THE LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF"- : HENRY CLAY, DOWN TO 1848 BY EPES SARGENT. EDITED AND COMPLETED AT MR, CLAY'S DEATH, BY' HORACE GREELEY. NEW AND ENLARGED EDITION, CONTAINING MR. CLAY'S SELECT SPEECHES. NEW YORK AND AUBURN: * MILLER, ORTON & MULLIGAN. NEW YORK: 25 PAKE BOW. AUBURN: 1856. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, BY IL GREELEY & T. McELHATH, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Southern District of New York. AUBURN : MILLER, ORTON 4 MULLIGAN, 8TEREOTYPERS AXD PBLKTBES. INTRODUCTION. SEVERAL sketches, more or less elaborate, of the Character and Career of HENRY CLAY, appeared during his life-time, oftener vrefixed to collections of his Speeches ; though one independent Memoir, of decided merit, was written more than twenty years since by GEORGE D. PRENTICE, Editor of the Louisville Jour- nal, and then widely disseminated. That, however, has long been out of print, while the more eventful and memorable half "of Mr. Clay's biography was yet in the future when Mr. Pren tice wrote. And I have reason to believe that Mr. Clay himself gave the preference, among all the narratives of his life which had fallen under his notice, to that of .EPES SARGENT, first is- sued in 1842, and republished, with its author's revisions and additions, in the summer of 1848. The aim of Mr. Sargent was not so much to impart his own conception of Mr. Clay's views and motives as to enable every reader to infer them directly from the Statesman's own words, or those of his illustrious cotemporaries whether compatriots or rivals. His work, therefore, is rather a collection of authentic materials for the future biographer than an original and exhaustive essay. For the time had not arrived nay, has not yet arrived for a final and authoritative analysis of Mr. Clay's character, nor for a conclusive estimate of the nature, value, tendencies, 4 INTRODUCTION. and results of his public measures. We Americans of 1852 nearly all of us who read or think, with many who do neither are the heated partisans or embittered opponents of Mr. Clay with him or against him, idolizing or detesting nim, we have struggled through all the past decades of our manhood. He haa been our demigod or demon through the last quarter of a cen- tury, while many of us date our admiration or our hostility from the year 1812. If, then, we can but preserve and intelligibly present the facts essential to a just estimate of Mr. Clay's char- acter, we may very properly remit to the next generation the duty of analyzing those facts, and determining what manner of man was the Orator of Ashland whose voice enchained and wielded listening Senates, and whose weaponless hand was mightier than the truncheon of generals, or the scepter of monarchy. It is at least the duty of his surviving friends to take care that he be not misrepresented to and undervalued by pos- terity because the facts essential to his true appreciation were not seasonably collected and fitly set forth. This, then, is the aim and end of the work herewith submitted a candid presentation of the facts essential to a just estimate of Mr Clay's Life and Public Services, from the point of view whence they were regarded by his devoted, unselfish compatriots and friends. If he has been over-estimated, if the system of Public Policy which he so long and ably advocated be mistaken and unsound, time will so determine. Should the ultimate ver- dict be as I think it can not adverse to his eminence as a Statesman, it need not therefore blast his reputation as a Man. That he was a sincere and ardent Patriot, an earnest though un- pretending Philanthropist, a beloved Husband and Father, a kind and just Neighbor, a chivalrous Adversary, and an unfailing Friend these are no longer doubtful. So much, at least, is secure from the venom of calumny and the accidents of fortune. Let some future Plutarch or Thucydides fix and declare the world's ultimate verdict on the American System and its Father ; but we, who knew and loved him well, may more truly and vividly, even though awkwardly and feebly, depict how looked and felt, how spoke and acted, how lived and loved, the man Henry Clay. INTRODUCTION. 5 The Editor, in revising the work of Mr. Sargent, has taken tne responsibility of omitting or modifying some passages which involved harsh judgments of those Political brethren who, at one time or another, have seen fit to prefer some other Whig to Mr. Clay as a candidate for the Presidency. He did not perceive that those judgments bore any proper relation to Mr. Clay's charac- ter or career, while their reproduction would tend to revive feuds and heart-burnings now happily laid to rest. That Mr. Clay might have been elected President in 1840, had he been nomi- nated by the Harrisburg Convention, may very readily be affirmed at this time, by men who had ample reason to doubt it at the gloomy close of the Elections of 1839. It was far easier to demonstrate, not in that year only, that Mr. Clay deserved to be President than that he would be a successful candidate. And there is nothing in this which, rightly considered, proves Whig principles obnoxious or Mr. Clay unpopular. Among the Three Million Voters of our Republic, a majority in favor of every feature in a comprehensive, affirmative, positive, vigorous system of Public Policy, can rarely be expected. One who assents to the general outline will object to this detail, another to that, and so on ; while a great many decline fatiguing their brains with any thorough study or investigation, but jump at the conclusion that the truth lies somewhere between the contending parties, and probably about half way. Thus the expounder, the cham- pion, the 'embodiment' of either party founded on great principles of public policy and logical in their adherence thereto, is almost certain to lose the votes of the great body of twaddlers, fence- men, and others who split the difference between the contending hosts, though his nomination has evoked the profoundest enthu- siasm, and been hailed with unbroken acclamation. Let those who still marvel that Mr. Clay, while so popular a man, was not a successful candidate, consider what would have been the chance of Mr. Calhoun's election, had that eminent Statesman been nominated against his great antagonist in 1844, or indeed at any time. He would not have received one-fourth of the Electoral Votes ; and yet Mr. Calhoun was the truest and ablest exponent the Country has known of the Political creed antagon- ist to that of Mr. Clay. 6 With regard to the important questions which have more re cently agitated the Republic, especially those relating to or in- volved in the Compromise, the Editor has endeavored to place them fairly and clearly before the reader, so far at least, as was deemed necessary to a thorough understanding of Mr. Clay's course. If, in the absence of authorities and the haste of prepa- ration, injustice has been done to any one, or any important fact has been overlooked, he solicits corrections, and will be happy to embody them in the Life. One point may as well be here noted. It has recently been stated with confidence, by one who has in this case no conceiva- ble motive for falsehood, that Mr. Clay was actually born in 1775, and so was two years older than he has hitherto been, and in the body of this work still is, represented. Improbable as this story would seem, it is not utterly devoid of corrobora- tion. Should investigation establish its correctness, it will of course be readily conformed to in future editions of this work, should such be demanded. And thus inviting correction, but by no means deprecating un- friendly criticism, conscious that haste and a complication of engrossing duties have marred the execution of his work, but confident that the illustrious subject will nevertheless be found faithfully and clearly depicted in this volume, the Editor closes his task and solicits for its performance only that it be tried by the standard of its own modest aims, rather than by that of the critic's preconception of what its aims should have been. H. O. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Hrth and Parentage His Early Days The Mil Boy of the Slashes Studies Law- Hears Patrick Henry Removes to Kentucky Debut at a Debating Society Be comes a Successful Practitioner Cases in which he distinguishes himself He advo- cates the Policy of gradually Emancipating the Sieves in Kentucky Op_DOses_th < g 2 Alien and Sedition Laws Is elected to the General Assembly Instances of his Elo- quence Allmr with Col. Diivir?.- Appears at the liar for Aaron Burr Subsequent Interview with Burr in New York ..13 CHAPTER II. Elected to the Senate of the United States His First Speech in Favor of Internal Improvements-Js chosen Speaker of the Kentucky House of Assembly Speeches and Reports ^Resolutions in Favor of American Manufactures Duel with Hum- phrey Marshall His Sentiments in Regard to Duelling Takes his Seat a Second Time in the United States Senate ur detestation of the brutal excesses of which she has been the bleeding victim, lest we might offend some one or more of their imperial and royal majesties ?" Although Mr. Clay failed at the moment in procuring the rec- ognition of Greece, he afterward, when secretary of state, accomplished his object. The United States was the first inde- pendent power by whom she was recognised. Mr. Clay's labors, during the session of 1824, would alone have been sufficient to make his name memorable, to the latest posterity, in the annals of the country. The session is signalized by the passage of the tariff bill, and of his measure in behalf of South American independence. In reference to the former, it should not be forgotten that it was through his vigilant and per- severing efforts, that the SUGAR DUTY was saved. A member from Louisiana, by his constant and bitter opposition to the pro- tective policy, had greatly incensed its friends. They were provoked by his pertinacity, and, in committee of the whole, struck out the item of sugar from the list of protected articles. Mr. Clay remonstrated with them. He urged that the state ought not to be injured, and that it would be cruel to punish it for the sup- posed misconduct of one of its representatives. He entreated them, therefore, to restore the protective duty oiT'sugar, and finally prevailed on them, by personal appeals to individual members, to restore it accordingly in the house. On the 15th of August, 1824, General Lafayette, the nation's guest, arrived at New York, in the Cadmus, accompanied by his on George, Washington Lafayette. The following 10th of FRIENDSHIP OF LAFAYETTE. 101 December, he was introduced to the house of representatives by a select committee, appointed for the purpose. Mr. Clav, as speaker, received him with a pertinent and elegant address. La- fayette was deeply affected by this address, uttered, as it was, in the speaker's clear, musical, and genial tones ; and the hero of two hemispheres replied to it in a manner that betokened much emotion. This distinguished friend of America and of liberty, main- tained, to the end of his days, an unwavering attachment for Mr. Clay ; and when the miserable cry of " bargain and corruption" was raised against the latter, at the time of his acceptance of the office of secretary of state, Lafayette gave his conclusive testi- mony in favor of the integrity, ingenuousness, and public virtue of his friend, and in vindication of him from the charges which partisan hacks had originated. " THAT is THE MAN WHOM I HOPE TO SEE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES," said Lafayette, in 1832, pointing to a portrait of Mr. Clay, in presence of an officer of the United States navy, who was entertained by the great and good Frenchman at his country-seat. The anecdote here given, may be found in the " Commonwealth" newspaper published at Frankfort, Kentucky. We have seen that Mr. Clay was at variance with President Monroe upon the subject of internal improvements, as well as in regard to the mode of recognising the independence of the South American patriots. Notwithstanding these differences of opinion, the personal relations of the speaker and the chief magistrate were friendly. Mr. Clay was offered a seat in the cabinet, and a carte blanche, of all the foreign missions. Had place been his ambition and his object, he might have attained it without any sacrifice of independence without any loss of position as the acknowledged head of the great republican party. He saw, however, that he could be more useful to his country in Con- g^ess. Measures of vital importance were to be carried. The tariff was to be adjusted the Missouri business to be settled the constitutionality of internal improvements was to be ad- mitted South American independence was to be acknowledged how could he conscientiously quit a post where ne wielded n influence more potent than the president s, while such mo 102 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. mentous questions remained open ? These being disposed of, he would be at liberty to pursue any course which his inclinations might indicate, or which the public interests might sanction. VIII. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1824. As Mr. Monroe's second presidential term drew to a close, the luestion of the next presidency began to be busily agitated. Four prominent candidates were presented by their friends for die suffrages of the people : being John Quincy Adams of Mas- sachusetts, Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, Henry Clay of Ken- ucky, and William H. Crawford of Georgia. In November, 1822, Mr. Clay had been nominated as a suit- able successor to James Monroe, at a meeting of the members of the legislature of Kentucky. The nomination soon after met with a response from similar meetings in Louisiana, Missouri, and Ohio ; and, as the period of the election approached, he was hailed by large bodies of his fellow-citizens in all parts of the country as their favorite candidate. The campaign of 1824 was one of the most warmly-contested in our annals. Some of the more unscrupulous of the friends of the various candidates resorted to manoeuvres unworthy of their cause to advance their ends. Just as the election was commen- cing, a report was industriously circulated in different quarters of the country that Mr. Clay had withdrawn from the presiden- tial contest. In consequence of this report, General William H. Harrison, and other of Mr. Clay's friends in Ohio, pub- lished a declaration, in which it was asserted that he (Mr. Clay) " would not be withdrawn from the contest but by the fiat of his Maker." Our late lamented chief magistrate was at that time, and ever after, his devoted political, as well as personal friend ; and he has often been heard to declare his preference for him over all other candidates. THE KREMER CALUMNY. 103 Early in the campaign it was discovered that there would be no election of president by the people. By the constitution, the house of representatives would, therefore, be called upon to choose from the three highest cadidates. In December, 1824, soon after the meeting of Congress, it was known that the three highest candidates were Jackson, Adams, and Crawford, and that Mr. Clay and his friends would have it in their power, when the question came before the house, of turning the balance in favor of any one of the three. Mr. Clay's position was now an extremely important one. Sev- eral weeks were to intervene before the election ; and, in the mean- time, the partisans of the three candidates looked w^th intense anxiety to the speaker's course. His preferences were distinctly known to his personal friends, for he had expressed them in his letters and his conversations ; but it would have been indelicate and superfluous for him to have electioneered in behalf of any one of the rival candidates to have given occasion for intrigues and coalitions by deciding the question in advance. While all parties were in this state of suspense, a gross and unprincipled attempt was made to browbeat Mr. Clay, and drive him from what was rightly supposed to be his position of pref- erence for Mr. Adams. A letter, the authorship of which was afterward avowed by George Kremer, a member of the house from Pennsylvania, appeared in a Philadelphia newspaper called the " Columbian Observer," charging Mr. Clay and his friends with the most flagitious intentions in short with the design of selling their vote to the highest bidder. Monstrous as were these intimations, they were calculated to carry some weight with the ignorant and unreflecting. By such persons, it would not be taken into consideration that Mr. Clay had already declined offices of the highest grade under Madison and Monroe that, if either Jackson or Crawford had been elected through his agency, the first office in the gift of either would indubitably have been offered to him that, in accepting office under Mr. Adams, it was universally understood at Wash- >ngton, he was conferring rather than receiving a favor that he might not inaptly have been accused of acting an ungenerous j-wt if, after bringing the Adams administration into power, he JQ4 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. had refused it the countenance so essential to its success th^l he would have neglected the solicitations of all who acted with him from the west had he refused the secretaryship and, in short, that in order to justify his vote it was incumbent on him to submit to the united voice of the friends of the new adminis- tration, and bring to it as much of his western strength as he could lend. The " Columbian Observer," in which the precious epistle we have alluded to appeared, was a print sustained by Mr. Eaton, the friend, biographer, and colleague in the senate of General Jackson. The position of the writer of the letter, as a member of Congress, gave it a consequence which, utterly contemptible as it is, it would not otherwise, in any degree, have possessed. Mr. Clay deem- ed it incumbent upon him to notice it ; and he published a card in the National Intelligencer, pronouncing the author of the let- ter, whoever he might be, " a base and infamous calumniator." This was answered by a card from Mr. George Kremer, in which the writer said he held himself ready to prove, to the sat- isfaction of unprejudiced minds, enough to satisfy them of the accuracy of the statements in the letter, so far as Mr. Clay was concerned. The calumny having been thus fathered, Mr. Clay rose in his place in the house, and demanded an investigation into the affair A committee was accordingly appointed by ballot on the 5th of February, 1835. It was composed of some of the leading members of the house, not one of whom was Mr. Clay's political friend. Although Mr. Kremer had declared to the house and to the public his willingness to bring forward his proofs, and his readiness to abide the issue of the inquiry, his fears, or other counsels than his own, prevailed upon him to resort finally to a miserable subterfuge. The committee reported that Mr. Kremer declined appearing before them, alleging that he could not do so without appearing either as an accuser or a witness, both of which he protested against /" And yet, this same Mr. Kremer, a day or two before, when the subject of appointing an investigating committee came up, had risen in his seat in the house, and said : " If, upon an in- vestigation being instituted, it should appear that he had not suf- CANVASS OF THE ELECTORAL VOTES. 105 ficient reasons to justify the statements he had made, he trusted he should receive the marked reprobation which had been sug- gested by the speaker. Let it fall where it might, Mr. Kremer said, he was willing to meet the inquiry, and abide the result." But it is not on Mr. Kremer alone that our indignation should be expended for this miserable attempt to bolster up a profligate calumny just long enough for it to operate on the approaching election. He was merely a tool in the hands of deeper knaves. A thick-headed, illiterate, foolish, good-natured man, he was ready, in his blind attachment to General Jackson, to do any servile deed that might propitiate his idol. He seems to have inwardly repented of the act as soon as it had been committed. He frequently declared his determination to offer an explanation and apology to Mr. Clay ; and had gone so far as to draw up a paper for that purpose, which was submitted to the latter. But Mr. Clay replied that the affair had passed from his control into that of the house ; and the rogues, who had taken Mr. Kremer into their keeping, were careful not to allow him to repeat his offer of an apology subsequently when the house chose to let the matter drop. In 1827-'28, Mr. Clay, in an address to his constituents, gave a full and interesting history of this affair, together with the sequel, at which we shall glance in our next chapter, and in which General Jackson figured conspicuously. On the 9th of February, 1825, in the presence of both houses of Congress, Mr. Tazewell, from the committee of tellers, re- ported the votes of the different states for president and vice- president of the United States. The aggregate was as follows : John Quincy Adams had eighty-four votes ; William H. Craw- ford, forty-one ; Andrew Jackson, ninety-nine ; and Henry Clay, thirty-seven* the latter having been deprived, by party intrigue * The vote of Mr. Clay in the primary colleges stood : Ohio, 16 ; Kentucky, 14 ; New York, 4 ; Missouri, 3. It will be seen that Missouri gave her entire vote to Mr. Clay, in 1S24, at which time THOMAS H. BENTON took the lead in his support, a? the candidate most favorable to Internal Improvcmonta and the Protection of American Industry. Mr. Crawford, it must be remembered, was the regular nominee of the Democratic Con- gressional caucus, which, though composed of a decided minority of the members belong- ing to that pnrty, claimed the support of all its adherents as a matter of precedent and prin- ciple. The " regular ticket" (electoral) wns therefore in most states for Crawford ; while Mr. Adams's name in the east and General Jackson's in the south and southwest were gen- erally pitched upon by the contemuen of caucus pretensions to form a rallying cry tgaiact E* 106 HFE OF HENRY CLAY. and chicanery, of votes in New York and Louisiana which would have carried him into the house, where he would undoubt- edly have been elected president over all other candidates. The president of the senate rose, and declared that no person had received a majority of the votes given for president of the United States; that Andrew Jackson, John Q. Adams, and William H. Crawford, were the three persons who had received the highest number of votes, and that the remaining duties in the choice of a president now devolved on the house of representa- tives. He farther declared, that John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, having received one hundred and eighty-two votes, was duly elected vice-president of the United States, to serve for four years from the ensuing fourth day of March. The members of the senate then retired. The constitution provides, that " from the persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding three, on the list voted for as president, the house of representatives shall CHOOSE immediately, by ballot, a president." The friends of General Jackson now, as a matter of course, eagerly advanced the doctrine that a plurality of votes for any one candidate should be considered as decisive of the will of the people, and should influence the members of the house in their votes. As if a mere plurality, forsooth, ought to swallow up a majority ! A more dangerous doctrine, and one more di- rectly opposed to the spirit of the constitution, could not well be imagined. It can not be called democratic, for it does not admit the prevalence of the will of the majority in the election. It was, in fact, a dogma engendered for the occasion by the friends of the candidate who happened to come into the house with a plurality of votes. Mr. Clay was not to be dragooned into the admission of any such principle. He resolved to be guided by what was plainly the letter and spirit of the constitution, and to give his vote to those pretensions. Mr. Clay was successful in nearly every state where nn electoral ticket was run in his favor ; and in New York where the members of the legislature hostile to the caucus candidate finally united on a ticket composed of twenty-Jive Adams and eleven Clay electors, a majority of the latter were defeated through bad faith, whereby Mr. Clay was thrown out of the House, and Mr. Crawford sent there in his stead. But for thi<) treachery, Mr. Clay would almost certainly have been elected, as his popularity in the House was un bounded. HIS PREFERENCE OF MR. ADAMS. 107 that man of the three now eligible, whom he believed to be the most competent to preside over the destinies of the republic. By a personal visit to Mr. Crawfowl, he had satisfied himself that that gentleman was too broke i down in health to discharge with fitting energy the duties of the chief magistracy. His option lay, therefore, between Messrs. Adams and Jackson. We have seen what were Mr. Clay's views of the eharacter of General Jackson so far back as 1819, when the Seminole question was before the house. Was it possible that he should regard those traits which, in the soldier, had led to conduct at war with the constitution, as qualifications in the president? General Jackson was, furthermore, understood to be hostile to those great systems of internal improvement and protection to home manufactures, which Mr. Clay had spent the best part of his public life in establishing. At least the general's views were vacillating and undecided on these points. Could Mr. Clay be called upon to sacrifice those important interests on the shrine of merely sectional partiality for the sake of having a western rather than an eastern man to preside over the Union ? No ! Henry Clay was not to be influenced by such narrow and unworthy considerations. He has himself said : " Had I voted for General Jackson in opposition to the well-known opinions which I entertained of him, one-tenth part of the ingenuity and zeal which have been employed to excite prejudices against me, would have held me up to universal contempt ; and, what would have been worse, I should have felt that I really deserved it.'' According to the testimony of his friend, General Call, General Jackson himself never f ^pected that he >vould receive the vote of Mr. Clay. With Mr. Adarm , Mr. Clay had always been on amicable if not on intimate terms. At Ghent, they had differed on a ques- tion of public policy, but they both had too much liberality of soul to make their dissimilarity of opinion a cause of personal displeasure and variance. The speaker saw in Mr. Adams, a statesman highly gifted, profoundly learned, and long and greatly experienced in public affairs at home and abroad. How could he in conscience hesitate when the choice lay be- *ween two such men ? He did not hesitate. He had never hes- J0g LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. itated. Long before he left Kentucky, according to the testimony of the Hon. John J. Crittenden, six of the Kentucky delegation, in Congress, and some hundreds of respectable citizens, Mr. Clay declared that he could not imagine the contingency in which he would vote for General Jackson. A still more important witness, in the person of the great and good LAFAYETTE, came forward to testify in Mr. Clay's behalf, as the following extract from his letter to Mr. Clay will show : " My remembrance concurs -with your own on this point : that in the lat- ter end of December, either before or after my visit to Annapolis, you being out of the presidential candidature, and after having expressed my above- mentioned motives of forbearance, I by way of confidential exception, al- lowed myself to put a simple, unqualified question, respecting your election- eering guess, and your intended vote. Your answer was, that.in your opin- ion, the actual state of health of Mr. Crawford had limited the contest to a choice between Mr. Adams and General Jackson ; that a claim founded on military achievements did not meet your preference, AND THAT YOU HAD CON- CLUDED TO VOTE FOR MR. ADAMS." Notwithstanding the flagitious attempt to influence his vote, Mr. Clay unhesitatingly gave it for Mr. Adams, and decided the election in his favor. He went further. When, after he was seated in the presidential chair, Mr. Adams offered him the sec- retaryship of state, he had the moral courage to accept it in de- fiance of the storm of calumny, exasperation, and malignant oppo- sition, which he knew that act would bring down upon him. This was a critical period in Mr. Clay's public life a bold, intrepid, and magnanimous movement. We. know that he now thinks it was a mistaken one. In his speech of the 9th of June, 1842, at Lexington, he says : " My error in accept-'^" the office arose out of my underrating the power of detraction and the force vf ignorance, and Aiding with too sure a confi- dence in the conscious integrity and uprightnes. of my own motives. Of that ignorance, I had a remarkable and laughabi example on an occasion which I will relate. I was travelling, in 1828, th. vgh, I believe it was, Spottsylvania in Virginia, on my return to Washington, in company with eome young friends. We halted at night at a tavern, kept by an aged gen- tleman, who, I quickly perceived, from the disorder and confusion which reigned, had not the happiness to have a wife. After a hurried and bad supper, the old gentleman sat down by me, and, without hearing my name, but understanding that I was from Kentucky, remarked that ho had four ons in that state, and that he was very sorry they were divided in politics, two being for Adams and two for Jackson ; he wished they were all for Jackson. Why? I asked him. Because, he said, that fellow Clay, and Adams, had cheated Jackson out of the presidency. Have you ever seen ij evidence, uiy old friend, said I, of tiuitl No, he replied* noae, and be REVIVAL OF THE SLANDER. 109 wanted to see none. But, I observed, looking him directly and steadily in the face, suppose Mr. Clay was to come here and assure you, upon his honor, that it was all a vile calumny, and not a word of truth in it, would you be- lieve him? No, replied the old gentleman promptly and emphatically. I said to him, in conclusion, will you be good enough to show me to bed, and bade him good night. The next morning, having in the interval learned my name, he came to me full of apologies, but I at once put him at his ease by assuring him that I did not feel in the slightest degree hurt or offended with him." With deference, we must express our dissent from Mr. Clay in regarding his acceptance of office under Mr. Adams as an " error." It may have been, so Jar as his personal interests were concerned, erroneous, and impolitic ; but, in reference to his pub- lic duties, it was right ; it was honest ; it was courageous. Both Madison and Monroe had offered him the highest offices in their gift ; but the country was at those times in such a state, that he thought he could make himself more useful in Congress ; and he refused them. None but the ignorant and base-minded could credit the monstrous assertion, that he had made the promise of the secretaryship the condition of giving his vote for Mr. Adams. Mr. Clay may have been temporarily injured by the wretched slander ; and it will be seen, as we advance in his biography, that after it had been dropped by Kremer, it was revived by General Jackson. But we do not believe that there is at this time a sin- gle person of moderate intelligence in the country, who attaches the least credit to the story, thoroughly exploded as it has been by the most abundant and triumphant testimony. It is, therefore, because we have faith in the ultimate preva- lence of truth, that we do not think Mr. Clay was in error, when he so far defied his traducers as to accept the very office which they had previously accused him of bargaining for. The clouds which for the moment hide Truth from our sight only make her shine the brighter when they are dissipated. In the words of Spenser : " It often falls in course of common life, That right long time is overborne of wrong, Thro' avarice, or power, or guile, or strife : But Jxistice, though her doom she do prolong, Yet at the last she will her own cause right" Mr. Clay may still abide, " with a sure confidence, in the con- scious integrity and uprightness of his own motives." Slaader HO LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. has done her worst. Never before, in the history of our gov- ernment, was a public man so bitterly assailed by every weapon and engine that unprincipled detraction and malignant party hos- tility could invent. For years, the opposition, in the face of the most decided and complete refutations of the calumny and not- withstanding the original inventors had themselves confessed its falsity continued to thrust it before the public, until at length, they could find none so mean and ignorant as to credit it. The natural reaction has taken place ; and every honest heart now visits with indignation any attempt to resuscitate the crushed and obscene lie. Mr. Clay's reputation has come forth whiter and purer from the ordeal. The " most fine gold" is all the more bright because of those who would have dimmed its lustre. The stream of time is fast bearing down to oblivion the frail and un- founded falsehoods of his enemies ; but the pillars of his renown, based as they are upon inestimable public services, remain un- shaken and unimpaired. Mr. Clay entered upon the duties of his new post in March, 1825. In him the house of representatives lost the ablest and most efficient speaker that had ever graced the chair. The best proof of his popularity may be found in the eloquent fact, that from the time of his first entry into the house in 1811 to__1825 1 _ with the exception of two years when he was voluntarily absent, he was chosen to preside over their deliberations almost without opposition. The period of his speakership will always be re- garded as an epoch in the history of our federal legislature. Perhaps the most remarkable characteristic of his presidency over the house, was his perfect his unimpeachable impartiality. Both foes and friends bore testimony to this trait without a dis- senting voice. Strong as were his party feelings, they never could induce him, even in the very tempest and whirlwind of de- bate, to treat an opponent with unfairness or undue neglect. His decisions were always prompt, yet never so hasty as to be re- versed by the house. Notwithstanding the many momentous and agitating questions which were discussed while he occupied the chair, he was never known to lose his self-possession, or to fail in preserving the dignity of his position. During the long period of his service (some twelve or thirteen HIS CHARACTER AS SPEAKER. Ill years) in the chair, such was the confidence reposed in his im- partiality and the rectitude of his judgment, that appeals were rarely taken from his decision during the last years of his in- cumbency, scarcely one. It was under Mr. Clay's administration of the duties of the chair, that the present use of the previous questions in termina- ting debate was established. In England it is employed to put by or postpone a subject which it is deemed improper to debate , and then, when the house of commons do not choose to hear an unacceptable debater, he is silenced by being shuffled or coughed down. Certainly it is more orderly, and less invidious, for the house itself to determine when a subject shall be put to the ques- tion and all debate upon it stopped. And every deliberative body ought necessarily to possess the power of deciding when it will express its judgment or opinion upon any proposition before it, and, consequently, when debate shall close. It has been seen that Mr. Clay's presiding in the chair did not prevent his taking an active and leading part in all the great measures that came before the house in committee of the whole. His spirits were always buoyant, and his manner in debate gen- erally animated, and sometimes vehement. But he never carried from the floor to the chair the excited feelings arising in debate. There he was still composed, dignified, authoritative, but perfectly impartial. His administration of its duties commanded the undi- vided praise of all parties. Uniformly cheerful when on the floor, he sometimes indulged in repartee. The late General Alexander Smyth of Virginia, a man of ability and research, was an excessively tedious speaker, worrying the house and prolonging his speeches by numerous quotations. On one of these occasions, when he had been more than ordinarily tiresome, while hunting up an authority, he ob- served to Mr. Clay, who was sitting near him, " You, sir, speak for the present generation ; but I speak for posterity." ' Yes," said Mr. Clay, " and you seem resolved to speak until the arrival of your audience !" The late Governor Lincoln of Maine was a gentleman of fine feelings, eloquent, but declamatory. On one occasion, when ad< dressing the house of representatives, of which he was a member, J12 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. on the revolutionary pension bill, in answer to an argument that it would be a serious charge upon the treasury of long continu- ance, as many of the officers and soldiers would live a great while, he burst out into the patriotic exclamation, " Soldiers of the rev- olution, live for ever !" Mr. Clay followed him, inculcating mod- eration, and concluded by turning to Mr. Lincoln, with an arch smile, and observing, " I hope my worthy friend will not insist upon the very great duration of these pensions, which he has suggested. Will he not consent, by way of a compromise, to a term of nine hundred and ninety -nine years instead of eternity ?" IX. THE ' BARGAIN' CALUMNY MR. CLAY AS SECRETARY OF STATE. MR. CLAY has himself given to the public a history of his in- tercourse with General Jackson. It may be found in his speech of 1838, in the senate, on the sub-treasury scheme. "My acqiiaintance," he says, "with that extraordinary man commenced in this city, in the fall of 1815 or 1816. It was short, but highly respectful and mutually cordial. I beheld in him the gallant and successful general, who, by the glorious victory of New Orleans, had honorably closed the sec- ond war of our independence, and I paid him the homage due for that eminent service. A few years after, it became my painful duty to animad- vert, in the house of representatives, with the independence which belongs to the representative character, upon some of his proceedings in the conduct of the Seminole war, which I thought illegal, and contrary to the constitu- tion and the law of nations. A non-intercourse between us ensued, which continued until the fall of 1824, when, he being a member of the senate, an accommodation between xis was sought to be brought about by the principal part of the delegation from his own state. For that purpose, we were in- vited to dine with them at Claxton's boarding-house, on Capitol hill, where my venerable friend from Tennessee (Mr. "White) and his colleague on the Spanish commission, were both present. I retired early from dinner, and was followed to the door by General Jackson, and the present minister of the United States at the court of Madrid (Mr. Eaton). They pressed me earnestly to take a seat with them in their carriage. My faithful servant and friend, Charles, was standing at the door waiting for me with my own. I yielded to their urgent politeness, directed Charles to follow with my carriage, and they sat me down by my own door. We afterward frequently met, with mutual respect and cordiality ; dined several times together, and recipro- cated the hospitality of our respective quartern This friendly intercourse continued until the election, iu the Louee of representatives, of a president CARTER BEVERLEY S LETTER. 113 of the United States, came on in February, 1825. I gave the rote which, in the contingency that happened, I told my colleague (Mr. Crittenden), who Bits before me, prior to my departure from Kentucky, in November, 1824, and told others, that I should give. All intercourse ceased between General Jackson and myself. We have never since, except once accidentally, ex- changed salutations, nor met, except on occasions when we were performing the last offices toward deceased members of Congress, or other officer's of government. Immediately after my vote, a rancorous war was commenced against me, and all the barking dogs let loose upon me. I shall not trace it during its ten years' bitter continuance. But 1 thank my God that I stand here, h'rm and erect, unbent, unbroken, unsubdued, unawed, and ready to denounce the mischievous measures of this administration, and ready to de- nounce this, its legitimate offspring, the most pernicious of all." Directly after the adjournment of the 19th Congress, a letter, dated March 8, 1825, appeared in the newspapers, purporting to relate a conversation of the writer with General Jackson, in which the latter said that Mr. Clay's friends in Congress proposed to his friends (Gen. J.'s) that if they would promise for him that Mr. Adams should not be continued as secretary of state, Mr. Clay and his friends would at once elect General Jackson presi- dent ; and that he (General Jackson) indignantly rejected the pro- position. Mr. Carter Beverley, the author of this letter, wrote to General Jackson, soon after its appearance, for a confirmation of its statements. General Jackson replied, in a letter dated June i>, 1827 more than two years after the charge was first made, but just in season to operate upon approaching elections ; and, in his reply, directly charged the friends of Mr. Clay with having proposed to him, (Jackson) through a distinguished member of Congress, to vote for him, in case he would declare that Mr. Adams should not be con- tinued as secretary of state ; and insinuated that this proposition was made by authority of Mr. Clay ; and, to strengthen that in- sinuation, asserted that immediately after the rejection of the proposition, Mr. Clay came out openly for Mr. Adams. To this proposition, according to his own account, General Jackson returned for answer, that before he would reach the presidential chair by such means of bargain and corruption, " he would see the earth open, and swallow both Mr. Clay and his friends and himself with them!" a reply which was, no doubt, literally true, inasmuch as " such means" could never have been used to elevate the hero of New Orleans to the presidency. 8 J4 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. General Jackson gave up the name of Mr. Buchanan of Penn- sylvania, as " the distinguished member of Congress," to whom he had alluded in his letter to Mr. Beverley. Mr. Buchanan, being thus involved in the controversy, although a personal and political friend of General Jackson, made a statement which entirely ex- culpated Mr. Clay and his friends from all participation in the alleged proposition. He stated, that in the month of December, a rumor was in circulation at Washington, that General Jackson intended, if elected, to keep Mr. Adams in as secretary of state. Believing that such a belief would cool his friends and inspire his opponents with confidence, and being a supporter of General Jackson himself, he thought that the general ought to contradict the report. He accordingly called on him, and made known his views ; to which General Jackson replied, that though he thought well of Mr. Adams, he had never said or intimated that he would or would not, appoint him secretary of state. Mr. Buchanan then asked permission to repeat this answer to any person he thought proper, which was granted, and here the conversation ended. And out of such flimsy materials had General Jackson constructed his rancorous charge against Mr. Clay ! Mr. Buchanan further stated, that he called on General Jackson solely as his friend, and upon his own responsibility, and not as an agent for Mr. Clay, or any other person ; that he had never been a friend of Mr. Clay during the presidential contest ; and that he had not the most distant idea that General Jackson believed, or suspected, that he came on behalf of Mr. Clay, or of his friends, until the publication of the letter, making that accusation. Notwithstanding all grounds for the charge were thus annihi- lated by the testimony of the " distinguished member of Con- gress" himself a warm partisan of General Jackson the asinine cry of bargain and corruption was still kept up by the op- ponents of the administration ; and the most audacious assertions were substituted for proofs. At length, although not the slightest shadow of anything re- sembling evidence had been produced in support of the calumny a body of testimony perfectly overwhelming was produced against it. A circular letter was addressed to the western members (for they alone were accused of being implicated in the alleged trans FINAL REFUTATION OF THE SLANDER. 115 action) who voted for Mr. Adams in the election by Congress, in 1825, requesting to know whether there was any foundation for the charge in the letter of General Jackson. They all (with the exception of Mr. Cook, who was dead), utterly disclaimed the knowledge of any proposition made by Mr. Clay, or his friends, to General Jackson, or to any other person ; and also explicitly disclaimed any negotiation with respect to their votes on that occasion. On the contrary, the members from Ohio stated that they had determined upon voting for Mr. Adams previous to their being informed of Mr. Clay's intention, and with- out having ascertained his views. The members from Kentucky, who voted with Mr. Clay, ex- pressed their ignorance of conditions of any sort having been offered by his friends to any person, on compliance with which their vote was to depend. The members from Louisiana and Missouri, coincided in these declarations, and they all professed their belief in the falsehood of the charges against Mr. Clay, on account of his conduct on that occasion. In addition to this testimony, letters were produced from well- known individuals, satisfactorily establishing the fact that Mr. Clay, previous to his leaving his residence in Kentucky for Wash- ington, in the fall of ] 824, repeatedly made declarations of his preference for Mr. Adams over General Jackson, through the months of October, November, December, and January, following, until he executed that intention on the 9th of February, 1825, in the house of representatives. We have already quoted from General Lafayette's letter to Mr. Clay, a passage confirming this ample testimony. Such a mass of evidence effectually crushed the accusation respecting a bargain, and convinced the public, that in voting for Mr. Adams, Mr. Clay and his friends conscientiously discharged their duty ; and that they could not have voted otherwise without palpable inconsistency. When, on the occasion of his speech of June, 1842, at Lex- ington, Mr. Clay alluded to this calumny, of which we have given a brief history, somebody cried out, that Mr. Carter Beverley, who had been made the organ of announcing it, had recently borne 116 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. testimony to its being unfounded. Mr. Clay said it was true tha he had voluntarily borne such testimony. But, with great earnest- ness and emphasis, Mr. Clay said, "/ want no testimony ; here here HERE" (repeatedly touching his heart, amid tremendous cheers) "here is the best of all witnesses of my innocence." Soon after the close of his administration, Mr. Adams, in reply to an address from a committee of gentlemen in New Jersey, spoke in the following terms of Mr. Clay : " Upon him [Mr. Clay] the foulest slanders have been showered. Long known and appreciated, as successively a member of both houses of your national legislature, as the unrivaled speaker, and, at the same time, most efficient leader of debates in one of them ; as an able and successful negotia- tor for your interests in war and peace with foreign powers, and as a power- ful candidate for the highest of your trusts the department of state itself was a station, which, by its bestowal, could confer neither profit nor honor upon him, but upon which he has shed unfading honor, by the manner in which he has discharged its duties. Prejudice and passion have charged him with obtaining that office by bargain and corruption. Before you, my fellow- citizens, in the presence of our country and Heaven, I pronounce that charge totally unfounded. This tribute of justice is due from me to him, and I seize, with pleasure, the opportunity afforded me by your letter, of discharging the obligation. "As to my motives for tendering to him the department of state when I did, let that man who questions them come forward. Let him look around among statesmen and legislators of this nation and of that day. Let him then select and name the man whom, by his pre-eminent talents, by his splendid services, by his ardent patriotism, by his all-embracing public spirit, by his fervid eloquence in behalf of the rights and liberties of mankind, by his long experience in the affairs of the Union, foreign and domestic, a pres- ident of the United States, intent only upon the honor and welfare of his country, ought to have preferred to HENRY CLAY. Let him name that man, and then judge you, my fellow-citizens, of my motives." During his visit to the West, in the fall of 1843, Mr. Adams confirmed this denial in the strongest terms, which it is possible for the human tongue to employ. " I thank you, sir," said he, in his speech at Maysville, Ky., " for the op- portunity you have given me of speaking of the great statesman who was associated with me in the administration of the general government, at my earnest solicitation who belongs not to Kentucky alone, but to the whole Union; and is not only an honor to this state and this nation, but to man- kind. The charges to which you refer, I have, after my term of service had expired and it was proper for me to speak denied before the whole country ; and I here reiterate and reaffirm that denial ; and as I expect shortly to appear before my God, to answer for the conduct of my whole life, should those charges have found their way to the Throne of Eternal Justice, I WILL, IN THE PRESENCE OF OMNIPOTENCE, PRONOUNCE THEM FALSE." OPPOSITION TO MR. ADAMS'S ADMINISTRATION. 117 In his address at Covington, Ky., Mr. Adams said, in allusion lo the hospitalities which he had met with : " Not only have I received invitations from public bodies and cities, but jlso from individuals, among the first of whom was that grea^ man, your own citizen, who, during a very large portion of my public life, and in various public capacities, and, in several instances, in matters relating to your inter- ests, has been my associate and friend, and the recollection of whom brings me to the acknowledgment, before this whole assembly, that in all the various capacities in which I have known him to act* whether as associate, as assistant, or acting independently of me, in his own individual character and capacity, I have ever found him not only one of the ablest men with whom I have ever co-operated, but also one of the most amiable and worthy." * We have but imperfectly sketched the history of the flagitious measures which were adopted to blast the political reputation of Mr. Clay, and break down the administration, of which he was the main ornament and support. To the future historian, we leave the task of commenting, in adequate terms of reprobation, upon the conduct of those unprincipled men who originated the slander, and continued to circulate it long after it had been proved to be utterly ungrounded. That it answered the purpose for which it was intended ; that it was the most efficient instrument employed to trammel and defeat Mr. Adams's administration, there can now be little doubt. The recklessness and audacity with which it was persisted in until it had served its end the con- duct of Mr. Kremer, as he vacillated between his good impulses and the party ties by which he was fettered and subsequent developments, still fresh in the remembrance of many of our readers, showed that the promulgation of the calumny was the result of a regularly-planned conspiracy. * Mr. Adams, of whom it could be said, " age can not mar, nor custom stale his infinite variety," always retained his exalted estimate of Mr. Clay's patriotism and statesmanship, and was his ardent supporter for the presidency in 1844. A Washington correspondent of that year wrote : " I have frequently observed ladies' albums circulating through the house and senate chamber, with tho view nf collecting the autographs of the members. One, this morning, belonging to a young ludy of , attracted considerable nttention. Upon examinntion, I found it contained a page of well-written poetry, dated 23d July, 1843. in the tremulous hand-writing of John Q. "Adam's. This piece was descriptive of the wild chaos at present spread over our political i.tfairs, and anticipated coming events which would bring orderout of disorder. The closing verse was follows : * Say, for whose brow this laurel crown t For whom this web of lift; is spinning T Turn this, thy Album, upside down, And take the end for the beginning.' " Wo meaning of this was somewhat mystical, but by turning to the back of the book, and Inverting it, on its last page a piece was found with the signature of L Cvnr I" 18 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. We refer those who would satisfy themselves of this fact, as well as of the sufficiency of the proofs by which this " measure- less lie" was overwhelmed, to the proceedings in the house of representatives, instituted at Mr. Clay's instance, in February, 1825 to the subsequent letter of Carter Beverley, detailing a conversation at General Jackson's to Mr. Clay's letter to the public, challenging his enemy to produce his testimony to General Jackson's surrender of the name of Mr. Buchanan as the " distinguished member of Congress"' upon whose authority the charge of corruption was reiterated against Mr. Clay to Mr. Buchanan's complete and decided disclaimer of any intention, on his part, of ever giving countenance to the charge to Mr. Clay's pamphlets, published in 1827-'8, embodying a mass of testimony disproving the charge to Mr. Buchanan's statements on the floor of the house of representatives and the senate, avow- ing his disbelief of the charge and finally to Carter Beverley's letter, published in 1841, repudiating the calumny as destitute of the slightest foundation in truth, and making such atonement as he could for having given currency to it in his letter of 1825.* We might refer farther to Thomas H. Benton's declaration, who, in a letter dated December 7, 1827, proves not only that Mr. Clay's bitterest opponents considered him innocent of the charge, but that before Congress had convened before the pres- idential election took place in that body Mr. Clay had disclosed his intention to vote for Mr. Adams, not only to Mr. B., but to others. See National Intelligencer, April 25, 1844. Rarely has an administration been subjected to an opposition so unrelenting, so vindictive, and so determined as that which assailed the presidency of John Quincy Adams. The motives of that opposition appear to have been purely selfish and mer- cenary ; for the policy of Mr. Adams resembled that of his pred- ecessor, whose secretary of state he had been, and it was little calculated to call down a virulent hostility. In his views of the powers of the general government, he was more liberal than Mr. Monroe. He was friendly to the American system of internal * All these documents may be found in Niles' Register. We regret that our limits will not permit ua to expose, in its full deformity, the whole of this nefarious plot against Mr. Clay. That mnn must presume greatly upon the ignorance of the public, however, who would, at this day, venture to revive the extinct lie. DUE/ WITH RANDOLPH. improvement and protection, which had been so ably vindicated by Mr. Clay ; and all his measures were conceived in a truly generous, republican, and patriotic spirit. A great clamor was most unjustly raised about the expenses ol his administration. At this day, the iniquity of this charge is so apparent, as to render it unworthy a serious confutation. It be- comes indeed laughable when placed side by side with the list of presidential expenditures under Mr. Van Buren. In the dis- tribution of his official patronage, Mr. Adams appears to have been actuated by the purest and most honorable motives. Not a single removal from office, on political grounds, was made by his authority ; and in no one instance does he seem to have been impelled by considerations of self-interest, or with a view to ulti mate personal advantage. The circumstances under which he came into office, however, were a continual source of uneasiness to the friends of Jackson and Crawford ; and his administration, able and honorable to the country as it was, was constantly assailed. John Randolph, who had now a seat in the senate, was especially bitter and personal in his denunciations. The eccentricities of that extraordinary man, induced many persons to believe that he was partially de- ranged in his intellect. His long, desultory, and immethodical harangues were a serious impediment to legislative business ; while his elfish taunts and reckless assaults upon individuals were so frequent, that he seemed at length to have arrived at the conclusion that he enjoyed superior immunities in debate that he was, in fact, " a chartered libertine." In one of the numerous discussions upon the Panama question, he took occasion to ani- madvert in the most offensive manner upon the conduct of Mr. Clay, and denounced the harmony existing between the secretary of state and the president, as a " coalition of Blifil and black George ;" a combination of " the puritan with the black-leg." When called upon by Mr. Clay to explain or retract these ex- pressions, he refused. A hostile meeting consequently ensued between them, on the 8th of April, 1826. After two ineffectual fires, it resulted in the reconciliation of the parties John Ran- dolph having given additional evidence, by his conduct and ap- 120 LIFE OF HENRY CLA7 pcarance on the occasion, that his eccentricity, if it did not border on insanity, was separated from it by a very slight partition. The last interview between Mr. Clay and Mr. Randolph, was on the second or third of March, 1833, a few weeks before Mr. R.'s death, when he was on his way to Philadelphia, where he died. He came to the senate-chamber, unable to stand or walk without assistance. The senate was in session by candle-light, and Mr. Clay had risen to make some observations on the compro- mise act. " Help me up," said Mr. Randolph, sitting in a chair, and addressing his half-brother, Mr. B. Tucker ; " / have come here to hear that voice." As soon as Mr. Clay had concluded his remarks, he went to Mr. Randolph, and they cordially shook hands and exchanged salutations. The health of Mr. Clay, during the whole period of his resi- dence at Washington, as secretary of state, was exceedingly unfavorable so much so, that at one time he had fully determined to resign the office. He was persuaded, however, to remain ; and, notwithstanding the depressing influence upon mental and physi- cal exertion of bodily infirmity, he discharged the complicated and laborious duties of the secretaryship with a fidelity and effi- ciency that have never been surpassed. In the records of his labors, in his instructions to ministers, and his numerous letters upon subjects of foreign and domestic concern, the archives of the state department contain a lasting monument to his trans- cendent abilities as a statesman, and his indefatigable industry as a public officer. One of the ablest state papers in the diplomatic annals of the United States, is the letter of instructions of Mr. Clay to the delegation to Panama. The story of this mission may be briefly told. A congress was proposed to be held at Panama or Tacu- baya, to be composed of delegates from the republics of Mexico, Colombia, and Central America, to deliberate on subjects of im- portance to all, and in which the welfare and interest of all might be involved. The threatening aspect of the holy alliance toward the free governments of the new world, had induced the late president Monroe to declare that the United States would not view with indifference any interference on their part in the con- THE PANAMA CONGRESS. 121 test between Spain and her former colonies ; and the governments of the new republics were naturally led to suppose that our own was friendly to the objects proposed in the contemplated congress. In the spring of 1825, invitations were given the part of Colom- bia, Mexico, and Central America, to the United States, to send commissioners to Panama. In reply to this proposition, coming from the ministers of those powers at Washington, Mr. Clay said, that before such a congress met, it appeared to him expedient to adjust, as preliminary matters, the precise objects to which the attention of the congress would be directed, and the substance and tlie form of the powers of the ministers representing the several republics. This suggestion called forth answers which were not considered as sufficiently precise ; but still, to manifest the sensibility of the United States to what concerned the welfare of America, and to the friendly feelings of the Spanish- American states, the president determined to accept their invitations and to send ministers, with the consent of the senate. In March, 1829, a call having been made in the senate for copies of the instructions given to our ministers at Panama, Mr. Adams transmitted them, and they were soon afterward pub- lished, notwithstanding a rancorous attempt on the part of the opposition, to prevent their appearance ; so creditable were they to the administration that was going out of power, and to Mr. Clay, their author ; and so completely did they refute the slanders which had been propagated in connection with the mission. Few state papers in the archives of the government will compare, in point of ability, with this letter of instructions of Mr. Clay. It was, perhaps, the most elaborate paper prepared by him while in the department of state. The liberal principles of commerce and navigation which it proposed ; the securities for neutral and maritime rights which it sought ; the whole system of interna- tional and American policy which it aimed to establish ; and the preparatory measures which it recommended for uniting the. two or.euns by a canal, constitute it one of the boldest; most original, comprehensive, and statesman-like documents on record. Another masterly paper from the pen of Mr. Clay, is his letter of May, 1825, to our minister at St. Petersburgh, Mr. Middleton F 122 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. instructing him to engage the Russian government to contribute its best exertions toward terminating the contest then existing between Spain and her colonies. The appeal was not in vain. Through Mr. Clay's exertions, the policy of recognising the in- dependence of Greece, and sending a minister to that country was also at length acquiesced in ; and the effect of that recog- nition the first she had experienced in rousing the spirit of the struggling nation, is a matter of history. The number of treaties negotiated by Mr. Clay at the seat of the general government, is greater than that of all which had ever been previously concluded there from the first adoption of the constitution. His diplomatic experience his attractive man- ners his facile and unceremonious mode of transacting business, rendered him a favorite with the foreign ministers at Washington, and enabled him to procure from them terms the most advantage- ous to the country. During his incumbency as secretary, he concluded and signed treaties with Colombia, Central America, Denmark, Prussia, and the Hanseatic republic ; and effected a negotiation with Russia for the settlement of the claims of Amer- ican citizens. He also concluded a treaty with Austria, but did not remain in office to see it signed. His letters to Mr. Gallatin, our minister at London, in relation to the trade between the United States and the British colonies, are documents of extraordinary interest and value, which ably advocate a durable and obligatory arrangement by treaty, in pref- erence to other modes of settlement. His letters to the same functionary, on the navigation of the St. Lawrence, and to our charge at London, relative to the northeastern boundary, exhibit much research, and a sagacious, enlightened, and truly American spirit. Never was the diplomacy of the country so efficiently and creditably conducted, as when under the charge of Henry Clay. It has been justly said that no policy could be more thoroughly anti-European, and more completely American, than that of Mr. Adams's administration. He would exclude all farther European colonization from the American continent ; all interference of European monarchs, especially those of the miscalled holy alli- ance, in American politics ; he would render his own country POLICY OF MR. ADAMS'S ADMINISTRATION. 123 essentially independent of European work-shops, by fostering American arts, manufactures, and science, and would strengthen her power, by rendering her force more available through the in- strumentality of internal improvements. To these objects his efforts were directed. Mr. Clay had long been the acknowledged head of the demo- cratic party ; the most vigorous, eloquent, and consistent cham- pion of their principles ; and we may add, that such he has ever continued. In giving his vote for Mr. Adams, he believed and events justified his belief that he would secure to the country an administration attached to the same leading policy that had characterized the administrations of Madison and Mon- roe, with this additional advantage : that it would be decidedly friendly to those great measures of protection and internal improve ment, of which he had been the early and persevering advocate. But the elements of opposition, which had remained inactive during the eight years of Mr. Monroe's presidency, began to form and combine against his successor almost before he was " warm in his chair." The character of these elements was somewhat heterogeneous ; and the partisan managers were long puzzled to find some principles of cohesion in their opposition. The policy of Mr. Adams upon all important questions coincided with that of the majority, and was sanctioned by the example of his great democratic predecessors. At the commencement of his term of office, he had declared his intention to follow that example in the general outlines. He made it a rule to remove no man from office, except for official misconduct, and to regard in the selection of candidates for vacancies, only their moral and intellectual qualifications. He .thus voluntarily relinquished the support which he might have derived from executive patronage, and placed the success of his administration simply upon the merit of its principles and its measures. What possible ground of opposition, therefore, could be discovered or invented? " No matter : his administration must be put down ;" for an army of aspirants and office-seekers were in the field. In the words of one of the most distinguished of General Jackson's supporters, the administration must be put down, " though as pure as the angels at the right hand of God" 124 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. Such being the tone of feeling among the opposition, it is not a matter of surprise that the weapons employed against Mr. Adams and his friends were of a character directly the opposite of "angelic." In the first place, a gross and utterly unfounded charge of corruption was brought against the president and the secretary of state. We have seen how utterly exploded, by the most positive and overwhelming testimony, that miserable slan- der has been. Charges of extravagance were then made against the government ; and a paltry bill for crockery and furniture for the White-House was magnified into an accusation against the plain, frugal, and unassuming Mr. Adams of an intention to ape the extravagance and splendor of European potentates. The or- dinary and established expenditures of the government were ex- amined with new and unexampled rigor, for the purpose of pro- ducing the belief that they originated with the administration ; and an assertion on his part of the president's constitutional right to appoint, in the vacation of Congress, diplomatic agents to transact the foreign business of the country was construed into a new and unconstitutional power. It having been discovered that the secretary of state had, in some ten or dozen cases, transferred the employment of publish- ing the laws from one printing establishment to another, a great clamor was raised about an attempt to corrupt the press. The secretary was charged with selecting the papers for political and personal objects ; and a resolution was offered, in the house of representatives, requiring him to communicate the changes which had been made, and his reasons therefor. But, on its being dis- covered that the house had no jurisdiction of the case, the inquiry was dropped. By way of showing the consistency of the opposi- tion, at the very time the detachment in the house were arraign- ing Mr. Clay for changing the publication of the laws from one newspaper to another, their brethren in the senate, under the guidance of Mr. Van Buren, were engaged in an attempt to de prive the National Intelligencer of the printing of that body ! Shortly before the termination of the second session of the nineteenth Congress, Mr. Floyd of Virginia announced to the public that the " combinations" for effecting the elevation of Gen- eral Jackson were nearly complete. During the session, symp- THE COLONIAL BILL. 125 toms of the coalition began to appear ; and on several questions an organized opposition was made manifest. Of these, we need only enumerate the bankrupt act, the bills for the gradual im- provement of the navy, authorizing dry docks and a naval school, the appropriations for surveys and internal improvement, the con- troversy between Georgia and the general government respecting the Creek treaty, the bills to augment the duty on imported wool- lens, and closing the ports of the United States against British vessels from the colonies, after a limited period. With regard to the colonial bill, the conduct of the succeeding administration upon the subject of the West India trade may make a brief outline of facts not inappropriate in this place. \t the first session of the nineteenth Congress, a bill was introduced into the senate to accept, so far as practicable, the terms pro- posed by the British acts of ] 825, regulating the intercourse of foreign powers with her West India islands. Owing to the long and interminable debates for political effect in that body at that session, the bill was not passed, and in the vacation the British government interdicted the trade. The next session, measures of retaliation were proposed, but no definite steps were taken until the close of the session ; and by a disagreement between the two houses, the bill was lost, and the executive was com- pelled to close our ports abruptly without any conditions. The manner in which Mr. Van Buren afterward, when secretary of state, availed himself of this fact, to disparage the administration of Mr. Adams before the British ministry and nation, is well known : and the mendicant appeals which, in his instructions to our minister at the court of St. James's, he directed to be made to the English negotiators, remain a stigma on the diplom- acy of the United States. The West India trade was a fair and proper subject of convention between the two countries, to be settled on the basis of mutual rights and reciprocal interests. The honor of our country forbade any other course. If England would not. deign to treat on this subject, it was not for us to coax her haughty ministers into concession by legislative enactments. Such was the elevated and patriotic view of the subject taken by Mr. Clay. Directly opposite were the views afterward taken and the course adopted by Mr. Van Buren. 126 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. As Mr. Adams's administration drew to a close, it began to be apparent that it was not destined to a second term. The strongest appeals were made to the sectional feelings of the western states in behalf of the candidate of the opposition ; and these appeals were but too successful. In the various sections of the Union, opposite reasons were urged with effect against the administration. New York and Pennsylvania were operated upon by an assertion, industriously circulated, that General Jack- son was the candidate of the democracy of the country, and this impression contributed to create a strong party in the states of Maine and New Hampshire. Nothing could be more untrue than the assertion. Many of the leaders of the old federal party were the most ardent personal opponents of Mr. Adams, and became the most effective enemies of his administration. These men might afterward be heard claiming to be the orthodox democratic party, and denouncing Henry Clay the early opponent of the alien and sedition laws the friend and supporter of Jefferson's ad- ministration the main pillar of Madison's and the most active originator and advocate of the last war as a federalist ! The truth is that it has fared with the principles of federalism as with its men. In the time of Mr. Monroe there was a gen- eral blending of parties. A new and distinct formation, on grounds at first purely personal, was made during the adminis- tration of General Jackson. As soon as there was a division on principles, the worst part of the old federalists some of the most bitter and envenomed the black-cockade gentry, who had passed their younger years in writing pasquinades on Mr. Jef- ferson's breeches, and had been in the habit of thanking Heaven that they had " no democratic blood in their veins" went over to General Jackson, and carried with them a spirit of ultraism, ay, and of ultra-federalism, which was developed in the protest, and proclamation, and many of the leading measures of his ad- ministration. The more moderate, prudent, and patriotic, joined with the democratic party, and formed the great whig party of the country. The ultras of the old party coalesced, and the combination was naturally tory* * In one of the skirmishes between Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun, durinfr the eub-treasury A U 1? ion> Mr - Clft y took U P among other topic?, this question of federalism. Mr. Calhoun I c- ,i d to the fri end9 of his opponent as members of the federal party. Hir. said Mr. Clay, " I am ready to go into an examination with the honorable senator ANDREW JACKSON ELECTED PRESIDENT. 127 Upon the assembling of the twentieth Congress, it was ascer- tained, by the election of the speaker, that a majority of the house was opposed to the administration ; and this victory was soon followed by such an accession from those who were uncom- mitted in the senate as to give a majority to the same party in that body. Thenceforward the administration was not allowed, of course, a fair trial ; and every question was discussed with a view to political effect. At length, in the autumn of ] 828, the presidential election took place, and resulted in the choice of Andrew Jackson, by one hundred and seventy-eight votes in the primary electoral colleges, given by sixteen states, including Virginia and Georgia, which, in the previous election, had cast their votes for Mr. Crawford. Mr. Adams was supported by the six New England states ; by New Jersey, which had previously voted against him ; by Delaware, and sixteen votes from New York, and six from Maryland. Mr. Calhoun obtained the same vote for vice- president, that General Jackson did for president, except seven votes in Georgia, which were thrown away upon William Smith of South Carolina, Mr. Rush received the whole vote of the administration party for vice-president. Thus ended the administration of John Quincy Adams, during which our domestic and foreign affairs were never more ably and prosperously conducted. The foreign policy of the govern- " merit had only in view the maintenance of the dignity of the national character, the extension of our commercial relations, and the successful prosecution of the claims of American citizens upon foreign governments. The domestic policy was no less liberal, active, and decided ; and never was there a more groundless political libel than that which impeached the integrity and economy of that administra- at any time, and then we shall see if there are not more members of that game old federal party amoni; those whom the senator has so recently joined than on our side of the house. The plain tru.tk is. that it in the old federal party with -whom he is now acting. For all the former grounds of difference which distinguished that party, and were the subjects of con- tention between them and the republicans, have ceased, from lapee of time and change of circumstances, with the exception of one, and that is the maintenance and increase of executive power. This was a leading policy of the federal party. A strong, powerful, and energetic executive was its favorite tenet," * * * " I can tell the gentleman, that he will find the true old democratic party, who were for resisting the encroachments of power, and limiting executive patronage, on this tide of the senate, and not with his new allies, the Jackson-Van- Bwen- Democratic party, whose leading principle is to sustain the executive, and deny all power to the legislature : and which does not hold a solitary principle in common with the r publican party of 1798." 128 LIFE OF HENRY CLAT. tion. As the charge of extravagance was the argument mos vehemently urged against Mr. Adams's administration, it may be well in this place to glance at its plausibility. The aggregate expenditures of the several administrations from 1789 to 1838, exclusive of the public debt, and payments under treaty stipula- tions, including the expenses and arrearages of the last war with Great Britain, were : Washington's administration, 8 years, $15,890,698 55 John Adams's Jefferson's Madison's Monroe's J. Q. Adams's Jackson's 21,348,356 19 41,100,788 88 144,684,944 86 99,363,509 64 49,725,721 26 144,579,847 72 . Total $516,693,867 10 From this statement it appears that the reforming, retrenching, economical, democratic administration of General Jackson, that expressed such a holy horror at Mr. Adams's extravagance, cost the country as much as the administration of Mr. Madison, in- cluding the outlays of an expensive war with Great Britain. Mr. Van Buren retrenched in the same ratio with his prede- cessor. The first year of his administration cost the people $33,554,341 about three times the average annual expenditure of Mr. Adams ! During the remainder of his term, the public expenses were in a like proportion. What measure of condem- nation should be bestowed upon the political hypocrites whose promised reforms and retrenchments resulted in such gross profli- gacy and neglect of the public interests ! In March, 1829, General Jackson entered upon the discharge of his official duties as president. On the 14th of the same month, Mr. Clay left Washington for his residence in Kentucky. Before quitting that city, some of the principal residents, as a parting tribute of respect, gave him a public dinner. In his speech on the occasion, he briefly reviewed the events in which he had been an actor, during the preceding four years. He al- luded to the serious charge against him, which had been brought by General Jackson, who, after summoning his friend and only witness (Mr. Buchanan) to establish it, and hearing that witness promptly and unequivocally deny al. knowledge whatever of any ATTEMPT TO INJURE HIS PRIVATE CREDIT. 129 transaction that could throw the slightest shade upon the charac- ter of the accused, maintained a stubborn and persevering silence upon the subject, instead of magnanimously acknowledging his error, and atoning for the gross injustice of which he had been guilty. " But," said Mr. Clay, " my relations to that citizen, by a recent event, are now changed. He is the chief magistrate of my country, invested with large and extensive powers, the ad- ministration of which may conduce to its prosperity, or occasion its adversity. Patriotism enjoins, as a duty, that while he is in that exalted station, he should be treated with decorum, and his official acts be judged in a spirit of candor." Such was the patriotic spirit with which Mr. Clay regarded the elevation of General Jackson, and in which he was prepared to judge of the acts of the new administration. The political enemies of Mr. Clay were not, however, content with misrepresenting his public course. They lifted, with a rude and ruffianly hand, the veil from his private affairs, and attempted to destroy his private credit, by charging him with bankruptcy. The consequence was the publication of a letter from Mr. Clay to Robert Wickliffe, Esq., dated May 24, 1828, in which the falsehoods of his assailants were fully confuted. He admitted that he had incurred a heavy responsibility, about ten years before, as endorser for his friends, to which cause his temporary retire- ment from public life, and the renewal of his professional labors, were to be attributed. The mortgages upon his estate did not amount to ten thousand dollars, and, before the expiration of the year, he hoped there would not remain one fifth of that sum. "I have hitherto," says Mr. Clay, in this letter, "met all my engagements by the simplest of processes: that of living within my income, punctually paying interest when I could not pay principal, and carefully preserving my credit I am not free absolutely from debt I am not rich. I never coveted riches. But my estate would, even now, be estimated at not much less than one hundred thousand dollars. Whatever it may be worth, it is a gratifica- tion for me to know that it is the produce of my own honest labor no part of it being hereditary, except one slave, who would oblige me very much if he would accept his freedom. It is sufficient, after paying all my debts, to le-xve my family above want, if I should be separated from them. It is a matter also of consolation to me to know, that this wanton exposure of my private affairs can do me no pecuniary prejudice. My few creditors will not allow their confidence in me to be shaken by it It has, indeed, led to one incident, which was at the same time a source of pleasure and of pain. A friend lately called on me, at the instance of other friends, and informed me F* 9 130 HFE OF HENRY CLAY. that they were apprehensive that my private affairs were embarrassed, and that I allowed their embarrassment to prey upon my mind. He came, there- fore, with their authority, to tell me that they would contribute any sum that I might want to relieve me. The emotions which such a proposition excited, can be conceived only by honorable men. I felt most happy to be able to undeceive them, and to decline their benevolent proposition." X. RETURN TO KENTUCKY AGAIN UNITED STATES SENATOR. THERE are few men who can bear defeat more gracefully, or with more unaffected good humor, than Mr. Clay. Relieved from his official toils as secretary of state, his health rapidly improved, and his fine spirits expanded unchecked. On his journey from the seat of government, previous to his arrival at Uniontown in Penn- sylvania, the roads being extremely bad, he sent his private vehicle ahead, and took the stage-coach. Finding it disagreeable within, however, he removed to an outside seat, next the driver, and, in that situation, entered Uniontown. The good people of the place expressed a great deal of surprise at seeing the ex-secretary in that lofty and yet humble position. " Gentlemen," replied Mr. Clay, " although I am with the outs, yet I can assure you that the ins behind me have much the worst of it." On his way to Kentucky, Mr. Clay received continual testi- monials of the attachment and esteem of the people. He was invited to innumerable public dinners, but was able to appear only at a few. At Frederick in Maryland, he made an admirable speech at one of these complimentary festivals, on the 18th of March, 1829. On the 31st of the same month, he dined with the mechanics at Wheeling, whom he addressed principally in re- lation to the American system manufactures and internal im- provements. He reached his home at Ashland, with his family, the 6th of April, having been met at some distance from Lexing- ton by a large number of friends, by whom he was most affec- tionately received. On the 16th of May, a great public dinner was given to him at Fowler's garden, by his fellow-townsmen. Three thousand sai RETURN TO KENTUCKY TRIUMPHANT RECEPTION. 131 down at the table ; and Mr. Clay spoke for the space of one hour and thirty-five minutes ; the following appropriate toast having been previously given : " Our distinguished guest, friend, and neighbor, HENRY CLAY with increased proofs of his worth, we delight to renew the assurance of our confidence in his patriotism, talents, and incorruptibility may health and happiness attend him in retirement, and a grateful nation do justice to his virtues." Mr. Clay's speech, on this occasion, is one of the choicest specimens of his eloquence, being pervaded by some of the finest characteristics of his style, although there is, of course, an absence of those impassioned appeals, which would have been out of place. The exordium is full of pathos and beauty. He had been separated for four years from his friends and neighbors. After devoting the best energies of his prime to the service of his country, he had been grossly traduced and injured, and his most conspicuous traducer had been elevated to the presidency. He had returned home once more ; and now saw before him, gathered together to do him honor, to renew their assurances of attachment and confidence, sires with whom, for more than thirty years, he had interchanged friendly offices their sons, grown up during his absence in the public councils, accompanying them and all prompted by ardent attachment, surrounding and saluting him as if he belonged to their own household. After alluding, in the happiest manner, to some of these cir- cumstances, Mr. Clay reviewed briefly the course of the past ad- ministration referred to the clamor which had been raised against Mr. Adams for proscription when the fact was, that not a solitary officer of the government, from Maine to Louisiana, was dismissed on account of his political opinions, during the whole of Mr. Adams's administration contrasted this course with that which President Jackson commenced so soon after his installation and eloquently pointed out the evil consequences of the introduction of a tenure of public office, which depended upon personal attachment to the chief magistrate. In concluding his remarks, Mr. Clay touchingly expressed his gratitude to his fellow-citizens of Kentucky, who had " constantly poured upon him a bold and unabated stream of innumerable favors." The closing sentences of the speech are in the genuine t '32 LIVE OF HENRY CLAY. language ot the heart which can not be counterfeited, and which none can so eloquently employ as Henry Clay. "When," said he, "I felt as if I should sink beneath the storm of abuse and detraction, which was violently raging around me, I have found myself upheld and sustained by your encouraging voice and your approving smiles. I have, doubtless, committed many faults and indiscretions, over which you have thrown the broad mantle of your charity. But I can say, and in the presence of my God and of this assembled multitude I will say, that I have honestly and faithfully served my country ; that I have never wronged it ; and that, however unprepared I lament that I am to appear in the Divine Presence on other accounts, I invoke the stern justice of his judgment on my public conduct, without the smallest apprehension of his displeasure." During the summer and autumn of 1829, Mr. Clay visited several parts of the state of his adoption, and everywhere he was hailed as a friend and public benefactor. On the 17th of De- cember, he addressed the Kentucky Colonization Society, at Frankfort in a speech, in which he eloquently vindicated the policy and character of that benevolent institution. He had been an early and constant advocate of the system of colonization. In his speech before the American Colonization Society, delivered the 20th of January, 1827, in the hall of the house of representa- tives at Washington, we find the following impressive passage : " It is, now a little upward of ten years, since a religious, amiable, and benevolent resident of this city (Mr. Caldwell) first conceived the idea of planting a colony, from the United States, of free people of color, on the western shores of Africa. He is no more, and the noblest eulogy which could be pronounced on him, would be to inscribe upon his tomb the merited epitaph 'Here lies the projector of the American Colonization Society.' Among others, to whom lie communicated the project, was the person who now has the honor of addressing you. My first impressions, like those of all who have not fully investigated the subject, were against it. They yielded to his earnest persuasions and my own reflections, and I finally agreed with him that the experiment was worthy a fair trial." After presenting, in a clear and forcible light, the project of the society for the gradual extinction of slavery, Mr. Clay remarked in regard to it : "All, or any one of the states which tolerate slavery may adopt and exe- cute ft, by co-operation or separate exertion. If I could be instrumental in eradicating this deepest stain upon the character of our country, and removing all cause of reproach on account of it by foreign nations If 1 could only be instrumental in ridding of this foul blot that revered state that gave me birth, or that nut less beloved state which kindly adopted me as her son, I would not exchange the proud satisfaction which I should enjoy, for the honor of all tht triumphs ever decreed to the most successful conqueror" VISITS NEW ORLEANS. 133 To the system of colonization, we believe, Mr. Clay yet looks as a means for diminishing the proportion of the black population to the white in the slave states, until emancipation would be com- patible with the security and interests of the latter. In January, 1 830, Mr. Clay made a visit to one of his married daughters at New Orleans. Although appearing there as a private citizen, he found it impossible to escape those attentions which the public gratitude suggested. He was daily visited by crowds of persons, including members of the legislature and judges of the different courts. The ship-masters, who were in port, waited in a body upon him as the champion of free trade and sailors' 1 rights. Declining an invitation to a public dinner, he left New Orleans for Natchez, on his way home, the 9th of March. As the boat in which he had embarked, quitted the pier, the scene was of the most animated description. The levee and the tops of the steamboats, a great number of which were in port, exhibited a crowded and almost unbroken mass of spectators, col- lected to see him and do him honor. The shouting multitude, the elevation of flags, and the roar of cannons, which burst from the crowd of surrounding vessels, as the boat moved off, pre- sented altogether one of the most imposing spectacles that could be imagined. It was a grand civic ovation, as honorable to the subject of it as any triumph which ever greeted a military con- queror. At Natchez, persons from all parts of Mississippi were waiting to meet him. The press of the crowd into the steamboat con- taining the illustrious visiter was so great as to excite alarm ; and the mass collected on the wharf was so dense, that much time and exertion were required to make way through it. Soon after his arrival, he accepted a pressing invitation to a public dinner. A vast concourse assembled on the occasion. His speech is described as unusually felicitous. He was several times obliged to stop speaking for some minutes while the enthusiasm of his hearers exhausted itself in repeated rounds of applause. In the course of his remarks, having occasion to allude to the battle of New Orleans, he paid a generous tribute to Gen. Jackson. Henry Clay never Avas the man to detract from the merits of evm his most unrelenting opponents. 134 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. On the 27th of March, Mr. Clay reached Lexington, having declined numerous invitations to public dinners on his route. He had stopped on his way, unpremeditatedly, at Donaldsonville, the new seat of government of Louisiana, to see the public build- ings, and pay his respects to some of his old friends and ac- quaintances. Unexpectedly entering the hall of the house of representatives, he was immediately recognised, and the whole body, including the speaker and members of all parties, simulta- neously rose to receive him. In the summer of 1830, having business in the circuit and dis- trict courts of Ohio, he visited Columbus, where he was cordially welcomed by the mechanics, at whose celebration the following appropriate toast was given : "Our inestimable guest, HENRY CLAY. An efficient laborer in support of the industry of the country. Farmers and mechanics know how to appre- ciate his services." His entry into Cincinnati was quite imposing. All classes assembled to welcome his approach. He here dined with the mechanics, and his speech upon the occasion is an eloquent vin- dication of the American system, and a just rebuke of the odious doctrine of nullification, which was then beginning to be preach- ed in South Carolina and Georgia. In the autumn of 1831, Mr. Clay was elected to the senate ol the United States by the legislature of Kentucky, by the follow- ing vote : In the senate, Henry Clay, 18; Richard M. John- son, 19 ; Warden Pope, 1. In the house of delegates, Clay, 55; Johnson, 45. At the first session of the twenty-second Con- gress, he presented his credentials, and took his seat once more in a body where, twenty-five years before, he had made his in- fluence felt, and his talents respected. Contemporaneous with his reappearance in the senate, was the meeting of the National Republican Convention, which as- sembled at Baltimore, on the twelfth of December, 1831, and unanimously nominated HENRY CLAY to the office of president of the United States, and JOHN SERGEANT to that of vice-presi- dent. The subject of the tariff began to be vehemently agitated in Congress early in the session of 1831 -'32. The discontent of AGAIN IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 185 the south was assuming an alarming aspect ; and the system of protection, which Mr. Clay had labored so long and incessantly to establish, was threatened with material qualifications, if not a complete overthrow. In that conciliatory spirit, which he had manifested on many critical occasions, he now approached this exciting topic. On the ninth of January, 1832, he introduced a resolution, providing that the existing duties upon articles im- ported from foreign countries, and not coming into competition " r ith similar articles made or produced within the United States, ought to be forthwith abolished, except the duties upon wines or silks, and that they ought to be reduced ; and that the committee on finance be instructed to report a bill accordingly. This reso- lution he sustained in an admirable speech of about two hours' duration, in which he spoke warmly in favor of the maintenance of the protective policy and that of internal improvement. Mr. Hayne followed in reply ; and on the second of February, the subject being still under discussion before the senate, Mr. Clay commenced his ever-memorable speech in defence of the American system against the British colonial system. It was con- tinued on the next day, and finally completed on the sixth of the same month. Such a chain of irrefragable argument as it pre- sents, with facts the most cogent and appropriate, has rarely been forged by human ingenuity. It will be referred to by future statesmen as their political text-book, when the protective policy is called in question. After an impressive exordium, he alluded to the distress of the country after the war. The period of greatest distress was seven years previous to the year 1824 : the period of greatest prosper- ity the seven years following that act. He then gave a picture of the flourishing condition of the country. He maintained that all the predictions of the enemies of the tariff, in 1824, had been falsified by experience that all the benefits which he had anticipated had been realized. He alluded to all the in- terests now protected all mechanic arts navigation agri- culture and manufactures. He argued that the tariff began in 1789, which established the great principle of protection. It was the second act of the first Congress sanctioned by the Father of his country, and most of the eminent statesmen of that 136 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. day. Mr. Clay then traced the history of the subject down \f- 1816; commented on the tariff of that year, its object, extent, and policy ; then the tariff of 1824 ; the amendment of the sys- tem in 1828 the bill of which year was framed on principles di- rectly adverse to the declared wishes of the friends of the policy of protection, although the error then perpetrated was corrected by subsequent legislation. After a graphic description of the beneficial effects of the pol- icy which they were now called upon to subvert, Mr. Clay asked what was the substitute proposed by those whose design was the immediate or gradual destruction of the American system ? The reply is as appropriate to the enemies of the system now as it was ten years ago. "Free Tirade! Free Trade!* The call for free trade is as unavailing as the cry of a spoiled child, in his nurse's arms, for the moon or the stars that glitter in the firmament of heaven. It never has existed. It never will ex- ist. Trade implies at least two parties. To be free, it should be fair, equal, and reciprocal. But if we throw our ports wide open to the admission of foreign productions, free of all duty, what ports, of any other foreign nations, shall we find open to the free admission of our surplus produce? We may break down all barriers to free trade, on our part, but they will not be com- plete until foreign powers shall have removed theirs. There would be free- dom on one side, and restrictions, prohibitions, and exclusions, on the other. The bolts, and the bars, and the chains of all other nations will remain un- disturbed." * * * * "Gentlemen deceive themselves. It is not free trade that they are recommending to our acceptance. It i*, in effect, the British colonial system that we are invited to adopt ; and if their policy pre- vail, it will lead substantially to the recolonization of these states, under the commercial dominion of Great Britain." In the course of his speech, Mr. ( Clay had occasion to intro- duce the following remarks upon the Irish character. They show his high appreciation of the worth of an important class of our adopted fellow-citizens : " Of all foreigners, none amalgamate themselves so quickly with our peo- ple as the natives of the Emerald Isle. In some of the visions which have passed through my imagination, I hare supposed that Ireland was, origin- ally, partrand parcel of this continent, and that, by some extraordinary con vulsion of nature, it was torn from America, and, drifting across the ocean, was placed in the unfortunate vicinity of Great Britain. The same open- heartedness, the same generous hospitality, the same careless and uncalcu- * " Fair Trade and Sailors' Rights," was the toast given by the late Mr. Gilmer, the day of the fatal accident on board the Princeton. The substitution of n single word illuminate* the whole subject A " fair trade" is what Mr. Clay has alwuya aimed to secure for hi* co in try. LETTER OF THOMAS H. BENTON. 13T lating indifference about human life, characterize the inhabitants of both countries. Kentucky has been sometimes called the Ireland of America. And I have no doubt that, if the current of emigration were leversed, and set from America upon the shores of Europe, instead of bearing from Europe to America, every American emigrant to Ireland would there find, as every Irish emigrant here finds, a hearty welcome and a happy home !" On the 13th of March, Mr. Dickerson, from the committee on manufactures, reported, in conformity with Mr. Clay's resolution, a bill for repealing the duties upon certain specified articles of import. The bill was opposed at the threshold because it did not embrace the whole subject of the tariff; because it made no reduction of duties upon protected articles. An animated debate ensued, and the bill was laid upon the table. After undergoing numerous modifications in both houses, it was finally passed by Congress in July, 1832. By this new law, the principles for which Mr. Clay and the rest of the friends of domestic industry had contended, were preserved. The revenue was greatly re- duced, but the protective system remained unimpaired. Of Mr. Clay's efforts, in the establishment of that system, no one has more impressively spoken than Thomas Hart Benton, senator in Congress from Missouri, who, in a circular signed by him, and first published in the "Missouri Intelligencer," October 22, 1824, gives utterance to these just and eloquent sentiments : "The principles which would govern Mr. Clay's administration, if elected, are well-known to the nation. They have been displayed upon the floor of Congress for the last seventeen years. They constitute a system of AMER- ICAN POLICY, based on the agriculture and manufactures of his own country upon interior as well as foreign commerce upon internal as well as sea- board improvement upon the independence of the new world, and close commercial alliances with Mexico and South America. It is said that others would pursue the same system ; we answer that the founder of a system is the natural executor of his own work ; that the most efficient protector of American iron, lead, hemp, wool, and cotton would be the triumphant cham- pion of the new tariff; the safest friend to interior commerce would be the statesman who has proclaimed the Mississippi to be the sea of the west; the most zecilous promoter of internal improvements would be the president who has triumphed over the president who opposed the construction of na- tional H>a/ Governor Barbour, of Virginia, after expressing his concur- rence in the will of the convention, said he had known Mr. Clay for thirty years, and had been intimately associated with him in public and private life, and that a more devoted patriot or purer statesman never breathed. In the course of that thirty years he had nevejr heard him utter one sentiment unworthy this character. There was no place in his heart for one petty or selfish emotion. Benjamin Watkins Leigh anticipated the concurrence of Vir- ginia in the nomination. He had felt it his duty to support his more intimate and endeared friend, Henry Clay, but he acknowl- edged the worth of General Harrison. He had supported the former to the last from the firmest conviction that no other man was so fitted to the crisis so transcendently qualified for the highest office in the gift of the American people as Henry Clay. He never thought that Mr. Clay needed the office, but the coun- try needed him. That office could confer no dignity or honor on Henry Clay. The measure of his fame was full ; and when- ever the tomb should close over him it would cover the loftiest intellect and the noblest heart that this age had produced or known. The venerable Peter R. Livingston, of New York, an able and ardent supporter of Mr. Clay, said in regard to him " I envy Kentucky, for when he dies, she will have his ashes !" A candidate for the vice-presidency remained to be nominated by the convention. He was found in the person of John Tyler, of Virginia. By what unfortunate chance this selection vis JOHN TYLER. 199 made, it is unnecessary now to inquire. It must be said in ex- culpation ot' those, however, who acquiesced in it, that there was no good reason for doubting Mr. Tyler's political fidelity and attachment to Whig principles. On all the great questions of public policy he was considered as pledged to the support of those measures for which the whig party had been battling du- ring the last ten years. On the subject of the public lands, he had, as a member of the Virginia legislature, in 1839, declared himself, both in a report and a speech, an advocate of the meas- ure of distribution. In a speech before the United States sen- ate, he had condemned, in unequivocal terms, the abuse of the veto power. He went to Harrisburg, as he himself has said, m favor of Henry Clay he voted for him in his own delegation vp to the seventh and last ballot and, if his own words are to be believed, he teas affected even to tears, when the nomination was given by the convention to another. Surely, it can not be said that he might have been in favor Mr. Clay's nomination to the presidency, and yet opposed to the most important public meas- sures to which that distinguished statesman had ever rendered his support. On the question of a bank, it was, with reason, believed that Mr. Tyler's views were similar to those maintained by the great Whig party of the country. While a member of the convention at Harrisburg, he had made to Governor Owen, of North Caro- lina, chairman of the committee, through whom all nominations must reach the convention, the following communication : * "That his views on the bank question had undergone an entire change, that he believed the establishment of a national bank to be alike indispen- sable as a fiscal agent of the government^ and to the restoration of the cur- rency and exchanges of the country : and he thought that all constitutional objections ought to yield to the various executive, legislative, and judicial decisions of the question." In addition to all these circumstances, the simple fact of Mr. Tyler's presence in the convention of his silent approval of all those important measures which were regarded as consequent upon the election of a whig president was, in the minds of honorable men, equivalent to a pledge that those measures would, in any event, continue to meet his ready and earnest support. * See the address of the delegates from Maryland, in the Harrieburg convention, to their constituents. These facts will be found eloquently set forth in that able paper. 200 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. Under the influence of considerations like these, the conven tion unanimously nominated John Tyler, of Virginia, for the vice- presidency ; and, having taken this step, adjourned. A deep disappointment was felt throughout the Whig ranks at the failure of the convention to nominate Mr. Clay for the presi- dency ; but the magnanimous sentiments expressed in his letter, read at the convention, soon began to animate his friends ; and they manifested their devotion to principles rather than to men, by rallying vigorously in support of the selected candidates. With regard to John Tyler, he was very imperfectly known out of Virginia ; and if little could be said in his favor, still less could be said to his prejudice. The office of vice-president was generally regarded as one of comparatively slight consequence ; and there seemed to be an utter absence of all apprehension of the contingency, by which its importance was so fearfully mag- nified. Future conventions will never forget the lesson which Mr. Tyler has given to his countrymen and their posterity. XVIII. THE CAMPAIGN OF 1840. MR. CLAY'S efforts in the democratic whig cause appear not to have been less ardent, incessant, and faithful, during the con- gressional session of 1839-'40, than at any previous period of his career. The just expectations of his friends had been thwarted at Harrisburg ; but that circumstance did not seem either to effect his spirits, or to damp the ardor of his opposition to that policy which he believed injurious to the best interests of his country. He acquiesced promptly, heartily, and nobly, in the nomination of General Harrison, and did not manifest, on any occasion, a lurking feeling of disappointment. He took an early occasion in the senate to reiterate the sentiments expressed in his letter, read at the convention ; and he showed himself prepared to do vigorous battle in behalf of the principles which he and his associates had been struggling, for the last twelve years, to maintain. RELATIONS WITH MR. CALHO0N. 201 In the senate, on the 3d of January, 1840, Mr. Southard moved the reconsideration of an order of reference of Mr. Calhoun's land bill to the committee on public lands. The proposition gave rise to a passage between Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Clay, in which severe language was employed on both sides. Allusions being made to their respective political careers at the time of the force bill and the compromise act, Mr. Calhoun said that the gentleman from Kentucky was flat on his back at that time, and was com- pelled to the compromise and that he (Mr. Calhoun) was then his master. In reply, Mr. Clay, in the ardor of his feelings, remarked : " The gentleman has said that I was flat on my back that he was my master on that occasion. He my master ! Sir, I would not own him for my slave !"* The principal questions on which he spoke during the session were : on the abolition of slavery ; on the bankrupt bill ; the Maine boundary line ; Mr. Calhoun's bill to cede the public lands to the states in which they lie ; the navy appropriation bill ; the independent treasury bill ; the branch mints ; the ex- penditures of government ; the Cumberland road ; repeal of the salt tax ; and the bankrupt bill. His opinions on nearly all these subjects are so well-known as to render a recapitulation unne- cessary. Notwithstanding the indications of public hostility, and " in spite of the lamentations" in Congress " and elsewhere," Mr. Van Buren and his friends continued to press their odious sub- treasury project, now newly christened under the name of the " independent treasury bill." Against this measure Mr. Clay battled with undiminished vigor and zeal. On the 20th of Janu- ary, 1 840, he addressed the senate in one of his most spirited speeches, in opposition to the bill, which he truly designated as * Mr. Clny is not the man to harbor the harsh feelings sometimes engendered in animated debate. After his farewell speech, on resigning his seat in the senate, as he was about to leave the chamber, he encountered Mr. Calhoun. They had not spoken to each other for five years ; but they now simultaneously extended their hands, and cordially greeted each other, while the tears sprang to their eyes. They had almost spent their lives together in Congress ; and during the war, and at various times subsequently had stood shoulder to shoulder, animated by the game patriotic impulses and aspirations. Time had passed over both, and the young men had become old. For a minute or more, they could not speak, BO overcome were both with emotion. At length Mr. Clay said, on parting, " Give my best regards to Mrs. Calhoun," and they bade each other farewell. I* 402 LIFE Or HENRY CLAY. a government bank in disguise, demonstrating the assertion by proofs the most convincing. "A government bank," said Mr. Clay, "may not suddenly bvfrst upon us, but there it is embodied in this bill. Let the re-election of the present chief magistrate be secured, and you will soon see the bank disclosing its genuine character. But, thanks be to God 1 there is a day of reckoning at hand. All the signs of the times clearly indicate its approach. And on the 4th day of March, in the year of our Lord 1841, I trust that the long account of the abuses and corruptions of this administration, in which this measure will be a conspicuous item, will be finally and for ever adjusted." He introduced, on this occasion, a bill for the repeal of the sub-treasury system, but it was not acted upon until the will of the people was so peremptorily spoken, that longer resistance to it, on the part of Mr. Van Buren and his friends, was impossi- ble. During the summer of 1840, Mr. Clay, visited his native coun- ty of Hanover, and was everywhere hailed with enthusiasm and reverence. At a public dinner given to him at Taylorsville, June 27th, 1840, he addressed a vast assemblage of his friends in a speech, which may be referred to as a text-book of his po- litical faith. It is probably in the hands of too many of our readers to render an abstract of it useful in this place. Although his opinions on all public questions of importance have been always frankly avowed, he defines his position in this speech with unusual minuteness and precision. With a view to the fundamental character of the government itself, and especially of the executive branch, he maintains that there should be either by amendments of the constitution, when they were neces- sary, or by remedial legislation, when the object fell within the scope of the powers of Congress : 1st A provision to render a person ineligible to the office of president of the United States after a service of one term. 2d. That the veto power should be more precisely defined, and be sub- jected to further limitations and qualifications. 3d. That the power of dismission from office should be restricted, and the exercise of it rendered responsible. 4th. That the control over the treasury of the United States should be confided, and confined exclusively, to Congress ; and all authority of the president over it, by means of dismissing the secretary of the treasury, or other persons having the immediate charge of it. be rigorously precluded. 6th. That the appointment of any members of Congress to any office, or any but a few specific offices, during their continuance in office, and fo. one year thereafter, be prohibited. ELECTION OF GENERAL HARRISON. 203 Mr. Clay was among the most active of those who took part in the campaign of 1840 which terminated in the complete triumph of the whigs. On the 17th of August, 1840, he addressed the Harrison convention at Nashville, Tennessee, in an interesting and eloquent speech. In allusion to the professions of the Van Buren party to be democrats par excellence, he very happily said : " Of all their usurpations, I know of none more absurd than the usurpation of this name." " I WAS BORN A DEMOCRAT," said he, subsequently in a speech delivered in Indiana "rocked in the cradle of the Revolution and at the darkest period of that ever-memorable struggle for freedom. I recollect, in 1781 or 1782, a yisit made by Tarleton's troops to the house of my mother, and of their running their swords into the new-made graves of my father and grandfather, thinking they contained hidden treasures. Though then not more than four or five years of age, the circumstance of that visit is vividly remembered, and it will be to the last moment of my life. I was born a democrat was raised and nurtured a republican and shall die a republican in the faith and principles of my fathers." XIX. THE XXVIITH CONGRESS TYLERISM. THE election of General Harrison to the presidency in the autumn of 1840, by an immense majority, was hailed by the whigs as the triumphant consummation of their long and arduous twelve years' struggle against the destructive principles and measures which had prevailed during the ascendency of Jackson and Van Buren. A majority of the people had at length passed their solemn verdict against those measures, and in favor of the legislation for which Mr. Clay and the whigs in Congress had been so unanimously contending. Before commencing his jour- ney to the seat of government, General Harrison visited Mr. Clay, and personally tendered him any office in the president's gift. Mr. Clay respectfully declined all invitations of this kind, 204 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. and announced his intention of retiring from the senate as soon as the objects for which he and his friends had been laboring so strenuously, were placed in a train of accomplishment. The session of Congress preceding the new president's instal- lation, found Mr. Clay at his post, still prompt and active in the service of his country. On the land bill the repeal of the sub- treasury the bill to establish a uniform system of bankruptcy the treasury-note bill the pre-emption and distribution project and other important questions, on which his views are familiar to our readers, he addressed the senate with his accustomed elo- quence and energy. In his speech of the 28th of January, 1841, on the land bill, he entered into an able vindication of whig principles and measures, as contrasted with those of the expiring administration. There being still a Van Buren majority, Mr. Clay's resolutions, repealing the sub-treasury, after affording oc- casion for some eloquent debates, were laid on the table, the 19th of February. Some remarks being made in the senate by Mr. Cuthbert, toward the close of the session, of a character preju- dicial to Mr. Webster, Mr. Clay eloquently vindicated that dis- tinguished senator, and bore testimony to his exalted merits. The second session of the 26th Congress terminated on the night of the 3d of March the Van Buren men having refused to pass a bankrupt bill, and other important measures. The day after the adjournment, General Harrison was inaugurated Presi- dent of the United States ; and, on the 18th of March, he issued his proclamation for an extra session of Congress, to commence on the last Monday in May. Before that period arrived, and pre- cisely a month after his inauguration, the venerable president de- parted this life ; and, by a provision of the constitution, John Tyler of Virginia, the vice-president, was invested with the authority of president of the United States. The extraordinary session of Congress, convened by the proc- lamation of the lamented Harrison, took place at the appointed time, the last Monday in May, 1841. Never was there a body of representatives who came together with a more patriotic and honorable desire faithfully to execute the will of their constituents, the majority of the people of the United States, than the whigs, who composed the 27th Congress. Mr. Clay at once took acttva MR. TYLER'S VETO OF THE BANK-BILL. 205 and decided measures for the prompt despatch of the public busi- ness. The subjects which he proposed to the senate, as proper exclusively to engage their deliberations during the extra session, were : 1st. The repeal of the sub-treasury law. 2d. The incorporation of a bank adapted to the wants of the people and the government 3d. The provision of an adequate revenue by the imposition of duties, and including an authority to contract a temporary loan to cover the public debt created by the last administration. 4th. The prospective distribution of the proceeds of the public lands. 5th. The passage of necessary appropriation bills. 6th. Some modifications in the banking system of the District of Columbia for the benefit of the people of the district In the formation of committees, Mr. Clay was placed at the head of that on finance ; and, on his motion, a select committee on the currency, for the consideration of the bank question, was appointed. Of this committee he was made chairman. Early in June, he presented his admirable report of a plan for a national bank ; and, after a thorough discussion, the bill was passed, which, on the 16th of August, called forth a veto from President Tyler. On the 19th of the same month, Mr. Clay addressed the senate on the subject of this veto. His remarks, although apparently made " more in sorrow than in anger," are pervaded by the spirit of unanswerable truth ; and, in his rejoinder to Mr. Rives, on the same day, he rises to a height of eloquence never surpassed on the floor of Congress. In the opinion of many of his hearers, it was one of the most brilliant speeches of his whole senatorial career. On this occasion, he showed, by irresistible proofs, that . the question of a bank was the great issue made before the peo- ple at the late election. " Wherever I was," said he " in the great valley of the Mississippi in Kentucky in Tennessee in Maryland in all the circles in which I moved, everywhere, bank or no bank was the great, the leading, the vital question." Not long after the veto, as Mr. Clay, with two or three friends, was passing the treasury buildings, along the road leading to Pennsylvania avenue, he noticed a procession of gentlemen, walk- ing two by two, toward the White House. ' ; In the name of wonder, what have we here ?" exclaimed Mr. Clay, whilp his features lighted up with one of those mischievous smiles, which 206 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. are so contagious, seen on his countenance. It was a procession of the Van Buren members of Congress, going personally to con- gratulate John Tyler on his veto ! The incident was not forgotten by Mr. Clay. The scene was too rich and piquant to pass unnoticed. On the 2d of September, a suitable opportunity presented itself in the senate, for a com- mentary on the occurrence ; and he availed himself of it in a manner which entirely overcame the gravity of all parties present. He gave an imaginary description of the scene at the White House, and the congratulations lavished upon the president by his new friends. He pictured to the senate the honorable member from Pennsylvania (Mr. Buchanan) approaching the throne, and contributing his words of encouragement and praise to those which had been offered by the rest. The imaginary speech which he put into the lips of this gentleman, on this occasion, was so characteristic, that Mr. Buchanan subsequently complain- ed in the senate, that it had been gravely attributed to him by several journals, as having been actually delivered, and that he could not divest many of his worthy constituents in Pennsylvania of the idea. The figure of Mr. Benton, was one of too much importance not lo be introduced by Mr. Clay into this fancy sketch. " I can tell the gentleman from Kentucky, that I was not at the White House on the occasion to which he alludes," said the Mis souri senator, interrupting him. " Then I will suppose what the gentleman would have said if Jie had been present," continued Mr. Clay, without suffering his imagination to be checked in its flight. And he then represented he wordy and pompous Missourian bowing at the executive foot- stool, and tendering his congratulations. The space to which we have been restricted, will not allow us to present even an imperfect sketch of the whole scene. We can only refer the reader to it as one of the most felicitous of those legitimate presentations of the ludicrous, made to illustrate the true, which some times occur to enliven the barrenness of legislative debate. The events which succeeded the veto, are too recent in the minds of the people to render a minute enumeration necessary BILLS PASSED AT THE EXTRA SESSION. 20'* here. They are forcibly summed up in Mr. Adams's excellent report on the president's veto of the revenue bill. A second bank bill, shaped to meet the avowed views of the president, was pre- pared, passed, and then vetoed. The cabinet, with the exception of Mr. Webster, resigned ; and the great purposes for which the special session of Congress had been called, was defeated by the will of one man, who owed his influential position to his professed attachment to whig principles, and his declared preference for Mr. Clay as a candidate for the presidency. Mr. Clay was unremitted in his application to the public busi- ness during the extra session. He spoke on a great variety of questions, and, being at the head of two important committees, performed a great amount of hard work. Although his principal medsurp for the public relief was defeated by the unlooked-for defection of John Tyler, he had the satisfaction of aiding in the repeal of the odious sub-treasury system in the passage of the bankrupt law and in the final triumph of his favorite measure, often baffled, but still persevered in, the distribution of the sales of the public lands. By a provision fastened upon this act by the amendment of another, distribution was to cease whenever the average rate of duties on imports should exceed 20 per cent, A revision of the tariff, rendered necessary by the expiration of the compromise act, was also undertaken. This was the most important subject which engaged the attention of the 27th Con- gress, at its first regular session. To meet the exigency of the occasion, a provisional bill, suspending the operation of the dis- tribution bill for one month, as well in consequence of a lack of funds in the treasury, as of a desire on the part of Congress to give more mature consideration to the subject of a tariff, was passed. But it encountered still another and another veto from the president. It has been asserted that Mr. Clay and his friends did not de- sire an adjustment of the tariff question, during the session of 1841-'42. Nothing could be more unfounded than this charge. In spite of discomfiture and mortification, they persevered in their efforts for the relief of the country, and evently surrendered the distribution clause to meet the views of the president ; and the tariff bill finally became a law, through the patriotic endeavors 208 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. of the friends of Mr. Clay, notwithstanding the attempt of Mr Tylei to crush their energies and arouse their opposition. On the 31st of March, 1842, after one of the longest congres- sional careers known in our annals, Mr. Clay resigned his seat m the senate of the United States. It having been previously understood that he would take occasion, in presenting the creden- tials of his successor, Mr. Crittenden, to make some valedictory remarks, the senate-chamber was, at an early hour, crowded to its utmost capacity, by members of the other house, and by a large assemblage of citizens and ladies. Some of Mr. Clay's best friends had looked forward with apprehension to this event wearing the aspect, as it did, of a formal and appointed leave- taking. They remembered that there was but one step from the sublime to the ridiculous, and they dreaded lest the truly im- pressive character of the occasion might be marred, or divested of its dignity, by any farewell words. But Mr. Clay had hardly risen to speak before their apprehensions were lost and forgotten in a deep and absorbing interest in the language that flowed calmly, smoothly, and majestically from his lips. He referred to the period of his first entrance into the senate, in 1 806. He paid a merited compliment to the high character of that body, and to the ability of its individual members ; but added that, full of at traction as was a seat in that chamber, to fill the aspirations ol the most ambitious heart, he had long determined to forego it, and to seek repose among the calm pleasures of " home." It had been his purpose, he said, to terminate his connection with the senate in November, 1840. Had President Harrison lived, and the measures devised at the extra session been fully carried out, he would have then resigned his seat. But the hope that at the regular session the measures left undone might be still perfected, induced him to postpone his determination ; and events, which arose after the extra session, resulting from the failure of those measures which had been proposed at that session, and which appeared to throw on his political friends a temporary show of defeat, confirmed him in the resolution to attend the present session also and, whether in prosperity or adversity, to share the fortune of his friends. But he resolved, at the same I FAREWELL -SPEECH TO THE SENATE. time, to retire as soon as he could do so with propriety and de- cency. Mr. Clay then continued as follows : "From 1806, the period of my entry on this noble theatre, with short in- tervals, to the present time, I hare been engaged in the public councils, at home and abroad. Of the nature or the value of the services rendered during that long and arduous period of my life, it does not become me to speak ; history, if she deigns to notice me, or posterity, if the recollections of my humble actions shall be transmitted to posterity, are the best, the truest, the most impartial judges. When death has closed the scene, their sentence will be pronounced, and to that I appeal and refer myself. My acts and public conduct are a fair subject for the criticism and judgment of my fellow- men; but the private motives by which they have been prompted they are known only to the great Searcher of the human heart and to myself; and I trust I may be pardoned for repeating a declaration made some thirteen rears ago, that, whatever errors and, doubtless, they have been many may >e discovered in a review of my public service to the country, I can, with unshaken confidence, appeal to the Divine Arbiter for the truth of the dec- laration, that I have been influenced by no impure purposes, no personal motive hve sought no personal aggrandizement ; but that in all my public nets, I have had a sole and single eye, and a warm and devoted heart, direct- ed and dedicated to what, in my judgment^ I believed to be the true interest of my country." Mr. Clay then alluded to the fact that, in common with other public men, he had not enjoyed an immunity from censure and detraction. But he had not been unsustained. And here the allusion to the persecutions of his assailants, led to the mention of Kentucky, the state of his adoption noble Kentucky who, when the storm of calumny raged the fiercest, and he seemed to be forsaken by all the rest of the world, threw her broad and im- penetrable shield around him, and bearing him up aloft in her courageous arms, repelled the poisoned shafts aimed for his de- struction. As Mr. Clay uttered the name of Kentucky, his feel- ings overpowered him the strong man was bowed with emotion he passed his fingers before his eyes for a moment then rallied, and proceeded with his remarks. To the charge of dic- tatorship, which was so often in the mouths of his opponents at that time, Mr. Clay replied temperately and happily. We can quote but a fragment of this portion of his valedictory ad- dress : "That my nature is warm, my temper ardent, my disposition, especially in relation to the public service, enthusiastic, I am fully ready to own ; and those who supposed that I have been assuming the dictatorship, have onl mistaken for arrogance or assumption, that fervent ardor and devotion whici 14 210 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. is natural to my constitution and which I may have displayed with little re- gard to cold, calculating, and cautious prudence, in sustaining and zealously supporting important national measures of policy which I have presented and proposed." The truly generous qualities of Mr. Clay's nature, shine forth from every line of the following passage : "During a long and arduous career of service in the public councils of my country, especially during the last eleven years I have held a seat in the senate, from the same ardor and enthusiasm of character, I have, no doubt, in the heat of debate, and in an honest endeavor to maintain my opinions against adverse opinions equally honestly entertained, as to the best course to be adopted for the public welfare, I may have often inadvertently or uninten- tionally, in moments of excited debate, made use of language that has been offensive, and susceptible of injurious interpretation toward my brother senators. If there be any here who retain wounded feelings of injury or dissatisfaction produced on such occasions, I beg to assure them that I now offer the amplest apology for any departure on my part from the established rules of parliamentary decorum and courtesy. On the other hand, I assure the senators, one and all, without exception, and without reserve, that I re- tire from this senate-chamber without carrying with me a single feeling of resentment or dissatisfaction toward the senate or any of its members." Mr. Clay concluded this memorable address by invoking, in a tone which thrilled through every heart, the blessings of Heaven upon the whole senate and every member of it. The hushed suspense of intense feeling and attention, pervaded the crowded assemblage as he sat down. For nearly half a minute after he had finished, no one spoke no one moved. There was not a dry eye in the senate-chamber. Men of all parties seemed equally overcome by the pathos and majesty of that farewell. At length, Mr. Preston of South Carolina, rose and remarked, that what had just taken place was an epoch in their legislative his- tory ; and, from the feeling which was evinced, he plainly saw that there was little disposition to attend to business. He would, therefore, move that the senate adjourn. The motion was unanimously agreed to ; but even then the whole audie*nce seemed to remain spell-bound by the effect of those parting tones of Mr. Clay. For several seconds no one stirred. " In all probability, we should have remained there to this hour," said an honorable senator to us recently, in describing the scene, " had not Mr. Clay himself risen, and moved toward he area." And then, at length, slowly and reluctantly, the as- emblage dispersed. RETURN TO KENTUCKY. * 1 Shortly after the adjournment, as Mr. Calhoun was crossing the senate-chamber, he and Mr. Clay encountered. For five years they had been estranged ; and the only words which had passed between them had been those harshly spoken in debate. But now, as they thus inadvertently met, the old times came over them. They remembered only their political companionship of twenty years' standing. The intervening differences which had chilled their hearts toward each other, were forgotten. The tears sprang to their eyes. They shook each other cordially by the hand interchanged a " God bless you !" and parted. We have alluded elsewhere briefly to this scene. It was a happy sequel to the leading events of the day. XX. MR. CLAY A PRIVATE CITIZEN HIS VIEWS. ON his return to Kentucky, after retiring from public life, Mr. Clay was received with all those manifestations of enthusiastic affection which it is possible for a grateful constituency to exhibit. On the 9th of June, 1842, he partook of a public entertainment, or barbecue, given in his honor near Lexington. The speecn which he delivered on this occasion, is probably fresh in the recollection of many of our readers. Containing, as it does, many personal reminiscences of his past career, and a review of those leading questions of policy upon which we have already given his opinions, it is one of the most interesting of his numerous addresses to popular assemblies. Early in October, 1842, being on a visit to Richmond, in the state of Indiana, the occasion of his meeting a large concourse of his fellow-citizens, was seized upon by a number of his politi- cal opponents to present him with a petition praying him to emancipate his slaves in Kentucky. It was thought that even Henry Clay would be nonplused and embarrassed by so inop- portune and unexpected an appeal. A Mr. Mendenhall was elected to present him with the petition, and expectation was 212 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. raised to the highest pitch among the few who were in the secret, and who were far from being Mr. Clay's well-wishers, to hear what he would say. Never did he acquit himself more felici- tously than on this occasion. The indignation was great among the assembly, when they learned the object with which Mr. Mendenhall had made his way through their midst to the spot where Mr. Clay stood. They re- garded it as an insult to him and his friends ; and the probability is, that Mr. Mendenhall would have had some palpable proof of their sense of his impertinence, had not Mr. Clay instantly ap- pealed to the assembly in the following terms : "I hope that Mr. Mendenhall may be treated with the greatest forbear- ance and respect I assure my fellow-citizens, here collected, that the pres- entation of the petition has not occasioned the slightest pain, nor excited one solitary disagreeable emotion. If it were to be presented to me, I prefer that it should be done in the face of this vast assemblage. I think I can give it such an answer as becomes me and the subject of which it treats. At all events, I entreat and beseech my fellow-citizens, for their sake, for my Bake, to offer no disrepect, no indignity, no violence, in word or deed, to Mr. Mendenhall." Then, turning to Mr. Mendenhall : " Allow me to say, that I think you have not conformed to the independent character of an American citizen in presenting a petition to me. A petition, as the term implies, gener- ally proceeds from an inferior in power or station to a superior ; but between us there is entire equality." Mr. Clay remarked, in continuation, that he desired no con- cealment of his opinions in regard to the institution of slavery. He looked upon it as a great evil, and deeply lamented that we had derived it from the parental government and from our ances- tors. But, without any knowledge of the relation in which he stood to his slaves, or their individual condition, Mr. Mendenhall and his associates had presented a petition calling upon him forth- with to liberate the whole of them. " Now let me tell you," said Mr. C., " that some half a dozen of them, from age, decrepitude, or infirmity, are wholly unable to gain a livelihood for themselves, and are a heavy charge upon me. Do you think that I should conform to the dictates of humanity by ridding myself of that charge, and sending them forth into the world, with the boon of liberty, to end a wretch- ed existence in starvation ?" In conclusion, Mr. Clay admirably exposed the hypocrisy of the petitioners by the following proposition, in regard to which they have never taken any steps : " I shall, Mr. Mendenhall, take your petition into respectful and deliberate consideration ; but before I come to a final decision, / should like to know WHIG CONVENTION AT DAYTON. 213 what you and your associates are willing to do for the slaves in my possession, if I should think proper to liberate them. I own about fifty, who are proba bly worth fifteen thousand dollars. To turn them loose upon society, witB out any means of subsistence or support, would be an act of cruelty. Are you willing to raise and secure the payment of fifteen thousand dollars for their benefit, if I should be induced to free them ? The security of the pay- ment of that sun>, would materially lessen the obstacle in the way of their emancipation." Mr. Clay finished his remarks with some friendly advice to Mr. Mendenhall, which it is probable that individual will never forget. The tables were completely turned upon those who had thought to annoy and embarrass the great Kentuckian. The bearer of the petition and his associates were suffered to slink away unnoticed and unheeded by the crowd. There has never been any concealment on Mr. Clay's part, of his opinions on the subject of slavery. Through the whole course of this memoir, they will be found scattered from the period when he first advocated the gradual eradication of slavery from Kentucky, in 1797, to the present moment. In his speech before the Colonization society, in 1827 [see Chapter X. of the present work], nothing can be more explicit than the language he employs. We refer those who would be enlightened further in regard to his views, to that eloquent address. On the 29th of September, 1842, Mr. Clay attended the great whig convention at Dayton, Ohio, where ONE HUNDRED THOU- SAND WHIGS are believed to have been assembled. " At 8 o'clock," says one of the actors in the scene, " when every street in the city was filled, and there seemed no resting-place for any, the procession was formed. This occupied a long time. When done, the order, ' March !' was given ; and, in solid mass, we moved to welcome the great statesman, Henry Clay, into the city. He was met near the city, and, at half-past 9 o'clock, reached the neighborhood of the National hotel. Here a beautiful sight was witnessed. One hundred and twenty-five children, as the honest patriot approached, welcomed him with songs! Their sweet voices rang out in merry peals, and the multitude responded to it with the heartiest enthu- siasm. After this, Mr. Clay occupied a stand for some time, as the procession passed by, welcoming him to Ohio, and, in return, receiving his salutations. " When the procession had passed, Mr. Clay retired into the hotel Gov- ernor Metcalf then appeared at the window, and delivered a speech return- ing the thanks of Kentucky for the warm-hearted reception they had met with, and bidding all who loved the name of America, to rally together in defence of American liberty and American labor. "Mr. Schenck read resolutions, prepared by the committee, nominating Henry Clay and John Davis for the whig candidates for 1844. At this time Mr. Clay was seen in the crowd, and then, as if there had been one voice only, the shout went forth for the statesman of the nation. He answered it ; Z14 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. and, in a speech of two hours, plain, yet eloquent, he spoke, concealing no opinion, disguising no wish, the multitude all the while listening with eager attention and breathless silence. And such a speech 1 It was a master-effort of a master-spirit Of this tremendous meeting Mr. Clay afterward remarked, that of all the crowds in Europe or elsewhere, he never saw one so great. A vast sea of human heads surrounded the platform, cov- ering many acres. In the month of December, 1842, Mr. Clay, having private business in New Orleans, where some of his near relations reside, visited that city, stopping at Natchez, and other places on his route. He was everywhere received by the people with such enthusiastic demonstrations of popular affection as had never be- fore been bestowed upon any American except Washington. On his return homeward from Louisiana, about the middle of February, 1843, his progress was continually impeded by vast assemblages of the people to meet and welcome him. At Mo- bile, on the 2d of February, and at Vicksburg, on the 20th of February, an immense concourse of citizens collected to offer the tribute of their gratitude and respect. The honorable S. S. Prentiss addressed him, on the latter occasion, in that strain of fluent and impassioned eloquence for which that young and gifted orator is distinguished. At Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, Mr. Clay was met and welcomed by the largest concourse ever assembled in the state. At Memphis, Tennessee, crowds of citizens from the surround- ing region assembled to tender him their affectionate respects, to look on and listen to the greatest living champion of their coun- try's honor and interests. Thus felicitated and welcomed on his route, Mr. Clay, with more than a conqueror's trophies, returned, in fine health and spirits, to Ashland, just as spring was begin- ning to fringe with green the old oaks that waved around his homestead. Early in April, he addressed a large body of his fellow-citi- zens in the courthouse yard at Lexington ; and, in the course of his remarks, acknowledged, in appropriate language, the atten- tions which had been paid to him, and the honors which had been showered upon him by all parties during his late trip to the southwest. LETTER TO 8. F. BRON8ON. 215 It having been understood that Mr. Clay would make a tour to the southeast during the autumn of 1843, innumerable letters from committees in all sections of the country were poured in upon him, requesting him to visit a multitude of places, both on his route and aside from it. The task of replying to these letters must alone have been exceedingly laborious. North Carolina was, we believe, the first to claim from him a visit. In his re- ply to a committee of citizens of Raleigh, dated 10th July, 1843, he consents to pay a visit, some time in the course of the next spring to that state, which was " the first to declare the inde- pendence of .the colonies, and will be among the last to abandon the support of the Union." Several letters from Mr. Clay, on the subject of the tariff, ap- peared during the summer of 1843. Nothing could be more ex- plicit and undisguised than the expression of his views. In his reply, dated 13th September, 1843, to a letter from S. F. Bron- son, Esq., of Georgia, asking his opinions in regard to the pro tective policy of 1832, he writes : "The sura and substance of what I conceive to be the true policy of the United States, in respect to a tariff, may be briefly stated. In conformity with the principle announced in the compromise act, I think, that whatever revenue is necessary to an economical and honest administration of the gen- eral government, ought to be derived from duties imposed on foreign im- ports. And I believe that> in establishing a tariff of those duties, such a discrimination ought to be made, as will incidentally afford reasonable pro- tection to our national interests. " I think there is no danger of a high tariff being ever established ; that of 1828 was eminently deserving that denomination. I was not in Congress when it passed, and did not vote for it ; but with its history and with the circumstances which gave birth to it> I am well acquainted. They were highly discreditable to American legislation, and I hope, for its honor, will never be again repeated. "After my return to Congress, in 1831, my efforts were directed to the modification and reduction of the rates of duty contained in the act of 1828. The act of 1832 greatly reduced and modified them; and the act of 1883, commonly called the compromise act, still farther reduced and modified them. The act which passed at the extra session of 1841, which I support- ed, was confined to the free articles. I had resigned my seat in the senate when the act of 1842 passed. Generally the duties which it imposes are lower than those in the act of 1832. And, without intending to express my opinion upon every item of this last tariff, I would say that 3 think the pro- visions, in the main, are wise and proper. If there be any excesses or de- fects in it (of which I have not the means here of judging), they ought to be corrected. " My opinion, that there is no danger hereafter of a high tariff, is founded on the gratifying fact that our manufactures have now taken a deep root In 216 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. their infancy, they needed a greater measure of protection ; b