which had accumulated during the 
 regular Session, and been left over at its close unacted on. For 
 attending this Called Session, twenty-four of the Senators re 
 ceived what is termed Constructive Mileage, or the legal 
 allowance for traveling expenses as though they had severally 
 repaired to their distant homes and returned again to Washing 
 ton, between the close of the Regular Session on the 3d of 
 March, and the opening of the Called Session on the following 
 day. The amount thus abstracted from the Treasury, as for a 
 service never rendered, an expense never incurred, was in all 
 about $40,000, of which over $5,000 fell to the share of Senator 
 Gwin, of California, while other Senators from the remoter States 
 received from Fifteen Hundred to Three Thousand dollars each. 
 Mr. King, of Alabama, who, as President of the Senate, certified 
 the correctness of these accounts, did not himself accept the 
 Constructive Mileage. 
 
 Mr. Clay, it need hardly be said, utterly and disdainfully re 
 fused it, as did about half of the Senators holding over. Ever 
 since the practice of charging Constructive Mileage had existed, 
 Mr. Clay had been open and thorough in his denunciations of 
 
366 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 it. When an attempt was made in the Senate to reject the 
 nomination of Elisha Whittlesey as a Controller of the Treasury, 
 because of Mr. Whittlesey s disallowance of the charges of Con- 
 . structive Mileage in passing the accounts of the Senate s Secre 
 tary, Dickins, in 1849, Mr. Clay met the attempt with the most 
 determined resistance. No man was ever more scrupulously 
 and inflexibly honest in his charges against the Treasury. 
 While other Members of Congress, even those accounted most 
 upright and unselfish, had increased their charge for Mileage as 
 the usually traveled route from their several homes to Wash 
 ington was considerably extended by the substitution of steam 
 boat conveyance by devious rivers for the more direct, but far 
 slower and more expensive, staging of former days, Mr. Clay 
 had steadily refused to profit thus by the law s imperfection. 
 He saw no reason for increasing his charge of Mileage some 
 fifty to one hundred per cent, in the fact that he could now reach 
 Washington more cheaply and expeditiously by taking a longer 
 route than he had formerly been able to do by a direct one. 
 Other Statesmen, more popular and successful than he, did not 
 hesitate to take all that a liberal construction of the law would 
 give them, and even add to that the proceeds of Constructive 
 Mileage ; but their example had no influence, their impunity no 
 temptation, for Henry Clay. 
 
 Mr. Clay returned to his home on being released from his 
 public duties at Washington, and remained there through the 
 Summer, in delicate, though not yet broken, health ; enjoying, 
 for him, an unsual measure of quiet, and devoting himself mainly 
 to his family, his rural pursuits, and a serene contemplation of 
 and preparation for the great change now manifestly approach 
 ing Once during the Autumn he addressed an elaborate letter 
 to his friends in New- York, in reply to one from them, urging 
 therein the duty of sustaining the Compromise in all its parts, 
 and endeavoring to calm the agitation respecting Slavery, which 
 had so recently threatened the harmony if not the existence of 
 our Union. This was almost, if not quite, the only occasion 
 during the season wherein he was induced to break the silence 
 which had i ow become so grateful to him. 
 
FAILING HEALTH KOSSUTH. 887 
 
 The opening of the second session of the XXXIId Congress 
 found him again in Washington, but unable to take his seat in 
 the Senate. In fact, none other than a Patriot accustomed to 
 think only of his country arid his duty would have left home in 
 his state of health for a distant field of arduous public eflbrt. 
 Learning from others how ill and feeble he was, I had not in 
 tended to call upon him, and remained two days under the same 
 roof without asking permission to do so. Meantime, however, 
 he was casually informed of my being in Washington, and sent 
 me a request to call at his room. I did so, and enjoyed a half 
 hour s free and friendly conversation with him, the saddest and 
 the last ! His state was even worse than I had feared ; he was 
 already emaciated, a prey to a severe and distressing cough, and 
 complained of spells of difficult breathing. I think no physician 
 could have judged him likely to live two months longer. Yet 
 his mind was unclouded and brilliant as ever, his aspirations 
 for his country s welfare as ardent ; and, though all personal am 
 bition had long been banished, his interest in the events and im 
 pulses of the day was nowise diminished. He listened atten 
 tively to all I had to say of the repulsive aspects and revolting 
 features of the Fugitive Slave Law and the necessary tendency 
 of its operation to excite hostility and alienation on the part of our 
 Northern people, unaccustomed to Slavery, and seeing it exem 
 plified only in the brutal arrest and imprisonment of some hum 
 ble and inoffensive negro whom they had learned to regard as a 
 neighbor. I think I may without impropriety say that Mr. Clay 
 regretted that more care had not been taken in its passage to 
 divest this act of features needlessly repulsive to Northern senti 
 ment, though he did not deem any change in its provisions now 
 practicable. 
 
 Four or five weeks afterward, Louis Kossuth visited Wash 
 ington, in compliance with the official invitation, and in due time 
 paid his respects personally to Mr. Clay, still confined to his 
 sick chamber ; when, after the mutual interchange of civilities, 
 Mr. Clay said : 
 
 "I owe you, sir, an apology for not having acceded before to the desire 
 you were kind enough to intimate more than once to see me ; but, really, 
 my health has been so feeble that I did not dare to hazard the excitement 
 of BO interesting an interview. Besides, sir (he added, vUh some plea*- 
 
368 LIFE OF HENRY" CLAY. 
 
 antry), your wonderful and fascinating eloquence lias mesmerized so large 
 a portion of our people wherever you have gone, and even some of our 
 members of Congress (waving his hand toward the two or three gentlemen 
 who were present), that I feared to come tinder its influence, lest you might 
 shake my faith in some principles in regard to the foreign policy of this 
 government, which I have long and constantly cherished. 
 
 " And in regard to this matter you will allow me, I hope, to speak with 
 that sincerity and candor which becomes the interest the subject has for 
 you and for myself, and which is due to us both, as the votaries of free 
 dom. 
 
 " I trust you will believe me, too, when I tell you that I entertain the 
 liveliest sympathies in every struggle for liberty in Hungary, and in every 
 country, and in this I believe I express the universal sentiment of my coun 
 trymen. But, sir, for the sake of my country, you must allow me to pro 
 test against the policy you propose to her. Waiving the grave and 
 momentous question of the right of one nation to assume the executive pow 
 er among nations for the enforcement of international law, or of the right 
 of the United States to dictate to Russia the character of her relations with 
 the nations around her, let us come at once to the practical consideration 
 of the matter. 
 
 "You tell us yourself, with great truth and propriety, that mere sym 
 pathy, or the expression of sympathy, can not advance your purposes. You 
 require material aid. And indeed it is manifest that the mere declara 
 tions of the sympathy of Congress, or of the President, or of the public, 
 would be of little avail, unless we were prepared to enforce those declara 
 tions by a resort to arms, and unless other nations could see that prepara 
 tion and determination upon our part. 
 
 " Well, sir, suppose that war should be the issue of the course you pro 
 pose to us. Could we then effect anything for you, ourselves, or the cause 
 of liberty? To transport men and arms across the ocean in sufficient num 
 bers and quantities to be effective against Russia and Austria would be im 
 possible. It is a fact which perhaps may not be generally known, that the 
 most imperative reason with Great Britain for the close of her last war 
 with us, was the immense cost of the transportation and maintenance of 
 forces and munitions of war in such a distant theatre, and yet she had not 
 perhaps more than 30,000 men upon this continent at any time. Upon 
 land, Russia is invulnerable to us, as we are to her. Upon the ocean, a 
 war between Russia and this country would result in mutual annoyance 
 to commerce, but probably in little else. I learn recently that her war 
 marine is superior to that of any nation in Europe, except perhaps Great 
 Britain. Her ports are few, her commerce limited, while we, on our part, 
 would offer as a prey to her cruisers a rich and extensive commerce. 
 
 "Thus, sir, after effecting nothing in such a war, after abandoning our 
 ancient policy of amity and non-intervention in the affairs of other nations, 
 and thus justifying them in abandoning the terms of forbearance and non 
 interference which they have hitherto preserved toward us; after the 
 downfall, perhaps, of the friends of liberal institutions in Europe, her des 
 pots, imitating and provoked by our fatal example, may turn upon us in the 
 hour of our weakness and exhaustion, and, with an almost equally irresis 
 tible force of reason and of arms, they may say to us, You have set us the 
 example. You have quit your own to stand on foreign ground ; you have 
 abandoned the policy you professed in the day of your weakness, to inter 
 fere in the affairs of the people upon this continent, in behalf of those prm 
 ciples, the supremacv of which you say is necessary to your prosperity, to 
 
INTERVENTION THE PRESIDENCY. 309 
 
 jour existence. "We, in our own turn, believing that your anarchical doc 
 trines are destructive of, and that monarchical principles are essential to 
 the peace, security, and happiness of our subjects, will obliterate the bed 
 which has nourished such noxious weeds : we will crush you as the propa 
 gandists of doctrines so destructive of the peace and good order of the 
 world. 
 
 " The indomitable spirit of our people might and would be equal to the 
 emergency, and we might remain unsubdued even by so tremendous a com- 
 >ination; but the consequences to us would be terrible enough. You must 
 illow me, Sir, to speak thus freely, as I feel deeply, though my opinion may 
 De of but little import, as the expression of a dying man. Sir, the recent 
 melancholy subversion of the republican government of France, and that 
 enlightened nation voluntarily placing its neck under the yoke of despotism, 
 teach us to despair of any present success for liberal institutions in Europe. 
 They give us an impressive warning not to rely upon others for the vindica 
 tion of our principles, but to look to ourselves, and to cherish with more 
 care than ever the security of our institutions and the preservation of our 
 policy and principles. 
 
 " By the policy to which we have adhered since the days of Washington, 
 we have prospered beyond precedent we have done more for the cause of 
 liberty in the world than arms could effect. We have showed to other 
 nations the way to greatness and happiness ; and, if we but continue united 
 as one people, and persevere in the policy which our experience has so 
 clearly and triumphantly vindicated, we may in another quarter of a century 
 furnish an example which the reason of the world can not resist. But if we 
 should involve ourselves in the tangled web of European politics, in a war 
 in which we could effect nothing, and if in that struggle Hungary should 
 go down, and we should go down with her, where then would be the last 
 hope of the friends of freedom throughout the world ? Far better is it for 
 ourselves, for Hungary, and for the cause of liberty, that, adhering to our 
 wise, pacific system, and avoiding the distant wars of Europe, we should 
 keep our lamp burning brightly on this western shore as a light to all na 
 tions, than to hazard its utter extinction, amid the ruins of fallen or falling 
 republics in Europe." 
 
 This matured and deliberate expression of Mr. Clay s views 
 respecting the course which our Government should pursue with 
 regard to European Politics was the last counsel which fell from 
 his lips with respect to public affairs. A private letter, which 
 he had previously written, expressing a preference for Mr. Fill- 
 more as the Whig candidate for President, was made public 
 about the same time with this ; and the preference thus expressed 
 he cherished to the last, though he never failed to do justice to 
 he eminent abilities and distinguished public services of Mr. 
 Webster and General Scott. Though now on the brink of the 
 grave, he manifested a lively interest in the doings of the Whig 
 National Convention at Baltimore ; and, when its choice had 
 fallen upon General Scott, he expressed satisfaction and acquies 
 cence, though his own choice had been different. 
 
 24 
 
370 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 But higher themes engrossed in larger measure his time and 
 thoughts. Mr. Clay had been through life an undoubting be 
 liever in Christian Revelation, whereof his own father had lived 
 and died a minister, while his mother and his wife were life 
 long disciples. Years ago, while yet unvisited by sickness and 
 with the prospect of a serene old age before him, Mr. Clay had 
 united with the Protestant Episcopal Church at Lexington, and 
 had ever since enjoyed its communion. The chaplain of the 
 Senate, Rev. C. M. Butler, was a minister of that church as well 
 as a personal friend of Mr. Clay, and spent much of the Winter 
 at the bedside of the dying man. 
 
 Mr. Clay s piety was humble and self-distrustful, but his faith 
 was firm and unclouded ; and, though his sufferings were severe 
 and protracted, he was resigned to their infliction as the salutary 
 discipline of a spirit Avhich, in bygone years, had contemplated 
 too fondly and engrossingly the fleeting vanities of earth. No 
 hovel, no hospital, enclosed a Christian soul preparing to bid 
 adieu to its tenement of flesh in more entire renunciation of self- 
 righteousness, in more exclusive reliance on the mercy mani 
 fested through the world s Redeemer, than that of Henry Clay. 
 
 Though his strength declined daily, and the ability to walk, 
 to sit, to rise, and finally to speak, had been successively with 
 drawn, yet so great was his natural vigor of constitution, and so 
 far had he already outlived the expectations of his most sanguine 
 friends, that a hope began to be cherished and expressed that 
 his frail thread of life would endure until the approaching 4th of 
 July, so that his soul would wing its flight to the society of his 
 Country s departed patriots and statesmen on the 76th Anniver 
 sary of her Declaration of Independence, but the overruling fiat 
 had otherwise decreed. On the 29th of June, at 17 minutes 
 past 1 1 o clock, while no one was apprehending his immediate 
 departure, and when only Governor Jones, of Tennessee, was 
 present, with his son, his host, and his faithful servant, his breath 
 ing, which had gradually grown faint and fainter, entirely ceased, 
 So gentle and tranquil was the change, without convulsion or 
 struggle, that his devoted attendants believed it but a momentary 
 sleep, and bent over him in anxious hope of his speedy return 
 to consciousness. That hope was destined not to be realized ; 
 
HIS DEATH ANNOUNCED. 371 
 
 the mighty spirit had thus peacefully abandoned its wasted tene 
 ment and soared on wings of light to the mansions of eternal 
 rest. 
 
 XXXVI. 
 
 EULOGIES IN CONGRESS FUNERAL HONORS. 
 
 THE two Houses met at 12 o clock, and the members wera 
 generally on their way to the Capitol when overtaken by tho 
 tidings of Mr. Clay s death. In the Senate, before the reading 
 of its journal, Mr. Hunter, of Virginia, only said : 
 
 " Mr. President, a rumor has been circulated that Henry Clay is dead. 
 His colleague is absent, rendering the last sad offices. I therefore move that 
 the Senate adjourn." 
 
 The motion was agreed to, and the Senate adjourned. 
 In the House, after the reading of the journals, Mr. Venable, 
 of North Carolina, said: 
 
 "In consequence of the report which may be true that Henry Clay, 
 the illustrious Senator from Kentucky, breathed his last at his lodgings a few 
 moments since, I move that the House adjourn." 
 
 This was carried without a division. 
 
 Of the next day s proceedings in both Houses, I give the full 
 and carefully corrected report of the The Globe. It is as fol 
 lows : 
 
 The anticipated formal annunciation of the death of Hon. 
 Henry Clay brought together an unusual auditory. Members 
 of the House intermingled with Senators ; the representatives 
 of foreign sovereigns paid the tribute of their presence ; Cabinet 
 Ministers, and Heads of Bureaux, and members of the Judiciary, 
 clustered without the bar. Of the illustrious cotemporaries of 
 the distinguished dead but few remain ; but one form attracted 
 all eyes the Secretary of State, Daniel Webster, sat there. 
 The General-in-Chief of the Army, Major-General Scott, too, 
 was present. Attorney-General Crittenden, long the colleague 
 of the deceased ; the Hon. Reverdy Johnson, a cotemporary 
 
372 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 in the Senate, and one of the Attorney-General s predecessors ; 
 and numerous others, as eminent for their eloquence and their 
 genius, there contemplated the end of human greatness. 
 
 The Chaplain to the Senate, the Rev. C. M. Butler, in his 
 opening prayer, supplicated for the living ; but he also offered 
 Christian consolation by speaking hopefully of the dead, whose 
 declining days were cheered by the Gospel dispensation. 
 
 The Journal having been read, Mr. Underwood* rose and 
 said : 
 
 "Mr. President, I rise to announce the death of my colleague, Mr. Clay. 
 He died at his lodgings, in the National Hotel of this city, at seventeen 
 minutes past eleven o clock yesterday morning, in the seventy-sixth yea! 
 of his age. He expired with perfect composure, and without a groan or 
 struggle. 
 
 " By his death, our country has lost one of its most eminent citizens and 
 statesmen ; and, I think, its greatest genius. I shall not detain the Senate 
 by narrating the transactions of his long and useful life. His distin 
 guished services as a statesman are inseparably connected with the his 
 tory of his country. As representative and speaker in the other House of 
 Congress, as senator in this body, as secretary of state, and as envoy abroad, 
 he has, in all these positions, exhibited a wisdom and patriotism which have 
 made a deep and lasting impression upon the grateful hearts of his country 
 men. His thoughts and his actions have already been published to the 
 world in written biography ; in congressional debates and reports ; in the 
 journals of the two Houses ; and in the pages of American history. They 
 have been commemorated by monuments erected on the wayside. They 
 have been engraven on medals of gold. Their memory will survive the 
 monuments of marble and the medals of gold; for these are effaced and de- 
 fay by the friction of ages. But the thoughts and actions of my late col 
 league have become identified with the immortality of the human mind, 
 and will pass down from generation to generation as a portion of our na 
 tional inheritance incapable of annihilation, so long as genius has an 
 admirer, or liberty a friend. 
 
 "Mr. President, the character of Henry Clay was formed and developed 
 by the influence of our free institutions. His physical, mental, and moral 
 faculties were the gift of God. That they were greatly superior to the 
 faculties allotted to most men, can nob be questioned. They were not cul 
 tivated, improved, and directed, by a liberal or collegiate education. His 
 respectable parents were not wealthy, and had not the means of maintain 
 ing their children at college. Moreover, his father died when he was a 
 boy. A.t an early period, Mr. Clay was thrown upon his own resources, 
 without patrimony. He grew up in a clerk s office in Richmond, Virginia. 
 He there studied law. He emigrated from his native State and settled in 
 Lexington, Kentucky, where he commenced the practice of his profession 
 before he was of full age. 
 
 "The road to wealth, to honor, and fame, was open before him. Under 
 >ur constitution and laws, he might freely employ his great faculties unob 
 structed by legal impediments, and unaided by exclusive privileges. Very 
 
 * Joseph R. Underwood, (Whip), of Kentucky. 
 
EULOGY OF MR. UNDERWOOD. 373 
 
 soon, Mr. Clay made a deep and favorable impression upon tl/e people 
 among whom he began his career. The excellence of his natural faculties 
 was soon displayed. Necessity stimulated him in their cultivation. His 
 assiduity, skill, and fidelity, in professional engagements, secured public 
 confidence. He was elected member of the Legislature of Kentucky, in 
 which body he served several sessions prior to 1806. In that year he was 
 elevated to a seat in the Senate of the United States. 
 
 " At the bar and in the General Assembly of Kentucky, Mr. Clay first 
 manifested those high qualities as a public speaker which have secured to 
 him so much popular applause and admiration. His physical and mental 
 organization eminently qualified him to become a great and impressive 
 orator. His person was tall, slender, and commanding. His temperament 
 ardent, fearless, and full of hope. His countenance clear, expressive, and 
 variable indicating the emotion which predominated at the moment with 
 exact similitude. His voice, cultivated and modulated in harmony with 
 the sentiment he desired to express, fell upon the ear like the melody of 
 enrapturing music. His eye beaming with intelligence and flashing with 
 coruscations of genius. His gestures and attitudes graceful and natural. 
 These personal advantages won the prepossessions of an audience, even be 
 fore his intellectual powers began to move his hearers; and w r hen his strong 
 common sense, his profound reasoning, his clear conceptions of his subject 
 in all its bearings, and his striking and beautiful illustrations, united with 
 such personal qualities, were brought to the discussion of any question, his 
 audience was enraptured, convinced, and led by the orator as if enchanted 
 by the lyre of Orpheus. 
 
 "No man was ever blessed by his Creator with faculties of a higher or 
 der of excellence than those given to Mr. Clay. In the quickness of his 
 perceptions, and the rapidity with which his conclusions were formed, he 
 had few equals, and no superior. He was eminently endowed with a nice 
 discriminating taste for order, symmetry, and beauty. He detected in a 
 moment everything out of place or deficient in his room, upon his farm, in 
 his own or the dress of others. He was a skillful judge of the form and 
 qualities of his domestic animals, which he delighted to raise on his farm. 
 I could give you instances of the quickness and minuteness of his keen 
 faculty of observation which never overlooked anything. A want of neat 
 ness and order was offensive to him. He was particular and neat in his 
 handwriting, and his apparel. A slovenly blot or negligence of any sort 
 met his condemnation ; while he was so organized that he attended to, and 
 arranged little things to please and gratify his natural love for neatness, 
 order, and beauty, his great intellectual faculties grasped all the subjects 
 of jurisprudence and politics with a facility amounting almost to intuition. 
 As a lawyer, he stood at the head of his profession. As a statesman, his 
 stand at the head of the Republican Whig party for nearly half a century 
 establishes his title to preeminence among his illustrious associates. 
 
 " Mr. Clay was deeply versed in all the springs of human action. He 
 had read and studied biography and history. Shortly after I left college, 
 I had occasion to call on him in Frankfort, where he was attending court, 
 and well I remember to have found him with Plutarch s Lives in his hands. 
 No one better than he knew how to avail himself of human motives, and 
 all the circumstances which surrounded a subject, or could present them 
 with more force and skill to accomplish the object of an argument. 
 
 " Mr. Clay, throughout his public career, was influenced by the loftiest 
 patriotism. Confident in the truth of his convictions and the purity of his 
 purposes, he was ardent, sometimes impetuous, in the pursuit of objects 
 
374 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 which he believed essential to the general welfare. Those who stood in 
 his way were thrown aside without fear or ceremony. He never affected 
 a courtier s deference to men or opinions which he thought hostile to the 
 best interest 1 * of his country ; and hence he may have wounded the vanity 
 of those wh ; thought themselves of consequence. It is certain, whatever 
 the cause, that at one period of his life Mr. Clay might have been referred 
 to as proof that there is more truth than fiction in those profound lines of 
 the poet : 
 
 He who ascends the mountain-top shall find 
 
 Its loftiest peaks most wrapt in clouds and enow ; 
 He who surpasses or subdues mankind, 
 
 Must look down on the hate of those below, 
 Though far above the sun of glory glow, 
 And far beneath the earth and ocean spread, 
 Round him are icy rocks, and loudly blow 
 Contending tempests on his naked head, 
 And thus reward the toils which to those summits led. 
 
 "Calumny and detraction emptied their vials upon him. But how 
 glorious the change! He outlived malice and envy. He lived long enough 
 to prove to the world that his ambition was no more than a holy aspiration 
 to make his country the greatest, most powerful, and best-governed on the 
 earth. If he desired its highest office, it was because the greater power and 
 influence resulting from such elevation would enable him to do more than 
 he otherwise could for the progress and advancement first of his own 
 countrymen, then of his whole race. His sympathies embraced all. The 
 African slave, the Creole of Spanish America, the children of renovated. 
 classic Greece all families of men, without respect to color or clime, found 
 in his expanded bosom and comprehensive intellect a friend of their eleva 
 tion and amelioration. Such ambition as that is God s implantation in the 
 human heart for raising the down-trodden nations of the earth, and fitting 
 them for regenerated existence in politics, in morals, and religion. 
 
 "Bold and determined as Mr. Clay was in all his actions, he was, neverthe 
 less, conciliating. He did not obstinately adhere to things impracticable. 
 If he could not accomplish the best, he contented himself with the nighest 
 approach to it. He has been the great compromiser of those political 
 agitations and opposing opinions which have, in the belief of thousands, 
 at different times, endangered the perpetuity of our Federal Government 
 and Union. 
 
 "Mr. Clay was no less remarkable for his admirable social qualities than 
 for his intellectual abilities. As a companion, he was the delight of his 
 friends; and no man ever had better or truer. They have loved him from 
 the beginning, and loved him to the last. His hospitable mansion at 
 Ashland was always open to their reception. Ko guest ever thence 
 departed without feeling happier for his visit. But, alas! that hospitable 
 mansion has already been converted into a house of mourning ; already has 
 intelligence of his death passed with electric velocity to that aged and now 
 widowed lady who, for more than fifty years, bore to him all the endearing 
 relations of wife, and whose feeble condition prevented her from joining 
 him in this city, and soothing the anguish of life s last scene by those 
 endearing attentions which no one can give so well as a woman and a 
 wife. May God infuse into her heart and mind the Christian spirit of sub 
 mission under her bereavement ! It can not be long before she may expect a 
 reunion in Heaven. A nation condoles with her and her children on 
 account of their irreparable loss. 
 
REMARKS OF MR UNDERWOOD. 375 
 
 "Mr. Clay, from the nature of his disease, declined very gradually. He bore 
 his protracted sufferings with great equanimity and patience. On one occasion 
 he said to me that when deatli was inevitable and must soon come, and when 
 the sufferer was ready to die, he did not perceive the wisdom of praying to 
 be delivered from sudden death. He thought under such circumstances 
 the sooner suffering was relieved by death the better. He desired the 
 termination of his own sufferings, while he acknowledged the duty of 
 patiently waiting and abiding the pleasure of God. Mr. Clay frequently 
 spoke to me of his hope of eternal life, founded upon the merits of Jesus 
 Christ as a Savior ; who, as he remarked, came into the world to bring 
 life and immortality to light. He was a member of the Episcopalian 
 Church. In one of our conversations he told me that, as his hour of disso 
 lution approached, he found that his affections were concentrating more 
 and more upon his domestic circle his wife and children. In my daily 
 visits he was in the habit of asking me to detail to him the transactions of 
 the Senate. This I did, and he manifested much interest in passing occur 
 rences. His inquiries were less frequent as his end approached. For the 
 week preceding his death, he seemed to be altogether abstracted from the 
 concerns of the world. When he became so low that he could not converse 
 without being fatigued, he frequently requested those around him to con 
 verse. He would then quietly listen. He retained his mental faculties in 
 great perfection. His memory remained perfect. He frequently mentioned 
 events and conversations of recent occurrence, showing that he had a perfect 
 recollection of which was said and done. He said to me that he was grate 
 ful to God for continuing to him the blessing of reason, which enabled him 
 to contemplate and reflect on his situation. He manifested, during his con 
 finement, the same characteristics which marked his conduct through the 
 vigor of his life. He was exceedingly averse to give his friends trouble, 
 as he called it. Some time before he knew it, we commenced waiting 
 through the night in an adjoining room. He said to me after passing a 
 painful day, perhaps some one had better remain all night in the parlor. 
 From this he time he knew some friend was constantly at hand ready to 
 attend to him. 
 
 "Mr. President, the majestic form of Mr. Clay will no more grace these 
 Halls. Iso more shall we hear that voice which has so often thrilled and 
 charmed the assembled representatives of the American people. No more 
 shall we see that waving hand and eye of light, as when he was engaged 
 in unfolding his policy in regard to the varied interests of our growing and 
 mighty republican empire. His voice is silent on earth for ever. The dark 
 ness of death has obscured the lustre of his eye. But the memory of his 
 services not only to his beloved Kentucky, not only to the United States, 
 but to the cause of human freedom and progress throughout the world 
 will live through future ages, as a bright example, stimulating and encoura 
 ging his own countrymen and the people of all nations in their patriotic 
 devotions to country and humanity. 
 
 "With Christians, there is yet a nobler and a higher thought in regard 
 to Mr. Clay. They will think of him in connection with eternity. They 
 will contemplate his immortal spirit occupying its true relative magnitude 
 among the moral stars of glory in the presence of God. They will think of 
 him as having fulfilled the duties allotted to him on earth, having been 
 regenerated by Divine grace, and having passed through the valley of the 
 shadow of death, and reached an everlasting and happy home in that house 
 not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 
 
 "On Sunday morning last, I was watching alone at Mr. Clay s bedside. 
 
376 LIFE 07 HENRY CLAY. 
 
 For the last hour he had been unusually quiet, and I thought he was sleep* 
 ing. In that, however, he told me I was mistaken. Opening his eyes and 
 looking at me, he said, Mr. Underwood, there maybe some question where 
 my remains shall be buried. Some persons may designate Frankfort. I 
 wish to repose at the cemetery in Lexington, where many of my friends and 
 connections are buried. My reply was, I will endeavor to have your wish 
 executed. 
 
 "I now ask the Senate to have his corpse transmitted to Lexington, 
 Kentucky, for sepulture. Let him sleep with the dead of that city, in and 
 near which his home has been for more than half a century. For the people 
 of Lexington, the living and the dead, he manifested, by the statement made 
 to me, a pure and holy sympathy, and a desire to cleave unto them, as strong 
 as that which bound lluth to Naomi. It was his anxious wish to return to 
 them before lie died, and to realize what the daughter of Moab so strongly 
 felt and beautifully expressed: Thy people shall be my people, and thy 
 God my God. Where thou diest will 1 die, and there will I be buried. 
 
 "It is fit that the tomb of Henry Clay should be in the city of Lexington. 
 In our Revolution, liberty s first libation of blood was poured out in a town 
 of that name in Massachusetts. On hearing it, the pioneers of Kentucky 
 consecrated the name, and applied it to the place where Mr. Clay desired 
 to be buried. The associations connected with the name harmonize with 
 his character; and the monument erected to his memory at the spot selected 
 by him will be visited by the votaries of genius and liberty with that 
 reverence which is inspired at the tomb of Washington. Upon that monu 
 ment let his epitaph be engraved. 
 
 Mr. President, I have availed myself of Doctor Johnson s paraphrase of 
 the epitaph on Thomas Hammer, with a few alterations and additions, to 
 express in borrowed verse my admiration for the life and character of Mr. 
 Clay, and with this heart-tribute to the memory of my illustrious colleague, 
 I conclude my remarks : 
 
 " Born when Freedom her stripes and stars unfurled, 
 When Revolution shook the startled world ; 
 Heroes and sages taught his brilliant mind 
 To know and love the rights of all mankind. 
 " In life s first bloom his public toils began, 
 At once commenced the Senator and man, 
 In business dext rous, weighty in debate, 
 Near fifty years he labored for the State. 
 In every speech persuasive wisdom flowed, 
 In every act refulgent virtue glowed ; 
 Suspended faction ceased from rasje and strife, 
 To hear his eloquence and praise his life. 
 Resistless merit fixed the Members choice, 
 Who hailed him Speaker with united voice." 
 His talents ripening with advancing years ; 
 His wisdom growing with his public cares ; 
 A chosen envoy, War s dark horrors cease, 
 And tides of carnage turn to streams of peace. 
 Conflicting principles, internal strife, 
 Tariff and Slavery, disunion rife, 
 All are compromised by his mastermind, 
 And beams of joy illuminate the land. 
 Patriot, Christian, Husband, Father, Friend, 
 Thy work of life achieved a glorious end ! 
 
 " I offer the following resolutions : 
 
 " Resolved, That a committee of six be appointed by the President of the Senate, to take 
 Drder for superintending the funeral of Henry Clay, late a member of this body, which will 
 take place to-morow at 12 o clock, meridian, and that the Senate will attend the same. 
 
 " Resolved, That the members of the Senate, from a sincere desire of showing every 
 
KU.MJGY OF GEN. CASS. 377 
 
 mark of respect to the memory of the deceased, will go into mourning for one month by 
 the usual mode of wearing crape on the left arm, 
 
 " Resolved, As a further mark of respect entertained by the Senate for the memory of 
 Henry Clay, and his long and distinguished services to his country, that his remains, in pur 
 suance of the known wishes of his family, be removed to the place of sepulture selected by 
 himself at Lexington, in Kentucky, in charge of the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate, and 
 attended by a committee of six Senators, to be appointed by the President of the Senate, 
 who shall have full power to carry this resolution into effect." 
 
 MR, CASS.* "Mr. President: Again has an impressive warning come to 
 teach us that in the midst of life we are in death. The ordinary labors of this 
 Hall are suspended, and its contentions hushed, before the power of Him 
 who says to the storm of human passions, as He said of old to the waves of 
 Galilee, PEACE, BE STILL. The lessons of His Providence, severe as they may 
 be, often become merciful dispensations, like that which is now spreading 
 sorrow through the land, and which is reminding us that we have higher 
 duties to fulfil, and graver responsibilities to encounter, than those that meet 
 us here, when we lay our hands upon His holy word, and invoke His holy 
 name, promising to be faithful to that Constitution which He gave us in His 
 mercy, and will withdraw only in the hour of our blindness and disobedi 
 ence, and of His own wrath. 
 
 "Another great man has fallen in our land, ripe indeed in years and in 
 honors, but never dearer to the American people than when called from the 
 theatre of his services and renown, to that final bar where the lofty and the 
 lowly must all meet at last. 
 
 " I do not rise upon this mournful occasion to indulge in the language of 
 panegyric. My regard for the memory of the dead, and for the obligations 
 of the living, would equally rebuke such a course. The severity of truth is 
 at once our proper duty and our best consolation. Born during the revolu 
 tionary struggle, our deceased associate was one of the few remaining public 
 men who connect the present generation with the actors in the trying scenes 
 of that eventful period, and whose names and deeds will soon be known 
 only in the history of their country. He was another illustration, and a 
 noble one, too, of the glorious equality of our institutions, which freely offer 
 all their rewards to all who justly seek them, for he was the architect of 
 his own fortune, having made his way in life by self-exertion ; and he was 
 an early adventurer in the great forest of the West, then a world of primi 
 tive vegetation, but now the abode of intelligence and religion, of prosperity 
 and civilization. 
 
 " But he possessed that intellectual superiority which overcomes surround 
 ing obstacles, and which local seclusion can not long withhold from general 
 knowledge and appreciation. It is almost half a century since he passed 
 through Chilicothe, then the seat of government of Ohio, where I was a 
 member of the Legislature, on his way to take his place in this very body, 
 which is now listening to this reminiscence, and to a feeble tribute of regard 
 from one who then saw him for the first time, but who can never forget the 
 impression he produced by the charms of his conversation, the frankness of 
 his manner, and the high qualities with which he was endowed. Since then 
 he has belonged to his country, and has taken a part, and a prominent part, 
 both in peace and war, in all the great questions affecting her interests and 
 her honor; and though it has been my fortune often to differ from him, yet 
 I believe he was as pure a patriot as ever participated in the councils of a 
 nation, anxious for the public good, and seeking to promote it during all the 
 vicissitudes of a long and eventful life. That he exercised a powerful in 
 fluence within the sphere of his action, through the whole country, indeed w 
 
 * General Lewis Cass (Democrat), of Michigan. 
 
378 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY, 
 
 all feel and know ; and we know, too, the eminent endowments whick gav 
 him this high distinction. Frank and fearless in the expression of his opin 
 ions, and in the performance of his duties with rare powers of eloquence, 
 which never failed to rivet the attention of his auditory, and which always 
 commanded admiration, even when they did not carry conviction prompt 
 in decision and firm in action, and with a vigorous intellect, trained in the 
 contests of a stirring life, and strengthened by enlarged experience and ob 
 servation, joined withal to an ardent love of country, and to great purity 
 of purpose ; these were the elements of his power and success. And we 
 dwell upon them with mournful gratification, now when we shall soon follow 
 him to the cold and silent tomb, where we shall commit earth to earth, ashes 
 to ashes., Just to dust, but with the blessed conviction of the truth of that 
 Divine revelation, which teaches us that there is life and hope beyond the 
 narrow house, where we shall leave him alone to the mercy of his God and 
 of ours. 
 
 " He has passed beyond the reach of human praise or censure ; but the 
 judgment of his contemporaries has preceded and pronounced the judgment 
 of history, and his name and fame will shed lustre upon his country, and 
 will be proudly cherished in the hearts of his countrymen for long ages to 
 come. Yes, they will be cherished and freshly remembered when these 
 marble columns that surround us, so often the witnesses of his triumphs, but 
 in a few brief hours, when his mortal frame, despoiled of the immortal spirit, 
 shall rest under this dome for the last time, to become the witnesses of his 
 defeat in that final contest where the mightiest fall before the great destroyer 
 when these marble columns shall themselves have fallen, like all the works 
 of man, leaving their broken fragments to tell the story of former magnifi 
 cence, amid the very ruins which announce decay and desolation. 
 
 " I was often with him during his last illness, when the world and the 
 things of the world were fast fading away before him. He knew that the 
 silver cord was almost loosed, and that the golden bowl was breaking at 
 the fountain ; but he was resigned to the will of Providence, feeling that He 
 who gave has the right to take away in His own good time and manner. 
 After his duty to his Creator, and his anxiety for his family, his first care was 
 for his country, and his first wish for the preservation and perpetuation of 
 the Constitution and the Union, dear to him in the hour of death, as they 
 had ever been in the vigor of life. Of that Constitution and Union whose 
 defence, in the last and greatest crisis of their peril, had called forth all his 
 energies, and had stimulated those memorable and powerful exertions, which 
 he who witnessed can never forget, and which no doubt hastened the final 
 catastrophe, a nation now deplores with a sincerity and unanimity not less 
 honorable to themselves than to the memory of the object of their affections. 
 And when we shall enter that narrow valley through which he has passed 
 before us, and which leads to the judgment-seat of God, may we be able 
 to say, through faith in His Son, our Savior, and in the beautiful language 
 of the hymn of the dying Christian dying, but ever-living and triumph 
 ant: 
 
 " The world recedes, it disappears ! 
 Heaven opens on my eyes ! my ears 
 With sounds seraphic ring : 
 Lend, lend your wings I I mount, I fly I 
 Oh grave where is thy victory ? 
 Oh death where is thy sting ? 
 
 "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like 
 his." 
 
REMARKS OF MR. HUNTER OF VA. 379 
 
 Mr. HUNTER.* "Mr. President, we have heard, with deep sensibility what 
 has just fallen from the Senators who have preceded me. "We have heard, 
 sir, the voice of Kentucky and, upon this occasion, she had a right to 
 speak in mingled accents of pride and sorrow ; for it has rarely fallen to 
 the lot of any State to lament the loss of such a son. But Virginia, too, is 
 entitled to her place in this procession ; for she can not be supposed to be 
 unmindful of the tie which bound her to the dead. "When the earth opens 
 to receive the mortal part which she gave to man, it is then that affection 
 is eager to bury in its bosom every recollection but those of love and kind 
 ness. And, sir, when the last sensible tie is about to be severed, it is then 
 that we look with anxious interest to the deeds of the life, and to the 
 emanations of the heart and the mind, for those more enduring monuments 
 which are the creation of an immortal nature. 
 
 "In this instance, we can be at no loss for these. This land, sir, is full 
 of the monuments of his genius. His memory is as imperishable as Ameri 
 can history itself, for he was one of those who made it. Sir, he belonged to 
 that marked class who are the men of their century ; for it was his rare 
 good fortune not only to have been endowed with the capacity to do great 
 things, but to have enjoyed the opportunities of achieving them. I know, 
 sir, it has been said and deplored, that he wanted some of the advantages 
 of an early education ; but it, perhaps, has not been remembered that, in 
 many respects, he enjoyed such opportunities for mental training as can 
 rarely fall to the lot of man. He had not a chance to learn as much from 
 books, but he had such opportunities of learning from men as few men have 
 ever enjoyed. Sir, it is to be remembered that he was reared at a time 
 when there was a state of society in the Commonwealth which gave him 
 birth, such as has never been seen there before nor since. It was his early 
 privilege to see how justice was administered by a Pendleton and a Wythe, 
 with the last of whom he was in the daily habit of familiar intercourse 
 He had constant opportunities to observe how forensic questions were 
 managed by a Marshall and a "Wickham. He was old enough, too, to have 
 heard and to have appreciated the eloquence of a Patrick Henry, and of 
 George Keith Taylor. In short, sir, he lived in a society in which the ex 
 amples of a Jefferson, and a Madison, and a Monroe, were living influences, 
 and on which the setting sun of a "Washington cast the mild effulgence of 
 its departing rays. 
 
 " He was trained, too, as has been well said by the Senator from Michi 
 gan, (Mr. Cass), at a period when the recent revolutionary struggle had 
 given a more elevated tone to patriotism and imparted a higher cast to pub 
 lic feeling and to public character. Such lessons were worth, perhaps, 
 more to him than the whole encyclopaedia of scholastic learning. Not only 
 were the circumstances of his early training favorable to the development 
 of his genius, but the theatre upon which he was thrown was eminently 
 propitious for its exercise. The circumstances of the early settlement of 
 Kentucky, the generous, daring, and reckless character of the people all 
 fitted it to be the theatre for the display of those commanding qualities of 
 heart and mind, which he so eminently possessed. There can be little 
 doubt but that those people and their chosen leader exercised a mutual in 
 fluence upon each other ; and no one can be surprised that, with his brave 
 spirit and commanding eloquence, and fascinating address, he should have 
 led not only there but elsewhere. 
 
 " I did not know him, Mr. President, as you did, in the freshness of his 
 
 * Robert M. T. Hunter (State Rights Democrat) of Virginia. 
 
380 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 prime, or in the full maturity of his manhood. I did not hear him, sir, as 
 you have heard him, when his voice roused the spirit of his countrymen for 
 "war when he cheered the drooping, when he rallied the doubting, through 
 all the vicissitudes of a long and doubtful contest. I have never seen him, 
 sir, when, from the height of the chair, he ruled the House of Representa 
 tives by the energy of his will, or when upon the level of the floor he exer 
 cised a control almost as absolute, by the mastery of his intellect. When 1 
 first knew him, his sun had a little passed its zenith. The effacing hand 
 of time had just begun to touch the lineaments of his manhood. But yet, 
 sir, I saw enough of him to be able to realize what he might have been in 
 the prime of his strength, and in the full vigor of his maturity. I saw him, 
 sir, as you did, when he led the Opposition during the administration of 
 Mr. Van Buren. I had daily opportunities of witnessing the exhibition of 
 his powers during the extra session under Mr. Tyler s administration. And 
 I saw, as we all saw, in a recent contest, the exhibition of power on hia 
 part, which was most marvelous in one of his years. 
 
 " Mr. President, he may not have had as much of analytic skill, as some 
 others, in dissecting a subject. It may be, perhaps, that he did not seek to 
 look quite so far ahead as some who have been most distinguished for poli 
 tical forecast. But it may be truly said of Mr. Clay, that he was no exag 
 gerator. He looked at events through neither end of the telescope, but 
 surveyed them with the natural and the naked eye. He had the capacity 
 of seeing things as the people saw them, and of feeling things as the people 
 felt them. He had, sir, beyond any other man whom I have ever seen, the 
 true mesmeric touch of the orator the rare art of transferring his impulses 
 to others. Thoughts, feelings, emotions, came from the ready mould of his 
 genius, radiant and glowing, and communicated their own warmth to every 
 heart which received them. His, too, w r as the power of wielding the high 
 er and intenser forms of passion with a majesty and an ease which none but 
 the great masters of the human heart can ever employ. It was his rare 
 good fortune to have been one of those who form, as it were, a sensible link 
 and a living tradition which connects one age with another, and through 
 which one generation speaks its thoughts and feelings, and appeals to an 
 other. And, unfortunate is it for a country, when it ceases to possess such 
 men, for it is to them that we chiefly owe the capacity to maintain the 
 unity of the great Epos of human history, and preserve the consistency of 
 political action. 
 
 " Sir, it may be said that the grave is still new-made which covers the 
 mortal remains of one of those great men who have been taken from our 
 midst, and the earth is soon to open to receive another. I know not, sir, 
 whether it can be said to be a matter of lamentation, so far as the dead 
 are concerned, that the thread of this life has been clipped when once it 
 has been fully spun. They escape the infirmities of age, and they leave an 
 imperishable name behind them. The loss, sir, is not theirs, but ours ; and 
 a loss the more to be lamented that we see none to fill the places thus made 
 vacant on the stage of public affairs. But it may be well for us, who have 
 much more cause to mourn and to lament such deaths, to pause amidst the 
 business of life for the purpose of contemplating the spectacle before us, and 
 of drawing the moral from the passing event. It is when death seizes for 
 its victims those who are, by a head and shoulders, taller than all the 
 rest, that we feel most deeply the uncertainty of human affairs, and that 
 the glories of our mortal state are shadows, not substantial things. It is, 
 sir, in such instances as the present that we can best study by the light of 
 example the true object of life, and the wisest ends of human pursuit" 
 
REMARKS OF MR. HALE OF N. H. 381 
 
 Mr. HALE.* "Mr. President, I hope I shall not be considered obtrusive, 
 if on this occasion, for a brief moment, I mingle my humble voice with 
 those that, with an ability that I shall neither attempt nor hope to equal, 
 have sought to do justice to the worth and memory of the deceased, and at 
 the same time appropriately to minister to the sympathies and sorrows of a 
 stricken people. Sir, it is the teaching of inspiration that no man liveth 
 and no man dieth unto himself. 
 
 " There is a lesson taught no less in the death than in the life of every 
 man eminently so in the case of one who has filled a large space and oc 
 cupied a distinguished position in the thoughts and regard of his fellow- 
 men. Particularly instructive at this time is the event which we now de 
 plore, although the circumstances attending his decease are such as are 
 calculated to assuage rather than aggravate the grief which it must neces 
 sarily cause. His time had fully come. The three score and ten marking 
 the ordinary period of human life had for some years been passed, and, full 
 of years and of honors, he has gone to his rest. And now, when the nation 
 is marshalling itself for the contest which is to decide who shall be great 
 est, as if to chasten our ambition, to restrain and subdue the violence of 
 passion, to moderate our desires and elevate our hopes, we have the spec 
 tacle of one who, by the force of his intellect, and the energy of his own 
 purpose, had achieved a reputation which the highest official honors of the 
 Republic might have illustrated, but could not have enhanced, laid low in 
 death as if, at the very outset of this political contest, on which the na 
 tion is now entering, to teach the ambitious and aspiring the end of human 
 pursuits and earthly honor. But, sir, I do not intend to dwell on thai 
 moral which is taught by the silent lips and closed eye of the illustrious 
 dead, with a force such as no man ever spoke with ; but I shall leave the 
 event, with its silent and mute eloquence, to impress its own appropriate 
 teachings on the heart. 
 
 " In the long and eventful life of Mr. Clay, in the various positions which 
 he occupied, in the many posts of public duty which he filled, in the many 
 exhibitions which his Listory affords of untiring energy, of unsurpassed elo 
 quence, and of devoted patriotism, it would be strange indeed if different 
 minds, as they dwell upon the subject, were all to select the same incidents 
 of his life as preeminently calculated to challenge admiration and respect. 
 
 "Sir, my admiration, ay, my affection, for Mr. Clay was won and se 
 cured many years since, even in my school-boy days when his voice of 
 counsel, encouragement, and sympathy, was heard in the other Hall of this 
 Capitol, in behalf of the struggling colonies of the southern portion of this 
 contineat, who, in pursuit of their inalienable rights, in imitation of our 
 own forefathers, had unfurled the banner of liberty, and, regardless of con 
 sequences, had gallantly rushed into that contest where life is lost, or free 
 dom won. And again, sir, when Greece, rich in the memories of the past, 
 awoke from the slumber of ages of oppression and centuries of sham and 
 resolved 
 
 To call her virtues back, and conquer time and fate, 
 
 there, over the plains of that classic land, above the din of battle and the 
 clash of arms, mingling with the shouts of the victors and the groans of the 
 vanquished, were heard the thrilling and stirring notes of that same elo- 
 qnence, excited by a sympathy which knew no bounds, wide as the world, 
 pleading the cause of Grecian liberty before the American Congress, as if to 
 pay back to Greece the debt which every patriot and orator felt was her 
 
 * John P. Hale (Free Soil Democrat) of New Hampshire. 
 
382 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 due. Sir, in the long and honorable career of the deceased, there 
 events and circumstances upon which his friends and posterity will dwell 
 with satisfaction and pride, but none which will preserve his memory with 
 more unfading lustre to future ages than the course he pursued in the 
 Spanish-American and Greek revolutions." 
 
 Mr. CLEMENS.* "Mr. President: I should not have thought it necessary 
 to add anything to what has already been said, but for a request preferred 
 by some of the friends of the deceased. I should have been content to 
 mourn him in silence, and leave it to other tongues to pronounce his eulogy. 
 What I have now to say shall be brief very brief. 
 
 " Mr. President, it is now less than three short years ago since I first 
 entered this body. At that period it numbered among its members many 
 of the most illustrious statesmen this Republic has ever produced, or the 
 world has ever known. Of the living it is not my purpose to speak ; but in 
 that brief period death has been busy here; and, as if to mark the feeble 
 ness of human things, his arrows have been aimed at the highest, the 
 mightiest of us all. First died Calhoun. And well, sir, do I remember the 
 deep feeling evinced on that occasion by him whose death has been an 
 nounced here to-day, when he said: I was his senior in years in nothing 
 else. In the course of nature I ought to have preceded him. It has been 
 decreed otherwise : but I know that I shall linger here only a short time, 
 and shall soon follow him. It was genius mourning over his younger 
 brother, and too surely predicting his own approaching end. 
 
 " He, too, sir, is now gone from among us, and left none like him behind. 
 That voice, whose every tone was music, is hushed and still. That clear, 
 bright eye, is dim and lustreless, and that breast, where grew and flourished 
 every quality which could adorn and dignify our nature, is cold as the clod 
 that soon must cover it. A few hours have wrought a mighty change a 
 change for which a lingering illness had, indeed, in some degree, prepared 
 us, but which, nevertheless, will still fall upon the nation with crushing 
 force. Many a sorrowing heart is now asking, as I did yesterday, when I 
 heard the first sound of the funeral bell 
 
 And is he gone ? the pure of the purest, 
 Tho hand that upheld our bright banner the surest, 
 
 Is he gone from our struggles away ? 
 But yesterday lending a people new life, 
 
 Cold, mute, in the coifin to-day. 
 
 "Mr. President, this is an occasion when eulogy must fail to perform its 
 office. The long life which is now ended is a history of glorious deeds too 
 mighty for the tongue of praise. It is in the hearts of his countrymen that 
 his best epitaph must be written. It is in the admiration of a world that 
 his renown must be recorded. In that deep love of country which distin 
 guished every period of his life, he may not have been unrivaled. In lofti 
 ness of intellect he was not without his peers. The skill with which he 
 touched every chord of the human heart may have been equaled. The iron 
 will, the unbending firmness, the fearless courage, which marked his char 
 acter, may have been shared by others. But where shall we go to find all 
 those qualities united, concentrated, blended into one brill: ant whole, and 
 shedding a lustre upon one single head, which does not dazzle the beholder 
 only because it attracts his love and demands his worship ? 
 
 "I scarcely know, sir, how far it maybe allowable, upon an occasion like 
 this, to refer to party struggles which have left wounds not yet entirely 
 
 * Jeremiah Clemens (Union Democrat), of Alabama. 
 
REMARKS OF MR. COOPER OF PA. 383 
 
 healed. I will venture, however, to suggest, that it should be a source of 
 consolation to his friends that he lived long enough to see the full accom 
 plishment of the last great work of his life, and to witness the total disap 
 pearance of that sectional tempest which threatened to overwhelm the 
 Republic in ruins. Both the great parties of the country have agreed to 
 stand upon the platform which he erected, and both of them have solemnly 
 pledged themselves to maintain unimpaired the work of his hands, I doubt 
 not the knowledge of this cheered him in his dying moments, and helped to 
 steal away the pangs of dissolution. 
 
 "Mr. President, if I knew anything more that I could say, I would gladly 
 utter it. To me he was something more than kind, and I am called upon 
 to mingle a private with a public grief. I wish that I could do something 
 to add to his fame. But he built for himself a monument of immortality, 
 and left to his friends no task but that of soothing their own sorrow for his 
 loss. We pay to him the tribute of our tears. More we have no power to 
 bestow. Patriotism, honor, genius, courage, have all come to strew their 
 garlands about his tomb ; and well they may, for he was the peer of them 
 all." 
 
 Mr. COOPER,* " Mr. President, it is not always by words that the living 
 pay to the dead the sincerest and most eloquent tribute. The tears of a 
 nation, flowing spontaneously over the grave of a public benefactor, is a 
 more eloquent testimonial of his worth and of the affection and veneration 
 of his countrymen, than the most highly-wrought eulogium of the most 
 gifted tongue. The heart is not necessarily the fountain of words, but it in 
 always the source of tears, whether they be of joy, gratitude, or grief. But 
 sincere, truthful, and eloquent, as they are, they leave no permanent 
 record of the virtues and greatness of him on whose tomb they are shed. 
 As the dews of heaven falling at night are absorbed by the earth, or dried 
 up by the morning sun, so the tears of a people, shed for their benefactor, 
 disappear without leaving a trace to tell the future generations of the 
 services, sacrifices, and virtues, of him to whose memory they were a grate 
 ful tribute. But as homage paid to virtue is an incentive to it, it is right 
 that the memory of the good, the great, and noble of the earth should be 
 preserved and honored. 
 
 " The ambition, Mr. President, of the truly great is more the hope of 
 living in the memory and estimation of future ages than of possessing power 
 in their own. It is this hope that stimulates them to perseverance ; that 
 enables them to encounter disappointment, ingratitude, and neglect, and to 
 press on through toils, privations, and perils to the end. It was not the 
 hope of discovering a world, over which he should himself exercise domin 
 ion, that sustained Columbus in all his trials. It was not for this he braved 
 danger, disappointment, poverty, and reproach. It was not for this he sub 
 dued his native pride, wandered from kingdom to kingdom, kneeling ai the 
 feet of princes a suppliant for means to prosecute his sublime enterprise. It 
 was not for this, after having at last secured the patronage of Isabella, that 
 he put off in his crazy and ill-appointed fleet into unknown seas, to struggle 
 with storms and tempests, and the rage of a mutinous crew. It was another 
 and nobler kind of ambition that stimulated him to contend with terror, 
 superstition, and despair, and to press forward on his perilous course, when 
 the needle in his compass, losing its polarity seemed to unite with the 
 fury of the elements and the insubordination of his crew in turning him 
 bank from his perilous but glorious enterprise. It was the hope which wai 
 
 * James Cooper (Whig) of Pennsylvania. 
 
384 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 realized at last, when his ungrateful country was compelled to inscribe, a* 
 an epitaph on his tomb 
 
 Columbus has given a new world to the kingdoms of Castile and Leon, 
 
 that enabled him at first to brave so many disappointments, and at last to 
 conquer the multitude of perils that beset his pathway on the deep. This, 
 sir, is the ambition of the truly great not to achieve present fame, but 
 future immortality. This being the case, it is befitting here to-day to add to 
 the life of Henry Clay, the record of his death, signalized as it is by a 
 nation s gratitude and grief. It is right that posterity should learn from us, 
 the cotemporaries of the illustrious deceased, that his virtues and services 
 were appreciated by his country, and acknowledged by the tears of his 
 countrymen poured out upon his grave. 
 
 "The career of Henry Clay was a wonderful one. And what an illustra 
 tion of the excellence of our institutions would a retrospect of his life afford! 
 Born in an humble station, without any of the adventitious aids of fortune 
 by which the obstructions on the road to fame are smoothed, he rose not 
 only to the most exalted eminence of position, but likewise to the highest 
 place in the affections of his countrymen. Taking into view the disadvan 
 tages of his early position, disadvantages against which he had always to 
 contend, his career is without a parallel in the history of great men. To 
 have seen him a youth, without friends or fortune, and with but a scanty 
 education, who would have ventured to predict for him a course so brilliant 
 and beneficent, arid a fame so well deserved and enduring? Like the pine, 
 however, which sometimes springs up amidst the rocks on the mountain 
 side, with scarce a crevice in which to fix its roots or soil to nourish them, 
 but which, nevertheless, overtops all the trees of the surrounding forest, 
 Henry Clay, by his own inherent, self-sustaining energy and genius, rose to 
 an altitude of fame almost unequaled in the age in which he lived. As an 
 orator, legislator, and statesman, he had no superior. All his faculties were 
 remarkable, and in remarkable combination. Possessed of a brilliant genius 
 and a fertile imagination, his judgment was sound, discriminating, and 
 eminently practical. Of an ardent and impetuous temperament, he was 
 nevertheless persevering and firm of purpose. Frank, bold, and intrepid, 
 he was cautious in providing against the contingencies and obstacles which 
 might possibly rise up in the road to success. Generous, liberal, and enter 
 taining broad and expanded views of national policy, in his legislative 
 course he never transcended the limits of a wise economy. 
 
 "But, Mr. President, of all his faculties, that of making friends and attach 
 ing them to him was the most remarkable and extraordinary. In this 
 respect, he seemed to possess a sort of fascination, by which all who came 
 into his presence were attracted toward and bound to him by ties which 
 neither time nor circumstances had power to dissolve or weaken. In the 
 admiration of his friends was the recognition of the divinity of intellect ; in 
 their attachment to him a confession of his generous personal qualities and 
 social virtues. 
 
 "Of the public services of Mr. Clay, the present occasion affords no room 
 for a sketch more extended than that which his respected colleague [Mr. 
 Underwood] has presented. It is, however, sufficient to say, that for more 
 than forty years he has been a prominent actor in the drama of American 
 affairs. During the late war with England his voice was more potent than 
 any other in awakening the spirit of the country, infusing confidence into 
 the people, and rendering available their resources for carrying on the contest. 
 In our domestic controversies, threatening the peace of the country and the 
 
REMARKS OF MR. SEWARD. 385 
 
 integrity of the Union, he has always been first to note danger as well as to 
 suggest the means of averting it. When the waters .of the great political 
 deep were upheaved by the tempest of discord, and the ark of the Union, 
 freighted with the hopes and destinies of freedom, tossing about on the 
 raging billows, and drifting every moment nearer to the vortex which 
 threatened to swallow it up, it was his clarion voice, rising above the storm, 
 that admonished the crew of impending peril, and counseled the way to 
 safety. 
 
 "But, Mr. President, devotedly as he loved his country, his aspirations 
 were not limited to its welfare alone. Wherever freedom had a votary, that 
 votary had a friend in Henry Clay ; and in the struggle of the Spanish 
 colonies for independence, he uttered words of encouragement which have 
 become the mottoes on the banners of freedom in every land. But neither 
 the services which he has rendered his own country, nor his wishes for the 
 welfare of others, nor his genius, nor the affection of friends, could turn aside 
 the destroyer. No price could purchase exemption from the common lot of 
 humanity. Henry Clay, the wise, the great, the gifted, had to die ; and his 
 history is summed up in the biography which the Russian poet has prepared 
 for all, kings and serfs, viz: 
 
 Born, living, dying. 
 
 Quitting the still shore for the troubled wave, 
 Struggling with storm-clouds, over shipwrecks flying, 
 And casting anchor in the silent grave. 
 
 "But though time would not spare him, there is still this of consolation: 
 He died peacefully and happy, ripe in renown, full of years and of honors, 
 and rich in, the affections of his country. He enjoyed, too, the unspeakable 
 satisfaction of closing his eyes while the country he had loved so much and 
 served so well was still in the enjoyment of peace, happiness, union, and 
 prosperity still advancing in all the elements of wealth, greatness, and 
 power. 
 
 "I know, Mr. President, how unequal I have been to the apparently self- 
 imposed task of presenting, in an appropriate manner, the merits of the 
 illustrious deceased. But if I had remained silent on an occasion like this, 
 when the hearts of my constituents are swelling with grief, I would have 
 been disowned by them. It is for this reason that of giving utterance to 
 their feelings as well as of my own that I have trespassed on the time of 
 the Senate. I would that I could have spoken fitter words ; but, such as 
 they are, they were uttered by the tongue in response to the promptings of 
 the heart" 
 
 MR. SEWARD.* "Mr. President, fifty years ago, Henry Clay, of Virginia, 
 already adopted by Kentucky, then as youthful as himself, entered the service 
 of his country, a Representative in the unpretending Legislature of that 
 rising State ; and having thenceforward pursued, with ardor and constancy, 
 the gradual paths of an aspiring change through Halls of Congress, foreign 
 courts, and Executive councils, he has now, with the cheerfulness of a patriot, 
 and the serenity of a Christian, fitly closed his long and arduous career, here 
 in the Senate, in the full presence of the Republic, locking down upon the 
 scene with anxiety and alarm not merely a Senator like one of us who yet 
 remain in the Senate-House, but filling that character which, though it ha^ 
 no authority of law and was assigned without suffrage, Augustus Caesar 
 nevertheless declared was above the title of Emperor, Primus inter Jllustreg 
 the Prince of the Senate. 
 
 * William H. Seward (Free Soil Whig), of New York. 
 
 o. 25 
 
S86 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 "Geneials are tried, Mr. President, by examining the campaigns they 
 nave lost or won, and Statesmen by reviewing the transactions in which they 
 have been engaged. Hamilton would have been unknown to us had there 
 been no Constitution to be created, as Brutus would have died in obscurity 
 had there been no Ctesar to be slain. 
 
 " Colonization, Revolution, and Organization three great acts in the 
 drama of our national progress had already passed when the Western pa 
 triot appeared on the public stage. He entered in that next division of the 
 majestic scenes which was marked by an inevitable reaction of political 
 forces, a wild strife of factions, and ruinous embarrassments in our foreign 
 relations. This transition stage is always more perilous than any other in 
 the career of nations, and especially in the career of Republics. It proved 
 fatal to the Commonwealth of England. Scarcely any of the Spanish- Ameri 
 can States has yet emerged from it ; and it has more than once been sadly 
 signalized by the ruin of the Republican cause in France. 
 
 "The continuous administration of Washington and John Adams, had 
 closed under a cloud which had thrown a broad, dark shadow over the 
 future ; the nation was deeply indebted at home and abroad, and its credit 
 was prostrate. The revolutionary factions had given place to two inveterate 
 parties, divided by a gulf which had been worn by the conflict in which the 
 Constitution was adopted, and made broader and deeper by a war of prej 
 udices concerning the merits of the belligerents in the great European 
 struggle that then convulsed the civilized world. Our extraordinary political 
 system was little more than an ingenious theory, not yet practically estab 
 lished. The Union of the States was as yet only one of compact ; for the 
 political, social, and commercial necessities to which it was so marvelously 
 adapted, and which, clustering thickly upon it, now render it indissoluble, 
 had not then been broadly disclosed, nor had the habits of acquiescence, and 
 the sentiments of loyalty, always slow of growth, fully ripened. The bark 
 that had gone to sea, thus unfurnished and untried, seemed quite certain to 
 founder by reason of its own inherent frailty, even if it should escape un 
 harmed in the great conflict of nations, which acknowledged no claims of 
 justice, and tolerated no pretensions of neutrality. Moreover, the territory 
 possessed by the nation was inadequate to commercial exigencies, and indis 
 pensable social expansion; and yet no provision had bean made for enlarge 
 ment, nor for extending the political system over distant regions, inhabited 
 or otherwise,, which must inevitably be acquired. ISTor could any such ac 
 quisition be made without disturbing the carefully- adjusted balance of 
 powers among the members of the Confederacy. 
 
 " These difficulties, Mr. President, although they grew less with time and 
 by slow degrees, continued throughout the whole life of the Statesman whose 
 obsequies we are celebrating. Be it known, then and I am sure that his 
 tory will confirm the instruction that conservatism was the interest of the 
 nation, and the responsibility of its rulers, during the period in which he 
 floui ished. He was ardent, bold, generous, and even ambitious ; and .yet, 
 With a profound conviction of the true exigencies of the country, like Alex 
 ander Hamilton, he disciplined himself, and trained a restless nation, that 
 knew only self-control, to the rigorous practice of that often humiliating con 
 servatism which its welfare and security in that peculiar crisis so imperiously 
 demanded. 
 
 " It could not have happened, sir, to any citizen to have acted alone, nor 
 even to have acted always the most conspicuous part in a trying period so 
 long protracted. Henry Clay, therefore, shared the responsibilities of Gov 
 ernment with not only his proper cotemporaries, but also survivors of the 
 
SEWARD ON NATIONAL PROGRESS. (o7 
 
 Revolution, as well as also many who will now succeed himself. T. cacy 
 forbids my naming those who retain their places here ; but we may, nhout 
 impropriety, recall among his compeers a Senator of vast resources nd in 
 flexible resolve, who has recently withdrawn from this Chamber, bi I trust 
 not altogether from public life (Mr. Benton) ; and another, who, SUT >assing 
 all his cotemporaries within his country, and even throughout the world, 
 in the proper eloquence of the forum, now, in autumnal years, for u second 
 time, dignifies and adorns the highest seat in the Executive Council (Mr. 
 Webster). Passing by these eminent and noble men, the shades of Calhoun, 
 John Quincy Adams, Jackson, Monroe, Madison, and Jefferson, rise, up before 
 us Statesmen whose living and local fame has ripened already in o his 
 torical and world-wide renown. 
 
 "Among geniuses so lofty as these, Henry Clay bore a part in regulating 
 the constitutional freedom of political debate ; establishing that long-con 
 tested and most important line which divides the sovereignty of the several 
 States from that of the States confederated ; asserting the right of neutrality, 
 and vindicating it by a war against Great Britain, when that just but ex 
 treme measure became necessary ; adjusting the terms on which that perilous, 
 yet honorable contest, was brought to a peaceful close ; perfecting the Army, 
 and the Navy, and national fortifications : settling the f seal and financial 
 policy of the Government in more than one crisis of apparently-threatened 
 revolution ; asserting and calling into exercise the powers of the Govern 
 ment for making and improving internal communications between the States; 
 arousing and encouraging the Spanish- American colonies on this continent 
 to throw off the foreign yoke, and to organize governments on principles 
 congenial to our own, and thus creating external bulwarks for our own na 
 tional defence; establishing equal and impartial peace and amity with all 
 existing maritime Powers ; and extending the constitutional organization of 
 Government over vast regions, all secured in his lifetime by purchase or by 
 conquest, whereby the pillars of the Republic have been removed from the 
 banks of the St. Mary s to the borders of the Rio Grande, and from the 
 margin of the Mississippi to the Pacific coast. We may not yet discuss the 
 wisdom of the several measures which have thus passed in review before us, 
 nor of the positions which the deceased Statesman assumed in regard to them, 
 but we may, without offence, dwell upon the comprehensive results rf them 
 all. 
 
 "The Union exists in absolute integrity, and the Republic in complete and 
 
 fiumphant development. Without having relinquished any part of their 
 
 individuality, the States have more than doubled already, and are increasing 
 
 in numbers and growing in political strength and expansion more rapidly 
 than ever before. Without having absorbed any State, or having even en 
 croached on any State, the Confederation has opened itself so as to embrace 
 all the new members who have come ; and now, with capacity for further and 
 indefinite enlargement, has become fixed, enduring, and perpetual. Although 
 it was doubted, only half a century ago, whether our political system could 
 be maintained at all, and whether, if maintained, it could guaranty the 
 peace and happiness of society, it stands now confessed by the world the 
 form of government not only most adapted to empire, but also most con 
 genial with the constitution of human nature. 
 
 " When we consider that the nation has been conducted to this haven, not 
 only through stormy seas, but altogether also without a course and without 
 a star; and when we consider, moreover, the sum of happiness that has 
 already been enjoyed by the American people, and still more the influence 
 which the great achievements is exerting on the advancement and meliora 
 
388 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 tion of the condition of mankind, we see at once that it might have satisfied 
 the highest ambition to have been, no matter how humbly, concerned in so 
 great a transaction. 
 
 " Certainly, sir, no one will assert that Henry Clay in that transaction 
 performed an obscure or even a common part. On the contrary, from the 
 day on which he entered the public service, until that on which he passed 
 the gates of death, he was never a follower, but always a leader: and he 
 marshaled either the party which sustained, or that which resisted, every 
 great measure, equally in the Senate and in the popular canvass. And he 
 led where duty seemed to him to indicate, reckless whether he encountered 
 one President or twenty Presidents, whether he was opposed by factions or 
 even by the whole people. Hence it has happened that, although that peo 
 ple are not yet agreed among themselves on the wisdom of all or perhaps 
 of even any of his great measures, yet they are nevertheless unanimous in 
 acknowledging that he was at once the greatest, the most faithful, and the 
 most reliable of their statesmen. Here the effort at discriminating praise 
 of Henry Clay in regard to his public policy must stop, even on this sad oc 
 casion, which awakens the ardent liberality of his generous survivors. 
 
 " But ^ his personal qualities may be discussed without apprehension. 
 What were the elements of the success of that extraordinary man ? You, 
 sir, knew him longer and better than I, and I would prefer to hear you 
 speak of them. He was indeed eloquent all the world knows that He 
 held the keys to the hearts of his countrymen, and he turned the wards 
 within them with a skill attained by no other master. 
 
 " But eloquence was nevertheless only an instrument, and one of many 
 that he used. His conversation, his gestures, his very look, was magisterial, 
 persuasive, seductive, irresistible. And his appliance of all these was cour 
 teous, patient, and indefatigable. Defeat only inspired him with new reso 
 lution. He divided opposition by his assiduity of address, while he rallied 
 and strengthened his own bands of supporters by the confidence of success 
 which, feeling himself, he easily inspired among his followers. His affections 
 were high, and pure, and generous, and the chiefest among them was that 
 one which the great Italian poet designated as the charity of native land. 
 In him that charity was an enduring and overpowering enthusiasm, and it 
 influenced all his sentiments and conduct; rendering him more impartial be 
 tween conflicting interests and sections, than any other statesman who has 
 lived since the Revolution. Thus with great versatility of talent, and the 
 most catholic equality of favor, he identified every question, whether of do 
 mestic administration or foreign policy, with his own great name, and so 
 became a perpetual Tribune of the people. He needed only to pronounce 
 in favor of a measure or against it, here, and immediately popular enthusi 
 asm, excited as by a magic wand, was felt, overcoming "and dissolving all 
 opposition in the Senate-Chamber. 
 
 " In this way he wrought a change in our political system, that I think 
 was not foreseen by its founders. He converted this branch of the Legis 
 lature from a negative position, or one of equilibrium between the Executive 
 and the House of Representatives, into the active ruling power of the Re 
 public. Only time can disclose whether this great innovation shall be 
 beneficent, or even permanent. 
 
 "Certainly, sir, the great lights of the Senate have set. The obscuration 
 :s not less palpable to the country than to us, who are left to grope our un 
 certain way here, as in a labyrinth, oppressed with self-distrust. The time, 
 too, presents new embarrassments. We are rising to another and more 
 eublime stage of national progress that of expanding wealth and rapid 
 territorial aggrandizement. 
 
EULOGY OF MR. G. W. JONES. 389 
 
 Our institutions throw a broad shadow across the St. Lawrence, and, 
 stretching beyond the valley of Mexico, reach even to the plains of Cen 
 tral America, while the Sandwich Islands and the shores of China rec 
 ognize their renovating influence. Wherever that influence is felt, a 
 desire for protection under those institutions is awakened. Expansion, 
 seems to be regulated not by any difficulties of resistance, but by the 
 \noderation which results from our own internal constitution. No one 
 knows how rapidly that restraint may give way. Who can tell how far 
 or how fast it ought to yield? Commerce has brought the ancient conti 
 nents near to us, and created necessities for new positions perhaps connec 
 tions or colonies there and with the trade and friendship of the elder na 
 tions their conflicts and collisions are brought to our doors and to our 
 hearts. Our sympathy kindles, or indifference extinguishes, the fires of 
 freedom in foreign lands. Before we shall be fully conscious that a change 
 is going on in Europe, we may find ourselves once more divided by that 
 eternal line of separation that leaves on the one side those of our citizens 
 who obey the impulses of sympathy, while on the other are found those 
 who submit only to the counsels of prudence. Even prudence will soon be 
 required to decide whether distant regions, East and West, shall come un 
 der our own protection, or be left to aggrandize a rapidly-spreading domain 
 of hostile despotism. 
 
 " Sir, who among us is equal to these mighty questions ? I fear there is 
 no one. Nevertheless, the example of Henry Clay remains for our instruc 
 tion. His genius has passed to the realms of light, but his virtues still live 
 here for our emulation. With them there will remain also the protection 
 and favor of the Most High, if by the practice of justice and the maintenance 
 of freedom we shall deserve them. Let, then, the bier pass on. We will 
 follow with sorrow, but not without hope, the reverend form that it bears 
 to its final resting-place ; and then, when that grave opens at our feet to 
 receive so estimable a treasure, we will invoke the God of our fathers to 
 send us new guides, like him that is now withdrawn, and give us wisdom 
 to obey their instructions." 
 
 Mr. G. W. JONES.* "Mr. President: Of the vast number who mourn the 
 departure of the great man whose voice has so often been heard in this Hall, 
 I have peculiar cause to regret that dispensation which has removed him 
 from among us. He was the guardian and director of my collegiate days; 
 four of his sons were my college mates and warm friends. My intercourse 
 with the father was that of a youth and a friendly adviser. I shall never 
 cease to feel grateful to him to his now heart-stricken and bereaved wid 
 ow and children, for their many kindnesses to me during four or five years 
 of my life. I had the pleasure of renewing my acquaintance with him, 
 first> as a delegate in Congress, while he was a member of this body from 
 1835 to 1839, and again in 1848, as a member of this branch of Congress; 
 and during the whole of which period, some eight years, none but the most 
 kindly feeling existed between us. 
 
 "As an humble and unimportant Senator, it was my fortune to cooperate 
 with him throughout the whole of the exciting session of 1849- 50 the 
 labor and excitement of which is said to have precipitated his decease. 
 That cooperation did not end with the accordant vote on this floor, but, in 
 consequence of the unyielding opposition to the series of measn^a known 
 as the Compromise, extended to many private meetings heW bp its 
 friends, at all of which Mr. Clay was present And whether in publie of 
 * George W. Jones (Democrat), of Iowa. 
 
390 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 private life, he everywhere continued to inspire me with the most exalted 
 estimate of his patriotism and statesmanship. Never shall I forget the 
 many ardent appeals he made to Senators, in and out of the Senate, in favor 
 of the settlement of our then unhappy sectional differences. 
 
 " Immediately after the close of that memorable session of Congress, du 
 ring which the nation beheld his great and almost superhuman efforts upon 
 this floor to sustain the wise counsels of the Father of his Country, I ac 
 companied him home to Ashland, at his invitation, to revisit the place 
 where my h-^piest days had been spent, with the friends who there con 
 tinued to reside. During that, to me, most agreeable and instructive 
 journey, in many conversations, he evinced the utmost solicitude for the 
 welfare and honor of the Republic, all tending to show that he believed the 
 happiness of the people and the cause of liberty throughout the world de 
 pended upon the continuance of our glorious Union, and the avoidance of 
 those sectional dissensions which could but alienate the affections of one 
 portion of the people from another. With the sincerity and fervor of a 
 true patriot, he warned his companions in that journey to withhold all aid 
 from men who labored, and from every cause which tended, to sow the 
 seeds of disunion in the land ; and to oppose such, he declared himself will 
 ing to forego all the ties and associations of mere party. 
 
 " At a subsequent period, sir, this friend of my youth, at my earnest and re 
 peated entreaties, consented to take a sea-voyage from New York to Ha 
 vana. He remained at the latter place a lortnight, and then returned by 
 New Orleans to Ashland. That excursion by sea, he assured me, contribu 
 ted much to relieve him from the sufferings occasioned by the disease 
 which has just terminated his eventful and glorious life. Would to Heaven 
 that he could have been persuaded to abandon his duties as a Senator, and to 
 have remained during the past winter and spring upon that Island of Cuba ! 
 The country would not now, perhaps, have been called to mourn his loss. 
 
 " In some matters of policy connected with the administration of our 
 General Government, I have disagreed with him, yet the purity and sin 
 cerity of his motives I have never doubted ; and as a true lover of his 
 country, as an honorable and honest man, I trust his example will be rever 
 enced and followed by the men of this and of succeeding generations." 
 
 Mr. BROOKE.* "Mr. President: As an ardent personal admirer and poli 
 tical friend of the distinguished dead, I claim the privilege of adding my 
 humble tribute of respect to his memory, and of joining in the general ex 
 pression of sorrow that has gone forth from this Chamber. Death, at all 
 times, is an instructive monitor as well as a mournful messenger ; but when 
 his fatal shaft hath stricken down the great in intellect and renown, how 
 doubly impressive the lesson that it brings home to the heart that the grave 
 is the common lot of all the great leveler of all earthly distinctions ! But 
 at the same time we are taught that in one sense the good and great can 
 never die ; for the memory of their virtues and their bright example will 
 live through all coming time in an immortality that blooms beyond the 
 grave. The consolation of this thought may calm our sorrow ; and, in the 
 language of one of our own poets, it may be asked : 
 
 1 Why weep ye, then, for him, who, having run 
 The hound of man s appointed years, at last, 
 Life s blessings all enjoyed, life s labors done, 
 Serenely to his final rest has passed ; 
 While the soft memory of his virtues yet 
 Lingers, like twilight hues when the bright sun has set f 
 
 * Walter Brooke (Union, late Whig), of Mississippi. 
 
EULOGY OF MR. BROOKE OF MISS. 391 
 
 " It would be doing no injustice, sir, to the living or the dead to say that 
 no better specimen of the true American character can be found in our his 
 tory than that of Mr. Clay. With no adventitious advantages of birth or 
 fortune, he won his way by the efforts of his own genius to the highest 
 distinction and honor. Ardently attached to the principles of civil and re 
 ligious liberty, patriotism was with him both a passion and a sentiment a 
 passion that gave energy to his ambition, and a sentiment that pervaded all 
 his thoughts and actions, concentrating them upon his country as the idol 
 of his heart The bold and manly frankness in the expression of his opin 
 ions which always characterized him has often been the subject of remark ; 
 and in all his victories it may be truly said he never stooped to conquer. 
 In his long and brilliant political career, personal considerations never for 
 a single instant caused him to swerve from the strict line of duty, and none 
 have ever doubted his deep sincerity in that memorable expression to Mr. 
 Preston, Sir, I had rather be right than be President. 
 
 "This is not the time nor the occasion, sir, to enter into a detail of the 
 public services of Mr. Clay, interwoven as they are with the history of thf 
 country for half a century ; but I can not refrain from adverting to the lasl 
 crowning act of his glorious life his great effort in the Thirty-first Con 
 gress for the preservation of the peace and integrity of this great Republic 
 as it was this effort that shattered his bodily strength and hastened the con 
 summation of death. The Union of the States, as being essential to our 
 prosperity and happiness, was the paramount proposition in his political 
 creed, and the slightest symptom of danger to its perpetuity filled him with 
 alarm, and called forth all the energies of his body and mind. In his 
 earlier life he had met this danger and overcome it. In the conflict of con 
 tending factions it again appeared; and, coming forth from the repose of 
 private life, to which age and infirmity had carried him, with unabated 
 strength of intellect, he again entered upon the arena of political strife, 
 and again success crowned his efforts, and peace and harmony were restored 
 to a distracted people. But, unequal to the mighty struggle, his bodily 
 strength sank beneath it, and he retired from the field of his glory to yield 
 up his life as a holy sacrifice to his beloved country. It has well been said 
 that peace has its victories as well as war ; and how bright upon the page 
 of history will be the record of this great victory of intellect, of reason, and 
 of moral suasion, over the spirit of discord and sectional animosities ! 
 
 "We this day, Mr. President, commit his memory to the regard and affec 
 tion of his admiring countrymen. It is a consolation to them and to us to 
 know that he died in full possession of his glorious intellect, and, what is 
 better, in the enjoyment of that peace which the world can neither give* 
 nor take away. He sank to rest as the full-orbed king of day, unshorn of 
 a single beam, or rather like the planet of morning, his brightness was but 
 eclipsed by the opening to him of a more full and perfect day 
 No waning of fire, no paling of ray, 
 But rising, still rising, as passing away, 
 Farewell, gallant eagle, thou rt buried in light- 
 God speed thee to heaven, lost star of our night. " 
 
 The resolutions were unanimously adopted, and, in pursuance 
 thereof, the President pro tern, made the following appoint 
 ments : 
 
 Committee of Arrangements : 
 
 Mr. Hunter, Me Jones, of Iowa, Mr. Bright* 
 
 Mr. Dawson, Mr Coope-, Mr. Smith. 
 
392 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY 
 
 Pall-Bearers : 
 
 Mr. Cass, Mr. Dodge, of Wis., Mr. Atchison, 
 
 Mr. Mangum, Mr. Pratt, Mr. BelL 
 
 Committee to attend the remains of the deceased to Kentucky: 
 Mr. Underwood, Mr. Cass, Mr. Houston, 
 
 Mr. Jones, of Tenn., Mr. Fish, Mr. Stockton. 
 
 On motion by Mr. Underwood, it was 
 
 " Resolved, That as an additional mark of respect to the memory of the deceased, th 
 Senate do now adjourn." 
 
 The House met at the usual hour, but was not called to order 
 till ten minutes past two o clock, in consequence of the death of 
 Mr. Clay, the formal announcement of which was to be received 
 from the Senate. 
 
 Rev. C. M. Butler (Chaplain), then addressed the Throne of 
 Grace as follows : 
 
 " Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we beseech Thee to look upon us 
 in love, to forgive us our sins, and to bestow upon us Thy blessing. Take 
 us as a nation into Thy holy keeping. Bless the President and Congress of 
 these United States, and all who are in authority; enable them faithfully 
 and fraternally to accomplish Thy will, that they may enjoy Thy perpetual 
 benediction. 
 
 "Heavenly Father, Thou hast in thy wise Providence seen fit to take out 
 of this world the soul of him at whose departure a nation weeps. We bow 
 in resignation to Thy blessed will, and acknowledge that Thou doest all things 
 well. "We thank Thee for the signal public services which the departed 
 statesman, whose death we mourn to-day, was permitted to render to his 
 country. We thank Thee for the circumstances of mercy and consolation 
 connected with his sickness and his death. We thank Thee for the grace 
 that sustained him in submissive patience amidst his protracted suffering, 
 and for the testimony which Thou didst enable him to give to the power and 
 excellency of thy gospel. We bless Thee that we are permitted to think of 
 him, whose long suffering we mourn, as now resting in the peace and para 
 dise of God. 
 
 " We commend to Thy fatherly care the bereaved wife, the children and 
 the relatives of the departed. Kemember them, Lord, in mercy. Sanctify 
 Thy fatherly correction to them. Endow their souls with patience under 
 their affliction, and with resignation to Thy blessed will. Comfort them 
 with a sense of Thy goodness, and enable them to prepare to follow him 
 who has gone before them to that better world, where God wipes away all 
 tears from those whom death has swallowed up in victory. 
 
 "We beseech Thee to bless this dispensation of Thy Providence to the 
 members of this Congress here and now assembled, and to all who are 
 engaged in the public service. Teach them that the glory of man is as the 
 flower of the grass that the fashion of this world passeth away. Teach 
 them the folly of ambition, the sin of strife, and the nothingness of renown. 
 Make them so to lay to heart this lesson of mortality as to live above the 
 world, to seek Thy favor, to study Thy law, and in all their actions to aim 
 at Thy glory, at the good of their own souls, and of the souls of their fellow 
 men. 
 
EULOGY OF MR. BRECKINRIDGE. 393 
 
 "And when we are called to go the way of all the earth, maj we depart 
 in the confidence of a certain faith in the comfort of a reasonable, religious, 
 and holy hope in favor with Thee, our God, and perfect charity with the 
 world. All of which we ask in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ, 
 our Savior. Amen." 
 
 The Journal of yesterday having been read, 
 
 A message was received from the Senate by the hands of 
 Ashbury Dickins, Esq., its Secretary, announcing the death of 
 Henry Clay, late Senator from Kentucky, and the adoption of 
 the foregoing resolutions of that body. 
 
 Mr. BRECKINRIDGE* rose and said : 
 
 " Mr. Speaker : I rise to perform the melancholy duty of announcing to this 
 body the death of Henry Clay, late a Senator in Congress from the Com 
 monwealth of Kentucky. 
 
 "Mr. Clay expired at his lodgings in this city yesterday morning, at seven 
 teen minutes past eleven o clock, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. His 
 noble intellect was unclouded to the last. After protracted sufferings, he 
 passed away without pain ; and so gently did the spirit leave his frame, 
 that the moment of departure was not observed by the friends who watched 
 at his bedside. His last houi-s were cheered by the presence of an affec 
 tionate son, and he died surrounded by friends who, during his long illness, 
 had done all that affection could suggest to soothe his sufferings. 
 
 "Although this sad event has been expected for many weeks, the shock 
 it produced, and the innumerable tributes of respect to his memory 
 exhibited on every side, and in every form, prove the depth of the public 
 sorrow and the greatness of the public loss. 
 
 "Imperishably associated as his name has been for fifty years with every 
 great event affecting the fortunes of our country, it is difficult to realize that 
 he is indeed gone forever. It is difficult to feel that we shall see no more his 
 noble form within these walls that we shall hear no more his patriot tones, 
 now rousing his countrymen to vindicate their rights against a foreign foe, 
 now imploring them to preserve concord among themselves. We shall see 
 him no more. The memory and the fruits of his services alone remain to 
 us. Amidst the general gloom, the Capitol itself looks desolate, as if the 
 genius of the place had departed. Already the intelligence has reached 
 almost every quarter of the Republic, and a great people mourn with us, 
 to-day, the death of their most illustrious citizen. Sympathizing, as we do, 
 deeply, with his family and friends, yet private affliction is absorbed in the 
 general sorrow. The spectacle of a whole community lamenting the loss of 
 a great man, is far more touching than any manifestation of private grief. 
 In speaking of a loss which is national, I will not attempt to describe the 
 universal burst of grief with which Kentucky will receive these tidings. 
 The attempt would be vain to depict the gloom that will cover her people, 
 when they know that the pillar of fire has been removed which has guided 
 their footsteps for the life of a generation. 
 
 "It is known to the country that, from the memorable session of 1849- 50, 
 Mr. Clay s health gradually declined. Although several years of his Sena 
 torial term remained, he did not propose to continue in the public service 
 longer than the present session. He came to Washington chiefly to defend, 
 
 Q* 
 
 * J-ihn C Breckinridge (Democrat), of Kentucky, 
 
394 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 if it should become necessary, the measures of Adjustment, to the adoption 
 of which he so largely contributed ; but the condition of his health did not 
 allow him, at any time, to participate in the discussions of the Senate. 
 During the winter he was confined almost wholly to his room, with slight 
 changes in his condition, but gradually losing the remnant of his strength. 
 During the long and dreary winter, he conversed much and cheerfully with 
 his friends, and expressed a deep interest in public affairs. Although he did 
 not expect a restoration to health, he cherished the hope that the mild 
 season of spring would bring to him strength enough to return to Ashland, 
 and die in the bosom of his family. But alas! spring that brings life to all 
 nature, brought no life nor hope to him. After the month of March, his 
 vital powers rapidly wasted, and for weeks he lay patiently awaiting the 
 stroke of death. But the approach of the destroyer had no terrors for him. 
 No clouds overhung his future. He met the end with composure, and his 
 pathway to the grave was brightened by the immortal hopes which spring 
 from the Christian faith. 
 
 "Not long before his death, having just returned from Kentucky, I 
 bore to him a token of affection from his excellent wife. Never can I 
 forget his appearance, his manner, or his words. After speaking of his 
 family, his friends, and his country, he changed the conversation to his own 
 future, and looking on me with his fine eye undimmed, and his voice full of 
 its original compass and melody, lie said, I am not afraid to die, sir. I 
 have hope, faith, and some confidence. I do not think any man can be 
 entirely certain in regard to his future state, but I have an abiding trust in 
 the merits and mediation of our Savior. It will assuage the grief of his 
 family to know that he looked hopefully beyond the tomb, and a Christian 
 people will rejoice to hear that such a man in his last hours reposed with 
 simplicity and confidence on the promises of the Gospel. 
 
 "It is the custom, on occasions like this, to speak of the parentage and 
 childhood of the deceased, and to follow him, step by step, through life. I 
 will not attempt to relate even all the great events of Mr. Clay s life, because 
 they are familiar to the whole country, and it would be needless to 
 enumerate a long list of public services which form a part of American 
 history. 
 
 " Beginning life as a friendless boy, with few advantages save those con 
 ferred by nature, while yet a minor he left Virginia, the State of his birth, 
 and commenced the practice of law at Lexington, in Kentucky. At a bar 
 remarkable for its numbers and talent, Mr. Clay soon rose to the first rank. 
 At a very early age, lie was elected from the county of Fayctte to the 
 General Assembly of Kentucky, and was the Speaker of that body. Coming 
 into the Senate of the United States, -for the first time, in 1806, he entered 
 upon a parliamentary career, the most brilliant and successful in our annals. 
 From that time, he remained habitually in the public eye. As a Senator, as 
 a member of this House, and its Speaker, as a representative of his country 
 abroad, and as a high officer in the Executive department of the Govern 
 ment, he was intimately connected for fifty years with every great measure 
 of American policy. Of the mere party measures of this period, I do not 
 propose to speak. Many of them have passed away, and are remembered 
 only as the occasion for the great intellectual efforts which marked their dis 
 cussion. Concerning others, opinions are still divided. They will go into 
 history, with the reasons on either side rendered by the greatest intellects of 
 the time. 
 
 "As a leader in a deliberative body, Mr. Clay had no equal in America. 
 tn him, intellect, person, eloquence, and courage, united to form a character 
 
EULOGY OF MR. BRECKINRIDGE. 39A 
 
 fit to command. He fired with his own enthusiasm, and controlled by his 
 amazing will, individuals and masses. No reverse could crush his spirit, nor 
 defeat reduce him to despair. Equally erect and dauntless in prosperity and 
 adversity, when successful, he moved to the accomplishment of his purposes 
 with severe resolution ; when defeated, he rallied his broken bands around 
 him, and from his eagle-eye shot along their ranks the contagion of his own 
 courage. Destined for a leader, he everywhere asserted his destiny. In his 
 long and eventful life, he came in contact with men of all ranks and pro 
 fessions, but he never felt that he was in the presence of a man superior tj 
 himself. In the assemblies of the people, at the bar, in the Senate every 
 where within the circle of his personal presence, he assumed and maintained 
 a position of preeminence. 
 
 "But the supremacy of Mr. Clav as a party leader, was not his only nor 
 his highest title to renown. That title is to be found in the purely patriotic 
 spirit which, on great occasions, always signalized his conduct. We have 
 had no statesman who, in periods of real and imminent public peril, has ex 
 hibited a more genuine and enlarged patriotism than Henry Clay. "When 
 ever a question presented itself actually threatening the existence of the 
 Union, Mr. Clay, rising above the passions of the hour, always exerted his 
 powers to solve it peacefully and honorably. Although more liable than 
 most men, from his impetuous and ardent nature, to feel strongly the passions 
 common to us all, it was his rare faculty to be able to subdue them in a great 
 crisis, and to hold toward all sections of the Confederacy the language of 
 concord and brotherhood. 
 
 " Sir, it will be a proud pleasure to every true American heart to remem 
 ber the great occasions when Mr. Clay has displayed a sublime patriotism 
 when the ill-temper engendered by the times, and the miserable jealousies 
 of the day, seemed to have been driven from his bosom, by the expulsive 
 power of nobler feelings when every throb of his heart was given to his 
 country, every effort of his intellect dedicated to her service. Who does not 
 remember the three periods when the American system of Government was 
 exposed to its severest trials ; and who does not know that when History 
 shall relate the struggles which preceded the dangers which were averted by 
 the Missouri Compromise, the Tariff Compromise of 1833, and the Adjust 
 ment of 1850, the same pages will record the genius, the eloquence, and the 
 patriotism of Henry Clay ? 
 
 "Nor was it in Mr. Clay s nature to lag behind until measures of adjust 
 ment were matured, and then come forward to swell a majority. On the 
 contrary, like a bold and real statesman, he was ever among the first to meet 
 the peril, and hazard his fame upon the remedy. It is fresh in the memory 
 of us all that, when lately the fury of sectional discord threatened to sever 
 the Confederacy, Mr. Clay, though withdrawn from public life, and oppressed 
 by the burden of years, came back to the Senate, the theatre of his glory, 
 and devoted the remnant of his strength to the sacred duty of preserving 
 the union of the States. 
 
 " With characteristic courage, he took the lead in proposing a scheme of 
 settlement. But, while he was willing to assume the responsibility of pro 
 posing a plan, he did not, with petty ambition, insist upon its adoption to 
 the exclusion of other modes ; but, taking his own as a starting-point for dis 
 cussion and practical action, he nobly labored with his compatriots to change 
 and improve it in such form as "to make it an acceptable adjustment. 
 Throughout the long and arduous struggle, the love of country expelled from 
 his bosom the spirit of selfishness, and Mr. Clay proved, for the third time, 
 that though he was ambitious, and loved glory, he had no ambition to mount 
 
396 1IFE OF HENR\ CLAY. 
 
 to fame on the confusions of his country. And this conviction is lodged in 
 the hearts of the people; the party measures and the party passions of for 
 mer times have not, for several years, interposed between Mr. Clay and the 
 masses of his countrymen. After 1850, he seemed to feel that his mission 
 was accomplished, and during the same period, the regards and affections 
 of the American people have been attracted to him in a remarkable degree. 
 For many months the warmest feelings the deepest anxieties of all parties 
 centered upon the dying statesman ; the glory of his great actions shed a 
 mellow lustre on his declining years, and to fill the measure of his fame, hi? 
 countrymen, weaving for him the laurel wreath, with common hands, did 
 bind it about his venerable brows, and send him, crowned, to history. 
 
 "The life of Mr. Clay, sir, is a striking example of the abiding fame whicl 
 surely awaits the direct and candid statesman. The entire absence of equivo 
 cation or disguise in all his acts, was his master-key to the popular heart 
 for while the people will forgive the errors of a bold and open nature, h 
 sins past forgiveness who deliberately deceives them. Hence Mr. Clay, 
 though often defeated in his measures of policy, alwavs secured the respect 
 of his opponents without losing the confidence of his friends. He never 
 paltered in a double sense. The country never was in doubt as to his opin 
 ions or his purposes. In all the contests of his time, his position on great 
 public questions was as clear as the sun in the cloudless sky. Sir, standing 
 by the grave of this great man, and considering these things, how contempti 
 ble does appear the mere legerdemain of politics! What a reproach is his 
 life on that false policy which would trifle with a great and tipright people! 
 If I were to write his epitaph, I would inscribe as the highest eulogy, on the 
 stone which shall mark his resting-place, Here lies a man who was in the 
 public service for fifty years, and never attempted to deceive his country 
 men. 
 
 " While the youth of America should imitate his noble qualities, they may 
 take courage from his career, and note the high proof it affords that, under 
 our equal institutions, the avenues to honor are open to all. Mr. Clay rose 
 by the force of his own genius, unaided by power, patronage, or wealth. 
 At an age when our young men are usually advanced to the higher schools 
 of learning, provided only with the rudiments of an English education, he 
 turned his steps to the West, and, amidst the rude collisions of a border life, 
 matured a character whose highest exhibitions were destined to mark eras 
 in his country s history. Beginning on the frontiers of American civilization, 
 the orphan boy, supported only by the consciousness of his own powers, and 
 by the confidence of the people, surmounted all the barriers of adverse for 
 tune, and won a glorious name in the annais of his country. Let the gener 
 ous youth, fired with honorable ambition, remember that the American 
 gystem of government offers on every hand bounties to merit. If, like Clay, 
 orphanage, obscurity, poverty, shall oppress him ; yet if, like Clay, he feels 
 the Promethean spark within, let him remember that his country, like a 
 generous mother, extends her arms to welcome and to cherish every one of 
 her children whose genius.and worth may promote her prosperity or increase 
 her renown. 
 
 " Mr. Speaker, the signs of wo around us, and the general voice, announce 
 that another great man has fallen. Our consolation is that he was not taken 
 in the vigor of his manhood, but sunk inco the grave at the close of a long 
 and illustrious career. The great statesmen who have filled the largest space 
 in the public eye, one by one, are passing away. Of the three great leaders 
 of the Senate, one alone remains, and he must follow soon. We shall wit 
 ness no more their intellectual struggles in the American forum ; but th 
 
REMARKS OF MR. EWING OF KY. 397 
 
 monuments of their genius will be cherished as the common property of the 
 people, arid their names will continue to confer dignity and renown upon 
 their country. 
 
 " Not less illustrious than the greatest of these will be the name of Clay 
 a name pronounced with pride by Americans in every quarter of the 
 globe; a name to be remembered while history shall record the struggles 
 of modern Greece for freedom, or the spirit of liberty burn in the South 
 American bosom; a living and immortal name a name that would descend 
 to posterity without the aid of letters, borne by tradition from generation 
 to generation. Every memorial of such a man will possess a meaning and 
 a value to his countrymen. His tomb will be a hallowed spot. Great 
 memories will cluster there, and his countrymen, as they visit it, may well 
 exclaim 
 
 Such graves as his are pilgrim shrines, 
 
 Shrines to no creed confined ; 
 The Delphian vales, the Palestines, 
 The Meccas of the mind. 
 
 "Mr. Speaker, I offer the following resolutions: 
 
 " Resolved, That the House of Representatives of the United States has received, with the 
 deepest sensibility, intelligence of the death of Henry Clay. 
 
 " Resolved, That the officers and members of the House of Representatives will wear the 
 usual badge of mourning for thirty days, as a testimony of the profound respect this House 
 entertains for the memory of the deceased. t 
 
 " Resolved, That the officers and members of the House of Representatives, in a body, 
 will attend the funeral of Henry Clay, on the day appointed for that purpose by the Senate 
 of the United States. 
 
 " Resolved, That the proceedings of this House, in relation to the death of Henry Clay, be 
 communicated to the family of the deceased by the Clerk. 
 
 " Resolved, That as a further mark of respect for the memory of the deceased, this House 
 do now adjourn." 
 
 MR. EWING* rose and said: "A noble heart has ceased to beat for ever. 
 A long life of brilliant and self- devoted public service is finished at last, and 
 we now stand at its conclusion, looking back through the changeful history 
 of that life to its beginning, contemporaneous with the very birth of the 
 .Republic, and its varied events mingled in our hearts and our memories 
 with the triumph and calamities, the weakness and the power, the adversity 
 and prosperity of a country we love so much. As we contemplate this sad 
 event in this place, the shadows of the past gather over us; the memories 
 of events long gone crowd upon us, and the shades of departed patriots seem 
 to hover about us, waiting to receive into their midst the spirit of one who 
 was worthy to be a colaborer, with them in a common cause, and to share in 
 the rewards of their virtues. Henceforth he must be to us as one of them. 
 
 "They say he was ambitious. If so, it was a grievous fault, and grievously 
 has he answered it He has found in it naught but disappointment. It has 
 but served to aggravate the mortification of his defeats, and furnish an ad 
 ditional lustre to the triumph of his foes. Those who come after us may, 
 ay, they will, inquire why his statue stands not among the statues of those 
 whom men thought ablest and worthiest to govern. 
 
 "But his ambition was a high and holy feeling, unselfish, magnanimous. 
 Its aspirations were for his country s good, and its triumph was his country s 
 prosperity. Whether in honor or reproach, in triumph or defeat, that heart 
 of liis never throbbed with one pulsation save for her honor and her welfare. 
 Turn to him in that last, best deed, and crowning glory of a life so full of 
 p iblic service and of honor, when his career of personal ambition wa 
 
 * Presley Ewing (Whig), of Kentucky, 
 
398 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 finished for ever. Rejected again and again by his countrymen ; ^ust aban 
 doned by a party which would scarce have had an existence without his 
 genius, his courage, and his labors, that great heart, ever firm and defiant to 
 the assaults of his enemies, but defenceless against the ingratitude of friends, 
 doubtless wrung with the bitterest mortification of his life ; then it was, and 
 under such circumstances as these, the gathering storm rose upon his country. 
 All eyes turned to him ; all voices called for those services which, in the 
 hour of prosperity and security, they had so carelessly rejected. With no 
 misanthropic chagrin, with no morose, selfish resentment, he forgot all 
 but his country and that country endangered. He returns to the scene 
 of his labors and his fame, which he had thought to have left for ever 
 A scene that American Senate-Chamber, clothed in no gorgeous dra 
 pery, shrouded in no superstitious awe or ancient reverence for hereditary 
 power, but to a reflecting American mind more full of interest, of dig 
 nity, and of grandeur, than any spot on this broad earth, not made holy 
 by religion s consecrating seal. See him as he enters there, tremblingly, 
 but hopefully, upon the last, most momentous, perhaps most doubtful conflict 
 of his life. Sir, many a gay tournament has been more dazzling to the eye 
 of fancy, more gorgeous and imposing in the display of jewelry and cloth of 
 gold, in the sound of heralds trumpets, in the grand array of princely beauty 
 and of royal pride. Many a battle-field has trembled beneath a more osten 
 tatious parade of human power, and its conquerors have been crowned with 
 laurels, honored with triumphs, and apotheosized amid the demigods of His 
 tory ; but to the thoughtful, hopeful, philanthropic student of the annals of 
 his race, never was there a conflict in which such dangers were threatened, 
 such hopes imperiled, or the hero of which deserved a warmer gratitude, a 
 nobler triumph, or a prouder monument. 
 
 "Sir, from that long, anxious, and exhausting conflict he never rose 
 again. In that last battle for his country s honor, and his country s safe 
 ty, he received the mortal wound which laid him low ; and we now mourn 
 the death of a martyred patriot. 
 
 " But never, in all the grand drama which the story of his life arrays, 
 never has he presented a sublimer or a more touching spectacle than in 
 those last days of his decline and death. Broken with the storms of state, 
 wounded and scathed in many a fiery conflict, that aged, worn, and de 
 cayed body, in such mournful contrast with the never-dying strength of hia 
 giant spirit, he seemed a proud and sacred, though a crumbling monument 
 of past glory. Standing among us like some ancient colossal ruin amid 
 the degenerate and more diminutive structures of modern times, its vast 
 proportions magnified by the contrast, he reminded us of those days when 
 there were giants in the land, and we remembered that even then there 
 was none whose prowess could withstand his arm. To watch him in that 
 slow decline, yielding with dignity, and as it were inch by inch, to that las* 
 enemy, as a hero yields to a conquering foe, the glorious light of his intel 
 *ect blazing still in all its wonted brilliancy, and setting at defiance thv 
 clouds that vainly attempted to obscure it, he was more full of interest tha 
 in the day of his glory and his power. There are some men whose bright 
 est intellectual emanations rise so little superior to the instincts of the ani 
 mal, that we are led fearfully to doubt that cherished truth of the soul s im 
 mortality, which, even in despair, men press to their doubting hearts. Bui 
 it is in the death of such a man as he that we are reassured by the contem 
 plation of a kindred though superior spirit, of a soul which, immortal like 
 his fame, knows no old age, no decay, no death. 
 
 "The wondrous light of his unmatched intellect may have dazzled 
 
REMARKS OF MR. CASKIE OF VA. 399 
 
 world: the eloquence of that inspired tongue may have enchanted millions, 
 but there are few who have sounded the depths of that noble heart. To 
 Btt him in sickness and in health, in joy and in sadness, in the silent watches 
 of the night and in the busy daytime tins it was to know and love him. 
 To see the impetuous torrent of that resistless will ; the hurricane of those 
 passions, hushed in peace, breathe calm and gently as a summer zephyr ; to 
 feel the gentle pressure of that hand in the grasp of friendship which in the 
 rage of fiery conflict could hurl scorn and defiance at his foe; to see that 
 eagle eye, which oft would burn with patriotic ardor, or flash with the 
 lightning of his anger, beam with the kindliest expressions of tenderness 
 and affection then it was, and then alone, we could learn to know and 
 feel that that heart was warmed by the same sacred fire from above which 
 enkindled the light of his resplendent intellect. In the death of such a 
 man even patriotism itself might pause, and for a moment stand aloof while 
 friendship shed a tear of sorrow upon his bier. 
 
 His life was gentle ; and the elements 
 So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up 
 And say to all the world, This was a man ! 
 
 "But who can estimate his country s loss? what tongue portray the 
 desolation which, in this house, throughout this broad land, hangs a gloomy 
 pall over his grief-stricken countrymen? How poorly can words like mine 
 translate the eloquence of a whole people s grief for a patriot s death ! For 
 a nation s loss let a nation mourn. For that stupendous calamity to our 
 country and mankind, be the heavens hung with black; let the wailing 
 elements chant his dirge, and the universal heart of man throb with one 
 common pang of grief and anguish." 
 
 Mr. CASKIE.* "Mr. Speaker: I must try to lay a single laurel leaf in that 
 open coffin which is already garlanded by the eloquent tributes to the illustri 
 ous departed, which have been heard in this now solemn Hall for I come, 
 sir, from.the district of his birth. I represent on this floor that old Han 
 over so proud of her Henrys her Patrick Henry, and her Henry Clay. I 
 speak for a people among whom he has always had as earnest and devoted 
 friends as were ever the grace and glory of a patriot and statesman. 
 
 " I shall attempt no sketch of his life. That you have had from other and 
 abler hands than mine. Till yesterday that life was, of his own free gift, 
 the property of his country ; to-day it belongs to her history. It is known 
 to all, and will not be forgotten. Constant, stern opponent of his political 
 school as has been my State, I say for her, that nowhere in this broad land 
 are his great qualities more admired, or his death more mourned, than in 
 "Virginia. Well may this be so ; for she is his mother, and he was her son. 
 
 "Mr. Speaker, when I remember the party strifes in which he was so 
 much mingled, and through which we all more or less have passed, and 
 then survey this scene, and think how far, as the lightning has borne the 
 news that he is gone, half-masted flags are drooping and church-bells are 
 tolling, and men are sorrowing I can but feel that it is good for man to 
 die. For when death enters, oh ! how the unkindnesses, and jealousies, and 
 rivalries of life do vanish, and how, like incense from an altar, do peace 
 and friendship, and all the sweet charities of our nature, rise around the 
 corpse which was once a man. 
 
 " And of a truth, Mr. Speaker, never was more of veritable, noble man 
 hood cased in mortal mould than was found in him to whose memory this 
 
 * John S. Caskie (Democrat) of Richmond District, Virginia. 
 
400 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 brief and humble, but true and heartfelt, tribute is paid. But his eloquent 
 voice is hushed, his high heart is stilled. Like a shock of corn fully ripe, 
 lie has been gathered to his fathers. With more than threescore yeara 
 and ten upon him, and honors clustered thick about him, in the full posses 
 sion of unclouded intellect, and all the consolations of Christianity, lie has 
 met the fate which is evitable by none. Lamented by all his countrymen, 
 his name is bright on Fame s immortal roll. He has finished his course, and 
 he has his crown. What more fruit can life bear? What can it give that 
 Henry Clay lias not gained ? 
 
 " Then, Mr. Speaker, around his tomb should be heard not only the dirge 
 tiat wails his loss, but the jubilant anthem which sounds that on the world s 
 great battle-field another victory has been won, another incontestable great 
 ness achieved." 
 
 Mr. CHANDLER* said : " Mr. Speaker, it would seem as if the solemn invo 
 cation of the honorable gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. Ewing] was receiv 
 ing an early answer, and that the heavens are hung in black, and the wail 
 ing elements are singing the funeral dirge of Henry Clay. Amid this 
 elemental gloom and the distress which pervades the nation at the death of 
 Henry Clay, private grief should not obtrude itself upon notice, nor personal 
 anguish seek for utterance. Silence is the best exponent of individual 
 sorrow, and the heart that knoweth its cwn bitterness shrinks from an 
 exposition of its affliction. 
 
 " Could I have consulted my own feelings on the event which occupies 
 the attention of the House at the present moment, I should even have for 
 borne attendance here, and, in the solitude and silence of my chamber, have 
 mused upon the terrible lesson which has been administered to the people 
 and the nation. But I represent a constituency who justly pride themselves 
 upon the unwavering attachment they have ever felt and manifested to 
 Henry Clay a constant, pervading, hereditary love; the son has taken up 
 the father s affection, and, amid all the professions of political attachments 
 to others, whom the accidents of party have made prominent, and the suc 
 cess of party has made powerful, true to his own instincts, and true to the 
 sanctified legacy of his father, he has placed the name of Henry Clay for 
 ward and preeminent as the exponent of what is greatest in statesmanship, 
 and purest in patriotism. And even, sir, when partv fealty caused other 
 attachments to be avowed for party uses, the preference was limited to the 
 occupancy of office, and superiority admitted for Clay in all that is reckoned 
 above party estimation. 
 
 "Nor ought I to forbear to add that, as the senior member of the delega 
 tion which represents my Commonwealth, I am requested to utter the 
 sentiments of the people of Pennsylvania at large, who yield to no portion 
 of this great Union in their appreciation of the talents, their reverence for 
 the lofty patriotism, their admiration of the statesmanship, and hereafter 
 their love of the memory of Henry Clay. 
 
 "I can not, therefore, be silent on this occasion, without injustice to the 
 affections of my constituency, even though I painfully feel how inadequate 
 to the reverence and love my people have toward that statesman must be 
 all that I have to utter on this mournful occasion. 
 
 " I know not, Mr. Chairman, where now the nation is to find the men she 
 needs in peril either other calls than those of politics are holding in 
 abeyance the talents which the nation may need, or else a generation is to 
 pass undistinguished by the greatness of our statesmen. Of the noble minds 
 
 * Joseph R. Chandler (Whig) of Philadelphia city, Pa. 
 
REMARKS OF MR. CHANDLER OF PA. 401 
 
 that have swayed the Senate, one yet survives in the maturity of powerful 
 intellect, carefully disciplined and nobly exercised. May He who has thus 
 far blessed our nation, spare to her and the world, that of which the world 
 must always envy our country the possession. But my business is with the 
 dead. 
 
 "The biography of Henry Clay, from his childhood upward, is too 
 familiar to every American, for me to trespass on the time of this House by 
 a reference directly thereto ; and the honorable gentlemen who have 
 preceded me have, with affectionate hand and appropriate delicacy, swept 
 away the dust which nearly fourscore years have scattered over a part of 
 the record, and have made our pride greater in his life, and our grief more 
 poignant at his death, by showing some of those passages wfaich attract 
 respect to our republican institutions, of which Mr. Clay s whole life was the 
 able support and most successful illustration. 
 
 "It would, then, be a work of supererogation for me to renew that effort, 
 though inquiry into the life and conduct of Henry Clay would present new 
 themes for private eulogy, new grounds for public gratitude. 
 
 "How rare is it, Mr. Speaker, that the great man living, can, with con 
 fidence, rely on extensive personal friendship, or, dying, think to awaken a, 
 sentiment of regret beyond that which includes the public loss or the disap 
 pointment of individual hopes ! Yet, sir, the message which yesterday went 
 forth from this city, that Henry Clay was dead, brought sorrow, personal, 
 private, special sorrow, to the hearts of thousands, each of whom felt that 
 from his own love for, his long attachment to, his disinterested hopes in, 
 Henry Clay, he had a particular sorrow to cherish and express, which 
 weighed upon his heart, separate from the sense of national loss. 
 
 "No man, Mr. Speaker, in our nation, had the art so to identify himself 
 with public measures of the most momentous character, and to maintain, at 
 the same time, almost universal affection, like that great statesman. His/ *\ 
 business, from his boyhood, was with national concerns, and he dealt with/ \ 
 them as with familiar things. And yet his sympathies were with individual 
 interests, enterprises, affections, joys, and sorrows ; and while every patriot 
 bowed in humble deference to his lofty attainments and heartfelt gratitude 
 for his national services, almost every man in this vast Republic knew that 
 the great statesman was, in feeling and experience, identified with his own 
 position. Hence, the universal love of the people; hence, their enthusiasm 
 in all times, for his fame. Hence, sir, their present grief. 
 
 "Many other public men of our country have distinguished themselves, 
 and brought honor to the nation, by superiority in some peculiar branch of 
 the public service; but it seems to have been the gift of Mr. Clay to have 
 acquired peculiar eminence in every path of duty he was called to tread. 
 In the earnestness of debate, which great public interests and distinguished 
 opposing talents excited in this House, he had no superior in energy, force, 
 or effect. Yet as the presiding officer, by blandness of language, and 
 firmness of purpose, he soothed and made orderly; and thus, by official 
 dignity, he commanded the respect which energy had secured to him on the 
 floor. 
 
 "Wherever official or social duties demanded an exercise of his power, there 
 was a preeminence which seemed prescriptively his own. In the lofty debate 
 of the Senate and the stirring harangues to popular assemblages, he was the 
 orator 01 the nation, and of the people; and the sincerity of purpose and 
 the unity of design evinced in all he said or did, fixed in the public mind a 
 confidence strong and expansive as the affections he had won. 
 
 " Year after year, sir, has Henry Clay been achieving the work of th 
 
 26 
 
403 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 mission with which he was ir-trusted ; and it was only when the warmest 
 wishes of his warmest friends were disappointed that he entered on the 
 fruition of a patriot s highest hopes, and stood in the full enjoyment of that 
 admiration and confidence which nothing but the antagonism of party 
 relations could have divided. 
 
 "How rich that enjoyment must have been, it is only for us to imagine. 
 How eminently deserved it was, we and the world can attest. 
 
 "The love and the devotion of his political friends were cheering and 
 grateful to his heart, and were acknowledged in all his life were recognized 
 even to his death. 
 
 "The contest in the Senate-Chamber or the forum was rewarded with 
 success achieved, and the great victor could enjoy the ovation which partial 
 friendship or the gratitude of the benefited prepared. But the triumph of 
 his life was no party achievement. It was not in the applause which 
 admiring friends and defeated antagonists offered to his measureless success 
 that he found the reward of his labors and comprehended the extent of his 
 mission. 
 
 "It was only when friends and antagonists pause" 1 } in their contests, 
 appalled at the public difficulties and national dangers which had been 
 accumulating, unseen and unregarded ; it was only when the nation itself 
 felt the danger, and acknowledged the inefficacy of party action as a remedy, 
 that Henry Clay calculated the full extent of his powers, and enjoyed the . 
 reward of their saving exercise. Then, sir, you saw, and I saw, party desig 
 nations dropped, and party allegiance disavowed, and anxious patriots, of 
 all localities and names, turn toward the country s benefactor as the man 
 for the terrible exigencies of the hour; and the sick chamber of Henry Clay 
 became the Delphos, whence were given out the oracles that presented the 
 means and the measures of our Union s safety. There, sir, and not in the 
 high places of the country, were the labors and sacrifices of half a century 
 to be rewarded and closed. With his right yet in that Senate which he had 
 entered the youngest^ and lingered till the eldest, member, he felt that his 
 work was done, and the object of his life accomplished. Every cloud that 
 had dimmed the noonday lustre had been dissipated ; and the retiring orb, 
 which sunk from the sight of the nation in fullness and in beauty, will yet 
 pour up the horizon a posthumous glory that shall tell of the splendor and 
 greatness of the luminary that has passed away." 
 
 Mr. BAYLY.* "Mr. Speaker: Although I have been all my life a party 
 opponent of Mr. Clay, yet from my boyhood I have been upon terms of per 
 sonal friendship with him. More than twenty years ago, I was introduced 
 to him by my father, who was his personal friend. From that time to this, 
 there has existed between us as great personal intimacy as the disparity in 
 our years and our political difference would justify. After I became a 
 member of this House, and upon his return to the Senate, subsequent to his 
 resignation in 1842, the warm regard upon his part for the daughter of a 
 devoted friend of forty years standing, made him a constant visitor at my 
 house, and frequently a guest at my table. These circumstances make it 
 proper that, upon this occasion, I should pay this last tribute to his memory. 
 I not only knew him well as a statesman, but I knew him better in the 
 most unreserved social intercourse. The most happy circumstance, as I 
 esteem it, of my political life has been, that I have thus known each of ou* 
 great Congressional triumvirate. 
 
 * Gen. Thomas H. Bayly (Democrat) of Virginia. 
 
REMARKS OF MR. VENABLE. 403 
 
 " I, sir, never knew a man of higher qualities than Mr. Clay. Hig very 
 faults originated in high qualities. With gi - ; or self-possession, with great 
 er self-reliance, than any man I ever knew, he possessed moral and physical 
 courage to as high a degree as any man who ever lived. Confident in his 
 own judgment, never doubting as to his own course, fearing no obstacle 
 that might lie in his way, it was almost impossible that he should not have 
 been imperious in his character. Never doubting himself as to what he 
 thought duty and patriotism required at his hands, it was natural that he 
 should sometimes have been impatient with those more doubting and timid 
 than himself. His were qualities to have made a great general, as they 
 were qualities that did make him a great statesman, and these qualities 
 were so obvious that during the darkest period of our late war with Great 
 Britain, Mr. Madison had determined, at one time, to make him General-in- 
 Chief of the American army. 
 
 " Sir, it is but a short time since the American Congress buried the first one 
 that went to the grave of that great triumvirate. We are now called upon 
 to bury another. The third, thank God! still lives, and long may he live 
 to enlighten his countrymen by his wisdom, and set them the example of 
 exalted patriotism. Sir, in the lives and characters of these great men, 
 there is much resembling those of the great triumvirate of the British Par 
 liament. It differs principally in this : Burke preceded Fox and Pitt to the 
 tomb. Webster survives Clay and Calhoun. When Fox and Pitt died, 
 there were no others to fill their place. Webster still lives, now that Cal 
 houn and Clay are dead, the unrivaled statesman of his country. Like 
 Fox and Pitt, Clay and Calhoun lived in troubled times. Like Fox and 
 Pitt they were each of them the leader of rival parties. Like Fox and Pitt 
 they were idolized by their respective friends. Like Fox and Pitt, they 
 died about the same time, and in the public service ; and as has been said 
 of Fox and Pitt, Clay and Calhoun died with their harness upon them 
 Like Fox and Pitt 
 
 With more than mortal powers endowed, 
 How high they soared above the crowd ; 
 Theirs was no common party race, 
 Jostling by dark intrigue for place 
 Like fabled gods, their mighty war 
 Shook realms and nations in its jar. 
 Beneath each banner, proud to stand, 
 Looked up the noblest of the land. 
 
 1 Here let their discord with them die. 
 Speak not for those a separate doom, 
 Whom fate made brothers in the tomb ; 
 But search the land of living men, 
 Where wilt thou find their like again ? 
 
 Mr. VENABLE.* "Mr. Speaker: I trust that I shall be pardoned for add 
 ing a few words upon this sad occasion. The life of the illustrious states 
 man which has just terminated is so interwoven with our history, ani the 
 lustre of his great name so profusely shed over its pages, that simple admi 
 ration of his high qualities migh well be my excuse. But it is a sacred 
 privilege to dn w near to contemplate the end of the great and good. It 
 is profitable as well as purifying to look upon and realize the office of death 
 in removing a l that can excite jealousy or produce distrust, and to gaze 
 upon the virt 1 as which like jewels have survived his powers of destruction. 
 The %ht frb ,h radiates from the life of a great and patriotic statesman ia 
 
 hair W. Venable (State Rights Democrat), of North Carolina. 
 
404 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 often dimmed by the mists which party conflicts throw around it But the 
 blast which strikes him down purifies the atmosphere which surrounded 
 him in life, and it shines forth in bright examples and well-earned renown. 
 It is then that we witness the sincere acknowledgment of gratitude by a 
 people who, having enjoyed the benefits arising from the services of an em 
 inent statesman, embalm his name in their memory and hearts. We should 
 cherish such recollections as well from patriotism as self-respect. Ours, sir, 
 is now the duty, in the midst of sadness, in this high place, in the face of 
 our Republic, and before the world, to pay this tribute by acknowledging 
 the merits of our colleague whose name has ornamented the Journals of 
 Congress for near half a century. Few, very few, have ever combined the 
 high intellectual powers and distinguished gifts of this illustrious Senator. 
 Cast in the finest mould by nature, lie more than fulfilled the anticipations 
 which were indulged by those who looked to a distinguished career as the 
 certain result of that zealous pursuit of fame and usefulness upon which he 
 entered in early life. Of the incidents of that life it is unnecessary for me 
 to speak they are as familiar as household words, and must be equally 
 familiar to those who come after us. But it is useful to refresh memory by 
 recurrence to some of the events which marked his career. We know, sir, 
 that there is much that is in common in the histories of distinguished men. 
 The elements which constitute greatness are the same in all times; hence 
 those who have been the admiration of their generations present in their 
 lives much which, although really great, ceases to be remarkable, because 
 illustrated by such numerous examples 
 
 But there are deeds which should not pass away, 
 And names that must not wither. 
 
 " Of such deeds the life of Henry Clay affords many and bright examples. 
 His own name, and those with whom he associated, shall live with a fresh 
 ness which time can not impair, and shine with a brightness which passing 
 years can not dim. His advent into public life was as remarkable for the 
 circumstances as it was brilliant in its effect. It was at a time in which 
 genius and learning, statesmanship and eloquence, made the American Con 
 gress the most august body in the world. He was the cotemporary of a 
 race of statesmen some of whom then administering the Government, and 
 others retiring and retired from office presented an array of ability unsur 
 passed in our history. The elder Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Clinton, Gal- 
 latin, and Monroe, stood before the Republic in the maturity of their fame 
 while Calhoun, John Quincy Adams, Lowndes, Crawford, Gaston, Randolph, 
 and Cheves, with a host of others, rose a bright galaxy upon our horizon. 
 He who won his spurs in such a field earned his knighthood. Distinction 
 amid such competition was true renown 
 
 The fame which a man wins for himself is best 
 That he may call his own. 
 
 " It was such a fame that he made for himself in that most eventful era 
 in our history. To me, sir, the recollection of that day, and of the events 
 which distinguish it, is filled with an overpowering interest. I never can 
 forget my enthusiastic admiration of the boldness, the eloquence, and the 
 patriotism of Henry Clay during the war of 1812. In the bright array of 
 talent which adorned the Congress of the United States; in the conflict 
 growing out of the political events of that time ; in the struggles of party, 
 and amid the gloom and disasters which depressed the spirits of most men, 
 and well nigh paralyzed the energies of the Administration, his cheerful 
 face, high bearing, commanding eloquence, and iron will, gave strengtk 
 
REMARKS OF MR. VENABLE. 405 
 
 and consistency to those elements which finally gave not only suc<ess but 
 glory to the country. When dark clouds hovered over us, and there wag 
 little to save from despair, the country looked with hope to Clay and Cal- 
 houn, to Lowndes, and Crawford, and Cheves, and looked not in vain. The 
 unbending will, the xmshaken nerve, and the burning eloquence of Henry 
 Clay did as much to command confidence and sustain hope as even the 
 news of our first victory after a succession of defeats. Those great names 
 are now canonized in history ; he, too, has passed to join them on its page? 
 Associated in his long political life with the illustrious Calhoun, he sur 
 vived him but two years. Many of us heard his eloquent tribute to h/s 
 memory in the Senate-chamber on the annunciation of his death. And we 
 this day unite in a similar manifestation of reverential regard to him whose 
 voice shall never more charm the ear, whose burning thoughts, borne on 
 that medium, shall no more move the hearts of listening assemblies. 
 
 "In the midst of the highest specimens of our race, he was always an 
 equal ; he was a man among men. Bold, skillful, and determined, he gave 
 character to the party which acknowledged him as a leader ; impressed 
 his opinions upon their minds, and an attachment to himself upon their 
 hearts. No man, sir, can do this without being eminently great. Whoever 
 attains this position, must first overcome the aspirations of antagonist am 
 bition, quiet the clamors of rivalry, hold in check the murmurs of jealousy, 
 and overcome the instincts of vanity and self-love in the masses thus sub 
 dued to his control. But few men ever attain it. Very rare are the exam 
 ples of those whose plastic touch forms the minds and directs the purposes 
 of a great political party. This infallible indication of superiority belonged 
 to Mr. Clay. He has exercised that control during a long life ; and now, 
 through our broad land the tidings of his death, borne with electric speed, 
 have opened the fountains of sorrow. Every city, town, village, and hamlet, 
 will be clothed with mourning ; along our extended coast, the commercial 
 and military marine, with flags drooping at half-mast, own the bereavement; 
 State-houses draped in black, proclaim the extinguishment of one of the 
 great lights of Senates; and minute-guns sound his requiem ! 
 
 " Sir, during the last five years, I have seen the venerable John Quincy 
 Adams, John C. Calhoun, and Henry Clay, pass from among us, the legisla 
 tors of our country. The race of giants who were on the earth in those 
 days is well-nigh gone. Despite their skill, their genius, their might, they 
 have sunk under the stroke of time. They were our admiration and our 
 glory; a few linger with us, the monuments of former greatness, the beacon- 
 lights of a past age. The death of Henry Clay can not fail to suggest mel 
 ancholy associations to each member of this House. These walls have 
 reechoed the silvery tones of his bewitching voice ; listening assemblies have 
 hung upon his lips. The chair which you fill has been graced by his pres 
 ence, while his commanding person, and unequaled parliamentary attain 
 ments, inspired all with deference and respect. Chosen by acclamation, be 
 cause of his high qualifications, he sustained himself before the House and 
 the country. In his supremacy with his party, and the uninterrupted con 
 fidence which he enjoyed to the day of his death, he seems to have almost 
 discredited the truth of those lines addressed to Caesar 
 
 Non pospunt primi cs-se omnes omni in tempore, 
 Summum ad gradum cum claritatis voneris, 
 Consistes segre, et citius, quam ascendas, cades. * 
 
 * All can not be at all times first : 
 
 To reach the topmost step of glory ; to stand there 
 More hard. Even swifter than we mount we fail. 
 
406 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 " If not at all times first, he stood equal with the foremost, and a brilliant* 
 rapid rise knew no decline in the confidence of those whose just apprecia 
 tion of his merits had confirmed his title to renown. 
 
 "The citizens of other countries will deplore his death; the struggling 
 patriots who on our own continent were cheered by his sympathies, and who 
 inust have perceived his influence in the recognition of their independence 
 by this Government, have taught their children to venerate his name. He 
 won the civic crown, and the demonstrations of this hour own the worth of 
 civil services. 
 
 " It was with great satisfaction that I heard my friend from Kentucky 
 [Mr. Breckinridge], the immediate representative of Mr. Clay, detail a con 
 versation which disclosed the feelings of that eminent man in relation to his 
 Christian hope. These, Mr. Speaker, are rich memorials, precious reminis 
 cences. A Christian statesman is the glory of his age, and his memory will 
 be glorious in after-times; it reflects a light coming from a source which 
 clouds can not dim nor shadows obscure. It was my privilege, also, a short 
 time since, to converse with this distinguished statesman on the subject of 
 his hopes in a future state. Feeling a deep interest, I asked him frankly 
 what were his hopes in the world to which he was evidently hastening. I 
 am pleased, said he, my friend, that you have introduced the subject. Con 
 scious that I must die very soon, I love to meditate upon the most important 
 of all interests. I love to converse and to hear conversations about them. 
 The vanity of the world, and its insufficiency to satisfy the soul of man, has 
 been long a settled conviction of my mind. Man s inability to secure by his 
 own merits the approbation of God, I feel to be true. I trust in the atone 
 ment of the Savior of men, as the ground of my acceptance and my hope 
 of salvation. My faith is feeble, but I hope in His mercy and trust in His 
 promises. To such declarations I listened with the deepest interest, as I did 
 on another occasion, when he said : I am willing to abide the will of Heaven, 
 and ready to die when that will shall determine it. 
 
 "He is gone, sir, professing the humble hope of a Christian. That hope, 
 alone, sir, can sustain you, or any of us. There is one lonely and crushed 
 heart that has bowed before this afflictive event. Far away, at Ashland, a 
 widowed wife, prevented by feeble health from attending his bedside and 
 soothing his painful hours, she has thought even the electric speed of the in 
 telligence daily transmitted of his condition, too slow for her aching, anxious 
 bosom. She will find consolation in his Christian submission, and will draw 
 all of comfort that such a case admits from the assurance that nothing was 
 neglected by the kindness of friends which could supply her place. May 
 the guardianship of the widow s God be her protection, and His consolations 
 her support !" 
 
 MR. HAVEN* said : " Mr Speaker, representing a constituency distinguish 
 ed for the constancy of its devotion to the political principles of Mr. Clay, 
 and for its unwavering attachment to his fortunes and his person sympa 
 thizing deeply with those whose more iatimate personal relations with him 
 have made them feel most profoundly this general bereavement I desire to 
 say a few words of him, since he has fallen among us, and been taken to hi 
 fest. 
 
 " After the finished eulogies which have been so eloquently pronounced 
 oy the honorable gentlemen who have preceded me, I will avoid a course of 
 remark which might otherwise be deemed a repetition, and refer to the bear 
 ing of some of the acts of the deceased upon the interests and destinies of 
 
 * Solomon G. Haven (Whig), of Erie (formerly Mr. Fillraore s) District, New York. 
 
EULOGY OF MR. BROOKS OF N. Y. 407 
 
 my own State. The influence of his public life, and of his puiely American 
 character, the benefits of his wise forecast, and the results of his efforts for 
 wholesome and rational progress, are nowhere more strongly exhibited thau 
 in the State of New York. 
 
 " Our appreciation of his anxiety for the general diffusion of knowledge 
 and education, is manifested in our twelve thousand public libraries, our 
 equal number of common schools, and a large number of higher institutions 
 of learning all of which drew portions of their support from the share of 
 the proceeds of the public lands, which his wise policy gave to our State. 
 Our whole people are thus constantly.reminded of their great obligations to 
 the statesman whose death now afflicts the nation with sorrow. Our exten 
 sive public works attest our conviction of the utility and importance of the 
 system of Internal Improvements he so ably advocated ; and their value and 
 productiveness afford a most striking evidence of the soundness and wisdom 
 of his policy. Nor has his influence been less sensibly felt in our agriculture, 
 commerce, and manufactures. Every department of human industry ac 
 knowledges his fostering care, and the people of New York are, in no small 
 measure, indebted to his statesmanship for the wealth, comfort, contentment, 
 and happiness so widely and generally diffused throughout the State. 
 
 " Well may New York cherish his memory and acknowledge with grati 
 tude the benefits that his life has conferred. That memory will be cherished 
 throughout the Republic. 
 
 " When internal discord and sectional strife have threatened the integrity 
 o>f the Union, his just weight of character, his large experience, his powers 
 of conciliation and acknowledged patriotism, have enabled him to pacify the 
 angry passions of his countrymen, and to raise the bow of promise and of 
 hope upon the clouds which have darkened the political horizon. 
 
 "He has passed from among us, ripe in wisdom and pure in character 
 full of years and full of honors. He has breathed his last amidst the bless 
 ings of a united and a grateful nation. 
 
 " He was, in my judgment, particularly fortunate in the time of his death. 
 
 "He lived to see his country, guided by his wisdom, come once again un 
 hurt out of trying sectional difficulties and domestic strife; and he has 
 closed his eyes in death upon that country while it is in the enjoyment of 
 profound peace, busy with industry, and blessed with unequaled pros 
 perity. 
 
 It can fall to the lot of but few to die amidst so warm a gratitude flowing 
 from the hearts of their countrymen; and none can leave a brighter exam 
 ple or a more enduring fame. 
 
 "Mr. BROOKS.* Mr. Speaker, I rise to add my humble tribute to the 
 memory of a great and good man now to be gathered to his fathers. I speak 
 for and from a community, in whose hearts is enshrined the name of him 
 whom we mourn; who, however much Virginia, the land of his birth, or 
 Kentucky, the land of his adoption, may love him, is, if possible, loved 
 where I live yet more. If idolatry had been Christian, or allowable even, 
 he would have been our idol. But, as it is, for a quarter of a century now, 
 his bust, his portrait, or some medal, has been one of our household gods, 
 gracing not alone the saloon, and the halls of wealth, but the humblest 
 room or workshop of almost every mechanic or laborer. Proud monuments 
 of his policy as a statesman, as my colleague has justly said, are all about 
 us, ad we owe to him, in a good degree, our growth, our greatness, our 
 p)8 nty and happiness, as a people. 
 
 * James Brooks (Union Whig), of New York city 
 
408 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 " The great field of Henry Clay, Mr. Speaker, has been here, on the floor 
 <jf this House, and in the otheu wing of the Capitol. He has held other 
 posts of higher nominal distinction, but they are all eclipsed by the brilliancy 
 of his career as a Congressman. What of glory he has acquired, or what 
 most endears him to his countrymen, have been won here, amid these 
 pillars, under these domes of the Capitol. 
 
 Si quarts monumentum circumspice. 
 
 " The mind of Mr. Clay has been the governing mind of the country 
 more or less, ever since he has been on the stage of public action. In a 
 minority, or a majority more, perhaps, even in a minority than in the 
 majority he seems to have had some commission, divine as it were, to per 
 suade, to convince, to govern other men. His patriotism, his foresight, his 
 grand conceptions, have created measures which the secret fascination of his 
 manners, in-door, or his irresistible eloquence without, have enabled him 
 almost always to frame into laws. 
 
 " Adverse Administrations have yielded to him, or been borne down by 
 him, or he has taken them captive as a leader, and carried the country and 
 Congress with him. This power he has wielded now for nearly half a cen 
 tury, with nothing but reason and eloquence to back him. And yet, when 
 he came here, years ago, he came from a then frontier State of this Union, 
 heralded by no loud trumpet of fame, nay, quite unknown, unfortified even 
 by any position, social or pecuniary; to quote his own words, his only 
 heritage had been infancy, indigence, and ignorance. 
 
 "In these days, Mr. Speaker, when mere civil qualifications for high 
 public place when long civil training and practical statesmanship are held 
 subordinate, a most discouraging prospect would be before our rising young 
 men, were it not for some such names as Lowndes, Crawford, Clinton, 
 Gaston, Calhoun, and Clay, scattered along the pages of our history, as stars 
 or constellations in a cloudless sky. They shine forth, and show us that 
 if the Chief-Magistracy can not be won by such qualifications, a memory 
 among men can be a hold upon posterity as firm, as lustrous nay, more 
 imperishable. In the Capitolium of Kome there are long rows of marble 
 slabs, on which are recorded the names of the Roman Consuls ; but the eye 
 wanders over this wilderness of letters but to light up and to kindle upon 
 some Cato or Cicero. To win such fame, thus unsullied, as Mr. Clay has 
 won, is worth any man s ambition. And how was it won ? By courting the 
 shifting gales of popularity? No, never 1 By truckling to the schemes, 
 the arts, and seductions of the demagogue? Never, never! His hardest 
 battles as a public man his greatest, most illustrious achievements 
 have been against, at first, an adverse public opinion. To gain an 
 imperishable name, he has often braved the perishable popularity of the 
 moment That sort, of courage which, in a public man, I deem the highest 
 of all courage ; that sort of courage most necessary under our form of 
 government to guide as well as to save a State, Mr. Clay was possessed 
 of more than any public man I ever knew. Mere physical courage, 
 valuable, indispensable though it be, we share but with the brute 
 but moral courage, to dare to do right, amid all temptations to do wrong, 
 is, as it seems to me, the very highest species, the noblest heroism, under 
 institutions like ours. "I had rather be right than be President," wati 
 Mr. Clay s sublime reply when pressed to refrain from some measure that 
 would mar his popularity. These lofty words were a clue to his whole 
 character the secret of his hold upon the heads as well as hearts of th 
 American people nay, the key to his immortality. 
 
EULOGY OF MR. FAULKNER. 400 
 
 "Another of the keys, Mr. Speaker, of his universal reputation, was his 
 intense nationality. When taunted but recently, almost within our hearing 
 as it were, on the floor of the Senate, by a Southern Senator, as being a 
 Southern man unfaithful to the South, his indignant but patriotic exclama 
 tion was : I know no South no North, no East, no West. The country, 
 the whole country, loved, adored, reverenced such a man. The soil of 
 Virginia may be his birthplace : the sod of Kentucky will cover his grave 
 what was mortal they claim but the spirit, the soul, the genius of the 
 mighty man, the immortal part, these belong to his country and to his 
 God." 
 
 Mr. FAULKNER.* "After the many able and eloquent addresses to which 
 we have listened this morning, I fear, sir, that it will not be in my power 
 to add anything to the interest of this occasion. And yet, representing, as 
 I do, in part, that State which gave birth to the distinguished man whose 
 death has this day been announced on this floor, and having for many years 
 held toward him the most cordial relations of friendship, personal and 
 political, I feel that I should fail to discharge an appropriate duty, if I per 
 mitted this occasion to pass by without sorae expression of the feeling which 
 such an event is so well calculated to elicit. It is true, sir, that this intelli 
 gence does not fall upon our ears unexpectedly; for months the public 
 mind has been prepared for the great national loss which we now deplore ; 
 and yet, as familiar as the daily and hourly reports have made us with his 
 hopeless condition and gradual decline, and although 
 
 Like a shadow thrown 
 Softly and sweetly from a passing cloud, 
 Death fell upon him, 
 
 it is impossible that a light of such surpassing splendor should be, as it is 
 now, forever extinguished from our view, without producing a shock, deep 
 ly and painfully felt to the utmost limits of this great Republic. Sir, wo 
 all feel that a mighty intellect has passed from among us ; but, happily for 
 this country, happily for mankind, not until it had accomplished to some 
 extent the exalted mission for which it had been sent upon this earth not 
 until it had reached the full maturity of its usefulness and power not until 
 it had shed a bright and radiant lustre over our national renown not until 
 time had enabled it to bequeath the rich treasures of its thought and expe 
 rience for the guidance and instruction of the present and of succeeding 
 generations. 
 
 "Sir, it is difficult it is impossible within the limit allowed for remarks 
 upon occasions of this kind, to do justice to a great historical character like 
 Henry Clay. He was one of that class of men whom Scaliger designates as 
 homines centarii men that appear upon the earth but once in a century. 
 His fame is the growth of years, and it would require time to unfold tfie 
 elements which have combined to impart to it so much of stability and 
 grandeur. Volumes have already been written, and volumes will continue 
 to be written, to record those eminent and distinguished public services 
 which have placed him in the front rank of American statesmen and pa 
 triots. The highest talent, fired by a fervid and patriotic enthusiasm, has 
 already and will continue to exhaust its powers, to portray those striking 
 and generous incidents of his life, those shining and captivating qualities 
 of his heart, which have made him one of the most beloved, as he was one 
 of the most admired, of men ; and yet the subject itself will remain as fresh 
 and exhaustless as if hundreds of the best intellects of the land had not 
 * Charlei James Faulkner (Unionist, late Whig), of Virginia. 
 E 
 
410 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 quaffed the inspiration of their genins from the ever-gushing and overflow 
 ing fountains of his fame. It is impossible that a reputation so grand and 
 colossal as that which attaches to the name of Henry Clay, could rest 
 for its base upon any single virtue, however striking, or upon any single 
 act, no matter how marked or distinguished. Such a reputation as he has 
 left behind him, could only be the result of a long life of illustrious public 
 service. And such it truly was. For nearly half a century, he has been a 
 prominent actor in all the stirring and eventful scenes of American history ; 
 fashioning and moulding many of the most important measures of public 
 policy by his bold and sagacious mind, and arresting others by his uncon 
 querable energy and resistless force of eloquence. And, however much the 
 members of this body may differ in opinion as to the wisdom of many of hia 
 views of national domestic policy, there is not one upon this floor no, sir, 
 not one in this nation who will deny to him frankness and directness as a 
 public man a genius for statesmanship of the highest order extraordinary 
 capacities for public usefulness, and an ardent and elevated patriotism, 
 without stain and without reproach. 
 
 " In referring to a career of public service so varied and extended as that 
 of Mr. Clay, and to a character so rich in every great and manly virtue, it 
 is only possible to glance at a few of the most prominent of those points of 
 his personal history which have given to him so distinguished a place in the 
 affections of his countrymen. 
 
 " In the whole character of Mr. Clay, in all that attached or belonged to 
 it, you find nothing that is not essentially American. Born in the darkest 
 period of our revolutionary struggle reared from infancy to manhood 
 among those great minds which gave the first impulses to that mighty move 
 ment he early imbibed and sedulously cherished those great principles of 
 civil and political liberty, which he so brilliantly illustrated in his subse 
 quent public career, and which has made his name a watchword of hope 
 and consolation to the oppressed of all the earth. In his intellectual train 
 ing, he was the pure creation of our own republican soil. Few if any allu 
 sions are to be seen in his speeches or writings to ancient or modern litera 
 ture, or to the thoughts and ideas of other men. His country its institu 
 tions its policy its interests its destiny form the exclusive topics of 
 these eloquent harangues which, while they are destitute of the elaborate 
 finish, have all the ardor and intensity of thought, the earnestness of pur 
 pose, the cogency of reasoning, the vehemence of style, and the burning 
 patriotism which mark the productions of the great Athenian orator. 
 
 " One of the most distinguishing characteristics of Mr. Clay as a public 
 man, was his loyalty to truth and to the honest convictions of his own 
 mind. He deceived no man he would not permit his own heart to be de 
 ceived by any of those seductive influences which too often warp the judg 
 ment of men in public life. He never paused to consider how far any step 
 which he was about to take would lead to his own personal advancement ; 
 he never calculated what he might lose or what he might gain by his ad 
 vocacy of, or his opposition to, any particular measure. His single inquiry 
 was, Is it right? Is it in accordance with the Constitution of the land! 
 Will it redound to the permanent welfare and interest of the country? 
 When satisfied upon these points, his determination was fixed his purpose 
 was immovable. I had rather be rfght than President, was the expression 
 of his genuine feelings; and the principle by which he was controlled in 
 his public career a saying worthy of immortality, and proper to be in 
 scribed upon the heart of every young man in this Republic. And yet, sir, 
 with all of that persona and moral intrepidity which so eminently marked 
 
EULOGY OF MR. FAULKNER. 411 
 
 the character of Mr. Clay with his well-known inflexibility of purpose, 
 and unyielding determination such was the genuine sincerity of his patri 
 otism, and such his thorough comprehension of those principles of com 
 promise, upon which the whole structure of our Government was founded, 
 that no one was more prompt to relax the rigor of his policy the moment 
 he perceived that it was calculated to disturb the harmony of the States, or 
 endanger, in any degree, the stability of the Government. With him, the 
 love of this Union was a passion an absorbing sentiment which gave color 
 to every act of his public life. It triumphed over party ; it triumphed over 
 policy ; it subdued the natural fierceness and haughtiness of his temper, and 
 brought him into the most kindly and cordial relations with all those who, 
 upon all other questions, were deeply and bitterly opposed to him. It 
 has been asserted, sir, upon high medical authority, and doubtless with 
 truth, that his life was, in all probability, shortened ten years by the ardu 
 ous and extraordinary labors which he assumed at the memorable session 
 of 1850. If so, he has added the crowning glory of the Martyr to the spot 
 less fame of the Patriot ; and we may well hope that a great national 
 pacification, purchased at such a sacrifice, will long continue to cement the 
 bonds of this great and glorious Union. 
 
 " Mr. Clay possessed, in an eminent degree, the qualities of a great popu 
 lar leader, and History, I will assume to say, affords no example, in any Re 
 public, ancient or modern, of any individual that so fearlessly carried out 
 the convictions of his own judgment, and so sparingly flattered the preju 
 dices of popular feeling, who for so long a period exercised the same con 
 trolling influence over the public mind. Earnest in whatever measures he 
 sustained fearless in attack dexterous in defense abounding in intellec 
 tual resource eloquent in debate of inflexible purpose, and with a cour 
 age never to submit or yield, no man ever lived with higher qualifications 
 to rally a desponding party, or to lead an embattled host to victory. That 
 he never attained the highest post of honorable ambition in this country, is 
 not to be ascribed to any want of capacity as a popular leader ; nor the ab 
 sence of those qualities which attract the fidelity and devotion of troops 
 of admiring friends. It was the fortune of Napoleon, at a critical period of 
 his destiny, to be brought into collision with the star of "Wellington, and it 
 was the fortune of Henry Clay to have encountered, in his political orbit> 
 another great and original mind, gifted with equal power for commanding 
 success, and blessed with more fortunate elements, concurring at the time, 
 of securing popular favor. The struggle was such as might have been an 
 ticipated, from the collision of two such fierce and powerful rivals. 
 
 " For nearly a quarter of a century, this great Republic has been con 
 vulsed to its centre by the divisions which have sprung from their respec 
 tive opinions, policy, and personal destinies; and even now, when they 
 have both been removed to a higher and better sphere of existence, and 
 every unkind feeling has been quenched in the triumphs of the grave, this 
 country still feels, and for years will continue to feel, the influence of these 
 agitations to which their powerful and impressive characters gave impulse. 
 
 " But I must pause. If I were to attempt to present all the aspects in 
 which the character of this illustrious man will challenge the applause of 
 history, I should fatigue the House and violate the just limit allowed for 
 such remarks. 
 
 "I can not conclude, however, without making some more special allu 
 sion to Mr. Clay, as a native of that State which I have the honor in part 
 to represent upon this floor. We are all proud, and very properly proud, 
 of the distinguished men to whom our respective States have given birth. 
 
412 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 It is a just and laudable emulation, and one, in a confederated government 
 like ours, proper to be encouraged. And while men like Mr. Clay very 
 rapidly rise above the confined limits of State reputation and acquire a na 
 tional fame, in which all claim and all have an equal interest, still there is 
 a propriety and fitness in preserving the relation between the individual 
 and his State. Virginia has given birth to a large number of men who 
 have, by their distinguished talents and services, impressed their names 
 upon the hearts and memories of their countrymen ; but, certainly, since 
 the colonial era, she has given birth to no man who, in the massive and 
 gigantic proportions of his character, and in the splendor of his native en 
 dowments, can be compared to Henry Clay. At an early age he emigrated 
 from his native State, and found a home in Kentucky. In a speech which 
 he delivered in the Senate of the United States in February, 1842, and 
 which I well remember, upon the occasion of his resigning his seat in that 
 body, he expressed the wish that when that event should occur, which has 
 now clothed the city in mourning, and filled the nation with grief, that 
 his earthly remains should be laid under the green sod of Kentucky, with 
 those of her gallant and patriotic sons. 
 
 " Sir, however gratifying it might be to us that those remains should be 
 transferred to his native soil, and there mingle with the ashes of Washing 
 ton, Jefferson, Madison, Lee, and Henry, we can not complain of the very 
 natural preference which he has there himself expressed. If Virginia did 
 give him birth, Kentucky has nourished him in his manhood has freely 
 lavished upon him her highest honors has shielded him from harm when 
 the clouds of calumny and detraction gathered heavily and loweringly 
 about him, and she has watched over his fame with the tenderness and zeal 
 of a mother. Sir, it is not to be wondered that he should have expressed 
 the wish which he did, to be laid by the side of her gallant and patriotic 
 eons. Happy Kentucky ! Happy in having an adopted son so worthy of 
 her best honors. Happy in the unshaken fidelity and loyalty with which, 
 for near half a century, those honors have been so steadfastly and grace 
 fully accorded to him. 
 
 "Sir, while Virginia, in the exercise of her own just judgment, has 
 differed from Mr. Clay in some of his views of national policy, she has 
 never, at any period of his public career, failed to regard him with pride 
 as one of her most distinguished sons ; to honor the purity and the manli 
 ness of his character, and to award to him the high credit of an honest and 
 sincere devotion to his country s welfare. And now, sir, that death has ex 
 tinguished for ever the workings of that mip-hty intellect, and sealed in 
 eternal silence those eloquent lips upon whose accents thousands have so 
 often hung in rapture, I shall stand justified in saying that a wail of lamen 
 tation will be heard from her people her whole people reverberating 
 through her mountains and valleys, as deep, as genuine, and as sincere aa 
 that which I know will swell the noble hearts and the heaving bosoms of 
 the people of his own cherished and beloved Kentucky. 
 
 " Sir, as I walked to the Capitol this morning, every object which attracted 
 my eye admonished me that a national benefactor had departed from among 
 us. He is gone 1 Henry Clay, the idol of his friends, the ornament of the 
 Senate-chamber, the pride of his country, he whose presence gathered 
 crowds of his admiring fellow-men aiound him, as if he had been one de 
 scended from above, has passed forever from our view. 
 
 His soul, enlarged from its vile bonds, has gone 
 To that refulgent world where it shall swim 
 In liquid light, and float on eeas of bliss. 
 
EULOGY OF MR. PARKER OF IND. 413 
 
 But the memory of his virtues and of his services will be gratefully em 
 balmed in the hearts of his countrymen, and generations yet unborn will be 
 taught to lisp with reverence and enthusiasm the name of Henry Clay." 
 
 MR. PARKER* said: "Mr. Speaker, this is a solemn a consecrated hour. 
 And I would not detain the members of the House from indulging in the 
 silent eloquence of their own feelings, so grateful to hearts chastened as 
 ours. 
 
 " But I can not restrain an expression from a bosom pained with its full 
 ness. 
 
 " When my young thoughts first took cognizance of the fact that I have 
 a country, my eye was attracted by the magnificent proportions of Henry 
 Clay. 
 
 " The idea absorbed me then, that he was, above all other men, the em 
 bodiment of my country s genius. 
 
 " I have watched him ; I have studied him ; I have admired him and, 
 God forgive me ! for he was but a man, of like passions with us I fear I 
 have idolized him, until this hour. 
 
 "But he has gone from among men; and it is for us now to awake and 
 apply ourselves, with renewed fervor and increased fidelity, to the welfare 
 of the country, HE loved so well and served so truly and so long the glorious 
 country yet saved to us 1 
 
 " Yes, Henry Clay has fallen at last! as the ripe oak falls, in the stillness 
 of the forest. But the verdant and gorgeous richness of his glories will only 
 fade and wither from the earth, when his country s history shall have been 
 forgotten. 
 
 " One generation passeth away and another generation cometh. Thus it 
 hath been from the beginning ; and thus it will be, until time shall be n 
 longer. 
 
 " Yesterday morning, at eleven o clock, the spirit of Henry Clay so long 
 the pride and glory of his own country, and the admiration of all the world 
 was yet with us, though struggling to be free. Ere high noon came, it 
 had passed over the dark river, through the gate, into the celestial city, 
 inhabited by all the just made perfect 
 
 "May not our rapt vision contemplate him there, this day, in sweet com 
 munion with the dear friends that have gone before him ? with Madison, 
 and Jefferson, and Washington, and Henry, and Franklin with the eloquent 
 Tully, with the divine Plato, witli Aaron, the Levite, who could speak 
 well with all the great and good, since and before the flood ? 
 
 " His princely tread has graced these aisles for the last time. These halls 
 will wake no more to the magic music of his voice. 
 
 " Did that tall spirit, in its ethereal form, enter the courts of the upper 
 sanctuary, bearing itself comparably with the spirits there, as was his walk 
 among men? 
 
 " Did the mellifluous tones of his greeting there enrapture the hosts of 
 Heaven, comparably with his strains to stir men s blood on earth ? 
 
 " Then, may we not fancy, when it was announced to the inhabitants of 
 that better country: HE COMES! HE COMES! there was a rustling of 
 angel- wings a thrilling joy up there, only to be witnessed once in an 
 earthly age ? 
 
 " Adieu I a last adieu to thee, Henry Clay ! 
 
 "The hearts of all thy countrymen are melted, on this day, because of the 
 thought that thou art gone. 
 
 * Samuel W. Parker (Whig), of Indiana. 
 
414 LIFE OF HENKV CLAY. 
 
 " Could we have held the hand of the insatiate archer, thou hadst not 
 died ; but thou wouldst have tarried with us, in the full grandeur of thy 
 greatness, until we had no longer need of a country. 
 
 " But we thank our Heavenly Father that thou wast given to us ; and that 
 thou didst survive so long. 
 
 " "We would cherish thy memory while we live, as our country s JEWEL 
 than which none 14 richer. And we will teach our children the lessons of 
 matchless patriotism thou hast taught us ; with the fond hope that our 
 JBERTY and our UNION may only expire with the last of earth. " 
 
 MR. GENTRY* said : " Mr. Speaker, I do not rise to pronounce a eulogy 
 on the life and character and public services of the illustrious orator and 
 statesman whose death this nation deplores. Suitably to perform that task, 
 a higher eloquence than I possess might essay in vain. The gushing tears 
 of the nation, the deep grief which oppresses the hearts of more than 
 twenty millions of people, constitute a more eloquent eulogium upon the 
 life, and character, and patriotic services of Henry Clay, than the power of 
 language can express. In no part of our country is that character more ad 
 mired, or those public services more appreciated, than in the State which 
 I have the honor, in part, to represent I claim for the people of that State, 
 a full participation in the general wo which the sad announcement of to-day 
 will everywhere inspire." 
 
 MR. BOWIE. f "I rise not to utter the measured phrases of premeditated 
 wo, but to speak as would my constituents speak, if they stood around the 
 grave now opened to receive the mortal remains, not of a statesman only, 
 but of a beloved friend. If there is a State in this Union, other than Ken 
 tucky, which sends up a wail of more bitter and sincere sorrow than another, 
 that State is Maryland. In her midst, this departed Statesman was a fre 
 quent and a welcome guest At many a board, and many a fireside, his 
 noble form was the light of the eyes and the idol of the heart. Throughout 
 her borders, in cottage, hamlet, and cities, his name is a household word, his 
 thoughts are familiar sentences. Though not permitted to be first at his 
 cradle, Maryland would be last at his tomb. Through all the phases of po 
 litical fortune, amid all the storms which darkened his career, Maryland 
 cherished him in her inmost heart, as the most gifted, patriotic, and eloquent 
 of men ; and for him daily, to this hour, prayers ascend, night and morning, 
 for his temporal and eternal welfare. Maryland would, in the language of 
 inspiration, exclaim : This day hath a prince and a ruler fallen in Israel ! 
 Daughters of America, weep for him who hath clothed you in scarlet and 
 fine linen 1 
 
 " The husbandman at his plough, the artisan at the anvil, the seaman on 
 the mast, will pause and drop a tear when he hears that Clay is no more. 
 
 "The advocate for freedom in both hemispheres, he will be lamented alike 
 on the shores of the Hellespont and the banks of the Mississippi and Orin 
 oco. The freed men of Liberia, learning and practicing the art of self- 
 government, and civilizing Africa, have lost a patron and protector, a father 
 and friend. America mourns the departure of a luminary, which enlightened 
 and illustrated the continent ; the United States, a counsellor of deepest wis 
 dom and purest purpose ; mankind, the advocate of human rights and con 
 stitutional liberty." 
 
 * Meredith P. Gentry (Whig), of Tennessee. 
 1 Richard J. Bowie (Whig), of Maryland. 
 
EULOGY OF MR. WALSH OF MD. 415 
 
 MB. WALSH* said : " Mr. Speaker, the illustrious man whose death we this 
 day mourn, was so long my political leader so long almost the object of my 
 personal idolatry, that I can not allow that he shall go down to the grave, 
 without a word at least of affectionate remembrance without a tribute to 
 a memory, which will exact tributes as long as a heart shall be found to beat 
 within the bosom of civilized man, and human agency shall be adequate in 
 any form to give them an expression. And even, sir, if I had no heart-felt 
 sigh to pour out here if I had no tear for that coffin s lid, I should do in 
 justice to those whose representative in part I am, if I did not in this pres 
 ence, and at this time, raise my voice to swell the accents of the profoundest 
 public sorrow. 
 
 "The State of Maryland has always vied with Kentucky in love and 
 adoration of his name. Her people have gathered around him, with all the 
 fervor of a first affection, and with more than its duration. Troops of friends 
 have ever clustered about his pathway with a personal devotion, which each 
 man of them regarded as the highest individual honor friends, sir, to whose 
 firesides the tidings of his death will go with all the withering influences 
 which are felt when household ties are severed. 
 
 "I wish, sir, I could offer now a proper memorial for such a subject, and 
 such an affection. But, as I strive to utter it, I feel the disheartening influ 
 ence of the well known truth, that in view of death all minds sink into 
 triteness. It would seem, indeed, sir, that the great leveler of our race 
 would vindicate his title to be so considered, by making all men think alike 
 in regard to his visitation The thousand thoughts that begin and end in 
 one, the desolation here the eternal hope hereafter are influences felt 
 alike by the lowest intellect and the loftiest genius. 
 
 "Mr. Chairman, a statesman for more than fifty years in the councils of 
 his country, whose peculiar charge it was to see that the Republic suffered 
 no detriment a patriot for all times, all circumstances, and all emergencies 
 has passed away from the trials and triumphs of the world, and gone to 
 his reward. Sad as are the emotions which such an event would ordinarily 
 excite, their intensity is deeply heightened by the matters so fresh withii* 
 the memories of us all 
 
 Oh ! think how to his latest day, 
 When Death, just hovering, claimed his prey, 
 With Palinurus unaltered mood, 
 Firm at his dangerous post he stood, 
 Each call for needful rest repelled, 
 With dying hand the rudder held ; 
 Then, while on freedom s thousand plains 
 One unpolluted church remains, 
 Whose peaceful bells ne er sent around ; 
 The bloody tocsin s maddening sound ; 
 But still, upon the hallowed day, 
 Convoke the swains to praise and pray, 
 While faith and civil peace are dear, 
 Greet his cold marble with a tear : 
 He who preserved them Clay lies here t 
 
 "In a character, Mr. Speaker, so illustrious and beautiful, it la difficult to 
 select any point for particular notice from those which go to make up its 
 noble proportions; but we may now, around his honored grave, call to 
 grateful recollection that invincible spirit which no personal sorrow could 
 sully, and no disaster could overcome. Be assured, sir, that he has in thia 
 regard, left a legacy to the young men of the republic almost as sacred and 
 as dear as that liberty of which his life was a blessed illustration. 
 
 * Thomas Yates Walsh (Whig), of Maryland. 
 
416 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 "We can all remember, sir, when adverse political results disheartened 
 his friends, and made them feel even as men without hope, his own clarion 
 voice was still heard in the assertion and the pursuit of rights, as bold and as 
 eloquent as when it first proclaimed the freedom of the seas, and its talis 
 man ic tones struck off the badges of bondage from the lands of the Incas 
 and the plains of Marathon. 
 
 "Mr. Speaker, in the exaltation of the statesman, he did not forget the 
 duties of the man. He was an affectionate adviser on all points wherein 
 inexperienced youth might require counsel. He was a disinterested sympa 
 thizer in personal sorrows that called for consolation. He was ever upright 
 and honorable in all the duties incident to his relations in life. 
 
 "To an existence so lovely, Heaven in its mercy granted a fitting and ap 
 propriate close. It was the prayer, Mr. Speaker, of a distinguished citizen, 
 who died some years since in this metropolis, even while his spirit was 
 fluttering for its final flight, that he might depart gracefully. It may not 
 be presumptuous to say, that what was in that instance the aspiration of a 
 chivalric gentleman, was in this the realization of the dying Christian, in 
 which was blended all that human dignity could require, with all that 
 Divine Grace had conferred ; in which the firmness of the man was only 
 transcended by the fervor of the penitent. 
 
 "A short period before his death, he remarked to one by his bedside, 
 that he was fearful he was becoming selfish, as his thoughts were entirely 
 Withdrawn from the world, and centered upon eternity. This, sir, was but 
 the purification of his noble spirit from all the dross of earth a happy il 
 lustration of what the religious muse has so sweetly sung : 
 
 No sin to stain no lure to stay 
 
 The soul, as home she springs ; 
 Thy sunshine on her joyful way, 
 Thy freedom in her wings. 
 
 "Mr. Speaker, the solemnities of this hour may soon be forgotten. "We 
 may come back from the new-made grave only still to show that we con 
 sider eternity the bubble, life and time the enduring substance. "We may 
 not pause long enough by the brink, to ask which of us revelers of the day 
 Bhall next be at rest. But be assured, sir, that upon the records of mortality 
 will never be inscribed a name more illustrious than that of the statesman, 
 patrio^ and friend, whom the nation mourns." 
 
 The SPEAKER: * "The Chair asks leave to give notice to the House, that 
 members of the Senate and House will form a procession at the National 
 Hotel to-morrow, at twenty minutes past eleven, to accompany the remains 
 of Mr. Clay to the Capitol for funeral ceremonies. The remains will pass 
 thence to the cars, and depart for Kentucky." 
 
 The question was then put, on the adoption of the resolutions 
 proposed by Mr. Breckinridge, and they were unanimously 
 adopted, 
 
 Ard the House adjourned. 
 
 * Linn Boyd (Democrat of Kentucky 
 
FUNERAL SERMON IN THE SENATE 417 
 
 THE FUNERAL AT THE CAPITOL. 
 
 IN SENATE, THURSDAY, JULY 1, 1852. 
 
 Pursuant to the arrangements prescribed by the committee of the Senate, 
 the members of the Senate and of the House of Representatives, together 
 with public bodies and associations, military companies, and civic authorities, 
 assembled at the National Hotel, where the body had lain since life de 
 parted ; and thence the melancholy funeral cortege passed to the Senate- 
 chamber, so long the theatre of his gloriea 
 
 As the body was borne to the centre of the Chamber, the Rev. Dr. Butler, 
 Chaplain to the Senate, in full canonicals, read part of the Episcopal ritual 
 "I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord." In consonance with 
 the solemn service over the dead was the scene there presented sombre 
 and sad. 
 
 The President of the United States and the Speaker of the House of 
 Representatives were seated with the President of the Senate. The body 
 of the Senate, the representatives of State sovereignties, were grouped, on 
 the two innermost semi-circular rows of chairs, around the lifeless form of 
 their late colleague. The committee of arrangements, and the committee t< 
 convey the body to Kentucky, and the pall-bearers, with the Kentucky 
 delegation in the House of Representatives, as chief mourners, and a fe\ 
 personal devoted friends, were also in close proximity to the inanimate fonr 
 of the deceased. 
 
 The members of the House of Representatives filled the outer circles, 
 except such parts as were devoted to the large diplomatic corps, the Cabi 
 net of the President of the United States, the officers of the Army and Navy, 
 among whom were Major-General Scott, commander-in-chief, and Com 
 modore Morris. "With the Municipal Councils of the city of "Washington, 
 were the officers of neighboring cities, and others, official and unofficial 
 
 Mr. James Maher, the public gardener, placed a fragrant shield of sweetly- 
 culled flowers upon the sarcophagus, as a memorial of affection for the 
 deceased statesman within. The pure white and brightly- variegated flowers 
 contrasted sadly with the rich folding drapery of black cloth, relieved 
 though it was by silver ornaments. The sarcophagus in which the remains 
 were inurned, resembles the outlines of the human body. The handles, the 
 face-plate, the plate for inscribing the name, and other plates, are of massive 
 silver, beautifully wrought and chased, having appropriate emblems, among 
 which appear wreaths of laurel and oak, with a full-blown rose, and sprig 
 of oak with its acorns detached from their parent stem, showing the work 
 of the fell destroyer. Amidst the contemplations to which this scene gave 
 being, the Chaplain s voice broke on the listening ear "But some man will 
 eay, How are the dead raised up ? and with what body do they come ?" The 
 answer was furnished by the residue of the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians, 
 which the Chaplain impressively read for the consolation of the bereaved 
 living 27 
 
 B* 
 
418 LIFE OF HENRY CLA1. 
 
 " How is the strong staff broken and the beautiful rod 1" (Jeremiah xlvilL 
 17,) was the suggestive text of the following impressive discourse : 
 
 "Before all hearts and minds in this august assemblage, the vivid image 
 of ONE MAN stands. To some aged eye, he may come forth, from the dim 
 past, as he appeared in the neighboring city of his native State, a lithe and 
 ardent youth, full of promise, of ambition, and of hope. To another, he may 
 appear as, in a distant State, in the courts of justice, erect, high-strung, bold, 
 wearing fresh forensic laurels on his young and open brow. Some may sej 
 him in the earlier and some in the later stages of his career on this auspi 
 cious theatre of his renown ; and to the former he will start out, on the back 
 ground of the past, as he appeared in the neighboring Chamber, tall, elate, 
 impassioned, with flashing eye and suasive gesture, and clarion voice, at. 
 already acknowledged Agamemnon, King of Men; and to others he will 
 again stand in this Chamber the strong staff of the bewildered and stagger 
 ing State, and the beautiful rod, rich with the blossoms of genius, and of 
 patriotic We and hope, the life of youth still remaining to give animation, 
 grace, and exhaustless vigor, to the wisdom, the experience, and gravity of 
 age. To others he may be present as he sat in the chamber of sickness, 
 cheerful, majestic, gentle his mind clear, his heart warm, his hope fixed^on 
 heaven, peacefully preparing for his last great change. To the memory of 
 the minister of God, he appears as the penitent, humble, and peaceful 
 Christian, who received him witli the affection of a father, and joined with 
 him in solemn sacrament and prayer with the gentleness of a woman and 
 humility of a child. Out of the strong came forth sweetness. How is 
 the strong staff broken and the beautiful rod ! But not before this assem 
 bly only does the venerable image of the departed statesman this day 
 distinctly stand. For more than a thousand miles East, West, North, and 
 South it is known and remembered, that at this place and hour a nation s 
 representatives assemble to do honor to him whose fame is now a nation s 
 heritage. A nation s mighty heart throbs against this Capitol, and beats 
 through you. In many cities, banners droop, bells toll, cannons boom, 
 funeral draperies wave. In crowded streets and on surrounding wharves, 
 upon steamboats, and upon cars, in fields, in workshops, in homes, in schools, 
 millions of men, women, and children, have their thoughts fixed upon this 
 scene, and say mournfully to each other, This is the hour in which, at the 
 capital, the nation s representatives are burying Henry Clay. Burying 
 Henry Clay? Bury the records of your country s history bury the hearts 
 of living millions bury the mountains, the rivers, the lakes, and the 
 spreading lands from sea to sea, with which his name is inseparably 
 associated, and even then you would not bury Henry Clay for he is in 
 other lands and speaks in other tongues, and to other times, than ours. 
 
 "A great mind, a great heart, a great orator, a great career, have been 
 consigned to history. She will record his rare gifts of deep insight, keen 
 discrimination, clear statement, rapid combination, plain, direct, and con 
 vincing logic. She will love to dwell on that large, generous? magnanimous, 
 open, forgiving heart. She will linger with fond delight on the recorded or 
 traditional stories of an eloquence that was so masterful and stirring, because 
 it was but himself struggling to come forth on the living words because, 
 though the words were brave and strong, and beautiful and melodious, it was 
 felt that, behind them, there was a soul, braver, stronger, more beautiful, 
 and more melodious than language could express. She will point to a career 
 of statesmanship which has, to a remarkable degree, stamped itself on the 
 public policy of th* country, and reached in beneficent practical results the 
 
THE FUNERAL SERMON. 419 
 
 fields, the looms, the commercial marts, and the quiet homes of all the land, 
 where his name was with the departed father, and is with the living 
 children, and will be with successive generations, an honored household 
 word. 
 
 " I feel, as a man, the grandeur of this career. But as an immortal, with 
 this broken wreck of mortality before me, with this scene as the end-all 
 of human glory, I feel that no career is truly great but that of him who, 
 whether he be illustrious or obscure, lives to the future in the present, and, 
 linking himself to the spiritual world, draws from God the life, the rule, the 
 motive, and the reward of all his labor. So would that great spirit which 
 has departed say to us, could he address us now. So did he realize in the 
 calm and meditative close of life. I feel that I but utter the lessons which, 
 when living, were his last and best convictions, and which, dead, could ha 
 speak to us, his solemn admonitions, when I say that statesmanship is then 
 only glorious when it is Christian, and that man is then only safe and true 
 to his duty and his soul, when the life which he lives in the flesh is the lif 
 of faith in the Son of God. 
 
 "Great, indeed, is the privilege, and most honorable and useful is the 
 career of a Christian American statesman. 
 
 " He perceives that civil liberty came from the freedom wherewith Christ 
 made its earliest martyr and defender free. He recognises it as one of the 
 twelve manner of fruits on the tree of life which, while its lower branches 
 furnish the best nutriment of earth, hangs on its topmost boughs, which 
 wave in heaven, fruits that exhilarate the immortals. Recognising th 
 State as God s institution, he will perceive that his own ministry is divine. 
 Living consciously under the eye and in the love and fear of God, redeemed 
 by the blood of Jesus, sanctified by his spirit, loving his law, he will give 
 himself, in^private and in public, to the service of his Savior. He will nol 
 admit that he may act on less lofty principles in public than in private life, 
 and that he must be careful of his moral influence in the small sphere of 
 home and neighborhood, but need take no heed of it when it stretches ovei 
 continents nnd crosses seas. He will know that his moral responsibility 
 can not be divided and distributed among others. When he is told that ad 
 herence to the strictest moral and religious principle is incompatible with & 
 successful and eminent career, he will denounce the assertion as a libel on 
 the venerated father of the Republic a libel on the honored living, and 
 the illustrious dead a libel against a great and Christian nation a libel 
 against God Himself, who has declared and made godliness profitable for 
 the life that is. He will strive to make laws transcripts of the character 
 and institutions, illustrations of the providence of God. He will scan with 
 admiration and awe the purposes of God in the future history of the world, 
 in throwing open this wide continent, from sea to sea, as the abode of 
 freedom, intelligence, plenty, prosperity, and peace, and feel that, in giving 
 his energies with a patriotic love to the welfare of his country, he is conse 
 crating himself with a Christian s zeal to the extension and establishment 
 of the Redeemer s kingdom. Compared with a career like this, which is 
 equally open to those whose public sphere is large or small, how paltry are 
 the trade of patriotism, the tricks of statesmanship, the rewards of success 
 ful baseness ! This hour, this scene, the venerated dead, the country, the 
 world, the present, the future, God, duty, heaven, hell, speak trumpet- 
 tongued to all in the service of their country, to bewar* how they lay pol 
 luted or unhallowed hands 
 
 4 Upon the ark 
 Of her magnificent and awful cause. 
 
420 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 "Such is the character of that statesmanship which alone would haya 
 met the full approval of the venerated dead. For the religion which al 
 ways had a place in the convictions of his mind has also, within a recent 
 period, entered into his experience and seated itself in his heart. Twenty 
 years since, he wrote : I am a member of no religious sect, and I am not a 
 professor of religion. I regret that I am not. I wish that I was, and trust 
 that I shall be. I have, and always have had, a profound regard for Chris 
 tianity, the religion of my fathers, and for its rites, its usages, and observ 
 ances. That feeling proved that the seed sown by pious parents was not 
 dead, though stifled. A few years since, its dormant life was reawakened. 
 He was baptized in the communion of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
 and during his sojourn in this city he was in full communion with Trinity 
 parish. 
 
 " It is since his withdrawal from the sittings of the Senate, that I have 
 been made particularly acquainted with his religious opinions, character, 
 and feelings. From his first illness, he expressed to me the persuasion 
 that it would be fatal. From that period until his death, it has been my 
 privilege to hold with him frequent religious services, and conversations 
 with him in his room. He averred to me his full faith in the great leading 
 doctrines of the Gospel the fall and sinfulness of man, the divinity of Christ, 
 the reality and necessity of the atonement, the need of being born again by 
 the Spirit, and salvation through faith in the crucified Redeemer. His own. 
 personal hopes of salvation, he ever and distinctly based on the promises 
 and the grace of Christ. Strikingly perceptible on his naturally impetuous 
 and impatient character, was the influence of Grace in producing submission 
 and patient waiting for Christ, and for death. On one occasion, he spoke 
 to me of the pious example of one very near and dear to him, as that which 
 led him deeply to feel and earnestly to seek for himself the reality and 
 blessedness of religion. On one occasion, he told me that he had been 
 etriving to form a conception of Heaven ; and he enlarged upon the mercy 
 of that provision by which our Savior became a partaker of our humanity, 
 that our hearts and hopes might fix themselves on him. On another occa 
 sion, when he was supposed to be very near his end, I expressed to him the 
 hope that his mind and heart were at peace, and that he was able to rest 
 with cheerful confidence on the promises and merits of the Redeemer. He 
 said, with much feeling, that he endeavored to, and trusted that he did re 
 pose his salvation upon Christ ; that it was too late for him to look at Chris 
 tianity in the light of speculation; that he had never doubted of its truth; 
 and that he now wished to throw himself upon it as a practical and blessed 
 remedy. Very soon after this, I administered to him the sacrament of the 
 Lord s Supper. Being extremely feeble, and desirous of having his mind un 
 diverted, no persons were present but his son and servant. It was a scene 
 long to be remembered. There, in that still chamber, at a week-day noon, 
 the tides of life all flowing strong around us, three disciples of the Savior the 
 minister of God, the dying statesman, and his servant, a partaker of the like 
 precious faith commemorated their Savior s dying love. He joined in the 
 blessed sacrament with great feeling and solemnity now pressing his hands 
 together, and now spreading them forth, as the words of the service ex 
 pressed the feelings, desires, supplications, and thanksgivings of his heart. 
 After this he rallied, and again I was permitted frequently to join with him 
 in religious services, conversation, and prayer. He grew in grace, and in 
 the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Among the books 
 which he read most, were Jay s Morning and Evening Exercises, the Life of 
 Dr. Chalmers, and the Christian Philosopher Triumphant in Death. Hia 
 
THE FUNERAL CORTEGE. 421 
 
 hope continued to the end, though true and real, to be tremulous with 
 humility rather than rapturous with assurance. When he felt most the weari 
 ness of his protracted sufferings, it sufficed to suggest to him that his Heavenly 
 Father doubtless knew that, after a life so long, stirring, and tempted, such a 
 discipline of chastening and suffering was needful to make him meet for the 
 inheritance of the saints; and at once the words of meek and patient ac 
 quiescence escaped his lips. 
 
 " Exhausted nature at length gave way. On the last occasion when I was 
 permitted to offer a brief prayer at his bedside, his last words to me were 
 that he had hope only in Christ, and that the prayer which I had offered for 
 his pardoning love and his sanctifying grace, included everything which the 
 dying need. On the evening previous to his departure, sitting an hour in 
 silence by his side, I could not but realize, when I heard him in the slight 
 wanderings of his mind to other days, and other scenes, murmuring the 
 words, My mother! mother I mother / and saying, My dear wife, as if she 
 were present, I could not but realize then, and rejoice to think how near waa 
 the blessed reunion of his heart with the loved dead and with her our dear 
 Lord gently smoothe her passage to the tomb ! who must soon follow him to 
 his rest, whose spirits even then seemed to visit and to cheer his memory 
 and his hope. Gently he breathed his soul away into the spirit world. 
 
 How blest the righteous when they die I 
 
 When holy souls retire to rest, 
 How mildly beams the closing eye ! 
 How gently heaves the expiring breast ( 
 
 So fades a summer cloud away ; 
 
 So sinks the gale when storms are o er ; 
 So gently shuts the eye of day ; 
 So dies the wave upon the shore 1 
 
 " Be it ours to follow him in the same humble and submissive faith to 
 Heaven. Could he speak to us the counsels of his latest human and of his 
 present heavenly experience, sure I am that he would not only admonish 
 us to cling to the Savior in sickness and in death, but abjure us not to delay 
 to act upon our first convictions, that we might give our best power and 
 fullest influence for God, and go to the grave with a hope unshadowed by 
 the long worldliness of the past, and darkened by no films of fear and doubt 
 resting over the future ! 
 
 " The strong staff is broken, and the beautiful rod despoiled of its grace 
 ind bloom ; but, in the light of the eternal promises, and by the power of 
 Christ s resurrection, we joyfully anticipate the prospect of seeing that 
 broken staff erect, and that beautiful rod, clothed with celestial grace, and 
 blossoming with undying life and blessedness, in the paradise of God." 
 
 The ritual of the Episcopal Church, at the burial of thfe dead, 
 closed the solemn service, and the body was removed to the 
 Rotunda, that his sorrowing countrymen might gaze upon that 
 face in deatli which has cheered them so much while living. 
 
 The funeral cortege, with the mortal remains of the departed 
 statesman, left Washingtor. by railroad soon after the conclusion 
 of the above services, halt ng for the night at Baltimore, where 
 
422 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 the whole people came out to attest by fit observances their af 
 fection and sorrow. Thence it proceeded next day, halting 
 briefly at Wilmington, to Philadelphia, where the most impres 
 sive honors were paid to the mighty dead by countless thousands. 
 The body rested for the night in Independence Hall, under im 
 posing military guardianship. The next day (Saturday) it moved 
 on to New-York, halting briefly at the principal villages of New- 
 Jersey, where Mr. Clay had ever been most deeply beloved and 
 warmly supported. Again at New-York, where the great Ken- 
 tuckian had troops of friends as devoted as man ever had in the 
 world, the people had gathered at one o clock in countless thou 
 sands to share in the solemnities of the occasion ; and, after wait 
 ing its arrival till five, followed the bier in long and sad proces 
 sion to the City Hall, where the coffin rested through the 
 Sabbath in the Governor s Room, guarded by the Washington 
 Greys, who afterward formed its escort to Albany. While it 
 remained in New- York, more than thirty thousand persons passed 
 in succession through the Governor s Room to gaze at the closed 
 coffin which shrouded from view the deserted tenement of Genius 
 and Patriotism. On Monday morning the procession departed 
 by steamboat for Albany, where the most imposing testimonials 
 of public grief were rendered by nearly the whole people. The 
 bier rested for the night in the State capitol, and thence took its 
 way next morning, with its long train of attendants, by railroad 
 through Ithaca, Syracuse, Rochester, to Buffalo, thence by steam 
 boat to Cleveland, by railroad to Cincinnati, and so by Louis 
 ville to Lexington, everywhere evoking from the entire com 
 munity unanimous manifestations of a fond and tender regard for 
 the great and good Statesman so ripely called to everlasting rest. 
 Party differences were utterly forgotten ; the miserable calum 
 nies which for a season had clouded the fame of the noblest 
 living American were remembered, if At all, only as deeply dis 
 graceful to their inventors; and the whole American People min 
 gled their tears of fond and grateful sorrow above the urn that 
 enclosed the dust which once was Henry Clay. And thus, his 
 ashes were laid to rest, on Saturday, July 10th, at the city he 
 had early chosen for his home, and among the people who had ad 
 mired, supported, and loved him with unwavering fidelity through 
 
FUNERAL AT LEXINGTON. 423 
 
 all the storms and calms of more than half a century of eventful 
 public life. Surrounded by the whole circle of his stricken 
 relatives, including the faithful and devoted partner of his joys 
 and sorrows, and attended to the grave by the entire community 
 of which he was so eminently beloved a member, his body was 
 buried in the spot of his choice, there to mingle with the soil of 
 that gallant State which he had so loved and honored, and which 
 had equally loved and revered him in turn. There let the 
 marble rise proudly and gracefully above his silent dust ; but 
 that will not be his only nor his noblest memorial. Wherever 
 our seamen shall ride out a tempest in safety, protected by the 
 piers and breakwaters of our Atlantic or inland harbors wher 
 ever internal trade shall find a highway opened for it over moun 
 tains or through morasses by the engineer s science and the 
 laborer s sturdy arm wherever Industry shall see its pursuits 
 diversified and its processes perfected through the naturalization 
 among us of new Arts or the diffusion of Manufacturing efficiency 
 there shall henceforth arise in the hearts of grateful Freemen 
 enduring monuments to the genius, the patriotism, the statesmaft- 
 ship, the beneficence, of our beloved HENRY CLAY. 
 
POETIC TRIBUTES. 
 
 TO HENRY CLAY 
 
 BY JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER, 
 
 Holding the principle that a citizen, as long as a single pulsation remains, is under obllga 
 tion to exert his utmost energies in the service of his country, whether in a private or publir 
 station, my friends may rest assured that, in either condition I shall stand erect, with a spiril 
 unconquered, while life endures, ready to second their exertions in the cause of Union and 
 Liberty. HENRY CLAY. 
 
 I have doubtless committed many errors and indiscretions, over which you have thrown the 
 broad mantle of your charity. But I can say, and in the presence of my God and of thi 
 assembled multitude I do say, that I have honestly served my country that I have never 
 wronged it and that, however unprepared I lament that I am to appear in the Divine Pres 
 ence on other accounts. I invoke the justice of his judgment on my official conduct, without 
 the smallest apprehension of his displeasure. Speech of Mr. Clay, at Lexington, Ky., 1829. 
 
 AY stand erect! the cloud is broken 
 Above thee bends the rainbow s token ! 
 The shadow of thy onward way 
 Is blending into perfect day; 
 The slanders of the venal train 
 Assail thy honest name in vain ; 
 For thou wilt be as thou hast been, 
 The hope of free and patriot men I 
 
 Still boasts thy lip its fiery zeal 
 Thy heart its joy in human weal 
 Still free thy tongue to soothe or warn 
 Still free its fiery shaft of scorn 
 Still soars thy soul, untamed and strong, 
 The loftier for its sense of wrong 
 Still first in Freedom s cause to stand, 
 The champion of her favorite land. 
 
 Oh! what to thee were pomp and show 
 Aught that thy country can bestow? 
 Her highest gifts could only take 
 Few honors for their wearer s sake 
 They could not add a wreath to thine, 
 Nor brighter make thy glory shine 
 No I meaner ones may borrow fame, 
 Thine lives through every change the same! 
 
POETIC TRIBUTES. 
 
 The Grecian, as he feeds his flocks 
 In Tempo s vale, on Morea s rocks, 
 Or where the gleam of bright blue waters 
 Is caught by Scio s white-armed daughters, 
 While dwelling on the dubious strife 
 Which ushered in his nation s life, 
 Shall mingle, in his grateful lay, 
 BOZZARIS with the name of CLAY! 
 
 Where blush the warm skies of the South 
 
 O er Cotopaxi s fiery mouth, 
 
 And round the fallen Incas graves 
 
 The Pampa rolls its breezy waves, 
 
 The patriot in his council hall 
 
 The soldier at his fortress wall 
 
 The brave the lovely and the free 
 
 Shall offer up their prayers for thee. 
 
 And where our own rude valleys smile, 
 And temple-spire, and lofty pile, 
 Crown, like the fashion of a dream, 
 *The slope of every mountain stream 
 Where Industry and Plenty meet, 
 Twin brothers in the crowded street 
 Each spire and mansion upward sent, 
 Shall be thy fitting monument! 
 
 Still stand erect! our hope and trust^ 
 When Law is trampled in the dust, 
 When o er our fathers yet green graves 
 The war-cry of Disunion raves 
 And sons of those who side by side, 
 Smote down the Lion-banner s pride, 
 Are girding for fraternal strife 
 For blow for blow, and life for life! 
 
 Let others rob the public store, 
 To buy their ill-used power once more 
 Shrink back from truth and open wide 
 The flood-gates of Corruption s tide 
 Thou standest in thy country s eye 
 Unshrinking from its scrutiny, 
 And, asking nothing but to show 
 How far a Patriot s zeal can go. 
 
 And those whose trust is fixed on thee 
 Unbought unpledged and truly free, 
 They bow not to an idol down ; 
 They scorn alike the bribe and frown; 
 And, asking no reward of gold, 
 For bartered faith for honor sold, 
 Seek, faithful to their hearths and home, 
 NOT CAESAR S WEAL, BUT THAT OF ROME! 
 
LIFE OF HENRY CLAY 
 IL 
 
 HENRY CLAY, 
 
 ON HIS BETIRINQ FROM THE U. S. SENATE. 
 
 WAIL for the glorious Pleiad fled 
 
 Wail for the ne er returning star 
 Whose mighty music ever led 
 
 The spheres in their high home afar! 
 Bring burial weeds? and sable plume 
 
 What lift the funeral song of wo 
 Such as should o er the loved one s toral 
 
 In Sorrow s tenderest accent flow? 
 
 Ah! Freedom s kindling minstrel, no 
 Strike! strike with a triumphant hand 
 
 Thy harp, and at its swelling roll 
 Speak, through the borders of our land, 
 
 The might the beauty of that soul 
 Whose genius is our guardian light 
 Through sunny ray or darkling night 
 A worshiped Pharos in the sea, 
 
 Lifting on high its fearless form 
 To guide the vessel of the Free 
 
 Safe through the fury of the storm. 
 
 PRIDE OF THE WEST! whose clarion-tone 
 Thrilled grandly through her forest lon%, 
 And waked to bounding life the shore 
 Where darkness only sat before 
 How millions bent before thy shrine, 
 Beholding there a light divine 
 Caught on the golden chain of love, 
 From its majestic source above. 
 
 STAR OF OUR HOPE! when Battle s call 
 Had wove the soldier s gory pall 
 When, blazing o er the troubled seas, 
 Death came tumultuous on the breeze, 
 And men beheld Columbia s frame 
 Scorched by the lurid levin-flame 
 Thou! thou didst pour the patriot- strain,* 
 And thrilled with it each bleeding vein 
 Until the star-lit banners streamed 
 
 Like tempest-fires around the foe, 
 Whose crimson cross no longer gleamed 
 In triumph where it erst had beamed 
 
 But sunk beneath our gallant blow. 
 
 SUN OF THE FREE! where Summer smiles 
 Eternal o er the clustered isles 
 Where GREECE unsheathed her olden blade 
 For Glory in the haunted shade 
 . Alluding to his efforts as Republican leader in Congress during tie late Vfi 
 
POETIC TRIBUTES. 
 
 Where CHIMBORAZO stands sublime 
 A land-mark by the sea of Time * 
 Thy name shall, as a blessing given 
 
 For Man, oh! never to depart, 
 Peal from our gladdened Earth to Heaven 
 
 The warm, wild music of the heart. 
 
 PRIDE OF THE JUST! what though dark Hate 
 
 Her frenzied storm around thee rolls 
 Has it not ever been the fate 
 
 Of all this Earth s truth-speaking souls I 
 Lightnings may play upon the rock 
 
 Whose star-kissed foreliead woos the gale, 
 While they escape the thunder-shock 
 
 Who dwell within the lonely vale 
 Living unnoted! not so thou 
 Chief of the fearless soul and brow ! 
 Yet let the lightning and the storm 
 Beat on thy long-devoted form ! 
 The silvery day-beam bursts! and lo! 
 Around thee curls the Promise-Bow! 
 
 Look! on yon hight Columbia stands 
 
 Immortal laurels in her hands! 
 
 And hark her voice "RISE! FREEMEN, RISK! 
 
 Unloose the chain from ev ry breast; 
 See ! see the splendor in yon skies 
 
 Flashed from the bosom of the WEST!" 
 Roused at the sound, lo ! millions leap 
 Like giants from inglorious sleep! 
 What cries are here"? What sounds prevail! 
 Whose name is thundering on the gale? 
 (Far in the mountains of the North 
 
 Far in the sunny South away 
 A winged lustre bounding forth ) 
 
 The deathless name of HENRY CLAY 
 
 III. 
 HE IS NOT FALLEN. f 
 
 BY J. O. WIIITTIER. 
 
 NOT FALLEN! No as well the tall 
 And pillared Allegheny fall 
 As well Ohio s giant tide 
 
 Roll backward on its mighty track 
 As he, Columbia s hope and pride, 
 The slandered and the sorely tried, 
 
 In his triumphant course turn back. 
 
 Who can forget Heury Clay s burning eloquence iu advocacy of Grecian and South Amen 
 lean Independence? 
 t Incited by a spirited article thua entitled by George D. Prentice in his Louisville Journal. 
 
LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 HE is NOT FALLEN ! Seek to bind 
 The chainless and unbidden wind; 
 Oppose the torrent s headlong course, 
 And turn aside the whirlwind s forae 
 But deem not that the mighty mind 
 Will cower before the blast of hate, 
 
 Or quail at dark and causeless ilL* 
 For though all else be desolate, 
 It stoops not from its high estate 
 
 A Malftus mid the ruins still. 
 
 HE is NOT FALLEN! Every breeze 
 
 That wander s o er Columbia s bosom, 
 From wild Penobscot s forest-trees, 
 From ocean shore, from inland seas, 
 
 Or where the rich Magnolia s blossom 
 Floats, snow-like, on the sultry wind, 
 
 Is booming onward on his ear, 
 A homage to his lofty mind 
 A meed the falling never find, 
 
 A praise which Patriots only hear. 
 
 STAR OF THE WEST! a million eyes 
 
 Are turning gladly unto him; 
 The shrine of old idolatries 
 
 Before his kindling light grows dim! 
 And men awake as from a dream. 
 
 Or meteors dazzling to betray; 
 And bow before his purer beam, 
 
 The earnest of a better day. 
 
 ALL HAIL! the hour is hastening on 
 
 When, vainly tried by Slander s flams , 
 Columbia shall behold her son 
 
 Unharmed, without a laurel gone, 
 As from the flames of Babylon 
 
 The angel-guarded triad came! 
 The Slanderer shall be silent then, 
 
 His spell shall leave the minds of men, 
 And higher glory wait upon 
 
 The WESTERN PATRIOT S f uture fame. 
 
 THE 
 
LIFE 01 MPOLEON BOIAPAETE, 
 
 dcraprar of Jrattn. 
 
 BY J. O. LOCKHART. 
 With Steel Portrait, 392 pp. 12 mo.. Muslin. Price $1 25. 
 
 "The lightning may flash and the loud thunder rattle, 
 He heeds not, he hears not, he s free from all pain ; 
 
 He has slept his last sleep, he has fought his last battle, 
 No sound can awake him to glory again." 
 
 He was the greatest actor the world has known since the time 
 of Osesar. He sported with crowns and sceptres as the baubles of a 
 child. He rode triumphantly to power over the ruins of the thrones 
 with which he strewed his pathway. Vast armies melted away like 
 wax before him. He moved over the earth as a meteor traverses the 
 sky, astonishing and startling all by the suddenness and brilliancy of 
 his career. Here was his greatness. The earth will feel his power 
 till its last cycle shall have been run. 
 
 THE LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE, 
 
 Just Wtitt at 
 
 BY P. C. HEADLEY. 
 With Steel Portrait, 383 pp., 12mo., Muslin. Price $1 25. 
 
 "Like the lily, 
 
 That once was mistress of the field and flowers here, 
 I ll hang my head and perish." 
 
 Josephine, for the times in which she lived, was a model of 
 female character; and if this volume shall make the study of it more 
 general, it will so far extend the admiration of the pure and beautiful, 
 in contrast with all the forms of corruption humanity could present iu 
 a period of bloody Revolution. The Empress was a greater personage 
 than Napoleon in the elements of moral grandeur, and retained her 
 *vereignty in the hearts of the people, while he ruled by the unri- 
 " Hled splendor of his genius. 
 
 Sold by all Booksellers. Mailed, post-paid, to any address, upon receipt of price. 
 C. M. SAXTON, MILLER & Co., Pub T ^hers, 
 
 25 Park Heir * r *w Yoric. 
 
ALL THE ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS 
 
 ARCTIC 
 
 EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES 
 
 DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 BEING DETAILED ACCOUNTS OF 
 
 THE SEVERAL EXPEDITIONS TO THE NORTH SEAS, 
 
 BOTH ENGLISH AND AMERICAN, CONDUCTED BY 
 
 BOSS, PAKRY, BACK, FEANKLIN, M CLURE AND OTHERS. 
 
 INCLUDING THE FIRST GRINNELL EXPEDITION, 
 
 UNDEB LIEUTENANT DE HA.VEN, AND THB 
 
 FINAL EFFORT OF DR. E. K. KANE 
 
 IN SEARCH OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. 
 
 BY SAMUEL M. SMUCKER. 
 
 517 pages 12mo., -with Illustrations. Price $1 00. 
 
 Repeated, bold, and daring enterprises have been undertaken during 
 the present century, to explore the hidden recesses of the Northern 
 seas, the vast frozen region of everlasting snow, of stupendous ice 
 bergs, of hyberborean storms, of the long, cheerless nights of the Arc 
 tic Zone. To navigate and explore these dismal realms, men of ex 
 treme daring, of sumblime fortitude, of unconquerable perseverance, 
 were absolutely necessary. And such men possessed one great ele 
 ment of distinguishing greatness, of which the explorerers of more ge 
 nial and inviting climes were destitute. Their investigations were 
 made entirely without the prospect of rich reward, and chiefly for the 
 motion of the magnificent ends of science. The discovery of a 
 estern passage was indeed not forgotten ; but it must be con- 
 
 hat other less mercenary and more philanthropic motives have 
 
 given rise to the larger portion of the expeditions which, during the 
 progress of the nineteenth century, have invaded the cheerless soli 
 tudes of that dangerous and repulsive portion of the globe. 
 
 This work contains a narrative of the chief adventures and discov 
 eries of Arctic explorers during this century. No expedition of any 
 importance has been omitted; and the work has been brought down in 
 its details to the present time, so as to include a satisfactory account of 
 the labors, sufferings, and triumphs of that prince of Arctic explorers 
 and philanthropists, Dr. Kane ; whose adventures, and whose able nar 
 rative of them, entitle him to fadeless celebrity, both as a hero in the 
 field, and as a man of high genius and scholarship. 
 
 The great chapter of Arctic adventure and discovery, may now be 
 considered as closed. A concise and reliable account threfcre, of those 
 adventures and discoveries, with the novel and thrilling incidents at 
 tending them, cannot be otherwise than interesting in themselves, and ac 
 ceptable to the public. 
 
 Sold by all Booksellers Mailed, post-pai-J, to any address, upon receipt of price. 
 
 C. M. SAXTON, MILLER & Co., Publishers, 
 
 25 Park Rou.\ New York. 
 
 r-l W, M T~l T "^fc. 
 


 THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or 
 
 on the date to which renewed. 
 Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 
 
 itf** 58PT 
 
 RECEIVED 
 
 
 FEB21 f B7-10ftM 
 
 
 LQAN DEPT, 
 
 DEC is 1958 
 
 
 2SApr 63JP 
 
 ^ui^;-, - 
 
 
 B ~1197Q " 
 
 
 
 $r>3 RECt.vc,w 
 
 NOV 2 2 1965 
 
 mi 70 -6PM 
 
 Rrr n 
 
 tOAN DEHT, 
 
 idlTERUBRARY LOAM 
 
 DEC7-TF Q AM 
 
 ***^ u Du O AW 
 
 I <T*l A M r-tr-iiiin 1 
 
 L.UAN DEPT 
 
 UWV.OFCAllK., BERK. | 
 
 
 - 
 
 General Library 
 
r 
 
 *c