3 1822 01226 9312
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UMVtftSlTY tF 
 
 SAN DJEGO 
 V
 
 THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFOK-slA, SAN DIEGQ 
 
 LA JQLLA, CALIFORNIA 
 
 3 1822 01226 9312 
 
 v
 
 PAPERS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF DELAWARE. 
 
 I V . 
 
 MEMOIR 
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON 
 
 JOSEPH P. COMEGYS. 
 
 THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF DELAWARE, 
 WILMINGTON: 
 
 1882.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1882, by Joseph P. Comegys, 
 in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
 PRESS OF FERRIS BROS., 
 WILMINGTON, DEL.
 
 The following Memoir consists of pa 
 pers which were read before the Historical 
 Society of Delaware, on two several occa 
 sions, with additions subsequently made by 
 the author.
 
 MEMOIR 
 
 OF 
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON 
 
 MR. P.RESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE HISTORICAL SO 
 CIETY OF DELAWARE: 
 
 I should state, before I commence my reading of 
 this memoir, that I have exhibited the subject of it 
 in a most favorable light. A memoir should do nothing 
 less ; especially when prepared, as this has been, at 
 the instance of a Society concerned in presenting . the 
 distinguished men of the State, and the features of 
 her history, in the best 'view for public admiration. 
 With this in my mind, and yet not forgetting the duty 
 I owed to truth, I have delineated the character and 
 achievements of John M. Clayton as they appeared to 
 me, his cotemporary and admirer; though not insen 
 sible, however, to knowledge of infirmities of nature 
 common to most of us. I have presented him as 
 he should be shown to the people of Delaware, in 
 his public aspect, as tradition, personal knowledge, and
 
 5 MEMOIR OF 
 
 the records of our country, exhibit him ; feeling* it to 
 be the duty I was under to the Society, to its inter 
 ests and purposes, and to candor, to look at and por 
 tray him just as I have done. Like other men, he 
 had weaknesses; but no man can point to any act, 
 or expression, of his private life, even, that shows the 
 slightest stain upon his character. Though a member 
 of no church or religious congregation, he yet was an 
 unquestioning believer in every article and creed of 
 the Christian religion ; and had no respect for, or 
 patience with, the sentiments of its opponents. He 
 cherished, especially, the moral virtues of honesty, 
 fidelity to friendship, gratitude ; and never forgot the 
 services, how slight soever, that any rendered him, nor 
 failed to grieve for those who forgot the favors he 
 had done them. There were, of course, in his life, 
 some of the latter, as there are in that of other men, 
 but his charitable spirit made him willing to refer their 
 defection to some temptation of the dmil which they 
 were too weak to resist. But he never ^trusted them 
 again ; his knowledge of human nature would not allow 
 that. Nor did he permit them, by any act of his, 
 to suppose that he could. Still he could not descend 
 to vindictiveness. Such was the absolute sway, almost, 
 that John M. Clayton held in Delaware, politically, 
 from 1828 till the close of General Taylor's adminis 
 tration, a period of more than thirty years, that he 
 never once failed to lead his political friends in the 
 course he preferred which shows not only the superi 
 ority of his judgment with respect to the affairs of his
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. j 
 
 party, but that there was no fault in him as a leader 
 that could form a nucleus for opposition. He reigned 
 supreme ; * as a party leader should, who possesses in 
 the eminent degree he did, sagacity, oratorical power, 
 unselfishness. Men there were of his own party who 
 envied his power and hoped to destroy it ; but when 
 ever they essayed a movement for that purpose, it was 
 always defeated. His party in Delaware knew that 
 he was their champion, and not the small men who 
 assailed him ; and they clung to him with all the 
 fidelity which loyally to their own party advantage 
 required of them. And such fidelity, they well knew, 
 could not be yielded to a worthier person. Nor less 
 had he the respect of his opponents. They made war 
 upon him, of course, and upon the political theories 
 he supported ; but, at the same time he did nothing, 
 public or private, that abated their admiration of him 
 in the least. Oh for the return of the days when men 
 could pardon the difference of opinion of their political 
 
 adversaries, and respect the honorable methods they 
 
 * 
 took for enforcing it !
 
 MEMOIR OP 
 
 MEMOIR. 
 
 I beg you believe, that, when the time came for 
 performance of the task I assumed, in accepting the 
 invitation of the Society to read, before its members, 
 a memoir of the late John M. Clayton, I regretted 
 your selection, because I felt that, in every step of 
 my progress in the work of preparation, I should 
 feel, and painfully too, that other hands than mine 
 ought to have been employed for a service, all the 
 more difficult, because the subject of it was of such 
 importance, in his day and generation, that only the 
 most comprehensive observer and delineator of men's 
 character, could do full justice to his merits. Al 
 though John M. Clayton, if he had been as wise as 
 Solomon, could not have attained the renown which, 
 in this country, only crowns the career of great 
 political, national leaders because he was a citizen 
 of the smallest State in the Union yet, he had a 
 fame as a statesman, jurist, and man of splendid 
 forensic abilities, which, in his day, was very wide 
 and solid, and was promised in his young life by 
 the intellectual gifts he then showed that he pos-
 
 JOHN M. , CLAYTON. g 
 
 sessed. All his friends and acquaintances felt, ere he 
 stepped upon the stage of real, active, public life, at 
 the bar, even, that he would soon attain an eminence, 
 among men, of the highest grade. Were such an 
 ticipations realized ? That is for you to say, when I 
 have recounted the events of his life, his career, pri 
 vate and public, so far as the limits of this paper 
 will allow me to do it. And, first, let me give you 
 some knowledge of the birth and parentage of our 
 subject. 
 
 In England, in tracing family descent, it is consid 
 ered a matter of the first importance to be able to say, 
 of the subject of a memoir, that his ancestors came 
 over with the Conqueror; as if it should afford those 
 calling themselves Anglo-Saxon Englishmen any satis 
 faction to be able to carry back their lineage to the 
 conquerors of Harold. With us in America, it is quite 
 the fashion to be able to say, that such an one's ances 
 tors came to these shores in the Mayflower ; as if there 
 were any merit in such parentage beyond that which can 
 be claimed at any time, by those descended from any 
 other immigrants seeking to establish, in a new home, 
 modes of Christian worship more in accordance with 
 their notions of fitness than the prevailing ones whence 
 they came ; or that they came here in the train of 
 Lord Baltimore, a nobleman of courtly lineage and fame, 
 and of great renown also as that Catholic ruler who 
 allowed, at that day, in his most enlightened liberality, 
 perfect liberty of conscience to the settlers upon a do 
 main as fair as that within the boundaries given to
 
 IO MEMOIR OF 
 
 him and his descendants, by his royal sovereign; 
 or that they represent the posterity of the stout 
 Dutch burghers who laid the foundations of New 
 York, and settled the fine territory of the New Neth 
 erlands, from the ocean, along the magnificent river 
 of Hudson, to many miles beyond the mouth of its 
 tributary, the Mohawk. While these different stocks 
 were being planted, in the course of the diffusion of 
 European population over America, another set of emi 
 grants came to her shores a body of men and 
 women whose high moral worth, and peaceable spirit, 
 won for them, at once, from the savage possessors of 
 the country, where they disembarked, their confidence 
 and affection. These people brought neither arms in 
 their hands, nor the passion to use them if they had 
 been there, disdaining, as they did, all success that 
 could only be secured by the use of weapons of war, 
 and preferring to rely rather upon the mild influences 
 of that religion which proclaimed peace and good will 
 to all men, barbarians as well as civilized. While 
 their courage was not that displayed by the warrior, 
 or the man of strife, they had yet, in an eminent 
 degree, that rarer quality of bravery which is shown 
 by doing right according to God's law, in the face of 
 all men. These were the Quakers, the cotemporaries 
 of William Penn, and his companions, rather than fol 
 lowers, in his journey towards the sunset to take pos 
 session of the domains granted to him by his sov 
 ereign, Charles II., and the Duke of York, Charles's 
 brpther, by their respective charters of alienation.
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. H 
 
 Among those who shared the voyage of Penn and 
 concluded to cast his fortunes in the new common 
 wealth ceded to his friend, was Joshua Clayton, who 
 at his death left sons, John and Joshua. John also 
 left two sons to survive him, James and John. James's 
 posterity was five sons, the eldest of whom was Dr. 
 Joshua Clayton, President of the State of Delaware, at 
 the close of her first period of sovereignty under the 
 constitution of August, 1776, and her first Governor 
 under that of 1789; he was the father of Thomas 
 Clayton, who represented this State with great credit, 
 at different periods, in both Houses of Congress, and 
 shone with exceeding lustre as an able and upright 
 Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas from 1828, 
 when he took his seat there, until January, 1837, when 
 he resigned his office, under the new Constitution, as 
 Chief Justice of the State, to accept a Senatorship in the 
 Congress of the United States. The youngest of these 
 five children of James Clayton w'as originally named 
 George, but his brother James dying shortly after his 
 father, and when George was a mere infant, the name 
 thus lost was restored by being conferred upon George, 
 who became James. This James was the father of the 
 subject of this memoir. His mother was Sarah Middle- 
 ton, of Virginia ancestry, whose maiden name was be 
 stowed upon this her son, and he was christened John 
 Middleton Clayton. John Clayton, a brother of Joshua, 
 the father of Thomas, and James the father of John M., 
 was a distinguished character, having been an active 
 political personage in the colonial and later times ;
 
 12 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 Judge in Admiralty under the Constitution of 1776; 
 Sheriff of Kent at the period of change to the new 
 form, and Associate Judge of the Court of Common 
 Pleas until his death. 
 
 James Clayton (formerly George), was born on the 
 24th day of March, 1761, married to Miss Middle- 
 ton on the 1 8th of August, 1791, and died on the 
 24th day of November, 1820, leaving his wife (who 
 died on the 23d of June, 1829, at the age of fifty- 
 five years, three months, and fifteen days), and six 
 children, to survive him ; Lydia, who married John 
 Kellum, of Accomac county, Virginia; John M. ; 
 Harriet, who became the wife of Walter Douglass, 
 who died in 1824, and afterwards of Henry W. Peter 
 son, since deceased ; Elizabeth, who died unmarried ; 
 Mary Anne, who was the wife of George T. Fisher, 
 who survived her and died in 1831 ; and James H. 
 M. Clayton, who died unmarried in 1837. These 
 sisters and this brother of John M. Clayton all died 
 in his lifetime, only one of them, Harriet, having left 
 any issue now alive, and but one other of them, 
 Mary Anne, ever having had any issue. 
 
 John M. Clayton was born at Dagsborough, in the 
 county of Sussex, in a house standing, until within 
 a few years, upon an ample lot of ground lately 
 owned by Mr. John Hazzard, who was the proprietor 
 of a hotel, which he kept himself, at the south end 
 of it. The parents of young Clayton must have been 
 uncommon persons. They were both well-formed, and 
 the husband large like the rest of the old Clayton
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. ^ 
 
 stock. I have seen them in my childhood his 
 mother very often ; his father a few times. He was 
 truly a stalwart man, with an imposing appearance, 
 and she of the full .feminine size, and with features 
 of striking and distinguished fashion. Added to all 
 the essential qualities for a wife and mother of a 
 very talented family, she possessed great refinement 
 of manner in society, and also a rare fluency of 
 speech, which she transmitted to all her children 
 there not having been one of them who was not 
 remarkable for fine powers of conversation. James 
 Clayton shone in society for his breadth of informa 
 tion and depth and strength of mind, and also for t 
 those qualities of the heart that endear men to each 
 other generosity, benevolence, sympathy constantly 
 expressed. And then he was so manly, so above any 
 of the petty feelings or purposes that mar the char 
 acters of men. This is the testimony of his acquaint 
 ances, as I have heard it from the mouths of some 
 of them. He was a great reader, as his son has 
 told me his favorite authors being the English 
 classics, so called to distinguish them from their less 
 successful and accomplished rivals in the literary 
 field ; and he has frequently spoken to me about his 
 father's passionate fondness for Shakespeare's plays, 
 and of his remarkable memory of their text. In 
 fact, he has said to me more than once, that his 
 father was the best Shakespearian he had ever known. 
 He was very fond, was this excellent man, of the 
 society of his cherished friends ; and upon occasions
 
 , A MEMOIR OF 
 
 *4 
 
 of their re-union, such as village life affords, would 
 give himself much effort to make all happy around 
 him. 
 
 As soon as young John was qualified by age to 
 leave home for school, he was sent to Berlin, in Wor 
 cester county, Maryland, to attend upon an academy 
 there ; but the quarters where he was put to board 
 proving not suited to his liking on account of a 
 deficiency in the quantity of food given the boarders, 
 he and another boy, James Davis (a. son of Isaac 
 Davis, afterwards Judge Davis of the old Supreme 
 Court), ran away, and walked all the way to Milford, 
 where their respective parents then resided James 
 Clayton having removed to Kent whilst his son was 
 at Berlin. He was next sent to Lewes, where he 
 remained for some time, boarding with a kind, 
 motherly, old lady, who treated him like a son. 
 From thence he was brought to Milford for instruction 
 the schools there having greatly improved, and here 
 he remained until the 24th of July, 1811, when at the 
 time, precisely of his arrival of the age of fifteen years, 
 he entered Yale College, and thence graduated on the 
 1 2th day of September, 1815, with the highest honors 
 of his class. I have heard him often speak of his 
 college days whilst I studied in his office ; and he 
 enjoyed, with a zest impossible to describe, the remi 
 niscences his conversations with me evoked. He was 
 full of fun of all the kinds enjoyed by college boys ; 
 and being, at a very early age, a good performer on 
 the violin, was sought after by the students, and was
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. l t > 
 
 friends with all of them whose society he desired to 
 cultivate. But of all his companions none stood so 
 high in his affections as a little fellow, a year behind 
 him in age and studentship, George McClellan of 
 Philadelphia, afterwards the famous surge'on, and the 
 father of the present Governor of New Jersey. I 
 have seen the two together whilst Clayton lived at New 
 Castle ; and it was entertaining, to a degree I cannot 
 give you any adequate idea of, to be present when 
 these two brilliant men, greatly distinguished in their 
 respective careers, forgot all their rank and conse 
 quence in what a great poet calls a revivescence of 
 their college life those school days which Thackeray, 
 speaking from his affectionate and tender heart, calls 
 " the happy, the bright, the unforgotten." If you could 
 have heard them without seeing them, or knowing 
 who they were, you would have thought two school 
 fellows had met a year after their graduation at 
 college And yet they were both men of matured 
 years and honors, upon whom the public had given 
 judgment as men of the highest abilities in their several 
 walks in life. 
 
 Upon his graduation young Clayton returned home 
 for relaxation, having been hard at work in college 
 for four years, and never having given himself enough 
 vacation to return to his family. Coming back to 
 Delaware at the close of 1815,. and intending, as his 
 father did, that he should be a lawyer, he was, some 
 time not long afterwards, entered in the office of his 
 cousin Thomas Clayton, and studied under him until
 
 !g MEMOIR OF 
 
 March, 1817, when he returned to New England to 
 attend the then famous law school at Litchfield, Con 
 necticut, where he remained for a year and eight 
 months, studying, as I have heard him say, sixteen 
 hours a day. Upon leaving there he finished his 
 course in Kent, and was admitted to the bar at 
 Georgetown, in Sussex, at the October term, 1819, of 
 the Court of Common Pleas, when he was but a little 
 over twenty-two years of age. He selected Kent as 
 the county in which he should begin his professional 
 life, and took an office near the court-house, in 
 Dover, in the eastern end of what is now the dwelling 
 of the Hon. John A. Nicholson. 
 
 Now commenced a career at the bar which up to 
 that time had never been paralleled in this State, nor 
 has it been equaled since. Clayton at once rose to a 
 very high rank as a lawyer. Nor is this wonderful 
 when you consider the qualities for success the young 
 man had. Treating as one of them personal appear 
 ance, it must be admitted that here nature had given 
 him all that could be desired a tall, commanding, 
 thoroughly well-developed figure, six feet one and a 
 half inches high, with a handsome countenance moulded 
 in the style befitting great characters, and with an air 
 of dignity, softened by that indefinable expression of 
 the human face that shows a gentle heart in the 
 breast. The proportions of his figure were correct 
 also. This fine stalwart frame was surmounted by a 
 head of ample size, measuring just twenty-four inches 
 in circumference. Other portions were in like accord
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. l ^ 
 
 with symmetry. And then, without the least trace of 
 foppishness, or particularity about dress, he yet never 
 appeared in any company, at any time, arrayed other 
 wise than as became gentlemen of his day, when such 
 as he were careful to dress themselves as comported with 
 their rank and station in life. Such was the figure 
 of this young aspirant for professional success, when he 
 appeared at the bar of Kent. His other qualifications 
 were, a fine collegiate education at a famous seat of 
 learning ; an unusual preparation, by study and train 
 ing, for the bar ; extensive historical and literary in 
 formation ; remarkable powers of analysis and of illus 
 tration ; quickness of perception, amounting almost to 
 intuition ; ardor and industry in the pursuit of his 
 client's business ; a grace, and at the same time force 
 and power, of manner; and ease and fluency of utter 
 ance. All these combined gave him, in the very outset, 
 advantages which he speedily and thoroughly turned 
 to the best account for himself. Superadded to the 
 whole was an unaffected and winning cordiality of 
 recognition and intercourse which completely captivated 
 all who came within the circle of his acquaintance. 
 Thus equipped by nature, and by a thorough knowl 
 edge of the principles of his great profession, and 
 endowed also with a memory which never forget any 
 thing worth remembering, his attractions as a lawyer 
 were very great ; and it is not to be wondered at 
 that he entered, almost as soon as he had the right 
 to open his mouth in court, upon a business at first 
 remunerative, but which before long attained the fullest
 
 18 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 measure of abundance and profit at that day. In addi 
 tion to his fine legal knowledge, he early developed 
 extraordinary power as an advocate. Upon him fell 
 (what I may call) the most desperate cases at the 
 civil and criminal bars ; and it is safe to say, that 
 when it was possible for any lawyer to win a case, 
 as the slang of that time was, or to succeed, as the 
 phrase now is, he was always the victor- in the contest. 
 It seemed only necessary for success that he should 
 be employed his power over juries being so irresist 
 ible. I do not, in any sense, mean to say that he 
 controlled juries (the judgment of twelve honest, intelli 
 gent men is not to be controlled in this State, at 
 least, by any man, how great soever his influence), but 
 I do mean to say that he had a way of presenting 
 to the jury the facts of his own side and also of the 
 other (for if these had not been laid before the jury 
 in their full strength, he supplemented the deficiency 
 by his candor), that drew them in spite of their teeth 
 (I feel that I may say), or of their tenacity of opinion, 
 to adopt the argument his fertile mind presented them 
 with, and also the conclusion such argument required. 
 This was entirely natural. Here was a man of extra 
 ordinary powers in all respects not the least of 
 which, by any means, was that of looking into the 
 very thoughts and purposes of men. It was just such 
 a lawyer, possessed of such uncommon powers, that 
 every plaintiff and defendant wanted. Every plaintiff, 
 or defendant, in a lawsuit, wants a lawyer on his side, 
 who combines two qualities one that of being well
 
 JOHN M. CLA YTON. JQ 
 
 versed in the law, and the other that of being a good 
 advocate of the interest of his client. I have in my 
 mind, now, some desperate cases of crime, where, before 
 the trial, conviction was considered only to await the 
 end of it, and yet the felon escaped, or with a verdict 
 greatly modified from the demand of the prosecution ; 
 and this, although the court sometimes seemed to feel 
 itself compelled, by way of resistance to what appeared 
 to it to be too great an influence with the panel, to 
 stigmatize the offence in very strong terms. Nor was 
 he, by any means, less fortunate in the trial of civil 
 cases. He had the prestige of success, although his 
 competitors at the Kent bar were, at that time, no 
 less celebrated men than Henry M. Ridgely, Thomas 
 Clayton, and Willard Hall. With such antagonists he 
 contended ; and, for a young man, but lately entered 
 upon a stage, where they maintained the highest stand 
 ing, it can with truth be said that he achieved a 
 success, as their competitor, which he could not have 
 done, had he not possessed abilities of the very first 
 order. This career increased in brilliancy until he at 
 tained a fame, throughout the State, which, long before 
 he entered upon another and no less distinguished 
 course in life, called for his services -in the other 
 counties in nearly all the most important cases that 
 arose therein though the practice of going the circuit 
 had been, well nigh, abandoned by the leading lawyers, 
 when he came to the bar. 
 
 The death of his father in 1820, though a very trying 
 event in the life of his son, for he had the greatest
 
 2O MEMOIR OF 
 
 respect and affection for him, was probably an impor 
 tant element in his rise to distinction. He was not 
 naturally industrious, in the common sense of the 
 term, but was rather inclined to ease though his 
 college and law student life would seem to show the 
 contrary and required an incentive to work. Such 
 incentive death gave him (his father's fortunes having 
 been overwhelmed by the great disasters that befel 
 the country about 1820) in the necessity of providing 
 for the support of a mother, two sisters, and a brother, 
 with the latter to educate. This was just the stimulus 
 such an one required ; and it was this apparent 
 calamity that proved, there can be no doubt, of the 
 greatest benefit to him. Here was a young man, of 
 splendid abilities, natural and acquired, with habits of 
 study that made it easy enough to work, but still 
 who was not required to make any great effort for 
 success. The necessity, however, of providing for his 
 mother and her orphan children inspired him ; and 
 day and night, continually, he wrought for them, until 
 he was secure from all risk of being embarrassed any 
 longer. He toiled at his profession, in every branch 
 of it, legal and equitable, civil and criminal, enjoying 
 nothing else but the society of his friends and the 
 weekly visits he paid the loved ones at Milford, 
 whither he went every Saturday afternoon, walking 
 (when the weather would permit) sixteen miles of the 
 distance to the home of his brother-in law and friend 
 Walter Douglass, who would forward him to Milford, 
 where he would cheer the hearts of all by his pres-
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 21 
 
 ence, affectionate manners, and bestowal of the surplus 
 earnings of the week, large or small. I have often 
 heard him speak of those days, and relate the infinite 
 delight it gave his heart to convey so much pleasure 
 by these visits. 
 
 When young Clayton had been but three years at 
 the bar, but after he had acquired enough by the law 
 not only to enable him to take care of those left 
 to him, but of a wife as well, and not until he could 
 offer himself to her with entire pecuniary independence 
 also, he proposed for the hand of a lady and heiress, 
 Miss Sally Ann Fisher, daughter of Dr. James Fisher, 
 who was a physician of distinction and general intelli 
 gence, at Camden, in Kent, and whose first wife, the 
 mother of Mrs. Clayton, was a McClymont, of a large 
 Presbyterian family, seated near Dover. On the I2th 
 of September, 1822, the young couple were married at 
 Middletown, in New Castle county, by the Reverend 
 (afterwards Dr.) Samuel Brinckle, now deceased, who 
 was chosen for the ceremony because he was the 
 brother of Joshua G. Brinckle, a fellow-practitioner with 
 young Clayton, and whom he fondly loved. The newly 
 made husband and wife, a few months after their 
 marriage, took the dwelling and office of Henry M. 
 Ridgely, upon the green in Dover (he having retired 
 temporarily to the country) ; but in the interval, be 
 tween the marriage and the occupancy of the Ridgely 
 property, they resided in her own house in Carnden, 
 to and from which place he walked every day, giving 
 himself six miles exercise, to refresh him after the
 
 22 
 
 MEMOIR OP 
 
 labors of one day, and recruit him for those of 
 another. In this Dover residence were born unto them 
 two sons ; and there occurred that fatal calamity, the 
 shadow of which never passed from his life, nor was 
 its presence ever entirely unfelt. His love for his wife 
 was the greatest passion that ever influenced him. 
 While to others she was a lovely woman, of most 
 affectionate heart, and with just enough of the Quaker, 
 in the blood she had inherited from her father, to give 
 to all her actions, expressions, and emotions, that deli 
 cate softness, so near akin to shyness, which charac 
 terizes the daughters of the Society of Friends, she 
 yet possessed for him something more than all this ; 
 something that made him, by no means given to emo 
 tions, worship her almost as an idol. On the iSth 
 day of February, 1825, she died in his arms, leaving 
 him with two boys, the youngest but a few days old. 
 Life, from thenceforth, seemed to have, for him, no 
 attractions ; but for the necessity of taking care of 
 those who had been committed to him before, and the 
 children his wife had given him, he would have sunk, 
 utterly, under the load of his affliction. The duties of 
 life, however, pressed upon the heart of the brave man, 
 and exacted from him that he should not give himself 
 up to grief absolutely, but should devote himself, as 
 he best could, to the service of those dependent 
 upon him. With this spur he started again in the 
 race and work of life ; and it was a frequent ex 
 pression with him, in recurring to that sorrowful 
 time, that nothing but work in his profession saved
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 2 $ 
 
 him. And work he did, like a hero. It was his 
 only salvation. There was nothing for him but the 
 abstraction of thought from grief, that work hard, 
 engrossing, honorable labor can give. But, to that 
 love for his young wife, he remained perfectly, abso 
 lutely true, throughout the whole of his subsequent 
 life ; and never, under any circumstances, allowed him 
 self to think of himself otherwise than as her lover. 
 There came a time, whilst he was still young, when 
 he no longer had any of the family of his father 
 about him one of the orphan sisters having married, 
 another died, and then his mother, and finally his 
 brother and he had every inducement, which ripe 
 manhood and the importunity of friends could offer 
 him, to take a wife; but he repelled, sometimes 
 sternly, and always firmly, all advice to marry again. 
 He would not think of it, though almost absolutely 
 alone, having none about him but his two small chil 
 dren, and one young girl, his niece, and her brother, 
 younger than herself, the children of Walter Douglass. 
 He did the best he could with and for them ; he 
 was to them father, mother, and everything else that 
 was loving. Such was the situation of Mr. Clayton 
 (except that his mother outlived that event a few 
 months), when he was elected to the Senate of the 
 United States. Before entering upon a consideration 
 of his career as a public man, or politician and states 
 man, I will say more of his professional life. 
 
 There cannot be any question that John M. Clayton 
 was a lawyer of the very first grade in every branch
 
 2 A MEMOIR OF 
 
 of learning, whether legal or equitable, civil or criminal. 
 He came to the bar prepared by a course of unre 
 mitting study of all the old authors, and the modern 
 text writers down to his time. In the days of his 
 pupilage for his profession, the requirements for admis 
 sion to the bar were not only a full course of read 
 ing, including always Coke upon Littleton, Plowden, 
 Wood's Institutes, Doctor and Student, and other re 
 condite works relating to matters of civil concern, but 
 also Hale and Hawkins in the criminal list of authors, 
 and such works upon equity as had then been writ 
 ten. Besides, as the custom of creating entails, and 
 strict settlements, was still very much in vogue in 
 Delaware, and had been from her settlement by the 
 English under Penn, it was then essentially requisite 
 that a lawyer should be a master of all the learning 
 of such, and of that large class of interests which then, 
 more than now, arose out of the provisions of the 
 many wills written in conformity with the practice at 
 home which the settlers imported here. Some of this 
 latter was what is called black letter ; it was all ab 
 struse, and not to be acquired fully but by one en- 
 
 
 
 dowcd by nature with a strong mind, improved by 
 ample learning, classical and otherwise. I feel that I 
 hazard nothing in saying that Mr Clayton had mas 
 tered all this learning; that he was familiar with what 
 is called nisi prius law also ; that he had a special 
 aptitude for professional practice; and if there can be 
 a union in any one man of all that is necessary to 
 make a great lawyer, it existed in him. In addition
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 35 
 
 to all this, he was. a conscientious lawyer in every 
 sense. He was faithful to the court, whom he en 
 lightened by his learning, and true to his client. All 
 his addresses to the court were conceived in a spirit 
 of respect and confidence ; he approached them as 
 those set over him, strong as he was regarding 
 them as the personal representatives of the whole 
 people, or State, in the sovereign duty and prerogative 
 of administering justice. All his engagements for his 
 clients were faithfully and willingly performed ; and how 
 successfully, the records of the courts show. Their 
 cause at once became his cause ; whatever effort he 
 could make for the most influential of his clients, or 
 for those to whom he was bound by the strong ties 
 of friendship, was put -forth for the humblest also who 
 sought his services. If those who applied to him had 
 any case, he quickly saw it, and as ardently espoused 
 it. And what the measure of that ardor was, those 
 can testify who remember him in court, and some 
 who served under him as students. Having be"en in 
 his office a year beyond the usual term, from my non 
 age, I know a good deal of what I am speaking ; for 
 although his public, political engagements as a Senator 
 then absorbed most of his time, yet there was some 
 of it given to the law. I have said, before, that he 
 was not, naturally, an industrious man, as that term is 
 understood ; but he was a man of tremendous working 
 power, and when required by the necessity of the ser 
 vice he had undertaken, or that of sustaining his repu 
 tation or fame, he was the most resolute and inex-
 
 2 5 MEMOIR OF 
 
 haustible laborer I ever saw. In fact, every faculty of 
 his nature seemed to be absorbed in the one purpose 
 of ending with success what he undertook. At such 
 times he had no more idea, apparently, of the likeli 
 hood that his assistant might suffer from fatigue, than 
 if he had known him as a mere machine. I shall 
 never forget the labor, as an amanuensis, he required 
 me to perform at the time he was pleading to issue 
 the great Randel case, reported in the first volume of 
 Harrington. Most of the pleadings in that case were 
 dictated by him, without any book before him, as he 
 walked the floor of his private office ; and many of 
 them were read, and reviewed, and altered, again and 
 again, before they finally passed from his critical ex 
 amination. Those pleadings speak for themselves ; and 
 they were inspected, passed upon, and assailed, in one 
 form or another, by as able men in the law as could 
 be found at our bar, or outside of it, to perform that 
 work, and finally settled by a bench than which no 
 State had then a superior. Those pleadings stand as 
 an imperishable monument of the industry and science 
 of Clayton for no other man had anything to do 
 with their preparation. This case is remarkable for 
 another thing that up to the time when the verdict 
 was given for his client, no finding of such magnitude, 
 for merely unliquidated damages, had ever been ren 
 dered in the United States. As in the Randel case, 
 so in other cases. His whole soul was, as it were, 
 given up to them, where there was to be contest. He 
 would think, or talk, of nothing else; you must listen
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 2 >j 
 
 to him about his case, or question, or leave him. It 
 made no difference who approached him, unless 
 their own business required to be attended to in some 
 way, he would talk of the matter then in hand. 
 Whether this was a natural relief for an " o'erfraught" 
 mind, or that he sought to extract opinions from others 
 to fortify or modify his own, I know not ; but his 
 cases engrossed him to the displacement of all other 
 subjects, and discourse about them was as necessary, 
 apparently, to him, as the nourishment of food. And 
 yet this was not true at all times, for when his mental 
 travail over a case had ended by his thoughts being 
 properly matured about it, he gave no more attention 
 to it out of the court-house ; and hence, he sometimes 
 appeared to be careless or indifferent, when the contrary 
 was to be expected. He had, however, worked the matter 
 out in his thoughts, and there was nothing more to do 
 before the trial. 
 
 The influence of Mr. Clayton with juries, to which 
 I have referred, was very extraordinary. Certainly no 
 man this State has ever produced was his equal with 
 a jury, common or special ; and the first living man 
 among us,* although his fine intellect is now clouded 
 by age, said to me, years ago, when contemplating his 
 character as a public man and jurist, that he did not 
 believe a jury lawyer superior to Clayton had ever lived 
 in this country. His powers were, certainly, extraor 
 dinary, and consisted as well in the examination of 
 witnesses as in the discussion of the facts proved. 
 
 * James A. Bayard, since deceased.
 
 2 g MEMOIR OF 
 
 Whatever a witness knew on his client's side, he was 
 sure to bring out, and with the best effect, framing 
 his questions , so as to refresh his memory where it 
 was weak, as also to furnish him, when needed, with 
 language that would best convey his thoughts. His 
 witnesses were never afraid of him, as some men's 
 are, his manner being so reassuring; and he never 
 failed to extract from them, sooner or later, in his 
 examination, all they knew. When he had done with 
 them, the cross-examination that followed rarely pro 
 duced any contradiction, or discrepant statement so 
 well had he, by his consummate art of preparing the 
 witness for it, shielded him from assaults by the 
 opposite counsel. A bad examination in chief lays a 
 witness sadly open to the assaults and artifices of the 
 adverse counsel ; but he never made one : when he 
 handed his witness over to his adversary, that witness 
 not only had his story perfectly in memory, so that no 
 tripping was possible ; but he had kept him, if a timid 
 man, so long engaged, as to give him an assurance 
 that enabled him to resist all attempts afterwards to 
 confuse him. Such a lawyer is of great service to 
 inexperienced witnesses who, often, make a bad figure, 
 from being in the hands, at first, of counsel not having 
 the address and art necessary for their due preparation 
 to meet what sometimes degenerates into brow-beating 
 upon the cross-examination. When, however, the duty 
 of taking in hand an opposite witness, and sifting his 
 testimony in chief, came to him, it was a treat to see 
 him perform his work ; and woe be unto that witness
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 2 Q 
 
 if he had told a falsehood, misstated a fact, or if he 
 sought to conceal one important to be brought out. 
 There was no escaping his efforts to get at the true 
 facts. A witness might be ever so smart, and subtle, 
 or cunning with his answers, sly in his suggestions, 
 or bold in his assertions ; sooner or later he was com 
 pelled to disclose what he knew, and qualify what he 
 he had said that was calculated, if unexplained, to 
 mislead the minds of the jury. This was accomplished, 
 partly by his general manner, partly by the communi 
 cation in which he put himself with the witness, by 
 his special effort for the occasion, and greatly to the 
 discovery a witness soon made, that there was no use 
 in trying to escape him. The ordinary arts of con 
 fusing, by rapid and irrelevant questions, were no part 
 of his enginery : his was a treatment better calculated 
 to answer his purpose, and not excite the sympathies 
 of the jury for the victim's distress. When an unfair 
 witness left the stand, he knew that he had been 
 drained thoroughly of the real truth, but felt no resent 
 ment against him who had found out everything. 
 There were, however, times when a falsifier, or prevari 
 cator, had to be dealt with ; and then he subjected such 
 an one to a terrible ordeal. It was then a case which 
 required something more than gentle treatment ; it 
 demanded an earnest, vigorous, unyielding contest for 
 the victory, and such was made. There was no use in 
 fighting him with boldness, or endeavoring to elude him 
 by ingenious artifice of answer : the truth had to be 
 
 spoken, or the witness passed from the battle with 
 
 4
 
 jo MEMOIR OF 
 
 his statements so battered by the blows the cross- 
 examination had inflicted upon them, that they had 
 no weight with the jury. I have been witness, as 
 perhaps some present have also, to many of those 
 encounters between this lawyer and hostile witnesses, 
 and they always resulted in his triumph. 
 
 When these cases before juries came to be pre 
 sented by counsel in their addresses, the court-room 
 was sure to be filled, for everybody knew there would 
 be a great treat for them in listening to the trial. 
 The greater the case, and the more prominent his 
 opponents were, the greater the interest ; for then his 
 superior powers would be evoked. When he was in 
 active practice, but towards the close of it, there were 
 other strong men at the bar than those of whom I 
 have spoken. They .were his juniors, professionally 
 (and most of them otherwise), but still he could by 
 no means walk over the course in his practice. It was 
 against these men that he was called upon to do 
 battle for his clients. He had no weak adversaries, I 
 assure you. They were of the best to be found any 
 where, and in the highest rank among us. When 
 such were his antagonists, then the interest was over 
 powering. The engagement was a real one not at 
 long range, as senatorial conflicts have become, since 
 the fashion arose of reading orations addressed virtually 
 to an audience outside the chamber, with only the 
 words Mr. President now and then uttered to remind 
 you that a debate, nominally, is in progress ; but a 
 hand-to-hand contest, in which every intellectual and
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 3! 
 
 popular quality was brought to bear upon the twelve 
 men in the box. How many of us have enjoyed such 
 scenes if we could not divest ourselves, wholly, of 
 the partisanship our admiration, respectively, for the 
 several individual actors excited ! But while these 
 foemen of his were fine speakers, ready with their re 
 sources, which were copious, and able and earnest, and 
 insinuating too, in their appeals to the jury, he, it 
 must be confessed, outshone them all. His grand ap 
 pearance, in all his full stature and expression of face, 
 his perfect knowledge of every fact having the least 
 relevancy to the case on trial, his excellent temper, 
 ingenious appropriation of every unwitting expression 
 of his opponent to the interest of his client's side, 
 thus producing sometimes, and pardonably, that irrita 
 tion of the opposing counsel so advantageous sometimes 
 to his adversary, his masterly array, or marshalling, of the 
 facts on his own side, and placing them in juxtaposition 
 with those of the other side, subject to all the disparag 
 ing comments upon their weakness, or want of con- 
 gruity, his candor would allow him to make, and his 
 splendid voice, matchless copiousness, elegance and force 
 of language, and perfect powers of illustration, were 
 something that all men remember who witnessed or 
 heard them, and which as yet, in Delaware, have never 
 been equaled. He had hardly been at the bar a year 
 before his fame as a lawyer and advocate became well 
 known. I remember to have heard him say that at a 
 very early period in his professional life he was employed 
 by the Abolition Society of Pennsylvania to assist the
 
 2 MEMOIR OF 
 
 then Attorney-General, James Rogers, himself of great 
 distinction at the bar, in the prosecution, in the county 
 of Sussex, of a notorious and desperate kidnapper, Joe 
 Johnson. Others have told me how greatly he distin 
 guished himself on that occasion; in fact the case is 
 mentioned frequently for one particular feature of the 
 trial the fainting upon the stand of a false witness to 
 prove an alibi, under the cross-examination the young 
 lawyer gave him. Afterwards he occasionally went out 
 out of the State to engage in cases two, notably, of 
 indictments in Maryland for murder. From my observa 
 tion of him, and of others, I feel I can say, unquali 
 fiedly, that he was more familiar with the rules of evi 
 dence than any one I have ever known. 
 
 In January, 1837, Mr. Clayton retired from the bar, 
 and accepted the office of Chief Justice of the State, 
 tendered to him by his friend, Charles Polk, Governor 
 at that time by virtue of being Speaker of the Senate, 
 upon the death of Govermor Bennett. As a judge, he 
 could not have had a superior, in any respect when 
 all necessary to make such is considered. I have 
 spoken of his legal learning. He had that in full 
 measure. It is the chief qualification. Besides this, he 
 had the quickness and acuteness of perception of which 
 I have spoken. He had also great patience to hear, 
 an assuring manner to the diffident, entire freedom 
 from prejudice or passion, and an impartiality remark 
 able in one so fresh from bitter political contests. In 
 fact, as a judge, there could be found no fault in him. 
 All approached the trial of their cases with a certainty
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 33 
 
 that nothing but justice would be dealt out by the 
 court where he presided ; and the young practitioner 
 was soon assured that there were no favors to be 
 awarded to any that were not common to all. It was 
 only where he thought that counsel were arguing 
 beside their case, that he ever interrupted them 
 having no necessity to make a display of learning, 
 which weak men feel sometimes in the course of trials. 
 He resigned that place after having held it for a 
 little more than three years, and no writ of error 
 was ever taken from any of the court's decisions in 
 his time. During this career a celebrated indictment 
 was tried for blasphemy in which, with great labor 
 and research, he brought forward all the law upon that 
 subject. How well he sustained his reputation, any 
 competent critic can discover, by reading that case at 
 the end of the second volume of Harrington's Reports. 
 Upon the retirement of Mr. Clayton from the bench 
 his professional life virtually .ended, although he, occa 
 sionally, took part in important cases. He was sought 
 after in almost every one of note; but only engaged 
 in those where personal friends were interested, or some 
 other strong motive impelled him. Such a motive 
 influenced him to accept employment by the Govern 
 ment in its controversy with the State of New Jersey, 
 over the title to the Pea Patch Island in which service 
 he had, as an associate, the very distinguished lawyer 
 to whom I had reference before the Hon. James A. 
 Bayard for whose talents Mr. Clayton felt the highest 
 admiration, and towards whom, personally, he ever
 
 34 MEMOIR OF 
 
 entertained the warmest feelings of friendship. They 
 were strong friends with a love for their State, a 
 pride in all that concerned her, and a belief in the 
 justice of the title she had ceded to the United 
 States, that knew no faltering. These two men took 
 up the case of the Government founded upon Dela 
 ware's title, examined into every phase and detail of 
 it, both of law and of fact, searched every book or 
 parchment that industry, or money, could open to 
 them, and made up and presented an argument, partly 
 out of the mouth of one and partly out of the 
 mouth of the other, which, for thoroughness, ability, 
 and skill of arrangement and detail, has never been 
 surpassed in this country. It is all reported by the 
 late Reporter of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States John William Wallace and can be found 
 among the documents of Congress. 
 
 This case is, I believe, the last in which Mr. 
 Clayton appeared as a lawyer; and he was put upon 
 his mettle in the preparation and discussion of it, 
 one of his competitors being George M. Bibb, of 
 Kentucky, who had filled the office of Chancellor in 
 that State, that of one of her Senators in Congress, 
 and was reputed one of the ablest jurists in the 
 country. This famous case was tried in Independence 
 Hall, in the city of Philadelphia, in the Select Council 
 chamber, before the Hon. John Sergeant, a distinguished 
 gentleman of Pennsylvania, selected as an arbitrator by 
 both the contestants, and known everywhere for his 
 great legal learning and ability, and was attended by
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 35 
 
 an appreciative audience. The discussion of the great 
 questions involved, was pronounced by the eminent 
 referee to have been the ablest to which he had ever 
 listened. When it closed, and the counsel to support 
 this State's title left the chamber, there passed from 
 before that referee two men who, for power and saga 
 city of intellect, and learning in their profession, had 
 no superiors in America. I am aware this may seem 
 extravagant praise ; but it is not. I am only speaking 
 of them as you, who are capable of judging, will 
 sanction. 
 
 Here I might close my history of the career of the 
 subject of* this memoir as a lawyer omitting all refer- 
 rence to many cases in the courts illustrative of some of 
 the traits he possessed, and to many anecdotes, of inter 
 est only to professional men. But I do not think I 
 should omit to say something that will be, perhaps, 
 new to them, about his mode of studying cases. Most 
 lawyers, when a question with which they are not 
 perfectly familiar is presented, resort at once to their 
 books, relying upon text writers to furnish them, di 
 rectly or indirectly, with all they need, to answer it. 
 His course was the opposite. He studied the subject 
 first, in his mind ; and when he had come to a con 
 clusion upon the question of it, he resorted to books 
 of authority to support his reasoning. If they did not 
 do it, he modified his own views by the authorities. 
 He rarely, however, found them to be at variance with 
 his own previous judgment; this was owing to his 
 ample early training, of which I have spoken. When
 
 36 MEMOIR OF 
 
 the variance was irreconcilable, his loyalty to the law 
 not only demanded of him that he should bow to 
 the majesty of its authority, but that he should be sure 
 he was required to do so at the time ; and this 
 made necessary an examination of the cases, a task 
 that evoked all his untiring powers of mind and body. 
 I know, full well, what they were. 
 
 Such, as I have briefly, and all too feebly, presented 
 it, is the history of John M. Clayton in his legal life. 
 I ndw pass to the consideration of his public, or non- 
 professional life. 
 
 His POLITICAL LII-K. 
 
 At the time when John M. Clayton was admitted 
 to the bar (October, 1819), there can hardly be said 
 to have been any parties in the United States. The 
 second election of Mr. Monroe was about taking place, 
 and that without any opposition over the country. 
 There had been a very strong sentiment of hostility 
 between the Federal and Democratic parties, that had 
 kept alive all the fierce passions that political warfare 
 excites ; but the triumph of the national arms made 
 those who favored the war with Great Britain so strong 
 before the people, that the Federals were fain to give 
 up their opposition to the majority, with the best grace 
 they could. Accordingly they made no organized op 
 position as a national party to the first election of
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 37 
 
 Monroe; and at the second, that of 1820, there was 
 nowhere, but in one State, any opposing ticket. The 
 successful close of the war of 1812, and the approval 
 by President Madison of the re-charter of the Bank of 
 the Unjted States, had deprived the promoters of po 
 litical differences of all ability any longer to foment 
 party dissensions and keep alive the spirit that sus 
 tains them. When Clayton came to be in a situation, 
 therefore, to take part in political strife (if he had a 
 taste for- it), there was no ground for difference of 
 opinion, nor any hope, if there were, of success in 
 taking a stand upon it. Accordingly, he did not at 
 tach himself to the Federal party, to which the Clay 
 tons adhered from habit, nor did he concern himself 
 about the small matter of the success of particular 
 men at elections. I have every reason to believe that 
 he was wholly indifferent to the result of the elections, 
 whatever it might be. He had something more to do 
 than give his mind and thoughts to the contests of 
 men for places. There being no principle at stake, 
 he had no work to perform in the political field. 
 Still, he voted, and at the election of 1820, 
 stood with those who were striving to promote what 
 they conceived to be essential reforms in the affairs 
 of the Federal party. It was at this election that he 
 cast his first ballot. But he had, nevertheless, before 
 this time, in fact before he came of age, attracted the 
 attention of leading men of the then dominant party 
 (the Federal) in the State, and was elected Clerk of 
 the House of Representatives at the sessions of 1816, 
 
 5
 
 ,fl MEMOIR QI< 
 
 1817, and 1819, and of the Senate in 1820, the year of 
 the success of the reform, or independent ticket 
 which he had voted. He was continued in the latter 
 office for the following years of 1821 and 1822. 
 There was a Federal party still in the ascendant in 
 Delaware at this time, but it existed merely by force 
 of habit men being the issue, and not principles. 
 At the session of 1821 he was appointed Auditor of 
 Accounts by the Legislature, an office of great re 
 sponsibility, though not always filled with the most 
 competent men, and held that place for two years, 
 when he resigned it. All this time he was working 
 hard at his profession. When he resigned the auditor- 
 ship he ceased to have any official place, and so con 
 tinued for six years. However, in 1824, at the close of 
 the second term of Mr. Monroe as President, the people 
 were required to decide who should succeed him. A 
 variety of names was presented for their selection. 
 General Jackson, the hero of New Orleans, John 
 Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, William H. Crawford, 
 and other distinguished men were named all Demo 
 crats : no man offering the name of a Federalist, for 
 such had no strength anywhere outside of New Eng 
 land, which, at that time, was not so important a section 
 as, now-a-days, we are required to believe that it is. 
 In Delaware some espoused the cause of one of these 
 worthies, and some of another, and there was a strange 
 commingling of antecedent discordant elements. Clay 
 ton's family and many old friends voted for Adams, a.s 
 did a large number of the old Democrats ; but he him-
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 39 
 
 self took no part in politics not even voting that year 
 or the next. The result, as all know, was that there 
 was no election by the Electoral College ; and the House 
 of Representatives, acting under the Constitution in such 
 a contingency, chose Adams. This result was treated 
 by all Adams' opponents as the fruit of a bargain 
 between him and Clay (or rather the friends of each), 
 for their mutual profit. It had color, from the fact that 
 Clay was made Secretary of State ; but we now know 
 that there was no bargain, or understanding whatever, 
 upon the subject of Clay's promotion. This, however, 
 was not so understood at the time, and the friends of 
 General Jackson made good use of the charge in the 
 memorable campaign of 1828 when there was a politi 
 cal conflict indeed; and adversary met adversary, armed 
 with all the weapons of party warfare, and fired by all 
 the spirit such strife creates. 
 
 In the interval between the Presidential election of 
 1824 and that of 1828, Clayton filled the office of 
 Secretary of State, first under Samuel Paynter, who 
 was Governor in 1824, and afterwards under Charles 
 Polk, elected in 1827 his selection by the former, 
 being in lieu of Henry M. Ridgely, who had resigned 
 to take a seat in the Senate of the United States 
 (made vacant by the death of Nicholas Van Dyke, and 
 partially filled by the gubernatorial appointment of 
 Daniel Rodney), showing that he had not, to that time, 
 evinced any disposition to become a party leader 
 else so strong a friend of General Jackson, as was 
 Governor Paynter, would would not have taken him
 
 4O MEMOIR OF 
 
 as his counsellor. At the same time that Samuel 
 Paynter was Governor, Mr. Clayton was elected a mem 
 ber of the House of Representatives of this State, and 
 served with distinction in the office of a legislator 
 considered in those days one of such importance that 
 the best ability in the State, legal and otherwise, was 
 sought for, in making out the tickets. By this time, 
 all traces of difference of principle between the old 
 parties, Federal and Democratic, having entirely faded, 
 the names themselves alone remained, and men yet 
 clung to them from old association, and for want of 
 some general cause of difference in sentiment to abolish 
 them. They were furnished with this in the contest 
 of 1828, which was waged solely between the friends 
 of General Jackson, who took his name and became 
 Jackson men (or Jacksonites, as their opponents pre 
 ferred to call them), and those of the incumbent, John 
 Quincy Adams, who called themselves Administration 
 men, and were called by their adversaries Adams men. 
 In this memorable struggle there was a bitterness of 
 feeling, a fell spirit of hostility, that had never before 
 been experienced, nor has ever been felt since, except 
 perhaps during the war with the South. But for one 
 material fact, it would be impossible to account for all 
 the rancor the campaign of 1828 exhibited; for there 
 was no question of foreign or domestic policy upon 
 which men need divide, nor had any great constitu 
 tional question arisen to challenge the attention of 
 the people, such as the alien and sedition laws, in the 
 lifetime of the incumbent's father; or the re-charter of
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. ^ l 
 
 the United States Bank, which had been settled by 
 the Supreme Court, and sanctioned by a Democratic 
 President. And the " times," to use the familiar lan 
 guage of the past as well as the present, were not so 
 hard as to demand that the cause of it should be laid 
 on any body. The tariff of that year had only begun 
 to work. The country was doing well ; business was 
 reviving and prospering under a return to specie pay 
 ments, and the prospective operation, as its friends 
 claimed, of the new customs law. What, then, was the 
 cause of the phenomenal acrimony which distinguished 
 that campaign ? It is to be found, and found alone in 
 the fact that men discovered that they had new adver 
 saries to fight, and they of their own household. A 
 struggle for power, and the offices that, not long after, 
 were claimed to be its spoils, was so managed by the 
 artifices that skilful tacticians always have at command, 
 that men were drawn into the ranks of the opposition, 
 or of the administration ; and, as all old party lines were 
 obliterated with the cessation of the reason for them, 
 it happened, naturally, that both the new factions (for 
 such only they then were) were composed of the dis 
 integrated elements of the old parties, and men in each 
 found themselves face to face in opposition to those 
 whom they had before called their party friends. That, 
 of itself, would not necessarily excite rancor ; but when 
 we take into account and consider the strong personal, 
 but, for harmony's sake, smothered, feuds that grow 
 out of party association, where one man or one set of 
 men must always have more power and influence than
 
 42 MEMOIR OF 
 
 another, or others, to the latter's discomfiture, we can 
 understand why it was that, such strong passions were 
 exhibited in the strife for the Presidency in 1828. 
 Superadded, was the supporting circumstance, that one 
 side was seeking to place at the head of affairs, a 
 candidate alleged by his opponents to have no quali 
 fication for the office, except for that one of its duties 
 which had never been exercised elsewhere than in the 
 Cabinet that of commander-in-chief of the army and 
 navy. The traditions of the country, as well as the 
 practice of parties, all being against the promotion of 
 military men to civil power, the administration party 
 treated the subject in the same light as if there were 
 a constitutional inhibition against the selection, and 
 waged a war against General Jackson which embla 
 zoned upon its banners coffin handbills, and the effi 
 gies of Arbuthnot and Armbrister swinging in chains 
 in the swamps of Florida. On the other hand, the 
 friends of Adams were constantly assailed as ungrate 
 ful to one who, by the victory of New Orleans, had 
 saved the country from re-subjugation by the British, 
 and as the supporters of a scheme of " bargain and 
 sale" for the Presidency, which was then denounced 
 with all the same epithets of fraud and corruption 
 that we have had ringing in our ears with respect to 
 Southern Returning Boards on the one hand, and 
 revelations of cipher dispatches on the other. In 
 truth there was, from this intermixture of elements in 
 1828, a gigantic family feud an internecine war 
 all the more deadly in its malignity, because of the
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 43 
 
 opportunity it afforded for suppressed jealousies and cruel 
 disappointments to avenge themselves justifiably. These 
 were the feelings in Delaware, as well as elsewhere, 
 and they found expression in that memorable cam 
 paign. I shall never forget that time, though I had 
 not advanced far in my teens. The feeling it engen 
 dered extended into households and disturbed their 
 harmony, and into religious societies also, so that men 
 could hardly go through the forms of worship, side by 
 side. Everybody in Delaware was compelled to take 
 sides ; and Mr. Clayton, feeling, as others did, that the 
 duty of patriotism called upon him to declare for one 
 side or the other, enrolled himself with his kinsman, 
 Thomas Clayton, and their numerous friends, in the 
 ranks of the administration ; while their old party asso 
 ciates, the Ridgelys, Bayards, McLanes, and Rogerses, 
 espoused the cause of the opposition. As the old 
 Federal party, to which they had all belonged, was the 
 dominant State power, of course the question, which 
 was made by the new order of things, was, who should 
 rule the State hereafter; which of the leaders of the 
 old party ? All these men were politicians ; all were 
 in the prime and vigor of life, and ambitious of the 
 control, by their party, of the affairs of the State ; and 
 all were men of the first ability also. The adminis 
 tration party succeeded. Delaware gave her voice for 
 Adams ; and a majority of her Legislature was upon 
 his side. This result was not attained without a severe 
 struggle all over the State, in which Clayton took a 
 leading part, and first displayed his surpassing powers
 
 AA MEMOIR OF 
 
 44 
 
 as a popular orator. He also, with his friends, made 
 strong personal appeals to their old party associates 
 to unite with them in opposition to General Jackson 
 many of whom, dissatisfied on account of the disso 
 lution of their old party, and caring nothing for the 
 questions between the new ones, only yielded to their 
 solicitations, after finding out that others whom they 
 disliked, politically or personally, had gone to the other 
 side. I have heard him relate a very amusing anec 
 dote illustrative of this strange state of things the 
 point of which was that one individual, notwithstanding 
 all the arguments and appeals addressed to him, was 
 not able, at the end of a day's mental travail, to come to 
 any decision, until it occurred to him to inquire what side 
 a certain person, whom he thoroughly hated, was on ; 
 and being answered that he was a Jackson man, swore 
 that he then was an Adams man. How many men 
 are there, now-a-days, who have any better reason to 
 give for what is called " the faith that is in them" ? 
 The administration men, or Adams men, being in 
 power at the legislative session of 1829, and the time 
 of Henry M. Ridgely having expired, John M. Clayton, 
 at the age of thirty-three years and a few months, 
 was elected a Senator for the term of six years, be 
 ginning with the then next ensuing fourth day of 
 March, his competitor being Mr. Ridgely. He took 
 his seat in the Senate on that day at a special ses 
 sion of that body, called, as is usual, at the beginning 
 of a Presidential term, and witnessed the inauguration 
 of Andrew Jackson, who had defeated President Adams
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 45 
 
 by a large majority in the Electoral College. Then 
 may be said to have commenced his political career ; 
 for the campaign of which the ceremony of that day 
 was the result, was the first in which he took any 
 prominent part. He had, in truth, no inclination for 
 such contests as those in Delaware had been in his day, 
 up to that time mere struggles for supremacy with 
 out any real principle at stake though he had voted, 
 as before said, in 1820, and at intervals afterwards. When 
 he entered the Senate he found himself to be the 
 youngest member of that body ; and, with the excep 
 tion of his colleague, he knew none of the Senators 
 personally, and perhaps none of. them had ever heard 
 at all of him, unless in answer to inquiries always 
 made, when a new member is to be joined to the 
 body, to find out what standing he has in his State 
 as a man of talents. There were then in the Senate, 
 or entering it with him, some of the greatest men 
 this country has ever known men whose renown for 
 patriotism and ability was, in their day, enough to 
 satisfy the most craving ambition, but which since then 
 has increased in fulness until those worthies occupy 
 the highest niches in the temple of fame in America. 
 Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, Thomas H. Benton, Felix 
 Grundy, Hugh L. White, John Holmes, Asher Robbins, 
 John C. Calhoun, Edward Livingston, and Robert Y. 
 Hayne were there, besides others worthy to be ranked 
 with them, in the list of strong men in intellect, and 
 pure minds as statesmen. Some of these heroes had 
 made a study of the service of politics (I speak of 
 
 6
 
 . MEMOIR OF 
 
 politics in its broad sense as a philosophical system), 
 and were skilled in all the learning of the past with 
 respect to public government, including especially a 
 knowledge, perfect in all respects, of the constitutional 
 history of the United States as a Federal body, and 
 of the several States, composing the whole, in their 
 colonial relations to each other and to the mother 
 country. And they had, most of them, all the benefit 
 which can accrue from frequent discussion, where every 
 one found his equal. Into this society entered Dela 
 ware's young Senator, modest, unused to the scene be 
 fore him (for he had never even seen either House of 
 Congress in session), but possessing within him those 
 qualities which fitted him to take his part of the 
 duties his high station cast upon him. And he knew 
 that he possessed those qualities. What man of real 
 power does not ? By this time he had attained his 
 full physical proportions. The traces of sorrow for 
 the loss of his wife had disappeared, leaving in their 
 place an expression of repose which, superadded to the 
 fine intellectual lineaments of his commanding counte 
 nance, his clear complexion, and large gray eyes, at 
 tracted the attention of all who met him. It was 
 clearly apparent that here was a remarkable man ; 
 large size, fine figure, fair complexion, handsome fea 
 tures, a countenance full of intelligence, a manner gra 
 cious and familiar, but dignified also, all proclaimed 
 him an extraordinary person before he had opened his 
 mouth in the presence of his brother Senators. His 
 social qualities, consisting of ease and freedom of man-
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 47 
 
 ner, exceeding powers of conversation, amiability of 
 disposition, that consideration and respect for others 
 which never would allow him to be guilty of the ill- 
 bred and vulgar habit some have, of interrupting con 
 versation in order that their own small selves may be 
 heard ; gracious recognition at all times and places of 
 all with whom he had acquaintance '-all conspired to 
 make him not only a great favorite with his mess, 
 but with all whom he met, or with whom he was 
 thrown in company. It has always been the testimony 
 of those at Washington who knew him, that he en 
 joyed a greater personal popularity than any other Sen 
 ator : and any here present who knew him in his public 
 day, can readily understand why he was so. Social 
 intercourse with John M. Clayton was a great pleasure, 
 which all could enjoy ; for, surely, no man was so 
 accessible, and none took such pains (though all un 
 observed by his visitor) to render their communion 
 agreeable. While he talked himself, and was fond of 
 doing it (for he had an overflowing mind that could 
 not be restrained from expression), he would yet ever 
 contrive to lead the conversation to some topic fa- 
 familiar to his guest, or auditor, and draw him out to 
 take his part in the discourse ; and thus impress him 
 with a most grateful thought that he had contributed 
 his share to an entertainment, where he only expected 
 to be a recipient. Everybody left him fully impressed 
 that he was not only the most agreeable great man 
 they had ever seen, but the most interesting 
 also for he really knew immensely of many things, 

 
 4 g MEMOIR OF 
 
 and something of almost everything. In all my 
 long experience of him, beginning in May, 1831, and 
 ending only with his life, I never knew any subject 
 of conversation started about which he did not seem 
 to have a great deal of accurate knowledge. A great 
 reader, with a mind that could be interested in any 
 useful subject, and a memory which preserved most 
 tenaciously all that mind required it should retain, it 
 is no wonder that he had such general information. 
 Other men, no doubt, were equally well-informed, and 
 some perhaps better for there are magazines of a 
 mental kind where all knowledge is stored but it 
 was more than rare to find one who was so willing to 
 hold converse with others, and possessed withal such 
 fluency and beauty, besides simplicity and ease, of ex 
 pression. No wonder, I repeat, then, that he so soon 
 became a favorite with his brother Senators. His 
 presence and manner were not to be resisted, and 
 during the years that followed, when he felt it, often 
 times, to be his duty to deal in unsparing terms of 
 denunciation with what he thought to be corruptions 
 in the public service, or usurpation of power by the 
 the Executive, or arrogation of authority by false 
 interpreters of the Constitution to render nugatory 
 valid acts of Congress by State ordinances, he yet 
 retained the personal respect of all with whom he 
 differed, and challenged their admiration, for his ability 
 and oratorical eminence.
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 DEBATE ON FOOT'S RESOLUTION. 
 
 At the first session of Congress after Mr. Clayton's 
 appointment to the Senate, that of December, 1830, 
 we find him engaged in the debates upon some of 
 the subjects of most prominent inteffest before the 
 country, such as the Public Lands, the Graduation 
 Bill, the Appropriation Bill, and (on the 4th of March, 
 1830) on the celebrated resolution of Foot, of Connec 
 ticut, which furnished the text for the greatest debate 
 that ever occurred in that body. 
 
 The resolution itself . was one of inquiry, simply, 
 about the public lands ; the proper disposition of them ; 
 and the policy, generally, with respect to them. But, 
 like many other small subjects on other occasions, it 
 gave rise to a debate which occupied many weeks, 
 and was participated in by all the leading men of 
 the Senate ; it having drawn within its vortex almost 
 every subject that divided parties, and elicited the best 
 argument that could possibly be made in favor of 
 nullification or the annulment by a State of an act 
 of Congress, which, in her judgment, is not authorized 
 by the Constitution. The topic of the resolution was, 
 of course, discussed very thoroughly, because of its 
 general importance ; but the attention of the country 
 was specially drawn by the introduction into the de 
 bate of a question which had been raised very soon 
 after the Government was founded which question was, 
 the remedy for a State, or States, in case of enact-
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 ments by Congress, which in their judgment were 
 " deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other 
 powers" not granted by the compact. The country was 
 confronted with a question of such momentous import 
 ance ; and patriots everywhere looked with the greatest 
 concern upon the contest. The chief representative of 
 the doctrine {^nullification was Robert Y. Hayne, of 
 South Carolina, a man of the first order of ability ; 
 and his chief opponent was Daniel Webster, who, with 
 the possible exception of Alexander Hamilton, was the 
 greatest of our long list of distinguished public men. 
 Of commanding presence, gigantic mind replete with 
 knowledge of all that the debate required, and an 
 action and utterance in entire harmony with his 
 majesty of intellect, he was the master of the Caro 
 linian in the end though it is not to be denied by 
 any, that in him he met a " foeman worthy of his 
 steel." 
 
 It is not my purpose to quote any part of the 
 remarks of either champion in this memoir, for it 
 would be impossible to do justice to them, by such 
 citations. It is enough that almost every one read at the 
 time, or has since gone over, the speeches themselves 
 in full; and that all understand that the verdict of 
 the nation was for the argument of the " Great Ex 
 pounder," as he then came to be called. The verdict 
 remained undisturbed practically until there was an 
 attempt, begun in April, 1861, to reverse it by force of 
 arms. 
 
 Into this great debate John M. Clayton entered,
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 5 T 
 
 as I have said, on the 4th of March, 1830, and de 
 livered his views at great length upon three of the 
 subjects discussed public lands question, the Execu 
 tive power of removal, and the right claimed for a 
 State to take her case into her own hands. He had 
 then only had three months experience of Senatorial 
 life the special session of March 4, 1829, having been 
 confined to executive business, and the first regular 
 meeting for legislation having taken place on the first 
 Monday of December of that year but he displayed 
 an amount of knowledge with the first and second of 
 these subjects, and skill in their discussion, that aston 
 ished all his friends, and attracted the attention of all 
 men in public life. It was, at once, seen that he was 
 destined to make a great figure in the Congress of 
 his country ; and this reconciled his political oppo 
 nents in Delaware to his election for it is a feature 
 in the character of our people, that they have great 
 pride in the fame of a distinguished fellow-citizen, no 
 matter what his politics. The other subject the con 
 stitutional one was most ably and thoroughly handled, 
 and the argument made against the State power was 
 unanswerable ; which appeared, among other ways, by 
 the admirable illustration he made to show what 
 would be the effect of establishing the doctrine asserted 
 by the nullifiers. 
 
 The question of the power of the President to re 
 move a public officer, not a judge, without cause, was 
 thoroughly treated in this speech, which was conceded, 
 on all hands, to be as strong a protest, by argument,
 
 e 2 MEMOIR OF 
 
 against it, as had ever been made; but with reference 
 to that question, it accomplished nothing more than to 
 put the .subject, to use a frequent expression of his, 
 " in a proper point of light." Whoever will read his 
 argument will find it full, frank, and exhaustive. He 
 referred to the discussion, and the result against his 
 views, in a debate, hereafter noticed, which occurred 
 twenty-six years afterwards, and when the country had 
 come to regard (alas for its welfare !) the offices as 
 " spoils" of victory, with which a successful party 
 might enrich itself. This speech was delivered before 
 the last and greatest speech made by Mr. Webster in 
 the debate ; and at the time of its delivery Clayton 
 was six months less than thirty-four years old ; and 
 before that time he had been engaged in executive 
 session in the debate on the removal subject, as ap 
 pears by a speech of Mr. Barton, of Missouri, from 
 which the injunction of secrecy was removed. 
 
 CORRUPTIONS IN THE POST-OFFICE 
 DEPARTMENT. 
 
 In the very first week of the next session of Con 
 gress, commencing in December, 1831, Mr. Clayton in 
 troduced his celebrated resolution to inquire into the 
 abuses of the Post-Office Department. This inquiry 
 imposed upon him a herculean task. It was surrounded 
 by difficulties which seemed, at first, to be insur 
 mountable, the more especially as the whole over-
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 53 
 
 whelming force of the Executive and his party, sec 
 onded by as strong a partisan press as ever was known 
 in the country, was unceasingly directed to suppress the 
 inquiry, to misrepresent and distort the facts which it 
 elicited, and to crush those who had engaged in it. 
 During this short session, as the investigation pro 
 ceeded, the advocates of the department and of the 
 party in power endeavored to embarrass the commit 
 tee by a resolution of the Senate absolutely ordering 
 the suppression of so much of the investigation as 
 tended to expose the causes for which faithful public 
 officers had been removed from office. This drew from 
 Mr. Clayton one of his most labored efforts in the 
 Senate of the United States, in a speech then delivered. 
 The proscription by the Administration, in that day, 
 astonished and shocked many of its warmest support 
 ers, by the extent, and, as some characterized it, the 
 ferocity, with which that system was carried out. Pro 
 scription for opinion's sake was then commenced, and 
 has since been continued by every party that has 
 gained possession of official patronage But removals 
 from office were then deemed acts of private oppres 
 sion, inflicted by the iron hand of power, especially 
 when, as in some cases, attacks upon private character 
 were made to justify the displacement of the incum 
 bent. Against what Mr. Clayton considered this system 
 of tyranny, he urged unceasing warfare. He and his 
 political friends denounced what they charged was a 
 prescriptive system generally, but especially in refer 
 ence to the Department whose affairs it was their duty
 
 54 MEMOIR OF 
 
 to investigate. At this critical period the machinations 
 of Mr. Van Buren had caused the first rupture between 
 General Jackson and Mr. Calhoun ; and at this period 
 also, the opponents of the Administration first com 
 menced that movement, which was finally successful, 
 the object of which was to draw Mr. Calhoun and 
 his friends in opposition to the strong will which 
 was, relentlessly, crushing all opposed to the Executive. 
 The following, taken from the speech of Mr. Clayton, 
 presents us with the first instance of the attempt of 
 the minority to call in the aid of the Southern cham 
 pion, who afterwards himself became so distinguished 
 an opponent of all the arbitrary measures of General 
 Jackson, as they were then stigmatized : 
 
 " But it will soon be seen whether there be not 
 one man in this nation able to breast its terrors (the 
 terrors of President Jackson's Administration) whenever 
 the President hurls its thunders. There are hawks 
 abroad, sir. Rumor alleges that the plundering falcon 
 has lately stooped upon a full-winged eagle that never 
 yet flinched from a contest, and, as might be natu 
 rally expected, all await the result with intense inter 
 est. It is given out, that the intended victim of pro 
 scription now is one distinguished far above all in 
 office for the vigor and splendor of his intellect, 
 
 ' Micat inter omnes 
 
 Velut inter ignes luna minores.' 
 
 One who has been a prominent member of the party 
 which gave power to our modern dictator, is to feel 
 the undying vengeance which can burst forth, after
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 55 
 
 the lapse of twelve years, for an act done or a word 
 said in a high official station and under the solemn 
 obligation of an oath. But if that energy and fairness 
 which have hitherto characterized him through life, do 
 not desert him in this hour of greatest peril, we may 
 yet live to see one, who has been marked out as a 
 victim, escape unscathed even by that power which 
 has thus far prostrated alike the barriers of public law 
 and the sanctity of private reputation. In the mean 
 time let it not be forgotten that the injuries inflicted 
 by that proscription which levels first at the office and 
 then at character to justify the blow, is not less se 
 verely felt because the sufferer has not moved in a 
 splendid circle. The ' beetle that we tread upon may 
 feel a pang as great as when a giant dies ;' and, 
 looking at the case to which I have alluded, may not 
 the hundreds who have felt the sting of unmerited re 
 proach, fairly invite the sympathies of others who are 
 now made the objects of an attack not less unmerited 
 and unrelenting in its character than that which their 
 humbler efforts may have been unable to resist?" 
 
 During the many incidental discussions in which 
 Mr. Clayton was engaged during this session, Isaac 
 Hill, of New Hampshire, volunteered a written speech, 
 which he read at great length in his place in the 
 Senate, in defence of the alleged abuses of the Post- 
 Office Department, and in it made a personal attack upon 
 the members of the committee who were engaged in 
 the inquiry; and for this he immediately received what 
 may even now be called a castigation as severe per 
 haps as' any ever administered to a mere servant of 
 power.
 
 eg MEMOIR OF 
 
 The investigation for this session, though half sup 
 pressed by the party vote in the Senate, terminated in 
 a complete triumph for the committee. Enough was 
 developed to awake the attention of the public. Thir 
 ty-six forgeries in one public document were discov 
 ered forgeries manifestly made, too, for the purpose 
 of transferring all the odium for the grant of some 
 of the most indefeasible extra allowances to mail con 
 tractors for party purposes, from the shoulders of 
 the Postmaster-General, who was in truth totally un 
 connected with these frauds. Mr. Clayton persevered 
 in his exertions to expose the abuses of this Depart 
 ment during both the succeeding sessions of Congress, 
 and never intermitted his labors, until, despite of all 
 efforts made by opponents, the most stupendous system 
 of fraud and peculation, and bribery and corruption, 
 was at last exposed and laid before the nation, that, 
 up to that time, had ever stained the career of any 
 administration in this country. Not satisfied with this, 
 he devoted himself to the reformation of the Depart 
 ment, and was the first man who ever pointed out the 
 true remedy for these abuses. In one of his speeches 
 in the year 1834, after inviting the attention of the 
 Senate to the enormous amount of secret service money 
 annually expended by the Postmaster-General, without 
 control or check after showing how, by means of 
 this secret service money, commonly called in the re 
 ports of the day, the incidental expenses of the De 
 partment, immense sums could be annually lavished to 
 subsidize the public press, and for other unworthy uses,
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 57 
 
 without the danger of detection Mr. Clayton gave it as 
 his opinion that the only mode of effectually arresting 
 the evil was to bring the Department under the control 
 of Congress, as the Constitution directed it should be. 
 He showed that, from the very origin of the Govern 
 ment, this Department had been unconstitutiorfally ad 
 ministered ; that its revenues were part of the treasure 
 of the nation, and like all other public money, could 
 not be withdrawn from the Treasury without an appro 
 priation made by law ; that it was the duty of Con 
 gress to make annual specific appropriations out of the 
 revenues of the Post-Office, as well as the other reve 
 nues of the country, to meet all the necessary expen 
 ditures of the Government ; that from the origin of 
 the Government to that day, a period of more than 
 forty years, Congress had been unmindful of this sacred 
 obligation, permitting the Postmaster-General annually 
 to disburse millions of the public money without war 
 rant of law, and at his sole pleasure and caprice ; that 
 the secret service fund; which was originally but a few 
 hundred dollars, had, by this abandonment of the con 
 stitutional duty of Congress, now swelled to more than 
 one hundred thousand dollars per annum, and might 
 with equal propriety at any time be raised to a 
 million ; and that, besides these incidental expenses, 
 Congress was then annually called upon to appropriate 
 out of the Treasury of the nation a sum of one hun 
 dred thousand dollars to defray, what was called, the 
 contingent expenses of the Department. He proposed 
 to reform the Department altogether, to make it
 
 Kg MEMOIR Of 
 
 responsible, and subject it tp the scrutiny and control 
 of Congress, without whose check the frauds he had 
 exposed would be repeated with impunity, as often as 
 corrupt or careless men should come to the control 
 of this branch of the Government. This important sug 
 gestion was afterwards adopted by Congress, and the 
 triumph of Mr. Clayton and his friends over those 
 whose abuses he had exposed, was completed by the 
 passage of a law providing for the thorough reorgani 
 zation and reformation of the Department. 
 
 From the year 1832 to December, 1836, Mr. Clay 
 ton, although employed in professional life during the 
 recess of Congress, was engaged to a greater or less 
 degree in the discussion of the leading topics of public 
 and political interest then agitating the country. The 
 period of his Congressional career was the most stormy 
 that had occurred in the history of the Republic. 
 More questions of vital importance to the people were 
 agitated between 1828 and 1837 than during any other 
 equal number of years preceding. At the time of the 
 passage of the Bank Bill in 1832, Mr. Clayton was one 
 of those who most ardently and anxiously advocated 
 the preservation of the currency, and the financial system 
 of the country. He opposed all innovations and ex 
 periments upon them; and when President Jackson's 
 veto message was under consideration in the Senate, 
 he delivered a speech in opposition to the veto, 
 which was afterwards a thousand times quoted as con 
 clusive evidence that his political friends of that day 
 foresaw and foretold all the distress and ruin through
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 59 
 
 which the country passed in the course of that decade. 
 Here is a part of what he said, in discussing the veto 
 message ; and it will appear, in reading it, how states 
 men of later days have, in their advocacy of a stable 
 system of finance, profited by his thoughts and the 
 language in which he clothed them : 
 
 " I ask, What is to be done for the country ? All 
 thinking men must now admit that, as the -present 
 bank must close its concerns in less than four years, 
 the pecuniary distress, the commercial embarrassments, 
 consequent upon its destruction, must exceed anything 
 which has ever been known in our history, unless some 
 other bank can be established to relieve us. Eight 
 and a half millions of the bank capital, belonging to 
 foreigners, must be withdrawn from us to Europe. 
 Seven millions of the capital must be paid to the 
 Government, not to be loaned again, but to remain, as 
 the President proposes, deposited in a branch of the 
 Treasury, to check the issues of the local banks. The 
 immense available resources of the present institution, 
 amounting, as appears by a report in the other House, 
 to $62,057,483, are to be used for banking no longer ; 
 and nearly fifty millions of dollars in notes, discounted 
 on personal and other security, must be paid to the 
 bank. The State banks must pay over all their debts 
 to the expiring institution, and curtail their discounts 
 to do so ; or resort, for the relief of their debtors, 
 to the old plan of emitting more paper, to be bought 
 up by speculators at a heavy discount. The prediction 
 of Mr. Lowndes in 1819 must be fulfilled, 'That the 
 destruction of the United States Bank would be fol 
 lowed by the establishment of paper money, he firmly
 
 go MEMOIR OF 
 
 believed he might almost say he knew.' ' It was an 
 extremity,' he said, ' from which the House would re 
 coil.' The farmer must again sell his grain to the 
 country merchant for State bank paper, at a discount 
 of from ten to twenty, or even thirty per cent., in the 
 nearest commercial city. The merchant must receive 
 from the .farmer the same paper in exchange for all 
 the merchandise he consumes. The merchant with his 
 money must purchase other merchandise in the cities, 
 and must often sell it, at an advance on that price, 
 to the farmer, of twenty per cent., to save himself 
 from loss. 
 
 " The depreciation of the paper thus operates as a 
 tax on the farmer, the merchant, and all the consumers 
 of merchandise, to its whole amount. The loss of 
 confidence among men ; the total derangement of that 
 desirable system of exchanges which is now admitted 
 to be better than exists in any other country on the 
 globe ; overtrading and speculating on false capital in 
 every part of the country ; that rapid fluctuation in the 
 standard of value for money which, like the unseen 
 pestilence, withers all the efforts of industry, while the 
 sufferer is in utter ignorance of the cause of his de 
 struction ; bankruptcies and ruin, at the anticipation of 
 which the heart sickens ; must follow in the long train 
 of evils which are assuredly before us. Where then 
 where then, I demand to know/ sir, is the remedy to 
 save us ? In a Government bank a branch of the 
 Treasury without stockholders or property without 
 the power to issue a dollar of paper, or to loan a 
 dollar of any kind without the ability to deal in ex 
 changes, except so far as may be necessary for paying 
 its officers to stand behind the counter controlling 
 the State bank emissions of unsound currency only by
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 6 r 
 
 refusing to take their notes in payment of the custom 
 house bonds, when the Executive may think them 
 about to prove refractory at an election." 
 
 How exactly was all this prediction fulfilled to the 
 very letter ! 
 
 .THE COMPROMISE OF 1833. 
 
 During the whole of his Congressional life, Mr. 
 Clayton was the constant advocate of the protective 
 policy ; and so .deeply was he convinced of the neces 
 sity of maintaining and preserving that policy, that in 
 the famous . debate on the Compromise Act in 1833, he 
 declared that " he would pause before he surrendered 
 it, even to save the Union, dearly as he loved, and 
 highly as he prized, the latter." He took a more active 
 part in the advocacy and passage of that bill than any 
 other man in Congress, with the single Exception of 
 Henry Clay. Indeed, Mr. Clay, in a debate in the year 
 1836, publicly ascribed the passage of that law to Mr. 
 Clayton without whose exertions, he said, it could 
 not -have been enacted. 
 
 Of the vital importance of the passage of this act, 
 at the perilous crisis when it was discussed in Con 
 gress, we can judge only by referring back to the 
 thrilling events which were cotemporaneous with it. 
 South Carolina had openly, in solemn convention, 
 passed her ordinance of nullification. Her State troops 
 
 were organized, and a new military system adopted by 
 
 s
 
 6 2 MEMOIR OF 
 
 her, for the avowed purpose of active resistance to the 
 tariff law of 1828. Officers of great talent, including 
 among others that gifted gentleman and chivalrous and 
 intrepid commander, General Hamilton, were selected 
 by the State authorities to lead the brave but misled 
 South Carolinians to battle in defence of the ordinance 
 of nullification. The sympathies of all the surrounding 
 Southern States were, every day, most ardently and elo 
 quently invoked in favor of South Carolina ; and thou 
 sands of misguided and deluded men in the Middle and 
 in the Northern sections of the Union constantly avowed 
 their rooted hostility to the whole protective policy, and 
 their friendship for the South Carolinians, whom they 
 professed to consider as their oppressed countrymen. 
 There was scarcely a State in the Union which did 
 not contain many votaries of the free trade doctrine, 
 ready to aid by their personal services, or their purses, 
 the cause of the assumed sufferers. In the midst of 
 this (as we* now know it to have been) great infatu 
 ation, the President himself, backed by all his Cabinet 
 ministers, at the .head of whom stood the Secretary of 
 the Treasury, sought to preserve the peace of the 
 country only by breaking down the tariff. Early in 
 the session of 1832-3, the Secretary of the Treasury 
 sent to the Committee of Ways and Means an Execu 
 tive projet of a new tariff, which, with slight altera 
 tions, was adopted and reported by that committee, 
 estimating the whole revenue necessary to be raised 
 for support of Government at only twelve millions of 
 dollars, and imposing duties, the average* of which did
 
 JOHN M. CLA YTON. 3 
 
 not exceed fifteen per cent, ad valorem. The moment 
 this proposition, emanating from the Executive (who 
 pending his election had professed himself in favor of 
 a judicious tariff], made its appearance, the friends of 
 home labor, as the tariff men called themselves, saw 
 that the axe was to be laid at the root of the whole 
 protective policy. They had witnessed, before this, with 
 what facility the colossal power of the Executive had 
 prostrated the Bank of the United States whose pop 
 ularity was so great at the time of the President's 
 accession to power, that its re-charter was looked upon 
 as unquestionable. They had seen the whole system 
 of internal improvements crushed by the Maysville 
 veto, and this too from one who came into power pro 
 fessing to be the friend of that system. They now, 
 therefore, with good reason, viewed all these principles 
 that upheld the domestic industry of the country, as being 
 in the utmost peril. At the same dreadful moment, 
 the very Union of the States was tottering to its down 
 fall. They believed that the very first blood shed on 
 the plains of South Carolina would be the signal for 
 the destruction of the Republic; and they justly rea- 
 sonad, that, even should the Union survive the conflict* 
 the whole tariff policy would become odious in the 
 eyes of the friends of civil liberty and republican gov 
 ernment, as the existing cause of the butchery of their 
 countrymen. In the meantime they beheld the Presi 
 dent enraged to frenzy by the threat of resistance 
 to his power, denouncing the South Carolinians as 
 rebels and traitors, proclaiming their disgrace as such
 
 64 MEMOIR OF 
 
 to the world, and threatening vengeance against their 
 leaders, whom he vowed he would hang, upon the 
 commission of the first overt act of resistance to the 
 law. At this moment Mr. Clayton avowed his firm 
 determination to sustain the Executive in his efforts to 
 maintain the authority of the laws ; and, throwing aside, 
 for the sake of the country, all the bonds and tram 
 mels of party, openly stood forth in vindication of the 
 President's authority to execute the laws, For this 
 purpose he delivered a speech in the Senate in Feb 
 ruary, 1833, in support of the bill for the collection of 
 duties on imports, in reply to Mr. Calhoun, and to 
 Mr. Tyler, then a Senator from Virginia, afterwards 
 acting President of the United States. In this speech 
 he reviewed, at great length, the whole doctrine of 
 nullification and State secession. The following pas 
 sages from the speech will show the true position 
 which he chose to occupy in reference to the Exec 
 utive, at this crisis, and also elucidate his views upon 
 various subjects and theories introduced into the de 
 bate. In the second paragraph he says : 
 
 " If a doubt had ever existed in my mind s to 
 the course which it is my duty to pursue in regard 
 to this measure, that doubt would have been removed 
 by the just influence of the sentiments of those who, 
 as the immediate representatives of the people of that 
 State which has commissioned me to act as Senator 
 on this floor, have fully expressed themselves in certain 
 resolutions, a copy of which is now before me. These 
 resolutions, in substance, declare, that the Constitution
 
 J O H N M. L LA Y 7 O A' . - 
 
 is not a treaty or a mere compact between sovereign 
 States, but a form of government emanating from and 
 established by the people of the United States ; that 
 this Government, although one of limited powers, is 
 supreme within its sphere of action, and that the people 
 owe to it an allegiance which cannot, consistently with 
 the Constitution, be withdrawn by State nullification or 
 State secession ; that the Supreme Court of the United 
 States is the only and proper tribunal for the settle 
 ment, in the the last resort, of controversies arising 
 under that Constitution and the laws of Congress; that 
 in cases of gross and intolerable oppression, for which 
 the ordinary .remedies to be found in the elective fran 
 chise and the responsibility of public officers are in 
 adequate, the remedy is extra-constitutional resistance 
 and revolution. The language of our people, as ex 
 pressed by their representatives, touching the fatal de 
 lusion pervading the ordinance and legislation of South 
 Carolina, is that while they entertain the kindest feel 
 ings towards the people of that State, ' with whom 
 they stood, side by side, in the war of the Revolution, 
 and in whose defence their blood was freely spilt/ 
 they will not falter in their allegiance, but will be 
 found, now as then, true to their country and its Gov 
 ernment ; and they pledge themselves to support that 
 Government i-n the exercise of all its constitutional 
 rights, and in the discharge of all its constitutional 
 duties. These resolutions, proclaiming as they do the 
 sentiments of gentlemen of all political parties, do not 
 instruct me to adopt them as my political text-book, 
 but leave me, untrammeled by any mandate, to follow 
 the course which my own judgment may dictate in 
 relation to the whole subject. 
 
 " But, sir, my sentiments were no secret to the
 
 56 Mf-.MOIR Of- 
 
 people who spoke thus by their constitutional organ, 
 the legislative body. When principles directly repug 
 nant to these were first advocated within the walls of 
 this chamber, though fresh in my seat here, my voice 
 was raised against them. The first effort that was 
 ever made here to support the present Carolina doctrine 
 of nullification by a State Convention, made by the 
 gentlemen from Tennessee (Mr. Grundy), now a happy 
 convert to much of my political catechism, and sus 
 tained with a degree of ability which has hardly been 
 surpassed in this debate, was opposed by me while 
 feebly pressing the adversary principles now inculcated 
 in the declaration of Delaware, to which I have ad 
 verted. It is my business, sir, to reassure that honor 
 able member of the truth of his new articles of faith ; 
 'and to tell him, too, that however unfashionable t these 
 tenets were at the time of our ancient controversy, 
 there is now no other mode known among men 
 whereby he can be politically saved. 
 
 " It has so happened, sir, that the principles with 
 which I entered public life, and with which, by the 
 blessing of God, I will live and die the same prin 
 ciples for which I and my political friends have been 
 contending during the whole period of my service in 
 the Senate, have been discovered by the President, in 
 this perilous crisis of our public affairs, to be the only 
 truly conservative principles of the Constitution. * As 
 one of those who have steadily but unsuccessfully op 
 posed what in my conscience I believe to have been 
 usurpations of Executive and State power doctrines 
 leading to the present disastrous results, as I have 
 often predicted, in reference to the veto message of 
 the last session, and the whole course of our recent 
 national policy towards the State of Georgia true now,
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 6/ 
 
 sir, to the same principles, I find myself by a sudden 
 revolution in the sentiments of the Administration on 
 this subject, anxiously supporting its very strongest meas 
 ures. At the same time, I find the President, without the 
 aid of those friends with whom it has ever been my 
 pride to be associated in the political divisions 
 which have agitated this body, sustained only by a very 
 small and hopeless minority of the American Senate. 
 * But my support of this measure (alluding 
 to the reason given by Mr. Wilkins, of Pennsylvania, 
 for his) is predicated on no servile submission to any 
 Executive mandate, on no implicit and unlimited faith 
 in any man. I will clothe the Executive with all 
 constitutional power necessary to secure the faithful 
 execution ot the laws, and the preservation of the 
 Union. I will confer stronger authority on the Chief 
 Magistrate, because I can find no other chance of 
 salvation for my country ; and I will not be deterred 
 from the adoption of this measure by any consideration 
 of the source from which it has emanated, or because 
 an unworthy reason has been advanced by others to 
 sustain it. Whatever beauties the chairman may dis 
 cover in this part of his own argument, whatever for 
 eign missions or splendid offices may now glitter in 
 the vista to dazzle and delight the visions of others, 
 I see and wish to see no prospect of political ad 
 vancement, arising out of this sudden revolution in 
 Executive opinion, for any member of that proud oppo 
 sition which has so long and so stubbornly maintained 
 its lofty independence of character, and so triumphantly 
 vindicated the cause of constitutional liberty rn the 
 halls of the Capitol of this country. If it be true that, 
 in the honorable discharge of our sacred duty here, 
 we have committed the sin, hitherto deemed unpar-
 
 gg MEMOIR OF 
 
 donable, against that being who is so prominent an 
 object of the humble adoration of others, let that sin 
 remain unexpiated by any atonement which we now 
 have to offer; and should political death be the pun 
 ishment to be inflicted upon us for our transgressions, 
 let us at least perish hoping nothing from the smiles, 
 and fearing nothing from the frowns, of Executive 
 power. 
 
 " Nor, sir, as 1 trust, will any man here who has 
 ever justly laid claim to the honorable title of 'Na 
 tional Republican' (the party name of the opposition at 
 that time) be prevented from giving a liberal support 
 to this bill, by the general denunciation of it as a 
 Federal measure. We well know that this same inge 
 nious stratagem has been resorted to for more than 
 thirty years, alternately to elevate or depress the lead 
 ing demagogues in this country. The best possible plan 
 to escape the force of reason, is to appeal to the 
 ignorant prejudices of mankind. One who has engaged 
 in this debate traces, by the aid of the 'most marvel 
 lous powers of combination and deduction, the origin 
 of the nullifying resolutions of Kentucky, in 1798, and 
 their kindred resolutions of Virginia, adopted in the 
 same era, to the old Federal party ! An ingenious 
 modern writer, sir, has derived the word ' cucumber' 
 from 'Jeremiah King;' but even his praises might well 
 remain unsung, while the sup'erior ingenuity of the 
 author of this charge against the men of other days, 
 should, by bard and minstrel, be celebrated in Hudi- 
 brastic lays for the admiration of the world. The Ken 
 tucky resolutions, which gave birth to the whole heresy 
 of nullification, are entitled to no respect, whether we 
 consider the time of their adoption, or the mere object 
 for which they were drawn. They were written by a
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 5g 
 
 candidate for office, in a period of high party excite 
 ment, for the very purpose of securing his own election. 
 They were well calculated to intimidate political oppo 
 nents by the threat of ultimate disunion in the event 
 of his defeat, and as such they were denounced by 
 many of the other States, at the time and in the 
 strongest language. They slept on the shelf after they 
 had done their office, without an effort on the part of 
 anybody to vindicate the principles contained in them, 
 until after the lapse of thirty years, when they were 
 awakened by the trumpet of discord resounding again 
 throughout this happy country. I say, sir, that no con 
 siderable effort was made to defend them, or their revo 
 lutionary principles, from 1800 till the passage of the 
 tariff act of 1824. Yet they were assailed and de 
 nounced in the hearing of the very men who, if they 
 had been deemed defensible, ought to have been the 
 first to stand forth in their defence. In the debate on 
 the Judiciary, in 1802, Mr. Giles, of Virginia, having 
 barely so far alluded to the subject as to mention 
 the determination of the Federal Courts that they 
 are judges in the last resort of the constitutionality 
 of your laws to prove what he called their unlimited 
 claims to power, was promptly met, in reply, on the 
 whole question by Mr. Bayard, who indicated the true 
 principles of the Constitution against the then recent 
 and arrogant pretensions of State usurpation, by what 
 soever name it may be called State veto, State in 
 terposition, or State tyranny. Entrenched behind the 
 very principles we now advocate, he threw the gauntlet 
 to any champion on the other side who might choose 
 to venture in defence of the doctrines avowed in those 
 resolutions. Sir, no one then appeared in the lists to 
 accept that challenge. The resolutions, which might
 
 JQ MEMOIR OF 
 
 have been fairly claimed as covering the whole ground 
 of this part of the debate, were not even named, much 
 less* defended, or held up as authority, by any one. 
 They had served their purposes, sir. The party that 
 framed them was seated in power, and it was their 
 interest to neglect and despise them." 
 
 In a subsequeft paragraph, recurring to the subject 
 of the resolutions, he says: 
 
 " In opposition to all the authorities, honorable gen 
 tlemen quote the Virginia resolutions of 1798, and the 
 report on them of 1799. Mr. Madison, who has lately 
 explained a report of which he was himself the author, 
 is considered by them as not now understanding what 
 he himself wrote; and we are told that Virginia alone 
 can expound what she meant by her resolutions. 
 While I utterly deny her right to expound for the 
 rest of the world the Constitution of the United States ; 
 while I hold lightly even her own resolutions, drawn and 
 sent out, as I shall ever believe, chiefly for their po 
 litical effect in a pending contest for political power 
 between herself and another section of the country ; 
 I say to her representatives here, if she meant in 1798 
 or 1799 to deny the power of the Supreme Court, and 
 arrogate to herself the authority to decide, in the last 
 constitutional resort, on the laws of Congress, or the 
 Constitution of the United States, she has repealed her 
 resolutions by still later resolutions in reply to those 
 of Pennsylvania in regard to the Olmstead case. My 
 honorable friend from New Jersey (Mr. Frelinghuysen) 
 has shown us that when Pennsylvania proposed in 
 1810 to amend the Constitution by appointing an ar-
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. y l 
 
 biter between the decisions of the States and the Gen 
 eral Government, Virginia, by an almost unanimous 
 vote of her Legislature, in answer to the proposition, 
 referred Pennsylvania to the court as the only arbiter, 
 and recognized the very principles against which one 
 of the Virginia representatives (Mr. Tyler) is now con 
 tending. Be it the part of others to attempt to ex 
 onerate her from the charge of inconsistency at these 
 different periods that is no task of mine. I think 
 with the Senator from Maine (Mr. Holmes), that when 
 she has been in power, as she was in 1810, she has 
 generally been a safe expounder of the Constitution ; 
 but that her political expositions, made when out of 
 power, and struggling to obtain it, as she was in 1798, 
 should form no laws for others, as we know they have 
 been disregarded by herself. The Senator from Virginia 
 really endeavors to nullify the resolutions of his own 
 State, in reply to the proposition of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Mr. Tyler having said in the course of his 
 speech, " I deny that I am a citizen of the Govern 
 ment of the United States. I do not deny that I 
 am a citizen of the United States," Clayton replied : 
 
 " It is no part of my purpose to bandy useless 
 metaphysical distinctions with any member here. He 
 is as much a citizen of this Government as a French 
 man is a citizen of the Government of France, or an 
 Englishman of the Government of his country. But 
 all the acknowledgment I desire of the honorable 
 gentleman, in order to compel him to admit the jus 
 tice of the principles upon which this bill is founded, 
 is that he and all those upon whom the bill is in-
 
 72 MEMOIR OF 
 
 tended to operate, are citizens of the United States. 
 When the gentleman has made that admission, in vain 
 will' he contend that his obligations to Virginia are 
 higher than those which he owes to the Federal 
 Government ; in vain will he contend that his most 
 valuable rights are best secured to him by the State. 
 Were Virginia the separate nation which his argument 
 would make her appear to be, her citizens would 
 soon find the difference between that protection which 
 they now enjoy as citizens of our common country, 
 and such protection as she could give them. High 
 as she now justly stands among her sister States, 
 forming, with them, an impregnable bulwark for all 
 our countrymen against foreign aggression, she would, 
 single-handed, make but a very sorry figure in a 
 contest with any considerable foreign power. 
 
 " Sir, were it not for sheer compassion toward 
 some of those gentlemen who indulge us, so often, 
 with extravagant declamation about State power and 
 State supremacy, it would be well to ring the truth 
 daily in their ears, until they are cured of these dis 
 eased imaginations, that neither the Old Dominion 
 nor even the Empire State, herself, could singly and 
 successfully measure strength with one of the second- 
 rate powers of Europe. The gentleman from Virginia, 
 who has filled his present station with so much honor 
 to himself and usefulness to his country, denies that 
 he is a Senator of the United States, and asserts that 
 he is only a Senator of Virginia. ,He denies the 
 very existence of such a character as that of a Sena 
 tor of the United States. Each member here, in his 
 view, is bound to legislate for his own State, and can 
 represent no other. But where is the clause in the 
 Constitution which recognizes a Senator of Virginia,
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON y ^ 
 
 of Delaware, or any other single State, in this hali ? 
 This is not the Senate of Virginia, but of the United 
 States. The honorable member says that he acts 
 here only in obedience to the wishes of Virginia ; 
 that he yields obedience to this Government only be 
 cause Virginia wills it. The Constitution and laws of 
 the United States have no binding force with him 
 from any other cause than this that Virginia com 
 mands him to obey them. The result of all this 
 doctrine is, that whenever Virginia wills it, he will 
 violate this Constitution, and set these laws at defiance. 
 In opposition to all this, hear the creed of a National 
 Republican : J obey this Constitution, and act as a 
 Senator of the United States under it, because I have 
 sworn to support that Constitution. I hold myself 
 bound, while acting in my station here, to legislate 
 for the benefit of the whole country, not merely for 
 that of any section of it ; and in the discharge of 
 my duty, I will look abroad throughout this wide 
 republic, never sacrificing the interests of any one 
 part of it to gratify another, but always dealing out 
 and distributing equal justice to' all my countrymen 
 wherever they may be located, or by whatever title 
 they may be distinguished from each other. 
 
 Closing his speech, he said (referring to Mr. Cal- 
 houn) : 
 
 "The honorable Senator from South Carolina has 
 told us that all human institutions, like those who 
 formed them, contain within themselves the elements 
 of their own destruction; and that our Government is 
 now exhibiting their operation. To this general philo-
 
 74 .M1-.M01R Ol- 
 
 sophic remark, I should not have objected but for its 
 application. All the works of man are destined to 
 decay; but while the American people shall remain true 
 to themselves, their Government cannot be destroyed ; 
 for it contains, within itself, endless and ever renascent 
 energies, which must bring it out in triumph, and with 
 Andean vigor, in despite of every effort to overthrow 
 it. From foreign force it has nothing to fear: it dreads 
 nothing now from any section of this Union which 
 shall seek to prevent the just operation of our laws 
 by foreign intervention. Yes, sir, a foreign alliance, 
 sought by any member of this confederacy, for the 
 purpose of making war upon us, would* be the means, 
 under Heaven, of immediately rallying every patriot, 
 of every political party, under the broad banner of the 
 Republic. Popular virtue, however, is the only safe 
 basis of popular government. This is the ' fountain from 
 the which our current runs, or bears no life' ; and I 
 concede that the mortal blow to the liberties of this 
 country may, at last, be struck by the hand of one 
 who has been indebted to it for existence. The shaft 
 which shall stretch the American eagle bleeding and 
 lifeless in the dust, must be feathered from his own 
 bright pinions ; and bitter will be the curses of men, 
 in all ages to come, against the traitorous heart and 
 the parricidal* hand of him who shall loose that fatal 
 arrow from the string ! 
 
 " ' Remember him, the villain, righteous Heaven, 
 In thy great day of vengeance! Blast the traitor 
 And his pernicious counsels, who, for wealth, 
 For power, the pride of greatness, or revenge, 
 Would plunge his native land in civil war.' " 
 
 By the aid of himself and most of his political 
 friends the bill for the collection of duties on im-
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTOX. 
 
 75 
 
 ports became a law ; and its passage was looked upon, 
 by the trembling friends of republican government 
 throughout the world, as the signal for civil war. It 
 was at this moment big with the fate of the Gov 
 ernment that Mr. Clayton bent his whole energies 
 upon the passage of the Compromise Bill prepared by 
 Mr. Clay, as the only means left of saving the Union 
 of States, and that protective system without which, as 
 he thought, that Union was robbed of its greeting 
 blessing. It is understood that while the bill was yet 
 sleeping on the files of the Senate, he privately in 
 cited Mr. Clay to renewed and more vigorous action 
 in its behalf. He convened a meeting of such of his 
 brother Senators as were impelled by the same motives 
 that actuated him, to decide that question, which had 
 now become of such thrilling importance to the whole 
 country, whether any, and, if any, what part of the 
 then existing tariff should be surrendered for the pres 
 ervation of the Union. No man whose name had ever 
 been mentioned in connection with the Presidency was 
 admitted to that meeting. Neither Mr. Clay, nor Mr. 
 Webster, nor Mr. Calhoun ; but half the New England 
 Senators, with both the Senators from this State, were 
 among those who took part in its deliberations. They, 
 finally, resolved that if certain amendments were adopt- ' 
 ed, to the bill, as it then stood among which the 
 principle of assessing the duties on imports at the 
 home instead of the foreign value of them, was the 
 most important and a sine qua non they would vote 
 for the bill ; but that if any one of the nullifying Sen-
 
 7 6 MEMOIR OF 
 
 ators should refuse to vote for each of these amend 
 ments, or should not support the bill on its final 
 passage, they would reject the compromise, and hence 
 forth look only to arms as the means of restoring the 
 peace of the country. While these things were going 
 on, Mr. Clay moved a reference of his Compromise 
 Bill to a committee of seven members ; and the 
 Speaker pro tern, of the Senate, Hugh L. White, of 
 Tennessee, was called upon, by every patriotic consid 
 eration, to select the most efficient members of the 
 body over which he presided, to compose the com 
 mittee. He faithfully performed that duty ; and by that 
 act, if he had never done any thing else for his coun 
 try, he merited the eternal gratitude of his countrymen. 
 The members of the committee were Mr. Clay, 
 ch'airman, Mr. Calhoun, Mr. Webster, Mr. Clayton, Mr. 
 Rives, Mr. Grundy, and Mr. Dallas. What illustrious 
 names ! 
 
 And here, it is but proper to observe, a singular 
 incident occurred, worthy of being recorded in con 
 nection with the history of this famous act. Presi 
 dent Jackson, who it seems kept up a constant sur 
 veillance over the proceedings of the Senate, received, 
 by some means, a list of the members of the com 
 mittee but a few moments after their appointment had 
 been publicly announced, and immediately dispatched 
 a message to the President of the Senate, Mr. 
 White, demanding of him the erasure of Mr. Clay 
 ton's name from the list of the committee men, on 
 the avowed ground that Mr. Clayton was an open
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. y>j 
 
 friend of Mr. Clay and his bill, and an opponent of 
 the Secretary of the Treasury and his projet, then 
 pending in the House of Representatives. Mr. White 
 replied, that he had appointed Mr. Clayton a member 
 of the committee solely from the conviction that he 
 was a man of integrity and great ability, and without 
 reference to his relations, or friendships, to others. It 
 seems, however, that the President was not satisfied 
 with this, and that he was resolved to defeat the 
 passage of the Compromise Act by excluding from the 
 committee Mr. Clayton, whose influence with his brother 
 Senators was perfectly understood at the time. Mr. 
 White was sent for, and attended at the Executive 
 Mansion the Senate having adjourned after the ap 
 pointment of the committee in the evening ; and until 
 a late hour of that night the President pressed upon 
 the presiding officer of the Senate the importance of 
 inserting another name, in lieu of Mr. Clayton's, on 
 the committee to which was now entrusted the fate 
 both of the protective system and the Union of the 
 States. To the great honor of Hugh L. White, he 
 refused to make any change, preferring what he con 
 sidered the interests of his country, to the favor of 
 its Chief Magistrate in his palmiest days of power. 
 He would not yield to Executive behests He felt, 
 doubtless, that when the time should arrive that the 
 President could control the legislature of the country 
 by directing the appointment of the committees, and 
 especially upon an occasion so momentous as the 
 present, the Constitution would virtually be at an end, 
 
 10
 
 _y MEMOIR OF 
 
 : 
 
 and the President substantially a monarch. He, in 
 vain, told the President that a defeat of the Compro 
 mise Act would be followed by civil war, the shedding 
 of American blood by American hands, and the de 
 struction of the Union. But when his arguments had 
 failed, he closed this midnight consultation with the 
 avowal of his stern determination not to change the 
 committee. Whoever is curious to look into this part 
 of the history of the Compromise Act, will be interested 
 by perusing the evidence taken by a committee of 
 the House of Representatives of the United States a 
 few years after. It was a committee to investigate 
 the abuses of legislative power ; ajid Henry A. Wise, 
 of Virginia, was its chairman. In the report of that 
 committee he will see the affidavit of the Hon. Hugh 
 L. White, before mentioned, who was called upon by 
 that committee and compelled on oath to disclose the 
 extraordinary facts to which reference is here made. 
 If he will look into the public prints of that day 
 he will also see that, not long after the publication 
 of the report of the committee, the President attacked 
 Mr. White in the newspapers on account of his dis 
 closure, alleging that there never was any personal 
 hostility between himself and Mr. Clayton, or any 
 feeling which could have had induced him to have 
 acted such a part towards that gentleman. But Mr. 
 White replied to him through the same channel of 
 communication, and in the most solemn manner re 
 asserted the truth of every word he had uttered. 
 The committee, as organized by Mr. White, met
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. JQ 
 
 again and again, without any successful results. Mr. 
 Clayton pressed the amendments proposed at the meet 
 ing had with his friends, before referred to; and they 
 were all rejected, a majority of five out of seven voting 
 against them in committee. Mr. Clayton and Mr. Clay 
 were the two who voted for them. After repeated 
 meetings of the committee, it was finally agreed, by a 
 majority of four against three, to report the bill with 
 out amendment; although every one was perfectly con 
 scious that, unless the amendments were adopted, the 
 bill could scarcely obtain the votes of one-third of 
 the Senate. The enemies of the Compromise were thus 
 far triumphant ; bu.t their success was destined to be 
 of short duration. Mr. Clayton desiring, for obvious 
 reasons, that Mr. Clay should assume the paternity of 
 the whole of that great measure which he had origi 
 nated, requested him to move the amendments when 
 the bill reported to the Senate should be before that 
 body as in Committee of the Whole. The motion was 
 accordingly made by Mr. Clay, and a warm debate 
 followed, especially upon the principle of assessing the 
 duties upon the 'home value of articles of importation, 
 in the midst of which Mr. Calhoun and others of his 
 way of thinking, having declared their determination to 
 vote against this part of the amendment as unconsti 
 tutional, Mr. Clayton arose and solemnly moved to lay 
 the bill on the table, without any intention to call it 
 up again during the session, at the time avowing that 
 the friends with whom he was acting, as well as him 
 self, would never consent to pass the bill, while a sin-
 
 g o MEMOIR OF 
 
 gle Senator of the peculiar views of Mr. Calhoun re 
 fused to record his vote in favor of this part of the 
 amendments, that the principle of assessing the duties 
 at the home, instead of the foreign, value, the conces 
 sion of which in the most unequivocal form was now 
 demanded from those who had advocated the nullifi 
 cation of the tariff, was a sine qua non, and unless it 
 were conceded- at this stage of the passage of the bill, 
 they would now lay the bill on the table, where it 
 would sleep to wake no more. At this moment sev 
 eral Senators from the South in vain urged that, if 
 permitted to vote against the amendment providing for 
 the home valuation, as they desired to do, there being 
 a majority in favor of the principle, it would still be 
 incorporated in the bill ; and that on the final passage 
 of the bill they would all record their votes in its 
 favor, and thus of course for the amendment included 
 in it. But the stern answer returned by the friends of 
 the tariff was, that the home valuation was necessary 
 for the protection of the industry of the people ; and 
 it was then that Mr. Clayton made the declaration 
 mentioned that he would pause before he surrendered 
 the principle of protection, even to save the Union. 
 The friends of protection demanded of those called 
 nullifiers, before they would progress with the compro 
 mise an inch further, that they should record their 
 votes in favor of the home valuation, at every stage 
 in which the question should be presented that the 
 object of the concessions they now proposed, was to 
 shut the mouth of every one who should offer to nul-
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. gj 
 
 lify the tariff law, in all time to come that to permit 
 them to vote against the home valuation, on the mo 
 tion to adopt it as an amendment to the bill, would 
 be to open the door for those gentlemen to contend 
 against it as unconstitutional, and to nullify again, when 
 the principle came into active operation that the votes 
 of all the nullifying Senators and all other enemies of 
 the tariff must now be recorded in favor of this great 
 principle, which would secure protection to American 
 labor in the Compromise Act, or that the bill should 
 not live another instant after any one of them had 
 refused to compromise on these terms. 
 
 Pending this motion, of Mr. Clayton, to kill the bill 
 by laying it upon the table, after a brief consultation 
 with some gentlemen from the South, the Hon. George 
 
 M. Bibb, of Kentucky, himself a nullifier, requested Mr. 
 
 
 Clayton to withdraw his motion, for the purpose of 
 
 giving time to reflect on the issue now presented ; 
 and Mr. Clayton temporarily withdrew the motion for 
 the purpose mentioned by Mr. Bibb ; but avowed his 
 determination to renew it the next morning, if the 
 terms proposed by himself and his friends were not 
 acceded to ; and then, immediately, a proposition to 
 adjourn until the next morning was moved and carried. 
 After a night's consultation, it was in vain proposed 
 that the compromise should be passed with the final 
 vote of all the anti-tariff Senators recorded in its 
 favor ; but ' that the Senators from South Carolina 
 should vote against the pending motion to introduce 
 the home valuation as a part of the bill. This was
 
 g 2 MEMOIR OF 
 
 sternly refused by the friends of the tariff Mr. Clay 
 ton, with inflexible determination, persevering in his 
 resolution to fix the bill to the table, if either of 
 those Senators should refuse to record his solemn 
 vote on the journal in favor of the principle ; without 
 which, he contended, the bill might be regarded as 
 an abandonment of the protective policy, of which he 
 never would be guilty ; and he demanded the ayes 
 and noes on the home valuation, which were forth 
 with ordered to be taken. The issue was thus brought 
 home to the South in a way which could not be 
 evaded. Those generous spirits in the Senate who had 
 thus offered to save South Carolina from the conse 
 quences of her madness and folly, and who had thus 
 proposed to surrender every thing but principle to avert 
 the horrors of a civil war, and to save the blood of 
 their countrymen, now stood at bay with the enemies 
 of the tariff, and refused to recede an inch further; 
 and they finally gave notice to Southern gentlemen 
 that if, after all they had offered, the compromise 
 should be declined by South Carolina, they would 
 gather around the standard of the President, to sup 
 press any infraction of the revenue laws, with the 
 whole power of the nation, that if war ensued, they 
 would join the party of the Executive in voting every 
 dollar in the treasury to enable the President to crush 
 the rebellion, and that they would not hesitate 
 to insure the triumph of the laws even if they were 
 driven to tax the people of the United States, so 
 long as a dollar should be remaining.
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 83 
 
 Under these circumstances, the vote being called, 
 it appears, from the journal, that every Southern anti- 
 tariff Senator, whether nullifier or not, including both 
 of those from South Carolina, recorded his vote in fa 
 vor of the home valuation, as well as all the other amend 
 ments noiv moved by Mr. Clay ; and then the ques 
 tion coming before the Senate on the engrossment of 
 the bill, as thus amended, a spirited and warm debate 
 occurred, in which Mr. Webster, with Mr. Dallas and 
 others, opposed the bill, which was advocated by Mr. 
 Clay, assisted by Mr. Clayton ; at the expiration of 
 which, the bill was ordered to be engrossed for a 
 third reading by a vote so overwhelming that all further 
 opposition to it was abandoned as hopeless. 
 
 Notwithstanding the compromise, the Executive took 
 the earliest opportunity to show its real hostility to 
 the tariff, even as thus arranged. ft is believed that 
 the friends of the tariff, who voted for that act, never 
 imagined that it would be construed to abolish the 
 whole system of minimums in previous laws, which 
 constituted the surest basis of protection to American 
 industry. Yet the Secretary of the Treasury, on the 
 2Oth of April, 1833, about six weeks after the passage 
 of the law, issued a circular to the officers of the 
 customs, fixing such a construction on the law as 
 abolished the minimums altogether. This was the first 
 and most destructive blow aimed at protection of home 
 labor. There was nothing in that act to warrant it. 
 But the Secretary, proceeding upon an arbitrary dis 
 tinction between the assumed and the real value of
 
 8 4 
 
 MEMOIR OJ- 
 
 articles of import, without submitting the matter to the 
 judgment of any judicial tribunal, and without consul 
 tation with any of the friends of the law, struck down 
 at one blow all the manufactures of the country 
 whose existence depended upon the preservation of the 
 minimum principle. It was impossible for the friends 
 of protection to bring the Secretary's construction of 
 the act to the test of a judicial decision ; because the 
 Government, whose duty it was, as the only party in 
 terested, to controvert the Secretary's opinion, had not 
 sufficient interest in the manufacturing system to make 
 a case in court to ascertain the true meaning of the 
 law. In addition to this, the party in Congress sup 
 porting the Executive, after the passage of the act, re 
 fused to pass any further act providing the details of 
 a plan of home valuation ; and every Secretary of that 
 and the next following Administration omitted to make 
 any Treasury regulations, in pursuance of which the 
 duties, at the proper time, should be assessed on the 
 domestic value of the articles imported. 
 
 This was the condition of things in 1841, when 
 the Whigs came into power. They found that the 
 Compromise Act had not been obeyed, as they con 
 ceived, by their predecessors, and they justly declined 
 any longer to submit to a state of things in which 
 one of the parties to the compromise absolutely re 
 fused to fulfil its part of the engagement. Contrary, 
 as they thought, to its own plain meaning, and the 
 intentions of the framers of the act, it had become 
 the means of oppressing, instead of protecting, Ameri-
 
 JOHN M. CLA YTON. 85 
 
 can manufactures. The Whig party therefore repealed 
 it in 1842, by the passage of another act, which, 
 shortly, became so firmly established in the regard of 
 the people as not to be in any sense shaken by the 
 ordinance of nullification. Reason reassumed her em 
 pire over the minds of our countrymen ; the period 
 of peril to the Union of the States passed away, and 
 the protective system became again in full operation, 
 having escaped the odium of that accusation, which 
 would have crushed it, that it could be preserved only 
 by the bloodshed of American citizens. 
 
 Before this important subject of the compromise of 
 1833 is dismissed, a fallacy must be noticed, which 
 prevailed to a considerable extent among certain un 
 informed persons, that the Compromise Act did neces 
 sarily reduce the duties on imported articles, at the 
 end of nine years from its passage, to twenty per cent. 
 The greatest reduction of duties contemplated by the 
 act, was that point in the descending scale where the 
 amount collected had to be the sum necessary to an 
 economical administration of the Government, no matter 
 what the rate of duty might be over twenty per cent. 
 That point was reached long before the passage of 
 the act of 1842. The Government had actually become 
 bankrupt in credit in 1840. A heavy national debt 
 (for that time) had been incurred, to pay which no 
 money had been provided. The Government loans were 
 below par in the home market, and our credit was so 
 low that foreigners refused to lend us a dollar. Yet 
 the Administration of Mr. Van Buren, before it was
 
 36 MEMOIR OF 
 
 i 
 overthrown, gave no heed to another pledge in the 
 
 Compromise Act, and omitted to arrest the reduction 
 of duties, for the purpose of meeting the wants of 
 Government. This fact shows with how bad a grace 
 the friends of the tariff of 1842 were charged with 
 having violated the Compromise Act of 1833. 
 
 THE LAND BILL. 
 
 Mr. Clayton was an active advocate of the Land 
 Bill, which was passed at this important session of 
 1833. It was, indeed, a measure, the adoption of which 
 assisted to procure the passage of the compromise it 
 self; and may be said to form part and parcel of the 
 compromise. So far back as the year 1830, Mr. Clay 
 ton, in his speech on the 4th of March of that year, 
 strongly advocated the right of the old States to a 
 share of the public lands ; and, for the purpose of ex 
 plaining the principles with respect to a subject so 
 important, the following extract is copied from that 
 speech : 
 
 " I am constrained to say that I cannot vote for 
 this bill (the bill to graduate the price of the public 
 lands, to make provisions for actual settlers, and to cede 
 the residue to the States in which they lie). Accord 
 ing to my mode of considering it, it is a proposition 
 to give away the birthright of our people for a nomi 
 nal sum ; and I am yet to learn that the citizens of 
 the Middle States have indicated any feeling in regard
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 87 
 
 to it, differing from that expressed in the vote re 
 ferred to "fltfien, with a single exception, all the 
 Senators, representing States north of Mason and Dix- 
 on's line, opposed the measure. They do not look to 
 these lands, as has been unjustly stated, with the eye 
 of an unfeeling landholder who parts with acres as a 
 miser parts with his gold. They view the new States 
 as younger sisters of the same family, upon an equal 
 footing with themselves, and entitled to an .equal share 
 of the patrimony ; but having children to educate, and 
 numerous wants to be supplied, they will think it un 
 generous, unjust, and oppressive, should these younger 
 sisters take away the whole. Sir, it is the inheritance 
 which descended from oijr forefathers, who wrested a 
 part of it from the British crown, at the expense of 
 their blood and treasure ; and paid for the rest of it 
 by the earnings of their labor. It is not for me to 
 say what are the feelings of the people of the Middle 
 States on the subject. But it is their privilege to 
 speak for themselves, and they will, doubtless, when 
 they think it necessary, exercise that privilege. Yet I 
 will say that if they entertain the sentiments of their 
 fathers, they will never consent to cede away hundreds 
 of millions of acres of land for a nominal considera 
 tion, or gratuitously relinquish them to any new State, 
 however loudly she may insist on the 'measure a 
 due to her rights and her sovereignty, or however 
 boldly she may threaten to defy the Federal judiciary, 
 and decide the controversy by her own tribunals and 
 in her own favor. Those who are conversant with 
 our Revolutionary history will remember that the ex 
 clusive claims of Virginia, and other members of our 
 political family, to our public lands, were warmly re 
 sisted by New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, as soon
 
 88 MEMOIR OF 
 
 as those claims were avowed after the rupture with 
 the mother country. The articles of consideration were 
 not signed on the part of New Jersey until the 25th 
 of November, 1878; although she had bled freely in 
 the cause of American liberty, from the commencement 
 of the struggle. One of the principal objections which 
 caused this delay in the ratification of those articles, 
 will be found in the able representation of the Legis 
 lature, presented by her delegates to Congress, before 
 she acceded to the Union. ' The ninth article/ said 
 they, ' provides that no State shall be deprived of ter 
 ritory for the benefit of the United States. Whether 
 we are to understand by territory is intended any land 
 the property of which was .heretofore vested in the 
 crown of Great Britain, or that no mention of such 
 land is made in the confederation, we are constrained to 
 observe that the present war, as we always apprehended, 
 was undertaken for the general defence and interest of 
 of the confederating colonies, now the United States. 
 It was ever the confident expectation of this State, 
 that the benefits, derived from a successful contest, 
 were to be general and proportionate ; and that the 
 property of the common enemy, falling in consequence 
 of a prosperous issue of the war, would belong to the 
 United States, and be appropriated to their use. We 
 are therefore greatly disappointed in finding no pro 
 vision made in the confederation for empowering the 
 Congress to dispose of such property, but especially the 
 vacant and unpatented lands, commonly called the 
 crown lands, for defraying the expenses of the war, 
 and for such other public and general purposes. The 
 jurisdiction ought, in every instance, to belong to the 
 respective States, within the charter or determined limits 
 of which such lands may be seated ; but reason and
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 8 9 
 
 justice must decide, that the property which existed in 
 the crown of *Great Britain, previous to the present 
 Revolution, ought now to belong to the Congress, in 
 trust for the use and benefit of the United States. 
 They have fought and bled for it in proportion to 
 their respective abilities; and therefore the reward 
 ought not to be predilectionally distributed.' 
 
 " And when in November, 1778, the Legislature of 
 New Jersey determined to attach her to the Union, 
 they did it, as they then expressed, in firm reliance 
 that the candor and justice of the several States 
 would, in due time, remove the subsisting inequality, 
 yet still insisting on the justice of their objections 
 then lately stated and sent to the General Congress. 
 So too, Delaware and Maryland, for the same reasons, 
 refused to join the confederation, until a still later 
 period the former ratifying the articles on the 22d 
 of February, 1779, and the latter on the ist of March, 
 1781. The State which I have the honor in part to 
 represent here, had, on the ist of February, 1779, 
 adopted the following resolutions to authorize her ac 
 cession to the Union: 
 
 Resolved, That this State considers it necessary for the 
 peace and safety of the State, to be included in the Union ; 
 that a moderate extent of limits should be assigned for such 
 of those States as claim to the Mississippi or South Sea ; and that 
 the United States, in Congress assembled, should and ought to 
 have power of fixing their western limits. 
 
 Resolved, also, That this State considers herself justly enti 
 tled to a right in common with the members of the Union, 
 to that extensive tract of country which lies to the westward 
 of the United States, the property of which was not vested 
 in or granted to individuals, at the commencement of the 
 present war; that the same hath been or may be gained 
 from the King of Great Britain, or the native Indians, by the
 
 gO MEMOIR OF 
 
 blood and treasure of all, and ought therefore to be a com 
 mon estate, to be granted out on terms beneficial to the 
 United States. 
 
 " But after the accession of Delaware, with this pro 
 test, Maryland still persevered in her refusal to join 
 the confederation, solely on the ground, that she might 
 thereby be stripped of the common interest, and the 
 common benefits derived from the Western lands. She 
 still insisted that some security for these lands was 
 necessary for the happiness and tranquillity of the 
 Union ; denied the whole claim of Virginia to the 
 territory northwest of the Ohio ; and still pressed 
 upon Congress that policy and justice required that 
 a country, unsettled at the commencement of the war, 
 claimed by the British crown, and ceded to it by the 
 treaty of Paris, if wrested from the common enemy 
 by the blood and treasure of the thirteen States, 
 should be considered as common property. 
 
 "In February, 1780, New York made her cession, 
 to accelerate the Federal alliance, and declared the 
 territory ceded, should be for the use and benefit of 
 such of the United States as should become members 
 of that alliance, and for no other use or purpose 
 whatever. And although Virginia attempted, for awhile, 
 to vindicate her claim, yet other States, feeling a 
 strong attachment to Maryland, and conscious of the 
 justice of her representations, disliked a partial Union, 
 which would throw out of the pale a people, stand 
 ing, as Marylanders have always stood, among the 
 bravest and most patriotic of our countrymen. The 
 ordinance of Congress then followed, in October, 1780, 
 declaring that the territory to be ceded by the States 
 should be disposed of for the common benefit of the 
 Union; and on the 2d of January, 1781, Virginia, in
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. QJ 
 
 that spirit of magnanimity which has generally pre 
 vailed in her councils, yielded up her claim, for the 
 benefit of the whole Union. It is a remarkable cir 
 cumstance that Maryland did not actually join the 
 Union until after these- cessions had been made by 
 New York and Virginia, declaring at the very 
 moment, and by the very terms of her accession, 
 that she did not release, nor intend to relinquish, any 
 part of her right and interest, with the other con 
 federating States, to the Western territory. These facts, 
 which have now become the familiar history of the 
 country, furnish curious reminiscences in these latter 
 days, when a new light has broken in upon us to show 
 that the new States have title to all the lands within 
 their chartered limits ; and when we are told it would 
 be most magnanimous and becoming in us, who claim 
 to have imbibed the spirit and sentiments of our fore 
 fathers, to cede away our patrimony for a nominal 
 consideration, let it be remembered that the feeling 
 on this subject manifested by the two States of Dela 
 ware and Maryland, preventing their accession to the 
 confederation, until so late a period, was with diffi 
 culty repressed, even by that ardent attachment to the 
 cause of liberty for which they were then so much 
 distinguished, and in which they have never been sur 
 passed. Their troops went through the whole contest 
 together, flanking and supporting each other in battle ; 
 commonly led on by the same commander ; generally 
 the first to advance and the last to retreat; their 
 bayonets, like the pikes of the Macedonian phalanx, 
 glittering in front of one and the same compact 
 mass; and when they fell, they slept in death together, 
 on the same part of the blood-stained field. It was 
 that same spirit which prompted the combined exer-
 
 02 MEMOIR OF 
 
 tions of these people in the American cause, through 
 out the whole struggle ; which also united them in 
 resistance against every attempt on the part of any 
 single section of the country, to appropriate, for its 
 exclusive benefit, the territory which they were striv 
 ing to conquer from the British crown. Sir, I think 
 they' will now combine again ; I think they will, when 
 considering this subject, bestow some reflection upon the 
 millions which have been expended in the subsequent 
 purchase of the southwestern portion of our public 
 domain ; on the sums which have been profusely 
 lavished, in making and carrying into effect our treaties 
 for the extinguishment of the Indian title ; in making 
 the surveys of these lands ; and in the payment of 
 officers and agents for the maintenance of our land 
 system. From the feeling which formerly actuated 
 them, I judge that their co-operation on this subject 
 will be such as to resist every effort to bribe them 
 with promises, or to sway them by means of political 
 excitement, to give up that which could not be wrested 
 from them by appeals to their strongest attachments 
 in the darkest days of their adversity. They will 
 claim, I think, sir, an equal portion of this territory, 
 under the plain letter of the grants referred to. They 
 may claim a large portion of it, by the paramount title 
 of the right of conquest, which has never been by 
 them relinquished ; and by that title they can suc 
 cessfully defend it. Whatever foundation there may be 
 for the imputation of motives, in other sections of the 
 Union, to flatter and to woo the West, by the offer 
 to her of this splendid dowry, if she will transfer her 
 influence to a candidate in a Presidential election ; we, 
 I believe, shall not take part in any such bargain. 
 The gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Grundy) says the
 
 JOHN M. CLA YTON. g. 
 
 West has been already wooed and won. It may be 
 so; but we are not, and, I think, shall never be, sub 
 potestate viri ; and if we could be bought for any con 
 sideration to sign this release of our birthright, we 
 should never agree, like Esau, to sell it for a mess of 
 pottage." 
 
 He again spoke, that same year, in opposition to 
 the Graduation Bill, while it was before the Senate. 
 When Mr. Clay first reported the Land Bill to' the 
 Senate, Mr. Clayton advocated the printing of an extra 
 number of copies of the report, which he then pro 
 nounced to be the ablest and most important that 
 had been submitted in either house of Congress since 
 he had been in the public councils, On all occasions 
 he was found prominent among the supporters of that 
 measure. In his speech on the 8th of February, 1836, 
 in favor of the national defence, he thus alluded to th| 
 passage of that bill. The extract is quoted because it 
 states a most important fact in the history of our 
 legislation, which was not generally known at the time, 
 and is perhaps known now to but very few, but* 
 which Mr. Clayton had the best possible opportunity 
 of knowing, as he was an actor in the scene to 
 which he refers : 
 
 " It has been further said that the object of the 
 resolution is to defeat the bill to distribute the pro 
 ceeds of the sales of the public domain among the 
 States, according to their federative population. But 
 such cannot be the effect of adopting a liberal scheme
 
 04 MEMOIR OF 
 
 of national defence, really adapted to the wants of the 
 country. The land bill itself provides that no part of 
 the money which it proposes to distribute, shall be 
 disposed of, according to its provisions, in case of war 
 with any foreign country ; and it never has been any 
 part of the object of the friends of that just and salu 
 tary measure to divert one dollar of the public treas 
 ure from the object of necessary defence. The passage 
 of that bill could have had no such effect. As a 
 sincere friend of that bill, I do ardently desire that it 
 may, at some future time, receive the action of Con 
 gress, under more favorable auspices. At present, I 
 cannot shut my eyes to the fact, that the President 
 has once put his veto upon it, and has even resorted 
 to what, I shall ever consider, was a most unjustifiable 
 measure on his part to prevent Congress from passing 
 it into a law in spite of his veto, by the requisite 
 constitutional majority of two-thirds of each House. 
 We have good reason to know, that when we passed 
 Ae bill simultaneously with the Compromise Act, such 
 wa,s the state of kind feeling which the latter had 
 awakened in the bosoms of gentlemen, who had before 
 voted against the Land Bill, towards its friends, that, 
 had the President, who received both the bills in the 
 same hour, returned the latter to us with his qualified 
 negative upon it, at the time when he sent back the 
 Compromise Act with his approval upon that, the 
 requisite constitutional majority of two-thirds was ready 
 in this body, as well as in the other House, to make 
 the bill a law in despite of his veto. He chose to 
 keep the bill until another session, and then sent it 
 back to a new Congress, many of whose members were 
 not members of that which passed the act. Is there 
 any evidence of a change in his determination as to
 
 JOHN M, CLAYTON. 95 
 
 this bill ? and, if not, can any man hope for the pas 
 sage of the Land Bill into a law, while he, who re 
 sorted to such means to defeat it, as I have in part 
 described, still has it in his power to resort to similar 
 means again ? No, sir ; though I hold it to be my 
 duty, uncontrolled by the Executive will, to vote for 
 the measure as often it shall be presented, yet I feel 
 that we must wait till other counsels shall prevail in 
 the Executive mansion before the people of any of the 
 old States, which conquered these public lands from 
 the crown of Great Britain by the expenditure of their 
 blood and treasure, can be permitted to touch a dollar 
 of the money arising from the sale of them. But, 
 without reference to this state of things, it is sufficient 
 now to say, that the objection that a liberal system of 
 appropriation for public defense might come in collision 
 with the distribution under the land bill, proceeds 
 upon the admission of what is erroneous in point of 
 fact ; for we have ample resources for national de 
 fence, without touching the funds that the bill was i% 
 tended to affect; and, were it otherwise, I should not 
 hesitate a moment in deciding, that not a dollar should 
 be distributed, or applied to other purposes, while it 
 remains necessary to put the country in a state of 
 preparation to meet any and every emergency that 
 may arise out of the unsettled state of our foreign 
 relations. 
 
 " Another objection has been urged. The honorable 
 gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Calhoun) has of 
 fered a proposition, that now lies on the table, to so 
 amend the Constitution of the United States as to au 
 thorize the distribution among the States of all the 
 surplus in the treasury not necessary for the expenses 
 of the Government, whether proceeding from the avails
 
 g6 MEMOIR OF 
 
 of the public domain, or from any other source. If 
 it 'be any part of the design of his resolution to defeat 
 the appropriations for those objects (which I have 
 already observed, are, in my estimation, paramount to 
 all others), I have yet to learn it; and, whenever that 
 shall be avowed as its object, or shall appear, in my 
 judgment, to be its effect, I shall hold it to be my 
 duty, without reference to any other arguments against 
 it, to resist it to the utmost. Sir, I do not propose 
 to discuss its merits, but I am free to declafe, it is a 
 proposition which, in its present form, can never be 
 attended with any practical results. Many of those who 
 desire the distribution, believe that the object can be 
 attained whenever Congress shall pass an act to effect 
 it ; and that the proposed amendment to the Consti 
 tution is objectionable, not merely because it is un 
 necessary, but because it involves an admission of the 
 want of power, already conceded to Congress. The 
 elaborate addresses on this subject by a late Senator 
 0111 New Jersey (Mr. Dickerson), now a member of 
 the cabinet, were made in vain, if there were no con 
 siderable number of men friendly to the object, and 
 yet confident of the existence of a power to effect it. 
 The President, in his annual messages to Congress, has 
 repeatedly avowed himself friendly to the object of 
 distributing this surplus among the States ; yet he had 
 rejected the Land Bill, which is the only measure that 
 has ever been proposed by friend or foe to carry out, 
 by a practical effort, any part of his suggestion. Con 
 sidering these things, and reflecting at the same time 
 upon the difficulty, not to say the absolute impossi 
 bility, of procuring any change in .the Constitution 
 whatsoever, on any subject, I cannot view this propo 
 sition as presenting, even to the friends of the distri-
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 97 
 
 bution which it contemplates, any ground upon which 
 an opposition to the great measure of national defence 
 can be rested. Sir, it is visionary. If the surplus 
 must accumulate until that proposition shall be adopted, 
 it will never find an avenue through which it may 
 escape to the people, to whom it rightfully belongs. 
 
 " Nor does that other objection, that, by these 
 means, the expenditures for internal improvements will 
 be arrested, stand on any better foundation. Sir, the 
 expenditures for internal improvements are effectually 
 arrested by Executive action alone, no matter what 
 may be our decision on this or any other subject. 
 The President alone now governs the destinies of the 
 country, so far as national improvement is involved in 
 them. * * Until the people shall desire it 
 
 otherwise, and manifest that desire by the elevation of 
 some one to the Presidential power who will consent 
 that their money shall be expended in making rail 
 roads and canals, to bind and connect together the 
 different sections of our country, as well as in the, 
 purchase of arms, the employment of fleets, the raising 
 of armies, and the erection of forts, we have no alter 
 native left to us but that of appropriating largely for 
 the defence, or suffering this wealth to accumulate 
 until the sum of its enticing glories shall win the heart 
 of some one to use it for the mastery of us all, and 
 the conquest of the liberty that is left to us. And, 
 sir, I say again, in reference to this objection, as well 
 as to all others of a similar character, that so long as 
 the public money can be usefully applied to the in 
 dispensable object of the necessary protection and 
 safety of the cquntry, any and every other object of 
 expenditure sinks, in my judgment, into inferiority with 
 that."
 
 gg MEMOIR OF 
 
 It will readily occur to any one who will think 
 Upon the subject, that as the Land Bill passed cotem- 
 poraneously with the Compromise Act, it was part of 
 a great system of measures devised, among other pur 
 poses, for the protection of American labor. We have 
 seen that the minimum, or lowest point to which 
 the duties could descend under the Compromise Act, 
 was that point where the revenue derived from them 
 was just sufficient for an economical administration of 
 the Government. The Compromise Act expressly de 
 clares that the revenue necessary for that purpose shall 
 be derived from import duties only. The fact, as above 
 stated in the extract from Mr. Clayton's speech, shows 
 conclusively that Southern as well as Northern men 
 had, at the close of the session of 1833, agreed to pass 
 the Land Bill, in spite of the President's veto, by the 
 
 requisite constitutional majority of two-thirds. This im- 
 i 
 portant fact has often been stated, but we here have 
 
 the tangible evidence to sustain it. Within less than 
 three years after these events occurred, Mr. Clayton 
 publicly states the fact, in his place in the Senate 
 chamber, in the presence of all the Southern as well 
 as Northern Senators, many of whom had participated 
 in the exciting scenes of 1833, and who could have 
 contradicted the statement, if Mr. Clayton had been 
 mistaken. There does not seem to be room to doubt 
 that the whole scheme of compromise agreed upon, 
 contemplated the abstraction of the' revenue derived 
 from the sale of the public lands from the treasury 
 of the nation, the distribution of it among the States,
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. gg 
 
 and the support of Government from a tariff, which 
 must necessarily be protective. The best part of the 
 compromise, therefore, was crushed by the course of 
 the President in withholding the bill from the Sen 
 ate, and Mr. Clay and his friends were, as they con 
 ceived, most unjustly held responsible by their adver 
 saries for all the distress that the country suffered 
 until it got relief by the tariff, passed in 1842, be 
 fore referred to. Everybody was taken by surprise 
 at the non-action of the President, which was kept 
 secret, till the last moment of the session, from his 
 most intimate friends, except perhaps the Hon. Thomas 
 H. Benton. Mr. Clayton, and the others with whom 
 he acted, claimed that had the Land Bill become a 
 law, and the whole compromise been faithfully carried 
 out on both sides, had the Secretary of the Treas 
 ury withheld his great and fatal blow at the minimum 
 principle, faithfully executing the act according to the 
 meaning of those who passed it, had the biennial 
 reduction of the revenue of ten per cent, been arrested 
 by the succeeding administration of Mr. Van Buren, as 
 the law directed, when the revenue raised from duties 
 was about to prove insufficient for the expenses of 
 Government, and, above all, had the law been exe 
 cuted so far as related to the home valuation of im 
 ported goods, provided for by the act, the manufac 
 turers would have been fully sustained, and the coun 
 try would have escaped all the distress before re 
 ferred to.
 
 loo MEMOIR OF 
 
 While a member of the Senate, Mr. Clayton appears 
 to have been engaged in the discussion of all the 
 leading questions of constitutional law which agitated 
 and divided that body. Of his ability as a lawyer, a 
 correct judgment may be formed by perusing the de 
 bates on those questions. The opinion of his brother 
 Senators on that subject is not to be mistaken ; for 
 from the year 1833 till he left the Senate, he was 
 regularly elected by the votes of the Senators as the 
 Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary, the post 
 for which the best constitutional lawyer is supposed 
 to be selected. A higher compliment could not have 
 been paid him by the Senate; and most faithfully did 
 he labor for the service of the country while filling 
 this most important place. To this committee all 
 questions of constitutional law, indeed, all important 
 legal questions, were referred. The heaviest claims 
 against the Government were submitted to its consid 
 eration. Questions of boundary between the States of 
 the Union ; and all the important questions connected 
 with the admission of new States ; the organization of 
 new Territorial governments, and the supervision of the 
 laws for administering justice in the Territories ; all 
 questions relating to the courts of the United States, 
 and the administration of justice by them; all Execu 
 tive nominations of judges and marshals of the United 
 States ; nominations for the offices of Attorney General 
 and District- Attorney ; appropriations of money to sup 
 port the administration of justice in the United States, 
 and to defray expenses incident to the courts, were
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. IOI 
 
 among the subjects which demanded the indefatigable 
 attention of the committee, and especially the chair 
 man. While acting in this capacity, Mr. Clayton re 
 ported from his committee the original law which first 
 extended the jurisdiction of the United States over the 
 immense Territory of Wisconsin, then embracing the 
 Territory of Iowa, and established a Territorial govern 
 ment founded on the most liberal principles, over a 
 country, part of which was then in a state of perfect 
 anarchy, where murders and crimes of the deepest dye 
 were perpetrated with impunity ; or, if punished at all, 
 were visited only by lynch law, to gratify the venge 
 ance of an outraged mob. The delegate from Wiscon 
 sin, until the period when Mr. Clayton assumed the 
 task of carrying a law for the government of the Ter 
 ritory through the Senate, had for a long time, at 
 each successive session of Congress, urged the necessity 
 of legislative action in its behalf. Such was Mr. Clay 
 ton's influence, as chairman of the committee, and such 
 the confidence of the Senate in his discretion and 
 judgment, that when he reported this important bill to 
 the Senate, containing a frame of government for a 
 country large enough almost for an empire, he suc 
 ceeded in pressing it through all the forms of legislation, 
 and finally passing it through the Senate, in a single 
 day. No event could give us a higher opinion of the 
 confidence of the Senate ; and it is doubted whether 
 any other instance of successful effort similar to this 
 can be pointed to in the annals of Congress. This 
 prompt action secured its passage in the House ; and
 
 IO2 MEMOIR OF 
 
 Iowa, one of the most beautiful and fertile parts of 
 our country, was thus rescued from the horrors of 
 anarchy. In return for the interest in her affairs taken 
 by Mr. Clayton (who may justly be regarded as the 
 father of the first Territorial form of government estab 
 lished for her protection), the Territorial Council shortly 
 afterwards gave his name to one of the largest coun 
 ties in the Territory, and the name of Delaware to 
 county adjoining it. 
 
 THE BOUNDARY QUESTION BETWEEN OHIO 
 AND MICHIGAN. 
 
 Among the many interesting subjects to which Mr. 
 Clayton devoted his attention as chairman of the Ju 
 diciary Committee, was the settlement of a question 
 which created great excitement and alarm at the time, 
 relating to the boundary line between the State of 
 Ohio, and the then Territory of Michigan. The ques 
 tion deeply affected both the contending parties ; and, 
 by its consequences, the States of Indiana and Illinois, 
 the former of which, upon the grounds assumed by 
 Michigan, would have lost a portion of each of her 
 six northern counties. The parties immediately inter 
 ested threatened to settle the question by the arbitra 
 ment of the sword ; and, under the direction of the 
 Governor of Michigan, troops were marched into the 
 disputed territory, which were, of course, opposed by 
 the State of Ohio. At the same time Michigan was
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. JQ^ 
 
 demanding admission into the Union; and the settle 
 ment of the question, before her admission, became a 
 matter of duty which would not admit of delay. The 
 whole question of boundary was referred to the Com 
 mittee of the Judiciary ; and, at the same time, a select 
 committee was appointed to report upon the applica 
 tion of the State for admission into the Union. Mr. 
 Clayton was a member of this last committee also, and 
 it was owing to his successful exertions that both ques 
 tions were happily settled. In an elaborate report 
 drawn by him, as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, 
 in February, 1835, he reviewed at great length the 
 whole controversy touching the boundary line, and 
 reported a bill to settle the question forever. And 
 such was the force of the reasoning in that report, 
 and so clearly was the right of the matter explained 
 and enforced by it, that, although it had been consid 
 ered one of the most difficult questions, and one which 
 Congress had long labored, in vain, to decide, yet men 
 who had, theretofore, entertained the most opposite 
 opinions on the subject, were induced to unite in 
 support of the boundary proposed by the committee. 
 The committee itself was unanimous in favor of the 
 report, five thousand extra copies of which were ordered 
 to be printed ; and the bill, reported by Mr. Clayton, 
 shortly after passed the Senate by a vote of 39 to 3. 
 The House concurred, and thus was peacefully settled, 
 without the interposition of military force, which had 
 been invoked by each of the contending parties in their 
 application to the National Executive, a question of a
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 most dangerous character, which, at one period, seriously 
 threatened the peace of the country. 
 
 When the bill for the admission of Michigan was 
 before the Senate, Mr. Clayton advocated the grant to 
 the new State of a territory west of the Lake of about 
 20,000 square miles in part for the purpose of recon 
 ciling her to the loss of the territory in dispute with 
 Ohio (to which she never in fact had any right), but 
 chiefly, as he. averred at the time, for the much more 
 important purpose of so far diminishing the extent of 
 the territory of Wisconsin as to prevent the necessity 
 of dividing that large Territory, and forming out of it, 
 in future, two new States, to be added to the Union. 
 He foresaw that the balance of power between the 
 slave-holding and non-slaveholding States of the Union, 
 as a necessary consequence of the formation of two 
 new non-slave-holding States out of the Territory of 
 Wisconsin, would be disturbed. In the South, Florida 
 alone remained for the formation of another slave- 
 holding State : and he sought to maintain the safe 
 guards of the Constitution in favor of Southern rights, 
 by supporting that equality of representation in the 
 Senate, which was soon to be lost in the House of 
 Representatives. This was the true reason for the ex 
 traordinary addition of 20,000 square miles to Michigan, 
 on the west of the Lake. Strange to say, after Mr. 
 Clayton left Congress, the noisy advocates of Southern 
 Rights entirely overlooked this important subject, and 
 while their attention was engrossed by mere party 
 matters, suffered a bill to slip quietly through Con-
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 105 
 
 gress, without the slightest opposition, forming two dis 
 tinct Territories out of the Territory of Wisconsin, each 
 of which was then ready and entitled to demand ad 
 mission into the Union as a sovereign State. When 
 they were admitted, the balance of power in the Sen 
 ate was lost, and the last and only safeguard for the 
 South, in a constitutional system of checks and balances, 
 was taken from her forever. 
 
 While the bill was yet pending, Mr. Clayton moved 
 a proviso that the act should not go into effect until 
 the people of the State should, in convention, alter the 
 boundaries, which had been fixed by a previous con 
 vention, so as to include a part of the State of Ohio, 
 and assent to the new boundaries, which, while they 
 immensely enlarged the area of the State, excluded the 
 territory which had been in dispute between her and 
 Ohio. The necessity of this proposition was so appa 
 rent as soon as it was suggested : the danger of a con 
 flict between two sovereign States, each claiming the 
 same territory, was so palpable : that, notwithstanding 
 a strenuous opposition from Mr. Benton, after the sub 
 ject had been discussed by himself and Mr. Clayton, 
 the Senate, by an overwhelming vote of men of both 
 parties, adopted the proviso ; and the two ' States, as 
 well as the Union, were secured against any possible 
 danger of future collision. Mr. Clayton next called the 
 attention of the Senate to the fact that, by the new 
 Constitution which Michigan had adopted, and which 
 Congress was now called upon by the Constitution of 
 the United States to approve, before she could be ad-
 
 io6 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 niitted into the Union, aliens were entitled to vote at 
 all elections. He gave it as his opinion, as a lawyer, 
 that the admission of aliens to the right of suffrage be 
 fore they were naturalized according to the laws of 
 Congress, was a violation of the Constitution of the 
 United States, and that the State ought not to be ad 
 mitted until her Convention had adapted her State 
 Constitution to the supreme law of the land. He 
 then moved another proviso to the bill in accordance 
 with his opinion. This brought on one of the most in 
 teresting debates that ever occupied the attention of the 
 Senate. In vain did Mr. Clayton, who actively partici 
 pated in the discussion, strive to prevent the question 
 from assuming a party complexion. Mr. Benton led off 
 in a political speech, addressed to his own party, in 
 favor of the right of aliens to vote without naturaliza 
 tion ; and, strange to relate, drew the whole force of 
 his party in the Senate after him. At the close of 
 about a week's discussion, the Senate seemed to be 
 equally divided on the motion, when a Senator but 
 lately arrived, who had been absent, and who had heard 
 only the close of the debate, contrary to all expecta 
 tions, threw his vote against the proviso, and gave a 
 majority of one in favor of the admission of the State, 
 and the allowance of the right of suffrage to all aliens, 
 whether naturalized or not. So deeply was Mr. Clayton 
 disgusted with this decision, which, as he conceived, 
 prostrated the Constitution of the United States merely 
 to secure the vote of Michigan, that he divested him 
 self of any further care or charge of the bill, and imme-
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. Io -r 
 
 diately left the Senate chamber ; as did also, about the 
 same time, nearly all his political associates. A bare 
 quorum was left to pass the bill, which they accom 
 plished, and thus succeeded in ( obtaining the vote of 
 Michigan in favor of their candidate for the Presidency. 
 I shall not attempt to trace Mr. Clayton's history 
 through the whole course of his Senatorial career. As 
 chairman of the Judiciary Committee, he reported the 
 bill to extend. the territory of the State of Missouri so 
 far west as to embrace the whole country lying east 
 ward of the Missouri river, and south of the Iowa 
 boundary; and successfully exerted his influence in favor 
 of its passage. He took an active part in the discussion 
 of the various questions arising out of the President's 
 removal of the public deposits from the Bank of the 
 United States, using, in a speech delivered by him in 
 the Senate, the following prophetic language about 
 the evils that would result from the veto of the Presi 
 dent upon the re-charter of the Bank of the United 
 States : 
 
 "In less than four years the pecuniary distress, the 
 commercial embarrassment, consequent upon the destruc 
 tion of the United States Bank, must exceed any thing 
 
 which has ever been known in our history 
 
 The depreciation of paper operates . as a tax on the 
 farmer, the mechanic, and all the consumers of mer 
 chandise, to its whole amount. The loss of confidence 
 among men ; the total derangement of that admirable 
 system of exchanges which is now acknowledged to be 
 better than exists in any country on the globe ; over-
 
 Io g MEMOIR OF 
 
 trading and speculation on false capital in every part 
 of the country ; that rapid fluctuation in the standard 
 of value for money, which, like the unseen pestilence, 
 withers all the efforts of industry, while the sufferer is 
 in utter ignorance of the cause of his destruction ; bank 
 ruptcies and ruin, at the anticipation of which the heart 
 sickens, must follow in the long train of evils which 
 are, assuredly, before us." 
 
 As chairman of the Committee of the Judiciary he 
 made that most elaborate report on the attempt of the 
 President and Secretary of War to remove the Pension 
 Fund from the Bank in 1834. Six thousand extra 
 copies of this report were printed by order of the Sen 
 ate ; and its effect upon that body was such that, in 
 the midst of one of the most violent party excitements 
 ever known in the country, and in despite of all the in 
 fluence of the President and Secretary, the report which 
 vindicated the right of the Bank to the Pension Agency, 
 was sustained by the Senate by a vote of nearly two to 
 one. 
 
 THE APPORTIONMENT BILL. 
 
 One of those measures in which Mr. Clayton took 
 great interest when it came before the Senate, was the 
 bill for the apportionment of the Representatives in Con 
 gress. While he was a warm admirer of the high qual 
 ities of Mr. Clay and of Mr. Webster, he never yielded 
 his own judgment to the dictates of either. His advo-
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 cacy of Mr. Webster's amendment to the Appropriation 
 Bill of 1832 in opposition to Mr. Clay, and the support 
 he gave to another great measure to which allusion will 
 presently be made, are among the many evidences which 
 existed that he sided only with either of those great 
 statesmen from convictions of duty. The amendment pro 
 posed by Mr. Webster to the bill for apportioning the rep 
 resentation in Congress, presented a question purely legal 
 and mathematical in its character. For forty years the 
 Congress of the United States had proceeded on a false 
 principle in distributing political power among the States ; 
 and such was its effect upon the State of Delaware, that 
 during all that period, she had not obtained as fair and 
 full a representation in the House of Representatives as 
 the very slaves in Georgia. The States which had been 
 oppressed were the smaller ones, whose right had been 
 sacrificed by the transfer of their Representatives to the 
 larger States. The object of the amendment was to pre 
 vent in future this injustice ; to establish a just propor 
 tion between the number of the House and the ratio of 
 representation, which had always been overlooked, under 
 the wretched pretext that fractions could not be repre 
 sented. In the protracted debate which ensued on the 
 introduction of the amendment, Mr. Clayton took a more 
 active part than any other member of the Senate, and 
 on the 25th day of April, 1832, he delivered a speech on 
 the whole subject, in reply to Mr. Dallas of Pennsylva 
 nia, which conclusively demonstrated the justice and pro-' 
 priety of the amendment. The result was, the adoption 
 
 of the amendment by the Senate. The House, however, 
 
 14
 
 no 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 refused to concur in the amendment, but the discussion 
 had settled the principle forever; and Mr. Clayton ap 
 pears to have anticipated that the next apportionment of 
 representation in Congress would allow representation for 
 fractions, as the best possible method, and the nearest 
 approach to that exact justice contemplated by the Con 
 stitution. He predicted that the debate had settled the 
 question for all time to come, and that the gross injus 
 tice which the apportionment laws had sanctioned, from 
 the origin of the Government, would cease, when the 
 subject became fully understood. His closing remarks, 
 in this debate, were as follows : 
 
 "The Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Dallas) objects 
 to the rule adopted in the amendment because he says 
 it is complex and not obvious to the mind. It has 
 been stated over and over again, to be nothing more 
 than the common rule of three, or of practice, as the 
 gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Tazewell) has called it, or 
 of fellowship, as others call it. I thought it could not 
 puzzle a Philadelphia lawyer to work it out, although 
 the honorable gentleman denounced it so strongly for its 
 mathematical intricacy. In truth, it is much more ob 
 vious to the common mind, as a principle of justice, 
 than the rule of arbitrary ratios ; and I willingly risk its 
 success on the unbiased judgment of the people, whose 
 sense of right will induce them to adopt it in preference 
 to that system which, to say the least of it, is, to a 
 great extent, anti-republican, unjust, and most unequal, 
 and which has been denounced, in a recent letter from 
 a gentleman in New York, who stands among the 
 most distinguished jurists this country has produced,
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. ni 
 
 as unconstitutional, and absolutely intolerable in its opera 
 tion. 
 
 " Sir, the gentleman from Pennsylvania has said that 
 the mode of apportionment proposed by the bill has been 
 submitted to without a murmur for forty years ; that it 
 has now become like those settled institutions of the 
 country to all of which the citizens of Pennsylvania are 
 so much attached, and for the preservation and main 
 tenance of which, in their own peculiar way, they are 
 contending, have contended, and always will contend. 
 But, sir, let me tell him that it yet remains to be shown 
 that her patriotic people have ever, knowingly, sanc 
 tioned deliberate injustice, or downright usurpation, no 
 matter through how many ages it may have withstood 
 resistance, and defied the claims of justice. If the peo 
 ple of this country should now, generally, examine this 
 subject, they would no more tolerate the principles of 
 this bill, than they did the long-continued tyranny of 
 the English monarchs, which, in 1776, was, at least as 
 much as this, one of the settled institutions of the coun 
 try. And so far from its being true that those who 
 have been oppressed by this contrivance, have submitted 
 without a murmur, I believe that at each succeeding 
 apportionment, the complaints of the injured States have 
 been uttered, not in threats or denunciations, but in the 
 tone of firm, manly, and respectlul opposition. We will 
 go no further now, sir, than those who went before us. 
 
 o 
 
 But it shall be our task to lay before our country the 
 justice of our claim, relying, with perfect confidence, 
 upon the honesty and good faith of our countrymen to 
 right us, when they shall learn we have been wronged. 
 " My friend, the eloquent and able Senator from Ohio 
 (Mr. Ewing), despising the petty advantage which might 
 be gained by a large State over a small one by the
 
 II2 MEMOIR OF 
 
 trickery of this bill, has, by his steady opposition to it, 
 endeared to us more than ever the magnanimous people 
 of that great and greatly growing member of our confed 
 eracy, whom he so honorably represents ; while he has 
 strengthened our confidence in the justice of our coun 
 trymen. Hitherto our complaints have been heard in 
 vain ; indeed, the inducement to make them was never 
 before so great. Through all the earlier stages of our 
 Union, the cause of complaint was much less, because 
 the difference in the population of the respective States 
 was comparatively inconsiderable. But as that difference 
 has increased, so has the injustice, and the complaint of 
 those who have been wronged by its increasing opera 
 tion. In time, this evil will become so intolerable, that 
 it must be changed, or the rights of the smaller States 
 must be substantially abandoned. In the perfect con 
 viction that this change must come, and in the belief 
 that the old mode of apportionment will, at some future 
 period of our history, be denounced as one of the 
 strangest illusions that ever misled our countrymen, a 
 defeat, at this moment, would neither increase my con 
 fidence in the justice of former decisions on this subject, 
 nor diminish my hopes of a correct determination 
 hereafter." 
 
 The expectation of Mr. Clayton was not disappoint 
 ed ; for in the law for the apportionment of representation 
 in Congress, passed in 1842, the principle advocated by 
 him and Mr. Webster, was triumphantly incorporated ; 
 and the manifest justice of it was such that it was not 
 thought possible it ever would be abandoned.
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. u , 
 
 PRESIDENT JACKSON'S PROTEST REMOVAL 
 OF THE DEPOSITS 
 
 In the year 1834 President Jackson made a direct 
 issue, in his celebrated Protest, with each of those Sena 
 tors who had voted in favor of a resolution condemn 
 ing his act of removal of the public deposits from 
 the Bank of the United States. Most intelligent per 
 sons, having knowledge of political affairs, are too well 
 acquainted with the celebrated document and with the 
 resolution that induced it, to require their production here. 
 Suffice it to say, that the President, in his Protest, os 
 tentatiously published the names of each of the Sena 
 tors who had condemned his conduct, and made a direct 
 appeal to the people against their re-election. Mr. Clay 
 ton was one of those whose six years term of office was 
 about to expire, and was one of the most prominent of 
 the " protested Senators," as they were, at that day, 
 termed. Long before this time he had privately ex 
 pressed a wish to his friends, to retire from public life; 
 which he thought was a duty he owed to his family, 
 then consisting of his two sons, his brother, a niece, and 
 three nephews all but the brother mere children. 
 But when he saw the President's Protest, he imme 
 diately determined to join issue with him before the 
 people of Delaware, to cancel his intention to retire, 
 and to stand a full canvass for re-election. The Presi 
 dent sought for a verdict of approval of his own con 
 duct by the citizens of Delaware, as well as those of
 
 II4 MEMOIR OF 
 
 other States, the terms of whose Senators were about 
 to expire. Mr. Clayton ^thought that he could not, with 
 honor, decline to meet the President on his own issue, 
 by announcing his intention to retire before the elec 
 tion, and he determined that the President should hear 
 the sentiments of the people of Delaware, who, he well 
 knew, heartily approved of his own conduct in public 
 life. This was the year of Mr. Benton's celebrated 
 golden scheme, and the party friends of the President 
 everywhere made the strongesf appeals to the prejudices 
 and ignorance of the masses, as men will always do to 
 support their views politically. The contest in Delaware 
 was one of the most exciting ever known here. It re 
 sulted in a complete triumph for Mr. Clayton and his 
 friends, and his re-election to the Senate was now made 
 certain, in case he chose to accept. 
 
 RESIGNATION OF SENATORSHIP. 
 
 After the election in 1834, Mr. Clayton issued the 
 following card to the people of Delaware, which is to 
 be found in Niles's Register of Dec.' 5, 1834: 
 
 To the People of the State of Delaware : 
 
 " FELLOW-CITIZENS : At the close of the last ses 
 sion of Congress, I should have published my desire not 
 to be considered a candidate for re-election to the Sen 
 ate of the United States, but for the extraordinary posi 
 tion then occupied by the Executive, in relation to the 
 Senate. The President, by his protest against the Sen-
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. n e 
 
 ate's resolution of the 27th of March last (the resolution 
 of condemnation for removal of the deposits from the 
 Bank of the United States), virtually appealed to the 
 people of the United States, and invoked their condemna 
 tion of a vote which then had, and still has, my hearty 
 concurrence 'and approbation. I had joined with those 
 who declared that, in their judgment, the then recent 
 proceedings of the Executive, in relation to the public 
 revenue, were in derogation of the Constitution and laws 
 of the country. My Senatorial term was about to ex 
 pire ; and the Executive protest tendered to the people, 
 who had the right to judge me, a direct issue, as to the 
 propriety of my vote. My name was recorded on the 
 journal of the Senate as a supporter of the resolution 
 which incurred his censure ; and was registered on his 
 protest in conjunction with those of all the others whom 
 that strange official paper denounced. Under such cir 
 cumstances I thought it unworthy of me to shun the 
 trial he desired, and contend only by substitute, for the 
 principles which had governed my official conduct. I 
 thought it due to him, as well as to myself, and still 
 more to the people, to stand at the post which was the 
 object of his assault, meet the question which he had 
 raised, and abide the determination of the tribunal to 
 which he had appealed. Had I then announced the desire 
 which I had long felt, to retire from public life, I might 
 have been regarded as a recreant to the political faith 
 with which I entered your service, and with which, by 
 the blessing of God, I will live and die. 
 
 " The question between us is now decided, by the 
 only authority before which I will bow, or to which I 
 have ever been amenable the authority of the free 
 citizens of Delaware. Two-thirds of each branch of her 
 Legislature are avowedly opposed to the principles of the
 
 U 6 MEMOIR OF 
 
 Administration, having been, on that ground, elected by 
 the people on the eleventh day of this month ; and 
 they are men whom no machinery of the Executive can 
 influence or control. I am, and under other circum 
 stances, I should have been, uninfluenced in my present 
 course by the determination of other States. If the cur 
 rent of Executive power in other sections of the country, 
 instead of being resisted as it has been, had set onward 
 like the Pontic sea, which knows no retiring ebb, still, 
 true to the interests and principles of the State, I should 
 have been as anxious to represent her, had other con 
 siderations permitted it, as if she had been sustained by 
 the whole nation. But now, after five years of public 
 service, during the greater part of which I have been, 
 necessarily, absent from home, finding that the post 
 which I am about to leave will be occupied by a suc 
 cessor of the same political principles, I tender you, 
 my fellow -citizens, my grateful acknowledgments for 
 that support which, through my whole term of service, 
 has never deserted me, and desire to relinquish public 
 office. As your Legislature will not meet till the month 
 of January, I hold it to be due to you to remain in the 
 Senate till your immediate representatives can have an 
 opportunity of selecting my successor. 
 
 "JOHN M. CLAYTON." 
 DOVER, DEL., Nov. 24, 1834. 
 
 To this address the following comment was added 
 by the editor of the Register: 
 
 " The amount of this .(as we understand it) is no 
 more than that Mr. Clayton will decline a re-election, at 
 the meeting of the Legislature of Delaware. This pro-
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 117 
 
 ceeding we think will be (for so it ought*} regretted by 
 the good men of all parties in the Senate honoring 
 talents, and respecting private worth, rather than party." 
 
 Mr. Clayton continued in the Senate till the meeting 
 of the Legislature in January, 1835, when he transmitted 
 to his friends in that body a letter declining a re-elec 
 tion, and resigning the residue of his Senatorial term. 
 The answer made to him by the Legislature, imme 
 diately afterwards, was a certificate of re-election for 
 another term of six years, and a letter signed by two 
 thirds of both Houses, insisting on his continuance in 
 the Senate, urging him by every consideration not to 
 retire, and, among other things, stating the fact that the 
 Whig members would find it impossible to agree upon 
 a successor, in case he should persevere in his inten 
 tion to leave the Senate. Under these circumstances, 
 he found himself pressed by the necessity of continuing 
 in Congress until, at the next biennial session of the 
 Legislature, his friends might agree upon a successor. 
 
 NATIONAL DEFENCE BENTON'S 
 RESOLUTION. 
 
 On December, 1835, Mr. Benton brought forward a 
 resolution, pledging the surplus in the Treasury, after 
 deducting enough to meet the expenses of the Govern 
 ment, to the purposes of national defence. The object 
 ascribed to him by his opponents was to arrogate to 
 
 himself and his party the exclusive title to the charac- 
 
 15
 
 n g MEMOIR OF 
 
 ter of friends of national defence ; to attack the Whigs, 
 by holding out the idea that they were its enemies ; 
 and, if possible, to drive them, by his denunciations, to 
 do some act, in consequence of which he and others 
 might be able to fasten upon them the odious charge 
 of hostility to the fortifications of the country, and of 
 neglect to prepare for a war which then seemed to 
 threaten us with France. At the close of the session 
 of 1835, the Whigs in the Senate had voted down 
 what they considered the monstrous proposition, then 
 sprung upon them after midnight of the day on which 
 they were to adjourn, to appropriate three millions of 
 dollars for the defence of the country, to be expend 
 ed by the President as he might think proper! Mr. 
 Benton's resolution was the signal for an attack upon 
 the Whigs in and out of the Senate, for having dared to 
 vote down a proposition they deemed outrageous. The 
 debate on the resolution became general on both sides ; 
 in the course of which Mr. Webster declared that he 
 could not vote for such a measure, were the guns of 
 the French battering at the walls of the Capitol. You 
 do not need to be reminded that the danger of a 
 war with France at this period arose out of the re 
 fusal of the French Chambers to vote an appropriation 
 of 25,000,000 francs to pay the indemnity agreed upon 
 in Mr. Rives' treaty for spoliations on our commerce, 
 under the Berlin and Milan decrees. Mr. Webster was 
 furiously attacked both in and out of Congress for 
 having given utterance to a sentiment, which party 
 men, for party purposes, held to be treasonable to the
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. ll g 
 
 nation. In the midst of the bitter denunciations of 
 him, John Quincy Adams, then a member of - the 
 House of Representatives from Massachusetts, made and 
 persisted in repeated attacks upon the Senate for 
 having voted against the three-million amendment for 
 the fortification bill of 1835 the proposition to which 
 reference has already been made : and in the progress 
 of one of his most violent philippics, to the confusion 
 of his own friends and the delight of his enemies, he 
 declared that for a man who had uttered such senti 
 ments as Mr. Webster's, " there would be but one step 
 more (a natural and easy one to take), and that would 
 be with the enemy at the walls of the Capitol, to join 
 him in battering them down. " The political enemies 
 of Mr. Webster in the House attempted to give point 
 to this most cruel and unjust attack by giving three 
 cheers to the orator. It was at this period of the de 
 bate, then going on in both Houses, that Mr. Clay 
 ton felt himself called upon, as well by the demands 
 of private friendship for Mr. Webster, as by the dic 
 tates of public duty, to battle with the enemies of his 
 party in their attacks, to vindicate his friends, and to 
 turn the odium of the public upon their calumniators, 
 if possible. The task was, indeed, a delicate and diffi 
 cult one : but it was triumphantly accomplished. On 
 the 8th of February, 1835, Mr. Clayton commenced his 
 speech on Mr. Benton's resolution, by announcing his 
 intention, before he sat down, to move to strike the 
 word " surplus " out of the resolution, a motion 
 which, to use a nautical phrase, completely " took the
 
 I2 Q MEMOIR OF 
 
 wind out of the sails" of Mr. Benton avowing him 
 self and his party to be the true friends of national 
 defence, attacking the opposite party for all their neglect 
 to prepare for war during the whole time when they had 
 held a majority in Congress, and spreading before 
 them such a history of their inattention, as he claimed 
 it to be, to the real wants of the country in this re 
 spect, as soon convinced them that this war was a 
 game that two could play at. He discussed the con 
 stitutionality of a three-million amendment, and, as his 
 friends said, hurled back the imputations of the other 
 party with such effect against themselves, as made even 
 the least considerate among them anxious to dismiss 
 the controversy. Then followed that vindication of 
 Mr. Webster's sentiment, which, as soon as it was pub 
 lished, changed the torrent of obloquy against Mr. Web 
 ster, throughout the country, into one general burst 
 of applause. Here is an extract from this part of his 
 speech; but it is impossible to comprehend the force 
 of it, without reading the discussion of the constitutional 
 question which precedes it. The space devoted to this 
 memoir, will permit scarcely anything more than ref 
 erence to the speech itself. (It should be observed 
 that the appropriation, referred to by him in this 
 extract, was that above mentioned, proposed to be 
 placed in the President's hands, without designation 
 of the specific objects to which it should be applied.) 
 
 "Viewing the proposed appropriation of three millions 
 of dollars, without restriction, specification, or limitation
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. I2I 
 
 of the objects other than the naval and military service, 
 as not only unconstitutional, but as destructive of the 
 first principles of representative government ; having 
 considered and expressed his solemn conviction, after 
 a year's deliberation, that it laid the foundation for the 
 introduction of dictatorial power in this Government, 
 and contained the very language in which a dictator 
 might be appointed, under a pretence of some future 
 pressing emergency, the honorable gentleman from 
 Massachusetts (Mr. Webster), in the midst of a strain 
 of fervid eloquence and indignant remonstrance against 
 the attempted outrage, which has not been equalled in 
 the debate, and cannot be excelled, had declared that 
 ' if the proposition were now before us, and the guns of 
 the enemy were battering down the walls of the Capitol, 
 he would not agree to it ; that the people of this 
 country have an interest, a property, an inheritance, in 
 the Constitution, against the value of which forty Capi 
 tols do not weigh the twentieth part of one poor 
 scruple.' Taking authority for so doing from another 
 part of the Capitol, I read the following remark, as 
 published as the National Intelligencer, in reference to 
 this sentiment : ' Sir, for a man uttering such senti 
 ments, there would be but one step more (a natural 
 and easy one to take), and that would be with the 
 enemy at the walls of the Capitol, to join him in bat 
 tering them down.' And he who published this, has 
 also published that when he uttered it, he ' was inter 
 rupted by a spontaneous burst of feeling and applause.' 
 But, he adds, ' the indiscretion was momentary, and the 
 most respectful silence followed.' 
 
 " Sir, I pass over, without notice, the account given 
 of the 'applause,' and ' a spontaneous burst of feeling,' 
 and ' indiscretion,' and then, ' the most respectful
 
 I22 MEMOIR OF 
 
 silence.' Indeed, I know nothing of these allegations, 
 except as I find them here stated. But in regard to 
 that denunciation of my honorable friend from Massa 
 chusetts (Mr. Webster), who is this day elsewhere 
 necessarily detained, and in reference to the particular 
 individual who was the author of that denunciation, I 
 have something to say. 
 
 " The opinion, expressed in this denunciation, is, 
 that it would be a natural and easy step for the 
 Senator from Massachusetts to take, to join the ene 
 mies of his country in war, in other words, to turn 
 traitor, and merit by his treason the most ignomin 
 ious of all deaths, with an immortality of infamy beyond 
 the grave ! 
 
 " And for what. The Senator from Massachusetts 
 had expressed a preference for the Constitution to the 
 Capitol of his country. He had dared to declare that 
 he prized the Magna Charta of American liberty, the 
 sacred bond of our Union, the tie which binds together 
 twelve millions of freemen, above the stones and mortar 
 which compose the crumbling mass within whose walls 
 we are assembled. ' The very head and front of his 
 offending hath this extent, no more.' No man here has 
 questioned, in the most violent moments of party excite 
 ment, nor amidst the fiercest of all political strife, his 
 purity of purpose, in debate. Grant to him what all 
 others, who have any title to the character of gentle 
 men, demand for themselves that he believed what he 
 said; grant that, in -his judgment, as well as that of 
 many here, the very existence of our liberties is in 
 volved in the surrender of the principle he contended 
 for; grant that the concentration of legislative and ex 
 ecutive power in the hands of a single man is the 
 death blow to the Constitution ; and that the Senator was
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 123 
 
 right in considering the proposed appropriation as estab 
 lishing the very principle which gave that fatal blow, 
 and who is he that, thus believing, would support that 
 position, because the guns of ' the enemy were battering 
 at the walls of the Capitol' ? Where is the coward, 
 where is the traitor, who would not rather see the 
 Capitol, than the Constitution of the country, in ruins ? 
 or who would lead himself to the establishment of a 
 despotism among us with a view to save the building 
 for the despot to revel in ? Sir, in the days when 
 Themistocles led the Athenians to victory at Salamis, he 
 advised them to surrender their Capitol for the preser 
 vation of the Constitution of their country. That gallant 
 people rose, under the impulse of patriotism, as one 
 man, with a stern resolution to yield life itself rather 
 than abandon their liberties, and surrender the proud 
 privilege of legislating for themselves, to the delegate of 
 a Persian despot who offered them 'all their own domin 
 ions, together with an accession of territory ample as 
 their wishes, upon the single condition that they should 
 receive law and suffer him to preside in Greece.' At 
 that eventful period of their history, Chrysalis alone 
 proposed the surrender of their Constitution to save the 
 Capitol ; and they stoned him to death ! The public 
 indignation was not yet satisfied : for the Athenian ma 
 trons then rose and inflicted the same punishment upon 
 his wife ! Leaving their Capitol, and their noble city, 
 rich as it was with the productions of every art, and 
 glittering all over with . the proudest trophies and the 
 most splendid temples of the world; deserting, in the 
 cause of free government, the very land that gave them 
 birth, they embarked on board their ships, and fought 
 that battle, the name of which has made the bosoms of 
 freemen to thrill with sympathy in all the ages that
 
 I24 MEMOIR OF 
 
 have followed it, and shall cause the patriot's heart to 
 beat higher with emotion, through countless ages to 
 come. 
 
 " I repeat, sir, what no man, who knows the Sen 
 ator, has ever doubted, and what no man who has a 
 proper respect for himself will even question, that he 
 was sincere in declaring that he received the proposi 
 tion under debate as involving the surrender of the 
 most valuable trust reposed in us by the Constitution, 
 to a single man ; and as one which, while it dele 
 gates the legislative power to the Executive, establishes 
 a precedent to prostrate the Constitution forever. Then 
 tell me, what should be the fate of that man (if such 
 a man can be found) who, having owed his elevation 
 to the highest office in the world to that gentleman 
 and his friends, and having been sustained in the ad 
 ministration of it by- the exertion of all the power, of 
 that giant intellect, which is now the pride of the Sen 
 ate and the boast of the country, could, without other 
 provocation, have published that such a friend, after 
 giving utterance to such a sentiment as he did in de- 
 bat6 here, would find it a very natural and easy step 
 to turn traitor to his country, by joining with her ene 
 mies in war? Sir, all good men will say that the 
 convincing argument which could have induced, from 
 such a quarter, such a remark, the author of that 
 comment will find, not in the observation he has con 
 demned, but in his own heart; and those who are ac 
 quainted with past events will add that it has pro 
 ceeded from one who has, habitually, found it a nat 
 ural and easy step to turn traitor to his friends. Such 
 a man should never be suffered, by honorable men, 
 to stand in any party again ; for this unprovoked de 
 nunciation proves that its author will be false to all
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. I2 c 
 
 parties, and true to no friend. I will do those in 
 power the justice to say that I do not believe they have 
 even invited his embraces or proffered him any office, 
 however that may be the true object for which he 
 has thus shamefully denounced his friend and aban 
 doned his party. No, sir; if he be a political traitor, 
 they 
 
 " Gave him no instance why he should do treason 
 Unless to dub him with the name of traitor. " 
 
 The following 'is a specimen of the defence of 
 his own party from the attack of Mr. Buchanan and 
 others, and of the manner in which the war was 
 carried into the camp of the enemy ; and is part of 
 the same speech, just quoted, delivered on the 8th of 
 February, 1836, upon the subject of national defence : 
 
 " The gentleman from Pennsylvania, with a view to 
 make up the issue in such shape as would put the 
 Senate on trial with the best advantage to himself, 
 announced that the true question for discussion was. 
 Who is blamable for the present condition of our sea 
 board ? Sir, I shall not avoid the examination of that 
 question. It presents no difficulty. As to the fact, 
 upon which he dwelt so earnestly, that it is defence 
 less, he has already seen that I concur with him and 
 others, who have proclaimed its defenceless condition. 
 He may add as much more coloring to that picture, 
 of the danger arising from this neglect, as his imagi 
 nation can supply him with, and I shall not seek to 
 deface or obscure it. He may ring it, again and again, 
 in the ears of the people, that, in the event of a 
 rupture with a foreign country, our cities would be 
 
 16
 
 I2 6 MEMOIR OF 
 
 sacked, our coast pillaged, and our people butchered. 
 The more he magnifies the danger, the greater will 
 be the condemnation of those who, for seven years 
 past, have held the power to prevent this state of 
 things, and have neglected their duty. Sir, his political 
 friends have held the reins for a longer period ; for 
 they had their majority in Congress, before the termi 
 nation of the last Administration. In the other House 
 they have, ever since, held an overwhelming influence ; 
 and in this, with the exception of the last three years 
 only, they have also been in a constant majority. The 
 other House never proposed a measure for defence, 
 before last session, in which the Senate refused to 
 concur; and, what is more worthy of note, they never 
 proposed a bill for defence, to which the Senate did 
 not add, largely, by amendment. For seven years, 
 during which time I have held a seat here, the action 
 of the Senate was always quite as prompt as that of 
 the other House, on these subjects ; and, indeed, if 
 my memory be correct, we were generally in advance 
 of them. Sir, it is all in vain that the gentleman 
 seeks to cast that fearful responsibility, arising out of 
 more than seven years' neglect of our Atlantic sea 
 board, upon the minority in Congress. In vain does 
 he invoke the judgment of the public against that 
 Senate which, during the two or three years when the 
 Administration has not been able to control its vote, 
 has been made the scapegoat to bear nearly all the 
 other neglects and transgressions of those in power. 
 The fact is, and every man now within the sound of 
 my voice knows it, or ought to know it, that not 
 only has our whole system of improvement been 
 checked, but the defences of our country have been 
 shamefully neglected, since the present party came into
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 127 
 
 power, on the miserable pretext of paying off the 
 national debt, a debt which was never pressing, and 
 which would have been easily extinguished by the 
 operation of the old Sinking Fund Act, long before it 
 could possibly have been felt as an injury, if internal 
 improvements had been still properly encouraged, and 
 our sea-coast had been properly fortified. Witness, 
 now, that wonderful exhibition of financial skill and 
 statesmanship, by which, when all other debts had been 
 disposed of, the odd thirteen millions, drawing interest 
 at only three per cent., and nearly all in the hands of 
 foreigners, was paid off, in spite of all remonstrances, 
 for the sake of making the vain-glorious boast that, 
 during this Administration, the whole national debt was 
 extinguished. At the time we were paying these three 
 per cents, the army, the navy, the fortifications, the 
 roads and canals, the improvement of our rivers, and 
 even the ordinary facilities for commerce, were neglected. 
 Light-house bills, and bills to distribute a portion of 
 the avails of the public domain among the States, for 
 the purposes of improvement and education, were either 
 voted down, or vetoed down, and all for glory, ay, 
 for the glory of paying off the national debt, by with 
 drawing from the people the use of their money, 
 which was surely worth to them, not only for defence 
 but for improvement, the legal rate of interest, and 
 extinguishing a debt in the hands of foreign creditors 
 drawing three per cent. only. Why, .sir, the fact is 
 notorious, that such has been this miserable and mor 
 bid excitement, industriously kept up to gratify party 
 pride and folly, that scarce a week has elapsed, within 
 the last seven years, in which some newspaper editor 
 has not reminded us of the glory of the Administra 
 tion in paying off the national debt; yet, during all
 
 J2 g MEMOIR OF 
 
 this time, the gentleman from Pennsylvania says, our 
 whole seaboard has been left naked to any invader, 
 our cities have been constantly in danger of being 
 sacked*, our coast pillaged, and our people butchered, 
 without the means of resistance in the event of war. 
 This glory has left us, all the while, at the mercy of 
 any foreign power, which might have chosen at any 
 moment to assail us. 
 
 " The only salvo now relied .upon to sustain those 
 in power from their own charge against the Senate, of 
 leaving the whole seaboard defenceless, is, that a ma 
 jority (not all) of their party friends in Congress did, 
 at the last moment of the last session, propose and 
 vote for this three million amendment. But what could 
 have been effected with that money, if we had granted 
 it? Would that have built up fortifications, and put 
 the navy and army on a war establishment within the 
 nine months allowed for its expenditure? Sir, if it had 
 been applied to no mischievous purpose calculated to 
 induce a war with France, which some think was its 
 real design, its effects upon the sea-coast in erecting 
 forts would not have increased the permanent security 
 of the country, to a perceptible extent, before the 
 meeting of Congress. If, through the whole period 
 during which this Administration has been in power, 
 we had been regularly progressing with a system of na 
 tional defence, properly adapted to the wants and means 
 of the republic, we should hardly yet have been in a state 
 of preparation for war, becoming such a country and 
 such glorious institutions as ours. Labor itself cannot 
 always be commanded by money, and time is indis 
 pensable in the proper construction of all great works: 
 and an error not uncommon in regard to our public 
 works of every description, has been to do in months
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. I2 g 
 
 what should be the work of years. But, in order to 
 show the gentleman from Pennsylvania and his friends 
 how utterly indefensible they are when arraigned on 
 their own charges, let us now concede, for the mere 
 purpose of argument, that this " three million amend 
 ment," upon which they relied, would have been suffi 
 cient for putting the army and navy on a war estab 
 lishment ; that it would have effected all this in nine 
 months, and that it was necessary to expend it. I 
 ask them, how comes it about that they have 
 suffered two whole months of the present session to 
 pass away without renewing this or some similar prop 
 osition ? And how do they excuse themselves for not 
 having proposed so salutary a measure at an earlier 
 day during the last session ? The moment of the vote 
 on that amendment, the gentleman says, he shall 
 always look upon as the proudest moment of his life. 
 Doubtless, in his estimation, it was a most happy vote 
 for him. Then, why not renew it ? Why 'does that 
 patriotism whose midnight vigils receive so much ap 
 plause, slumber during the broad daylight, and why 
 has it slept so long ? He has known that the only 
 objection, of many among us, to the proposition, was 
 a constitutional objection, which by altering the proposi 
 tion from a general to a specific one, he could obviate. 
 Then, why has he not proposed it, or something 
 like it, for the last two months, during all which time, 
 according to his own language, we have incurred the 
 danger of having our cities sacked, our coast pillaged, 
 and our people butchered, for want of it? Since last 
 session, all intercourse with France has been sus 
 pended ; a powerful fleet, we* are told, has been hov 
 ering near our coast, and acting as a fleet of observa 
 tion, and, with the vigilance of a hawk, ready to stoop
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 on our unprotected commerce, from its commanding 
 position, or to attack our naked seaboard at the slight 
 est notice. 
 
 "To the question, why this measure was proposed 
 only at the last moment of the last session, the honor 
 able member from Pennsylvania has already attempted 
 an answer. He took especial pains to bring us to the 
 point of time at which the amendment was rejected. 
 His object seemed to be to demonstrate that then the 
 patriot should have spoken out, by the surrender of his 
 constitutional scruples, and the delegation of his repre 
 sentative power over the public treasure, to the Presi 
 dent. He reviewed the state of our relations with 
 France, for the very purpose of showing that, at that 
 period, our affairs were at a peculiarly dangerous crisis, 
 and labored to excuse himself and his friends who 
 brought forward this proposition at that time, by making 
 the impression upon his hearers, that there was just 
 then, a ne*w impulse given, by recent intelligence from 
 France, to the adoption of measures of a hostile charac 
 ter. But, sir, most unfortunately for this excuse, the 
 intelligence, to which he has referred, was decidedly of 
 a pacific character, and was precisely that very informa 
 tion by which any reasonable man, however apprehen 
 of danger before its arrival, would have been convinced 
 that then there was not the slightest apparent necessity 
 for a resort to any measures of a hostile character." 
 
 Mr. Clayton closed his speech (the best, in the 
 judgment of some of his friends, that he ever delivered 
 in the Senate) with his promised motion to strike the 
 word " surplus" out of the resolution, thus pledging 
 every dollar of the revenue for the national defence, which 
 was carried by a large majority. The division of this
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. l ^ l 
 
 question threw all the leaders of the opposite party 
 into a meagre minority, as all the Whigs voted in 
 favor of it, and not a few of their opponents, who were 
 not willing to be outdone by the Whigs in promising 
 magnificent preparations for war ; and then this famous 
 resolution was passed by a unanimous vote. Those 
 who had introduced it, and who had expended so much 
 labor in support of it, by these means failed of their 
 objects. The Whigs refused to be arrayed in hostility 
 against the national defence, and gained the credit of 
 being its principal advocates ; while Mr. Benton saw 
 that his secret and dearest object was utterly lost 
 which was to prevent the passage of any distribution 
 law during that session' giving the immense surplus in 
 the Treasury, amounting to nearly forty millions of 
 dollars, in just proportion to the States. Shortly after 
 this party triumph, as it was considered, the favorite 
 measure of the Whigs, that of distributing the surplus 
 revenue to the States, was introduced, and carried 
 through both Houses of Congress, in spite of Mr. 
 Benton and his celebrated resolution. By the amend 
 ment of Mr. Clayton, the resolution had become a 
 harmless and barren generality. 
 
 With this session of Congress, Mr. Clayton intended 
 to terminate his Senatorial career. In the fall of 1836, 
 resolved not to be presented by his friends in the Legisla 
 ture a second time, he resigned the residue of his term 
 of office to his friend Charles Polk, the Governor of the 
 State of Delaware by the death of Governor Caleb P. 
 Bennett, and betook himself to the practice of his pro-
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 fession ; and in the January following, as before stated, 
 he was appointed Chief Justice of the State. Imme 
 diately after Mr. Clayton's resignation became known to 
 his brother Senators, in December, 1836, he received 
 from gentlemen of all parties in that body the highest 
 professions of regard and esteem for his private character 
 and public services; and on the 3d of January, 1837, 
 Mr. Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, a political enemy, but a 
 generous one, expressed in the warmest terms his ad 
 miration of his high character, pronouncing him "a man 
 of as clear a head and honest a heart as ever adorned 
 this chamber." Such is his language, as reported in 
 the National Intelligencer shortly after. 
 
 STATE CONVENTION. 
 i 
 
 In the year 1831, a convention of the people was 
 held to revise our Constitution. The subject had been 
 agitated for some years with more or less of spirit, 
 until finally an act was passed to test the popular 
 sense. The result being a majority of votes in favor 
 of it, a convention was duly called, and held its 
 session in the Presbyterian church in Dover, in No 
 vember of that year. Though a member of the United 
 States Senate at the time, Mr. Clayton was elected one 
 of the ten persons to represent Kent County, and took 
 a very prominent part in the proceedings of that body. 
 Among the other members, were three from New Cas 
 tle county, of great distinction among us, Willard 
 Hall, James Rogers, and George Read, Jr. To say
 
 JOHN .M. CLAYTON. j^ 
 
 nothing of the other men of note and influence, who 
 were their colleagues, it may be safely averred that, as 
 a whole, the body was as well qualified for discussion 
 and legislation, whether fundamental or merely parliamen 
 tary, as ever sat in this State. All the members were 
 men of large experience in the affairs of life, and the 
 four I have named were universally regarded as being 
 without superiors as lawyers also. 
 
 The chief object of the convention was to reform 
 the then existing judicial system, which for a long time 
 had been felt to be unnecessarily cumbrous. There 
 were two courts of concurrent jurisdiction for the trial 
 of cases by jury the Supreme Court and Court of 
 Common Pleas ; and the Associate Judges in each were 
 laymen, incapable, of course, from want of professional 
 education, of passing intelligently upon questio/is of law. 
 Different plans were proposed and thoroughly discussed, 
 but the convention finally settled upon that which now 
 exists, which was Mr. Clayton's plan, and has borne 
 the test of experience for forty-eight years. 
 
 Other subjects engaged the attention of the conven 
 tion, most of them of a, minor character, but all received, 
 at his hands and those of the other members, full exam 
 ination. In fact, but one spirit animated the entire body 
 of members that of doing their full duty as dele 
 gates and as citizens, irrespective of any considerations 
 but such as should govern men of integrity and patriot 
 ism. This convention gave us biennial sessions of the 
 Legislature (I think if they could at that time have 
 looked into futurity, they would have made them less 
 
 '7
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 frequent even), and enacted a most important clause 
 with respect to acts of incorporation requiring the 
 concurrence of two thirds of each branch of the General 
 Assembly, to pass them. This feature was greatly 
 approved by Mr. Clayton, who was well aware of the 
 danger of multiplying corporate bodies, and of giving 
 charters conferring such large powers as were inimical 
 to the interest of the public. This the debates show. 
 There was superadded to it, at the instance of Dr. 
 Handy, of New Castle county, who was its mover, the 
 additional clause, also approved by Mr. Clayton, reserv 
 ing to the Legislature an express power of revocation. 
 No case has yet arisen, to test definitely the full extent 
 and meaning of this clause the State having fortunately 
 had no such conflict with any of her creations, as re 
 quired the. exercise of the power reserved ; but the ad 
 vantage of the prior provision has been experienced 
 over and over again, in the defeat of purely selfish 
 schemes, as well as some of very doubtful, not to say 
 perilous, character such as the mammoth bank charter, 
 as it was then characterized, at the extra session of the 
 Legislature in 1836. It will not be deemed amiss, I 
 feel sure, to give the names of the persons who com 
 posed that convention that it may be seen how care 
 ful the people of Delaware were, at that day, to select 
 for important trusts, men of the very best qualifications 
 in all respects. While these gentlemen were nominated 
 for election by potitical parties, there was at that time a 
 spirit so conservative, influencing the minds of politicians, 
 that they rarely offered for public suffrage, any but
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 135 
 
 the best qualified men on both sides. The journals of 
 our Legislature in those days show that the members of 
 the Houses were selected from the most fit of the people ; 
 and that each House had always in it at least two men 
 who, from education and habit, were able not only them 
 selves to understand, but, by discussion and examination, 
 to make their fellow memoers thoroughly comprehend, 
 also, every proposition submitted for their decision. 
 Every one knows that it is not so now, that nothing 
 is really discussed in the Legislature, that, with the 
 most honest intentions, members are constantly voting 
 in ignorance of the real effect of measures, and that, 
 from want of experience, and of intelligent exposition of 
 schemes of legislation, the body is liable to be imposed 
 upon, and sometimes is grievously misled, by lobbyists, 
 whose opinions are volunteered whenever occasion offers 
 to give them. 
 
 The names of the members of the Convention were 
 as follows : 
 
 NEW CASTLE COUNTY. Willard Hall, James Rogers, 
 George Read, Jr., John Caulk, John Elliott, Thomas 
 W. Handy, John Harlan, William Seal, Thomas Deakyne. 
 
 KENT COUNTY. John M. Clayton, Presley Spruance, 
 Jr., Elias Naudain, Peter L. Cooper, James B. Macomb, 
 John Raymond, Charles Polk, Hughitt Layton, Charles 
 H. Haughey. 
 
 SUSSEX COUNTY. Thomas Adams, Edward Dingle, 
 William Dunning, James Fisher, James C. Lynch,
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 Joseph Maull, William Nicholls, Henry F. Rodney, 
 William D. Waples. 
 
 HONORS FROM YALE. 
 
 In the year 1836 occurred in the public life of Mr. 
 Clayton, an event which gave him exceeding gratifica 
 tion ; in fact, he regarded it with more pride and satis 
 faction, than any, prior to that time. He always so 
 spoke of it. In the latter part of August of that year 
 he received the following letter, wholly unexpected, 
 and all the more agreeable because the honor it an 
 nounced had never been even contemplated by him as 
 likely to be conferred. Here is its language : 
 
 YALE COLLEGE, Aug. 25, 1836. 
 
 DEAR SIR : It is with no ordinary pleasure that I 
 have the privilege of stating to you that the corpora 
 tion of this college, at our late public commencement, 
 conferred on you the degree of Doctor of Laws. 
 I am well aware that these academic titles are in dan 
 ger of losing their distinction, by being distributed with 
 too lavish a hand. But this college aims to proceed on 
 the principle of selecting those who will confer honor, 
 rather than receive it, by being enrolled in the list of 
 its favorites. We present to you this expression of 
 our regard, not with the expectation of elevating the 
 rank which you already hold in public estimation, but as
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. jo- 
 
 a just tribute of respect to distinguished merit. I have 
 the honor to be, with high and affectionate regard, 
 Your friend and servant, 
 
 J. DAY. 
 HON. JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 Mr. Clayton esteemed it a great honor to receive so 
 high a degree from his Alma Mater old Yale but felt 
 it to be greatly enhanced by the announcement made of 
 it by President Jeremiah Day, in his letter containing 
 such flattering language, and closing with expressions 
 of his personal regard. He never assumed the title 
 conferred upon him, but cherished it none the less, 
 as a voluntary testimonial, from the highest quarter, to 
 his merits as a public man. 
 
 RESIGNATION OF THE OFFICE OF 
 CHIEF JUSTICE. 
 
 On the i6th day of August, 1839, Mr. Clayton re 
 signed the office of Chief Justice, and entered with great 
 spirit into the political canvass in support of the can 
 didates of his party Harrison and Tyler and, in the 
 course of the campaign, made, in and out of this State, 
 some of the strongest political addresses which the 
 contest called forth. Like every thing he really under 
 took, he did his work thoroughly, in that memorable 
 struggle between what had then come to be known 
 as the Whig party, and its opponent, the Democratic 
 party. The whole country was agitated by politics ; the
 
 138 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 compromise that in 1833 had been fallen upon by pa 
 triotic men to save the country from civil war, was 
 operating so inefficiently, to protect the industry of the 
 country from competition with the cheap labor and 
 money of Europe; the low prices of agricultural pro 
 duce were so unremunerative to the farmer, that from 
 one end of the land to the 3 other came up the cry of 
 hard times, and the demand of the people for a change 
 in the public administration. The blame of this condi- 
 ion of things, by no means unproduced, as alleged, by 
 the failure to re-charter the Bank of the United States, 
 was laid, by the Whigs, upon the Democrats, their 
 adversaries, who in turn charged it all, in the same 
 way, upon their accusers and so, there was about 
 as lively a time as the country has ever witnessed. 
 All the best orators of both sides took the stump, as 
 we say, and poured forth their eloquence to greedy 
 ears. It can be said, without exaggeration, that at 
 no time in our history, before or since 1840, has 
 such an array of popular talent and transcendent 
 ability been made before the public. Some of my audi 
 tors remember, no doubt, that famous period, and won 
 derful outpouring of the people at Delaware City in 
 the spring of that year. The attraction was the speeches 
 to be made by three men, John M. Clayton, William 
 C. Preston, and John J. Crittenden ; and surely they 
 came up to the full standard of popular addresses. 
 The speakers were well known for their great oratori 
 cal powers, and men were unable to say which made 
 the greatest speech. With their minds full of the sub-
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 ject of the country's distress, and their hearts of those 
 high and swelling emotions, without which there can 
 be no true eloquence, it is not to be wondered at 
 that persons from a distance, familiar with the popu 
 lar orators of the country, pronounced the addresses 
 the finest they had ever listened to. Certainly they 
 were very extraordinary. It was my good fortune to 
 hear each of them, and their effect upon the mind and 
 feelings was such that none were weary at the close, 
 although for hours they had been standing in the sun 
 of a day in May, almost as warm as midsummer. 
 
 REMOVAL FROM DOVER. 
 
 In the year 1842, in the spring, Mr. Clayton re 
 moved from Dover to New Castle, and took the fine 
 old mansion known as the Read house, on Water 
 street. He resided there, practicing law to some ex 
 tent, and taking a deep interest in public affairs, until 
 the season of 1845, when he removed to his new home 
 on the State road below Hare's Corner, where he 
 ever afterwards continued to reside. He had purchased 
 the farm a year before, and built upon it a new 
 and commodious house, with outbuildings of ample 
 size. The Mexican war soon after occurring, and the 
 brilliant success of Taylor having filled him with admira 
 tion, he. called his home Buena Vista, in honor of one of 
 his hero's great victories beyond the Rio Grande. The 
 land of Buena Vista was extremely reduced ; but hav 
 ing bought, built upon, and removed to it, with a
 
 J.Q MEMOIR OF 
 
 determination to become an agriculturist, he gave his 
 thoughts and energies to that employment. When he 
 took it in hand it was literally worn out from exhaus 
 tive tillage and neglect of the means of resuscitation, 
 but he at once set to work to renew its wasted vigor, 
 and soon created for himself the distinction of having 
 accomplished more in the way of restoring the vi 
 tality of exhausted land, than any one before him. 
 In fact the place soon came to be one of the very 
 finest in the State, producing as high a yield of the 
 cereal crops as any in that rich county. This was all 
 owing to an unstinted use of money, judiciously em 
 ployed. In order to kn6w what to do, he commenced 
 to read, and in fact devoured every work upon agri 
 culture, scientific or other, that he could lay his hands 
 upon ; and, with his old habit when a lawyer in active 
 practice, would talk of nothing else but his new pur 
 suit. It was in vain to endeavor to draw his mind 
 away from his subject ; he would still return to it, 
 with some such speech as this : " Oh, let us not talk 
 of politics" (if that happened to be the theme), "my 
 talk is of bullocks." After he had thoroughly stored his 
 mind with book lore on agriculture generally, and the 
 nature, qualities, and susceptibilities of soils, and had sub 
 jected his own to chemical analysis, so as to understand 
 (as a wise man should) exactly what was best adapted to 
 its nature, he laid all the best farmers of the county un 
 der contribution to find out what they had learned by 
 reading, as well as himself, or by that experience of which 
 as yet he had no store. Before he had been in the
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 141 
 
 country a year, it really seemed that he had found out 
 everything about land, and the way to till it, the crops 
 to be planted or sown upon it, and also the sort of 
 stock that should be kept, and how much of it, so as 
 not to make too great demand upon quantity of pasture 
 provided for it, and provender gathered from the tillages. 
 I mention these matters as illustrative of the spirit of 
 the man which was, to do everything he undertook 
 with the thoroughness and intelligence success demands. 
 
 THE DELAWARE RAILROAD. 
 
 Before I proceed to the narrative of this second 
 period of Mr. Clayton's public political life, I will advert 
 to his connection with a very important work in our 
 State. He had always been a friend, and what was bet 
 ter, strong advocate, of all public improvements, national 
 or State never having felt any constitutional scruples 
 of voting the public money for the one, or any reluc 
 tance to give his strong moral aid to the other. The 
 loan of money to the old Wilmington and Susquehanna 
 Railroad Company, since extended to the Philadelphia, 
 Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad Company, was made 
 by and through his influence, which was all-powerful in 
 this State, with the Legislature. The great results pro 
 duced wherever railroads existed, and conspicuously in 
 New Castle county, naturally turned his thoughts 
 to what might be done for Kent and Sussex also ; 
 and accordingly, at the extra session of the Legislature 
 
 of 1836, he caused to be passed the act to incorpo- 
 
 18
 
 J42 MEMOIR OF 
 
 rate the Delaware Railroad Company, for the purpose 
 of constructing a railroad from a point on the Philadel 
 phia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad, or the New 
 Castle and Frenchtown Railroad, to the southern line of 
 the State, in the direction of Cape Charles, with a branch 
 to Lewes. He and General Mansfield, of New Castle 
 county, and Col. William D. Waples, of Sussex, were 
 appointed commissioners to cause a survey of its route 
 to be made, and books of subscription to its stock to 
 be opened ; but the financial calamities that soon after 
 befell the country rendered unavailing all efforts to pro 
 cure the necessary funds to build a road. Long after 
 wards the charter was revived and made to serve the 
 purpose of a projected scheme of travel from Dona 
 Landing, in Kent, to Seaford ; but nothing was done 
 beyond grading that route, until the session of the 
 Legislature of 1853, when an arrangement was made 
 with the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Com 
 pany, by which the route from Dover to Dona was 
 caused to abandoned, and the line originally contem 
 plated by Clayton, through New Castle county, was 
 adopted in its stead. This is the history of the Dela 
 ware Railroad ; and is given to show how great an 
 interest Mr. Clayton took in internal improvements in 
 his own State, as well as in the country at large, and 
 how prompt he was to seize any opportunity to do the 
 people of Delaware a service. He clearly foresaw the 
 immense benefits that would accrue to us by a rapid 
 mode of transportation of passengers and freight through 
 the length of the State, and how much such an enter-
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. l ^ 
 
 prise would develop those parts of it that lay remote 
 from the navigation of either of the bays, Delaware or 
 Chesapeake. At the same time he had greatly in view 
 the final extension of the road to the end of the penin 
 sula, so as to draw the passengers and products of the 
 eastern part of the South through the counties of Vir 
 ginia, Maryland, and Delaware, forming it. His original 
 plan has never yet been carried out, but by some means 
 or other, it probably will be, in the near future. 
 
 RE-ELECTION TO THE U. S. SENATE. 
 
 At the January session of the Legislature of 1845, 
 Mr. Clayton was again elected to the United States 
 Senate, and by the vote of all the Whig members. He 
 took his seat on the following fourth day of March, at 
 the time of the inauguration of President Polk. 
 
 FRENCH SPOLIATION BILL. 
 
 The regular session of the Senate, after Mr. Clay 
 ton's second election, did not begin until the first Mon 
 day of December, next following his election. It lasted 
 until late in the ensuing summer, and was a very ex 
 citing one, on account of the prevalence of the war 
 with Mexico. There was opportunity enough, however, 
 for Mr. Clayton to master a subject which had long 
 been before Congress, and had been reported upon and 
 passed by one House or the other several times, but
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 had not yet received the approval of the votes of both. 
 I allude to what is known as the French Spoliation 
 Bill. This measure was passed by Congress, to dis 
 charge the nation from the implied obligation that 
 rested in honor upon it, to pay to those who had 
 been despoiled in their commerce by F/rance, at the close 
 of the last century, and whilst the great political con 
 vulsions that shook the thrones of Europe were taking 
 place, the amount of such spoliation. By an account 
 of the claims made up, they reached a very high sum, 
 all of which the United States released by the treaty 
 with France, made on the 3ist of July, 1801, and re 
 ceived full consideration therefor by its negotiation ; such 
 consideration being the abandonment by France of our 
 previous guarantees of her West India possessions. Of 
 course the nation thus made itself liable to pay what 
 it had required from France in behalf of the claimants. 
 Nothing can be plainer than that. However, under one 
 plea or another the staleness of the claims being, at 
 a late day, the principal one (as if a Government should 
 ever resort to such a defence) no bill had ever been 
 passed by Congress, recognizing the public liability for 
 their discharge. Reports in favor of payment had 
 been made, to the extent of at least twenty, one of 
 the most prominent of which was by the old Revo 
 lutionary hero, General Marion. Only three have ever 
 been made against them, and they were before the 
 publication of the correspondence between the ministers 
 of the two Governments, which led to the convention 
 of 1800, that produced the treaty of 1801. Since
 
 JOHN M. CLA YTON. l ^ 
 
 then, no committee of either branch of Congress has 
 ever concurred in any report not strongly favorable to 
 the claims, and they had also been approved by some 
 of the first men in the nation; among others, the 
 great lawyer, John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United 
 States. 
 
 At the instance of friends interested in these claims, 
 most of them representing the dead (for more than a 
 generation had passed since they had been assumed), 
 and particularly impelled by the appeals made to him 
 by some of our own citizens, male and female, who 
 were concerned in their payment, Mr. Clayton made 
 up his mind to investigate the whole subject ; and, if 
 justified in so doing, to introduce the necessary bill 
 to give relief to the claimants. Accordingly, he went 
 to work (more suo), and the result was a bill for pay 
 ment of the debt the country owed to the victims of 
 the spoliations committed by France, and that it passed 
 both Houses of Congress. All the old objections and 
 arguments proved unavailing to defeat the measure : 
 it passed the country felt itself relieved of the im 
 putation of injustice, the needy suppliants for the na 
 tion's justice were allowed their prayers for a bill, 
 and all supposed that there was an end of the long 
 struggle for justice. This was not so, however. The 
 President, Polk, vetoed the bill, and the claims re 
 main unpaid to this day. His reasons therefor, if they 
 can be called such, appear,' in his very brief message 
 returning the bill unapproved, and the insufficiency 
 of them, to Mr. Clayton's mind, are fully exposed in
 
 146 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 his speech reviewing the veto, delivered on the nth 
 of August, 1846. 
 
 THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 Earlier in this same session of 1846, the Oregon 
 question, as it was termed, was before the country. At 
 this time all the territory west of the Rocky Mountains, 
 and north of California, was known as the Oregon terri 
 tory. Ever since our acquisition of it through the dis 
 covery of Gray of Boston, and the explorations of Lewis 
 and Clarke, the British had claimed it, or the most of it, 
 by reason of alleged prior occupancy, and its partial set 
 tlement by the subjects of the crown. On the 2Oth of 
 October, 1818, a convention had been concluded between 
 the United States and the King of Great Britain and 
 Ireland, for the period of ten years, and afterwards 
 indefinitely extended and continued in force by another 
 convention, concluded on the 6th of August, 1827, by 
 which it was agreed that the territory should, together 
 with its harbors, bays, creeks, and the navigation of all 
 rivers within the same, be free and open to the vessels, 
 citizens, and subjects of both parties, but without preju 
 dice to the claim which either might have to any part 
 of the country and with a proviso that either might 
 annul the convention by giving twelve months notice to 
 the other. 
 
 A resolution had been introduced into the Senate by 
 Mr. Allen, of Ohio, and referred to the Committee of 
 Foreign Relations for the abrogation of the convention
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 147 
 
 upon the prescribed notice. The committee reported to 
 the Senate, in its stead, one of similar import, but pro 
 viding that the twelve months should not begin to run 
 until the receipt of the notice by Great Britain. Other 
 resolutions had been presented to the Senate by Messrs. 
 Hannegan, of Indiana, Calhoun, of South Carolina, and 
 Crittenden of Kentucky. This was the state of things 
 when Mr. Clayton rose in his place in the Senate on 
 the 1 2th of February, 1846, to speak upon the subject. 
 The country at the time was in a high state of politi 
 cal excitement. Those who brought the subject forward 
 had succeeded in impressing the masses of the people 
 with the idea that our right to the whole of Oregon 
 was incapable of successful question, and that the British 
 were trying to take it from us. Of course the joint 
 occupancy, provided for by the convention, could not 
 but produce as it did collisions of various kinds, if not 
 actually physical, the citizens or subjects of both par 
 ties occupying and trading, and being without any law 
 except the unwritten common law of both their lands. 
 Such conflicts were exaggerated ; and, as no question 
 can arise, with us, that is not made to take, sooner or 
 later, a party form, it was not long before it turned out 
 that one party was on one side, and the other on the 
 other side. Leaders on both sides sought to make the 
 most of the crisis; those of the dominant party charging 
 their opponents with want of patriotism, in not taking 
 what was called the American side, the Whig leaders 
 retorting by accusing theirs of seeking to bring about 
 a war to restore the waning popularity of their party.
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 There was an immense display of so-called patriotism 
 at this time, the multitude, stimulated by appeals to 
 their nationality, clamoring for " the whole of Oregon or 
 none," and adopting enthusiastically the cry, "fifty-four 
 forty, or fight." 
 
 . It was during this excitement that Mr. Clayton 
 took part in the fierce debate that was going on in 
 Congress over this exciting topic. He first caused to 
 be read the resolution of Mr. Allen, next that of the 
 Committee of Foreign Relations ; and then Mr. Crit- 
 tenden made a motion that the resolution submitted 
 by him should be substituted, by way of amendment, 
 for both of them. His resolution, after reciting the con 
 vention for joint occupancy, sets forth, in continuation 
 of the preamble, that it has become desirable that the 
 respective claims of the parties should be definitely 
 settled that said territory might no longer than need 
 be, remain subject to the evil consequences of the di 
 vided allegiance of its population, and of the confu 
 sion and conflict of national jurisdiction, dangerous to 
 the cherished peace and good understanding of the two 
 countries, and that steps should be taken for the abro 
 gation of the convention in the mode prescribed in the 
 second article thereof, that the attention of both countries 
 might be most earnestly and immediately directed to 
 renewed efforts for the settlement of all their differ 
 ences and disputes in respect to said territory. The 
 resolution itself authorized the President, in his discre 
 tion, to give to the British Government the notice, re 
 quired by its aforesaid article, for the abrogation
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. ^g 
 
 of the convention of the 2<d of August, 1827 ; 
 but contained a proviso that, "in order to afford am 
 pler time and opportunity for the amicable settlement 
 and adjustment of all their differences and disputes in 
 respect to said territory, said notice ought not to be 
 given till after the close of the present session of 
 Congress. " In support of the Crittenden resolution 
 Mr. Clayton made his Oregon speech, one full of pa 
 triotism and true statemanship, in which he con 
 clusively showed our utter unfitness to embark in any 
 war to maintain our pretensions in that distant region. 
 The resolution of Mr. Allen, and that of the committee, 
 did neither of them hold out any idea other than that 
 negotiations for the settlement of the dispute were not 
 contemplated, the former directing the President to 
 give the notice, and the latter advising it, and neither 
 of them having any qualification, or phrase, holding 
 out to the country the prospect of anything but war; 
 it being well known that the British never retreat from 
 any position upon a threat of expulsion by arms. 
 The resolution of Crittenden, and the speech Mr. 
 Clayton delivered for it, by its tone and temper, and 
 the spirit of candor and non-partisanship which char 
 acterized it, did more to cool down the fever of the 
 impulsive, and rob the agitators, in and out of Con 
 gress, of their control over the public thought, than 
 anything that, up to that time, had .been done or at 
 tempted. This speech, and the others which followed 
 it, and the constancy of leading papers throughout the 
 
 country, elevated the public mind above the strifes and 
 
 19
 
 ISO 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 the tumults of struggles for party ascendency, and 
 caused it to contemplate the question presented, unin 
 fluenced by aught but sober reflection. The conse 
 quence was that the whole trouble was settled in the 
 only rational mode that had been suggested. The 
 terms of the treaty were most advantageous to us, 
 though entirely just to England. By them we were 
 secured in all that part of the disputed region bounded 
 northwardly by the line of the 49th parallel of lati 
 tude, until the middle of the channel of the Straits 
 of Fuca is reached, and then down said channel to the 
 Pacific. 
 
 So great was the confidence all over the country, 
 among all classes and partisans, in the wisdom and 
 sagacity of John M. Clayton, and such their belief in 
 his sturdy patriotism, that I think I hazard nothing in 
 saying, that there was hardly a man in the national 
 councils whose speech would have made such an im 
 pression upon the public as his did, especially as it ran 
 counter to the current that had already set so strongly 
 in favor of expelling the English upon the treaty notice. 
 At the conclusion, he paid the following just compli 
 ment to the valor of our people when called upon to 
 support a just cause : 
 
 " The people of the United States have not manifest 
 ed any want of confidence in the Executive ; they have 
 not formed themselves into parties upon this question ; the 
 difference among them, so far as any difference exists, 
 arises from an honest difference of opinion as to the
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. l * l 
 
 foreign relations of the country. I believe that my 
 countrymen are as ready to go to war in defence of 
 their just rights as any people on the face of the earth. 
 All that the Senator from Ohio (Allen) said, and all 
 that he can say, in regard to their bravery or their 
 ability to protect themselves, I heartily concur with. I 
 do not underrate their prowess in battle far, very far 
 from it. But I believe if they could all be gathered 
 together in one mass in front of the President's mansion, 
 knowing that he has the power to decide the question 
 whether we shall have war or peace, they would address 
 him in some such language as was used to the con 
 queror of Agincourt, when he called his council around 
 him and asked them to give him their honest, sincere 
 opinion as to his right to go to war with France. On 
 that solemn occasion they are represented by the greatest 
 of our dramatic poets as saying to him : 
 
 ' God forbid 
 
 That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading, 
 
 Or nicely charge your understanding soul 
 
 With opening titles miscreate, whose right 
 
 Suits not in native colors with the truth ; 
 
 For God doth know how many, now in health, 
 
 Shall drop their blood in approbation 
 
 Of what your wisdom shall incite us to : 
 
 Therefore take heed how you impawn our persons, 
 
 How you awake the sleeping sword of war ; 
 
 We charge you, in the name of God, take heed!' 
 
 "Sir, while I admit, nay insist, that my countrymen 
 are as brave as any people on earth, and as prompt 
 to vindicate their rights ; and while I well know 
 that if you convince them that their title to Oregon 
 is clear and indisputable, they will be as able and as
 
 ,j 2 MEMOIR OF 
 
 ready to maintain it as any nation in the world can 
 be: I would charge this Senate also, should they be 
 called upon to decide upon the question of war or 
 peace, to take heed. 
 
 " If we are to have a war with England, an empire 
 more powerful than ever was Rome in her palmiest 
 days, let us have a just cause; then we shall all strike 
 together, and I have no doubts or fears as to the is 
 sue. But first let the people, first let ourselves, be 
 convinced that we are in the right. Do not let us go 
 to battle in a bad cause ; in one that is righteous, 
 I know that we can fight as well as any people that 
 ever lived. 
 
 " If this matter must come to a war, the responsi 
 bility will rest on the head of the President and his 
 cabinet; and it will be, as has truly been observed, 
 such a war as the world never yet saw. It will be 
 the ' carnival of death, the vintage of the grave.' It 
 will be a war between men who profess to be Christians ; 
 with a people allied to ourselves in feeling, more than 
 all the nations of the world ; a people far advanced 
 before all mankind in intelligence and the arts and 
 improvements of civilized life ; a nation which approx 
 imates more than any other to our own principles of 
 free government ; a people who ' know their rights, 
 and knowing dare maintain them ' ; a people skilful 
 in war, brave to a proverb, and amply supplied with 
 all the means and sinews of war. 
 
 " If we go to war with this people about our title 
 to Oregon, at this time, the responsibility will not rest 
 on me. Not on me not on me, or mine, O God! 
 let any portion of -the guilt or the sin of such a war 
 ever be found."
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 THE MEXICAN WAR. 
 
 The year 1846 will be remembered as that of the 
 commencement of the war with Mexico ; the battle of 
 Palo Alto having been fought in April of that year. It 
 was the firm belief of Mr. Clayton and his political 
 associates, the Whigs, that this crisis was unnecessarily 
 brought upon the country by the Administration, to pro 
 mote the supposed interest of the South by the acquisi 
 tion of territory adapted to slave labor. Whether they 
 were right or wrong in this opinion, is practically 
 unimportant at this day. War commenced, as was 
 alleged, by the act of Mexico ; and at once the spirit of 
 nationality was aroused all over the country, and the 
 masses of the Whig party fell in with the popular 
 movement in favor of it. The Whig leaders found 
 themselves in an awkward dilemma; to oppose the war 
 would be death to their party ; for the first shedding of 
 blood was by the Mexicans ; and when blood flows, all 
 reason is overborne by passion. They therefore were 
 driven, by the requirements of party preservation, to 
 smother any feelings of opposition to the conflict. But 
 they still desired to preserve their consistency in so far 
 as to hold their opinions, and express them if necessary. 
 But their opponents intended they should do one of 
 two things; either oppose the war out and out, or 
 admit that it was just. To oppose it would destroy 
 them with the masses, who, though not desiring war 
 more than the few, yet strongly supported it when
 
 jtj4 MEMOIR OF 
 
 made, from the feeling of patriotism ; and to admit 
 its justice would degrade them in the eyes of the 
 most intelligent of their followers. It was the real pur 
 pose, however, of their opponents to compel them to 
 show hostility to it, and they hit upon the ingenious 
 device of attaching to their bill presented to Congress, 
 for the means to prosecute the war, a preamble, or re 
 cital, declaring that war existed by the act of Mexico ; 
 and they refused to allow a vote to be taken upon 
 it separately, but required that it should be voted for 
 along with the first section which contained the en 
 acting clause. In vain did the Whigs inveigh against 
 the injustice of this course, alleging, and truly, that no 
 evidence had been furnished the Senate, which any one 
 had had time to examine, that war existed at all, and 
 that some delay, if but for a few hours, should be 
 granted for consideration of the proof alleged to be 
 contained in the documents accompanying the message 
 of the President to the Houses. The bill passed, and 
 received the votes of all the Whigs but two who voted ; 
 but they took care to place themselves as the de 
 bates show on the ground that as the country was 
 in the war, she should be supported by all. 
 
 This was the feeling that actuated Clayton, who de 
 clared repeatedly in debate that he was not only 
 willing to vote the sum of ten millions asked for by 
 the bill to support the war, but any sum that might 
 be needed for that purpose, whether in the Treasury or 
 not; but he claimed, and constantly exercised, the 
 right to speak of the war per se, in such terms as he
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. ^ 
 
 chose ; and they were never of approval, nor stinted 
 in condemnation. 
 
 It is not to be denied that the feeling of nation 
 ality, which may be said always to have been very 
 conspicuous in Mr. Clayton, was too strong to be 
 suppressed by any considerations of pure justice. Like 
 all other men of high tone and spirit, he was a dev 
 otee of the sentiment, "Our country first and always." 
 It was with him no mere catch - phrase to be used 
 upon occasion, but an inspiration of patriotism that was 
 interwoven with all his feelings in relation to public 
 concerns. This may be called, by philosophizing mor 
 alists, a weakness ; it may have been so, but such is 
 not not the view most people take of it; for, after 
 all, it is of similar quality with devotion to family, 
 which we all feel and act upon, and to party also, 
 which with most men is stronger than devotion to 
 country. 
 
 This war produced General Taylor or rather de 
 veloped his fine qualities as a man and a soldier, and 
 secured for us a vast extent of territory which for sev 
 eral years gave us great trouble on account of the 
 struggles of the North and South to impress upon it 
 their respective favorite notions of civil and social gov 
 ernment. 
 
 During the progress of the war, no man took a 
 deeper interest in it, and rejoiced more at the success 
 of our generals, than Mr. Clayton who throughout 
 his whole life felt the strongest sense of admiration 
 for great military commanders. The early and bril-
 
 jeg MEMOIR OF 
 
 liant success of Taylor, with his gallant and hitherto 
 almost untried forces, excited a feeling of admiration 
 all over the country, while the later and more impos 
 ing victories of Scott and his troops, filled to the brim 
 the measure of the country's exultation. Out of this 
 feeling grew a kind of spontaneous purpose among men 
 of all parties to reward the former by elevating him 
 to the Presidency. Accordingly, he was ardently sup 
 ported by Mr. Clayton, who by common consent was 
 considered his great champion in the old States, 
 was nominated by the Whig Convention, in 1848, and 
 was elected triumphantly at the then approaching 
 election. 
 
 At the sessions of 1847 and 1848 Mr. Clayton was 
 constantly in his seat, and participated in the debates 
 upon all subjects of importance that came before Con 
 gress, displaying at all times that familiarity with them, 
 .and desire that the proper conclusions should be ar 
 rived at, which ever characterized him as a public 
 man. 
 
 At this session the subject of the newly acquired 
 territory, and what should be done with respect to it, 
 was presented to Congress for its action. The South 
 naturally looked to the acquisition as a means of coun 
 teracting the growth of Northern influence, by coloniza 
 tion of the Northwest; for it was supposed that the 
 territory would be settled, chiefly, by Southern people, 
 carrying their institution of slavery with them : and the 
 North in its turn determined to defeat such expectations 
 by refusing State organization without prohibition of
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. l ^ 
 
 slavery. Here was a dangerous condition of things ; 
 and all the arts of partisanship, and of demagoguery, 
 were employed to fan the excitement and turn it to the 
 account of their respective sides. Though Mr. Clayton 
 had the most perfect trust in the union-loving sentiment 
 of the people at large, yet he well knew, from the ob 
 servation of his whole life, that the passions of men 
 ofttimes obtain such control over reason and patriotism, 
 as to impair their influence. He knew that for a long 
 time there had been growing up, generated by the 
 slavery subject, a geographical distinction among our peo 
 ple that feeling against the encouragement of which, 
 the Father of his Country had so earnestly warned his 
 countrymen in his farewell address and* his knowledge 
 of human history taught him that hostilities between 
 peoples are as often the outgrowth of mere lineal divis 
 ions, as of diversity of race or interest. The North and 
 The South were, with him, ominous words, portending, 
 by their very sound, evil to the country, at some day 
 not distant. He had seen, with regret and disapproval 
 (though a citizen of a slave State), & disposition on the 
 part of certain impetuous, though able, Southern men, in 
 and out of Congress, to press what they asserted to be 
 the claims of their section, to undue lengths ; and on 
 the other hand, he could not shut his eyes, if he had 
 wished, to the fact that in one way or another, the 
 abolitionists of the North were gradually securing con 
 verts to their dogma that slavery was a crime, and 
 augmenting their ranks with all that large class, who, 
 not exactly adopting that theory, yet believed that the
 
 jeg MEMOIR OF 
 
 interests of the whole required its restriction within its 
 then legal limits. It is not to be denied that a great 
 deal of this latter feeling grew out of the fact that the 
 power of one of the great parties was supposed to rest 
 upon the support of the slavery question which, being 
 one of pure interest, could at any time, when the 
 emergency should arise, compel all of the section 
 where it prevailed, to act in concert or, as we say, 
 solid. 
 
 As soon as the election of 1848 was over, the 
 eyes of the whole country were turned upon Mr. 
 Clayton, as the most suitable person for the office of 
 Secretary of State. The great leaders, Clay and Web 
 ster, were practically out of the question ; both having 
 desired the Presidential nomination, neither having 
 supported Taylor with much real spirit, and the latter 
 having failed to show any signs of acquiescence even 
 in the party's choice, until very late in the campaign, 
 and after it was wholly unneeded. But from the first 
 nay, before any nomination was actually made Clayton 
 preferred Taylor to* either of the others ; partly on 
 mere party grounds, the popular heart being with the 
 hero of Buena Vista, and his election hardly a mat 
 ter of any doubt ; and partly, also, because the traits 
 of character displayed by Taylor during the war, his 
 placidity of temper, constancy of mind, unselfishness, 
 freedom from passion and fanaticism, and high sense of 
 duty, all seemed to fit him to be the Chief Magistrate 
 of the nation. I may be allowed to say, at this lapse 
 of time, that these high qualities were shown during
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 the whole period of his brief term. Mr. Clayton was 
 unknown personally to General Taylor, they never 
 having met, but the latter was a close observer of 
 public affairs, and had long before been accustomed 
 to consider him one of the chief men of the nation, 
 and in whom the good of the country was a fixed 
 and settled principle. Besides, he was aware that 
 Clayton had openly favored his nomination over that 
 of one whom he had sustained from the time he en 
 tered public life (the great leader, Henry Clay), and 
 that he had devoted the season of the campaign to 
 promoting his election. All this inclined him to seek 
 out Clayton as his chief adviser ; and he was encour 
 aged to do so by his lifelong friend and chief advo 
 cate beyond the mountains, John J. Crittenden. In 
 due time, the tender of the place of Secretary of 
 State was made by General Taylor, and accepted. 
 They first met at Cincinnati, when the new President 
 was on his way to Washington to be inaugurated. 
 Of course it then became certain that the adviser of 
 the old soldier President was to be Mr. Clayton, than 
 whom no one could have been more acceptable to 
 the people. He was universally regarded as a man 
 of pure purposes, and superior ability for the post, 
 from his high patriotism and habit of investigating to 
 the very bottom every subject which he. was called 
 upon to consider. Besides, he was the follower in the 
 ordinary sense, of no man though having the highest 
 opinion of the great intellectual qualities and party 
 leadership of one of the disappointed candidates and
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 had no retinue of relations, or local politicians, to 
 take care of. His local friends were not office seekers, 
 and his known hostility to nepotism forbade the idea 
 that he would, in the distribution of favors, be guided 
 by any family feeling. It is a fact that no kinsman 
 or connection of his was appointed to anything during 
 Taylor's administration. I once ventured to say to 
 him that I should like to be a bearer of despatches 
 abroad, with compensation, and was promptly informed, 
 in answer to my application, that he would not use 
 his place to promote the interest or wishes of any 
 member of his family. The other cabinet ministers 
 were not selected until very near the inauguration ; 
 though two of them, Crawford and Preston, were per 
 sistently urged by two conspicuous Georgians, who 
 claimed that their services to the cause entitled them 
 to ask so much. Perhaps to these may be added 
 Ewing of Ohio ; though the Department assigned him / 
 was not created till the last day of the session of 
 *48-'49. His conspicuous abilities and warm support of 
 Taylor required, however, that he should be chosen 
 for some prominent place. I have reason to believe 
 that Mr. Johnson as Attorney General, and Mr. Mer 
 edith as Secretary of the Treasury, were Mr. Clayton's 
 own choice. I know positively that the name of the 
 latter was never mentioned for any place until Sun 
 day, the 4th, and the inauguration took place the next 
 day; it was presented to the President by Mr. Clay 
 ton. Certainly the cabinet of General Taylor was a very 
 able one, composed as it was of Clayton, Ewing,
 
 JOHN M. CLA YTON. l ^ l 
 
 Johnson, Collamer, Meredith, Crawford and Preston ; 
 but the leading spirit of the Administration was the 
 Secretary of State. Whilst the President gave to 
 everything his position required of him a sufficient 
 degree of personal attention, and was well able to 
 form an intelligent judgment upon public questions, as 
 well as those that affected his own Administration gen 
 erally, yet it is no reflection upon him nor upon 
 others to say that he ever looked to Clayton as the 
 one man on whose judgment he could safely rely. His 
 friends had told him to trust Clayton unreservedly, and 
 he never departed from their counsel. While on the most 
 intimate terms with other advisers, and having perfect 
 faith in them ; yet the repose of confidence in wis 
 dom, prudence, sagacity, and fidelity, was in and for 
 Clayton. 
 
 Perhaps no man who ever took high office for an 
 unselfish purpose, had more to contend with in his 
 career than the subject of this memoir. As I have 
 before stated, both the great Whig leaders were candi 
 dates for the Presidency when Taylor was nominated, 
 and Clayton preferred the old soldier to either of them. 
 This was his offence ; and it was never entirely for 
 given. One of them, and the greater of the two in 
 tellectually, had no reason to expect any special con 
 sideration ; for their relations had not for years been 
 very intimate, and he had no strength as a party 
 man outside a small body of negative politicians in 
 New England and New York: negative, however, only 
 in the sense of being inactive. The other had claims,
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 from his conspicuous and gallant leadership through 
 many long years, when his high talents and brilliant 
 advocacy of principle had produced for him a feeling 
 almost akin to idolatry, and from their long standing 
 friendship and perfect community of view upon almost 
 every question of national concern. But there were 
 higher purposes than serving men, that influenced John 
 M. Clayton. With a feeling that may have been created 
 or influenced by mere partisanship, but nevertheless a 
 perfectly sincere one, he believed that the affairs of the 
 country ought to go into the hands of the Whigs : and 
 the former defeat of Mr. Clay, the intense hostility felt 
 towards him by his opponents, the Democrats, so strong 
 as to forbid the idea that he could secure any votes 
 from their ranks, and his fatal weakness in writing the 
 Texas letter known to be no true expression of his 
 mind, and treated with derision by his foes and received 
 with painful regret by his friends decided him to look 
 to Taylor as the man who could be elected, and would 
 best meet the requirements of the times, and destroy 
 the acrimony of party contests. It was not expected 
 that either of those gentlemen would be a warm sup 
 porter of the Administration, though it was that of his 
 own party; but the hope was cherished that they would 
 at least show a friendly spirit towards it ; for that does 
 not cost much. But neither of them ever did so. 
 From the first there was coldness and want of sympa 
 thy ; afterwards, in ways that cannot be described, there 
 was something more. A time had come in their affairs 
 when, as it happens to all men, people began to find
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. ^3 
 
 out they could get along without their aid ; and this is 
 the crudest blow fate can inflict on a public man. But 
 in the eyes of many they were great leaders still, and 
 the wonder was why they were not puissant with the 
 Administration ? Their friends complained that they 
 were not treated properly. When one of their favorites 
 wanted office and did not get it, he contrived to make 
 his leader believe it was owing to his well-known fidelity 
 to him. Thus the Administration obtained no support 
 at the hands of the rivals of the President for the nomi 
 nation, but almost the contrary. This of course was re 
 flected by the newspapers also. Some of the strong 
 party sheets had nothing ever to utter, of praise, but 
 sometimes ventured upon implied censure of the Admin 
 istration. One professedly neutral paper, of wide circula 
 tion, made itself conspicuous by attacks upon it. Noth 
 ing could be done right ; every thing was done wrong ; 
 and every one disappointed in his ambition of serving 
 his country, abroad or at home, leveled his arrows at 
 the Administration, and always aimed at Clayton, who 
 was regarded as its head and front. In fact, he was 
 beset on all sides, by reason of this cold reserve, if not 
 more, of Webster and Clay ; and if he had not been in 
 spired in his course, all through it, by what he believed 
 the true interests of the country, his party (where such 
 a consideration was allowable), and a perfect unselfish 
 ness, he would have broken down utterly. But when 
 he became aware of the state of feeling towards himself 
 personally, for no real wrong on his part, he resolved 
 that he would fight his assailants, open and concealed,
 
 164 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 with the only weapons he could employ, capacity and 
 fidelity to his trust, and resolute adhesion to the right. 
 Though his own private affairs were suffering for atten 
 tion, and he had repeatedly expressed to the President 
 a desire to retire to private life, he yet remained at his 
 post, until the decease of the President, which occurred 
 on the pth of July, 1850, gave him the liberty of return 
 to Delaware, which he so much desired. 
 
 Before entering upon a view of the Administration 
 of General Taylor, or rather, a consideration of some 
 of its features and acts, I recall your attention for a 
 moment to a debate which ran in the Senate for a 
 long time in the summer of 1848, upon the subject 
 of governments in our newly acquired Territories of 
 Oregon, California, and New Mexico, called " the debate 
 on the Territorial or Compromise Bill." This bill was 
 reported to the Senate by a special committee of eight 
 members, four from the free and four from the slave 
 States, and equally representing the two great parties, 
 viz. : Messrs. Clayton, Calhoun of South Carolina, Un 
 derwood of Kentucky, Atchison of Missouri, Phelps of 
 Vermont, Clarke of Rhode Island, Dickinson of New 
 York, and Bright of Indiana; and passed that body on 
 the morning of July 2/th, by a vote of 33 yeas to 22 
 nays. On the next day, the 28th, it was taken up in 
 the House ; and without debate or discussion, it was, 
 on the motion of Mr. Stephens of Georgia, laid on the 
 table, by a vote of 112 yeas to 97 nays. The Oregon 
 Bill, having afterwards passed the House, was presented 
 to the Senate, when Mr. Clayton arose and seized the
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. j^e 
 
 opportunity to defend the Senate bill. After stating 
 that no opportunity was offered to discuss the Terri 
 torial Bill whilst it was on its passage in the Senate, 
 he entered upon a defence of it against those who 
 had assailed it, and showed how it had been misun 
 derstood by the extremists of both parties. The par 
 ticular feature of this bill (for he had drawn it as 
 chairman of the committee) was, that it promised an 
 effectual means, if it had been adopted, of settling for 
 ever the slavery question, as to all the territory ac 
 quired from Mexico by the treaty of peace of Gauda- 
 lupe Hidalgo. It provided that a writ of error or 
 appeal should be had, at the suit of either party, in 
 case of a claim of freedom by any negro in either 
 California or New Mexico, to the Supreme Court of 
 the United States. Every power which Congress ever 
 had over the subject was reserved, because no word 
 in the bill proposed to devolve that power on the 
 court, or any other tribunal. The power of Congress 
 over the subject was declared by him to be political 
 and legislative, and that of the court simply judicial. 
 " The great question," he said, " to settle which the 
 select committee was raised in the Senate, was 
 whether the citizens of the slaveholding States of this 
 Union have a constitutional right to emigrate to the 
 Territories, which have been acquired by the common 
 efforts of all the States, with their slaves." This ques 
 tion had been debated for weeks in the Senate with 
 a degree of fierceness that threatened the most serious 
 consequences, when, to allay the excitement, and find 
 
 21
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 some mode of settling it, fair to all, the idea occurred 
 to him of raising the special committee which reported 
 the Territorial or Compromise Bill, with the entirely 
 new feature embodied in it, that the question causing 
 so much heat in debate, and so much alarm in the 
 minds of those who knew the lengths to which the 
 fell spirit of partisanship will drive men of the right 
 of the slaveholder to carry his property to one of 
 those Territories and hold it there, should be submitted 
 to that arbiter which all men respected, not only as 
 a pure body, but one created to settle grave questions 
 affecting the welfare of the whole people in the pro 
 tection of their constitutional rights, the Supreme Court 
 of the United States. One would suppose that men 
 of all shades of political thought or personal interest, 
 would have caught at, and supported, a scheme so 
 happy in its conception and statesmanlike in its fair 
 ness. There could be nothing juster to both sides 
 the one claiming that the Constitution threw the man 
 tle of its protection over the institution in the public 
 domain, not yet governed by State laws, and the other 
 that slavery can exist nowhere but by positive law, 
 which no one claimed had ever been enacted to re 
 cognize it. A fairer mode of settling that question 
 than by its submission to judicial decree, and that of 
 such a court, cannot be conceived : but the interest 
 of party (I speak not now of mere political divisions) 
 was stronger than reason or candor. The geographi 
 cal distinctions against which Washington had warned 
 his compatriots, and which were sure to be strength-
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. jg- 
 
 ened and possibly fixed by the agitation of the ques 
 tion, were contemplated by the foes of the Compromise 
 Bill ; but the warnings of the Father of his Country 
 were unavailable to stay the strife. Misrepresentation 
 on the one hand, and the rancor of the discussion on 
 the other, prevented judgment from asserting her author 
 ity. Passion ruled the hour when that bill was defeated, 
 and has done so since, in relation to other grave sub 
 jects, from time to time, and will do so hereafter, until 
 men shall come, by some terrible blow inflicted upon 
 the vitality of their free republican government, to 
 regain their reason. It is with nations as with indi 
 viduals ; they become drunk with passion and excite 
 ment, requiring some sudden stroke to " stun them into 
 sobriety." 
 
 In defending his proposition for submission of the 
 question of the right to carry slaves into the Territo 
 ries and hold them there to the Supreme Court ulti 
 mately, he used this fine language : 
 
 " The Senator from Tennessee (his friend, John Bell), 
 as well as others, inquired of me, how this bill 
 could settle the controversy between the slaveholding 
 and non-slaveholding sections of the Union. I answer 
 precisely in the same quiet mode by which the 
 court in the last resort provided by the Constitution, 
 has decided a thousand other questions which ^have 
 arisen between the people of different States and sec 
 tions of the Union. It is the greatest glory, the 
 proudest boast of our countrymen, that they are gov 
 erned only by law, and that law made by their own
 
 !68 MEMOIR OF 
 
 servants and interpreted by men selected by them or 
 by their agents. They bow to the majesty of the 
 law, in deference to themselves. Their own self-respect 
 teaches them to obey the edicts promulgated by their 
 authority, or that of their fathers. For this reason, the 
 true American is a more law-abiding being than the 
 citizen of any other nation on earth. The inscription 
 on the monument of the Spartans who fell at Ther 
 mopylae was, " Go, stranger, and tell the Lacedemonians 
 that we lie here in obedience to the laws. " Obedience 
 to the laws, is the cognate spirit, if not the charac 
 teristic, of rational civil liberty. Resistance to tyran 
 ny is the result of the same love of freedom which 
 dictates submission to the civil magistrate of our own 
 choice ; and every truly free people on earth, have 
 been distinguished for their deference and respect for 
 the judgments of their civil tribunals. When we shall 
 so far degenerate from the spirit of genuine civil lib 
 erty as to despise and trample under foot the solemn 
 decrees of the great judical arbiter appointed by the 
 republicans of the olden time, to decide our contro 
 versies, allay our heart-burnings, and restore fraternal 
 feelings among the contending geographical divisions 
 of our* common country, we shall cease to respect the 
 memories of our forefathers, and to honor our own 
 truth." 
 
 This is one of the ablest and most statesman 
 like speeches that was ever made by Mr. Clayton 
 in the Senate showing, as it does, his great sagacity 
 as a* public man, and the pure patriotism that inspired 
 all his actions. In it he felt called upon to refer to 
 the course of Senators individually, and he did it with 
 a fearless speech, addressed as well to his personal
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. ^ 
 
 and political friends, as to those opposed to him. He 
 had a cause to maintain, which he believed a good 
 one ; he had a measure to vindicate, which had been 
 denied justice; and in all his life, professional and 
 political, when these circumstances existed, he spared 
 neither friend nor foe, who stood opposed to him. Not 
 that he descended to what are treated as mere per 
 sonalities, but he referred to arguments or assertions 
 as those of individuals mentioned and employed the 
 strongest thoughts and most vigorous language, to 
 expose the fallacy, insincerity, or partisanship of their 
 positions. He plainly, but sorrowfully, viewed the ques 
 tion he attempted to settle by his bill, as dangerous 
 to the Union he loved so much. No one can form 
 an adequate idea of that speech by extracts from it, 
 or statement, generally, of its language ; it requires to 
 be read throughout, and will be found to be a com 
 plete view of the state of the slavery question at 
 that time, the scheme of the bill to settle it, the hos 
 tility it met with, particularly from the North, and an 
 exemplification of his concern for the safety of the 
 country if the strife could not be allayed. At the 
 close of it he used this prophetic language : 
 
 " The refusal to submit to the arbitrament of the 
 very tribunal which the founders of the republic es 
 tablished the scorn with which the Constitution has 
 been treated, in the contemptuous repudiation of a 
 sacred constitutional right to try the question made by 
 one whole section of the Union the contumely and
 
 ,j O MEMOIR OF 
 
 reproach now poured out without stint or measure on 
 both sections and the shouts of victory by one 
 section over another, as if a triumph had been achieved 
 over a foreign foe, all announce not only the dawning 
 but the perfect day of an attempt to alienate one 
 portion of the Union from the other. How and when 
 is this suicidal madness to be arrested? It is now 
 palpable that no bill of any kind, to organize govern 
 ments in the Territories acquired from Mexico, can 
 pass Congress at the present session, though ineffectual 
 efforts will be made to pass one ; and that he who 
 shall attempt to stand between the contending sections 
 in their hostile array hereafter, will be the first man 
 struck down by both. Who will take the hazard of 
 that position hereafter? Gentlemen both of the North 
 and South will now go home and seek to sustain 
 their respective grounds by inflammatory addresses to 
 their constituents. The people will become excited, 
 and their representatives will return to these halls at 
 the next session still more riveted in their opposition 
 to one another. .Before Congress can act on this 
 question, it may .run beyond the reach of any settle 
 ment. Is there not real ground for alarm ? Sir, I 
 envy not that man's feelings, who can look upon the 
 approaching struggle without apprehension. The fiery 
 Southron, finding the doors of justice barred against 
 him, may seek to storm them, or to enforce his 
 claims by violence ; and in that event, the very first 
 men to shirk responsibility will be those who have 
 provoked this tempest, by their violent denunciations 
 of all compromise and all justice. " 
 
 He closes with this expression of devotion to the 
 Union, whose perils filled his mind with gloom,
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. j-j 
 
 enlivened, however, by the hope which never wholly 
 deserts the breasts of any who have the same confi 
 dence which he had in the ultimate good sense, and, 
 at all times, honest purpose, of the masses of his 
 countrymen : 
 
 " For myself, I confess that there is one object 
 which I never could and never shall be able to con 
 template, in imagination, without terror. It is that of 
 my native land, rent by discordant, sectional factions, 
 divided and torn into fragments, and finally drenched 
 with fraternal blood. To avert that calamity, I will, at 
 any time, sacrifice all other considerations, and seize 
 upon the first opportunity to allay feelings which can, 
 by any possibility, lead to such a catastrophe. And, 
 gloomy as the prospect may be, I will not cease to 
 hope. The bill which was defeated in the House by 
 fifteen votes, passed the Senate by a majority of eleven. 
 Of two hundred and sixty-four votes in both Houses, 
 the majority against the bill was 'but four. No other 
 proposition could have, possibly, approached so near 
 to a successful result. In the future, therefore, amid all 
 the darkness and difficulties of our position, we may 
 finally find our safety in the judiciary, to which the 
 Constitution itself directs us. On the entablature over 
 the eastern portico of this capitol stand, in beautiful 
 relief, the marble figures of Hope, Liberty, and Justice. 
 Hope, leaning on her anchor, is represented as inquir 
 ing of Liberty, how the Constitution, and the Union 
 it secures, may best be preserved ? and Liberty points 
 to Justice for her answer. The moral ought never to 
 be forgotten. Let us look to the court which the 
 charter of our liberties has established. That is the 
 diamond which glitters through the gloom that
 
 ,72 MEMOIR OF 
 
 surrounds us, and by that sacred light, we may yet 
 be directed to the preservation of our glorious Union, 
 without which the hopes of all men who love liberty 
 must sink in darkness forever." 
 
 If the bill in question had passed both Houses, it 
 would, no doubt, . have received the approval of the 
 President, and thus the way would have been opened 
 for settlement of our troubles at that time, and after 
 wards, growing out of the dispute about the right to 
 carry slave property into the Territories, and hold it 
 there. The wonder is that the North, which held the 
 majority in the House at that time, did not seize the 
 opportunity to bring a question so purely legal before 
 the judiciary : but the denunciations of the abolitionists, 
 and that tenacity of purpose which the passengers of 
 the Mayflower transmitted to their posterity, forbade it to 
 consent to any thing short of surrender by the South. 
 The high spirit of the latter would not submit to that : 
 and therefore agitation continued, alarm spread, hopes 
 sunk, and the country gradually but steadily drifted into 
 a sea of blood and havoc, lashed with all the fury 
 which fratricidal strife could create. 
 
 When the Administration of General Taylor com 
 menced its action, no government had been provided 
 by Congress for these Territories of California and New 
 Mexico : and the people of the former that is, the 
 emigrants from the old States, before and after the 
 treaty of peace, were clamorous for protection from 
 Washington. They complained, and justly, that they
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. ^3 
 
 were exposed to constant danger, from the want of Gov 
 ernmental recognition ; and they claimed that their case 
 was one that called for assistance : but their complaints 
 had not hitherto received much attention. It was dis 
 covered, perhaps, that the emigrants would be likely to 
 declare against slavery, and those who governed the 
 country then, were not concerned that a new State 
 should come into the public family, which would be 
 sure to send anti-slavery representatives to Congress. 
 The Administration of Mr. Polk ; however, had not been 
 exactly indifferent to their appeals an agent, Mr. Vor- 
 hies, having been dispatched to California to give the 
 people there such assurances as was thought best to 
 keep them quiet and inspire hope : but it is not too 
 much to say, that the food was not such as the craving 
 appetite of the Eastern emigrants sought. They wanted 
 something more definite than vague words some faith 
 that Congress would at once act for their case, or leave 
 them at liberty to do it for themselves. All that was 
 yielded to them was the declaration, that the govern 
 ment established by the military occupation was dis 
 placed, and the former one reinstated, and that this 
 state of things would remain until a Territorial govern 
 ment was given them by Congress. This assurance was 
 sent from the State Department to the Californians 
 through the medium of the instructions to Vorhies, 
 dated the ;th of October, 1848. 
 
 In less than a month after the inauguration of 
 President Taylor, viz., on the 3d day of April, 1849, 
 Clayton delivered to Thomas Butler King, a distin
 
 ,-74 MEMOIR OF 
 
 guished citizen of Georgia, and former member of Con 
 gress, a letter of instructions for his guidance in the 
 agency, then conferred upon him, of visiting California 
 and performing such duties as the President charged 
 him with. They differed from those of Vorhies (who 
 was recalled), and showed a warmer interest in the 
 welfare of that distant people ; assured them of the 
 protection of the Government, its solicitude for their 
 welfare, and that the naval and military commanders 
 there would be instructed to co-operate with the friends 
 of order and good government so far as could be 
 useful or proper ; and they said, "also, and the agent 
 was instructed to assure them, that it was the sincere 
 desire of the President to protect and defend them, in 
 any formation of any government, republican in its 
 character, thereafter to be submitted to Congress, which 
 should be the result of their own deliberate choice. 
 " But," added the Secretary, " let it be at the same 
 time distinctly understood by them, that the plan of 
 such a government must originate with themselves, and 
 without the interference of the Executive." 
 
 On the 1 7th of January, 1850, the Senate passed a 
 resolution calling upon the President, in every form of 
 expression deemed best calculated to draw forth every 
 thing, for information, as to what had been done l>y 
 the Executive authority with respect to California and 
 New Mexico the territory acquired by the Treaty of 
 Guadalupe Hidalgo. The call was promptly replied to 
 on the 23d following, and it is from the communica 
 tion to the Senate by the President, that the fore-
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. j-e 
 
 going facts are stated. With the frankness which char 
 acterized the old soldier, the President did not content 
 himself with a simple response to the call ; but treated 
 the general subject at some length, and related all he 
 had done with respect to the formation by the Cali- 
 fornians of a State Constitution. This course, he says, 
 was in accordance with his wishes, but was not taken 
 because of them, as he had been anticipated in his 
 action by agents sent there by his predecessor. He 
 gives as his reason for favoring a State government, in 
 stead of a Territorial one that the latter, when moved 
 in Congress, would be sure to excite the same bitter 
 ness that had before existed on similar occasions. This 
 was a wise course to pursue, and shows how free from 
 all partyism, or sectionalism, the Administration of Gen 
 eral Taylor really was. The people of California have 
 reason to be very grateful to the Administration of Gen 
 eral Taylor for the active part it took in aiding them 
 by its countenance and good wishes, in springing into 
 political life at one bound, instead of halting upon the 
 Territorial plane. It was not however till the year fol 
 lowing thiSj and after the good President had been 
 gathered to his fathers, that the Constitution, prepared 
 by the California people, was approved by Congress, 
 and the State created : nor was it until after the meas 
 ure of admission had been wrested from the place given 
 it in the celebrated Omnibus Bill of Mr. Clay, and pre 
 sented to the Senate by Mr. Pearce of Maryland (an 
 able and strong friend of Mr. Clayton, and co-operator
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 with him for the benefit of California), that justice was 
 at last done to her people. 
 
 THE HUNGARIAN REVOLT. 
 
 The President and Secretary of State were both 
 ardent friends of freedom of the right of a people 
 to work out their own political destiny, and manage 
 their own individual concerns in their owri way. The 
 policy of our Government and the desire of our 
 people had always been to recognize, and help (so 
 far as countenance and encouragement could do it) to 
 come into the family of nations, those of other lands 
 who were able to maintain autonomy, and especially 
 such as showed a desire to adopt institutions similar to 
 our own. The sympathies of Americans have always 
 been warm and active for the oppressed everywhere ; 
 they had ever remembered, unlike the Israelites who 
 had to be constantly reminded of it, how, by the favor 
 of the Most High, they had been enabled to throw off 
 the yoke of oppression. I think that no man was a 
 more ardent lover of republican liberty than John M. 
 Clayton. I have known him sorely tried by the defeats 
 of his party in its struggles, when everything seemed to 
 favor its success ; I have seen him greatly crushed and 
 broken by that which he deemed disastrous to the 
 country's interest; but there was never utter despair, 
 and never the indulgence of a belief that any other 
 form of government was better than that we had. His 
 confidence, that the good sense and patriotism of the
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 177 
 
 people at large would in the end overcome the mis 
 chiefs done by attachment to mere party, was never, for 
 a moment, seriously shaken. 
 
 Hungary, under the lead of extraordinary men, 
 chiefest of whom was Kossuth, had determined to 
 throw off the chains of Austria, and re-establish her 
 ancient autonomy as a political State. The people, of 
 America of all classes, looked with eager interest at the 
 strife between the spirit of despotic rule on the 
 one hand, and rational freedom on the other. Our 
 people, old and young, sympathized with the Hunga 
 rian patriots, and anxiously looked for their success. 
 These sentiments were fully shared by the Adminis 
 tration of General Taylor ; and accordingly, very soon 
 after the struggle began, and with a view of being 
 kept constantly advised of its progress and prospects 
 of success, Mr. Clayton dispatched a private messenger, 
 or envoy, from his Department to Europe, to observe 
 the struggle and study its causes, objects, purposes, 
 and prospects, on the spot, with a view to the recog 
 nition of that people by our own Government, at 
 the earliest moment when it should become certain they 
 could resist, with success, the imperial efforts to re- 
 subjugate them. The President and Secretary particu 
 larly desired that if Hungary could sustain herself, the 
 United States should be the first to recognize her. 
 This would have been eminently appropriate, from her 
 anomalous situation as a republic surrounded by des 
 potisms, a sister State in the wide sense of that 
 term. Besides, she would have a long border, with
 
 j-78 MEMO 2 R OF 
 
 ports and harbors from the boundary of Austrian 
 Venetia on the northwestern, almost to the kingdom of 
 Greece on the southeastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, 
 embracing within that distance, the province of Dal- 
 matia, as well as the other important territories. But, 
 alas! what superiority of forces, and abundance of the 
 sinews of war, could not do to crush the hopes and 
 defeat the armies of gallant Hungary, treachery accom 
 plished ; and she sunk back into the grasp of her 
 rival, to achieve, however, it is pleasant to believe, inde 
 pendence qualifiedly, in another way. In his message of 
 the 28th of March, 1850, to the Senate, in ansVer to its 
 call for copies of the correspondence with the agent, 
 Mann, General Taylor expressed himself as follows : 
 
 " My purpose, as freely avowed in this correspond 
 ence, was to have acknowledged the independence of 
 Hungary, had she succeeded in establishing a govern 
 ment de facto on a basis sufficiently permanent in its 
 character to have justified me in doing so, according 
 to the usages and settled principles of the Govern 
 ment; and although she is now fallen, and many of 
 her gallant patriots are now in exile or in chains, I am 
 free still to declare that had she been successful in 
 such a government as we could have recognized, we 
 should have been the first to welcome her into the 
 family of nations." 
 
 SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. 
 
 At this period the whole civilized world was deeply 
 interested in the all -too -probable fate of the great
 
 JOHM M. CLAYTON. 
 
 explorer, Sir John Franklin, and his brave comrades 
 in his two ships, the Erebus and Terror, with which 
 he had been despatched by his Government to search 
 for, and if possible make, the north-west passage around 
 the American continent to the Asiatic shores of the 
 Pacific ; and, incidentally, to fathom the deep secrets 
 that had hitherto been locked up in the icy chambers 
 of the region around the North Pole. The expedition 
 had sailed years before ; but from the time it entered 
 into the region of ice and night, nothing had been 
 heard from it. What had become of it, and what 
 was the fate of the commander and those who sailed 
 under him, no one could tell. Although Sir John 
 Franklin was well known as a sailor and captain of 
 great knowledge and of prudent wisdom ; and although 
 his Government, never niggard in supplies of every 
 description for her explorers, or thoughtless of aught 
 that could protect them from disaster, had equipped 
 and furnished his .ships with ample stores for quite 
 three years at least ; yet when more than two years 
 had elapsed without any intelligence of the expedition, 
 not only his own Government and people became con 
 cerned for his safety, but other Governments and peoples 
 also; because discoveries of all kinds, geographical, 
 geological, or mechanical, become, sooner or later, the 
 common property of all, in their influences upon the 
 culture or the general interests of society. Wider than 
 these effects that were in the possible future, 
 was the universal throb of human hearts in sympathy 
 for the suffering, whether in ships imprisoned by ice
 
 i8o 
 
 MEMOIR Ol> 
 
 in the dreary regions of perpetual cold, or at home, 
 pining with but little hope of seeing their loved ones 
 again. While human nature every where was thus 
 responding to the appeals of distress, Lady Franklin, 
 Sir John's wife, addressed the following eloquent letter 
 to President Taylor, with explanatory notes appended 
 to it: 
 
 BEDFORD PLACE, LONDON, April ^th, 184.9. 
 
 SIR : I address myself to you as the head of a 
 great nation whose power to help me I cannot doubt, 
 and in whose disposition to do so I have a confidence 
 which, I trust, you will not deem presumptuous. 
 
 The cause of my husband, Sir John Franklin, is, 
 probably, not unknown to you. It is intimately connected 
 with the northern part of that continent of which the 
 American Republic forms so vast and conspicuous a 
 portion. When I visited the United States three years 
 ago, amongst the many proofs I received of respect and 
 courtesy, there was none that touched and even sur 
 prised me more than the appreciation, everywhere ex 
 pressed to me, of his former services in geographical 
 discovery, and the interest felt in the enterprise in which 
 he was then known to be engaged. 
 
 The expedition fitted out. by our Government for 
 the discovery of the north-west passage (that question 
 which, for three hundred years, has engaged the interest 
 and baffled the energies of the man of science and the 
 navigator) sailed under my husband's command in May, 
 1845. The two ships, " Erebus" and "Terror" contained 
 one hundred and thirty-eight men (officers and crews), 
 and were victualed for three years. They were not ex 
 pected home unless success had early rewarded their
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. l $ l 
 
 efforts, or some casualty hastened their return, before 
 the close of 1847, nor were any tidings expected of 
 them in the interval. But when the autumn of 1847 
 arrived without any intelligence of the ships, the atten 
 tion of Her Majesty's Government was directed to the 
 necessity of searching for and conveying relief to them, 
 in case of their being imprisoned in ice, or wrecked, 
 and in want of provisions and means of transport. For 
 this purpose, an expedition, in three divisions, was fitted 
 out in the early part of last year, directed to three dif 
 ferent quarters simultaneously, viz. : ist, to that by 
 which, in case of success, the ships would come out of 
 the sea to the westward, or Behring's Strait ; 2d, to 
 that by which they entered on their course of discovery 
 on the eastern side, or Davis' Strait ; and 3d, to an in 
 tervening portion of the Arctic shore, approachable by 
 land from the Hudson's Bay settlements, on which, it 
 was supposed, the crews, if obliged to abandon their 
 ships, might be found. This last division of the expedi 
 tion was placed under the command of my husband's 
 faithful friend, the companion of his former travels, Dr. 
 Sir John Richardson, who landed at New York in April 
 of last year, and hastened to join his men and boats, 
 which were already in advance towards the Arctic shore. 
 Of this portion of the expedition I may, briefly, say, 
 that the absence of any intelligence from Sir John Rich 
 ardson, at this season, proves he has been unsuccessful 
 in the object of his search. 
 
 The expedition, intended for Behring's Strait, has, 
 hitherto, been a complete failure. It consisted of a 
 single ship, the " Plover," which, owing to her setting 
 off too late, and to her bad sailing properties, did not 
 even approach her destination last year. 
 
 The remaining and most important part of the 
 
 23
 
 !8 2 MEMOIR OF 
 
 searching expedition consists of two ships, under the 
 command of Sir James Ross, which sailed, last May, 
 for Davis" Straits, but did not succeed, owing to the 
 state of the ice, in getting into Lancaster Sound, until 
 the season for operations had nearly closed. These 
 ships are now wintering in the ice, and a storeship is 
 about to be despatched from hence with provisions 
 and fuel to enable them to stay out another year ; 
 but one of these vessels is, in a great degree, with 
 drawn from active search by the necessity for watching 
 at the entrance of Lancaster Sound for the arrival of 
 intelligence and instructions from England by the 
 whalers. 
 
 I have entered into these details with the view of 
 proving that, though the British Government has not 
 forgotten the duty it owes to the brave men whom it 
 has sent upon a perilous service, and has spent a very 
 large sum in providing the means for their rescue, yet 
 that, owing to various causes, the means actually in 
 operation for this purpose are quite inadequate to 
 meet the extreme exigence of the case; for it must 
 be remembered that the missing ships were victualed 
 for three years only, and that nearly four years have 
 now elapsed, so that the survivors of so many winters 
 in the ice must be at the last extremity. And also, 
 it must be borne in mind that the channels by 'which 
 the ships may have attempted to force a passage to 
 the westward, or which they may have been compelled 
 by adverse circumstances to take, are very numerous 
 and complicated, and th^t one or two ships cannot 
 possibly, in the course of the next short summer, 
 explore them all. 
 
 The Board of Admiralty, under a conviction of this 
 fact, has been induced to offer a reward of ^"20,000
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 183 
 
 to any ship or ships, of any country, or to any ex 
 ploring party whatever, which shall render efficient 
 assistance to the missing ships, or their crews, or to 
 any portion of them. This announcement, which, even 
 if the sum had been doubled or trebled, would have 
 met with public approbation, comes, however, too late 
 for our whalers, which had, unfortunately, sailed before 
 it was issued, and which, even if the news should 
 overtake them, at the fishing grounds, are totally un 
 fitted for any prolonged adventure, having only a few 
 months' provisions on board, and no additional clothing. 
 To the American whalers, both in the Atlantic and 
 Pacific, I look with more hope, as competitors for the 
 prize, being well aware of their numbers and strength, 
 their thorough equipment, and the bold spirit of en 
 terprise which animates their crews. But I venture to 
 look even beyond these. I am not without hope that 
 you will not deem it unworthy of a great and kin 
 dred nation to take up the cause of humanity which I 
 plead, in a national spirit, and thus generously make 
 it your own. 
 
 I must here, in gratitude, adduce the example of 
 the Imperial Russian Government, which, as I am led 
 to hope by His Excellency the Russian Ambassador, 
 at London, who forwarded a memorial on the subject, 
 will send out exploring parties this summer, from the 
 Asiatic side of Behring's Strait northward, in search of 
 the lost vessels. It would be a noble spectacle to the 
 world, if three great nations, possessed of the widest 
 empires on the face of the .globe, were thus to unite 
 their efforts in the truly Christian work of saving their 
 perishing fellow-men from destruction. 
 
 It is not for me to suggest the mode in which 
 such benevolent efforts might best be made. I will
 
 1 84 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 only say, however, that if the conceptions of my own 
 mind, to which I do not venture to give utterance, 
 were realized, and that, in the noble conception which 
 followed, American seamen had the good fortune to 
 wrest from us the glory, as might be the case, of 
 solving the problem of the unfound passage, or the 
 still greater glory of saving our adventurous naviga 
 tors from a lingering fate, which the mind sickens to 
 dwell on, though I should, in either case, regret that 
 it was not my own brave countrymen in those seas 
 whose devotion was thus rewarded, yet I should rejoice 
 that it was to America we owed our restored happi 
 ness, and should be forever bound to her by ties of 
 affectionate gratitude. 
 
 I am not without some misgivings, while I thus 
 address you. The intense anxiety of a wife and a 
 daughter may have led me to press too earnestly on 
 your notice the trial under which we are suffering 
 (yet not we only, but hundreds of others), and to 
 presume too much upon the sympathy which we are 
 assured is felt beyond the limits of our own land. 
 Yet if we deem this to be the case, you will still find, I 
 am sure, even in the personal intensity of feeling, an 
 excuse for the fearlessness with which I have thrown 
 myself on your generosity, and will pardon the homage 
 which I thus pay to your own high character, and to 
 that of the people over whom you have the high dis 
 tinction to preside. 
 
 I have the honor to be, sir, with great respect, 
 your obedient servant, 
 
 JANE FRANKLIN. 
 
 To that letter the following answer was made by 
 the Secretary of State :
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF STATE, 
 WASHINGTON, April 25, 
 
 MADAM: Your letter to the President of the 
 United States, dated April 4, 1849, nas Deen received 
 by him, and he has instructed me to make to you 
 the following reply : 
 
 The appeal made in the letter with which you 
 have honored him, is such as would enlist the sympa 
 thy of the rulers and the people of any portion of 
 the civilized world. 
 
 To the citizens of the United States, who share so 
 largely in the emotions which agitate the public mind 
 of your own country, the name of Sir John Franklin 
 .has been endeared by his heroic virtues, and the suf 
 ferings and sacrifices which he has encountered for 
 the benefit of mankind. The appeal of his wife and 
 daughter in their distress has been borne across the 
 waters, asking the assistance of a kindred people to 
 save the brave men who embarked in the unfortunate 
 expedition ; and the people of the United States, who 
 have watched with the deepest interest that hazardous 
 enterprise, will now respond to that appeal, by the 
 expression of their united wishes that every proper 
 effort may be made by this Government for the rescue 
 of your husband and his companions. 
 
 To accomplish the objects you have in view, the 
 attention of American navigators, and especially of 
 our whalers, will be immediately invoked. All the 
 information in the possession of this Government, to 
 enable them to aid in discovering the missing ships, 
 relieving their crews, and restoring them to their fami 
 lies, shall be spread far and wide among our people ; 
 and all that the executive government of the United 
 States, in the exercise of its constitutional powers, can
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 effect, to meet this requisition on American enterprise, 
 skill, and bravery, will be promptly undertaken. 
 
 The hearts of the American people will be deeply 
 touched by your eloquent address to their Chief 
 Magistrate, and they will join with you in an earnest 
 prayer to Him whose Spirit is on the waters, that 
 your husband and his companions may yet be restored 
 to their country and their friends. 
 
 I have the honor to be, very respectfully, madam, 
 your obedient servant, 
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 LADY JANE FRANKLIN. 
 
 Lady Franklin's reply is these words : 
 
 BEDFORD PLACE, LONDON, May 24., 1849. 
 
 SIR: The letter with which you have kindly hon 
 ored me, conveying the reply of the President of the 
 United States to the appeal I ventured to address to 
 him in behalf of the missing Arctic expedition under 
 my husband's command, has filled my heart with grati 
 tude, and excites the liveliest feelings of admiration 
 in all who have had the opportunity of seeing it. 
 
 Relying upon the reports of the American papers 
 just received, I learn that the people of the United 
 States have responded, as you foresaw they would, to 
 the appeal made to their humane and generous feelings, 
 and that in a manner worthy of so great and power 
 ful a nation indeed, with a munificence which is 
 almost without a parallel. 
 
 I will only add, that I fully and firmly rely upon 
 the wisdom and efficiency of the measures taken by 
 the American Government.
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. jg- 
 
 I beg you to do me the favor of conveying to the 
 President the expression of rny deep respect and grati 
 tude, and I trust you will accept yourself my heartfelt 
 acknowledgments for the exceedingly kind and feeling 
 manner in which you have conveyed to me his Excel 
 lency's sentiments. 
 
 I have the honor to be, sir, your obliged friend and 
 obedient servant, 
 
 JANE FRANKLIN. 
 
 The tone which pervades this correspondence, on 
 the part of our officials, agrees well with the touching 
 language and sentiment that inspired Lady Franklin. 
 The page of history furnishes no brighter example of 
 devoted wifehood than her unceasing efforts, never 
 allowed to flag by despondency or resignation, to ascer 
 tain if her husband were yet alive, or, if dead, what 
 record of his sufferings was left for her perusal. The 
 action of General Taylor's Administration was but the 
 expression of the feeling that warmed every American 
 bosom; but who could have clothed them in such 
 befitting garb as the Secretly of State ? 
 
 THE CENTRAL AMERICAN QUESTION. 
 
 There was another subject which caused the Ad 
 ministration of General Taylor concern of a different 
 character ; this was the action of the English in or 
 about what is known as Central America, that is, 
 the territory lying between Mexico and the then re 
 public of New Grenada, at the Isthmus of Darien.
 
 ,88 ME.M01R OJ- 
 
 At the "time of the acquisition of California by the 
 treaty of Gaudalupe Hidalgo, above mentioned, the 
 railroad system of this country was in its infancy. 
 Less than fifteen years before, locomotive engines had 
 not come into use, except on, it may be, a single 
 road ; and at the time of this treaty, the 3Oth of May, 
 1848, there was, perhaps, no line running west from 
 the Mississippi, for a length of more than one hun 
 dred miles. A railroad to the Pacific ocean was not 
 dreamed of by the most visionary nothing being 
 positively known of any part of the vast wilderness 
 of plain and mountains west of the looth meridian of 
 longitude, except the scanty information supplied by 
 the explorations of Lewis and Clarke. Fremont and 
 his followers had not as yet penetrated its recesses, 
 scaled its mountains, traversed their valleys. The 
 country was virtually a blank. Of course the atten 
 tion of the Administration was drawn earnestly to the 
 fact that California, with the inexhaustible mineral 
 wealth that had begun to be developed there, was in 
 great need of the most jealous care. She might fall 
 a prey to a greedy power before succor could reach 
 her ; she might also set up for herself, tempted by 
 her vast internal resources, the unexampled flow of 
 population into her bosom, the wonderful adaptation 
 of her soil and climate for the richer and rarer pro 
 ductions of the temperate and torrid zones, the great 
 facilities her situation offered her for traffic with the 
 East, and the advantage with which she might, some day, 
 annex, on the one hand, all the land of her former
 
 I 
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 ruler worth having, and on the other, that splendid 
 region north of it, bounded, like herself, by the Pacific, 
 and which had a mere joint occupancy, where each 
 of the holders had little more than an asserted right. 
 With what is now Oregon, added to her northwardly, 
 and southwardly and eastwardly such of the Mexican 
 provinces as were desirable, she would be a nation, 
 not only respectable in size, but in wealth and power 
 also. Now these and other considerations presented 
 themselves, from time to time, and frequently, to Gen 
 eral Taylor and his Administration ; and it was thought 
 of the utmost importance that nothing should be left 
 undone to secure the United States against all risk 
 of the loss of our Pacific possessions. The only open 
 access to them was by way of Panama, up the Chagres 
 river in flat-boats, and thence overland to the bay to 
 the other side. All intercourse was by that route, 
 which was through a foreign country, whose territory 
 could not be entered with armed troops, without in 
 fringement of international law. Of course the way was 
 open for all the world, around Cape Horn ; but such 
 a passage required months for its accomplishment, 
 the distance for us being -more than half way around 
 the world. There was also the additional fact, which 
 caused great anxiety, the British, under one pretext 
 or another, were obtaining a foothold in Central 
 America, which was thought to endanger our trans- 
 montane possessions, by interfering with our interest 
 to have an Isthmian route of transportation and travel 
 
 24
 
 I90 MEMOIR OF 
 
 for our citizens, that would enure to them as a com 
 mercial people, and as a nation. 
 
 One of the first steps determined upon by the Tay 
 lor Administration was the dislodgement of the British 
 from Central America. But this must be undertaken 
 carefully ; for Great Britain was then the first power 
 in the world, strong in wealth and in preparation for 
 war by land and sea, and strong also in her deter 
 mination to yield nothing which it was her interest to 
 retain. She had long had a sort of de facto occupancy, 
 or title, to a petty district, on the north - eastern corner 
 of Guatemala, called locally the Belize, but, by her, 
 British Honduras. This was, originally, a simple right 
 to cut logwood there, granted to certain of her sub 
 jects ; but was made to serve another purpose (owing 
 to the weakness of the chief authority), that of being 
 treated as part and parcel of British territory. And 
 it had so far been recognized as an accomplished fact 
 that during a former Administration, a consul had been 
 appointed for that place, and his exequatur had actu 
 ally been asked of and given by the British Govern 
 ment. This British logwood right, and its subsequent 
 enlargement, were long before the famous recommenda 
 tion to Congress of Mr. Monroe, in 1823, called the 
 Monroe doctrine. Among the first acts of the Secre 
 tary of State, was one to recall the consul from Belize. 
 This cleared the way somewhat for the negotiation, af 
 terwards had, resulting in the treaty of April 19, 1850, 
 ratified the 4th of July of that year. But there was 
 another claim maintained by the British in that region ;
 
 JOHN M. CLA YTON. l g l 
 
 which was the so-called protectorate of the Mosquito 
 Kingdom a habitat of miserable savages, who, taking 
 advantage of the weak condition of Nicaragua and 
 the hope of help from the British, had conceived 
 themselves to be the owners of the long reach of 
 coast line, with quite a broad stretch inland, called 
 the Mosquito coast, sometimes Mosquitia. This protec 
 torate was a mere pretext for another foothold the 
 poor puppet of a king of those wretched Indians 
 having none of the paraphernalia of state even, to 
 say nothing of his utter want of troops or forces of 
 any kind. As this protectorate was considered dan 
 gerous to our interests the line of Mosquito coast 
 covering most of the front of Nicaragua upon the 
 Caribbean sea it was determined that it should be 
 put an end to. But how to go about this was the 
 question. 
 
 In pondering over the subject, Mr. Clayton remem 
 bered that fifteen years before, during the Presidency 
 of General Jackson, he had introduced into the Sen 
 ate, at an executive' session held the 3d of March, 
 1835, the following resolution: "Resolved, That the 
 President of the United States be respectfully requested 
 to consider the expediency of opening negotiations 
 with the Governments of other nations, and particularly 
 with the Governments of Central America and New 
 Granada, for the purpose of effectually protecting, by 
 suitable treaty stipulations with them, such individuals 
 or companies as may undertake to open a communi 
 cation between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by the
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 construction of a ship canal across the isthmus which 
 connects North and South America, and of securing 
 forever, by such stipulations, the free and equal right 
 to navigate such canal to all such nations, on the 
 payment of such reasonable tolls as may be established 
 to cpmpensate the capitalists who may engage in such 
 undertaking, and complete the work." 
 
 Here, then, was a basis upon which to rest his 
 work of neutralizing the Isthmian territory. The ne 
 cessity for action seemed to the Administration of Tay 
 lor to be imminent, if we intended to properly protect 
 California, and make her safe and content in being 
 part of the republic. It almost seemed like a special 
 interposition of Providence, that the conception con 
 tained in the resolution should have arisen in the 
 mind of the Secretary, so long before. With it 
 at the bottom of his action, as a motive to be 
 shown, but with an earnest desire, that would not be 
 silenced, to deprive the British of their Central Amer 
 ican claim, as well as to secure California, he invited the 
 British minister, Sir Henry Lyttori Bulwer, sent over 
 for that purpose, to confer with him upon the subject 
 of the inter-oceanic canal. The result of that confer-* 
 ence maintained for a long time, and often threatened 
 with rupture from .various causes, but never allowed 
 to break, by reason of the determination of Clayton 
 to accomplish his purpose in inviting it was the 
 convention known as the Clayton -Bulwer treaty an 
 achievement which was declared in my hearing in the 
 Senate to be the first universal fact in the his-
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. ^ 
 
 tory of the human race. Why should such language 
 have been used with respect to that instrument? Be 
 cause, by it, Great Britain withdrew her claims to a 
 territory which she had asserted and exercised the 
 right to control ; and that it stands upon the plane 
 of nationality acting unselfishly. While no pretence of 
 territorial right to the Mosquito coast had ever been 
 claimed by her, she still, under an alleged arrangement 
 with the miserable puppet treated by her as the king 
 of that region, asserted the right, and was tenacious 
 of it, to protect him in his assumed claims. The duty 
 of protection of course required, if occasion arose, the 
 right of occupation to perform it. It was Clayton's 
 aim to take that away, and that of Sir Henry Bulwer 
 to adhere to the compact with the so-called king. 
 But the latter finally yielded, and affixed his name to 
 the treaty, which was afterwards ratified by his Gov 
 ernment, as it was by ours, the exchange of ratifica 
 tions taking place on the 4th day of July, 1850. 
 Its language, with respect to the subject in hand, is 
 very remarkable for its fullness ; and was thought, by 
 the author of it, to put it beyond the power of hu 
 man ingenuity to misconstrue it. But human inge 
 nuity ' is an indeterminable factor in all transactions ; 
 misconstruction of the apparently definite language 
 employed having been made afterwards, and, unfortu 
 nately for them, by distinguished Senators. But let us 
 consider the treaty alone. We cannot do that without 
 quoting its language. Here is the whole document, 
 precisely as it passed from the hands of the negotiators :
 
 JQ^ MEMOIR OF 
 
 Convention between the United States and 
 Her Britannic Majesty. 
 
 The United States of America, and Her Britannic 
 Majesty, being desirous of consolidating the relations of 
 amity^ which so happily subsist between them, by setting 
 forth and fixing in a convention their views and intentions 
 with reference to any means of communication by ship 
 canal which may be constructed between the Atlantic 
 and Pacific Oceans, by way of the river San Juan de 
 Nicaragua, and either or both of the lakes of Nicara 
 gua, or Managua, to any port or place on the Pacific 
 Ocean ; the President of the United States has con 
 ferred full powers on John M. Clayton, Secretary of 
 State of the United States; and Her Britannic Majesty 
 on the Right Honorable Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer, a 
 member of Her Majesty's Most Honorable Privy Coun 
 cil, Knight-Commander of the Most Honorable Order of 
 the Bath, and Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Pleni 
 potentiary of Her Britannic Majesty to the United 
 States, for the aforesaid purpose : and the said Pleni 
 potentiaries having exchanged their full powers, which 
 were found to be in proper form, have agreed to the 
 following articles : 
 
 ARTICLE I. 
 
 The Governments of the United States and Great 
 Britain hereby declare that neither the one, nor the 
 other, will ever obtain, or maintain, for itself, any ex 
 clusive control over the said ship canal ; agreeing that 
 neither will ever erect, or maintain, any fortifications 
 commanding the same, or in the vicinity thereof, or 
 occupy, or fortify, or colonize, or assume, or exercise, 
 any dominion over Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. jg. 
 
 Coast, or any part of Central America; nor will either 
 make use of any protection which either affords, or 
 may afford, or any alliance which either has, or may 
 have, to or with any State, or people, for the purpose 
 of erecting or maintaining any such fortifications, or of 
 occupying, fortifying, or colonizing Nicaragua, Costa 
 Rica, the Mosquito Coast, or any part of Central 
 America, or of assuming or exercising any dominion 
 over the same; nor will the United States, .or Great 
 Britain, take advantage of any intimacy, or use any 
 alliance, connection, or influence, that either may 
 possess, with any State or Government, through whose 
 territory the said canal may pass, for the purpose of 
 acquiring, or holding, directly or indirectly, for the 
 citizens or subjects of the one, any rights or advan 
 tages in regard to commerce, or navigation, through the 
 said canal, which shall not be offered, on the same 
 terms, to the citizens or subjects of the other. 
 
 ARTICLE II. 
 
 Vessels of the United States or Great Britain, tra 
 versing the said canal, shall in case of war between 
 the contracting parties, be exempted from blockade, 
 detention, or capture, by either of the belligerents ; 
 and this provision shall extend to such a distance 
 from the two ends of the said canal, as may hereafter 
 be found expedient to establish. 
 
 ARTICLE III. 
 
 In order to secure the construction of the said canal, 
 the contracting parties engage that if any such canal 
 shall be undertaken upon fair and equitable terms, by 
 any parties having the authority of the local Govern 
 ment or Governments through whose territory the same 
 may pass, then the persons employed in making the
 
 196 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 said canal, and their property, used or to be used 
 for that object, shall be protected from the commence 
 ment of the said canal to its completion, by the Gov 
 ernments of the United States and Great Britain, from 
 unjust detention, confiscation, seizure, or any violence 
 whatever. 
 
 ARTICLE IV. 
 
 The contracting parties will use whatever influence 
 they respectively exercise with any State, States, or 
 Governments, possessing or claiming to possess any 
 jurisdiction, or right, over the territory which the 
 said canal shall traverse, or which shall be near the 
 waters applicable thereto, in order to induce such 
 States or Governments to facilitate the construction of 
 the said canal by every means in their power ; and 
 furthermore, the United States and Great Britain agree 
 to use their good offices, whenever or however it may 
 be most expedient, in order to procure the establish 
 ment of two free ports, one at each end of the said 
 canal. 
 
 ARTICLE V. 
 
 The contracting parties further engage that when 
 the said canal shall have been completed, they will 
 protect it from interruption, seizure, or unjust confis 
 cation, and that they will guarantee the neutrality 
 thereof, so that the said canal may be forever open 
 and free, and the capital invested therein, secure. 
 Nevertheless, the Governments of the United States and 
 Great Britain, in according their protection to the con 
 struction of the said canal, and guaranteeing its neutral 
 ity and security when completed, always understand that 
 this protection and guarantee are granted conditionally, 
 and may be withdrawn by both Governments, or either
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 197 
 
 Government, if both Governments or either Government 
 shall deem that the persons or company undertaking 
 or managing the same adopt or establish such regu 
 lations concerning the traffic thereupon, as are contrary 
 to the spirit and intention of this convention, either 
 by making unfair discriminations in favor of the com 
 merce of one of the contracting parties, over the 
 commerce of the other, or of imposing oppressive 
 exactions, or unreasonable tolls, upon passengers, vessels, 
 merchandise, or other articles. Neither party, however, 
 shall withdraw the aforesaid protection and guarantee 
 without first giving six months.' notice to the other. 
 
 ARTICLE VI. 
 
 The contracting parties in this convention engage 
 to invite every State, with which both or either have 
 friendly intercourse, to enter into stipulations with them 
 similar to those which they have entered into with 
 each other, to the end that all other States may share 
 in the honor and advantage of having contributed to a 
 work of such general interest and importance as the 
 canal herein contemplated. And the contracting par 
 ties likewise agree that each shall enter into treaty 
 stipulations with such of the Central American States 
 as they may deem advisable, for the purpose of more 
 effectually carrying put the great design of this con 
 vention, namely, that of constructing and maintaining the 
 said canal as a ship communication between the two 
 oceans, for the benefit of mankind, on equal terms to 
 all, and of protecting the same ; and they also agree 
 that the good offices of either shall be employed, when 
 requested by the other, in aiding and assisting such 
 treaty stipul itiuns ; and should any differences arise, 
 
 as to r. r ht, or property, over the territory through which 
 
 25
 
 198 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 the said canal shall pass between the States or Gov 
 ernments of Central America and such differences 
 should, in any way, impede or obstruct the execution 
 of the said canal, the Governments of the United States 
 and Great Britain will use their good offices to settle 
 such differences in the manner best suited to promote 
 the interests of the said canal, and to strengthen the 
 bonds of friendship and alliance which exist between 
 the two contracting parties. 
 
 ARTICLE VII. 
 
 It being desirable that no time should be unneces 
 sarily lost in commencing and constructing the said 
 canal, the Governments of the United States and 
 Great Britain determine to give their support and 
 encouragement to such persons or company as may 
 first offer to commence the same, with the necessary 
 capital, the consent of the local authorities, and on 
 such principles as accord with the spirit and intention 
 of this convention ; and if any persons or company 
 should already have, with any State through which 
 the proposed ship canal may pass, a contract for the 
 construction of such a canal as that specified in this 
 convention, to the stipulation of which contract neither 
 of the contracting parties in this convention have any 
 just cause to object, and the said person or company 
 shall, moreover, have made preparations, and expended 
 time, money, and trouble, on the faith of such con 
 tract, it is hereby agreed that such persons or com 
 pany shall have a priority of claim over every other 
 person, persons, or company, to the protection of the 
 Governments of the United States, and Great Britain, 
 and be allowed a year from the date of the exchange 
 of the ratifications of this convention for concluding
 
 JOHN M. CLA YTON. l gg 
 
 their arrangements, and presenting evidence of suffi 
 cient capital subscribed to accomplish the contemplated 
 undertaking ; it being understood that if, at the expi 
 ration of the aforesaid period, such ' persons or com 
 pany be not able to commence and carry out the 
 enterprise, then the Governments of the United States 
 and Great Britain shall be free to afford their pro 
 tection to any other persons or company, that shall 
 be prepared to commence and proceed with the con 
 struction of the canal in question. 
 
 ARTICLE VIII. 
 
 The Governments of the United States and Great 
 Britain having not only desired, in entering into this 
 convention, to accomplish a particular object, but also 
 to establish a general principle, they hereby agree to 
 extend their protection, by treaty stipulations, to any 
 other practicable communications, whether by canal or 
 railway, across the isthmus which connects North and 
 South America, and especially to the inter - oceanic 
 communications, should the same prove to be prac 
 ticable, whether by canal or railway, which are now 
 proposed to be established by the way of Tehuantepec 
 or Panama. In granting, however^ their joint protec 
 tions to any such canals or railways as are by this 
 article specified, it is always understood by the United 
 States and Great Britain, that the parties constructing 
 or owning the same shall impose no other charge or 
 conditions of traffic thereupon, than the aforesaid Gov 
 ernments shall approve of as just and equitable ; and 
 that the same canals or railways, being open to the 
 citizens and subjects of the United States and Great 
 Britain on equal terms, shall also be open on like 
 terms to the citizens and subjects of every other State
 
 2OO 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 which is willing to grant thereto such protection as 
 the United States and Great Britain engage to afford. 
 
 ARTICLE IX. 
 
 The ratifications of this convention shall be ex 
 changed at Washington, within six months from this 
 day, or sooner if possible. 
 
 In faith, thereof, we the respective plenipotentiaries, 
 have signed this convention, and have hereunto affixed 
 our seals. 
 
 Done at Washington, the nineteenth day of April, 
 Anno Domini, one thousand eight hundred and fifty. 
 (Signed) JOHN M. CLAYTON, [L. s.] 
 
 HENRY LYTTON BULWERJ [L. s.] 
 
 It was well said by the late William H. Seward, in 
 his remarks in the Senate before referred to, on the oc 
 casion of the ceremonies at the announcement of Mr. 
 Clayton's decease, that the treaty was " the first univer 
 sal fact in the history of the human race. " When be 
 fore, had any public act been done, the design of which 
 was to benefit not only those whose agents performed 
 it, but the whole family of nations as well ? Our re 
 lations with our younger sisters of Central America, 
 and the Isthmus, were more than friendly ; there was 
 a similarity of government between them and us grow 
 ing out of the revolt of each against trans- Atlantic 
 rule ; and the future success of all in the experiment 
 of self-government was linked, no one could tell how 
 completely, with that of each. There could, therefore, 
 be no doubt that whatever we desired, how exclusive
 
 JOH.N M. CLAYTON. 2OI 
 
 soever the benefit might be, would be freely granted 
 by them sentiment and interest both agreeing. But 
 no separate treaty, with respect to inter -oceanic com 
 munication for separate ends or objects alone, had ever 
 been made with any of them all Administrations re 
 fraining from using our influence, as a great and con 
 stantly growing power, for that purpose. Whatever 
 may be said of the neglect of previous Governments 
 here to make a show of responding to the spirit and 
 recognizing the policy of the Monroe recommendation, 
 it cannot be charged that any Administration had sought 
 to use our importance with our feeble co-republics, for 
 gains of our own merely. It is not the genius of the 
 people of the United States to acquire, unfairly, any 
 right or advantage. At the same time they are watch 
 ful of their interests. It was in a spirit of unselfish 
 ness that the mere provisions about the canal were 
 made ; but at the same time the advice, " carpe diem" 
 was not lost sight of. The opportunity offered was a 
 good one to secure ourselves against all trouble here 
 after from the British in Central America. How it 
 was availed of, the language of the Clayton - Bulwer 
 Treaty best explains. It might have been supposed 
 that this treaty would have been considered, at least 
 by our own people, as a signal example of diplomatic 
 skill, entitling the Administration of General Taylor to 
 unqualified praise, for, to observe it, not only required 
 of Great Britain the abandonment of all claim to a 
 foothold in Central America, including the Mosquito 
 Coast, for any purpose whatever, but it engaged her
 
 202 MEMOIR OF 
 
 powerful services (which no spirit of disparagement can 
 undervalue) for the protection by herself, in co-opera 
 tion with the United States, of any canal, or railway, 
 that might be made to connect the oceans, or estab 
 lish transit from the one to the other ; and also 
 required, and bound, the contracting parties, by an en 
 gagement, to invite all other States with whom both or 
 either had friendly intercourse, to enter into like stipu 
 lations with them to the end that such States might 
 share in the honor and advantage of. having contrib 
 uted to so great an enterprise. This was not the case, 
 however. A sort of fatuity seems, at a subsequent 
 date, to have possessed some of the great men in 
 public life, as was shown by the result of a debate 
 upon the treaty during the Administration of Mr. 
 Pierce. 
 
 DEATH OF GENERAL TAYLOR AND RETIRE 
 MENT OF MR. CLAYTON. 
 
 On the Qth of July, 1850, General Taylor un 
 expectedly died, and Mr. Clayton thus obtained the 
 release from public cares which he had sought almost 
 from the first of his taking office in the Administra 
 tion. Nothing but his strong personal attachment to 
 the President, and determination that the latter should 
 not be disappointed of the aid at his hands, upon 
 which he so much relied, induced him to remain at 
 Washington so long as he did. If he had died when
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 the President did, his name would have gone down 
 to posterity as one of the brightest that had adorned 
 the national page; but he was destined, at a later day, 
 to figure again in public life, as will hereafter be 
 shown, and to add to his renown, as an orator and 
 debater in Congress. 
 
 Nor was the life of John M. Clayton, after the 
 decease of General Taylor, and, before his return to the 
 Senate in 1853, undistinguished by any public act or 
 expression. On the I4th of October next after his 
 return to his home, a meeting of his political friends 
 was held in Wilmington, for the purpose of honoring 
 him with a public dinner. It was presided over by 
 the venerable John Connell, and a committee of invi 
 tation was appointed, of which his friend, the Hon, 
 John Wales, was chairman. In response to their com 
 plimentary letter, his reply of acceptance contained, 
 among other things, the following language : 
 
 " My object in waiting upon you will be to offer 
 my thanks to my fellow citizens of this, the State of 
 my nativity, for all the confidence and kindness they 
 have so uniformly extended to me through a long 
 public life. At different periods I have held most of 
 the public places of trust and honor within their gift : 
 and now I shall be most happy to evince my grati 
 tude, not in thanks for future favors, but for those 
 which, by their partiality and friendship, have been 
 profusely bestowed upon me. The very flattering terms 
 in which you have spojcen of my public services, are 
 greatly appreciated, and I desire now to express my
 
 204 MEMOIR OF 
 
 acknowledgments to those who have deputed you to 
 honor me with such an invitation, and to you, gen 
 tlemen, for whom individually I have long cherished 
 sentiments of the highest personal regard." 
 
 The company was presided over by the late Charles 
 I. DuPont a very devoted friend of the guest and 
 in answer to a complimentary toast, prefaced by a 
 speech from the President, Mr. Clayton made an ad 
 dress .characterized by all his eloquence, and a more 
 than common share of the cogency and earnestness that 
 marked his public utterances. It was the first oppor 
 tunity that presented itself for an exposition of the 
 policy of the Administration, and its vindication from 
 the assaults which had been unceasingly made upon 
 it; and he took the fullest advantage of it. Look 
 where you will, you will find nothing superior to the 
 complete defense he made of the Administration of 
 General Taylor, claiming for himself nothing though 
 he might have aspired to much and uttering the 
 finest sentiments of patriotism. Referring to President 
 Fillmore, he said he had no doubt that he would do 
 his whole duty ; and hoped that they would be will 
 ing to join with him, in sustaining him in the dis 
 charge of that duty. He added : 
 
 " In his patriotism, and that of the members of 
 
 his cabinet, I have the utmost confidence. I have no 
 
 n t,> TK !ic\-c' thai cither of them would have re- 
 
 fusju his aid . * , the settlement of these 
 
 vexed questions thv IK- had 1> n
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 2O5 
 
 on the basis proposed by President Taylor. They 
 have acquiesced in what appeared to them to be the 
 only practicable scheme of adjusting those difficulties. 
 They seek to sustain the Constitution and the laws of 
 their country, and I honor them for their purpose. 
 While they stand by the Union, I shall be with them 
 and for them. If there be any one sentiment in my 
 bosom more deeply seated and more deeply cherished 
 than all others, it is that of love and veneration for 
 the institutions which our fathers have left us ; and for 
 the country, the whole country, covered and prqtected 
 by the American Constitution. There will be no 
 help for me or mine when this Union shall be broken 
 up; and should that melancholy period ever arrive, I 
 shall be a wanderer without a home. I can take no 
 part for one section against the other ; to me the 
 preservation of this Union is a matter of interest 
 above all others ; and, if necessary, I shall be true to 
 those who sustain it, to the last of my blood and 
 my breath." 
 
 COMMODORE JONES. 
 
 No man had a greater admiration for deeds of 
 heroism, in the field or upon the deck, than John M. 
 Clayton. With the history of every great captain, of 
 whatever age, or race, he was perfectly familiar, so far 
 as research or personal inquiry could give him knowl 
 edge. Where the records of the past furnished the 
 information, he searched them ; where tradition and his 
 own inquiries could alone* serve him, he possessed him 
 self of all they could afford. The enthusiasm of his 
 
 26
 
 2o6 MEMOIR Oh 
 
 regard for distinguished heroes tended to imbed more 
 deeply in his tenacious memory, all that he could learn 
 of them. Growing up at a time when there were 
 many survivors of that gallant band, the Delaware Reg 
 iment, whose deeds of valor occupy so broad a page 
 of the record of the nation's heroic strife for liberty, 
 and attaining his manhood and part of the distinction 
 which awaited him in early life, while the brave sail 
 ors, Jones and McDonough, were yet upon the stage 
 of existence, he gathered from them all, an immense 
 mass of fact concerning the wars, and their own per 
 sonal experience in them, which not only gratified 
 himself, but enabled him to afford pleasure to others 
 in the recital of them. A raconteur, as the French 
 call it, he was, in the highest sense of that term a 
 relater of facts and anecdotes of personal history, whose 
 equal is rarely found. As I have said, in treating of 
 Mr. Clayton personally, he never forgot anything worthy 
 of being remembered ; and whatever concerned the 
 importance of the State whether with respect of her 
 relation to her sisters, as an equal in sovereignty, or 
 the high deeds of her public men was as familiar 
 to him as if he had but just read it out of a book. 
 Hero worship, of a noble kind, was a feature of his 
 character. By the hour, over and over again, many of 
 us have listened to such recitals, the interest of which 
 never flagged for a moment ; nor did it appear that 
 the store could be exhausted. Dates were to him 
 matter of great importance, and seldom if ever were 
 forgotten. When a fact was stated, involving action,
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 2 Q7 
 
 the very day would be given, and when it added value 
 to the circumstance itself, he had learned the hour of 
 its performance. 
 
 It was these well known qualities, which, added to 
 a long subsisting personal friendship and admiration 
 for his high courage and great simplicity of life, that 
 prompted the invitation that Mr. Clayton received, to 
 deliver a memoir and eulogy upon Commodore Jacob 
 Jones. It seems that during the latter part of his . 
 life, the old hero expressed a desire, that when he 
 died, his bones might be laid in his native soil of 
 Delaware. This being known to the people of this 
 city, many of them applied to the family of the Com 
 modore, as soon as they received intelligence of his 
 death, for the removal of the remains to Delaware ; 
 which request being granted, they were brought here 
 on the 25th of October, 1850, and now repose in 
 the cemetery of Wilmington, a lot in which, for the 
 purpose of their interment, had been generously given 
 by the Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery Com 
 pany. It being thought fit that the occasion should 
 be marked by some public expression worthy of the 
 dead, and of the people who honored him, Mr. Clay 
 ton was invited to deliver an address upon his life 
 and services, which, as an admirer and long-time per 
 sonal friend, he was considered peculiarly qualified to 
 do. No connected biography of Commodore Jones 
 had ever been published, nor was much of his per 
 sonal history known, except to a few close personal 
 friends. On the i/th of the following December,
 
 2O g MEMOIR OF 
 
 that duty was performed, in the saloon of the Odd 
 Fellows' Hall in Wilmington, before a large assemblage 
 of citizens of the State, and at its close, the late 
 Hon. Willard Hall was called to the chair for the 
 purpose of giving expression, by the meeting, of 
 their thanks for the address. A resolution " that the 
 thanks of this community be presented to the Hon. 
 John M. Clayton, for the eloquent and appropriate ad 
 dress delivered this evening, on the life, character, 
 and public services of Commodore Jacob Jones," was 
 passed, and another that " Mr. Clayton be particularly 
 requested to furnish a copy of the address for publica 
 tion," which request was complied with. This ad 
 dress is commended to the perusal of all for its mi 
 nute 'relation of facts in the life of the subject of it, 
 the fine display of his valorous services for the coun 
 try, and the strong and graphic language in which 
 every event treated of is related. Would that others 
 of our distinguished dead had so capable and enthu 
 siastic a historian ! 
 
 STATE CONVENTION. 
 
 At the session of the General Assembly of this 
 State, commenced and held in the month of January 
 1851, an act was passed to c'all a convention of the 
 people to revise the Constitution of 1831. There had 
 been no steps taken, as provided for in that instru 
 ment, warranting the passage of any such law ; but, 
 nevertheless, a statute was passed on the 26th of Feb-
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 209 
 
 ruary, 1851, to take the sense of the people upon the 
 question of a convention, at an election to be held 
 on the first Tuesday in November then next following, 
 those favoring a convention to vote "for a conven 
 tion, " and those not favoring to vote " against a con 
 vention. " Other provisions were made in the same 
 bill for holding the convention. 
 
 There are some words in our language, a skilful 
 use of which always leads the public mind captive, 
 for a time at least. One of these is the word reform. 
 There are but few men who are altogether content with 
 what is around them ; and they are never active citi 
 zens, and but rarely men of decided party attachments. 
 But all the busy - bodies ; the malcontents ; the discon ? 
 tents ; the disappointed aspirants for office ; the would- 
 be leaders of the people ; the young men who are 
 ready for anything, if they have no well - grounded 
 moral principle; and that large class, whose misfortunes 
 or follies have shipwrecked their fortunes, and who 
 look forward only for something which may turn up, 
 are sure to be for reform. The term sounds well ; 
 it played a successful part in 1831, convention and 
 reform being then the catchwords, and it was not 
 doubted that the phrase would be equally potent 
 twenty years afterwards ; and so in fact it was. A 
 majority was for a convention, and the Legislature, on 
 the 4th day of the following February, passed an act 
 for holding it on the first Tuesday of December, then 
 next, and for the election of delegates thereto at an 
 election to be held on the preceding second Tuesday
 
 2IO MEMOIR OF 
 
 of November. The mere politicians of the Whig party 
 gave way to their fears that their opponents would 
 reap rewards from the movement, and took part, in 
 one way or another, in it, else it could have had no 
 real strength. This is one of the fatal mistakes which 
 manoeuverers always make. As the call for the con 
 vention was deemed to be, in reality, a revolutionary 
 act, under the disguise of law the requirements of 
 the Constitution for calling a convention not having 
 been observed Mr. Clayton resolved to defeat the 
 object of the movers in the scheme, if possible. The 
 Whig party had not yet been swallowed up by what 
 was called the American movement; but had still much 
 of that rare vitality which enabled it, so long, with a 
 meagre majority of two or three hundred in the State, 
 to resist the assaults of its watchful and astute ad 
 versary. It had been defeated, it is true, in the gu 
 bernatorial contest of 1850; but it still retained the 
 Legislature and a majority of the popular vote, as ap 
 peared by other evidences. Such being the case, a 
 convention, of one hundred delegates from each coun 
 ty, was called, to meet at Dover on the 8th of June ? 
 1852, really to take action in regard to the conven 
 tion, but apparently for other purposes also. It was 
 composed of the best men of a party which (now 
 that it is buried with the past of other political or 
 ganizations) it can offend no one to speak of, at this 
 day, or otf^this occasion, as a party that felt always 
 the responsibility upon itself of selecting suitable men 
 for important places. Before the convention adjourned,
 
 JOHN M. CLAY TOM. 211 
 
 it adopted and spread before the people an address, 
 as an opposition to the legality of the proposed con 
 vention, which, for force and clearness of argument, 
 vigor of expression, lucidity of language, and careful 
 view of all the questions urged by the friends of the 
 measure, and the refutation of them, is worthy of the 
 highest praise. Mr. Clayton prepared it, and it an 
 swered the purpose not to prevent the holding of 
 the convention ; things had gone too far for that 
 but to defeat its offspring, when submitted for appro 
 val by the people. It was rejected so decidedly, al 
 though a few able men helped to construct it, that 
 the subject has never been seriously agitated since. 
 By the time the ratification election came around, the 
 conservative mind of our people had gained time for 
 reflection ; and they wisely determined " rather to bear 
 the ills they had than fly to others that they knew 
 not of." 
 
 RE - ELECTION TO THE SENATE CLAYTON - 
 BULWER TREATY. 
 
 The general election of 1852 resulted in giving to 
 the Whigs a majority in the House of Representa 
 tives of this State; but the Democrats had the Sen 
 ate. This condition of things was brought about 
 through a breach in the ranks of the Whig party, 
 caused by the secession, in 1850, of gentlemen who 
 honestly thought thus to advance the cause of tern-
 
 2|2 MEMOIR OJ- 
 
 perance reform, though the Whig party might be de 
 feated by their course. The great end of temperance 
 legislation was thought to outweigh political consid 
 erations. 
 
 As the term in the United States Senate would 
 expire on the 3d of March, 1853, ^ was sa id on a ^ 
 sides that the State would go unrepresented by one 
 Senator in the 32d Congress ; because the Democrats 
 of the State Senate would not go into joint meeting, 
 as the Whigs would have a majority when the two 
 Houses were together. Mr. Clayton was in quiet re 
 tirement at Buena Vista, taking no active part in po 
 litical affairs, and not desiring again to enter public 
 life. He would have felt justified iri his state of in 
 action, but for an event that roused him from his re 
 pose, and sent a thrill of excitement throughout the 
 whole country. It was this : 
 
 On the 6th of January, 1853, General Cass intro 
 duced into the Senate, the subject of the Central 
 American Treaty, heretofore spoken of, commonly 
 called the Clayton - Bulwer Treaty. This he did by 
 way of what is called a personal explanation ; and 
 in making it, charged the late Secretary (Clayton) 
 with having recognized the British title to Belize or 
 British Honduras and also, indirectly, with falsehood, 
 in stating in his letter to Sir Henry L. Bulwer, of 
 the 4th of July, 1850 (the day of exchange of rati 
 fication of- the treaty), that the chairman of the Com 
 mittee of Foreign Relations of the Senate, William 
 R. King, of Alabama, perfectly understood that Belize
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 213 
 
 was not included in the treaty. Here was a charge 
 of two things: the compromise of his Government, by 
 the Secretary, and a false representation, as excuse for 
 it. If there was anything that especially characterized 
 Mr. Clayton, it was his complete understanding of 
 every subject he undertook to deal with ; and no 
 man, also, was more sensitive when falsehood, in 
 whatever form, was charged upon him. The imputa 
 tion of false statement to the British diplomatist pro 
 duced upon him the effect the direct charge by Lord 
 Marmion wrought upon the old Douglas, " it shook his 
 very frame for ire." His wrath was great, but what 
 could he do ? Answer the charges in the newspapers 
 he promptly did ; showing the facts and fortifying 
 himself, in support of them, by testimony of others, 
 including a letter from Col. King. All this was seen 
 by the Michigan Senator, but he reiterated his charges, 
 and as he was known to be a gentleman of vast in 
 formation and influence, and had, but four years pre 
 viously, been honored by his party with a nomination 
 for the Presidency, the attention of the whole country 
 was attracted to the controversy between these men 
 unequal, however, in one sense, that the assailant 
 stood on the high plane of his Senatorial position 
 " the observed of all observers," while the assailed was 
 withdrawn from conspicuity, by the obscurity of private 
 life in the country. The newspaper press of General 
 Cass's party, of course, made the most of the charges, 
 and rung their changes from one end of the country to 
 
 the other. The opportunity to crush the Whigs by show 
 er
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 ing that their Secretary of State had, through ignorance, 
 or worse, given away the interests of his country, 
 and then basely tried to shield himself from the in 
 dignation such conduct deserved, was not to be neg 
 lected. What little of vitality there remained in a de 
 caying organization that had proved to be, in its 
 palmy days, and under the leadership as well of 
 Clayton as of Clay, so sharp a thorn in the side of 
 its great rival, was to be crushed out. The spur of 
 destruction of a foe, was the prick to the sides of 
 party intent : and it was used unsparingly. While the 
 assault was commenced by General Cass a very 
 chivalric, though not always (as was proved in this 
 case) safe leader yet there were others prepared to 
 follow and support him, as the sequel showed. 
 
 The people of this State were, of course, especially 
 concerned about the charges of General Cass ; but 
 what could be done to place the antagonists upon 
 the same footing ? With the Legislature composed as 
 it was the Senate Democratic, the House Whig, 
 it was not supposed that a joint session could be se 
 cured, and Clayton sent back to his seat in the Sen 
 ate. Men looked on, in grief and despair. The case 
 seemed hopeless ; an innocent man was to be ruined 
 forever, in the estimation of his fellow - citizens, and 
 there seemed no help for it. Such was the intensity 
 of party feeling among us, that the Whigs had no 
 hope that their idol could be sent back to meet his 
 foes upon a common arena. They had seen, from 
 the publication that Clayton had made, immediately
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 2 I$ 
 
 upon the opening of the charge by General Cass, 
 that if an opportunity were given him to meet his 
 accuser face to face, a complete defence and refuta 
 tion would be made. But there was the obstacle of 
 a hostile Senate that could not be overcome ! 
 
 Fortunately for the reputation of Mr. Clayton, and 
 what is much more, that of his State whose pride 
 and honor, both friend and foe had felt, were safe in his 
 keeping, but which would greatly suffer by the imputa- 
 tation cast upon him party politics, though charac 
 terized in Delaware by the same zeal and fervor that 
 prevailed elsewhere, had not yet made enemies of men, 
 personally. Some of the strongest partisans in this 
 State, of opposite politics, were warm personal friends ; 
 and it was the boast of our people, that none of the 
 acrimony of party was ever, except upon the rarest 
 occasions, at the polls, allowed to transfuse itself into, 
 and transform the affections into hostilities. When the 
 battle was over, all were friends. Besides, the people 
 of our little commonwealth, with the Anglo-Saxon 
 blood flowing in their veins, were lovers of fair play > 
 and had ever, in their private and public life, ac 
 corded to a person accused the benefit of the legal 
 presumption of innocence, till it was overcome by 
 proof of guilt. These noble feelings, added to an 
 admiration all felt for the talents and virtues of Mr. 
 Clayton, stirred the Democratic heart ; and, to their 
 great honor, they consented to a joint meeting of the 
 Legislature, so that Clayton should go back to Wash 
 ington and meet his assailants at the bar of public
 
 2I 6 MEMOIR OF 
 
 judgment. This determination on the part of the Dem- 
 crats was greeted, everywhere, as an act of high pa 
 triotic conduct, as it deserved to be. 
 
 Mr. Clayton felt deeply grateful for his election, 
 which took place on the I2th day of January, and 
 came to Dover as soon as it was announced to him ; 
 and at the earliest period that ' preparation could be 
 made for that purpose, entertained at dinner, at the 
 chief hotel in Dover, the General Assembly, the State 
 officers, and the principal men of both parties, all over 
 the State, particularly selecting the leading Democrats, 
 to whose party he felt so grateful for its magnanimity. 
 The event was one never to be forgotten by those 
 who were present. The best of feeling prevailed 
 throughout ; and the speech delivered by himself, 
 when called out, was a calm, convincing statement of 
 the propriety of his course in the treaty negotiation, 
 and satisfied everybody that when he could obtain a 
 hearing in the Senate, his vindication would be com 
 plete. He greatly pleased his political adversaries by 
 the manly sentiments expressed throughout his remarks 
 in regard to the relations of a personal kind, which 
 should never be disturbed by the strife of party. 
 Many who were present responded afterwards in a like 
 spirit ; and the occasion has ever since been regarded, 
 by those who participated in it, as one of the most 
 agreeable events of our party life in Delaware. Here 
 and there, among a few men, the feeling so universal 
 at that period, shows itself now-a-days; but the rule
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 2 I/ 
 
 is, either active personal enmity, or a smothered rancor, 
 all the. more bitter because concealed. 
 
 Eager to vindicate the Administration of General 
 Taylor, on account of the treaty, and himself as our 
 negotiator of it, and reassure the country, he .lost no 
 time in repairing to his post of duty ; there was also 
 the additional motive of shielding the State he loved 
 from the dishonor and loss of prestige that would 
 befall her, by the disclosure that one of her sons had 
 proved faithless to, or ignorant of, the business he had 
 undertaken to do. To those who knew Mr. Clayton's 
 sensitive nature, it need not be said that he suffered 
 intensely from the reflections that crowded upon his 
 mind at this time, and that he chafed at the time 
 which must elapse, before the opportunity could be 
 given him for his vindication. There was another 
 sting added to these that he should seem to have 
 been "outwitted" by Sir Henry Bulwer. (Sir Henry 
 had been trained in the school of diplomacy a 
 science requiring great natural acuteness of intellect, as 
 well as intimate knowledge of international law, diplo 
 matic history, and all the delicate and subtle arts I will 
 not say, of finesse that qualify men for intercourse and 
 negotiation as representatives of their Governments.) It 
 galled him, that he, who as, he believed, had sounded 
 the " depths and shoals" of all that his place required 
 of him, should be thought to have given up anything 
 he ought to have insisted upon, in making that treaty 
 should have recognized the title in the British to 
 any part of Central America, which it was the inter-
 
 2I 3 MEMOIR OF 
 
 est of this country he should not do. There was the 
 further feeling, that his personal reputation would 
 suffer with his friends, if it should appear to them 
 that he was not equal to any task he saw fit to un 
 dertake.. As I have said, he was deeply touched, that 
 his political foes had given him the chance to explain 
 and defend ; and he gratefully remembered it as long 
 as he lived. 
 
 On the 8th of March following his election to the 
 Senate, Mr. Clayton entered upon his answer to the 
 speech of General Cass opening his address with this 
 language : 
 
 " In rising, for the first time, after a long absence, 
 to address the Senate, I labor under some embarrass 
 ment from observing that gentlemen around me are 
 generally strangers to me, and that not a single indi 
 vidual of my ancient associates, who served with me 
 in this body twenty-four years ago, is now present. I 
 am irresistibly led back to the events of a period over 
 which nearly a quarter of a century has spread its 
 mantle, when those who filled this chamber, as the 
 representatives of the sovereign States of this Union, 
 mingled in discussion on the great issues then before 
 the country, and when the walls of this chamber daily 
 rang with the echoes of their voices, as they poured 
 forth ' the logic, and the wisdom, and the wit,' for 
 which they were so pre-eminently distinguished. Their 
 debates were but justly compared to the procession of 
 a Roman triumph, moving in dignity and order to the 
 lofty music of its march, and glittering all over with the 
 spoils of the civilized world. The last of them who
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 21 o 
 
 left this scene of their strifes and contentions, was the 
 present Vice President of the United States, the Hon. 
 William R. King, who presided over the deliberations 
 of the Senate nearly twenty years, with unsurpassed 
 ability and impartiality, and who, during a long period, 
 occupied the post of chief distinction here, as the 
 chairman of the Committee of Foreign Relations : 
 
 ' Statesman, yet friend to truth, of soul sincere, 
 In action faithful, and in honor clear.' 
 
 " I confess also, a feeling of embarrassment from 
 another source. I am called upon to vindicate myself 
 against charges of the grossest character, preferred 
 against me here, during my absence. It is the 
 first time in the course of a long life, that I have 
 found it necessary to defend myself against degrading 
 imputations before any public tribunal. The calum 
 nies which have been uttered here, were all made in 
 connection with the treaty of the igth of April, 1850; 
 and I intend, if health and strength permit, to vindi 
 cate the course which I adopted while acting as Sec 
 retary of State under the lamented Taylor, in regard 
 to the negotiation of that treaty. It is a duty incum 
 bent on me to speak; not, however, merely for my 
 own vindication, but to enable others now in the Ad 
 ministration of the Government to understand a subject 
 upon which truth has been more perverted, and false 
 hood more industriously propagated, than on any other 
 topic of the day. In discharging this duty, I shall 
 endeavor to speak of others with all possible respect, 
 consistently with what I owe to truth, to the country, 
 and to myself. All who recollect my course of 
 conduct when I occupied a seat in this chamber, will 
 bear me witness that I never assailed any man per-
 
 220 MEMOIR OF 
 
 sonally in debate never was engaged in any contro 
 versy, personal in its character, with any one, unless 
 it was previously provoked by him, odi accipitrem. 
 But now, let it be well understood by all here, that 
 for every word I utter in debate, I hold myself per 
 sonally responsible everywhere as a gentleman and a 
 man of honor. I have very great contempt for that 
 class of puppies whose courage is evinced by their 
 silence when they are hung up by the ear. When 
 attacked, I will defend myself, without the slightest 
 regard to consequences ; and in doing that, as I am 
 liable to the infirmities of other men, I will carry 
 the war into Africa whenever I think the assailant 
 worthy of my notice. On this occasion much of 
 what I had intended to say must be omitted, in con 
 sequence of the absence of the distinguished Senator 
 from Michigan (Mr. Cass), who introduced the discus 
 sion in this chamber on Thursday, the 6th of Janu 
 ary last. I regret his absence, and the cause of it. 
 I cannot say those things which I had intended to 
 say to him, if he were here, for I do not much ap 
 prove of the modern plan of attacking absent men, 
 who can have no opportunity of defending themselves 
 on the spot. However, in speaking of the subject re 
 ferred to in that debate, in which that Senator was 
 my principal accuser during my absence, I must 
 necessarily speak of him, because my own defence, 
 for which I have demanded liberty of speech at the 
 the first moment after the Senate could probably hear 
 me, would otherwise be unintelligible. And I will say 
 further, that I am willing to remain here till harvest, 
 if necessary, in order that all others who may choose 
 to reply to anything I shall say, may have full and 
 ample opportunity of doing so."
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 221 
 
 Then followed a vindication of the Administration 
 from the charges made against it, which enchained the 
 attention of the Senate, and opened the eyes of the 
 whole country also to the true facts which governed 
 the negotiation of the treaty, as well as to the success 
 of our diplomacy in securing the Central American 
 territory, in all time, from colonization by the British, 
 and from occupation, or fortification, for any purpose. 
 We became equally bound, of course ; but we had no 
 foothold, or protectorate, there, as Great Britain had 
 claimed to have, and besides, it was not our interest 
 as a nation to own any territory in that quarter, 
 separated by more than the width of the Gulf of 
 Mexico from any of our possessions. What we desired, 
 and what our interest required, was that the Central 
 American States, having free government like our own, 
 should preserve their autonomy, and that England 
 should not possess, there, any power whatever. This 
 was secured by the treaty with the additional engage 
 ment to protect any persons, or company, who might 
 undertake the business of digging a canal, or making a 
 railroad, across any part of their territory. And there 
 was secured also this further important stipulation 
 that each should endeavor to induce other nations to 
 enter into like conventions. 
 
 It is entirely unnecessary to give the speech of 
 Mr. Clayton, or those of the Senators, supporting Gen 
 eral Cass, who replied to it, as they are printed at 
 large in the Congressional Globe. Those Senators were 
 
 Messrs. Mason, of Virginia, and Douglas, of Illinois 
 
 28
 
 222 MEMOIR OF 
 
 both able men, the former of long experience in di 
 plomatic affairs as a member of the Foreign Relations 
 Committee, and the latter one of the most talented 
 debaters that ever held a seat in the Senate. The 
 speech to which they replied had been delivered by 
 Clayton without any interruption, except a single ex 
 planation by Mr. Douglas, and was a calm, clear, 
 exhaustive examination of the whole question from the 
 beginning, and with an argument pervading it calcu 
 lated to convince all rational minds that the interests 
 and welfare of the country had been safe in the Sec 
 retary's hands. But either from being unable to view 
 the matter in the light Clayton did, or failing to un 
 derstand the true merits, of the case and the difficul 
 ties that beset any attempt to make a treaty of extru 
 sion, or possibly from a desire to belittle the ser 
 vices of the Secretary, and at the same time to create 
 a subject for party service, those gentlemen brought 
 to their aid, in their respective replies, an immense 
 amount of ardor, and (what seemed to Clayton) not 
 only uncandor, but fierce spirit of condemnation 
 Leaders of sentiments, as those gentlemen undoubtedly 
 were the one of the strong anti - British feeling of the 
 South, and the other of the rampant doctrines of 
 young America, their speeches attracted a great deal 
 of attention. In the general ignorance of the whole 
 subject which prevailed, men were more than usually 
 inclined to rely upon the words of their party 
 chiefs; and, as the Democratic party was in majority 
 at that time, the treaty was in .great danger of being
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 repudiated, so far as it could be, by the popular 
 voice. The whole subject required too much reading 
 to be fully understood; and the masses scarcely read 
 anything but party speeches and newspapers. Mason 
 and Douglas had an advantage over Clayton, in adopt 
 ing what is always, at first, the popular side that 
 which seems to stand best by the country. But when 
 he came to reply to them on the I4th of March, he 
 knew exactly what he had to meet, and went at his 
 work, as he always did at any that interested him, 
 with all the power that was in him. And, if he had 
 lacked anything to thoroughly .rouse him, it was the 
 constant interruptions made by his antagonists. To use 
 a very expressive, strong phrase of the present day 
 he " made it very hot " for them in many ways ; 
 and when he closed his speech, there was but one 
 sentiment on the part of those who heard it that it 
 not only completely vindicated the treaty itself (as 
 in fact the first speech had done), but overthrew all 
 the reasons urged against it, as well as those who 
 brought them forward ; and such was the judgment 
 of the country also, when the debate was published. 
 The subject then passed from the consideration of the 
 Senate, and was not taken up again until the Decem 
 ber following. 
 
 On the 1 2th of December, 1853, the Senate passed 
 a joint resolution calling upon the President for 
 the correspondence, between our own and the Brit 
 ish Government, on subjects growing out of the 
 treaty of the igth of April, 1850, since the mes-
 
 224 MEMOIR OF 
 
 sage of the President of the 3Oth of December, 
 1852; and on the 5th of the .following month 
 General Cass had moved to refer to the Committee 
 of Foreign Relations the answer made to the Senate 
 by the President on the 3d, communicating the infor 
 mation called for. To understand the matter, it is 
 necessary to say that though the treaty was duly 
 ratified by the British Government, yet it soon be 
 came apparent that the English felt that their inter 
 ests had been seriously affected, without any com 
 pensating equivalent, or even benefit. While such 
 rights as they held in British Honduras were not im 
 pugned by the treaty, yet they were not recognized 
 directly or indirectly as was consistent with Clay 
 ton's course in recalling the consul sent to the Belize. 
 The truth is, the treaty had nothing to do with 
 British Honduras, because it had never formed any 
 part of Central America, politically considered, but had 
 been part of Yucatan, a possession of Mexico. But 
 this was not the trouble. The real difficulty was, that 
 the protectorate of the Mosquito kingdom, which was 
 a part of Central America (being within the limits of 
 Nicaragua) would cease to be of any advantage to 
 Great Britain, as neither of the parties could " occupy 
 or fortify, or colonize, or assume or exercise any do 
 minion over Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito 
 Coast, or any part of Central America," nor could 
 either use any protection that either afforded, or might 
 afford, or any alliance that either had or might have 
 to or with any State or people, " for the purpose of
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 2 2$ 
 
 erecting or maintaining any such fortifications, or of 
 occupying or colonizing Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the 
 Mosquito Coast, or any part of Central America, or 
 of assuming or exercising any dominion over the same." 
 The scope of this language was not appreciated by 
 the British Government at the time it gave its assent 
 to the ratification. 
 
 England found herself, as we may suppose, the loser 
 by the treaty, unless she could impress her construc 
 tion of it upon the judgment of other peoples. A 
 first step towards that end was to act, in all respects, 
 about Central American affairs, as she had done before, 
 and to cling to her hold there by continuing to oc 
 cupy San Juan de Nicaragua or Greytown, as she 
 chose to call it, the more to emphasize her owner 
 ship or control of it. Now this port was exactly at 
 the proposed eastern terminus of the ship canal most 
 favored by the United States. Additionally, she dis 
 covered that while any protectorate she might have 
 over the wretched Indian tribe claiming to hold the 
 Mosquito Coast (she claimed that she had exercised 
 the office of protector there for two centuries), was 
 not, in terms, taken away from her by the treaty, 
 yet that it was deprived of all value to her, and "a 
 barren sceptre in her gripe." Something must be done, 
 however ; it must be made appear that the American 
 interpretation of the treaty was wrong, and her own 
 right. This was attempted in a variety of ways by 
 speeches, correspondence, and otherwise. 
 
 The debate which arose out of the subjects of in-
 
 22 6 MEMOIR OF 
 
 formation, communicated by the President's message 
 (which it is unnecessary to recite here, as they are 
 accessible to all, in the published proceedings of the 
 Senate), develop the fact that the treaty had not only 
 been entirely misunderstood by its assailants, at the 
 session of 1853, but that it was, in truth, a most ex 
 traordinary achievement by our negotiator. General 
 Cass, who had, as before related, made the attack 
 upon it which caused his friends in Delaware to throw 
 off party to give their fellow - citizen a chance to 
 reply to it, in the course of a speech, delivered by 
 him on the I ith of January, 1856, used this language: 
 "Nor do I see, in *any view, what we can gain by 
 a new treaty (the British had proposed one). The 
 first is well enough, if carried out in its true spirit ; 
 and another would be no better if exposed to the 
 same process of construction, or rather misconstruction. 
 What Lord Clarendon expects from a new treaty, or 
 what either party is to demand, or concede, I am at 
 a loss to conjecture. What we want, and all we want, 
 is that the Central American States should be let 
 alone to manage their own affairs, in their own way, 
 leaving to the civilized Governments, within whose 
 territories they live, to regulate the Mosquito Indians 
 as they may think proper, agreeably to a principle 
 everywhere recognized and adopted since the discovery 
 of this continent. And all this is precisely what the 
 Clayton -Bulwer Treaty would effect, if fairly interpreted 
 and fairly executed ; and an honest compliance with its 
 stipulation presents, in my opinion, the only scheme of
 
 JOHN M, CLAYTON. 
 
 227 
 
 adjustment (in which we can have any agency) by which 
 the affairs of Central America Mosquito included 
 can be satisfactorily and permanently settled. And I 
 think we owe it to our honor and position in the world 
 to say so to England, in firm but temperate language; 
 and, having said so, to act accordingly, be the conse 
 quences what they may." The American view, there 
 fore was adopted by that Senator, unequivocally, and 
 the value of the treaty to us fully shown. 
 
 In view of these remarks of General Cass, Mr. 
 Clayton was fully justified in the speech he began on 
 the day after, and finished on the i8th, in saying at 
 its opening, that " about one half of the address of 
 the Senator was of the harshest and most exception 
 able character, and yet, sir, he closed with a position 
 which seemed to be the result at which his mind had 
 arrived, aftef fully investigating the whole main ques 
 tion, which was perfectly in accordance with my own 
 sentiments." He then took up the whole subject again, 
 exposing all the errors that the opponents of the treaty 
 had fallen into, and satisfying the minds of all fair 
 men that the convention made by him with Sir Henry 
 Bulwer was all that was desirable for us ; while the 
 advantage of which it deprived England (if in fact she 
 justly had any before) had been taken from her, not 
 by any trick, deception, or device of diplomacy, but 
 by our having for our negotiator, a man of ample 
 knowledge of the subject treated about, patriotic 
 heart, and proper sense of what the interests and wel 
 fare of the country required. Notwithstanding General
 
 22 8 MEMOIR OF 
 
 Cass's declaration above quoted, the debate brought 
 forth again all, and much more, than had been before 
 said about the British Honduras possession, and what 
 was alleged to be the grand error, on our part, with 
 respect to it. This required another effort on Mr. 
 Clayton's part to compel Senators to recognize the 
 wrong they did in persisting in the assertion that he 
 had compromised his Government, with respect to that 
 claim, in making the treaty an allegation that, by 
 explanatory letters between himself and Sir Henry Bul- 
 wer at the time of the exchange of ratification (4th 
 of July, 1850), he had conceded what was not a fact 
 that British Honduras was no part of Central 
 America and that the Senate was in ignorance of 
 this circumstance at the time when the treaty was 
 approved. The old charge produced in the attack upon 
 the treaty in 1853, with respect to the ' declarations 
 reported by General Cass to have been made to him 
 by William R. King, chairman of the Committee of- 
 Foreign Relations, was revived, and the effect seemed 
 to be (if I am justified in saying so) to cover the 
 mortification occasioned by withdrawal of hostility to 
 the treaty, by imputing dishonor to the negotiator 
 of it. But this failed entirely ; for Mr. Clayton demon 
 strated, conclusively, by the evidence he produced and 
 made part of his speech, not only that General Cass 
 had erroneously understood Col. King, but that the lat 
 ter had avowed that he had never made any such 
 declarations to General Cass as were imputed to him. 
 In this speech Mr. Clayton reproduced every fact
 
 JOHN M. CLA YTON. 22Q 
 
 bearing upon the British claim; and, in so doing, 
 showed that when the treaty was in progress, he was 
 master of the whole subject, and had used his knowl 
 edge with success. Every argument set up by the 
 British against our view of the treaty was considered 
 and answered ; and so exhaustive was the effort, that 
 the Senate felt that nothing more could be urged with 
 respect to the justness of the construction claimed by 
 him ; and when he had closed, ordered the subject to lie 
 upon the table. He did not finish his speech, how 
 ever, without letting his adversary feel how much bet 
 ter he could have served his country, than by the 
 course he had taken. 
 
 The subject of the Central American Treaty was not 
 allowed to rest, however. The British still persisted 
 in their course of misunderstanding, or disrespect, of 
 that compact. Much correspondence had taken place 
 between our Government and that of Great Britain 
 since the debate just mentioned ; and, among other 
 documents presented by the President to Congress at 
 its opening in December, 1855, was a letter of Lord 
 John Russell respecting the construction of the treaty. 
 This letter, General Cass felt, required discussion ; 
 which, of course, involved another opening of the 
 whole subject. The letter of Russell was, as might 
 have been expected, in support of the British view of 
 the treaty; and, coming from so high a source, not 
 not only because of the author's distinguished life, 
 but of the elevated position he held in the British 
 
 councils, it was proper that it should be specially 
 
 29
 
 2 ., o MEMOIR OF 
 
 noticed. The debate, which was then begun by Gen 
 eral Cass, was participated in by other distinguished 
 Senators : and, to the credit of themselves and the 
 exalted rank they held in the councils of the coun 
 try, such of them as had carped at the treaty before, 
 and notably General Cass, came forward to resist the 
 British pretensions having discovered, it is to be 
 hoped, upon calmer examination of its features, that 
 there was nothing uncertain about it ; and that, if 
 carried out in good faith by the British, it would se 
 cure Central America against her designs in future. 
 It was shown also to have other high qualities. In a 
 letter of Mr. Reverdy Johnson to Mr. Clayton, dated the 
 3Oth of December, 1853, an( ^ which General Cass 
 caused to be read at the close of a strong speech 
 upon the general subject, there occurs this language : 
 " This treaty is the first instance within my knowl 
 edge in which two great nations of the earth have 
 thus endeavored to combine peacefully for the prosecu 
 tion and accomplishment of an object which, when 
 completed, must advance the happiness and prosperity 
 of all men ; and it would be a matter of deep regret 
 if the philanthropic and noble objects of the negotia 
 tors should now be defeated by petty cavils and 
 special pleading, on either side of the Atlantic." 
 The object of using the letter was to assist the argu 
 ment he had just made ; but if there had been any 
 thought in it which General Cass did not approve, 
 he was too careful a person not to have excepted it 
 from his general approval of the whole document. And,
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 231 
 
 as if to bestow upon the negotiation the highest 
 praise, he declared that "the Clayton- Bulwer Treaty, 
 if carried out in good faith, would peaceably do the 
 work of the Monroe doctrine, and free an important portion 
 of our continent from foreign interference." He said that, 
 perhaps, one motive with some of the Senators for 
 supporting the treaty was that it would so operate. This 
 may, however, have been intended as an explanation 
 of the extraordinary circumstance that he had been for 
 three years and more speaking against a measure for 
 which he had voted. The records of the Senate, at 
 the time, show that the vote upon the treaty was 42 
 for to 10 against, and that Messrs. Cass and Mason 
 both voted for it. It appears that Mr. Douglas's name 
 somehow got among the yeas also; but the official 
 statement of the vote, certified by the Secretary of 
 the Senate, and transmitted to the President, accord 
 ing to a standing order of the Senate for like cases, 
 does not contain his name. Mr. Douglas undertook to 
 explain that the omission of his name was an error, 
 and that he called the attention of the Senate to it 
 at the next executive session, and that it was corrected. 
 It is very plain, from what followed, that Mr. Clayton 
 thought that Mr. Douglas had avoided recording his 
 name for the treaty until he found, by the result, how 
 strong the Senate was in its favor. 
 
 On the i/th and igth days of the succeeding March, 
 Mr. Clayton (who took but little part in the discussion 
 in January, upon the Russell letter, preferring to enjoy 
 the precious satisfaction of witnessing the triumph of
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 his first arguments, with all their wealth of knowledge 
 in behalf of the treaty) addressed himself, in a set 
 speech, to the overthrow of the British assumptions. 
 The speech was calm, deliberate, and convincing. 
 The subject was a grave one, on account of the mag 
 nitude of our interests involved in the establishment 
 of the pretences set up by England ; and he felt him 
 self under a more pressing obligation than had yet 
 been experienced by him, to make the case so plain 
 as to end all dispute ; and he did it. He took oc 
 casion to point out that one of the difficulties that 
 had arisen about British Honduras was because of the 
 appointment, by our own Government, of a consul 
 there. But here is his own language : " While I was 
 at the head of the State Department, I discovered 
 that Mr. Polk had applied, through Mr. Bancroft, to 
 the British Colonial office, for an exequatur for Chris 
 topher Hempstead, who had been appointed American 
 consul to Belize; and, immediately anticipating the very 
 consequences which have arisen from continuing the 
 consul there, I withdrew Mr. Hempstead and abolished 
 the consulate. Mr. Webster succeeded me, and 
 he reappointed and sent Mr. Hempstead back to Bel 
 ize, and renewed the consulate. This was, no doubt, 
 very gratifying to the British minister ; but the effect 
 of it has been, as we now see, to supply Great Brit 
 ain with a reason for asserting a claim which she 
 had, on so many previous occasions, solemnly repudi 
 ated." It should be explained that the appointment 
 of a consul to a place is recognition of the sover-
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 233 
 
 eignty of the power there, of whom the allowance of 
 such consul, to perform his duties at such place, is 
 requested ; and also that Great Britain had over and 
 over again disavowed sovereign rights at the Belize. 
 While it may not be of any great importance, now 
 that Great Britain has abandoned all her pretensions 
 to even a protectorate in Central America of the Mos 
 quito Indians (except so far as the dictates of mere 
 humanity or charity are concerned and there she is 
 upon the same footing as ourselves), that the merits 
 of this controversy between the United States and 
 Great Britain should be fully understood by us ; yet 
 it will be found profitable to read the whole debates 
 to which slight notice only has here been given (the 
 reports of them being accessible to all), for the pur 
 pose of learning how heroically and successfully the 
 subject of this memoir bore himself in the contest 
 into which he was compelled to enter by the sharp 
 attacks made upon his work by his so able assailants. 
 The reader of those debates will not fail to observe 
 that never, until he had satisfactorily vindicated Tay 
 lor's Administration and his own reputation from the 
 stain of having compromised the interests of the coun 
 try, did Clayton receive assistance from any human 
 lips and the newspapers, with a few conspicuous 
 exceptions, lent him no encouragement in his defence, 
 he having offended them mortally by refusing to have 
 an organ, or confidants in the way of correspondents, 
 for the Taylor Administration. The complete success 
 that crowned his defence, was owing to two advan-
 
 2-y A MEMOIR OF 
 
 cages : ist, his perfect knowledge of the whole history 
 of Central America, and of the English movements 
 there ; and, 2d, that consummate skill in attack and 
 defence the test of a fine debater which had char 
 acterized his whole legal, political, and Senatorial 
 career. Discussion, debate, were his forte. Though 
 gifted with a fine imagination, and a power of expres 
 sion of things eloquent which is shown here and 
 there through all his studied address, yet his aim 
 seemed ever to be to convince by reason and argu 
 ment, rather than charm by display or rhetoric. The 
 speeches made on the Central American question, 
 show the most thorough acquaintance with the topic 
 in all its aspects, and a skill and dexterity, as well 
 as fine logic, of debate, nowhere surpassed in our 
 forensic records. On all sides it was admitted that 
 when the long and fierce battle was ended, he was not 
 only master of the field, but had discomfited the foes 
 of the treaty everywhere. 
 
 PRESIDENT PIERCE'S VETO OF THE BILL 
 GIVING PUBLIC LANDS FOR THE INDI 
 GENT INSANE CALLED Miss Dix's 
 BILL. 
 
 Miss Dix, an educated and refined, and also 
 philanthropic lady, had, among the other noble 
 thoughts which she had given to the world in behalf 
 of the unfortunates of the human family, expressed her-
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 235 
 
 self as desirous that Congress should make a grant 
 of the public domain to the several States for the 
 benefit, in such form as they respectively might choose 
 to adopt, of the indigent insane ; and sympathetic 
 people everywhere had responded to the appeal, thus 
 made, to the nation, for relief to that unfortunate 
 class. A bill, to carry out her beneficent proposition, 
 was introduced, into Congress, and passed both Houses. 
 It was sent to the President for his approval ; and 
 returned with a veto, which, alas, could not be over 
 come by votes. But it could be discussed, and Clay 
 ton did it, exhaustively, answering the objections that 
 were made to the bill by the supporters of the veto, 
 and giving another exhibition of his splendid powers 
 as an advocate. His speech breathes the warmest 
 sympathy for stricken humanity. At the close of his 
 long argument against the veto, he uttered the fol 
 lowing touching expressions, which never could have 
 come from any one not having a tender, feeling heart 
 for humanity : 
 
 " According to the information we derive from 
 institutions like those which this bill proposes to 
 establish, such as have been established in Massachu 
 setts and England, where experts and physicians have 
 been taught to instruct the insane, and train the 
 remnant of mind that is left, you find that at least 
 two thirds of these miserable beings might be restored 
 to society, and become useful members of it. But 
 how ? Not by confining them, as they are now con 
 fined, in almshouses, where there is no knowledge of
 
 236 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 the art of reclaiming them ; not by sending them to 
 jails and prisons, where 
 
 ' Moody madness laughs and hugs the chain it clanks,' 
 
 nor by' relying on private charity. Individuals cannot 
 build lunatic and insane asylums in the United States. 
 But, if what those persons who are accustomed to 
 investigate the subject tell us, be true, more than 
 twenty thousand of the American people now insane, 
 might be restored to reason and become useful mem 
 bers of society; and you tell me you have no power 
 to do it! Suppose at this moment more than twenty 
 thousand of the American people were floating in 
 ships like the ill - fated San Francisco, in storm and 
 shipwreck, would you not seek immediate relief for 
 them ? Would you hesitate to send out your ships 
 for them, and expend millions to save them ? Sup 
 pose they were given in captivity to a foreign power, 
 they and their utmost hopes, would not a hundred 
 thousand swords leap from their scabbards to redeem 
 them from that captivity ? Sir, they are in an infinitely 
 worse state of captivity and suffering, than if they 
 were bondmen to the Turk, or if they were suffering 
 the distresses of shipwreck upon the ocean. It is not 
 possible to conceive of a greater depth of human 
 misery than that which results from the loss of reason. 
 In them you see the human form 
 
 ' Erect, divine ! 
 
 This heaven-assumed, majestic robe of earth 
 He deigned to wear who hung its vast expanse 
 With azure bright, and clothed the sun with gold :' 
 
 but, sir, although the form is there, though indeed 
 the casket remains, yet the jewel is gone, the intellect 
 has vanished ; or, if reason still linger on her throne,
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 237 
 
 she sits trembling and distracted upon it. Still, there 
 is the image of Him who made man and died to 
 save him. And are we men, have we not abandoned 
 all that belongs to our common manhood, if we do 
 not feel for these miserable beings ? Shall we strain 
 ,a point of the Constitution against them ? They can 
 not argue in their own behalf. If we do not protect 
 and defend them, they have no defenders. If we are 
 not their guardians and advocates, they can find none. 
 Sir, I am exhausted, but I have not exhausted the 
 argument, and am not capable of doing it. I must 
 leave it to other and abler men who will follow me 
 in the debate; but if I had strength, I would stand 
 here and plead for these indigent insane so long as 
 a Senator would hear me. I cannot but think, when 
 about to take leave of the subject, of that day when 
 we must appear before the great Judge of all the 
 earth, and the accusation may be against us that we 
 did not visit those who were sick and in prison ; 
 and, oh, when we have answered that, may none of 
 us receive the awful denunciation, " Inasmuch as ye 
 did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not 
 to me." 
 
 THE KANSAS - NEBRASKA DEBATE. 
 
 
 
 With respect to what may be said, in this narrative, 
 about the subject which gave rise to the Kansas - 
 Nebraska debate, and the part taken by others than 
 Clayton, and by him, also, in the heated discussions of 
 the questions raised, I ask that no one will suppose 
 that I have the slightest desire to reflect upon any 
 who participated in the discussion, or to question their
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 motives. If I were writing with a view of contrasting 
 the patriotism and unpartisanship which governed Clay 
 ton's whole action as a Senator with that of some of 
 the most prominent of his brother Senators, I might 
 select instances, and a notable one in this memorable 
 event, when I thought they had yielded to the sup 
 posed behests of mere party, while hf had never done 
 so. If this were a life of Clayton written at my own 
 prompting, and for my own use alone, and were not 
 a narrative for this Society, free from all attachments, 
 prejudices, or biases for men as well as measures, as 
 it is known to be, such a course would be not repre 
 hensible ; but it would be unwarrantable for me to 
 follow it, now, if I had the inclination to do so. I 
 shall therefore speak of the actors in this discussion 
 about the Kansas - Nebraska measure, and the measure 
 itself, as I think this Society will not disapprove. 
 
 Before our life as colonies of Great Britain and a 
 confederacy of independent States had ended, and be 
 fore our efforts toward the majesty of nationality had, 
 by means of the Constitution of 1787, been crowned 
 with complete success, the subject of the rightfulness 
 of slavery had engaged the attention of important men 
 throughout the country. Although slavery that is the 
 subjection of one man, with all his powers of body and 
 of mind (so far as the exercise of will is concerned) to 
 another had always existed, as shown by the evidence 
 of all antiquity in sacred and profane history, yet 
 there was still a feeling inspired by the teachings ot 
 our Savior, that was considered hostile to its continu-
 
 JOHN M, CLAYTON. 239 
 
 ance. The injunction, Thou shalt love thy neighbor 
 as thyself, was felt to pertain as well to the lowest 
 as to the highest ; and how, if you held them sub 
 ject to your will, that of mere man, with all his pas 
 sions and impulses, could you obey that law? To the 
 minds of those who asked this question, slavery was 
 a great sin, to be extirpated, sooner or later. They 
 would have insisted, no doubt, upon a provision in 
 the Constitution for that purpose; but, knowing that 
 the interests of the major portion of her colonies for 
 bade it, they were fain to consent, indirectly, to the 
 continuance of the African slave trade until the year 
 1808. Very many, now, of those representing anti- 
 slavery sentiment, would feel disposed to condemn, and 
 would reprove, the course of those who consented to 
 that provision ; but such have not been subjected to 
 the strain of doing the best they can to attain nation 
 ality, with a doubtful chance o? maintaining it, and 
 therefore do not know what trials they might have 
 had to meet. The achievement of freedom from British 
 control ; the further gain of local individuality; which 
 means the right, within defined limits, of a people to 
 conduct their public local affairs in their own way ; were 
 the controlling motives of the men who held these senti 
 ments with respect to slavery. And let none condemn 
 their apparent consent to what they thought a wrong. 
 Are any so courageous morally, that they never submit 
 to what they cannot approve, in order to attain an 
 end which, when reached, may enable them to re 
 trieve their apparently lost virtue ? If there be such,
 
 240 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 let them condemn, as they may think proper to do, 
 the grand old patriots of '76. Freedom from the ar 
 bitrary and wholly unjustifiable tyranny of Great Brit 
 ain ; the ability to exercise the right of independent 
 government; the immunity from all the exactions upon 
 and repressions of colonial life, weak though such life 
 was, impelled the men of '87 to submit to anything 
 here, to be freed from government elsewhere. Imagine 
 yourself in the hands of an enemy from whom there 
 is the most pressing necessity to be freed ; would you 
 not submit to some present suffering to be released 
 from all afterwards ! Certainly you would ; then con 
 template the oppressions of the colonists by the moth 
 er country, and say whether to form an alliance that 
 would forever protect you against them, or danger from 
 any foreign quarter, you could not consent to the 
 continuance of some things you might feel to be wrong. 
 And then, suppose tHfe wrong against which your spirit 
 rebelled, though not wrought by your own act, had 
 yet been created or shared in by your ancestry, would 
 you have hesitated between risk to your political free 
 dom and consent to this ancestral wrong for a few 
 years more ? I do not think you would. You would 
 have done precisely what your predecessors did sub 
 mitted temporarily to what you thought an evil, to ac 
 complish what you believed would prove to be a 
 benefit outweighing all others the right to choose 
 the agents of your own will, and discharge them at 
 pleasure ; in other words the right of self-government, 
 to choose the executors of your own laws and dis-
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 241 
 
 miss them at will. Moralists have ever deemed that 
 a stigma rested upon the people whose consciences 
 were against slavery, and who, yet, consented to the 
 repletion of its ranks by the clause allowing the im 
 portation of slaves until 1808; but their condemna 
 tion has been against the instincts of humanity which 
 prompt to submission to almost anything to attain a 
 great end, especially where such attainment will en 
 able those who yield, to be in a situation to do the 
 proper penance at the proper time. There is nothing 
 easier than to criticise the acts of men, however 
 placed; for there are. none of them, hardly, that will 
 bear the test of examination by a casuist. Humanum 
 est errare, is a maxim approved by the universal ex 
 perience of mankind. We are all liable to make mis 
 takes ; and we should be charitable towards those 
 whom we think guilty of them. Besides, the anti - 
 slavery patriots may have looked back into the reve 
 lations of history, and found that the relation of 
 master and slave, in some form, had always existed, 
 and treated the subject as chiefly one of interest, as 
 their ancestors had unquestionably done. Let us not, 
 therefore, cast the stone of reproach at those who 
 consented to that part of the 9th section of Article I of 
 the Constitution of the United States which authorizes 
 importation of slaves into the country up to the year 
 1808. No doubt, it would have been a fine thing to 
 have stood upon the high ground of conscience, and, 
 in defence of sentiment, held out against the temporal 
 blessings of national autonomy, with local indepen-
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 deiicy ; and those who had done it, and sacrificed so 
 great a blessing upon the altar of principle, would 
 have been held up to the view of posterity as persons 
 worthy of the best homage of the heroic days ; but 
 the prophets of the future would then have regarded 
 them, as with our experience we should now, as men 
 wanting in a proper estimate of the ultimate benefit of 
 submission. While none should by any means consent 
 to the doing of evil that good may come of it, yet 
 one may submit long to a sense of wrong in order 
 to avail himself at the favorable time of the advan 
 tage such submission may ultimately give to right 
 himself. It is in a sense, wrong, to submit to laws 
 that we feel to be harsh and unjust; and yet the 
 most exemplary of all our religious sects, regarding 
 the whole of them in a moral point of view only, 
 do it, and without any wounding of their conscience 
 recognizing that the benefit of quiet, orderly so 
 ciety, though tainted with some bad rules of govern 
 ment, outweighs the evil of such taint and resting 
 also upon the faith, which has ever distinguished them, 
 that, sooner or later, all the wrongs of humanity will 
 be righted. " Time, at last, makes all things even," 
 thou'gh an expression of a profane poet, has neverthe 
 less a truth within it which they all recognize. 
 
 Nor, in considering this subject, should we harshly 
 condemn those who insisted upon that particular clause 
 in the Constitution. All their interests seemed to be 
 bound up in the slavery system. The wrong, if wrong 
 there were in it, was not of their creation, and appeared
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON 343 
 
 to them to be a means of their own prosperity. The 
 relation between their bondmen and themselves was, as 
 they viewed the matter, a close model of that of the 
 patriarchal days, and at least quite as beneficent as that 
 was to the slave. In his native wilds, the African was 
 a mere savage, the subject of chiefs who knew no law 
 but their own will, and that will controlling life and 
 death ; without any sort of knowledge but the most 
 obvious that mere nature could teach ; with feeble in 
 stincts, even of kindred, and none of the moral rela 
 tions between the sexes ; and, what was infinitely 
 worse, with no idea of a Creator and Preserver, but 
 only of a wicked spirit whose malevolent deeds could 
 alone be escaped by sacrifices of human victims upon 
 bloody altars of propitiation. It did not seem to those 
 people that there could be any great wrong in a tem 
 poral bondage which was in fact a rescue of the soul 
 from a state of ignorance, degradation, and moral un- 
 enlightenment that precluded all hope of elevation of 
 the base man above the rank of the mere animals 
 that surrounded him. In fact, it seemed a blessing to 
 the savage, as undoubtedly, through the providence of 
 the Almighty, it has proved to be he being now a 
 civilized man, with ideas of his responsibility tq his 
 Creator, and his relations to society, infinitely beyond 
 \hose of his race anywhere on his native continent. 
 
 Nothing occurred to disturb the quiet that existed 
 upon the subject . of slavery until thirty years after 
 the Constitution was made; the ordinance of 1787 
 prohibiting slavery in all the territory north-west of
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 the Ohio, by almost unanimous consent that of the 
 South being given because of the inadaptation of the 
 region to the employment of slave labor. In 1820, 
 however, there arose a controversy which was the first 
 step towards disregard of the solemn warning of the 
 Farewell Address of Washington, against the formation 
 of parties on geographical distinctions a warning 
 which, if heeded, would have effectually prevented our 
 late civil war, the evil consequences of which, as a 
 strife between man and man to the shedding of blood, 
 we are still realizing. That part of the territory we 
 had acquired with the purchase of Louisiana from 
 France, in 1803, which now forms the State of Mis 
 souri, was in a condition to be admitted into the 
 Union as a State, in the year 1817, and application* 
 was then made for that purpose, to Congress. There 
 was, at this time, a population of 60,000 people there, 
 and St. Louis was a place of 5000 inhabitants. There 
 was no objection, therefore, on the score of numbers ; 
 but the people hostile to slavery determined to pre 
 vent, if they could, the Territory from coming in to 
 the national family as a slave State. .Like all persons 
 of conscientious convictions, they made a strong effort 
 to prevent what they deemed a wrong, which was 
 met by determined opposition on the other side ; and 
 then commenced that great struggle, which never ended 
 until slavery was abolished, to prevent its extension 
 into new States to be carved out of the public do 
 main. In this contest, the question was disposed of 
 by the admission of Missouri as a slave State, but
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 345 
 
 with the establishment of a line to the north of which 
 it was determined that no States should come into 
 the Union as slave States which line was the parallel 
 of latitude of 36 30', called afterwards the Missouri 
 Compromise Line. This digression is a necessary intro 
 duction to what is now about to be considered. 
 
 At the session of Congress of 1854, the Committee 
 on Territories in the Senate reported a bill for the 
 establishment of Territorial Governments in Nebraska 
 and Kansas the whole region of both of which un 
 formed masses lay north of the compromise line, in 
 fact, above the parallel of thirty-seven degrees. Stephen 
 A. Douglas was, at that time, the chairman of that 
 committee ; its other members being as follows : Samuel 
 *Houston .of Texas, Robert W. Johnson of Arkansas, 
 John Bell of Tennessee, George W. Jones of Iowa, 
 and Edward Everett of Massachusetts. That bill, to 
 the amazement and alarm of the masses of the people, 
 while providing the usual machinery and stipulations 
 with respect to a Territorial Government, went much 
 farther, and proposed to concede to the inhabitants the 
 right, as it wa% termed, to regulate their own domestic 
 institutions in their own way that is, to have slavery 
 there or not, as the people there chose. This was 
 at once seen to be a means of repealing, indirectly, 
 the compromise arrangement of 1820, and produced a 
 degree of inflammation in the public breast which had 
 never been felt before. The opponents of the measure 
 felt themselves justified in uniting with the enemies of 
 
 the chairman of the Territorial Committee, in charging 
 
 31
 
 246 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 the paternity of the measure to him, and he was not 
 unwilling to be deemed its author. The reason they 
 gave was, that he was endeavoring to render himself 
 serviceable to the slave-holding interest, and thus, with 
 the aid of such strength as would still adhere to him 
 in the North, secure the prize of the Presidency for 
 which he had been longing for some time past. He 
 and his friends defended him and his offspring upon 
 the ground that the Missouri arrangement was unfair 
 to the slave-holding interest, that it was unrepublican, 
 in undertaking to restrain a part of the people in the 
 regulation of their own affairs in their own way, that 
 the line itself was hostile to the spirit of the Farewell 
 Address, in that it recognized sectionality, and further 
 that Congress had, by it, undertaken to prohibit 
 slave-holders from occupying, with their property, the 
 common territory, which could not, they said, be done 
 constitutionally, and which, if submitted to, would be 
 a practical deprivation of interest as to them, their 
 means of prosperity being slave labor. To all which 
 it was replied that, whether constitutional or not, the 
 line was a compromise of principle on the part of 
 the North, was accepted and treated as such by the 
 South, had remained as a covenant for near thirty- 
 five years, and had thus all the force of a fundamental 
 provision ; that the people of the North hostile to 
 slavery as an alleged moral wrong, would view the 
 measure in the light of a determination to subject all 
 the unorganized territory to the influence of Southern 
 interests ; and that Southern people were as free to
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 247 
 
 settle the Territories as those of the North were, and 
 that when those Territories were admitted as States, 
 they would be upon the same footing as other States, 
 having power at any time to establish slavery if they 
 chose. But these replies had no effect with those 
 who supported the scheme. 
 
 On the 1st and 2d of March, of 1854, Mr. Clay 
 ton addressed the Senate upon the bill reported by 
 the committee, and|in pursuance of the method he al 
 ways pursued in treating public questions, went into 
 the subject thoroughly. In his very lengthened and 
 able argument, he treated the question presented by 
 the bill with that breadth of view and minuteness 
 
 also of detail of feature, which characterized all his 
 
 % 
 
 Senatorial arguments. He discussed also the policy of 
 the prior Administration with respect to the Territories, 
 showing that it was the correct view to take of their 
 relation to the States, and that the institution of 
 slavery should be a matter of their own selection or 
 rejection, after they had been allowed by Congress ad 
 mission into the Union as States. He further discussed 
 the subject of the Missouri compromise, and took the 
 ground (which, no doubt was correct) that Congress 
 had no power to decree any portion of the public 
 domain to be perpetually free, or subject to slavery ; 
 and assigned the all - sufficient reason that a State 
 could at any time, in the exercise of her sovereignty, 
 establish slavery, if her people so wished. He fortified 
 himself in his position about the Missouri compromise 
 with the argument of Nicholas Vandyke in the Senate
 
 248 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 and Louis McLane in the House of Representatives, 
 during the debate of 1820. He thoroughly exposed 
 the scheme at the bottom of the bill reported by the 
 committee, and brought the measure itself into just 
 ridicule by disclosing the fact that there was not a 
 single white man lawfully in the region except the 
 licensed traders with the Indians. He took the oppor 
 tunity presented by the bill to renew his objection to 
 the acquisition of territory, speaking as follows with 
 respect to the subject, the Union, and his own course 
 at the close of his argument: 
 
 " Mr. President, several Senators who have partici 
 pated in this discussion, have said, that they desire 
 still further acquisitions and annexation of territory. 
 I know very well the strength of that sentiment .in 
 the country. As these opinions have been advanced 
 in debate, I beg leave, with all deference to those 
 who have expressed them, to announce my dissent 
 from them. I desire the acquisition of no more ter 
 ritory, to be formed into States. We have now, I be 
 lieve, twelve hundred millions of acres of land unsur- 
 veyed enough, besides the vast amount of surveys, 
 to give an acre and a half to every man, woman, and 
 child on the face of the earth. Why, then, should 
 we be anxious for further acquisitions ? If our mani 
 fest destiny drives us on, so that we cannot resist it 
 if we must, inevitably, acquire more territory, if re 
 straint be impossible, as some assert, though I have 
 always entertained the opinion, that the possession of 
 provinces to be ruled by Governors ought to be no 
 part of our policy yet, as a choice of evils, I would
 
 JOHN M. CLA YTON. 
 
 infinitely prefer that the new acquisitions should be 
 held as colonies, or provinces, and not as States. In 
 colonies we rule ; in States they may rule us, or 
 elect our rulers, without regard to our interests," or 
 wishes. I know very well that many gentlemen ex 
 press the opinion that the acquisition of more States 
 to the Confederation gives new strength to it. On the 
 contrary, I do most sincerely believe that if this Union 
 is destined to be wrecked, its ruin .will be accom 
 plished by means of this constant tendency to expan 
 sion. By continually increasing the number of States 
 of the Union, you multiply the chances of resistance 
 to the laws of the general Government. 
 
 " Sir, we know well that the States of this Union 
 are not retained within their spheres by physical 
 force. It is impossible that they can be so retained. 
 No chains can bind them ; no ligaments but the silken 
 cords of affection can hold them together ; but those 
 cords will lose their strength, whenever the people of 
 the United States shall cease to be homogeneous. 
 The interests, feelings, and sympathies of different 
 races, will, necessarily, become different. I deplore 
 the existence in the country, of a sentiment, which 
 seems to be spreading, for the extension of our Con 
 federation to those who, as they have ever proved 
 incapable of governing themselves, can never prove 
 capable of aiding to govern us. As an American, I 
 am anxious for the aggrandizement and honor of my 
 country ; but, sir, if the day should ever come when 
 we shall annex Mexico, as is desired by others, I see 
 no hope for the Republic ; when that era arrives, its 
 history will soon be closed. We have territory 
 enough now to form one hundred States. In sixty 
 years you will have one hundred millions of people,
 
 2 c MEMOIR OF 
 
 according to the ratio which has hitherto governed 
 our progress. One hundred years hence, you will 
 have one hundred and fifty millions. Let them, then, 
 rule " themselves wisely and well, and they will have 
 accomplished more than even the most sanguine of 
 the fathers of the Republic anticipated. 
 
 " I said, sir, that you could control the people of 
 the States of this Union only by their affections. Not 
 many years have elapsed since we were threatened 
 with a conflict between 'the general Government and 
 a State there was no actual collision, there was no 
 direct application of force on the one side against 
 force on the other ; but South Carolina and the 
 United States could hear each other's drums beat ; 
 and the moment before that great measure of peace, 
 the compromise of 1833, we were daily in peril of 
 an encounter between the citizens of a State and the 
 troops of this Government. If, sir, blood had been 
 shed, who can tell what would have been the result ? 
 
 " In my judgment, there was more danger of dis 
 union then than has ever existed since. Suppose that 
 a State, such as Pennsylvania, should resolve to resist 
 the laws of the Union ; could you retain her in the 
 Union by force ? Does any man imagine it ? The 
 first collision between her and the troops of this Gov 
 ernment, would enlist the sympathies of her sister 
 States around her ; and a dissolution would be inevi 
 table. Seeing that these things are so, does it not 
 occur to you, as it does to me, that there is danger 
 from this constant annexation of States ? The inhabi 
 tants of new Territories are not like the men who 
 formed the old thirteen colonies, who concurred in all 
 the principles of civil government which had been 
 taught them before they formed their Confederation.
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 251 
 
 Yet, reckless of all such considerations, we are every 
 year aiming at the extension of our territory, and the 
 statesmen of the nation, pandering to the passion of 
 the multitude for more land, forgetting the blessings 
 which we now enjoy, and which are endangered by 
 this insane delusion, lead the popular impulse in con 
 tempt of all the lessons of history, and all the ad 
 monitions of experience. 
 
 " I will now take leave of this discussion, with the 
 expression of my regret that -on some of the topics 
 .embraced in it, I have found my own sentiments at 
 variance with those of many of my most valued per 
 sonal friends. Had I been willing to conceal my 
 opinions to escape the censure of others, I might 
 have easily given my vote against the bill, without 
 disclosing my views of the Missouri compromise. But 
 I have preferred a frank avowal of my convictions, as 
 alike due to the country, to the Senate, and to my 
 own self-respect. I am not the man to shun any 
 responsibility which justly attaches to my position ; 
 and I choose to meet it firmly, but not offensively, 
 having learned through a long public life, that Truth, 
 the daughter of Time, will at last vindicate against all 
 misconstruction and injurious clamor, that man who, 
 in the public service, disregards all personal conse 
 quences, and discards all considerations tending to 
 overrule his own just sense of duty." 
 
 We all know, to our sorrow, how the country 
 was excited over this measure the anti- slavery men 
 viewing it as a scheme of enslavement of free terri 
 tory, and the slave-holders and their friends, as but 
 a measure of justice to them, which the former de-
 
 2 e 2 MEMOIR OF 
 
 sired still to withhold, and the politicians of both 
 sides fanning the flames of discord, created by the 
 introduction of the measure, until the whole country 
 may be said to have been in a blaze of excitement. 
 The measure was passed, but the scheme of creating 
 more slave States was effectually baffled by the emi 
 gration from the free States, of persons to become 
 settlers ; and so great was the flow of the tide, that 
 it soon became apparent that the States to arise from 
 the Territories would be secured to freedom. I forbear 
 to go further with this subject ; and it ' is beside 
 the purpose of this memoir to do so. It is a view 
 of the history of the private and public life of John 
 M. Clayton, that is to be presented, and not a re 
 view of political parties. 
 
 TACKING MEASURES TO APPROPRIATION 
 BILLS. 
 
 When the civil and diplomatic 'appropriation bill 
 was sent to the Senate at the close of the session of 
 1854-5, it contained four sections which the House 
 had inserted, revising the tariff. Mr. Clayton moved 
 to strike out these sections; and said it was the first 
 time, in the whole course of his legislative experience, 
 that an attempt was ever made to put a tariff bill 
 upon the general civil and diplomatic appropriation 
 bill. His speech shows a great deal of indignation 
 on his part at the attempt made, in this mode, to
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 253 
 
 change the tariff, and at the tacking of a measure so 
 incongruous to such a bill the effort being apparent 
 to force the Senate to vote for the sections, or incur 
 the blame of stopping the wheels of government. He 
 exposed to the Senate the great danger of sanctioning 
 such a practice making illustrations of a striking 
 kind to enlist the opposition of Senators. The debate 
 necessarily led to a discussion of the tariff subject, and 
 incidentally to the reciprocity treaty, then lately con 
 cluded with England with respect to the British posses 
 sions in North America, by which there had been es 
 tablished reciprocal free trade between them, so far 
 as all agricultural productions were concerned. After 
 delivering his views in opposition to the sections in 
 question, not only as a dangerous precedent for the 
 future, but for their intrinsic evil to the welfare of 
 the country, as he regarded the subject, he discussed at 
 length the treaty of reciprocity, clearly showing that 
 the advantage was on the side of the Canadians, and 
 that certain portions of our agricultural industry had 
 grossly suffered from its negotiation. This part of his 
 speech was listened to with great attention by a large 
 number of agriculturists who had come to Washington 
 to attend a convention held in their interest at the 
 seat of government. So gratified were they with the 
 remarks about the tariff subject, that many members 
 of their body waited upon Mr. Clayton the next day, 
 and thanked him heartily, for the sentiments expressed 
 by him ; and also congratulated him upon the suc 
 cess which his motion to strike out received a vote 
 
 3 2
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 having been taken at the close of the speech, which 
 resulted in twenty - four for the motion, and twenty - 
 one against it. The speech was published (that is, 
 the part of it relating to the tariff), by direction of 
 the Agricultural Convention, and produced so strong 
 an impression upon those who read or heard it, 
 that when that bill went back to the House for con- . 
 currence in the Senate's amendment, that body gave 
 its consent to the action of the Senate by a majority 
 of six votes. Referring to the tacking feature of the 
 bill as such, it is not perhaps too much to say, that 
 but for the effort of Clayton to defeat it as a bad 
 precedent, and the exposure of the mischief that might 
 be done in the future if it were allowed, we should 
 have had engrafted upon our legislative forms, as 
 legitimate features, totally incongruous provisions, and 
 obnoxious measures forced upon , the country, through 
 the contrivance of amendments to bills without the 
 passage of which, at every session, the business of the 
 country cannot be carried on. 
 
 THE NAVAL RETIRING BOARD. 
 
 On the 29th day of February, 1856, Mr. Iverson, 
 a Senator from Georgia, submitted to the Senate the 
 following resolutions : 
 
 "Resolved, That a committee of Senators be 
 
 appointed by the chair, with power to send for per 
 sons and papers; and that said committee be and
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 255 
 
 are hereby authorized and instructed to summon before 
 it, the members of the late Naval Retiring Board, or 
 such of them as may be conveniently brought before 
 the committee, and examine them upon oath, as to 
 the facts and evidence, grounds and reasons, upon 
 which the action of the said board was founded in 
 each case of the officers recommended to be put on 
 the retired list, or dropped from the service ; and 
 that said committee be further instructed to inquire 
 and obtain any other facts which, in their opinion, 
 may bear upon the cases aforesaid, and report the 
 same to the Senate. 
 
 " And be it further resolved. That said committee be 
 authorized and instructed to advise and consult with 
 the President of the United States in relation to re 
 tired and dropped officers with the view of correcting 
 any error or injustice, which may have been commit 
 ted by the action of said Retiring Board, by the re- 
 appointment, or restoration by the President, of such 
 officers as may have been unjustly, or improperly, re 
 tired or dropped." 
 
 Years before this, complaints had been made all 
 over the country of inefficiency, or incompetency, 
 among officers of the navy; and, for at least twenty 
 years, the various Secretaries had proclaimed the ne 
 cessity of reform. It was said that many of those 
 officers were grossly intemperate. So general was the 
 belief that the personnel of the navy was by no means 
 what it ought to be, that Congress at last passed a 
 law, approved February 28th, 1855, to promote the effi 
 ciency of that branch of our service, by the creation
 
 2 c6 MEMOIR OF 
 
 of a Retiring Board the duties of which were to 
 examine into the case 'of officers and recommend their 
 retention in active service, their retirement on leave 
 pay, or from the navy altogether. As this was a 
 very important and delicate service, the Secretary of 
 the Navy, to whom that duty pertained by the law, 
 selected the board, composed by the statute of five 
 captains, five commanders, and five lieutenants, from 
 the more distinguished officers qualified for it, and 
 who, themselves, could not, in any respect, be con 
 sidered subjects of its operation. Their names are 
 as follows : Captains, W. B. Shubrick, M. C. Perry, 
 C. S. McCauley, C. K. Stribling, C. A. Bigelow;- 
 Commanders, G. J. Peridergrast, F. Buchanan, S. F. 
 duPont, Samuel Barren, A. H. Fpote ; Lieutenants, 
 J. S. Missroon, R. L. Page, S. W. Godon, W. L. 
 Maury, James Biddle. 
 
 Every one can understand that the duty devolved 
 upon this body of officers was of a very unpleasant 
 nature. They had to deal with at least four classes 
 of cases, and no matter . what they might conclude, 
 they would be sure of censure, at least, not only 
 from the parties most immediately affected, the officers, 
 but also from all their relations and 'such of their 
 friends also as would prefer rather to espouse their 
 side than to be just to the Board. These classes 
 were, old age,' physical unfitness from wounds or 
 otherwise, hopeless ignorance, and incompetency from 
 the habit of drunkenness. To the credit of the corps, 
 no member of it could be honestly accused of coward-
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 357 
 
 ice. It was at once realized that if the Board were 
 fearless in the discharge of their duty, .and had it 
 alone in view, the consequence must be a report 
 recommending the retirement, partial or total, of a 
 large number of officers, some of them of great dis- . 
 tinction as fighting captains. It may be said that the 
 law was unpopular in the navy for no man could 
 tell whether the report of the board might not em 
 brace his own case as one to be dealt with ; but 
 upon one point, there was no difference of opinion 
 that the persons chosen by the Secretary to aid him 
 in executing it, were thoroughly well suited for the 
 examination contemplated. Although nearly a quarter 
 of a century ha.s elapsed since the board made its 
 report to the Secretary, yet it is well remembered 
 how it was received when made public. The board 
 had .acted with great diligence, and so entirely to the 
 satisfaction of the Secretary, that he approved the re 
 port of those composing it, without any exception, or 
 qualification the highest compliment he could bestow 
 upon those officers, and the surest evidence (as the 
 event proved) that their findings were right. I have 
 said, it is well remembered how the report was re 
 ceived when it was made public. It encountered a 
 storm of opposition and denunciation by people and 
 newspapers from one end of the land to the other ; 
 for no section but had some officer that was recom 
 mended to be retired, or dismissed; and none of 
 them but had large family connexions, or circles of 
 friends, to take up the weapons of offence and oppo-
 
 2 5 8 
 
 sition in his behalf. Some of those recommended to 
 be retired from active service on leave pay, were vet 
 erans and heroes whose conspicuous valor, on memor 
 able occasions, had given to our navy a character of 
 heroism which reflected its lustre upon our national 
 escutcheon; some others were renowned as men of 
 great scientific attainments ; and the mass of the rest, 
 with rare exceptions, were brave and able, and com 
 petent, but for the fatal addiction to intemperance. 
 All being brave, and inspiring in the breasts of all 
 people of emotion, intense admiration for that semi - 
 reckless courage which sailors are known to possess 
 in a superlative degree, the first sentiment of almost 
 every one was that the board had acted unjustly, not 
 to say cruelly. In this condition of feeling, a great 
 many lent a " greedy ear" to all suggestions of un 
 worthy purpose so prone is mankind to believe the 
 worst, where hostile feelings are aroused. The Board 
 was accused of paving the way for their own promo 
 tion, of jealousy, of enmity, and of every other ' un 
 worthy motive that could be imagined as influencing 
 its action. 
 
 This state of feeling was communicated to and 
 shared in by members of Congress some among 
 whom are always ready to lay hold upon and make 
 the most of any and every thing which causes pop 
 ular excitement, or is the occasion of popular disturb 
 ance. Besides, the aggrieved were some of them of 
 their own people, and Congressmen felt under a sort 
 of obligation to espouse their cause. This latter influ-
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 259 
 
 ence led to the introduction into the Senate of Mr. 
 Iverson's resolution. It is not to be supposed, how 
 ever, that the feeling was all on one side. There 
 were plenty of persons all over the country, some of 
 them distinguished members of Congress, who were 
 inclined to treat the board with fairness, and not to 
 condemn without an impartial hearing and examina 
 tion ; and others, who never had any doubt at all 
 about the matter, knowing that the popular discontent 
 with the state of the navy, respecting the efficiency 
 of its corps of officers, was justifiable, and believing, 
 from their knowledge of the individuals composing 
 the board, that its recommendations were as just as 
 they were unselfish. Among this latter class was the 
 subject of this memoir, and one who shared this con 
 fidence with him his colleague, James A. Bayard. 
 
 It was not long after the discussion of the resolu 
 tions began in the Senate, before it became apparent, 
 that while the Naval Board was the main target of 
 attack, there was a member of it who had been sin 
 gled out for the deadliest aim of every shaft, and 
 he was Samuel F. duPont. He was' a man of dis 
 tinction in the navy, for his character, acquirements, 
 and ability ; and was assumed by the sufferers, and 
 their advocates, to be the master spirit of the com 
 mission. Although he had 'not, in any sense, made 
 himself prominent in any action of the board it was 
 not consistent with his nature to thrust himself forward 
 unless the occasion demanded it it somehow came 
 to be felt, apparently, that he had a controlling in-
 
 2 6o MEMOIR OF 
 
 fluence with his fellow members ; and as war must 
 be made on somebody for the' board's action, it was 
 determined that its punishment should fall upon him. 
 This was just the kind of thing to rouse John M. 
 Clayton's energies, which were then becoming weak 
 ened by the shadow of that coming event, his illness, 
 which caused his death in eight months afterwards. 
 
 As I have before said, among the influences that 
 operated upon the feelings of Mr. Clayton, and consti 
 tuted characteristics of his life, were those of State 
 pride, or love for his native State, and all that 
 was distinguished in her career; and his devotion to 
 friends. To assail a Delawarean who had conferred 
 honor upon Delaware, or to make an unjust assault 
 upon a personal friend, were certain to call forth from 
 Clayton such a defence as made his adversary to be 
 ware of him : for where the attack had the appear 
 ance of wantonness, he did not content himself with 
 bare defence, however complete that might seem to be, 
 but literally carried the war into Africa, and became 
 the assailant in his turn acting upon the sagacious 
 theory, that defence, to be complete, in case of assaults 
 upon individuals, or on a community, must have also 
 the effect of punishing for the wrong done, or intended. 
 In that way, alone, can you be secure from future 
 aggressions. He felt that if it should pass unchallenged 
 that duPont had done wrong, the State, whose honor 
 was involved in his, as a public man and officer, 
 would suffer ; she would lose the prestige of having 
 never had a public son who had cast a stain upon
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 2 6l 
 
 her fair shield. In addition to this strong incentive 
 to action, duPont was his friend, though several years 
 his junior, and was one of the sons of a gentleman 
 with whom he had been associated in his very early 
 life, when Clerk of the Legislature Victor duPont, 
 a distinguished member of that body, who had mani 
 fested for the then struggling young lawyer a strong 
 sense of appreciation and friendship. Here, then, were 
 two motives to influence Clayton, and put him upon 
 his mettle as an antagonist ; either, however, strong 
 enough to educe an effort worthy of his reputation 
 as a master in debate. 
 
 In the discussion of the subject in hand, Mr. 
 Clayton made two speeches, which are exhaustive of 
 the whole subject and the latter of them something 
 more. The first was delivered in executive session 
 on the nth of March, 1856, and afterwards came to 
 light by the removal of the injunction of secrecy from 
 the proceedings, and the other on the last day of 
 that month and the first of the month following. 
 The first speech may be treated as a defence of Cap 
 tain duPont, who had been savagely attacked, up to 
 that time, chiefly out of Congress, by those and their 
 friends who felt aggrieved by the action of the Board. 
 Among other things, it had been imputed to him, 
 that he lacked the courage which a naval officer re 
 quired, and that he and others had so conducted 
 themselves on board ship, under the command of the 
 old hero, Commodore Hull, while in the Mediterranean 
 on a cruise, as to require him to report them to the 
 
 33
 
 262 MEMOIR OF 
 
 Secretary of the Navy, who had directed their public 
 reprimand by reading his letter to that effect ; and 
 that they had been ordered home by the Commodore, 
 that their cases might be examined by the Secretary. 
 I need not say to most of my hearers, how com 
 plete was the vindication by this speech, in execu 
 tive session, against both these charges the first of 
 which was shown to be without the slightest foun 
 dation by a memorable event recited, and the last by 
 the adduction of all the facts constituting the case of 
 duPont's assailants. It was one of Clayton's charac 
 teristic qualities to leave nothing undone or unsaid 
 when he undertook a defence, anywhere. He took 
 care to supply himself with all the available means 
 within reach, and then used them with complete effi 
 ciency. He brought forward, in answer to the first 
 imputation, the report made by Lieutenant Heywood, 
 to his commander - in - chief. This officer had been 
 stationed, by the commodore commanding the Pacific 
 squadron (there was no land force at that time in 
 California), with four passed midshipmen and mariners, 
 in the mission - house of San Jose, to prevent the 
 execution of a threat of Colonel Pineda, that he 
 would come to that place and put to death all friendly 
 to the flag of the United States. DuPont was at that 
 time at La Paz, in command of the Cyane, and hear 
 ing of the peril of Heywood, sailed at once for his 
 relief. The next morning, at daylight, he landed his 
 force of one hundred and twenty-two officers and men, 
 the most of them sailors only, took command of them
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 263 
 
 in person, and succeeded, after a perilous march, be 
 ing invested by the enemy on all sides, in reaching 
 the post, and rendering the desired succor ; but this 
 was done only at the expense of hard fighting, with 
 a foe greatly superior in numbers, well mounted and 
 completely armed. In fact, this small battle was, under 
 all the circumstances, one of the most brilliant en 
 gagements of the war, and will ever form a bright 
 page in our country's history from its phenomenal 
 character, a battle between sailors ashore, and a 
 mounted enemy of the best of the Mexican Cavaliers, 
 splendidly armed, accoutred, and mounted. It could 
 never have been won but for the determined courage 
 of duPont, supported by the gallantry of his devoted 
 force. The history of this enterprise and its result, 
 the report of Lieutenant Heywood to Commodore 
 W. Branford Shubrick, and his to John Y. . Mason, 
 the Secretary of War, are all given in this speech in 
 executive session, and effectually disposed of the most 
 serious of the charges made against him, by duPont's 
 enemies ; serious only, however, because it had been 
 constituted part of the material for a public attack. 
 With respect to the second of the charges, Clayton 
 showed that when the Secretary of the Navy came 
 to hear the case of duPont, and that of his compan 
 ions in trouble, Pendergrast, Misroon, and Godon, 
 and had examined their proofs, he fully exculpated 
 those officers, ordered them back to their places on 
 board the Ohio, and sent another dispatch to Com 
 modore Hull, exempting them from all censure ; and,
 
 264 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 further, using the language of the speaker, " so strong 
 ly was the Secretary convinced of the injustice that 
 had been done them, that he directed the commo 
 dore to cause this dispatch to be read publicly in 
 the presence of all the officers who had heard his 
 previous letter of censure." 
 
 The second speech was a defence of the law to 
 promote the efficiency of the navy, and of the action 
 of the board appointed under it. In vindicating them 
 he was compelled to consider one case of alleged in 
 justice, and, as it appeared to the country until the 
 facts were brought out, of actual wrong. Among those 
 who were recommended to be retired upon pay was 
 Lieutenant Maury, an officer of great distinction not 
 only on account of his fine qualities as a sailor, but 
 of his conspicuous acquirements in the sciences of hy 
 drography and meteorology. He had written and pub 
 lished upon the subject of both, and it was generally 
 conceded that his contributions to that peculiar knowl 
 edge, most valuable to sea -going men, were of more 
 value than those of all other persons. His " Physical 
 Geography of the Sea" not only showed the cause but 
 the effects also of the Gulf Stream, characterized by 
 him as the great river in the ocean, and also gave the 
 most valuable information with respect to the aerial 
 currents, the periodicity, force, and direction of some of 
 them, and the value to the mariner of knowledge of 
 the whole of them. This man was recommended to 
 be placed on the retired list ; and here seemed to 
 be a monstrous outrage upon the person himself, and
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 2 6$ 
 
 an insult to the intelligence and sense of justice of the 
 country. How could such a man be unfit for duty 
 as an officer ? 
 
 It must be explained, that the report of the board 
 had been made to the Secretary, his approval given, 
 the necessary orders of retirement on pay, or abso 
 lutely, issued ; and yet none of the evidence upon 
 which the board acted, had been published. Indeed, 
 there was no record kept by the board, and all their 
 examinations had been in secret. It was impossible, 
 therefore, for the public to understand how one so 
 distinguished as Lieutenant Maury should have been 
 included by the board in its list of those to be re 
 tired from active service. Not to mention other cases, 
 this one was selected as that with which the strongest 
 attack could be made upon the board ; and General 
 Houston, of Texas, took it up and used it with great 
 success. He had, it seems, recommended Maury as an 
 applicant, years before, for a midshipman's warrant ; 
 and obtained it for him. He was, therefore, bound, 
 as he felt, to stand by his protege; and besides, 
 being a gallant man, he naturally espoused the cause 
 of one he thought oppressed. It did look as if the 
 board had, in this case at least, been guilty of the 
 charges preferred against it. In addition to this, the 
 law authorizing the creation of the board was assailed 
 with great fervor j it was denounced as unrepublican in 
 spirit; and all that the wisdom or wit of men could find 
 to say against it or the board, was said, and freely. 
 The right to remove an officer of the navy was seri-
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 ously questioned, and this by men who had never 
 questioned such Executive power before. All this ex 
 cited in Clayton that spirit of defence which I have 
 described as partaking in turn of aggression. He was 
 thoroughly aroused to what he regarded a duty 
 to defend the law he voted for, the action generally 
 of the board of which a distinguished Delaware officer 
 was a member, and its particular recommendation in 
 the case of Lieutenant Maury. He felt also rejoiced 
 at the opportunity of exposing the assailants of the 
 board in their new position with respect to the power 
 of removal. 
 
 This speech was opened by a consideration of the 
 last topic mentioned, and its author went back to the 
 famous Foot's Resolution debate of 1830, to show 
 what had been said upon the subject generally then, 
 and that the party of which his chief adversaries now 
 were members or supporters had sustained the power, 
 and that the country had ultimately adopted the view 
 taken of the subject by the supporters of the Admin 
 istration of General Jackson. He then claimed that 
 an officer of the navy was no more exempt from the 
 operation of this law of the Executive office than any 
 other officer, except the judges ; that General Jackson 
 had summarily struck from the rolls of the navy the 
 names of Lieutenant Hunter and his associates in a 
 duel, and that his right to do so was not questioned. 
 In the midst of this Senator Butler, of South Carolina, 
 rose and said :
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 " I desire to propound a question to my friend 
 from Delaware, for I have great respect for his opin 
 ions and investigations. He assumes, what I suppose 
 is now the practice, that the President has the right 
 to dismiss any civil officer at his mere will and 
 pleasure, because he may dislike him, or be politically 
 opposed to him. Will my friend also assume the broad 
 ground that the President, at his mere pleasure, has 
 a right to dismiss a military or naval commander, 
 however eminent he may be, because he may have 
 a personal dislike towards him, or may be opposed 
 to him in politics ?" 
 
 To which the following reply was instantly made: 
 
 " I will answer my friend with great pleasure. I 
 have had the same question proposed to me before. 
 The question is, Has the President the right to re 
 move any naval officer, at his pleasure ? I answer 
 that the commission of every officer, naval, military, 
 or civil, bears, on its face, the true tenure of his 
 office. He is, by the terms of it, to hold his office 
 ' during the pleasure of the President,' unless he be 
 a judicial officer. That answers the question of my 
 friend from South Carolina. If he means to inquire 
 of me whether I think it right, in foro conscientice, 
 for the President of the United States to remove an 
 officer of the army or navy, arbitrarily, without re 
 ference to the public interest, which alone should con 
 trol in all removals, I tell him, as I have always 
 told others, that removals so made are gross abuses 
 of Executive power. But when the President removes, 
 how can you inquire into the grounds of his action ? 
 You cannot reach him. The effort was made in the
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 Senate again and again, a quarter of a century ago, 
 to ascertain the reasons for Executive removals, and it . 
 always failed. No President has permitted any Senate, 
 and no President, I venture to say, ever will permit 
 any Senate to take him to task as to the grounds 
 on which he has made his removals. The result of 
 all such experiments is, that the President has the 
 power, and is responsible only to God and the coun 
 try for its exercise." 
 
 It was said, also, that the removals under the law 
 were contrary to republican liberty. Clayton replied, 
 '' We are told that the removals of naval officers, 
 under the operation of this law, are contrary to the 
 principles of republican liberty ; and the Legislature of 
 Virginia has ventured, in substance, to affirm this. 
 Sir, what have the principles of republican liberty to 
 do with the government and organization of the army 
 and navy ? How are you to control a navy or an 
 army to govern crews and soldiers upon your prin 
 ciples of republican liberty? The government of a 
 navy, to a great extent, must necessarily be a mili 
 tary despotism, where supreme power is vested in the 
 commander, and absolute submission required from the 
 men and inferior officers. The moment this state of 
 things ceases on board ship, the crew and commander 
 are worthless ; they cannot fight with effect in defence 
 of the country." He then argued that the power of 
 removal by the President having beefl conceded to 
 exist without supervision by Congress, there was. no 
 distinction between one class of public officers and
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 269 
 
 another all being subject to the operation of the same 
 principle. 
 
 Having exhausted the the subject of Executive 
 power, and answered with success the argument of his 
 friend Crittenden, that the Presidential power was de 
 rived from the statute creating the Naval Board, he 
 suspended any further remarks until the next day, 
 when he entered upon the consideration of the case 
 of Lieutenant Maury the strongest point that had 
 been made against its action. It was not necessary 
 to devote any more time to the special defence of 
 of Captain duPont; for though he had been attacked, 
 he said, with more virulence than any other member 
 of the Naval Board, yet he had been defended by his 
 colleague (James A. Bayard) " so ably and fully, that 
 he was lifted beyond the reach of any vindication 
 to which my humble efforts could aspire." 
 
 On that day he finished his argument in defence 
 of the law and the board, before he addressed him 
 self to Maury's case. When he had done with the 
 latter, it was too plain for question that it was really 
 no case at all, notwithstanding General Houston had 
 made so much ' of it. Now, in all this discussion, 
 Mr. Clayton, and those who took the same views that 
 he did, labored at great disadvantage, for two good 
 reasons the first of which was, that it would have 
 been cruel to have defended the board by recital of 
 the facts upon which they acted in individual cases ; 
 the exposure would have wounded the feelings of all 
 connected with those officers, where bad habits or want 
 
 34
 
 2/0 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 of qualification was the cause of recommendation for 
 retirement ; and the second that the officers had en 
 listed a strong influence in their behalf from sympathy 
 or other reason, and had secured the good offices, not 
 only of newspapers, but of hosts of friends also. Thus 
 the battle for the Naval Board had to be fought at 
 great odds against those who led in it. There was, as 
 Clayton and those supporting him knew, a powerful 
 reserve force, in the facts of the different cases be 
 fore the board ; but they could not use them like 
 a general with an all-sufficient reserve corps in his 
 rear, but which for some cause he is unable to avail 
 himself of, in the time of peril. The defence, therefore, 
 had for the most part to be confined to a mere sup 
 port of the law, and the repulse of attacks made upon 
 the characters of members of the board which were 
 assailed on grounds of personal hostility, jealousy, and 
 otherwise, as has been before observed. And in de 
 fence of the law itself, Clayton had not the valuable 
 aid of his colleague, who was hostile to it as a 
 measure. In fact, taking the defence as a whole, it 
 was hardly made by any but him others aiding in 
 making part of it only. Emboldened by the state of 
 feeling, as evinced by the newspapers, the fact that 
 there was hardly any Senator who was not in some 
 way connected with a retired officer, and believing 
 that the success of the attack upon the board might 
 
 
 
 be risked upon the case of so conspicuous a veteran 
 as Lieutenant Maury, those hostile to the law brought 
 it prominently forward, and General Houston dwelt
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 2 /I 
 
 upon it at great length, and with extremely ingenious 
 treatment for the old hero of San Jacinto was well 
 skilled in attack in debate as well as war of arms, and 
 enjoyed much consideration by his brother Senators 
 from his urbane manners, exhibition of personal respect 
 for them, and that simpleness in social intercourse 
 which marked him as a man of good feelings and 
 endeared him to all with whom he was upon terms 
 of acquaintance. It is most probable that he did not 
 know the facts of the case of the Lieutenant ; or, 
 knowing them, trusted that they were not understood 
 by Clayton a fatal mistake, which men often make 
 who underrate their adversaries' resources; and which 
 was always made when Clayton was the adversary, 
 for he invariably contrived in some way to be master 
 of all the facts of every case he dealt with. And he 
 proved so to be in this case. While conceding cheer 
 fully all that had been urged with respect to the 
 eminent abilities -of Lieutenant Maury as an officer 
 and scientist, he yet proved beyond the possibility of 
 refutation, from the public records, that owing to an 
 unfortunate accident' years before in Ohio, when upon 
 Government duty, he had become physically disquali 
 fied to perform active service at sea in case of 
 emergency, and, in fact, had at his own application 
 been not only placed upon the pension list, but had 
 secured a change of his pay by proving that his in 
 jury was of a grade rendering him less able than he 
 had been before reported to be. In addition to all 
 this he cited the fact that he was then, and for years
 
 272 MEMOIR OF 
 
 had been, in charge of the National Observatory at 
 Washington, with a salary far beyond that to which 
 he would have been entitled, if retained, and had not 
 been to sea in twenty years. And he went farther ; 
 in order to strip of all its force this case, of which 
 so much had been made by the opponents of the 
 board, he quoted from one of several letters which 
 Lieutenant Maury had written and published in the 
 National Intelligencer, in the form of epistles to his 
 son, but intended for the people of the United States. 
 Referring to the example of De Witt Clinton as that 
 of a man who had achieved his fame by other than 
 political preferments or success, Maury closed this let 
 ter as follows : " Thus you see, my son, that one can 
 become a great man can win the blessings of poster 
 ity, receive the praise of the good, and be crowned 
 with honors without being a great general or sea - 
 captain, or any thing else in the gift of ' Uncle 
 Sam." I hope you will never seek his service. I 
 consider that I committed the great mistake of my 
 life when I accepted a midshipman's warrant in the 
 Navy." "This passage," said Clayton, "has dwelt in 
 my memory, because I recollect well, that when I read 
 it, I felt somewhat surprised that a gentleman standing 
 high in the navy of the United States, as I had 
 always supposed he did, should so far seek to dis 
 parage the American service, in that branch of 
 our defence, which has gained the name of our coun 
 try's right 'arm, as to say, that the great mistake of 
 his life was in receiving a midshipman's warrant and
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 entering into the navy. If that was the great mis 
 take of his life if he would have been a much greatar 
 or more successful man, in case he had never entered 
 the service of his country, why is it he is now so de 
 termined and fixed in his purpose to remain in that 
 service ? Why should he so much care about remain 
 ing in the service, if he can advise all the youth of 
 the country never to enter service ? This sentiment 
 struck me I submit to the Senate whether I was 
 right in my apprehension, or not as unpatriotic. I 
 trust this is not the lesson which an American father 
 is to teach his son. Devotion to his country; readi 
 ness to enter its service at all times -when required for 
 its honor or its welfare ; readiness to sacrifice himself 
 in its defence, if necessary these are the precepts which 
 I think it becomes an American father to teach his 
 child!' I have emphasized this last sentence as con 
 taining the very essence of all patriotism. Of course, 
 after this latter exposure, the case of Lieutenant Maury 
 lost all its consequence. The quick sense of loyalty 
 to the country which noticed every unworthy expres 
 sion of a public man, took offence at the language 
 of Maury ; and Clayton's faultless memory enabled him 
 to recall the fatal letter in the hour of his need of 
 it. The action of the board in that particular, could 
 no longer, now, be reflected upon ; and this was, if 
 possible, all the more evident, when it appeared, in 
 what was said afterwards, that one of the members 
 of the board was the Lieutenant's own cousin. 
 
 All the efforts made to disparage the law, and the
 
 ME MO IK OF 
 
 i 
 
 action of the board, and to effect the reinstatement 
 of the retired officers, failed in the end ; and I hazard 
 nothing in asserting that this so much traduced law has 
 proved to be one of the most valuable on the statute 
 book. But what a task the defence of the naval 
 board imposed upon one suffering, then, from a rapid 
 decline which was ere long to terminate in death ! He 
 knew it would tax to the utmost his feeble physical 
 powers ; but he was impelled to the performance of 
 the work, by what he felt due to one who had, by 
 his bravery, shed lustre upon his native State, and 
 by a sense also of the injustice attempted against a 
 board of officers of the best ability in the navy. 
 The honor of Delaware, too, was involved ; for the 
 misdeeds of a public man are charged to the account 
 of his State. 
 
 With this contest in the Senate, ended the last of 
 the discussions in Congress, in which Clayton took 
 any active part ; and here may be said to have end 
 ed a career as a statesman which every Delawarean 
 can look back upon with pride. It was neither 
 marred by mistakes, nor blemished by misdeeds. 
 Throughout it all, no man, however reckless of truth, 
 or wicked of heart, ever imputed to him, by word 
 or innuendo, anything of an unworthy nature. So 
 scrupulous was his conscience, that he never would 
 accept the slightest gift or favor of any kind 
 that could be referred to his public position as the 
 motive that prompted the offer of it. His hands were 
 absolutely clean his motto being, that a public
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 375 
 
 man should be as Caesar's wife, npt . only pure, but 
 above suspicion. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Having treated the subject of a memoir of John 
 M. Clayton so as to present to the Historical Society 
 the most important acts of his life, it only remains 
 to offer a summary of the whole. This is not actu 
 ally necessary ; as this paper is not so long that 
 any part of it should be forgotten where it possesses 
 interest. But, by and by, when all here are dead, 
 and there are none left in the State who remember 
 aught that I have recalled to your memory, students 
 of the history of the public men of the State may 
 arise, who, in the multitude of engagements demanded 
 of them by the increasing tide of events, may not 
 have the time, or having it, may not choose to read 
 this memoir to learn all about Clayton ; and, for want 
 of a compendium of it, with respect to his personali 
 ties (if I may use such a word), .may content them 
 selves with some other publication, and thus run the 
 risk (as we all incur if we are not careful to find 
 out true facts), of being misled by ignorant persons, 
 or those perversely, or fatuitously, bent upon establish 
 ing the truth of some theory, or dogma, without any 
 support except such as it finds in their obtuse or per 
 verted brain. There is another reason for making it;, 
 that in a condensed form will be presented the gen-
 
 2/6 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 eral features of this distinguished man's life, in all its 
 phases, or aspects. 
 
 It is not always, by any means, that the boy gives 
 promise of the man; though "just as the twig is 
 bent, the tree's inclined," is as true to-day as it was 
 more than a century ago, when the thought found 
 expression. We have all of us known many who, in 
 youth, gave the highest assurance of a future eminent 
 career in the senate, at the bar, or in the field of 
 literature, but in the end, disappointed the hopes 
 of those interested in them, and settled down, as we 
 say, into the places of very ordinary persons. I have 
 known many such myself, and rarely one of them 
 who ever became distinguished in after life. The 
 quality of mind which fits one for the mere achieve 
 ment of knowledge, or to make display of it upon 
 ordinary occasions, is by no means evidence that 
 the distinction it secures at school will be followed 
 by an equal superiority in after life. On the other 
 hand also, we are not to treat dullness, or ob- 
 tuseness of intellect, in the young, however it may 
 depress us when observed in the case of those near 
 to us, or otherwise, as an inevitable sign that the pos 
 sessor of it will continue to be so distinguished when 
 he reaches mature life. In the case of both classes, 
 there are disappointments ; in the first of them griev 
 ous, and in the latter most agreeable. While bright 
 boys, of remarkable powers of acquisition and expres 
 sion, have signally failed in the battle of life ; those 
 of heavy minds have, on the contrary, from the attri-
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 277 
 
 tion of the struggle, proved to have the best qualities 
 for the attainment of solid distinction. There are 
 gems that flash their brilliancy to the gaze as they 
 lie in their native beds ; but the finest of all are so 
 encrusted, that the art of the polisher is required to 
 bring forth their beauties and perfection. The rubbing 
 which the struggle for existence, or the necessity of 
 defence, gives, cleanses, in a sense, the strong intellect 
 from the crust that encases it, and makes it to shine 
 with the lustre of the diamond, before whose splendor 
 other jewels fade into inferiority. Clayton possessed a 
 mind made up of the brilliancy of the precocious, and 
 the strength of the solid, intellect. But he had not 
 enough of the former to disqualify him for the severe 
 labor he employed in his studies : and that was why 
 he became so distinguished in every walk of life 
 which he trod. It was this blending of genius, if I 
 may so speak, with the necessity for study to secure 
 solid attainments, that made him the industrious 
 scholar that he was ; that enabled him to graduate 
 with the highest honors of his class ; that nerved him 
 to give his whole attention to a science so dull as 
 that of the law is supposed to be; to make the one 
 thousand pages of notes of his student labors that he 
 left behind him; to master, as no man in the State, 
 as I verily believe, ever j^ad done up to his day, the 
 science of special pleading in the preparation of causes ; 
 and to make him capable of entering at the early 
 age of thirty-three upon a Senatorial life so distin 
 guished that it certainly surpassed that of most men 
 
 35
 
 2 7 8 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 in this country. It was this mingling of the orna 
 mental with the solid, the foam with the body, that 
 gave him such unexampled power over juries, and made 
 his addresses to the court upon the law so very at 
 tractive : and no man who has lived among us had 
 greater weight with either. I know it has been said 
 that he had equals in understanding and discussing 
 questions of pure law, though entire superiority was al 
 ways conceded to him with juries ; but such is not my 
 opinion of him. While there were other men in the 
 State, in his day, on and off the berich, who were splen 
 did lawyers ; yet they were, I think, with one exception, 
 more men of books than of genius, and sustained 
 their high character by the knowledge of decisions 
 rather than by the appreciation of the philosophic 
 truth, or principle, that lay at the bottom of them. 
 Besides, his was a ready, off-hand knowledge that his 
 fine memory, which, as I have said, never lost any 
 thing, enabled him to use promptly, and without the 
 refreshing that re-reading required of others. His 
 memory was cultivated too ; he had never forgotten 
 the phrase he learnt at school "memoria augetur ex- 
 colendo" the memory is improved by exercising it, 
 and practised it with the best success. He took no 
 regular notes of argument or testimony, in his trial 
 of causes, but where a word, phrase, or expression 
 required to be commented on ; and then, more for 
 the effect such note would make, as evidence of the 
 importance given by him to it, than for any other 
 reason. For himself, personally, he had no need to
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 3/9 
 
 make notes ; but for his cause, or the occasion, he 
 sometimes wrote them. His mind was so intent upon 
 appropriating all that was necessary for the presenta 
 tion of his case, that it was quite full by the time 
 he had to make his speech ; or, if he had to reply, 
 his adversary's argument was sure to furnish him with 
 all the material he needed. If the adaptation of means 
 
 to ends be what is claimed for it the highest evi- 
 
 . 
 
 dence of the excellence of human intellect then he pos 
 sessed it in an extraordinary degree. Whenever he en 
 gaged in any effort, at the bar, in the Senate, or in the 
 field of diplomacy, when success was attainable, he 
 achieved it. At school, it was to excel ; he excelled. In 
 studying law, it was to master the science ; he mas 
 tered it. At the bar, it was -to serve his client to the 
 utmost that knowledge and skill could ; he accom 
 plished it. On the bench, it was to deliver the law, 
 as he took it to be, without partiality, fear or favor ; 
 and he did it. In the Senate,, it was to master the 
 principles and details of every subject that he treated 
 in argument, or was required to vote upon ; and he 
 never acted without doing so. As a diplomatist, he 
 aimed at his country's honor and interest, which alone 
 influenced his negotiations. Yet, with all these quali 
 fications of mind, study, and experience, which he 
 possessed, he never really wanted any public place, 
 except upon the occasion in 1853, to which I have 
 before referred, when the Clayton - Bulwer Treaty was 
 attacked in the Senate. And when, soon after the at 
 tainment of his sixtieth year, he came to Dover with
 
 2 g o MEMOIR OF 
 
 the expression of Woolsey upon his lips, " An old 
 man, broken with the storms of state, is come to lay 
 his bones among you," he made no complaint that he 
 was prevented from reaping more honors ; and only 
 expressed the desire that justice should be done him 
 when he had gone. Knowing the propensity of 
 the world to be unjust to public men, living or dead, 
 he only craved that his official acts should ^not be 
 deprived of the meed to whifch they were entitled. 
 
 With all the greatness, the manliness, the robust 
 ness of character, which, no less than appearance of 
 form and face, distinguished Clayton above almost 
 all other men, he had, in private life, the gentleness and 
 tenderness of heart, ease and frankness of manner, and 
 depth and sincerity of affection, that belonged to his 
 paternal ancestry. Surely I am not mistaken, in say 
 ing that these traits in him, so like the same which 
 distinguish the Quakers, came to him from his fore 
 fathers, the companions of Penn in his voyage to pos 
 sess his dominions beyond the sea. 
 
 On the Qth day of November, in the year 1856, 
 on the Lord's day, and while, his chamber was yet 
 illumined by the glowing light of the just departed 
 sun, John M. Clayton passed, without pain or sign, 
 from this world into that other, whose realities he 
 neither doubted nor feared having a faith, never 
 shaken, in the truth and necessity of the Christian 
 religion, and its assurance to the repentant ; and 
 blessed furthermore with that inestimable treasure of 
 morality " metis conscia recti."
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 2 8l 
 
 OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 
 
 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, WEDNESDAY, 
 DECEMBER 3, 1856. 
 
 Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, rose and addressed the 
 
 Senate as follows : 
 
 I 
 
 Mr. PRESIDENT : No more painful duty can devolve 
 upon a member of this body than the annunciation 
 of the death of a colleague ; and the duty becomes 
 yet more painful when that colleague has sustained 
 an elevated position in the country, and our personal 
 relations to him have been those of kindness and 
 friendship. 
 
 It has become my mournful duty to announce to 
 the Senate the death of my distinguished colleague 
 and friend, the Hon. JOHN M. CLAYTON. He died 
 during the recess, on the 9th of November last, at 
 his residence in Dover, in his sixty -first year; and 
 though his health had been uncertain and precarious 
 for some years past, his death was unexpected, and 
 has been the source of sincere and deep sorrow both 
 to his friends and fellow - citizens. 
 
 This, sir, is neither the time nor the place for an 
 analysis of his great mental and moral endowments, 
 or a critical examination of the political opinions he 
 entertained, or general measures he advocated so ably 
 during his long period of public service. A brief
 
 2 g-, MEMOIR OF 
 
 sketch of his career, and the expression of my sincere 
 appreciation of his many virtues, in asking for the 
 tribute to his memory of- those honors vain though 
 they be which custom has rendered sacred, and to 
 which his high endowments and eminent public services 
 so well entitle it, seem more appropriate to the occa 
 sion. 
 
 JOHN MIDDLETON CLAYTON was born in th^ county 
 of Sussex and State of Delaware, on the 24th of July, 
 A. D. 1796. His father, James Clayton, a man of un 
 questioned integrity and active business habits, was a 
 member of one of the oldest families in the State, 
 his ancestor having come to America with William 
 Penn. His mother was a native of the Eastern Shore 
 of Maryland. 
 
 His father's means were those of competency, not 
 of affluence, though his affairs became embarrassed 
 about the time that his son's education was completed ; 
 but, with wise forecast, he had previously given that 
 son more than fortune, in giving him the advantages 
 of a liberal education ; and well did my friend avail 
 himself of those advantages. He entered Yale College 
 in July, 1811, and, devoting himself most assiduously 
 and laboriously to his studies, graduated in that ven 
 erable institution in September, 1815, with the highest 
 honors of his class and the confidence and attachment 
 of his instructors. 
 
 Immediately, after leaving college, he commenced the 
 study of the law under the late Chief Justice Thomas 
 Clayton, one of the ablest lawyers of the State, and
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 283 
 
 subsequently pursued it with him, and also for one or 
 two years at the Litchfield Law School, and was ad 
 mitted to the bar in his native county in the year 
 1818. From his high grade of intellect and extraor 
 dinary capacity for labor, he came to the bar with a 
 knowledge of the principles of jurisprudence seldom 
 acquired till after years of practice ; and his success 
 at the bar of Kent county, where he located himself, 
 was so rapid and brilliant, that in a few years he 
 stood in the foremost rank of his profession, with 
 able and distinguished lawyers as his competitors. He 
 devoted himself to his profession, and took no very 
 active part in political struggles previous to the year 
 1827, though he was elected a member of the Legis 
 lature in the year 1824, and subsequently filled the 
 office of Secretary of State of the State of Delaware. 
 In the division of political opinions which ulti 
 mately led, in the interval between the election of 
 Mr. Adams and that of General Jackson, to the or 
 ganization of two great parties throughout the country, 
 he adopted the principles and became identified with 
 the fortunes of the Whig party, which being in the 
 ascendant in the State of Delaware, he was elected a 
 Senator of the United States in January, 1829, and 
 took his seat in this body in December following. 
 His public services in the Senate require no comment, 
 for his history here is written in his country's annals. 
 It is no slight evidence, however, of the highest 
 order of merit, that a young man, coming into public 
 life as the representative of one, of the smallest States
 
 284 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 in the Union, at a time when such men as Calhoun, 
 Clay, and Webster were in the zenith of their power 
 and influence, should rapidly acquire a national repu 
 tation, and become one of the acknowledged leaders 
 of the great party to which he was attached. Mr. 
 Clayton was re-elected to the Senate on the expira 
 tion of his first term in 1835 '> but, becoming weary 
 of political life, he resigned his place in December, 
 1836. The confidence of the Executive bestowed upon 
 him in January, 1837, with the general approbation of 
 the bar and the people of Delaware, the office of 
 Chief Justice of the State, which he also resigned in 
 August, 1839; having in that, as in all the public 
 situations which he filled, demonstrated his high ca 
 pacity for the performance of its duties. 
 
 He remained in private life during the ensuing six 
 years, but was again elected to the Senate in March, 
 1842 ; and on the accession of General Taylor to the 
 Presidency in 1849, the office of Secretary of State 
 was tendered to him, as the consequence of his 
 national reputation, and accepted. The death of Presi 
 dent Taylor in July, 1850, again placed him in private 
 life. 
 
 During the period which he held the position of 
 Secretary of State, he negotiated, in April, 1850, the 
 treaty with Great Britain commonly called the Clayton- 
 Bulwer treaty. That treaty was ratified by more than 
 three - fourths of the Senate; and I may 'be permitted 
 to say that, had it been carried out according to 
 the plain and obvious Jmport of its language, would
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 385 
 
 have effected all which this country should desire in 
 relation to the territory of Central America and the 
 safety and security of an interoceanic communication ; 
 and if difficulties have since arisen, either from the 
 aggressions of the power with which it was contracted, 
 or a failure on our part to insist in the first instance 
 on its due execution, the fault, if any, rests not with 
 him, 3s. no action of . that power contravening its 
 proper construction occurred during the short time 
 which he retained the office of Secretary of State after 
 the ratification of the treaty. 
 
 He remained in private life until 1853, when the 
 confidence of his State again returned him to the 
 Senate. 
 
 It would be useless, if not idle, for me to dilate 
 upon his commanding powers in debate, which most 
 of those around me have so often witnessed. 
 
 He may have differed with many of us in opinion, 
 but none can deny the eminent courtesy and ability 
 which he displayed .in sustaining his views, or the 
 broad nationality of his sentiments. Indeed, one of 
 his most striking charactistics was the intense nation 
 ality of his feelings ; and numerous instances might 
 be cited from his public life in which, where the 
 honor or the interests of his country or the integrity 
 of the Union wa.s involved, he broke those fetters 
 with which the spirit of party but too often trammels 
 the minds of even the most distinguished public men. 
 
 As a statesman he was the pride of his State, 
 
 and a cherished leader of one of the great political 
 
 36
 
 2 86 MEMOIR OF 
 
 parties of the country whilst its national organization 
 was maintained. 
 
 As a lawyer he was necessarily less known to 
 those around me, as the sphere of his forensic action, 
 with few exceptions, was within the limits of his own 
 State. It has been my fortune, however, to have 
 frequently witnessed and felt -his powers, both as an 
 associate and opponent ; and though I have heard 
 very many of the most distinguished lawyers of our 
 country in cases calling for the highest exercise of 
 their capacity, and may have thought a few possessed 
 greater powers of discrimination and others a more 
 playful fancy, in the combination of all his faculties 
 I have yet to meet his superior, if, indeed, I have 
 met his equal, as an advocate before a jury. I will 
 not pause now to analyze the peculiar powers which 
 rendered him so effective, formidable, and successful in 
 his forensic pursuits. It is sufficient that he was suc 
 cessful in a profession in which merit alone can com 
 mand success. 
 
 To his great mental qualities he added a host of 
 virtues. Affectionate as a son, devoted as a husband, 
 almost too indulgent as a father, he was a kind and 
 generous friend. Of exceeding liberality, his purse was 
 open to those he loved and esteemed with an almost 
 careless confidence. Little conversant with, and some 
 what heedless of the mere conventionalities of society, 
 there was a charm in the cordiality of his manner 
 which endeared" him to his. friends and attracted and 
 fascinated even his ordinary acquaintances. But, Mr.
 
 JOHN M. CLA YTON. 
 
 President, successful as was my friend in all his pur 
 suits, there were shadows cast upon the pathway of 
 his life, and he had more than an equal share of the 
 sorrows and disappointments inevitable to- the lot of 
 man. He achieved fame and acquired fortune, and his 
 checks in the pursuit of either were few and transient. 
 This is the bright side of the picture. The reverse 
 presents the afflictions to which, in the dispensation 
 of an all-wise Providence, he was subjected in his do 
 mestic relations. 
 
 In September, 1822, he married the daughter of 
 Dr. James Fisher, of Delaware, an accomplished lady, 
 and the object of his first affections. After a little 
 more than two years of domestic happiness, she died 
 in February, 1825, leaving him two sons, and to him 
 her loss was a life -long sorrow. He cherished her 
 memory with an almost romantic devotion, and, though 
 unusually demonstrative as to his ordinary emotions 
 and feelings, with his deeper affections it was other 
 wise. His was a grief which spoke not, and even the 
 observant eye of friendship could only see, from 
 momentary glimpses, how immedicable was the wound 
 which had been inflicted. Of the two children which 
 she left him, the youngest, who was of great promise, 
 both intellectually and morally, died in January, 1849, 
 in his twenty - fourth year, and the other two years 
 afterwards. On the death of his youngest and favorite 
 child, there was a desolation of the heart which, 
 though it vainly courted relief in the' excitement of 
 public life, could scarcely be realized by those who
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 have not suffered under the pressure of a similar sor 
 row. Perhaps it is best pictured in the melancholy 
 reflections of Wallenstein : 
 
 " I shall grieve down this blow ; of that I am conscious. 
 What does not man grieve down ? 
 
 From the highest, 
 
 As from the vilest thing of every day 
 He learns to wean himself; for the strong hours 
 Conquer him. Yet I feel what I have lost 
 In him. The bloom is vanished from my life. 
 For, O ! he stood beside me like my youth, 
 Transformed for me the real to a dream, 
 Clothing the palpable and the familiar 
 With golden exhalations of the da*wn. 
 Whatever fortunes wait my future toils, 
 The beautiful is vanished, and returns not." 
 
 Such, Mr. President, was my colleague's career, 
 and such his sorrows. He stood isolated in the world ; 
 for, though there remained affectionate relatives and 
 kind friends, they could not satisfy the longing of the 
 heart for those nearer and dearer who had passed 
 away. I cannot doubt that the corroding effect of this 
 great grief, and the indisposition to physical exertion 
 which it naturally produced, undermined a very vigor 
 ous constitution, and foreshortened his life, at an age 
 when ripened experience and undecayed mental powers 
 would have rendered his services most valuable to his 
 country. 
 
 Among the graves of the last century, Mr. Presi 
 dent, in an old churchyard at New Castle, there is 
 an epitaph upon the tombstone of a Mr. Curtis, who
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 289 
 
 died in 1753, after having filled many public offices 
 in the then colony of the " Three Lower Counties 
 upon Delaware," attributed, I believe correctly, to the 
 pen of Benjamin Franklin. It might, with a change of 
 name, be most appropriately inscribed upon the tomb 
 of my lamented friend : 
 
 " If to be prudent in council, 
 Upright in judgment, 
 
 Faithful in trust, 
 Give value to the public man ; 
 If to be sincere in friendship, 
 
 Affectionate to relations, 
 
 And kind to all around him, 
 
 Make the private man amiable, 
 
 Thy death, O Clayton, 
 
 As a general loss, 
 Long shall be lamented." 
 
 I will but further add, as the last and crowning 
 act of my colleague's life, that he died in the faith 
 and with the hopes -of a Christian. 
 
 Mr. President, I offer the following resolutions : 
 
 Resolved, unanimously, That the members of the Senate, from the 
 sincere desire of showing every mark of respect due to the mem 
 ory of the Hon. JOHN M. CLAYTON, late a Senator from the State of 
 Delaware, will go into mourning, by wearing crape on the left arm 
 for thirty days. 
 
 Resolved, unanimously, That as an additional mark of respect for 
 the memory of the Hon. JOHN M. CLAYTON, the Senate do now 
 adjourn. 
 
 Mr. CRITTENDEN, of Kentucky : 
 
 MR. PRESIDENT: I rise for the purpose of seconding
 
 200 MEMOIR OF 
 
 the motion that has been made for the adoption of 
 the resolutions just offered. 
 
 I would not willingly disturb, by a single word, 
 the sad and solemn silence which has been impressed 
 upon the Senate by the announcement that has just 
 been made of the death of Mr. CLAYTON; but I feel that 
 it is due to this occasion, and to our long and cher 
 ished friendship, that I should offer to the memory of 
 my departed friend the humble tribute of my respect 
 and affection. 
 
 He is so freshly remembered here that I can hard 
 ly realize to myself that we are to see him in this 
 chamber no more ; that I am no more to see him 
 take his seat by my side, where he was so long ac 
 customed to sit ; no more to receive that cheerful, 
 happy, cordial salutation with which he greeted us every 
 morning as we met in this chamber. 
 
 But, Mr. President, I must restrain these recollec 
 tions and the feelings to which they give rise. 
 
 I will not attempt any delineation of the character 
 of Mr. CLAYTON, or any enumeration of his public 
 services. These belong to history. But we who were 
 his associates, who saw, and knew, and heard him, 
 can bear witness that he was a great man and a great 
 statesman, of unsullied and unquestioned patriotism and 
 integrity, and that in the Senate and in the cabinet 
 he rendered great service to his country. If history 
 be just to him, she will gather up all these materials, 
 and out of them she will mould for him such a crown
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 2 gi 
 
 as she awards to great and virtuous statesmen who 
 serve their country faithfully and well. 
 
 The death of Mr. CLAYTON, is indeed a public loss, 
 a national misfortune ; and to his native State, which 
 he so long and honorably represented in this body, a 
 bereavement at which she may well mourn, as the 
 mother mourneth over a favorite child. He loved and 
 served her with all his might and all his heart, and 
 acquired . for his noble little Delaware fresh titles 
 to respect and distinction in the Union. She can no 
 longer command his services ; but the memory of him 
 will remain to her as a rich treasure ; and his name, 
 bright with recorded honors, will ascend to take its 
 place with the names of her Bayards, her Rodneys, 
 and her other illustrious dead, and with them, like so 
 many stars, will shine upon her with all their benign 
 influence. 
 
 It must be pleasing to us all to learn from the 
 honorable Senator from Delaware (Mr. BAYARD) that 
 Mr. CLAYTON died a Christian. So he should have 
 died. Such a death gives to humanity its proper dig 
 nity. Full of the world's honor, he died full of the 
 more precious hopes that lie beyond the grave. Of 
 him who so dies we may well exclaim, " O death ! 
 where is thy sting ? O grave ! where is thy victory ?" 
 
 Mr. CASS, of Michigan : 
 
 MR. PRESIDENT : Once more are our duties to the 
 living suspended by the last sad tribute of regard to 
 the memory of the dead. Another of our associates 
 has passed from this scene of his labors to that dread
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 responsibility which equally awaits the representative 
 and the constituent, the ruler and the ruled. All 
 human distinctions are levelled before the destroyer, 
 and in the narrow house to which we are hastening 
 the mighty and the lowly lie side by side together. 
 There our departed friend has preceded us. When we 
 separated, but a few days since, he was a bright and 
 shining light among his countrymen. Returning to re 
 sume our functions, we find that light extinguished in 
 the darkness of the tomb. Well may we exclaim, in 
 the impressive language of the Psalmist, man's 'days 
 are as a shadow that passeth away. 
 
 His character and services have been portrayed with 
 equal power and fidelity by the Senators who have pre 
 ceded me, one of them his respected colleague, and 
 the other his personal and political friend, and both 
 of them entitled by long acquaintance to speak as 
 they have spoken of him ; and their words of elo 
 quence have found a responsive feeling in the hearts 
 of their auditors. 
 
 I cannot lay claim to the same relations, but I 
 knew him during many years, and his high qualities 
 have left their impress upon my mind, and I rise to 
 add my feeble testimonial of regret that he has been 
 taken from among us. 
 
 The deceased Senator from Delaware was long 
 identified with the political history of the country- 
 Sent here by the confidence of his native State thirty 
 years ago, he brought with him eminent qualifications 
 for the position, and which led to the high distinction
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 293 
 
 he acquired. To a vigorous and powerful intellect, 
 improved by early training, he added varied and exten 
 sive acquirements, the fruit of ripe study and of acute 
 observation ; and he possessed a profound knowledge ) 
 rare indeed, of the principles of our Constitution, and 
 of those great questions connected with our peculiar 
 political institutions which so often present themselves 
 for solution, and sometimes under circumstances of 
 perilous agitation. He was a prompt and able debater, 
 as we all know, and touched no subject upon which 
 he did not leave marks of thorough investigation. In 
 whatever situation he was placed he met the public 
 expectation by the ability he displayed, and by his 
 devotion to the- honor and interest of his country. 
 
 In looking back upon our communication with this 
 lamented statesman, every member 'of this body will bear 
 testimony to the kindness of his feelings, and to the 
 comity and courtesy which marked his social inter 
 course. He was a happy example of that union of 
 decision of opinion and firmness of purpose, in public 
 life, with the amenity of disposition which constitutes 
 one of the great charms of private life a union the 
 more commendable as it is rarely found in the ex 
 citing scenes of political controversy. His was a most 
 genial nature, and we cannot recall him without recall 
 ing this trait of his character. 
 
 It is a source of consolation to all his friends 
 that when the last change came it found him pre 
 pared to meet it. He entered the dark valley of the 
 shadow of death with a firm conviction of the truth
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 of the mission of Jesus Christ, and with an unshaken 
 reliance upon the mercy of the Saviour. He added 
 another to the long list of eminent men who have ex 
 amined the evidences of revealed religion, and who 
 have found it the will and the word of God; and 
 he died in the triumphant hope of a blessed immor 
 tality, which the Gospel holds out to every true and 
 humble believer. 
 
 Mr. SEWARD, of New York : 
 
 Mr. PRESIDENT: I consult rather my feelings than 
 my judgment in rising to address the Senate on this 
 melancholy and affecting occasion. While it seems to 
 me that I have few nearer friends remaining to me than 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON was, I remember, nevertheless, that 
 he was by a long distance my senior in the Federal 
 councils, and that, although we were many years mem 
 bers of one political party, yet we differed so often 
 and so widely that we could scarcely be called fellow - 
 actors seeking common political objects and maintain 
 ing common political principles. But it has been truly 
 said of him that he was a man of most genial na 
 ture. The kindness which he showed to me so early 
 and continued to show to me so long, removed all the 
 constraints which circumstances created, and I never 
 failed to seek his counsel when it was needed, and 
 his co -operatio^n when I felt that I had a right to 
 claim it. 
 
 Mr. President, I think no one is surprised by this 
 painful announcement. His health and strength were
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 295 
 
 obviously so much impaired by frequent visitations of 
 disease during the last regular session of Congress, 
 that when I parted with him in September last I was 
 oppressed with the conviction that I should meet him 
 no more on earth. The remembrances of kindness 
 and affection he then expressed to me will remain 
 with me until I shall meet him, as I trust, in a bet 
 ter and a happier world. 
 
 Mr. President, I have fallen into these funereal 
 ceremonies, without any prepared, or even meditated, 
 discourse. Perhaps if I shall let my heart pour forth 
 its own feelings, I may render to the illustrious dead 
 a tribute not less just than that which I could have 
 prepared, had I applied myself to the records of our 
 country, and brought into one group the achievements 
 of his life. 
 
 This I must say, that JOHN M. CLAYTON seemed to 
 me peculiarly fortunate in achieving just what he pro 
 posed to himself to achieve, and in attaining fully all 
 that he desired. His respected and distinguished col 
 league has given testimony which was germane, though 
 hardly so necessary as he thought, to the fact that 
 Mr. Clayton was eminent in his profession as a law 
 yer and an advocate. He began life with the purpose 
 of attaining that professional eminence. We who are 
 here his survivors knew him in other spheres. His 
 ambition led him at different periods into two differ 
 ent departments of public service the one that of a 
 Senator, the other that of a minister or diplomatist. 
 
 Fame is attained in the Senate by pursuing either
 
 2^6 MEMOIR OF 
 
 one of two quite divergent courses, namely, either by 
 the practice of delivering the prepared, elaborate, and 
 exhausting oration, which can be done only unfrequent- 
 ly, and always on transcendent occasions, or by skill, 
 power, and dignity in the daily and desultory debates, 
 on all questions of public interest, as they happen to 
 arise. 
 
 I happen to know, or to have good reason to 
 think, that Mr. CLAYTON'S ambition preferred this last - 
 mentioned line of Senatorial effort. He kindly became 
 my counsellor when I entered this chamber as a 
 representative of my State, and his well - remembered 
 advice was couched nearly in these words : "Do not 
 seek great occasions on which to make great speeches 
 one in a session of Congress but perform your 
 duty to your constituents and your country by de 
 bating all important subjects of administration as they 
 occur." Senators all around me will remember how 
 constantly and indefatigably he himself pursued the 
 line which he had thus marked out for me. 
 
 Those who shall now read, as I am sure posterity 
 will read, the recorded debates of the Senate for the 
 period embraced within the last twenty-five years, will 
 find that, although surrounded by mighty men in ar 
 gument and speech, JOHN M. CLAYTON was one among 
 the few effective statesmen who determined or influ 
 enced the administration of the government of this 
 great country. 
 
 His other department of public service was diplo 
 macy. Never have I seen a man more admirably
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 2 Q? 
 
 qualified by astuteness, comprehensiveness, and vigor, 
 for that arduous and responsible branch of public life. 
 He excelled not merely by reason of these qualifica 
 tions, but also, and eminently so, by reason of his 
 frankness of character and conduct. He was frank, 
 open, direct, and manly. He showed his purposes in 
 outspoken and direct communications. Perhaps we owe 
 to him as much as to any other of our many able 
 diplomatists, the achievement of the United States in 
 instructing the nations of Europe that diplomacy is 
 best conducted when it leads through open, fair, and 
 direct courses. 
 
 Mr. CLAYTON was, as has been truly claimed for 
 him, a patriot a lover of all the parts and of the 
 whole of our common country. The peculiar location 
 and character of the State which he represented 
 lying midway between the North and the South proba 
 bly had the effect to confirm his natural tendency of 
 temper, and render him conservative, careful, cautious, 
 and conciliatory. I respond to the claims made in his 
 behalf by his colleague and by his venerable friend 
 and compatriot, the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. CRIT- 
 TENDEN), in this respect, when I say that I regarded 
 his presence in these halls as a link of union between 
 the generation which has passed away and that gen 
 eration on which the responsibilities of national con 
 duct have devolved, and his influence necessary for the 
 happy Solution of those great questions involving 
 cherished interests of the North and of the South, 
 which press upon us with so great urgency. Such
 
 2 og MEMOIR OF 
 
 was the character he maintained here as a Senator and 
 a legislator an umpire between conflicting interests, 
 a moderator between contending parties. How natural, 
 then, that he should be eminently national, eminently 
 comprehensive in his action as a minister and a diplo 
 matist ! 
 
 A very distinguished French savan (Mons. Ampere) 
 begins his journal as a traveller with an account of 
 his visit at the World's Fair, held, I think, in 1852, 
 in London; and he pronounces that great exhibition 
 of the industry of so many nations as the first uni 
 versal fact in the history of the human race. He 
 egregiously erred. That great event was neither the 
 most important, nor was it the first, of the universal 
 facts which have transpired in our own day. The 
 first universal fact a fact indicating an ultimate union 
 of the nations was the Clayton and Bulwer treaty, 
 that treaty which provided for the opening of passages 
 of communication and connexion across the Central 
 American isthmus, to the growing civilization of the 
 western and modern, and the declining civilization of 
 the eastern and ancient world. It was the felicitous 
 good fortune of JOHN M. CLAYTON, not more than 
 his genius and ability, that enabled him to link his 
 own fame with that great and stupendous transaction, 
 and so to win for himself the eternal gratitude of 
 future generations, not only in his own country, but 
 throughout the great divisions of the earth. Whatever 
 difficulties have hitherto attended the execution of that 
 great treaty, whatever future difficulties may attend it,
 
 JOHN M. CLA YTON. 399 
 
 the treaty itself is the bow of promise of peace, har 
 mony, and concord to all nations, as it is an imper 
 ishable monument to the fame of him whose worth 
 we celebrate, and whose loss we deplore. 
 
 The resolutions were agreed to, and the Senate 
 adjourned. 
 
 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, WEDNESDAY, 
 DECEMBER 3, 1856. 
 
 A message was received from the Senate, by As- 
 BURY DICKENS, their Secretary, announcing to the House 
 information of the death of the Hon. JOHN M. CLAYTON, 
 late Senator from Delaware, and the proceedings of the 
 Senate thereon. 
 
 The resolutions of the Senate having been read, 
 
 Mr. CULLEN, of Delaware, rose and addressed the 
 House as follows : 
 
 I rise, Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of performing, 
 to me, a most painful duty : it is to announce to this 
 House, and to the nation, the death of one of the 
 most distinguished citizens of the State of Delaware. 
 
 I need not portray to this House the character of 
 the deceased. It was known to us all, and to the 
 nation. His reputation is spread throughout the length 
 and breadth of this land ; but I cannot let this occa 
 sion pass without making some remarks which may 
 show to this House and the country the light in
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 which I would invite them to regard the career of 
 of our deceased Senator and statesman. 
 
 He was a man of great research and great intellect, 
 of profound learning and uncommon quickness. He 
 has occupied a place in the history of this nation for 
 a period of thirty years, as one of the most distin 
 guished citizens of this country. He was born in the 
 village of Dagsborough, in the county of Sussex, and 
 State of Delaware, on the 24th day of July, 1796. 
 He entered Yale College, and graduated in 1815, with 
 the first honors of his class. Upon his return to the 
 State of Delaware, he commenced the study of the 
 law with his relative, the Hon. Thomas Clayton, a 
 distinguished member of the bar of that State, and for 
 many years a member of this House, and afterwards 
 one of our Senators ; he was a very distinguished 
 jurist, and stood at the head of his profession. With 
 him he studied one year, and then removed to the 
 Litchfield Law School, then under the charge of two 
 distinguished professors, Judges Gould and Reeves. He 
 there pursued his studies, with great diligence and in 
 dustry, for the period required by the rules of our 
 courts, previous to his admission to the bar of the 
 Superior Courts of Delaware, to which he was admit 
 ted in 1818, in the county of his birth. His splendid 
 examination gave early promise of his future eminence 
 and success. 
 
 He soon became distinguished in that position. It 
 has been my fortune to be engaged with him in the 
 argument of many causes, both as his colleague and
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 301 
 
 as his opponent ; and I must say to this House, and 
 to the nation, that never have I witnessed the display 
 of such quickness of apprehension, such memory, such 
 a grasping intellect, such learning, such zeal and inge 
 nuity, as were displayed by the deceased on every oc 
 casion in which he found it necessary to exert his 
 great mind in the progress of a cause. As a lawyer, 
 he was profound and industrious, of untiring patience. 
 He viewed his cases in every point of light in which 
 they could be seen, and could see every point in 
 them at a glance. But he was not satisfied with a 
 glance. He investigated every position, and was pre 
 pared for every question which could arise in the 
 case. I have seen gentlemen whose legal minds, I 
 thought, were equal to his ; but when he prepared 
 himself, never has there been known in the State of 
 Delaware a man who could be said to be his equal. 
 It is confidently everywhere asserted that he never 
 saw his equal, especially as an advocate before a jury. 
 As an advocate, he excelled any member of the 
 bar whose career has been witnessed by any person 
 now living. I have known him to be successful in 
 cases which any other lawyer would have despaired 
 of; and so keen was his perception of the ludicrous, 
 that if the case of his opponent presented- any features 
 of which advantage could be taken by turning them 
 into ridicule, he was sure to succeed. I have known 
 him to gain causes certainly against law, and the 
 evidence, and the facts of the case, by his superior 
 
 ingenuity, and his deep knowledge of human nature. 
 
 38
 
 302 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 As a special pleader, he was not surpassed by any 
 gentleman at that profession. His talents as a lawyer, 
 even when he had been but a few years at the bar 
 in the practice of his profession, soon became known 
 throughout his native State ; and before he had been 
 at the bar three years he was sought after and en 
 gaged in every important cause in the State. Every 
 litigant was anxious to procure his services, thinking 
 his aid sufficient to secure certain success. 
 
 But he was not long to enjoy the quiet of his 
 profession. He soon became the leader of the Whig 
 party in the State of Delaware. Though quite young, 
 he was known to possess more extensive and com 
 manding influence than any other gentleman in that 
 party, of which there were many of great talent, learn 
 ing, and distinction. In the year 1824 he was selected 
 by Governor Paynter as the Secretary of State of the 
 State of Delaware. That was the first instance in 
 . which an office of so much importance and responsi 
 bility was ever conferred upon a man so young and 
 of so little experience. He performed the duties of 
 that office, as well as of all others which he held, 
 with skill, integrity, and great ability, and left it with 
 great popularity. I should state that the first public 
 employment in which he was engaged was that of a 
 member of the House of Representatives of the Legisla 
 ture of Delaware, and soon after that of Auditor of 
 Accounts an office which, I believe, is peculiar to 
 the States of Delaware and New York. When he 
 entered upon the duties of the office of Auditor of
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 303 
 
 Accounts, everything was in confusion there, and though 
 but a young man, he soon reduced the chaotic mass 
 into a perfect system. He left upon the records of 
 Auditor the impress of his own great mind ; and the 
 business of that station has ever since been conducted 
 upon his own great model and system, which it is 
 believed can never be improved. 
 
 He was next elected to the Senate of the United 
 States in A. D. 1829, when he was barely of the 
 age which the Constitution requires for that station. 
 He was re-elected in January, 1835. He resigned 
 that office before the expiration of his term, and was 
 appointed Chief Justice of the State of Delaware in 
 1837. That station, like all others which he filled, he 
 adorned by his learning, by his . great ability, and 
 by his spotless integrity. No man, perhaps, ever left 
 that office with so high a reputation as a judge, as 
 did the Hon. John M. Clayton ; and I may be per 
 mitted to say upon this occasion, that in the many 
 causes which he decided, it is not in the recollection 
 of any member of the bar that there was ever a writ 
 of error or an appeal taken from any decision which 
 he made. He always gave such authorities and rea 
 sons for the decisions which he made, so full and 
 satisfactory, that no counsel ever advised his client to 
 undergo or risk the chance of a reversal of the judg 
 ment given by the court of which he was the Chief 
 Justice. He was afterwards elected by the people as 
 a member of the convention to amend the Constitution 
 of the State of Delaware. In that convention he was
 
 304 
 
 MEMOIR OF 
 
 the leading member, which gave the amendments of 
 our Constitution to the people of Delaware, thus leav 
 ing upon that Constitution the marks and footprints of 
 that high and mighty intellect which he was known 
 to possess and command. The judiciary system of 
 Delaware, planned and produced by him, has ever 
 since been looked upon and held as a masterpiece of 
 intellect, foresight, and wisdom, which has never been 
 surpassed. 
 
 He resigned the office of Chief Justice in 1839, 
 and was again elected in 1845 to the United States 
 Senate for the full term of six years. He resigned 
 his office as Senator, and was appointed Secretary of 
 State of the United States in 1849. He was again 
 elected Senator in 1853. 
 
 The deceased died at Dover, the place of his resi 
 dence, November 9, 1856. It has fallen, Mr. Speaker, 
 to the lot of few men to hold and enjoy that deep- 
 rooted and hearty popularity which our deceased friend 
 possessed from his first admission to the bar to the 
 day of his death. He engaged, won, and held the 
 affections of all with whom he was associated and 
 connected. Perhaps there is no man, certainly none 
 of his eminence and distinction, who had fewer ene 
 mies. It is a remarkable fact that he never bore 
 malice towards any human being. In the many con 
 tests in which he was engaged, as must be expected, 
 there was some ill - feeling and strife engendered. I 
 have known those who have expressed ill-feelings to 
 wards him, and towards whom, perhaps, he entertained
 
 JOHN M. CLA YTON. 305 
 
 no very kind feelings ; but whenever he was approached 
 with kindness, even by an open enemy, his better 
 feelings instantly gained 'the ascendant, and in a moment 
 he was fully reconciled. Every passionate feeling 
 went from him, and he received those who had been 
 his enemies with all the kindness of a friend, void 
 of every bitter feeling. His reconciliation was perfect 
 and sincere. He fully pardoned and forgave, and the 
 past was wholly forgotten by him. He was one of 
 the warmest and kindest- hearted men that ever lived. 
 As a husband and father he never was surpassed. 
 As a friend he was sincere, and was beloved by all 
 with whom he was associated. I need not say to this 
 House that he had the confidence of all with whom 
 he was associated and had connexion, and never was 
 that confidence betrayed or misplaced. 
 
 The State of Delaware now mourns the death of 
 her most distinguished son, statesman, and patriot. 
 We mourn his death at this time more particularly, 
 because, from the principles which he held, his life 
 would have been most useful. He was a conservative 
 man. He loved his country, and the Constitution of 
 the country. He loved the Union and every part of 
 it. There was nothing like disunion in him. He held 
 to the Union to the last, and called upon his friends 
 and relatives to stand by it. Though not connected 
 with any of the parties which engaged in the late 
 Presidential contest, yet he did not fail to make it 
 known to all with whom he was connected, that he 
 stood by the principles which he had always advocated,
 
 306 MEMOIR OF 
 
 and to call upon them to remember their country 
 and the Union as above all price. 
 
 I feel, sir, that this is a mournful occasion. A 
 man of great distinction, of known influence, and of 
 the highest attainments in our country, has been swept 
 from us suddenly and unexpectedly. The State of Dela 
 ware mourns the loss of her most distinguished son. 
 His death is a loss to the nation. Ever since he has 
 been in the Senate, even from his first session there, 
 he has taken an active participation in all important 
 debates which have occurred in that body. His 
 speeches and state papers will make a work of four 
 or five volumes. They will be consulted by future 
 statesmen as models of oratory, as models of good 
 sense, and as models of patriotism and of wisdom. 
 His mind was powerful ; his memory most extraordi 
 nary and retentive ; his habits were exceedingly regu 
 lar. It has often been asserted, and never, to my 
 knowledge, contradicted, that, during the four years 
 he was a student and member of Yale College, he 
 never missed a single recitation ; never once absented 
 himself from prayers, morning or evening; never, dur 
 ing the whole four years, was once absent from church ; 
 and never, upon any occasion, violated a single rule 
 or law of the college. His constitution enabled him 
 to endure almost any amount of laborious investiga 
 tion. I have known him to be engaged two, and even 
 three successive nights, without sleep, in the investiga 
 tion of a single case. But that constitution, strong 
 and powerful as it was, had at last to yield to the
 
 JOHN M. CLA YTON. 307 
 
 fell destroyer. Disease enfeebled and broke him down, 
 and we now mourn his loss. 
 
 I rejoice to say that he died a Christian. From 
 his youth he ever had the most profound respect and 
 reverence for the Christian religion. He fully believed 
 in the truth of Divine revelation before his death ; he 
 made an open profession of the religion of the Saviour ; 
 was formally admitted into the Presbyterian church at 
 Dover, where he died ; and his whole deportment and 
 conversation, from the time of his profession up to 
 time of his death, showed the full sincerity of his pro 
 fession that he was a sincere Christian. He greatly 
 rejoiced in the evidence of his acceptance as an hum 
 ble believer. " He died the death of the righteous, 
 and his latter end was like his." He died in the full 
 assurance of faith and of hope. 
 
 I hold in my hands some resolutions which I .pro 
 pose to offer to the House for its adoption. 
 
 The resolutions were read, and are as follows : 
 
 Resolved, That this House deeply laments the recent death of the 
 Hon. JOHN M. CLAYTON, a Senator of the United States from the 
 State of Delaware; and that as a testimonial of respect for his mem 
 ory, the members of the House will wear crape on the left arm for 
 thirty days. 
 
 Resolved, That the clerk communicate a copy of the foregoing 
 resolution to the family of the deceased. 
 
 Resolved (as a further mark of respect), That the House do ncfw 
 adjourn. 
 
 The resolutions were agreed to ; and thereupon the 
 House adjourned.
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
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 CENTRAL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 University of California, San Diego 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 DEC 11 1978 
 
 C139 
 
 UCSD Libr.