E 340 m^ FUNERAL ORATION, \ O N THE C[jnrafter, Xifr, oiiii ^julilir $v:mm OF HENRY CLAY, Delivered in Cincinnati, Nov. 2, 1§52, AT THE REQUEST OF THE CLAy MONUMENTAL ASSOCIATION OF OHIO. BY CHARLES ANDERSON. 1/ CINCINNATI: BEN FRANKLIN OFFICE PRINT. 1852. '^ Z^ E.340 In Exchange Peabody Inst, of Balto, June 14 1927 I ®« i® ORATION. Fellow-Countrymen : The Time and the Place of Henry Clay's birth seem to me to have been singularly if not wonderfully auspicious and notable. Let us at the outset, pause to consider these co-incidences in some detail. We may discover in them quite a clue to his future character. He was born on the 12th of April, A. D., 1777, or within less than a year after the Declaration of our National Independence, July 4th, 1776. Henry Clay and our Na- tion, therefore, were strangely coeval. They were simulta- neously conceived ! Is not this a most striking co-incidence ? Surely, of all the years in a nation's history, its first is that in which it seems the fittest that its benefactor-statesman should be born. It may be perhaps a romantic conceit ; but destiny indeed would seem to have thus provided, co- temporaneously with the nation itself, a soul and mind the best constituted and adapted to her perpetuation and im- provement. Beginning his existence in the fresh moments of his country's Independence, he seems to have inhaled its spirit with the first air into his infant lungs, as the vital principle of his own great nature. And through his long public career, from his first vote or speech to that last deliberate act of patriotic martyrdom, the truest and fullest independence of that native land, was the chief object of his daily labors and his nightly prayers. Was it not a most appropriate Providence that he and it should have been born together ? m 4 But the place of Mr. Clay's birth is as note-worthy as its thne. He was born in Hanover county, Virginia. And Hanover county was at once the birth-place and home of that other Henry — Patrick Henry — the patriot of the Colonies and of the Revolution ! It was Hanover county, which in 1765, eleven years before the Declaration of In- dependence, elected this her first Henry, to the Virginia House of Burgesses, for the express and single purpose of opposing the British Stamp Act. And it was he, whilst so representing her who, in the words of the author of that Declaration, " certainly gave the first impulse to the ball of revolution." It was he, that gallant first great commoner of this Hanover county, who in the midst of the magnifi- cent debate upon his own resolutions against that measure, (as we are told by his biographer,) and whilst descanting upon the tyranny of the obnoxious act, exclaimed in a voice of thunder, and with the look of a God : " Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the Third " " Treasonr cried the speaker. " Treason ! ! treason!!!" echoed from every part of the house. Henry faltered not for an instant ; but rising to a loftier attitude, and fixing on the speaker an eye of the most determined fire, he finished his sentence with the firmest emphasis — " may profit hy their example. If this be treason, make the most of it 1 " It was this same county which in the year 1774, in her instructions to her delegates to the Williamsburgh Con- vention, published to the world these memorable words : " Let it suffice to say once for all, we will never be taxed but by our own representatives. This is the great badge of freedom." And, (as if the first to foreshadow our present blessed Union,) it was she also who startled her colonial sisters with these electric words '' United, toe stand — divided, IV e fall! To attain this wished-for Union, we de- clare our readiness to sacrifice any lesser interest arising from a soil, climate, situation or productions peculiar to us." ®" This, be it rcmenil)ere(l, was more tlmn two yeare before the Declaration of Independence. IJrave and generous old Hanover ! It was that firet IIenrv of Hanover, who uttered these Spartan sentiments : " Is life so dear or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery ? Forbid it, Almighty God ! I know not w hat course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death ! " It was this same first mover "of the ball of revolution," who having assembled the independent company of Hano- ver at New Castle, on the 2d of May, 1775, appealed to them in his renowned harangue, and told them that " for his own part, he was anxious that his native coimiy should distinguish itself in this grand career of liberty and glory, and that the Hanover Volunteers should thus have an op- portunity of striking the fust blow in this colony in the great cause of American liberty." And it was against "a certain Patrick Henry of the county of Hanover, and a number of deluded followers styling themselves an Independent Company," that the British Governor on May 5th, 1775, issued his proclama- tion of Treason! These, my fellow-countrymen, were the people amongst whom, and such were the place and the era in which Henry Clay was born — in the true cradle of American Independence, and in the same year in which its earliest existence began ! It may be, ladies and gentlemen, that I have over- estimated the degree of interest which ought to be attached to these incidents, of the time, place and circumstances of Henry Clay's birth. Yet I cannot forbear making still another allusion to them, which is quite as remotely con- nected with my subject. Indeed, it is as much for reasons personal to myself as for any other, that I venture to intro- duce it. It may serve as an apology, if not for my appoint- ment, at least for my acceptance of a task to which I am so illy suited. m* J @- 6 In the fourth volume of the American Archives, fourth series, page 878, 1 find the following entry : " At a meeting of the Hanover Committee, on Monday, the 29 th of January, A. D. 177G, the following gentlemen were chosen officers of the company of regulars, to be raised in this county, viz : Richard C. Anderson, captain ; John Anderson, first lieutenant ; Wm. Bentley, second lieutenant ; and Robert Tompkins, ensign." Signed Wm. Bentley, Clerk. And thus it was that my own father, a native also of that same revolutionary Hanover, one of the " deluded fol- lowers of her first Henry," styling himself too a " Hanover Independent," had just before the birth of this her second Henry, devoted himself likewise " to the great cause of American Hberty." And if upon that 12th day of April, 1777, there existed in the county of Hanover, or in all the American colonies, one solitary being more helpless than any other, and who therefore more needed the protection of that consecrated soldier, or whose protection and preser- vation were more essential to the future prosperity and glory of his native land, (excepting one alone,) it was that infant Henry Clay. The plumed father in arms, there and then sentinelled and guarded his first cradled slumbers. Is it unmeet, that even the youngest and least worthy of his sons, after years of earnest and zealous defence of his prin- ciples and character whilst alive and in manhood, should here and now thus meditate in tears over the last repose of his tomb ? I have noi, howevei', reverted in either of these instances, to the period, place and personages before mentioned, as mere narratives from his history. On the contrary, my main purpose was to lead you to this inquiry : What effect upon the budding character of this baby-boy, had that revolu- tionary era, that revolutionary county, and that revolu- tionary pioneer — Patrick Henry of Hanover? They be- came the first traditions of his young memory, the first affections of his dawning heart. What influences had they li' each and all, in moulding and setting his pliant and plastic infant faculties into the firmness and strength of his man- hood ? It were inquiring indeed too curiously, to pursue on this occasion a i)hilosophical investigation of that con- trol which these incidents, as moral causes, must have ex- erted upon his future conduct and career. But it is so strange a fact as to enforce our attention, that Henry Clay became deeply imbued — replete indeed — with the spirit of that time and place, and more like Patrick Henry than was any other American, or than he was like any other per- sonage. In oratory, wherein they also most singularly resembled, the two stand in American history alone and absolutely beyond and above the reach of rivalry or compe- tition. Their moral natures too, were alike ardent and resistless. They had the same contagious gallantry of word, deed and spirit. Their patriotism was in both an absorbing personal passion, as eager as a first love, and as vigorous as self-interest. And a spirit of proud and ever- present manly independence, was the predominant senti- ment and trait of each. And this last feature of Mr. Clay's character certainly seems, as I have already said, especially appropriate and natural to one born in the year of Independence and in that county of old Hanover. At the early age of fourteen years. Master Harry left the maternal nest — the young fledgling ! — and became a sales-boy behind the counter of a small retail store near the market house, in Richmond city. What fisticufis he there inflicted and endured, what red-nosed victories he won. and what black-and-blue defeats he suffered, before he could identify himself with the clothes and the manners of the city boys, and so become one of them — or before he had satisfied them all , that in any color or of any shape or fit, the " old Hanover homespun " was not exactly the sort of stuff to be run over or trodden upon — alas ! for the omissions of history, we know not. Doubtless they were many, and it may be when in conflict with boys w* '& m 8 " not of his size," very grievous to his proud young spirit. But his must be a most careless or blunt perception in human character, who has not noted what a very independent class of youngsters are the '^ Chapman Billys," on the mar- ket street of a small American city. The mother having contracted a second marriage, moved with her younger children and new husband, Mr. Watkins, into the western wilderness of Kentucky. Henry, after a year's experience of men and things as a merchant, en- tered the office of the clerk of the High Court of Chance- ry. Here, as is often the case where youngsters are thrown into such relations with grave business men of any craft or profession, he became such a favorite and pet of Chancellor Wythe, that their mutual friendship soon ripened into actual confidence on the part of the senior, and of an inextinguish- able reverence on the part of the boy. Years afterwards, whilst imparting to the House of Representatives the treasures of wise counsel, which these confidences had dis- closed to him, he paid a most earnest and heartfelt tribute to the mental and moral worth of this his first friend amongst the great. And in private life he never mentioned him, but in gratitude and with praise. To obviate the necessity of a recurrence to this stage of his life, it may be as well to add here, that in this school he was subjected to a discipline and training in those sys- tematic habits of business industry which never forsook him, and which developed in him those remarkable powers of so closely observing human character, that " He looked quite through the deeds of men." And in this situation too, it should be observed, as we pass, that his duties and daily associations tended, in an unusual degree, to cultivate and increase his natural bias and previous progress towards a thorough independence of character. An orphan, hundreds of miles distant from his mother or other kindred; an associate of men of estab- m 9 lishecl business and of high reputations from the ])eLnnning of his boyhood, acting upon all the responsihiHties and self- reliance of manhood — his every condition in life seems to have combined providentially with his native temperament to promote the developement of this quality. About six months before attaining his majority, he volun- tarily abandoned all the attractions of this refined sphere of social life so charming to young men, and migrated also to this the then 'far West,' and to Kentucky, yet the ' dark and bloody ground ' of pioneer tradition. It would be needless to remark to his cotemporary pioneers if they were present, that this act of migration itself was at that period invariably considered as a conclu- sive proof of great personal enterprise and independence of character. Such spirits alone were capable of the sacri- fice of the real comforts left behind, and equal in positive courage to the dangers apprehended before. To us of this age who were born here, or to others who see the West as it now is, certainly this statement appears almost incredible. It is nevertheless literally true. It may serve to exemplify those changes in the standard of money values, as well as of other things, which are con- tinually taking place in civilised communities, to note the fact, that Henry Clay's most sanguine expectations of ulti- mate success in his profession, only looked timidly to the possibility of making "as much as £100 Virginia money per year." And to obtain this pittance, he dared, at such an age and under such circumstances, a competition with a bar as able in proportion to its number, as could now be found in the United States. An immediate and signal success in his profession, soon brought him before the attention of all, as being peculiarly adapted to public life. Accordingly, he at once entered upon the career of politics, and in so far as his own County, Dis- trict or State were concerned, it never failed him in a single step of his exalted ascent. From the first moment of his 2 10 settlement at Lexington, there was never a station for which he was a candidate, to which he was not certainly and easily elected. Whoever else misjudged and con- demned him, his neighbors and his fellow-Kentuckians — they who knew him longest and knew him best — neither flagged nor faltered in their constant approbation and their zealous support. And here stands in history, a monument to his fame more durable than bronze or marble. Fifty years of unshaken confidence by a rural constituency, un- surpassed in any age or country for right-mindedness and sound, unaffected morahty, can leave no doubt in any rational mind, that its object was one entirely worthy of such faith. From this period in his life he has been literally before the world. And the world too has taken note of his pre- sence and elevation. Henceforth, therefore, I shall make no reference to the events of his life, for the purpose of specifying their occurrence. I may occasionally and infor- mally mention some of them, solely as known and undenied facts, with a view further to exemplify or illustrate my own theory of his character. And as my wish is, in all sim- plicity and truthfulness, like a faithful portrait-painter, to present as just and perfect a resemblance of my original as my powers of perception and language can observe and depict, I will at once state distinctly, what I suppose to have been the moral and mental features and parts, which composed this very extraordinary but well proportioned whole. This order of presenting my subject, will certainly diminish that rhetorical interest, which the surprise of sud- den conclusions or more highly finished views would excite. But these general sketches, like anatomical drawings, although destitute of both superficial likeness and beauty, will furnish clearer and more defined images of the frame- work or skeleton of the character to be represented. And both time and art would fail me in any effort at a more complete portrait. 11 Some of the leading traits of Mr. Clay's moral character might be inferred from the view which has already been presented, since those qualities which it is necessary to specify are generally the elements or the incidents of Independence. But in him they were more conspicuous and remarkable than mere constituents or accessaries usually are. They were so strong and well defined in his nature, as to have become themselves generic and elementary. For a personage could well have all the component qualities of independence in a far less degree than Mr. Clay possessed them, and still be truly and even strongly independent. In truth, I admit that he possessed this quality in excess. He was then, during life, a man of singular truthfulness of thought and speech; of incorruptible honesty in all his private dealings, and of unstained faith in all his public pledges or obhgations; of pre-eminent moral and physical courage, whether doing or suffering — active and passive; of undaunted perseverance and resolution in difficulties the most threatening and under defeats the most disastrous and overwhelming ; and of great warmth of attachment to prin- ciples as well as to persons. He had also an iron will, and like all men of great minds who perceive clearly and feel strongly, he seemed — nay, 2vas quite positive and arbitrary towards the more obtuse and impassive crowd, which it is ever necessary either to draw or to drive. In this rei^pect as in a great many others, he was peculiarly like his great adversary, Gen. Jackson. But the whole world knows all this. There are other qualities however, which were equally distinctive in his composition, but which are not so generally known because, from their sphere and modes of exercise, they do not appear so conspicuously in public view. Of course too, the evidences of their existence must also be less familiar to the mass of his countrymen. Amongst these less known virtues, Mr. Clay had habitually great constancy of faith in his friends, and was always the last to suspect them of treachery, or of any other want of principle. @J 12 A yet nobler trait of his disposition was an ever-ready forgiveness of insult or injury to himself, whenever there was the slightest reason to believe that the offender was afterwards disposed to do him justice. Often has he for- given and again taken into his friendship men, who had the most deeply injured him in public estimatioD, or who had grievously insulted him in private life. Towards detected and convicted dishonesty or meanness, whether exerted against others or himself, he was, it must be confessed, not only implacable and violently indignant, but actively and sometimes almost ferociously vindictive. On such occasions, he knew no policy or prudence in speech or manner, but became wholly ungovernable in his passions. His natural combativeness and love of the right seemed to overwhelm his general tenderness and kindliness of feeling. Another apparent exception to his magnanimity and spirit of forgive- ness, occurred in those instances in which he thought any attempt had been made to tyrannise over him, or in any way to encroach upon his rights of personal independence. In such cases, he was as persistent and obstinate in a quarrel as Hotspur represents himself to have been in a bargain. He would " Cavil on the ninth part of a hair." Generally, his pride of character could brook no crowing or mufiling of feathers or picking of straws about him. A genuine game-cock himself, he could live in amity with his equals or inferiors, but he never acknowledged — as I believe he never met, either in England or America — a superior. It has been almost an invariable custom, not only upon occasions like this, but for many years during their lives, to institute comparisons between the great American senators. Clay, Calhoun and Webster. They have been justly called the great triumvirate of American intellect. And this common supremacy over all their cotemporary countrymen, may have naturally suggested to their respective friends ^- 13 this comparison, for the purpose of awarding the i>a]m between themselves. Besides, for the purpose of explicit analysis and descrii)tion of an unknown character, it is of course very convenient to compare it with a standard char- acter, which may be well understood alike by the hearers and speaker. And in all metaphisical exercises too, it is far easier and more intelligible to say what a mental faculty is like than to explain what it is. With these views only, do I follow this precedent; for in my judgment, three minds of equal eminence, and occupied in the same arena at the same time, could scarcely be found more unlike than these. And to the question, so often and so vainly mooted, which of the three was the greatest mind? I have often thought the child's method of answering the question, "who it loved the more, flither or mother?" would present the most sensible solution in the case. To such interrogatories, in the confusion of its evenly-balanced affections, or in its effort to estimate sentiments of a somewhat different nature, the ingenuous prattler blushingly murmurs — ^^ Both I"" {So I think in this question. In that mental faculty which pre-eminently distinguished either one of these illustrious men, neither of his rivals was so endowed as to surpass many other cotemporaries in our country, and much less to equal him. And in that power of mind which predominated amongst the faculties of either of them, he not only far excelled the other two, but all of his countrymen whose minds have been subjected to public scrutiny. Mr. Calhoun's leading trait of mind was a searching and vigorous power of analysis. His natural tendency towards abstruse if not metaphysical studies, was greatly strength- ened by the circumstance that his lot was cast amongst a people singularly addicted to such speculations. The southern Americans — and especially perhaps the Virginians, fiom abundant leisure and other causes, more than any other people with whom I have associated or of whom I have read, except the Scotch and Germans — most habitually I ■j§! M' 14 exercise and disport themselves with nice distinctions and generahzations. Mr. Calhoun's mind was of this order. But it was the first of its class. His was no hair-splitting in trifling and vain disputations. But with the earnestness and solemnity of a profound intellect conscious of great powers and therefore responsible for their just use, he zeal- ously and actively employed them in great and as he believed most vital questions — the fundamental and essential principles of government and of public rights. And it is doubtful whe ther, in this department of republican life and duty, he had his equal amongst his countrymen of any era. In addition to that invariable impulse to its own exertion which every predominant faculty necessarily creates, an event in his political career called forth and ever kept his peculiar powers in a most bitter and morbid exercise. He was displaced, you will remember, from his natural rank of priority in his party, by an intrigue of a man far more skilled in such arts than an earnest and guileless nature like his ever was or ever could have been. And being thus foiled in his high aim of presidential and national honors — and it will be long ere our country will have a fitter or better president than he would have been — he devoted himself as if by superstitious rites, to the alternate propaga- tion and defence of his special political doctrine, which at once suited and required such mental traits as I have ascribed to him. Every one here knows, with what vast and varied powers of logic — with what honest, earnest, single- hearted zeal, yet with what 'one-ideaed' pertinacity — this pure and great man pursued his favorite dogmas, and to what extraordinary lengths and at what unseasonable and inap- propriate times and places he urged them. With him every subject, however well it may have been started in its natural and straight-forward direction, was soon slyly twisted or forcibly whirled into "States' Rights and Nullification." It is a melancholy thought, but I have sometimes suspected this most powerful and exalted mind, by reason of its morbid 15 and chronic excitement, to have been ahnost upon the verge of monomania. How unlike him in mind and temper was Mr. Clw! His natural inclination was with the real and palitable world. And his early education and pursuits, though a Virginian, only strengthened that tendency. Mr. Clay scarcely ever in his life discussed a question of constitutional philology, and never one of metaphysical distinctions. Mr. Calhoun always and to a great extent employed his mind in such studies and exercises, and since 1829 he rarely discussed any other. The one, a practical man, worked amongst and by men, upon things equally real. The other, severing all bonds which united him with men through their ordinary interests or sympathies, devoted his extraordinary reasoning powers exclusively to the abstruse generalities of a special subject. Although quite as ambitious of that crowning honor of American fame as Mr. Calhoun was, and although stirred by far more ungovernable natural passions than he, yet under like and even more bitter disappointments, Mr. Clay's remarkably sound and clear judgment assisted his more placable and sanguine temperament to assuage the bitter ness of his chagrin, and to wipe out all the sadness of its memory. And again and again did he return, like another Camillus, with a healthy and cheerful spirit to the hard service and barren honors of an unappreciating and ungrate- ful country, and of his whole country too — whilst, as we have seen, with far less original violence of impassioned and resentful disappointment, the great and noble southron settled into a sullen, moody and almost misanthropic seclu- sion from national affairs during the remainder of his life. The moral constitution of Mr. Clay was certainly better organised in this respect, than that of his southern rival. With Daniel Webster, the comparison will present more points of resemblance, though still very few. Like the others, he was also a man of indefatigable industry. And •'Si a- "»r« 16 like both, (Mr. Clay always, Mr. Calhoun in the first half of his manhood,) he was a man of affairs, or as we say, of business . But I much doubt whether— either in comparison with his own other traits and habits, or with those of many other men — Mr. Webster was ever especially and pre- eminently distinguished in this respect, as was Mr. Clay. The spheres of Mr. Webster's industry in early life were wholly, and even in his latter years, essentially different from Mr. Clay's chief fields of labor. Webster's boyhood and youth were ardently given up to the acquisition of a various and profound scholastic education, whilst the subject of our reflections — a mill-boy, a grocer's salesman and a deputy clerk of court, during the correspondent periods of his life — was subjecting himself to the drudgeries of systematic labor, and to the study of men and things. And each in his own sphere, consequently attained a superiority which no lapse of time or change of circum- stances ever reduced within the range of competition by the other. Mr. Webster was always infinitely beyond Mr. Clay in scholarship. Mr. Clay just as far surpassed him in his aptitude to business, in his knowledge of mankind and his control over living men. It is almost needless to say that the latter is much the rarer and incomparably the higher order of faculties. A departed congressional friend of both, (Hon. Joseph H. Crane,) used to exemplify this superiority by describing Webster as resembling some black-visaged genius, implicitly but somewhat moodily fol- lowing the finger of Clay, as if it were the wand of a fair enchanter who had conjured up and now directed his vast powers at his own absolute will. And after their entrance into professional and public life, their occupations were still very diverse. For many years, Webster was wholly occupied by legal studies and legal practice. Until 1829, indeed the law may be said to have been his only pursuit. Politics was an accident with him. He had acquired a national fame as a great mind, engaged ^o:^^-^--^— ^— — ■ 1^— — ^— — — ■ 17 in the Law, long before he held a seat in Congress. And although such a mind must distinguish itself wherever it may appear, still his most undiscriminating admirers must admit, that in the House of Representatives, he did nothing at all commensurate with his previous professional and literary fame. The reason is obvious. lie was only a great mind, a great scholar, a great lawyer, sitting, not acting in Congress. Other qualities are indispensable in that sphere. And Daniel Weuster was then, at least, neither a politician nor a statesman. Mr. Clay, on the other hand, entered at the beginning of manhood, with all his native vigor and all a Kentuckian's enthusiasm, into political life. And from that time until his death at the Capitol, the affairs of his country were his affairs, and the public service his arena of labor and ambition. The Law, like his pleasures, were a variety and relaxation. It is very true and very singular, that he never relinquished the regular practice of his home circuit for a period of more than fifty years. Still, the main thing with him, was politics. His profession became from the beginning, a mere incident. He was, therefore, first a politician by profession ; then a statesman by attainment. He was never a lawyer, in the sense and to the degree that Mr. Webster was; nor was Webster ever a statesman, in the sense and to the degree, that Mr. Clay was. The latter was by no means, an indif- ferent lawyer, when compared with ordinary standards. In truth, he was flir better read in the learning of his Profes- sion, and infinitely more skilful and able before both courts and juries, than a host of very celebrated mere lawyers. But, he was not a great Lawyer ; Mansfield, Marshall or Webster being the standard. And Webster was not a great statesman, either as to knowledge or efficiency, if Pitt, Jefferson, or Clay were in the comparison. Mr. Clay has left no legal land-mark and monument, like the argument in the Dartmouth College case. Mr. Webster never, in his life, originated, nor carried through the process o O i9;« 18 of legislation, a single public measure of importance. Whilst the instances of such authorship and parliamentary abilities in Mr. Clay's public service — and often in the face of an adverse party-majority, and in opposition to the earnest wishes of hostile Executives, at one time almost autocratic, at another secret, ingenious and sly, and at another treacherous and corrupt — are too numerous and notorious for recital. Our volumes of Congressional Debates are full of great lawyer-like arguments, or wise and scholarly commentaries by the Massachusetts Senator, upon the public measures, which his great rival, or others, had devised and brought forward. But he originated nothing himself, for the interest of his country, in all the many embarrassments of Peace and War, of Prosperity and Adversity, in which, during his long congressional career, he had so often beheld her. In Mr. Webster's diplomatic offices, he has been more successful, in his exhibition of statesmanship. Though, even in this department, he has been generally, if not greatly overrated. And, as to the celebrated Hulseman corres- pondence, like most of his other diplomatic writings, he rather performs the part of a great advocate than of a sound International Jurist and Minister of State. The most that can be said of it, in my poor and single opinion, is, that it was an able defence, in exceedingly bad taste, of an utterly indefensible proceeding of his predecessor. Call him "Spy," or "Commissioner," or whatever epithet or title you may, Mr. Mann was in Austria, under false pretences, enjoying her hospitalities, through the deceits of a passport, which represented him as coming and remaining there, for one purpose, whilst it was really a very different one; passing, as a private, neutral, peaceable person, whilst, upon certain contingencies he held a secret commission, from the American Government, (as the Austrians considered it) to foment Rebellion, to encourage War and Bloodshed, and to incite a dismemberment of that Empire. The nature of •s 19 the whole transaction is sufliciently imlicatcd by the Hict, that neither this Government nor the Commissioner could venture to disclose the real purposes of his mission. In a like case, in our Country, if the federal Courts in Charleston or Boston, should discharge such a British 'Commissioner' on a regular trial, there sometimes meets another Tribunal, under whose irregular and summary verdict, he would assuredly have met at least the certain death of a 'spy.' It is the very absurdity, tlie mockery of fanatical enthusiasm in personal idolatry, to print on satin and translate into all languages, or to enact any other extravagance of word, or deed, over this most ingenious and eloquent, but bragging defence of a proceeding so Un-American and un-republican. I say nothing to disparage Col. Mann, who is represented as a very worthy, sensible gentleman, and a very zealous and efficient officer. Nor was the fault, to the least degree, with Mr. Webster, but in that miserable cause, which others had left him, to defend. But, if our Government wishes to "intervene," let it in the name of all fairness and manliness, do so openly. If she desire to send succor or sympathy to Hungary, let her accredit her commissioner to Pesth, not smuggle her spy into Vienna. Thank heaven ! for his better opportunities, the fame of Daniel Webster rests on no such foundation as this. In the same field of discussion, his part in the Ashburton negotiations, and his correspondence upon the Quintuple Treaty, being topics worthy of him, evince a far higher order of mental power and moral courage. I can not think so favorably, however, of his letters in the more recent questions, concerning our Fisheries and the Lobos Islands. To return to a brief comparison, in this respect, of him- self and Mr. Clay, as Secretary of State; it will have been anticipated, from what has already been said, that a prefer- ence of Mr. Clay, in this department of the National service is also inevitable. Not only do I think that Mr. Clay's administration of the duties of this office were, generally 20 more able and exhibited more statesmanship, but that, (contrary to what I should have myself supposed or inferred, from their general traits of mind,) Mr. Clay has left a specimen of his Diplomatic talents, which is not only superior, in its substance, but in its style, as a composition for State papers, to any similar production of Webster. I allude to Mr. Clay's Instructions to the Commissioners to the Congress at Panama. Mr. Clay has, however, made his mistakes, also, upon International questions. In this opinion again, I expect to be alone; but surely, as a measure of philanthropy or of statesmanship, all his masterly arguments, his thrilling appeals, his ceaseless zeal and his Herculean labors, so indefatigable and so protracted, in behalf of the Independence of the South American Republics, have been, by the actual results, shown to have been entirely nugatory and superflu- ous. It is a remarkable fact, that none of that Race of People on our Continent, excepting only those who are subject to Monarchical Governments, are of the least use to themselves or the world, in a moral, intellectual, industrial, social, democratic, or any other point of view. Cuba and Brazil include the only portions of those people, who exhibit even the slightest indications of present prosperity or future progress. Mr. Clay was in error in his hopes and expecta- tions of this race. And his clear Reason, for once, failed in regard to their cause being that of genuine Republicanism and Civilization. And John Randolph, for once in a matter of common sense, in his whole life time, was eminently right. They were not, as they are not, fitted for self-government. We, with all our history of education and experiences in morals and common sense, public and personal — British, Colonial and National — are scarcely now schooled into that competency. Let Flibustiers clamor by day, or plot by night, as they will, it is simply a slander upon Republican Institutions, to assert that any such people are prepared for them. fe'o 21 With Mr. Clay, however, (as it is to be lioped witli some of these more modern and more lawless propa^andi.sl.s,) it was that evet-ruling sentiment of independence in himself and love of it, in others, which misled him, into his vain sym- pathies and labors, in behalf of these Republics, as well as of Greece. Ilis error, being one wholly of degree not of principle, is not all inexplicable. On the contrary, with his sanguine, moral constitution, the only wonder in regard to him is, that in the earlier years of his life, his clear and vigorous Understanding could so generally have over- mastered, or guided the impetuosity of such passions. His Judgment and his Impulses however rightly — nay, gloriously — concurred in the promotion of the highest interests and highest honor of his Country, when they con- trolled him into those almost super-human efforts, in favor of the declaration of War against England, and into the advocacy of all those measures requisite to sustain and to prosecute it with vigor. It may be safely said, that if that infant in the Hanover cradle had there perished, this war would not have been declared. I am sure that impartial readers of history will, hereafter, admit that he compelled Congress to declare, and the Executive and the people to fight that war. So close was the contest between its advo- cates and opponents, so organized, intellectual and resolute the opposition, and so extraordinary were the natural abili- ties, and the industry, perseverance and ardor, which he exerted, in urging that brave blow. Jupiter, kindled and aroused by the spirit of War, into all the height and heat of his stupendous passions, hurling from Mount Olympus his flaming and hissing thunder-bolts against his foes, foreign and domestic, would scarce present too extravagant an image of his fiery assaults upon Great Britain and her American sympathisers and apologists. Of the glorious results of that War, on land and at sea; immediate and direct; upon our National prosperity, agricultural, manu- facturing, maritime and commercial; upon our National 22 Glory, past and present, and yet to come, I shall not pause to make comment. His instrumentality in the production of these wondrous results and their self-evident consequence from the "Late War," are so obvious, that all his eulogists have urged them, and all his adversaries have admitted them, long years ago. Besides, they have been often more ably and eloquently presented, than I could do, were I to make the effort. My pearl-divings must be nearer the shore, and in the shallower soundings of this wide ocean of History. A similar condition of the public sentiment and popular knowledge, will justify me in passing without formal notice, or arguments of advocacy or defence, all those 'public measures of polity and philanthropy, which he originated and urged upon the minds of the National Legislature and the People, with such distinguished zeal and effect. Merely as instances, not only of his great abilities and influence, but also of his extraordinary industry, I cite his early and continued advocacy — of Governmental protection to Ameri- can Manufactures; of Internal Improvements, and his American System into which he perfected those measures; of African Colonization ; of that scheme, whose purposes were kindred to all, the Distribution of the sales of the Public Lands, and of his three "Compromise Acts." Of these he was not only the author ; but the success of each of them was chiefly attributed to his genius, industry and self-sacrificing nature. Well has he been called the " Great Pacificator." And whatever may be thought, of the right or the wrong of these several measures, I imagine none would now deny the nature and extent of his instrument- ality in them, as I have described it. As for myself, I feel bound to say, that I still heartily approve his course in each of them. It win suffice, here again, to ask your attention only to that ruling principle, which, in most of these cases, either stimulated him in their origination, or in the zealous and continued advocacy of them — his special devotion to the ®- '« 23 general cause of Human and of National Indeiiciulencc. It may be an interesting fact, to such as do not closely observe the dates of events, to call attention, in this connection, to the circumstance, that Mr. Clay's very first cummitment of his opinions and political fortunes, was a most signal di.