"
In one of his speeches on this subject Clay foreshadows a great
American Zollverein.
In one of his speeches on this subject Clay foreshadows a great
American Zollverein.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v07 - Cic to Cuv
3759 (#117) ###########################################
MATTHIAS CLAUDIUS
3759
Not everywhere the vine bedecks our border,
As well mountains show,
That harbor in their bosoms foul disorder;
Not worth their room below.
Thuringia's hills, for instance, are aspiring
To rear a juice like wine;
But that is all; nor mirth nor song inspiring,
It breathes not of the vine.
And other hills, with buried treasures glowing,
For wine are far too cold;
Though iron ores and cobalt there are growing,
And 'chance some paltry gold.
The Rhine, the Rhine,- there grow the gay plantations!
Oh, hallowed be the Rhine!
―
Upon his banks are brewed the rich potations
Of this consoling wine.
Drink to the Rhine! and every coming morrow
Be mirth and music thine!
And when we meet a child of care and sorrow,
We'll send him to the Rhine.
Ο
WINTER
A SONG TO BE SUNG BEHIND THE STOVE
LD Winter is the man for me-
Stout-hearted, sound, and steady;
Steel nerves and bones of brass hath he:
Come snow, come blow, he's ready!
If ever man was well, 'tis he;
He keeps no fire in his chamber,
And yet from cold and cough is free
In bitterest December.
He dresses him out-doors at morn,
Nor needs he first to warm him;
Toothache and rheumatis' he'll scorn,
And colic don't alarm him.
In summer, when the woodland rings,
He asks "What mean these noises? »
## p. 3760 (#118) ###########################################
3760
MATTHIAS CLAUDIUS
Warm sounds he hates, and all warm things
Most heartily despises.
But when the fox's bark is loud;
When the bright hearth is snapping;
When children round the chimney crowd,
All shivering and clapping;-
When stone and bone with frost do break,
And pond and lake are cracking, -
Then you may see his old sides shake,
Such glee his frame is racking.
Near the North Pole, upon the strand,
He has an icy tower;
Likewise in lovely Switzerland
He keeps a summer bower.
So up and down - now here—now there -
His regiments manœuvre;
When he goes by, we stand and stare,
And cannot choose but shiver.
NIGHT SONG
HE moon is up in splendor,
And golden stars attend her;
THE
The heavens are calm and bright;
Trees cast a deepening shadow;
And slowly off the meadow
A mist is rising silver-white.
Night's curtains now are closing
Round half a world, reposing
In calm and holy trust;
All seems one vast, still chamber,
Where weary hearts remember
No more the sorrows of the dust.
Translations of Charles T. Brooks.
## p. 3760 (#119) ###########################################
## p. 3760 (#120) ###########################################
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## p. 3760 (#121) ###########################################
3761
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## p. 3760 (#122) ###########################################
HENRY CLAY
## p. 3761 (#123) ###########################################
3761
HENRY CLAY
(1777-1852)
BY JOHN R. PROCTER
H
ENRY CLAY must not be judged as an orator by his reported
speeches, which are but skeletons of the masterly originals,
but by the lasting effect of these speeches on those who
heard them, and by his ability as an originator of important meas-
ures and his success in carrying these measures to a conclusion by
convincing and powerful oratory. Judged by his achievements and
by his wide-spread influence, he must take rank as a statesman and
orator of pre-eminent ability. The son of a poor Baptist clergyman,
with but scant advantages for acquiring an education; leaving home.
at an early age and going among strangers to a community where
family ties and social connections were a controlling element; - this
poor boy, with no family influence, assumed at once, by sheer force
of character and ability, a leadership which he held undisputed until
his death. And years after he had passed away, it was the "fol-
lowers of Henry Clay" who kept Kentucky from joining the States
of the South in their unsuccessful efforts to withdraw from the
Union.
Of his oratory Robert C. Winthrop wrote after a lapse of years:
"I can only bear witness to an impressiveness of speech never
exceeded, if ever equaled, within an experience of half a century,
during which I have listened to many of the greatest orators on both
sides of the Atlantic. " As a parliamentary leader, Rhodes calls him
the greatest in our history. "His leadership," says Mr. Schurz,
(( was not of that mean order which merely contrives to organize a
personal following; it was the leadership of a statesman zealously
striving to promote great public interests. "
As a presiding officer he was the most commanding Speaker the
National House of Representatives has ever had. Winthrop, who
served long with him in Congress, said of him:-"No abler or more
commanding presiding officer ever sat in the Speaker's chair on
either side of the Atlantic. Prompt, dignified, resolute, fearless, he
had a combination of intellectual and physical qualities which made
him a natural ruler over men. " He was six times elected Speaker,
sometimes almost by acclamation; and during the many years
which he presided over the House not one of his decisions was ever
reversed.
VII-236
## p. 3762 (#124) ###########################################
3762
HENRY CLAY
As a Secretary of State, during his term of four years the trea-
ties with foreign countries negotiated by him exceeded in numbers
all that had been negotiated by other secretaries, during the previous
thirty-five years of our constitutional history. As a diplomat, he
showed himself at Ghent more than a match for the trained diplo-
matists of the old world.
And with all these he was- at his ideal country home, Ashland,
surrounded by wooded lawns and fertile acres of beautiful blue-grass
land- a most successful farmer and breeder of thoroughbred stock,
from the Scotch collie to the thoroughbred race-horse. I have been
told by one who knew him as a farmer that no one could guess
nearer to the weight of a Shorthorn bullock than he. He was as
much at home with horses and horsemen as with senators and
diplomats. I have known many men who were friends and followers
of Mr. Clay, and from the love and veneration these men had for his
memory, I can well understand why the historian Rhodes says,
"No man has been loved as the people of the United States loved
Henry Clay. "
Clay seemed to have had honors and leadership thrust upon him.
Arriving in Kentucky in 1797, he at once advocated the gradual
emancipation of slaves, regardless of the strong prejudices to the
contrary of the rich slaveholding community in which he had cast
his lot; yet, unsolicited on his part, this community elected him to
the State Legislature by a large majority in 1803, and before three
years of service he was chosen by his fellow members to fill a
vacancy in the United States Senate. And until his death in 1852,
his constituents in Kentucky vied with each other in their desires
to keep him as their representative in either the national Senate or
House of Representatives. He entered the latter in 1811, and was
selected as Speaker of that body almost by acclamation on the first
day of his taking his seat. After a long life spent in his country's
service he was elected unanimously to the Senate in 1848, despite
party strife and the fact that the two parties were almost evenly
divided in Kentucky.
No attempt can here be made to even recapitulate the events of
importance connected with his long public services. I will call atten-
tion only to some of the most important measures which he carried
by his magnificent leadership.
WAR OF 1812
Clay assumed the leadership of those who urged resistance to the
unjust and overbearing encroachments of Great Britain, and he more
than any one else was instrumental in overcoming opposition and
## p. 3763 (#125) ###########################################
HENRY CLAY
3763
forcing a declaration of war. This war-a second war for inde-
pendence, which changed this country from a disjointed confederacy
liable to fall asunder, to a compact, powerful, and self-respecting
Union - will ever be regarded as one of the crowning glories of his
long and brilliant career. He proved more than a match in debate
for Randolph, Quincy, and other able advocates for peace. When
asked what we were to gain by war, he answered, "What are we not
to lose by peace? Commerce, character, -a nation's best treasure,
honor! "
In answer to the arguments that certificates of protection author-
ized by Congress were fraudulently used, his magnificent answer,
"The colors that float from the mast-head should be the credentials
of our seamen," electrified the patriots of the country. There is
but a meagre report of this great speech, but the effect produced was
overwhelming and bore down all opposition. It is said that men of
both parties, forgetting all antipathies under the spell of his elo-
quence, wept together. Mr. Clay's first speech on entering Congress.
was in favor of the encouragement of domestic manufactures, mainly
as a defensive measure in anticipation of a war with Great Britain;
arguing that whatever doubts might be entertained as to the general
policy of encouraging domestic manufactures by import duties, none
could exist regarding the propriety of adopting measures for produc-
ing such articles as are requisite in times of war. If his measure for
the increase of the standing army had been adopted in time, the
humiliating reverses on land during the early part of the war would
have been averted. He carried through a bill for the increase of the
navy, and the brilliant naval victories of the war of 1812 followed.
In the debate on the bill to provide for a standing army, it was
argued that twenty-five thousand could not be had in the United
States. Clay aroused the people of Kentucky to such enthusiasm that
fifteen thousand men volunteered in that State alone, and members of
Congress shouldered their muskets and joined the ranks.
TREATY OF GHENT
Henry Clay's faith in the destiny of his country, and his heroic
determination that a continuation of the war was preferable to the
terms proposed, prevented humiliating concessions. The American
Commissioners were Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams, Albert Galla-
tin, James A. Bayard, and Jonathan Russell, and the British Com-
missioners Lord Gambier, Henry Goulbourn, and William Adams.
The news received by Clay on his arrival in Europe was not calcu-
lated to inspire him with hope. From Mr. Bayard he received a
## p. 3764 (#126) ###########################################
3764
HENRY CLAY
letter (dated April 20th, 1814) with news of the triumph of the allies
over Napoleon, and stating:-
"There is reason to think that it has materially changed the views of the
British Ministry. . . The great augmentation of their disposable force
presents an additional temptation to prosecute the war. »
By the same mail Mr. Gallatin writes from London (April 22d,
1814):-
-
"You are sufficiently aware of the total change in our affairs produced by
the late revolution, and by the restoration of universal peace in the European
world, from which we are alone excluded. A well-organized and large army
is at once liberated from any European employment, and ready, together with
a superabundant naval force, to act independently against us.
How ill pre-
pared we are to meet it in a proper manner, no one knows better than your-
self; but above all, our own divisions and the hostile attitude of the Eastern
States give room to apprehend that a continuation of the war might prove
vitally fatal to the United States. "
Mr. Russell writes from Stockholm (July 2d, 1814): —
"My distress at the delay which our joint errand has encountered has
almost been intolerable, and the kind of comfort I have received from Mr.
Adams has afforded very little relief. His apprehensions are rather of a
gloomy cast with regard to the result of our labors. »
Mr. Crawford, our Minister to France, who with Clay favored a
vigorous prosecution of the war, writes to him (July 4th, 1814):-
"I am thoroughly convinced that the United States can never be called
upon to treat under circumstances less auspicious than those which exist at
the present moment, unless our internal bickerings shall continue to weaken
the effects of the government. »
-
With discouraging news from home, the seat of government taken,
and the Capitol burned, the Eastern States opposing the war and
threatening to withdraw from the Union, and his fellow commis-
sioners in the despondent mood evidenced by the above-quoted let-
ters, it is amazing that Clay, whom some historians have called a
compromiser by nature, opposed any and all concessions and wished
that the war should go on.
By the third article of the treaty of 1783 it was agreed that citi-
zens of the United States should not fish in the waters or cure fish
on the land of any of the maritime provinces north of the United
States after they were settled, without a previous agreement with the
inhabitants or possessors of the ground.
## p. 3765 (#127) ###########################################
HENRY CLAY
3765
By the eighth article of the same treaty, it was agreed that the
navigation of the Mississippi River should ever remain free and open
to the subjects of Great Britain and the United States. It was
then supposed that the British Canadian possessions included the
head-waters of this river. By the Jay treaty of 1794 this was con-
firmed, and "that all ports and places on its eastern side, to which-
soever of the parties belonging, might be freely resorted to and used
by both parties. " At this time Spain possessed the sovereignty of
the west side of the river, and both sides from its mouth to 31°
north latitude. The United States acquired by the Louisiana pur-
chase of 1803 all the sovereignty of Spain which had previously
been acquired by France.
Gallatin proposed to insert a provision for the renewal to the
United States of the rights in the fisheries, and as an equivalent to
give to Great Britain the right to the navigation of the Mississippi
River. This was favored by Gallatin, Adams, and Bayard, and
opposed by Clay and Russell. Mr. Clay, seeing that he was in a
minority, stated that he would affix his name to no treaty which
contained such a provision. After his firm stand Mr. Bayard left the
majority. Clay's "obstinacy" in opposing concessions is well shown
in Mr. Adams's Journal:-
"To this last article [the right of the British to navigate the Mississippi
River] Mr. Clay makes strong objections. He is willing to leave the matter
of the fisheries as a nest-egg for another war.
He considers it a
privilege much too important to be conceded for the mere liberty of drying
fish upon a desert, but the Mississippi was destined to form a most important
part of the interests of the American Union.
Mr. Clay, of all the
members, had alone been urgent to present an article stipulating the aboli-
tion of impressment. Mr. Clay lost his temper, as he generally does when-
ever the right of the British to navigate the Mississippi is discussed.
"December 11th. He [Clay] was for war three years longer. He had no
doubt but three years more of war would make us a warlike people, and
that then we should come out of the war with honor.
December 22d.
At last he turned to me, and asked me whether I would not join him now
and break off negotiations. "
After five months of weary negotiations under most adverse con-
ditions so far as the American commissioners were concerned, the
treaty was signed on December 24th, 1814. During all these months
Clay had resisted any and all concessions, and none were made.
The Marquis of Wellesley declared in the House of Lords that the
American commissioners had shown a most astonishing superiority
over the British during the whole of the correspondence.
During Mr. Clay's absence at Ghent, his admiring constituents
returned him to Congress by an almost unanimous vote.
A year
## p. 3766 (#128) ###########################################
3766
HENRY CLAY
later in Congress, Clay referred to his part in the bringing on the
war as follows:-
"I gave a vote for a declaration of war. I exerted all the little influence
and talent I could command to make the war. The war was made. It is
terminated. And I declare with perfect sincerity, if it had been permitted
to me to lift the veil of futurity and to foresee the precise series of events
which had occurred, my vote would have been unchanged. We had been
insulted and outraged and spoliated upon by almost all Europe,- by Great
Britain, by France, Spain, Denmark, Naples, and to cap the climax, by the
little contemptible power of Algiers. We had submitted too long and too
much. We had become the scorn of foreign powers and the derision of our
own citizens. What have we gained by the war? Let any man look at the
degraded condition of this country before the war, the scorn of the universe,
the contempt of ourselves; and tell me if we have gained nothing by the
war?
What is our situation now? Respectability and character abroad,
security and confidence at home. »
Clay more than any other man forced the war. It was the suc-
cessful military hero of this war-the victor of New Orleans-
who defeated him in after years for the Presidency.
MISSOURI COMPROMISE
The heated struggle in Congress over the admission of Missouri
into the Union first brought prominently forward the agitation of the
slavery question. This struggle, which lasted from 1818 to 1821,
threatened the very existence of the Union. Jefferson wrote from
Monticello:-
"The Missouri question is the most portentous one that has ever threat-
ened the Union. In the gloomiest moments of the Revolutionary War I
never had any apprehension equal to that I feel from this source. »
Mr. Schurz, writing of the feeling at the time, says:
"While thus the thought of dissolving the Union occurred readily to the
Southern mind, the thought of maintaining the government and preserving
the Union by means of force hardly occurred to anybody. It seemed to be
taken for granted on all sides that if the Southern States insisted on cutting
loose from the Union, nothing could be done but to let them go. "
The two sections were at this time so evenly balanced that the
maintenance of the Union by force could not have been successfully
attempted. The compromise which admitted Missouri to the Union
as a slave State, and recognized the right of settlers to carry slaves
into the territory south of 36° 30', was carried through by the
splendid leadership of Clay, who thus earned the title of "the great
## p. 3767 (#129) ###########################################
HENRY CLAY
3767
pacificator. " Future historians will accord to him the title of the
savior of the Union.
Upon the adoption of the compromise measures Mr. Clay resigned
his seat in Congress to give his attention to his private affairs, being
financially embarrassed by indorsing for a friend. During his stay at
home there was a fierce controversy over the issue of paper money
and relief measures to favor debtors who had become involved
through the recklessness following such inflation. Against what
seemed to be an overwhelming popular feeling, Clay arrayed himself
on the side of sound money and sound finance. In 1823 he was
again returned to the House of Representatives without opposition,
and was chosen Speaker by a vote of 139 to 42.
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS
Soon after his entrance into Congress Clay took advanced ground
in favor of building roads, improving water-ways, and constructing
canals by the general government, in order to connect the seaboard
States with the "boundless empire" of the growing West. He
became the leader, the foremost champion, of a system which was
bitterly opposed by some of the ablest statesmen of the time as
unauthorized by the Constitution. Clay triumphed, and during his
long public service was the recognized leader of a system which
though opposed at first, has been accepted as a national policy by
both of the great political parties. That he was actuated by a grand
conception of the future destiny of the country, and the needs of
such improvements to insure a more perfect union, his able speeches
on these questions will show. In one he said:-
"Every man who looks at the Constitution in the spirit to entitle him to
the character of statesman, must elevate his views to the height to which this
nation is destined to reach in the rank of nations. We are not legislating for
this moment only, or for the present generation, or for the present populated
limits of the United States; but our acts must embrace a wider scope,-
reaching northward to the Pacific and southwardly to the river Del Norte.
Imagine this extent of territory with sixty or seventy or a hundred millions
of people. The powers which exist now will exist then; and those which will
exist then exist now.
What was the object of the Convention in
framing the Constitution? The leading object was UNION,- Union, then peace.
Peace external and internal, and commerce, but more particularly union and
peace, the great objects of the framers of the Constitution, should be kept
steadily in view in the interpretation of any clause of it; and when it is sus-
ceptible of various interpretation, that construction should be preferred which
tends to promote the objects of the framers of the Constitution, to the con-
solidation of the Union. . . No man deprecates more than I do the idea
of consolidation; yet between separation and consolidation, painful as would
be the alternative, I should greatly prefer the latter. "
## p. 3768 (#130) ###########################################
3768
HENRY CLAY
Congress now appropriates yearly for internal improvements a
sum far greater than the entire revenue of the government at the
time Clay made this speech.
SPANISH-AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE
It was but natural that Clay's ardent nature and his love of liberty
would incline him to aid the people of Central and South America
in their efforts to free themselves from Spanish oppression and mis-
rule. Effective here as in all things undertaken by him, his name
must always be linked with the cause of Southern American inde-
pendence. Richard Rush, writing from London to Clay in 1825, says:
"The South-Americans owe to you, more than to any other man of
either hemisphere, their independence. " His speeches, translated
into Spanish, were read to the revolutionary armies, and "his name
was a household name among the patriots. " Bolivar, writing to him
from Bogotá in 1827, says: -"All America, Colombia, and myself,
owe your Excellency our purest gratitude for the incomparable ser-
vices which you have rendered to us, by sustaining our cause with
sublime enthusiasm.
"
In one of his speeches on this subject Clay foreshadows a great
American Zollverein. The failure of the Spanish-American republics
to attain the high ideals hoped for by Clay caused him deep regret
in after years.
THE AMERICAN SYSTEM
The tariff law of 1824 was another triumph of Clay's successful
leadership, since which time he has been called the father of what
has been termed the "American System. " It must be remembered
that Clay was first led to propose protective duties in order to prepare
this country for a war which he felt could not be avoided without
loss of national honor. When in 1824 he advocated increased tariff
duties in order to foster home industries, protection was universal;
even our agricultural products were excluded from British markets by
the Corn Laws. The man who would now advocate in Congress
duties as low as those levied by the tariff law of 1824, would be called
by protectionists of the present day a free-trader. When in 1833
nullification of the tariff laws was threatened, Clay, while demanding
that the laws should be enforced and that if necessary nullification
should be put down by the strong arm of the government, feared
that the growing discontent of the South and the obstinacy of a mil-
itary President threatened the Union, introduced and carried to a
conclusion a compromise tariff measure that brought peace to the
country.
## p. 3769 (#131) ###########################################
HENRY CLAY
3769
SECRETARY OF STATE
It was unfortunate that Clay temporarily relinquished his leadership
in Congress to accept the premiership in the Cabinet of President
Adams. Although the exacting official duties were not congenial, and
proved injurious to his health, his administration of this high office
was brilliant and able, as is well attested by the number of important
treaties concluded, and by his brilliant state papers. His instructions
to the United States delegates to the Panama Congress of American
Republics will grow in importance in the years to come, because of
the broad principles there enunciated,- that private property should
be exempt from seizure on the high seas in times of war.
His chivalrous loyalty to President Adams was fully appreciated,
and his friendship reciprocated. After the close of his administration
Mr. Adams in a speech said:
"As to my motives for tendering him the Department of State when I
did, let the man who questions them come forward. Let him look around
among the statesmen and legislators of the nation and of that day. Let him
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 President of
the United States intent only upon the honor and welfare of his country
ought to have preferred to Henry Clay. »
Just before the close of his administration President Adams offered
him a position on the bench of the Supreme Court, which he
declined.
HIS POSITION ON AFRICAN SLAVERY
Clay was a slaveholder,- a kind master,- but through his entire
public life an open advocate of emancipation. He probably received
his early predilections against slavery from his association with
Chancellor Wythe, before removing from Virginia, as indeed the
best part of his education probably came from personal contact with
that able man. The intellectual forces of the border slave States
were arrayed in favor of emancipation, until, as Clay writes with some
feeling in 1849, they were driven to an opposite course " by the
violent and indiscreet course of ultra abolitionists in the North";
but Clay remained to his death hopeful that by peaceable means
his country might be rid of this great evil. In the letter above
quoted, writing of his failure to establish a system of gradual eman-
cipation in Kentucky, he says:-
## p. 3770 (#132) ###########################################
3770
HENRY CLAY
"It is a consoling reflection that although a system of gradual emancipa-
tion cannot be established, slavery is destined inevitably to extinction by the
operation of peaceful and natural causes. And it is also gratifying to believe
that there will not be probably much difference in the period of its existence,
whether it terminates legally or naturally. The chief difference in the two
modes is that according to the first, we should take hold of the institution
intelligently and dispose of it cautiously and safely; while according to the
other it will some day or other take hold of us, and constrain us in some
manner or other to get rid of it. "
As early as 1798, he made his first political speeches in Kentucky
advocating an amendment to the State Constitution, providing for
the gradual emancipation of the slaves. Referring to the failure to
adopt this amendment, he said in a speech delivered in the capital
of Kentucky in 1829:-
"I shall never cease to regret a decision, the effects of which have been
to place us in the rear of our neighbors who are exempt from slavery, in the
state of agriculture, the progress of manufactures, the advance of improve-
ments, and the general progress of society. »
In these days, when public men who should be leaders bend to
what they believe to be the popular wishes, the example of Clay, in
his bold disregard of the prejudices and property interests of his
constituents, is inspiring.
George W. Prentice was sent from New England to Kentucky to
write a life of Clay, and writing in 1830 he says:-
-
"Whenever a slave brought an action at law for his liberty, Mr. Clay
volunteered as his advocate, and it is said that in the whole course of his
practice he never failed to obtain a verdict in the slave's favor. . . He
has been the slaves' friend through life. In all stations he has pleaded the
cause of African freedom without fear from high or low. To him more than
to any other individual is to be ascribed the great revolution which has taken
place upon this subject—a revolution whose wheels must continue to move
onward till they reach the goal of universal freedom. »
Three years before this was written, Clay in a speech before the
Colonization Society said:-
"If I could be instrumental in eradicating this deepest stain upon the
character of my country, and removing all cause of reproach on account of it
by foreign nations; if I could only be instrumental in ridding of this foul
blot that revered State which gave me birth, or that not less beloved State
which kindly adopted me as her son, I would not exchange the proud satis-
faction which I should enjoy for the honor of all the triumphs ever decreed
to the most successful conqueror. »
He longed to add the imperial domain of Texas to this coun-
try, but feared that it would so strengthen the slave power as to
## p. 3771 (#133) ###########################################
HENRY CLAY
3771
endanger the Union; and when finally he yielded to the inevitable,
the Free-Soilers threw their votes to Birney and thus defeated Clay
for the Presidency. He deprecated the war with Mexico, yet gave his
favorite son as a soldier, who fell at Buena Vista. He stood for the
reception of anti-slavery petitions by Congress, against the violent
opposition of the leading men of his own section. He continued
steadfast to the end, writing in 1849 that if slavery were, as claimed,
a blessing, "the principle on which it is maintained would require
that one portion of the white race should be reduced to bondage to
serve another portion of the same race, when black subjects of
slavery could not be obtained. " He proposed reasonable schemes for
gradual emancipation and deportation, which would, if adopted, have
averted the war and settled peaceably the serious problem. He
warned the Southerners in 1849 that their demands were unreason-
able, and would "lead to the formation of a sectional Northern party,
which will sooner or later take permanent and exclusive possession
of the Government. ”
Seeming inconsistencies in Mr. Clay's record on this subject will
disappear with a full understanding of the difficulties of his position.
Living in a State midway between the North and South, where
slavery existed in its mildest and least objectionable form, yet fully
alive to its evils, recognizing that the grave problem requiring solu-
tion was not alone slavery, but the presence among a free people of
a numerous, fecund, servile, alien race; realizing that one section of
the country, then relatively too powerful to be ignored, was ready to
withdraw from the Union rather than to submit to laws that would
endanger slavery; loving the Union with an ardor not excelled by
that of any public man in our history; wishing and striving for the
emancipation of the slaves, yet too loyal to the Union to follow the
more zealous advocates of freedom in their "higher law than the
Constitution" crusade, - Mr. Clay in his whole course on this ques-
tion was consistent and patriotic in the highest degree.
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850
The crowning triumph of a long life of great achievements was
his great compromise measures of 1850. These, with their prede-
cessors of 1821 and 1833, have caused some writers to speak of Clay as
a man of compromising nature. The reverse is true. Bold, aggress-
ive, uncompromising, and often dictatorial by nature, he favored
compromise when convinced that only by such means could civil
war or a disruption of the Union be averted. And he was right.
He averted a conflict or separation from the Union when the relative
strength of the South was such as to have rendered impossible the
## p. 3772 (#134) ###########################################
3772
HENRY CLAY
preservation of the Union by force. The Constitution was a com-
promise, without which there would have been no union of States.
That the compromise did not long survive him was no fault of
Clay's, but chargeable to the agitators of both sections, who cared
less for the Union than for their pet theories or selfish interests.
Two years after his death the compromise measures were repealed,
and the most destructive civil war of modern times and a long list of
resultant evils are the result. Those who knew Henry Clay and had
felt his wonderful power as a leader, are firm in the belief that had
he been alive and in the possession of his faculties in 1861, the Civil
War would have been averted. His name and the memory of his love
for the Union restrained his adopted State from joining the South.
The struggle over the passage of the compromise measures, last-
ing for seven months, was one of the most memorable parliamentary
struggles on record. The old hero, Henry Clay, broken in health,
with the stamp of death upon him, for six weary months led the
fight with much of his old-time fire and ability. Sustained by
indomitable will and supreme love of country, "I am here," he said,
"expecting soon to go hence, and owing no responsibility but to my
own conscience and to God. "
In his opening speech, which lasted for two days, he said:-
-:
"I owe it to myself to say that no earthly power could induce me to vote
for a specific measure for the introduction of slavery where it had not before
existed, either south or north of that line. Sir, while you reproach, and
justly too, our British ancestors for the introduction of this institution upon
the continent of America, I am for one unwilling that the posterity of the
present inhabitants of California and New Mexico shall reproach us for doing
just what we reproach Great Britain for doing to us. "
He upbraided on the one hand the ultra abolitionists as reckless
agitators, and hurled defiance at disunionists of the South, while at
the same time appealing to the loftier nature and patriotic impulses
of his hearers:-
"I believe from the bottom of my soul that this measure is the reunion
of the Union. And now let us discard all resentments, all passions, all petty
jealousies, all personal desires, all love of peace, all hungering after gilded
crumbs which fall from the table of power. Let us forget popular fears,
from whatever quarter they may spring. Let us go to the fountain of un-
adulterated patriotism, and performing a solemn lustration, return divested of
all selfish, sinister, and sordid impurities, and think alone of our God, our
country, our conscience, and our glorious Union. ”
As described by Bancroft, Clay was "in stature over six feet,
spare and long-limbed; he stood erect as if full of vigor and vitality,
## p. 3773 (#135) ###########################################
HENRY CLAY
3773
and ever ready to command. His countenance expressed perpetual
wakefulness and activity. His voice was music itself, and yet pene-
trating and far-reaching, enchanting the listeners; his words flowed
rapidly without sing-song or mannerism, in a clear and steady stream.
Neither in public nor in private did he know how to be dull. "
Bold, fearless, commanding, the lordliest leader of his day, he was
yet gentle, and as an old friend wrote, "was the most emotional man
I ever knew. I have seen his eyes fill instantly on shaking the hand
of an old friend, however obscure, who had stood by him in his early
struggles. " The manliest of men, yet his voice would tremble with
emotion on reading aloud from a letter the love messages from a
little grandchild.
The following, told me by a gentleman who knew Mr. Clay, illus-
trates the true gentleman he was:—
"When I was a small boy my father took me with him to visit Mr. Clay
at his home Ashland. We found some gentlemen there who had been invited
to dinner. Just before they went in to dinner my father told me privately to
run out and play on the lawn while they were dining. As the gentlemen
came out, Mr. Clay saw me, and calling me to him said, 'My young friend,
I owe you an apology. Turning to the gentlemen he said, 'Go into the
library, gentlemen, and light your cigars- I will join you presently. Taking
me by the hand he returned with me to the table, ordered the servants to
attend to my wants, and conversed most delightfully with me until I had fin-
ished my dinner. »
He had the faculty of making friends and holding them through
life by ties which no circumstances or conditions could sever.
When Clay passed away there was no one whose Unionism em-
braced all sections, who could stand between the over-zealous advo-
cates of abolition of slavery on the one side and the fiery defenders
of the "divine institution" on the other. Sectionalism ran riot, and
civil war was the result. During the many years when the North
and South were divided on the question of slavery, and sectional
feeling ran high, Henry Clay was the only man in public life whose
broad nationalism and intense love for the Union embraced all sec-
tions, with no trace of sectional bias. He can well be called "The
Great American. "
Johnhhunter
## p. 3774 (#136) ###########################################
HENRY CLAY
3774
PUBLIC SPIRIT IN POLITICS
From a Speech at Buffalo, July 17th, 1839
Α
RE we not then called upon by the highest duties to our
country, to its free institutions, to posterity, and to the
world, to rise above all local prejudices and personal par-
tialities, to discard all collateral questions, to disregard every
subordinate point, and in a genuine spirit of compromise and
concession, uniting heart and hand to preserve for ourselves the
blessings of a free government, wisely, honestly, and faithfully
administered, and as we received them from our fathers, to
transmit them to our children? Should we not justly subject
ourselves to eternal reproach, if we permitted our differences
about mere men to bring defeat and disaster upon our cause?
Our principles are imperishable, but men have but a fleeting
existence, and are themselves liable to change and corruption
during its brief continuance.
ON THE GREEK STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE
From a Speech in 1824
Α'
RE we so mean, so base, so despicable, that we may not
attempt to express our horror, utter our indignation, at
the most brutal and atrocious war that ever stained earth
or shocked high Heaven? at the ferocious deeds of a savage and
infuriated soldiery, stimulated and urged on by the clergy of a
fanatical and inimical religion, and rioting in all the excesses of
blood and butchery, at the mere details of which the heart sick-
ens and recoils?
If the great body of Christendom can look on calmly and
coolly while all this is perpetrated on a Christian people, in its
own immediate vicinity, in its very presence, let us at least
evince that one of its remote extremities is susceptible of sensi
bility to Christian wrongs, and capable of sympathy for Christ-
ian sufferings; that in this remote quarter of the world there
are hearts not yet closed against compassion for human woes,
that can pour out their indignant feelings at the oppression
of a people endeared to us by every ancient recollection and
every modern tie. Sir, attempts have been made to alarm the
## p. 3775 (#137) ###########################################
HENRY CLAY
3775
committee by the dangers to our commerce in the Mediter-
ranean; and a wretched invoice of figs and opium has been
spread before us to repress our sensibilities and to eradicate our
humanity. Ah, sir! "What shall it profit a man if he gain the
whole world and lose his own soul? " or what shall it avail a
nation to save the whole of a miserable trade and lose its lib-
erties?
SOUTH-AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE AS RELATED TO THE
UNITED STATES
From a Speech before the House of Representatives in 1818
IT
T Is the doctrine of thrones that man is too ignorant to gov-
ern himself. Their partisans assert his incapacity, in refer-
ence to all nations; if they cannot command universal assent
to the proposition, it is then demanded as to particular nations;
and our pride and our presumption too often make converts of
us. I contend that it is to arraign the dispositions of Providence
himself, to suppose that he has created beings incapable of
governing themselves, and to be trampled on by kings. Self-
government is the natural government of man, and for proof I
refer to the aborigines of our own land. Were I to speculate in
hypotheses unfavorable to human liberty, my speculations should
be founded rather upon the vices, refinements, or density of
population. Crowded together in compact masses, even if they
were philosophers, the contagion of the passions is communi-
cated and caught, and the effect too often, I admit, is the over-
throw of liberty. Dispersed over such an immense space as that
on which the people of Spanish America are spread, their physi-
cal and I believe also their moral condition both favor their
liberty.
With regard to their superstition, they worship the same God
with us.
Their prayers are offered up in their temples to the
same Redeemer whose intercession we expect to save us. Nor
is there anything in the Catholic religion unfavorable to free-
dom. All religions united with government are more or less
inimical to liberty. All separated from government are com-
patible with liberty. If the people of Spanish America have not
already gone as far in religious toleration as we have, the dif-
ference in their condition from ours should not be forgotten.
## p. 3776 (#138) ###########################################
3776
HENRY CLAY
Everything is progressive; and in time I hope to see them imi-
tating in this respect our example. But grant that the people
of Spanish America are ignorant, and incompetent for free gov-
ernment; to whom is that ignorance to be ascribed? Is it not
to the execrable system of Spain, which she seeks again to
establish and to perpetuate? So far from chilling our hearts, it
ought to increase our solicitude for our unfortunate brethren.
It ought to animate us to desire the redemption of the minds
and bodies of unborn millions from the brutifying effects of a
system whose tendency is to stifle the faculties of the soul, and
to degrade them to the level of beasts. I would invoke the
spirits of our departed fathers. Was it for yourselves only that
you nobly fought? No, no! It was the chains that were for-
ging for your posterity that made you fly to arms; and scattering
the elements of these chains to the winds, you transmitted to us
the rich inheritance of liberty.
FROM THE VALEDICTORY TO THE SENATE, DELIVERED IN 1842
FR
ROM 1806, the period of my entrance upon this noble theatre,
with short intervals, to the present time, I have been
engaged in the public councils at home or abroad. Of
the services rendered during that long and arduous period of
my life it does not become me to speak; history, if she deign
to notice me, and posterity, if the recollection of my humble
actions shall be transmitted to posterity, are the best, the truest,
and the most impartial judges. When death has closed the
scene, their sentence will be pronounced, and to that I commit
myself. My public conduct is a fair subject for the criticism.
and judgment of my fellow men; but the motives by which I
have been prompted are known only to the great Searcher of
the human heart and to myself; and I trust I may be pardoned
for repeating a declaration made some thirteen years ago, that
whatever errors-and doubtless there have been many-may
be discovered in a review of my public service, I can with
unshaken confidence appeal to that divine Arbiter for the truth.
of the declaration that I have been influenced by no impure
purpose, no personal motive; have sought no personal aggrand-
izement; but that in all my public acts I have had a single
eye directed and a warm and devoted heart dedicated to what,
## p. 3777 (#139) ###########################################
HENRY CLAY
3777
in my best judgment, I believed the true interests, the honor,
the union, and the happiness of my country required.
During that long period, however, I have not escaped the
fate of other public men, nor failed to incur censure and detrac-
tion of the bitterest, most unrelenting, and most malignant
character; and though not always insensible to the pain it was
meant to inflict, I have borne it in general with composure and
without disturbance, waiting as I have done, in perfect and
undoubting confidence, for the ultimate triumph of justice and
of truth, and in the entire persuasion that time would settle all
things as they should be; and that whatever wrong or injustice
I might experience at the hands of man, He to whom all hearts.
are open and fully known, would by the inscrutable dispensa-
tions of His providence rectify all error, redress all wrong, and
cause ample justice to be done.
But I have not meanwhile been unsustained. Everywhere
throughout the extent of this great continent I have had cor-
dial, warm-hearted, faithful, and devoted friends, who have
known me, loved me, and appreciated my motives. To them, if
language were capable of fully expressing my acknowledgments,
I would now offer all the return I have the power to make for
their genuine, disinterested, and persevering fidelity and devoted
attachment, the feelings and sentiments of a heart overflowing
with never-ceasing gratitude. If, however, I fail in suitable lan-
guage to express my gratitude to them for all the kindness they
have shown me, what shall I say, what can I say, at all commens-
urate with those feelings of gratitude with which I have been
inspired by the State whose humble representative and servant I
have been in this chamber?
I emigrated from Virginia to the State of Kentucky now
nearly forty-five years ago; I went as an orphan boy who had
not yet attained the age of majority; who had never recognized
a father's smile, nor felt his warm caresses; poor, penniless,
without the favor of the great, with an imperfect and neglected
education, hardly sufficient for the ordinary business and com-
mon pursuits of life; but scarce had I set my foot upon her
generous soil when I was embraced with parental fondness,
caressed as though I had been a favorite child, and patronized
with liberal and unbounded munificence. From that period the
highest honors of the State have been freely bestowed upon
me; and when in the darkest hour of calumny and detraction
VII-237
## p. 3778 (#140) ###########################################
3778
HENRY CLAY
I seemed to be assailed by all the rest of the world, she inter-
posed her broad and impenetrable shield, repelled the poisoned
shafts that were aimed for my destruction, and vindicated my
good name from every malignant and unfounded aspersion. I
return with indescribable pleasure to linger a while longer, and
mingle with the warm-hearted and whole-souled people of that
State; and when the last scene shall forever close upon me, I
hope that my earthly remains will be laid under her green sod
with those of her gallant and patriotic sons.
That my nature is warm, my temper ardent, my disposition
-especially in relation to the public service-enthusiastic, I am
ready to own; and those who suppose that I have been assuming
the dictatorship, have only, mistaken for arrogance or assumption
that ardor and devotion which are natural to my constitution,
and which I may have displayed with too little regard to cold,
calculating, and cautious prudence, in sustaining and zealously
supporting important national measures of policy which I have
presented and espoused.
I go from this place under the hope that we shall mutually
consign to perpetual oblivion whatever personal collisions may at
any time unfortunately have occurred between us; and that our
recollections shall dwell in future only on those conflicts of mind
with mind, those intellectual struggles, those noble exhibitions of
the powers of logic, argument, and eloquence, honorable to the
Senate and to the nation, in which each has sought and con-
tended for what he deemed the best mode of accomplishing one
common object, the interest and the most happiness of our
beloved country. To these thrilling and delightful scenes it will
be my pleasure and my pride to look back in my retirement
with unmeasured satisfaction.
May the most precious blessings of Heaven rest upon the
whole Senate and each member of it, and may the labors of
every one redound to the benefit of the nation and to the
advancement of his own fame and renown. And when you shall
retire to the bosom of your constituents, may you receive the
most cheering and gratifying of all human rewards,— their cor-
dial greeting of "Well done, good and faithful servant. "
## p. 3779 (#141) ###########################################
HENRY CLAY
3779
FROM THE LEXINGTON (SPEECH ON RETIREMENT TO
PRIVATE LIFE'
I
T WOULD neither be fitting, nor is it my purpose, to pass judg-
ment on all the acts of my public life; but I hope I shall
be excused for one or two observations which the occasion
appears to me to authorize.
I never but once changed my opinion on any great measure
of national policy, or on any great principle of construction of
the national Constitution. In early life, on deliberate considera-
tion, I adopted the principles of interpreting the federal Consti-
tution which have been so ably developed and enforced by Mr.
Madison in his memorable report to the Virginia Legislature;
and to them, as I understood them, I have constantly adhered.
Upon the question coming up in the Senate of the United States
to re-charter the first Bank of the United States, thirty years
ago, I opposed the re-charter upon convictions which I honestly
entertained. The experience of the war which shortly followed,
the condition into which the currency of the country was thrown
without a bank, and I may now add, later and more disastrous
experience, convinced me I was wrong. I publicly stated to
my constituents, in a speech in Lexington (that which I made
in the House of Representatives of the United States not hav-
ing been reported), my reasons for that change, and they are
preserved in the archives of the country. I appeal to that
record, and I am willing to be judged now and hereafter by
their validity.
I do not advert to the fact of this solitary instance of change
of opinion as implying any personal merit, but because it is a
fact. I will however say that I think it very perilous to the
utility of any public man to make frequent changes of opinion,
or any change, but upon grounds so sufficient and palpable that
the public can clearly see and approve them. If we could look
through a window into the human breast and there discover the
causes which led to changes of opinion, they might be made
without hazard. But as it is impossible to penetrate the human
heart and distinguish between the sinister and honest motives
which prompt it, any public man that changes his opinion, once
deliberately formed and promulgated, under other circumstances
than those which I have stated, draws around him distrust,
## p. 3780 (#142) ###########################################
3780
HENRY CLAY
impairs the public confidence, and lessens his capacity to serve.
his country.
I will take this occasion now to say, that I am and have been
long satisfied that it would have been wiser and more politic in
me to have declined accepting the office of Secretary of State
in 1825. Not that my motives were not as pure and as patriotic
as ever carried any man into public office. Not that the calumny
which was applied to the fact was not as gross and as unfounded
as any that was ever propagated. Not that valued friends and
highly esteemed opponents did not unite in urging my accept-
ance of the office. Not that the administration of Mr. Adams
will not, I sincerely believe, advantageously compare with any
of his predecessors, in economy, purity, prudence, and wisdom.
Not that Mr. Adams was himself wanting in any of those high
qualifications and upright and patriotic intentions which were
suited to the office.
But my error in accepting the office arose out of my under
rating the power of detraction and the force of ignorance, and
abiding with too sure a confidence in the conscious integrity
and uprightness of my own motives. Of that ignorance I had a
remarkable and laughable example on an occasion which I will
relate. I was traveling in 1828 through-I believe it
Spottsylvania County in Virginia, on my return to Washington,
in company with some young friends. We halted at night at a
tavern, kept by an aged gentleman 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 he
had four sons in that State, and that he was very sorry they
were divided in politics, two being for Adams and two for Jack-
son; he wished they were all for Jackson. "Why? " I asked
him. "Because," he said, "that fellow Clay, and Adams, had
cheated Jackson out of the Presidency. "-"Have you ever seen
any evidence, my old friend," said I, "of that? "-"No," he
replied, "none," and he wanted to see none. "But," I cbserved,
looking him directly and steadily in the face, "suppose Mr. Clay
were 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
believe him? "-"No," replied the old gentleman, promptly and
emphatically. I said to him in conclusion, "Will you be good
## p. 3781 (#143) ###########################################
HENRY CLAY
3781
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. .
If to have served my country during a long series of years
with fervent zeal and unshaken fidelity, in seasons of peace and
war, at home and abroad, in the legislative halls and in an
executive department; if to have labored most sedulously to
avert the embarrassment and distress which now overspread this
Union, and when they came, to have exerted myself anxiously
at the extra session, and at this, to devise healing remedies; if
to have desired to introduce economy and reform in the general
administration, curtail enormous executive power, and amply
provide at the same time for the wants of the government and
the wants of the people, by a tariff which would give it revenue
and then protection; if to have earnestly sought to establish the
bright but too rare example of a party in power faithful to its
promises and pledges made when out of power: if these services,
exertions, and endeavors justify the accusation of ambition, I
must plead guilty to the charge.
I have wished the good opinion of the world; but I defy the
most malignant of my enemies to show that I have attempted to
gain it by any low or groveling arts, by any mean or unworthy
sacrifices, by the violation of any of the obligations of honor, or
by a breach of any of the duties which I owed to my country. . .
How is this right of the people to abolish an existing gov-
ernment, and to set up a new one, to be practically exercised ?
Our revolutionary ancestors did not tell us by words, but they
proclaimed it by gallant and noble deeds. Who are the people
that are to tear up the whole fabric of human society, whenever
and as often as caprice or passion may prompt them? When
all the arrangements and ordinances of existing organized society
are prostrated and subverted, as must be supposed in such a
lawless and irregular movement as that in Rhode Island, the
established privileges and distinctions between the sexes, between
the colors, between the ages, between natives and foreigners,
between the sane and the insane, and between the innocent and
the guilty convict, all the offspring of positive institutions, are cast
down and abolished, and society is thrown into one heteroge-
neous and unregulated mass. And is it contended that the
## p. 3782 (#144) ###########################################
3782
HENRY CLAY
major part of this Babel congregation is invested with the right
to build up at its pleasure a new government? that as often,
and whenever, society can be drummed up and thrown into
such a shapeless mass, the major part of it may establish another
and another new government in endless succession? Why, this
would overturn all social organization, make revolutions - the
extreme and last resort of an oppressed people-the commonest
occurrences of human life, and the standing order of the day.
How such a principle would operate in a certain section of this
Union, with a peculiar population, you will readily conceive.
MATTHIAS CLAUDIUS
3759
Not everywhere the vine bedecks our border,
As well mountains show,
That harbor in their bosoms foul disorder;
Not worth their room below.
Thuringia's hills, for instance, are aspiring
To rear a juice like wine;
But that is all; nor mirth nor song inspiring,
It breathes not of the vine.
And other hills, with buried treasures glowing,
For wine are far too cold;
Though iron ores and cobalt there are growing,
And 'chance some paltry gold.
The Rhine, the Rhine,- there grow the gay plantations!
Oh, hallowed be the Rhine!
―
Upon his banks are brewed the rich potations
Of this consoling wine.
Drink to the Rhine! and every coming morrow
Be mirth and music thine!
And when we meet a child of care and sorrow,
We'll send him to the Rhine.
Ο
WINTER
A SONG TO BE SUNG BEHIND THE STOVE
LD Winter is the man for me-
Stout-hearted, sound, and steady;
Steel nerves and bones of brass hath he:
Come snow, come blow, he's ready!
If ever man was well, 'tis he;
He keeps no fire in his chamber,
And yet from cold and cough is free
In bitterest December.
He dresses him out-doors at morn,
Nor needs he first to warm him;
Toothache and rheumatis' he'll scorn,
And colic don't alarm him.
In summer, when the woodland rings,
He asks "What mean these noises? »
## p. 3760 (#118) ###########################################
3760
MATTHIAS CLAUDIUS
Warm sounds he hates, and all warm things
Most heartily despises.
But when the fox's bark is loud;
When the bright hearth is snapping;
When children round the chimney crowd,
All shivering and clapping;-
When stone and bone with frost do break,
And pond and lake are cracking, -
Then you may see his old sides shake,
Such glee his frame is racking.
Near the North Pole, upon the strand,
He has an icy tower;
Likewise in lovely Switzerland
He keeps a summer bower.
So up and down - now here—now there -
His regiments manœuvre;
When he goes by, we stand and stare,
And cannot choose but shiver.
NIGHT SONG
HE moon is up in splendor,
And golden stars attend her;
THE
The heavens are calm and bright;
Trees cast a deepening shadow;
And slowly off the meadow
A mist is rising silver-white.
Night's curtains now are closing
Round half a world, reposing
In calm and holy trust;
All seems one vast, still chamber,
Where weary hearts remember
No more the sorrows of the dust.
Translations of Charles T. Brooks.
## p. 3760 (#119) ###########################################
## p. 3760 (#120) ###########################################
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## p. 3760 (#121) ###########################################
3761
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## p. 3760 (#122) ###########################################
HENRY CLAY
## p. 3761 (#123) ###########################################
3761
HENRY CLAY
(1777-1852)
BY JOHN R. PROCTER
H
ENRY CLAY must not be judged as an orator by his reported
speeches, which are but skeletons of the masterly originals,
but by the lasting effect of these speeches on those who
heard them, and by his ability as an originator of important meas-
ures and his success in carrying these measures to a conclusion by
convincing and powerful oratory. Judged by his achievements and
by his wide-spread influence, he must take rank as a statesman and
orator of pre-eminent ability. The son of a poor Baptist clergyman,
with but scant advantages for acquiring an education; leaving home.
at an early age and going among strangers to a community where
family ties and social connections were a controlling element; - this
poor boy, with no family influence, assumed at once, by sheer force
of character and ability, a leadership which he held undisputed until
his death. And years after he had passed away, it was the "fol-
lowers of Henry Clay" who kept Kentucky from joining the States
of the South in their unsuccessful efforts to withdraw from the
Union.
Of his oratory Robert C. Winthrop wrote after a lapse of years:
"I can only bear witness to an impressiveness of speech never
exceeded, if ever equaled, within an experience of half a century,
during which I have listened to many of the greatest orators on both
sides of the Atlantic. " As a parliamentary leader, Rhodes calls him
the greatest in our history. "His leadership," says Mr. Schurz,
(( was not of that mean order which merely contrives to organize a
personal following; it was the leadership of a statesman zealously
striving to promote great public interests. "
As a presiding officer he was the most commanding Speaker the
National House of Representatives has ever had. Winthrop, who
served long with him in Congress, said of him:-"No abler or more
commanding presiding officer ever sat in the Speaker's chair on
either side of the Atlantic. Prompt, dignified, resolute, fearless, he
had a combination of intellectual and physical qualities which made
him a natural ruler over men. " He was six times elected Speaker,
sometimes almost by acclamation; and during the many years
which he presided over the House not one of his decisions was ever
reversed.
VII-236
## p. 3762 (#124) ###########################################
3762
HENRY CLAY
As a Secretary of State, during his term of four years the trea-
ties with foreign countries negotiated by him exceeded in numbers
all that had been negotiated by other secretaries, during the previous
thirty-five years of our constitutional history. As a diplomat, he
showed himself at Ghent more than a match for the trained diplo-
matists of the old world.
And with all these he was- at his ideal country home, Ashland,
surrounded by wooded lawns and fertile acres of beautiful blue-grass
land- a most successful farmer and breeder of thoroughbred stock,
from the Scotch collie to the thoroughbred race-horse. I have been
told by one who knew him as a farmer that no one could guess
nearer to the weight of a Shorthorn bullock than he. He was as
much at home with horses and horsemen as with senators and
diplomats. I have known many men who were friends and followers
of Mr. Clay, and from the love and veneration these men had for his
memory, I can well understand why the historian Rhodes says,
"No man has been loved as the people of the United States loved
Henry Clay. "
Clay seemed to have had honors and leadership thrust upon him.
Arriving in Kentucky in 1797, he at once advocated the gradual
emancipation of slaves, regardless of the strong prejudices to the
contrary of the rich slaveholding community in which he had cast
his lot; yet, unsolicited on his part, this community elected him to
the State Legislature by a large majority in 1803, and before three
years of service he was chosen by his fellow members to fill a
vacancy in the United States Senate. And until his death in 1852,
his constituents in Kentucky vied with each other in their desires
to keep him as their representative in either the national Senate or
House of Representatives. He entered the latter in 1811, and was
selected as Speaker of that body almost by acclamation on the first
day of his taking his seat. After a long life spent in his country's
service he was elected unanimously to the Senate in 1848, despite
party strife and the fact that the two parties were almost evenly
divided in Kentucky.
No attempt can here be made to even recapitulate the events of
importance connected with his long public services. I will call atten-
tion only to some of the most important measures which he carried
by his magnificent leadership.
WAR OF 1812
Clay assumed the leadership of those who urged resistance to the
unjust and overbearing encroachments of Great Britain, and he more
than any one else was instrumental in overcoming opposition and
## p. 3763 (#125) ###########################################
HENRY CLAY
3763
forcing a declaration of war. This war-a second war for inde-
pendence, which changed this country from a disjointed confederacy
liable to fall asunder, to a compact, powerful, and self-respecting
Union - will ever be regarded as one of the crowning glories of his
long and brilliant career. He proved more than a match in debate
for Randolph, Quincy, and other able advocates for peace. When
asked what we were to gain by war, he answered, "What are we not
to lose by peace? Commerce, character, -a nation's best treasure,
honor! "
In answer to the arguments that certificates of protection author-
ized by Congress were fraudulently used, his magnificent answer,
"The colors that float from the mast-head should be the credentials
of our seamen," electrified the patriots of the country. There is
but a meagre report of this great speech, but the effect produced was
overwhelming and bore down all opposition. It is said that men of
both parties, forgetting all antipathies under the spell of his elo-
quence, wept together. Mr. Clay's first speech on entering Congress.
was in favor of the encouragement of domestic manufactures, mainly
as a defensive measure in anticipation of a war with Great Britain;
arguing that whatever doubts might be entertained as to the general
policy of encouraging domestic manufactures by import duties, none
could exist regarding the propriety of adopting measures for produc-
ing such articles as are requisite in times of war. If his measure for
the increase of the standing army had been adopted in time, the
humiliating reverses on land during the early part of the war would
have been averted. He carried through a bill for the increase of the
navy, and the brilliant naval victories of the war of 1812 followed.
In the debate on the bill to provide for a standing army, it was
argued that twenty-five thousand could not be had in the United
States. Clay aroused the people of Kentucky to such enthusiasm that
fifteen thousand men volunteered in that State alone, and members of
Congress shouldered their muskets and joined the ranks.
TREATY OF GHENT
Henry Clay's faith in the destiny of his country, and his heroic
determination that a continuation of the war was preferable to the
terms proposed, prevented humiliating concessions. The American
Commissioners were Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams, Albert Galla-
tin, James A. Bayard, and Jonathan Russell, and the British Com-
missioners Lord Gambier, Henry Goulbourn, and William Adams.
The news received by Clay on his arrival in Europe was not calcu-
lated to inspire him with hope. From Mr. Bayard he received a
## p. 3764 (#126) ###########################################
3764
HENRY CLAY
letter (dated April 20th, 1814) with news of the triumph of the allies
over Napoleon, and stating:-
"There is reason to think that it has materially changed the views of the
British Ministry. . . The great augmentation of their disposable force
presents an additional temptation to prosecute the war. »
By the same mail Mr. Gallatin writes from London (April 22d,
1814):-
-
"You are sufficiently aware of the total change in our affairs produced by
the late revolution, and by the restoration of universal peace in the European
world, from which we are alone excluded. A well-organized and large army
is at once liberated from any European employment, and ready, together with
a superabundant naval force, to act independently against us.
How ill pre-
pared we are to meet it in a proper manner, no one knows better than your-
self; but above all, our own divisions and the hostile attitude of the Eastern
States give room to apprehend that a continuation of the war might prove
vitally fatal to the United States. "
Mr. Russell writes from Stockholm (July 2d, 1814): —
"My distress at the delay which our joint errand has encountered has
almost been intolerable, and the kind of comfort I have received from Mr.
Adams has afforded very little relief. His apprehensions are rather of a
gloomy cast with regard to the result of our labors. »
Mr. Crawford, our Minister to France, who with Clay favored a
vigorous prosecution of the war, writes to him (July 4th, 1814):-
"I am thoroughly convinced that the United States can never be called
upon to treat under circumstances less auspicious than those which exist at
the present moment, unless our internal bickerings shall continue to weaken
the effects of the government. »
-
With discouraging news from home, the seat of government taken,
and the Capitol burned, the Eastern States opposing the war and
threatening to withdraw from the Union, and his fellow commis-
sioners in the despondent mood evidenced by the above-quoted let-
ters, it is amazing that Clay, whom some historians have called a
compromiser by nature, opposed any and all concessions and wished
that the war should go on.
By the third article of the treaty of 1783 it was agreed that citi-
zens of the United States should not fish in the waters or cure fish
on the land of any of the maritime provinces north of the United
States after they were settled, without a previous agreement with the
inhabitants or possessors of the ground.
## p. 3765 (#127) ###########################################
HENRY CLAY
3765
By the eighth article of the same treaty, it was agreed that the
navigation of the Mississippi River should ever remain free and open
to the subjects of Great Britain and the United States. It was
then supposed that the British Canadian possessions included the
head-waters of this river. By the Jay treaty of 1794 this was con-
firmed, and "that all ports and places on its eastern side, to which-
soever of the parties belonging, might be freely resorted to and used
by both parties. " At this time Spain possessed the sovereignty of
the west side of the river, and both sides from its mouth to 31°
north latitude. The United States acquired by the Louisiana pur-
chase of 1803 all the sovereignty of Spain which had previously
been acquired by France.
Gallatin proposed to insert a provision for the renewal to the
United States of the rights in the fisheries, and as an equivalent to
give to Great Britain the right to the navigation of the Mississippi
River. This was favored by Gallatin, Adams, and Bayard, and
opposed by Clay and Russell. Mr. Clay, seeing that he was in a
minority, stated that he would affix his name to no treaty which
contained such a provision. After his firm stand Mr. Bayard left the
majority. Clay's "obstinacy" in opposing concessions is well shown
in Mr. Adams's Journal:-
"To this last article [the right of the British to navigate the Mississippi
River] Mr. Clay makes strong objections. He is willing to leave the matter
of the fisheries as a nest-egg for another war.
He considers it a
privilege much too important to be conceded for the mere liberty of drying
fish upon a desert, but the Mississippi was destined to form a most important
part of the interests of the American Union.
Mr. Clay, of all the
members, had alone been urgent to present an article stipulating the aboli-
tion of impressment. Mr. Clay lost his temper, as he generally does when-
ever the right of the British to navigate the Mississippi is discussed.
"December 11th. He [Clay] was for war three years longer. He had no
doubt but three years more of war would make us a warlike people, and
that then we should come out of the war with honor.
December 22d.
At last he turned to me, and asked me whether I would not join him now
and break off negotiations. "
After five months of weary negotiations under most adverse con-
ditions so far as the American commissioners were concerned, the
treaty was signed on December 24th, 1814. During all these months
Clay had resisted any and all concessions, and none were made.
The Marquis of Wellesley declared in the House of Lords that the
American commissioners had shown a most astonishing superiority
over the British during the whole of the correspondence.
During Mr. Clay's absence at Ghent, his admiring constituents
returned him to Congress by an almost unanimous vote.
A year
## p. 3766 (#128) ###########################################
3766
HENRY CLAY
later in Congress, Clay referred to his part in the bringing on the
war as follows:-
"I gave a vote for a declaration of war. I exerted all the little influence
and talent I could command to make the war. The war was made. It is
terminated. And I declare with perfect sincerity, if it had been permitted
to me to lift the veil of futurity and to foresee the precise series of events
which had occurred, my vote would have been unchanged. We had been
insulted and outraged and spoliated upon by almost all Europe,- by Great
Britain, by France, Spain, Denmark, Naples, and to cap the climax, by the
little contemptible power of Algiers. We had submitted too long and too
much. We had become the scorn of foreign powers and the derision of our
own citizens. What have we gained by the war? Let any man look at the
degraded condition of this country before the war, the scorn of the universe,
the contempt of ourselves; and tell me if we have gained nothing by the
war?
What is our situation now? Respectability and character abroad,
security and confidence at home. »
Clay more than any other man forced the war. It was the suc-
cessful military hero of this war-the victor of New Orleans-
who defeated him in after years for the Presidency.
MISSOURI COMPROMISE
The heated struggle in Congress over the admission of Missouri
into the Union first brought prominently forward the agitation of the
slavery question. This struggle, which lasted from 1818 to 1821,
threatened the very existence of the Union. Jefferson wrote from
Monticello:-
"The Missouri question is the most portentous one that has ever threat-
ened the Union. In the gloomiest moments of the Revolutionary War I
never had any apprehension equal to that I feel from this source. »
Mr. Schurz, writing of the feeling at the time, says:
"While thus the thought of dissolving the Union occurred readily to the
Southern mind, the thought of maintaining the government and preserving
the Union by means of force hardly occurred to anybody. It seemed to be
taken for granted on all sides that if the Southern States insisted on cutting
loose from the Union, nothing could be done but to let them go. "
The two sections were at this time so evenly balanced that the
maintenance of the Union by force could not have been successfully
attempted. The compromise which admitted Missouri to the Union
as a slave State, and recognized the right of settlers to carry slaves
into the territory south of 36° 30', was carried through by the
splendid leadership of Clay, who thus earned the title of "the great
## p. 3767 (#129) ###########################################
HENRY CLAY
3767
pacificator. " Future historians will accord to him the title of the
savior of the Union.
Upon the adoption of the compromise measures Mr. Clay resigned
his seat in Congress to give his attention to his private affairs, being
financially embarrassed by indorsing for a friend. During his stay at
home there was a fierce controversy over the issue of paper money
and relief measures to favor debtors who had become involved
through the recklessness following such inflation. Against what
seemed to be an overwhelming popular feeling, Clay arrayed himself
on the side of sound money and sound finance. In 1823 he was
again returned to the House of Representatives without opposition,
and was chosen Speaker by a vote of 139 to 42.
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS
Soon after his entrance into Congress Clay took advanced ground
in favor of building roads, improving water-ways, and constructing
canals by the general government, in order to connect the seaboard
States with the "boundless empire" of the growing West. He
became the leader, the foremost champion, of a system which was
bitterly opposed by some of the ablest statesmen of the time as
unauthorized by the Constitution. Clay triumphed, and during his
long public service was the recognized leader of a system which
though opposed at first, has been accepted as a national policy by
both of the great political parties. That he was actuated by a grand
conception of the future destiny of the country, and the needs of
such improvements to insure a more perfect union, his able speeches
on these questions will show. In one he said:-
"Every man who looks at the Constitution in the spirit to entitle him to
the character of statesman, must elevate his views to the height to which this
nation is destined to reach in the rank of nations. We are not legislating for
this moment only, or for the present generation, or for the present populated
limits of the United States; but our acts must embrace a wider scope,-
reaching northward to the Pacific and southwardly to the river Del Norte.
Imagine this extent of territory with sixty or seventy or a hundred millions
of people. The powers which exist now will exist then; and those which will
exist then exist now.
What was the object of the Convention in
framing the Constitution? The leading object was UNION,- Union, then peace.
Peace external and internal, and commerce, but more particularly union and
peace, the great objects of the framers of the Constitution, should be kept
steadily in view in the interpretation of any clause of it; and when it is sus-
ceptible of various interpretation, that construction should be preferred which
tends to promote the objects of the framers of the Constitution, to the con-
solidation of the Union. . . No man deprecates more than I do the idea
of consolidation; yet between separation and consolidation, painful as would
be the alternative, I should greatly prefer the latter. "
## p. 3768 (#130) ###########################################
3768
HENRY CLAY
Congress now appropriates yearly for internal improvements a
sum far greater than the entire revenue of the government at the
time Clay made this speech.
SPANISH-AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE
It was but natural that Clay's ardent nature and his love of liberty
would incline him to aid the people of Central and South America
in their efforts to free themselves from Spanish oppression and mis-
rule. Effective here as in all things undertaken by him, his name
must always be linked with the cause of Southern American inde-
pendence. Richard Rush, writing from London to Clay in 1825, says:
"The South-Americans owe to you, more than to any other man of
either hemisphere, their independence. " His speeches, translated
into Spanish, were read to the revolutionary armies, and "his name
was a household name among the patriots. " Bolivar, writing to him
from Bogotá in 1827, says: -"All America, Colombia, and myself,
owe your Excellency our purest gratitude for the incomparable ser-
vices which you have rendered to us, by sustaining our cause with
sublime enthusiasm.
"
In one of his speeches on this subject Clay foreshadows a great
American Zollverein. The failure of the Spanish-American republics
to attain the high ideals hoped for by Clay caused him deep regret
in after years.
THE AMERICAN SYSTEM
The tariff law of 1824 was another triumph of Clay's successful
leadership, since which time he has been called the father of what
has been termed the "American System. " It must be remembered
that Clay was first led to propose protective duties in order to prepare
this country for a war which he felt could not be avoided without
loss of national honor. When in 1824 he advocated increased tariff
duties in order to foster home industries, protection was universal;
even our agricultural products were excluded from British markets by
the Corn Laws. The man who would now advocate in Congress
duties as low as those levied by the tariff law of 1824, would be called
by protectionists of the present day a free-trader. When in 1833
nullification of the tariff laws was threatened, Clay, while demanding
that the laws should be enforced and that if necessary nullification
should be put down by the strong arm of the government, feared
that the growing discontent of the South and the obstinacy of a mil-
itary President threatened the Union, introduced and carried to a
conclusion a compromise tariff measure that brought peace to the
country.
## p. 3769 (#131) ###########################################
HENRY CLAY
3769
SECRETARY OF STATE
It was unfortunate that Clay temporarily relinquished his leadership
in Congress to accept the premiership in the Cabinet of President
Adams. Although the exacting official duties were not congenial, and
proved injurious to his health, his administration of this high office
was brilliant and able, as is well attested by the number of important
treaties concluded, and by his brilliant state papers. His instructions
to the United States delegates to the Panama Congress of American
Republics will grow in importance in the years to come, because of
the broad principles there enunciated,- that private property should
be exempt from seizure on the high seas in times of war.
His chivalrous loyalty to President Adams was fully appreciated,
and his friendship reciprocated. After the close of his administration
Mr. Adams in a speech said:
"As to my motives for tendering him the Department of State when I
did, let the man who questions them come forward. Let him look around
among the statesmen and legislators of the nation and of that day. Let him
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 President of
the United States intent only upon the honor and welfare of his country
ought to have preferred to Henry Clay. »
Just before the close of his administration President Adams offered
him a position on the bench of the Supreme Court, which he
declined.
HIS POSITION ON AFRICAN SLAVERY
Clay was a slaveholder,- a kind master,- but through his entire
public life an open advocate of emancipation. He probably received
his early predilections against slavery from his association with
Chancellor Wythe, before removing from Virginia, as indeed the
best part of his education probably came from personal contact with
that able man. The intellectual forces of the border slave States
were arrayed in favor of emancipation, until, as Clay writes with some
feeling in 1849, they were driven to an opposite course " by the
violent and indiscreet course of ultra abolitionists in the North";
but Clay remained to his death hopeful that by peaceable means
his country might be rid of this great evil. In the letter above
quoted, writing of his failure to establish a system of gradual eman-
cipation in Kentucky, he says:-
## p. 3770 (#132) ###########################################
3770
HENRY CLAY
"It is a consoling reflection that although a system of gradual emancipa-
tion cannot be established, slavery is destined inevitably to extinction by the
operation of peaceful and natural causes. And it is also gratifying to believe
that there will not be probably much difference in the period of its existence,
whether it terminates legally or naturally. The chief difference in the two
modes is that according to the first, we should take hold of the institution
intelligently and dispose of it cautiously and safely; while according to the
other it will some day or other take hold of us, and constrain us in some
manner or other to get rid of it. "
As early as 1798, he made his first political speeches in Kentucky
advocating an amendment to the State Constitution, providing for
the gradual emancipation of the slaves. Referring to the failure to
adopt this amendment, he said in a speech delivered in the capital
of Kentucky in 1829:-
"I shall never cease to regret a decision, the effects of which have been
to place us in the rear of our neighbors who are exempt from slavery, in the
state of agriculture, the progress of manufactures, the advance of improve-
ments, and the general progress of society. »
In these days, when public men who should be leaders bend to
what they believe to be the popular wishes, the example of Clay, in
his bold disregard of the prejudices and property interests of his
constituents, is inspiring.
George W. Prentice was sent from New England to Kentucky to
write a life of Clay, and writing in 1830 he says:-
-
"Whenever a slave brought an action at law for his liberty, Mr. Clay
volunteered as his advocate, and it is said that in the whole course of his
practice he never failed to obtain a verdict in the slave's favor. . . He
has been the slaves' friend through life. In all stations he has pleaded the
cause of African freedom without fear from high or low. To him more than
to any other individual is to be ascribed the great revolution which has taken
place upon this subject—a revolution whose wheels must continue to move
onward till they reach the goal of universal freedom. »
Three years before this was written, Clay in a speech before the
Colonization Society said:-
"If I could be instrumental in eradicating this deepest stain upon the
character of my country, and removing all cause of reproach on account of it
by foreign nations; if I could only be instrumental in ridding of this foul
blot that revered State which gave me birth, or that not less beloved State
which kindly adopted me as her son, I would not exchange the proud satis-
faction which I should enjoy for the honor of all the triumphs ever decreed
to the most successful conqueror. »
He longed to add the imperial domain of Texas to this coun-
try, but feared that it would so strengthen the slave power as to
## p. 3771 (#133) ###########################################
HENRY CLAY
3771
endanger the Union; and when finally he yielded to the inevitable,
the Free-Soilers threw their votes to Birney and thus defeated Clay
for the Presidency. He deprecated the war with Mexico, yet gave his
favorite son as a soldier, who fell at Buena Vista. He stood for the
reception of anti-slavery petitions by Congress, against the violent
opposition of the leading men of his own section. He continued
steadfast to the end, writing in 1849 that if slavery were, as claimed,
a blessing, "the principle on which it is maintained would require
that one portion of the white race should be reduced to bondage to
serve another portion of the same race, when black subjects of
slavery could not be obtained. " He proposed reasonable schemes for
gradual emancipation and deportation, which would, if adopted, have
averted the war and settled peaceably the serious problem. He
warned the Southerners in 1849 that their demands were unreason-
able, and would "lead to the formation of a sectional Northern party,
which will sooner or later take permanent and exclusive possession
of the Government. ”
Seeming inconsistencies in Mr. Clay's record on this subject will
disappear with a full understanding of the difficulties of his position.
Living in a State midway between the North and South, where
slavery existed in its mildest and least objectionable form, yet fully
alive to its evils, recognizing that the grave problem requiring solu-
tion was not alone slavery, but the presence among a free people of
a numerous, fecund, servile, alien race; realizing that one section of
the country, then relatively too powerful to be ignored, was ready to
withdraw from the Union rather than to submit to laws that would
endanger slavery; loving the Union with an ardor not excelled by
that of any public man in our history; wishing and striving for the
emancipation of the slaves, yet too loyal to the Union to follow the
more zealous advocates of freedom in their "higher law than the
Constitution" crusade, - Mr. Clay in his whole course on this ques-
tion was consistent and patriotic in the highest degree.
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850
The crowning triumph of a long life of great achievements was
his great compromise measures of 1850. These, with their prede-
cessors of 1821 and 1833, have caused some writers to speak of Clay as
a man of compromising nature. The reverse is true. Bold, aggress-
ive, uncompromising, and often dictatorial by nature, he favored
compromise when convinced that only by such means could civil
war or a disruption of the Union be averted. And he was right.
He averted a conflict or separation from the Union when the relative
strength of the South was such as to have rendered impossible the
## p. 3772 (#134) ###########################################
3772
HENRY CLAY
preservation of the Union by force. The Constitution was a com-
promise, without which there would have been no union of States.
That the compromise did not long survive him was no fault of
Clay's, but chargeable to the agitators of both sections, who cared
less for the Union than for their pet theories or selfish interests.
Two years after his death the compromise measures were repealed,
and the most destructive civil war of modern times and a long list of
resultant evils are the result. Those who knew Henry Clay and had
felt his wonderful power as a leader, are firm in the belief that had
he been alive and in the possession of his faculties in 1861, the Civil
War would have been averted. His name and the memory of his love
for the Union restrained his adopted State from joining the South.
The struggle over the passage of the compromise measures, last-
ing for seven months, was one of the most memorable parliamentary
struggles on record. The old hero, Henry Clay, broken in health,
with the stamp of death upon him, for six weary months led the
fight with much of his old-time fire and ability. Sustained by
indomitable will and supreme love of country, "I am here," he said,
"expecting soon to go hence, and owing no responsibility but to my
own conscience and to God. "
In his opening speech, which lasted for two days, he said:-
-:
"I owe it to myself to say that no earthly power could induce me to vote
for a specific measure for the introduction of slavery where it had not before
existed, either south or north of that line. Sir, while you reproach, and
justly too, our British ancestors for the introduction of this institution upon
the continent of America, I am for one unwilling that the posterity of the
present inhabitants of California and New Mexico shall reproach us for doing
just what we reproach Great Britain for doing to us. "
He upbraided on the one hand the ultra abolitionists as reckless
agitators, and hurled defiance at disunionists of the South, while at
the same time appealing to the loftier nature and patriotic impulses
of his hearers:-
"I believe from the bottom of my soul that this measure is the reunion
of the Union. And now let us discard all resentments, all passions, all petty
jealousies, all personal desires, all love of peace, all hungering after gilded
crumbs which fall from the table of power. Let us forget popular fears,
from whatever quarter they may spring. Let us go to the fountain of un-
adulterated patriotism, and performing a solemn lustration, return divested of
all selfish, sinister, and sordid impurities, and think alone of our God, our
country, our conscience, and our glorious Union. ”
As described by Bancroft, Clay was "in stature over six feet,
spare and long-limbed; he stood erect as if full of vigor and vitality,
## p. 3773 (#135) ###########################################
HENRY CLAY
3773
and ever ready to command. His countenance expressed perpetual
wakefulness and activity. His voice was music itself, and yet pene-
trating and far-reaching, enchanting the listeners; his words flowed
rapidly without sing-song or mannerism, in a clear and steady stream.
Neither in public nor in private did he know how to be dull. "
Bold, fearless, commanding, the lordliest leader of his day, he was
yet gentle, and as an old friend wrote, "was the most emotional man
I ever knew. I have seen his eyes fill instantly on shaking the hand
of an old friend, however obscure, who had stood by him in his early
struggles. " The manliest of men, yet his voice would tremble with
emotion on reading aloud from a letter the love messages from a
little grandchild.
The following, told me by a gentleman who knew Mr. Clay, illus-
trates the true gentleman he was:—
"When I was a small boy my father took me with him to visit Mr. Clay
at his home Ashland. We found some gentlemen there who had been invited
to dinner. Just before they went in to dinner my father told me privately to
run out and play on the lawn while they were dining. As the gentlemen
came out, Mr. Clay saw me, and calling me to him said, 'My young friend,
I owe you an apology. Turning to the gentlemen he said, 'Go into the
library, gentlemen, and light your cigars- I will join you presently. Taking
me by the hand he returned with me to the table, ordered the servants to
attend to my wants, and conversed most delightfully with me until I had fin-
ished my dinner. »
He had the faculty of making friends and holding them through
life by ties which no circumstances or conditions could sever.
When Clay passed away there was no one whose Unionism em-
braced all sections, who could stand between the over-zealous advo-
cates of abolition of slavery on the one side and the fiery defenders
of the "divine institution" on the other. Sectionalism ran riot, and
civil war was the result. During the many years when the North
and South were divided on the question of slavery, and sectional
feeling ran high, Henry Clay was the only man in public life whose
broad nationalism and intense love for the Union embraced all sec-
tions, with no trace of sectional bias. He can well be called "The
Great American. "
Johnhhunter
## p. 3774 (#136) ###########################################
HENRY CLAY
3774
PUBLIC SPIRIT IN POLITICS
From a Speech at Buffalo, July 17th, 1839
Α
RE we not then called upon by the highest duties to our
country, to its free institutions, to posterity, and to the
world, to rise above all local prejudices and personal par-
tialities, to discard all collateral questions, to disregard every
subordinate point, and in a genuine spirit of compromise and
concession, uniting heart and hand to preserve for ourselves the
blessings of a free government, wisely, honestly, and faithfully
administered, and as we received them from our fathers, to
transmit them to our children? Should we not justly subject
ourselves to eternal reproach, if we permitted our differences
about mere men to bring defeat and disaster upon our cause?
Our principles are imperishable, but men have but a fleeting
existence, and are themselves liable to change and corruption
during its brief continuance.
ON THE GREEK STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE
From a Speech in 1824
Α'
RE we so mean, so base, so despicable, that we may not
attempt to express our horror, utter our indignation, at
the most brutal and atrocious war that ever stained earth
or shocked high Heaven? at the ferocious deeds of a savage and
infuriated soldiery, stimulated and urged on by the clergy of a
fanatical and inimical religion, and rioting in all the excesses of
blood and butchery, at the mere details of which the heart sick-
ens and recoils?
If the great body of Christendom can look on calmly and
coolly while all this is perpetrated on a Christian people, in its
own immediate vicinity, in its very presence, let us at least
evince that one of its remote extremities is susceptible of sensi
bility to Christian wrongs, and capable of sympathy for Christ-
ian sufferings; that in this remote quarter of the world there
are hearts not yet closed against compassion for human woes,
that can pour out their indignant feelings at the oppression
of a people endeared to us by every ancient recollection and
every modern tie. Sir, attempts have been made to alarm the
## p. 3775 (#137) ###########################################
HENRY CLAY
3775
committee by the dangers to our commerce in the Mediter-
ranean; and a wretched invoice of figs and opium has been
spread before us to repress our sensibilities and to eradicate our
humanity. Ah, sir! "What shall it profit a man if he gain the
whole world and lose his own soul? " or what shall it avail a
nation to save the whole of a miserable trade and lose its lib-
erties?
SOUTH-AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE AS RELATED TO THE
UNITED STATES
From a Speech before the House of Representatives in 1818
IT
T Is the doctrine of thrones that man is too ignorant to gov-
ern himself. Their partisans assert his incapacity, in refer-
ence to all nations; if they cannot command universal assent
to the proposition, it is then demanded as to particular nations;
and our pride and our presumption too often make converts of
us. I contend that it is to arraign the dispositions of Providence
himself, to suppose that he has created beings incapable of
governing themselves, and to be trampled on by kings. Self-
government is the natural government of man, and for proof I
refer to the aborigines of our own land. Were I to speculate in
hypotheses unfavorable to human liberty, my speculations should
be founded rather upon the vices, refinements, or density of
population. Crowded together in compact masses, even if they
were philosophers, the contagion of the passions is communi-
cated and caught, and the effect too often, I admit, is the over-
throw of liberty. Dispersed over such an immense space as that
on which the people of Spanish America are spread, their physi-
cal and I believe also their moral condition both favor their
liberty.
With regard to their superstition, they worship the same God
with us.
Their prayers are offered up in their temples to the
same Redeemer whose intercession we expect to save us. Nor
is there anything in the Catholic religion unfavorable to free-
dom. All religions united with government are more or less
inimical to liberty. All separated from government are com-
patible with liberty. If the people of Spanish America have not
already gone as far in religious toleration as we have, the dif-
ference in their condition from ours should not be forgotten.
## p. 3776 (#138) ###########################################
3776
HENRY CLAY
Everything is progressive; and in time I hope to see them imi-
tating in this respect our example. But grant that the people
of Spanish America are ignorant, and incompetent for free gov-
ernment; to whom is that ignorance to be ascribed? Is it not
to the execrable system of Spain, which she seeks again to
establish and to perpetuate? So far from chilling our hearts, it
ought to increase our solicitude for our unfortunate brethren.
It ought to animate us to desire the redemption of the minds
and bodies of unborn millions from the brutifying effects of a
system whose tendency is to stifle the faculties of the soul, and
to degrade them to the level of beasts. I would invoke the
spirits of our departed fathers. Was it for yourselves only that
you nobly fought? No, no! It was the chains that were for-
ging for your posterity that made you fly to arms; and scattering
the elements of these chains to the winds, you transmitted to us
the rich inheritance of liberty.
FROM THE VALEDICTORY TO THE SENATE, DELIVERED IN 1842
FR
ROM 1806, the period of my entrance upon this noble theatre,
with short intervals, to the present time, I have been
engaged in the public councils at home or abroad. Of
the services rendered during that long and arduous period of
my life it does not become me to speak; history, if she deign
to notice me, and posterity, if the recollection of my humble
actions shall be transmitted to posterity, are the best, the truest,
and the most impartial judges. When death has closed the
scene, their sentence will be pronounced, and to that I commit
myself. My public conduct is a fair subject for the criticism.
and judgment of my fellow men; but the motives by which I
have been prompted are known only to the great Searcher of
the human heart and to myself; and I trust I may be pardoned
for repeating a declaration made some thirteen years ago, that
whatever errors-and doubtless there have been many-may
be discovered in a review of my public service, I can with
unshaken confidence appeal to that divine Arbiter for the truth.
of the declaration that I have been influenced by no impure
purpose, no personal motive; have sought no personal aggrand-
izement; but that in all my public acts I have had a single
eye directed and a warm and devoted heart dedicated to what,
## p. 3777 (#139) ###########################################
HENRY CLAY
3777
in my best judgment, I believed the true interests, the honor,
the union, and the happiness of my country required.
During that long period, however, I have not escaped the
fate of other public men, nor failed to incur censure and detrac-
tion of the bitterest, most unrelenting, and most malignant
character; and though not always insensible to the pain it was
meant to inflict, I have borne it in general with composure and
without disturbance, waiting as I have done, in perfect and
undoubting confidence, for the ultimate triumph of justice and
of truth, and in the entire persuasion that time would settle all
things as they should be; and that whatever wrong or injustice
I might experience at the hands of man, He to whom all hearts.
are open and fully known, would by the inscrutable dispensa-
tions of His providence rectify all error, redress all wrong, and
cause ample justice to be done.
But I have not meanwhile been unsustained. Everywhere
throughout the extent of this great continent I have had cor-
dial, warm-hearted, faithful, and devoted friends, who have
known me, loved me, and appreciated my motives. To them, if
language were capable of fully expressing my acknowledgments,
I would now offer all the return I have the power to make for
their genuine, disinterested, and persevering fidelity and devoted
attachment, the feelings and sentiments of a heart overflowing
with never-ceasing gratitude. If, however, I fail in suitable lan-
guage to express my gratitude to them for all the kindness they
have shown me, what shall I say, what can I say, at all commens-
urate with those feelings of gratitude with which I have been
inspired by the State whose humble representative and servant I
have been in this chamber?
I emigrated from Virginia to the State of Kentucky now
nearly forty-five years ago; I went as an orphan boy who had
not yet attained the age of majority; who had never recognized
a father's smile, nor felt his warm caresses; poor, penniless,
without the favor of the great, with an imperfect and neglected
education, hardly sufficient for the ordinary business and com-
mon pursuits of life; but scarce had I set my foot upon her
generous soil when I was embraced with parental fondness,
caressed as though I had been a favorite child, and patronized
with liberal and unbounded munificence. From that period the
highest honors of the State have been freely bestowed upon
me; and when in the darkest hour of calumny and detraction
VII-237
## p. 3778 (#140) ###########################################
3778
HENRY CLAY
I seemed to be assailed by all the rest of the world, she inter-
posed her broad and impenetrable shield, repelled the poisoned
shafts that were aimed for my destruction, and vindicated my
good name from every malignant and unfounded aspersion. I
return with indescribable pleasure to linger a while longer, and
mingle with the warm-hearted and whole-souled people of that
State; and when the last scene shall forever close upon me, I
hope that my earthly remains will be laid under her green sod
with those of her gallant and patriotic sons.
That my nature is warm, my temper ardent, my disposition
-especially in relation to the public service-enthusiastic, I am
ready to own; and those who suppose that I have been assuming
the dictatorship, have only, mistaken for arrogance or assumption
that ardor and devotion which are natural to my constitution,
and which I may have displayed with too little regard to cold,
calculating, and cautious prudence, in sustaining and zealously
supporting important national measures of policy which I have
presented and espoused.
I go from this place under the hope that we shall mutually
consign to perpetual oblivion whatever personal collisions may at
any time unfortunately have occurred between us; and that our
recollections shall dwell in future only on those conflicts of mind
with mind, those intellectual struggles, those noble exhibitions of
the powers of logic, argument, and eloquence, honorable to the
Senate and to the nation, in which each has sought and con-
tended for what he deemed the best mode of accomplishing one
common object, the interest and the most happiness of our
beloved country. To these thrilling and delightful scenes it will
be my pleasure and my pride to look back in my retirement
with unmeasured satisfaction.
May the most precious blessings of Heaven rest upon the
whole Senate and each member of it, and may the labors of
every one redound to the benefit of the nation and to the
advancement of his own fame and renown. And when you shall
retire to the bosom of your constituents, may you receive the
most cheering and gratifying of all human rewards,— their cor-
dial greeting of "Well done, good and faithful servant. "
## p. 3779 (#141) ###########################################
HENRY CLAY
3779
FROM THE LEXINGTON (SPEECH ON RETIREMENT TO
PRIVATE LIFE'
I
T WOULD neither be fitting, nor is it my purpose, to pass judg-
ment on all the acts of my public life; but I hope I shall
be excused for one or two observations which the occasion
appears to me to authorize.
I never but once changed my opinion on any great measure
of national policy, or on any great principle of construction of
the national Constitution. In early life, on deliberate considera-
tion, I adopted the principles of interpreting the federal Consti-
tution which have been so ably developed and enforced by Mr.
Madison in his memorable report to the Virginia Legislature;
and to them, as I understood them, I have constantly adhered.
Upon the question coming up in the Senate of the United States
to re-charter the first Bank of the United States, thirty years
ago, I opposed the re-charter upon convictions which I honestly
entertained. The experience of the war which shortly followed,
the condition into which the currency of the country was thrown
without a bank, and I may now add, later and more disastrous
experience, convinced me I was wrong. I publicly stated to
my constituents, in a speech in Lexington (that which I made
in the House of Representatives of the United States not hav-
ing been reported), my reasons for that change, and they are
preserved in the archives of the country. I appeal to that
record, and I am willing to be judged now and hereafter by
their validity.
I do not advert to the fact of this solitary instance of change
of opinion as implying any personal merit, but because it is a
fact. I will however say that I think it very perilous to the
utility of any public man to make frequent changes of opinion,
or any change, but upon grounds so sufficient and palpable that
the public can clearly see and approve them. If we could look
through a window into the human breast and there discover the
causes which led to changes of opinion, they might be made
without hazard. But as it is impossible to penetrate the human
heart and distinguish between the sinister and honest motives
which prompt it, any public man that changes his opinion, once
deliberately formed and promulgated, under other circumstances
than those which I have stated, draws around him distrust,
## p. 3780 (#142) ###########################################
3780
HENRY CLAY
impairs the public confidence, and lessens his capacity to serve.
his country.
I will take this occasion now to say, that I am and have been
long satisfied that it would have been wiser and more politic in
me to have declined accepting the office of Secretary of State
in 1825. Not that my motives were not as pure and as patriotic
as ever carried any man into public office. Not that the calumny
which was applied to the fact was not as gross and as unfounded
as any that was ever propagated. Not that valued friends and
highly esteemed opponents did not unite in urging my accept-
ance of the office. Not that the administration of Mr. Adams
will not, I sincerely believe, advantageously compare with any
of his predecessors, in economy, purity, prudence, and wisdom.
Not that Mr. Adams was himself wanting in any of those high
qualifications and upright and patriotic intentions which were
suited to the office.
But my error in accepting the office arose out of my under
rating the power of detraction and the force of ignorance, and
abiding with too sure a confidence in the conscious integrity
and uprightness of my own motives. Of that ignorance I had a
remarkable and laughable example on an occasion which I will
relate. I was traveling in 1828 through-I believe it
Spottsylvania County in Virginia, on my return to Washington,
in company with some young friends. We halted at night at a
tavern, kept by an aged gentleman 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 he
had four sons in that State, and that he was very sorry they
were divided in politics, two being for Adams and two for Jack-
son; he wished they were all for Jackson. "Why? " I asked
him. "Because," he said, "that fellow Clay, and Adams, had
cheated Jackson out of the Presidency. "-"Have you ever seen
any evidence, my old friend," said I, "of that? "-"No," he
replied, "none," and he wanted to see none. "But," I cbserved,
looking him directly and steadily in the face, "suppose Mr. Clay
were 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
believe him? "-"No," replied the old gentleman, promptly and
emphatically. I said to him in conclusion, "Will you be good
## p. 3781 (#143) ###########################################
HENRY CLAY
3781
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. .
If to have served my country during a long series of years
with fervent zeal and unshaken fidelity, in seasons of peace and
war, at home and abroad, in the legislative halls and in an
executive department; if to have labored most sedulously to
avert the embarrassment and distress which now overspread this
Union, and when they came, to have exerted myself anxiously
at the extra session, and at this, to devise healing remedies; if
to have desired to introduce economy and reform in the general
administration, curtail enormous executive power, and amply
provide at the same time for the wants of the government and
the wants of the people, by a tariff which would give it revenue
and then protection; if to have earnestly sought to establish the
bright but too rare example of a party in power faithful to its
promises and pledges made when out of power: if these services,
exertions, and endeavors justify the accusation of ambition, I
must plead guilty to the charge.
I have wished the good opinion of the world; but I defy the
most malignant of my enemies to show that I have attempted to
gain it by any low or groveling arts, by any mean or unworthy
sacrifices, by the violation of any of the obligations of honor, or
by a breach of any of the duties which I owed to my country. . .
How is this right of the people to abolish an existing gov-
ernment, and to set up a new one, to be practically exercised ?
Our revolutionary ancestors did not tell us by words, but they
proclaimed it by gallant and noble deeds. Who are the people
that are to tear up the whole fabric of human society, whenever
and as often as caprice or passion may prompt them? When
all the arrangements and ordinances of existing organized society
are prostrated and subverted, as must be supposed in such a
lawless and irregular movement as that in Rhode Island, the
established privileges and distinctions between the sexes, between
the colors, between the ages, between natives and foreigners,
between the sane and the insane, and between the innocent and
the guilty convict, all the offspring of positive institutions, are cast
down and abolished, and society is thrown into one heteroge-
neous and unregulated mass. And is it contended that the
## p. 3782 (#144) ###########################################
3782
HENRY CLAY
major part of this Babel congregation is invested with the right
to build up at its pleasure a new government? that as often,
and whenever, society can be drummed up and thrown into
such a shapeless mass, the major part of it may establish another
and another new government in endless succession? Why, this
would overturn all social organization, make revolutions - the
extreme and last resort of an oppressed people-the commonest
occurrences of human life, and the standing order of the day.
How such a principle would operate in a certain section of this
Union, with a peculiar population, you will readily conceive.
